Saturday 29 September 2012

Stuart Cowper Photography Blog: Updates

There has been a few updates to the blog and my photo sharing site on Smugmug through September so thought I would bring them all together here in one post.

I've gone from taking photos of the scene of a fire at a Perth School to London, for the Paralympic Games Wheelchair Marathon and the TeamGB and ParalympicsGB Our Greatest Team Victory Parade. 

From there it was back closer to home to see the Scotland Celebrates: Our Greatest Team Parade later that same week.

After that, it was back out to Farquharson Park in Scone for the GA Engineering Cup clash between Scone Thistle and Dundee North End.

I am also going to soon get a number of collections uploaded as slideshows to Youtube and create a Facebook page.

Please share and like the blog on Facebook and Twitter and feel free to comment on any of the posts.

So, what have I been taking photos of in September? Well, here is a more detailed summary complete with pictures, and links to the main story and collections:

Cherrybank School Fire
First off, it was the small fire set by vandals within one of the buildings at the now mothballed Cherrybank School. This picture below was used by local newspaper The Courier for their article. Click here to see the entry and photos:



London in 2012
I had a few days in London to take in the Paralympic Wheelchair Marathon and the Our Greatest Team Parade. If ever there was somewhere to go in 2012 it surely had to be London! I was pretty fortunate on the Saturday evening to be treated to a wonderful looking sky, which was helped no end by all the contrails. Staying in the Belgravia / Pimlico area of London there is some rather nice looking architecture as well.

With the number of pictures I took of that sky it got its own collection here, and the other general London photos got put into this collection (with a few more sky pictures too).



Paralympic Games Wheelchair Marathon
I wasn't able to get tickets for any of the Olympics or Paralympics, but was fortunate enough to catch the wheelchair marathon, on what was a glorious sunny day with temperatures touching 30 degrees.

I had wanted to try and get pictures of the marathon with some iconic London landmarks in the background and was early enough to get a good spot at Westminster. The marathon was completed in laps which allowed multiple shots and time to re-take any pictures that hadn't worked out first time and get the settings perfected.

The men's race saw Gold won by Britain's Dave Weir and in the women's race Britain's Shelly Woods took the Silver.

The story and pictures can be seen here

 

Our Greatest Team Victory Parade
I was chuffed when I was able to get down to London to see this once in a lifetime event. Whilst there will be Victory Parades in the future, none will have the same significance as this one, following the most successful Olympic Games from a British perspective in living memory.
 
The games of London 2012 were announced in July of 2005, and while many had their doubts about how good the games would be from an organisational and performance point of view, by the end, everyone could see why Lord Coe, LOCOG, TeamGB & ParalympicsGB squads had been so confident.
 
The event saw over 800 Olympians and Paralympians on 21 floats pass through the streets of London, on which up to one million people had gathered. Following the parade, the floats would go down The Mall to a ceremony at the Victoria Memorial in front of Buckingham Palace.

The culmination of the celebrations saw a flypast from the British Airways Airbus A319 in a special livery called 'Firefly' which brought the Olympic Flame to Britain, along with RAF helicopters, Eurofighter Typhoons, E-3D AWACS aircraft and the Red Arrows.
 
Here is the photos and story
 
 
 
 
TeamGB & ParalympicsGB Gathering
After watching the Victory Parade and the ceremony on the large screens in Trafalgar Square I headed back down Whitehall where I came to a crowd gathered at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre. Just after arriving the first of the Olympians and Paralympians began to turn up.
 
In addition to the Olympians and Paralympians of the London 2012 team were former Olympians and Paralympians such as Sir Roger Bannister and Torvill&Dean; Prime Minister David Cameron and London Mayor Boris Johnson and the singer Katherine Jenkins.
 
You'll be able to see the full story and pics if you click here
 


Scotland Celebrates: Our Greatest Team
This was the most successful Olympics and Paralympics for Scottish athletes and they were honoured with a Victory Parade through Glasgow, the city where the 2014 Commonwealth Games will be held.

Following the parade, which I took in from Argyll Street looking up Buchanan Street, there was a ceremony in George Square which was attended by around 5000 people.

With a couple pics below, the full collection and story can be seen here
 

 

Scone Thistle vs Dundee North End - GA Engineering Cup
Following my trip out to Farquharson Park in Scone to see Scone Thistle take on  a team of St Johnstone, Dundee and Dundee United legends I had always intended to go back out to take photos of them in competitive action. Scone played well against a very good Dundee North End side but still went down 3-0.
 
There is a pretty comprhensive collection of pictures here:
 
Scone Thistle are playing their first season back after being in abeyance for last year. They are still looking for supporters to come along and support them with details on their Twitter and Facebook pages.
 


 

London in 2012

If there was ever one place to go in 2012 it was London.

I was down to see the Our Greatest Team Victory Parade and was able to take in the Paralympics Wheelchair Marathon.

Here are the pictures from my walking around the capital, with a small selection below, which can be viewed full size by clicking on them.

On my first night in London I got treated to a stunning sky after the sun had set which can be seen here

 







 






Scone Thistle vs Dundee North End

Pictures here from the GA Engineering Cup Clash between Scone Thistle and Dundee North End. Dundee North End won 3-0.

Click on the pictures to see them at full size.

Click here for the full collection of pictures from the match.


 



Scotland Celebrates: Our Greatest Team

Pictures here of the Scotland Celebrates: Our Greatest Team parade through Glasgow with most of the Scottish Olympian and Paralympians who took parade in the amazing London2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Olympic Gold Medalist and Wimbledon Finalist Andy Murray was absent, as he was about to become a Grand Slam Champion.

Following the parade was a ceremony held in George Square.

The pictures here were taken on Argyll Street at the bottom of Buchanan Street.

The pictures below can be viewed at full size by clicking on them

The full collection can be seen by clicking here

I was also in London for the full TeamGB & Our Greatest Team and those pictures can be seen here

 
 
 

 

 


 





 

TeamGB & ParalympicsGB Our Greatest Team Gathering

Here are a selection of pictures from outside the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in London where there was a gathering of TeamGB and ParalympicGB Olympians and Paralympians.

This was just after the Our Greatest Team victory parade - pictures of which can be seen by clicking here

Click here for the full collection of pictures from the gathering. Click on the pictures below to see them full size.