Hello Everyone
Well its getting near the end of another year and I have just realised that I have not written a blog update for some time. Unfortunately Cambridge parkrun at Milton country park just didnt rematerialise. For those runners that still want their 9am Saturday fix, there are now a few options around Cambridge, its just that I have not visited them...yet.
In May I made a trek to Ramsgate for a Kite Surfing Competition having enjoyed watching a few people from the Mersea club the previous year. Unfortunately the wind would not participate though so it was really a bit of a write off so far as photography was concerned. Later that month, I had an outing to Burghley House but all I managed there was a little high jump fun...
In July I didnt do any sport as I was involved with other things (I enjoy studio photography when Im not doing sport) but in August I had a trip to Wyboston Lakes for a Jet Ski competition. Where you could go round the lake was very restricted but I feel I still managed to capture a few good images from the outing.
August and I was at Tough Mudder (Midlands). What a wonderful friendly event, both from the organisers and indeed the competitors points of view. Many teams went out on the course and did indeed get very muddy and wet most with a smile on their faces. Getting electrocuted just before the finish line though was the master stroke!
At the end of August I was back to Silverstone for the motogp and a probable farewell to Rossi, the multi world champ.
Whilst there I had to take a look at a cycle display team giving a demonstraton...(Dont look down!!)
September and I was back at Gransden show doing the equestrian arenas. This event was cancelled in 2020 and whether that effected the crowds this time I wouldnt like to say, but it was certainly very well attended. I shall be back in 2022 if they will have me.
November and it was a trip to Brands Hatch. I was invited along by a good friend and it seems I may well be following her and the CMMCS around the UK in 2022. Brands Hatch was very dull and wet. There was an unpredicted downpour halfway through the meet that had all of the teams dashing to change tyres but there were some spectacular spins throughout the day. Because of the poor weather, the racing continued well into the dark. Racing around Brands hatch in the dark at the sort of speeds these cars were doing, must have been quite an experience for the drivers and it was also quite a challenge getting images.
There was just one final sporting event in my diary before Christmas but it was a good one...The British Figure Skating Championships in Sheffield. Keep a good lookout for these at the Olympics next year...
Happy Christmas everyone and I'm looking forward to photographing some more good sport in 2022.
John
Hello everyone
Well what a last 14 months. The family issues I spoke of back in January 2019 was my mother being ill. Unfortunately she died the following month. I guess its a mixed blessing that she was not effected by the Covid crisis that got started just a month later with the first of the lockdowns.
Obviously, with Covid going on there was no sporting events for me to attend, indeed my camera stayed firmly packed away for the main part. I did manage a few wildlife and other shoots during the summer but most events remained closed and quite frankly I was not that keen on leaving home anyway. Looking at my library of images, the total number of images taken in 2020 was around 20% of the amount I had taken in each of the previous 4 years....so it has been quite a dramitic change. I have now received my first vaccination and am feeling a little more optimistic about being able to get out and about later in the year. Whether it will all return to how it was, well obviously I have no idea. A chance meeting with someone at Milton Country park last weekend who expressed how excited she used to be looking for parkrun photos has encouraged me to at least start updating the website ready, should we eventually return to sport later in the year.
First however, I promised many months ago to share my successful LRPS panel from 2019, so here it is: -
I am looking forward to seeing you all out there in June and maybe my first outing will be to parkrun, where it all started.
Keep safe and well
John
Hello Everyone
Its been a long time since I did a blog post and in fact I did wonder whether to continue them. What got me thinking about putting a new one up was the fact that recent visits to my website have included visits to my old blogs. I do not however anticipate that regular blog posts will be re-introduced, at least not anytime soon.
Since July 2018 and the last blog post, I have taken my LRPS assessment twice. The first time I failed as some of the prints were deemed to have some bronzing (a printing defect). I was however offered a re-submission and this happened in November 2019. This time, with a few different images, I passed so in photography circles I am now John Wilderspin LRPS. This has led to me being asked to do a couple of demos (although these were on studio photography, another passion of mine) and a couple of talks.
In preparing for the LRPS assessments I needed to evaluate my sports photography and become a bit more focused on what I wanted rather than doing photography largely for the competitors. As a result I have done far less of the type of photography I had been doing. I still however covered the Waterbeach running festival, Gransden show (horse rings) and a few parkruns, although no longer in an official capacity. I also retained my membership of the Silverstone racing club and have enjoyed many days at the track.
