Biker Protest - Eyre Square, Galway

I'm a long way from home for this post, Southern Ireland in fact. I was visiting relatives there at the weekend and came across this biker protest in Eyre Square, Galway. The bikers, around a hundred of them, were protesting against new EU safety regulations for motorcycles which the bikers feel will affect the enjoyment of their hobby. The protesters are pictured here leaving Eyre Square and heading for Athlone.

Saltaire Festival - Kwame D

This band brought a mixture of soul, reggae and blues to the Saltaire Festival. The band go by the name of Kwame D and I think they are a Leeds based outfit. The weather wasn't all that good over the weekend, (you can see the rain on the monitor speakers), but the skies did clear and the band actually finished their set in brilliant sunshine.

Saltaire Festival - Revellers

I can't tell you who the band were, my programme didn't quite tie up with the acts on stage, but I can tell you that they were pretty good. Some of the audience must have also liked the band as they were up and dancing in front of the stage.

Saltaire Festival - The Peace Artistes

The Peace Artistes are a fifteen to twenty strong brass and percussion street band seen playing here at the Saltaire Festival. The band were originally formed in 1983 in Bradford to perform on marches organised by the peace movement and currently play at carnivals and festivals all over Europe.

Saltaire Festival - Fire Eater

There was plenty of entertainment for the crowds on the final day of the Saltaire Festival. This act was definitely popular with the spectators, as you can see it involves fire which always seems to be a big hit with the youngsters (and me), I think I may have been a little bit too close for some of the pictures though, I could actually feel the heat from the flames.

Petrol Cans - Otley Vintage Transport Etravaganza

People collect some unusual things, petrol cans for example, and if you look closely at these cans each one has had a label attached to it with its year of manufacture. I don't collect anything myself, but if I did it would probably be miniature 35mm cameras from the 70's and 8o's, like the Olympus XA, Rollei and Minox models. I wouldn't want to pay a lot of money for them, and I wouldn't expect them to be worth a great deal in the future, but I think I would enjoy just collecting them. The collectors of petrol cans would probably regard my hobby as 'unusual', but would understand, I think, why I was doing it.

Fun Run - Roberts Park, Saltaire

I went along to Roberts Park in Saltaire this morning to watch this fun run which has been organised as part of this years Saltaire Festival. The festival runs until September 18th and I'm quite looking forward to next weekend when there will be live music, street entertainers and a continental market in the village.

Concave Mirror

This gallery in the National Media Museum has various types of lenses which were used in early photography and cinema on display. The photograph is actually the reflection in a large concave mirror of the gallery, that's me in the picture, I couldn't take the shot without my own reflection appearing in it.

City Park Sculpture

This unusual sculpture has recently been delivered to the site of the Bradford City Park. The park, when completed will feature a mirror pool, a hundred fountains and several sculptures by Wolfgang Buttress. This particular sculpture is already attracting quite a bit of comment from Bradfordians, both negative and positive comment. What do I think? I think I should wait until the project has been fully completed before making any judgement.

From The Old Iron Bridge

This is the view from an old iron bridge which crosses the Leeds-Liverpool canal just a short distance from Apperley Bridge. I walk in this area quite often and always stop on the bridge for a minute or two. It doesn't seem long since the trees were sprouting green leaves and we had the summer to look forward to, now the leaves are turning brown and we have the winter to look forward to, I don't know what happened to the summer, we just didn't seem to get one!

A Million Pictures?

This picture was taken at the Leeds Carnival last week. I think that nearly everyone has some kind of camera these days, even if it's only a camera phone, which made me wonder just how many photos are taken at some of these big events. A quick look on the Internet and you come up with an estimated 150,000 spectators at the 2009 carnival, if half this number had some kind of camera and took on average 15 pictures each, then you come up with a figure of more than a million, and that's a lot of pictures!

Leeds West Indian Carnival

It's not often that I visit Leeds, but last Monday was the West Indian Carnival Parade through the streets of Chapletown. I visited the Carnival last year for the first time and really enjoyed the experience but thought that my pictures could have been better. This years pictures are certainly better than last years, but I think there is still room for improvement. If anyone reading this blog is thinking of attending next years carnival take a tip from me and buy some ear defenders, the music is loud, I mean really loud, I didn't get my hearing back until well into the next day.