So here we are at the start of a new decade and it kicks off for me with a new sport...fencing. I shall be covering both days of the Cambridge Winter Tournament on 4th and 5th January. Unfortunately, however, I have been asked by the organisers not to show the images openly, so all the resulting images will be hidden and password protected, something my website enables me to do quite easily.
Due to family issues and work commitments, I will probably not be doing much sports photography then for a few weeks. I would however like to add my LRPS panel and generally update the website, so that will probably need to be my target for a few weeks until both those things settle down.
Regards
John
Hi Everyone
I was at Caldecote cross country festival on the opening day of the month. It was quite well supported for a very hot day and I hope that it is an event that will continue for many years. Below is the winner of the 10k.
On the following Wednesday (4th) I went to Wilberforce Road in Cambridge for an evening track and field meet (Eastern Masters League). There was a very friendly rivalry between a good number of teams and the closest finish was the relay for women (4 x 200m).
I then had three days in the heat at Silverstone for the Formula 1 Grand Prix. Unfortunately I was not an official photographer but never the less still managed to get some quite good images.
The following weekend all my plans fell apart. The Motorcross didnt happen and whilst I went over to a friends yard for some horse photos, I took no photos able to be shared here. On the 19th I fitted in a short gym photo shoot with the trainer that helped me do my initial Ironman training...was it really 10 years ago that she first introduced me to a treadmill?
Then on the 21st I was back at Silverstone for the classic meet. As you can see I wanted to experiment with a little zoom blur... However I also managed to get on the pit lane.
On the 25th I went to the final local Team Cambridge Cycling Club time trial of the year...the year is passing so quickly!
My final sporting event for the month was the women's world cup hockey tournament. I managed to secure a couple of tickets for the last England group game against Ireland which England won 1-0.
Looking forward, August is a much quieter month. I have another trip to Wilberforce Road in Cambridge planned for a Southern Athletics League fixture on the 18th and I may well go along to a Cambridge parkrun at some point. I may be back at Silverstone for the MotoGP and I cannot forget that football will be starting again. Whilst August could well be fairly quiet, September is certainly not. I have athletics in Bury St Edmunds on he 8th, grass track racing on the 9th, Silverstone again on the 15th and a pony club hunter trial on the 16th. Gransden Show on the 29th will round off the month where I shall again be doing all three horse rings.
John
I was back at Cambridge parkrun on the 2nd with the intention of doing some creative shots. Unfortunately the ones I tried didn't quite work out. Still, its always worth trying something new and I enjoy experimenting and learning. So far as the actual run was concerned, there were close on 600 runners again and it even featured a hen party!
I then went off on a short break. Couldn't resist a quick visit to the local football stadium though...
It was then down to the river bank for a quick view of the university bumps. Unfortunately I am so busy with my day job at the moment, I couldn't spend the normal amount of time taking photos.
The following day (16th) I thought I would try something different...archery. This is clearly more popular than I imagined. I was made very welcome but was quite rightly asked not to get in front of the archers... Its a very technical sport and one I should imagine is highly addictive. It also seemed very sociable and really worthy of a return visit.
The following day I went back to my old sport of triathlon at Stewartby lakes near Bedford. I had hoped to get some swimming shots as I had a couple of years ago but they chose to move the swim start which didn't give me the opportunity to get level with the swimmers. I was therefore left with just taking some cycling photos and honing my panning skills
Monday the 18th saw me trying to get some Gym shots for a project and taking photos of a 4 week old foal at my friend Jo Gummers yard.
it was back to cycling with a 25 mile time trial near my village on the evening of the 20th. Yet more panned shots for the project.
The 40th birthday celebrations I had been booked to photograph got moved. As a result, I could no longer attend...shame as it would have been a different challenge. My next outing was therefore on the 24th to Gosfield Lakes in Essex to have a look at another sport I had never taken photos of...water skiing.
I managed to get to one final cycle time trial before the end of the month (27th), this time a 10 miler again run by Team Cambridge.
I have Caldecote cross country festival next week. Its the second time the event has been held and my first visit. It features races at 3K, 10K and half marathon. I would encourage as many people as possible to support the event which is being run by Caldecote primary school.
Here are the events for the next few weeks that I am planning to attend, either officially or unofficially.
July 1st - Caldecote cross-country festival
July 4th - Eastern Masters Athletics League at Cambridge
July 6th to 8th - British Grand Prix at Silverstone
July 14th - Motorcross in Swanley, Kent
July 16th - Equestrian photos at my friends yard.
July 21st - Silverstone Classic motor racing
July 29th - World Cup Hockey
August 18th - Southern Athletics League at Cambridge
John