Tag Archives: Coventry

Bike Check – Orange Speedwork

Posted on by

Today was a good day – I bought a new (to me) bike! I had not intended to buy another bike, but sometimes that is the way things go… The Mongoose Maurice I bought as a cheap commuter bike eighteen months ago aced the “cheap” aspect, at £60, I would not have had any second thoughts about leaving it at the station all day. But that was not how I ended up using it – by the time I locked up the bike/removed the lights etc, it would have taken longer than if I had just walked to the station. So I only really used the bike for running the odd errand, but it was so rubbish to ride that I stopped doing that too. Because it was such a cheap bike I resented spending any money on, even a new chain would have been a significant portion of the initial purchase cost. So it ended up taking up space in the garage – a plan was needed…

I decided that the obvious answer was to get a better “urban” bike, keeping the thin tyres of the Maurice, but adding gears, working brakes and better geometry. There are a few options on the market, but being an unashamed Orange Bikes fan, it had to be the Speedwork, their “perfect all-rounder”. It is a flat bar gravel bike, with a mountain bike drivetrain and brakes. Because this is meant to be a commuter bike, that I can use for running errands, and as such will be locked up away from home occasionally, I could not justify a new version, so this is the 2020 model – bought secondhand on eBay for a fraction of the cost of a new one.

I gave it a quick once over when I got it home, removed the mud guards, fitted my preferred saddle and grips, unceremoniously removed from the Maurice, pumped up the tyres and took it for a quick local shakedown ride. There were still a few more adjustments to make – mainly to handlebar and brake lever positions, but otherwise I was please with how it rode. The best way to sum it up is, “like a mountain bike, but faster”, which was exactly what I was aiming for! I even manage to get a PR on a Strava segment, despite not really trying, and still not feeling 100% with a lingering cold.

I do not have any plans lined up for the Speedwork, I do not want to spend a lot of money upgrading it, because then I will not be able to leave it anywhere. It could probably do with a deep clean, and a service, but it will have to get in the queue, behind my other bikes. So, for now, I will just ride it on the roads, whilst all the local trails are too wet to ride. If we get the chance Jen and I might do a few rides together – as she much prefers road/gravel type riding to mountain biking, and she now has a similar flat bar bike which she could do with riding a bit more.

Top Ten Photos from 2024

Posted on by

I have shared a few of my favourite images from last year on my Instagram, but I thought I should also share them here, with some added context. Here they are in no particular order:

At my first mountain bike race of the year at Stile Cop, I had wanted to shoot something a bit different to my usual head on race shot. Climbing a bank to get to an open section of track I took out my Fuji X100V, activated the built in ND filter, and slowed the shutter speed right down. On this frame I had managed to get the riders eyes and number board mostly sharp, which is easier said than done. The rest of the frame was a bit chaotic, which sums up a downhill mountain bike run to me. I had not planned to shoot in black and white, but prior to the conversion I felt there was something missing.

Spectating at the Rallynuts Severn Valley Stages was one of my highlights of 2024, there were a couple of images that I could have chosen, but there is nothing quite like seeing a 911 sideways on gravel.

Despite riding a lot with Owen, we did not actually visit the skate park much, this was probably from a Saturday morning when Jen was doing Parkrun. Environmental portraits, like this, are my favourite way to capture the boys, as it avoids them pulling any silly faces, I felt that this one just sums Owen up really well.

Another from the War Memorial Park, whist Jen was doing Parkrun, except this time the boys were staying with my parents, and I had just received my X-H2S, so I explored the park on my own. this guy was meditating on a bench on the bowling green, and I liked the framing between the leaves. This photo reminds me of how lucky we are having a large park near the centre of Coventry where people can relax amongst nature.

The first of two photos from the Coventry ring road photowalk I did in November. We started here at the Canal Basin, which was like a mirror first thing in the morning, so I concentrated on capturing reflections. On this day I had actually made the conscious decision to shoot in black and white, and had set my X-H2S set to the Acros film simulation.

I took lots of photos of Henry at the local cycle speedway track in 2024, most of them riding shots, but this one of him messing about in the grass, whilst waiting for his heat was my favourite. I fell like it just sums up Henry.

The second image from the ring road photowalk, this time about halfway around the ring road, in the subway that goes to Central Six, for those that know it. On the day this was not my favourite of the more tradition street style photographs, but it has grown on me over time. The framing in the square and the silhouette make it for me.

I had these trees in mind for a sunset photo across the valley for a few years, so when weather conditions for a decent sunset combined with a free evening, I drove over to Kineton to see if I could make it work. The sunset was not quite as good as I had hoped, but the concept worked well. It was also nice to get out for the evening, watching as a sun dipped behind the horizon.

When I was sent out on a Christmas Eve mission to deliver some emergency red cabbage there was only one car for the job – my little MR2 Roadster. I had just received my camera back from a warranty repair at Fuji UK and wanted to test it out. This was a super quick shot, as I also had Owen in the car with me. It was a misty evening, and the shot I had envisioned was the MR2 parked under a streetlight in the mist. Sadly where I decided to stop – an industrial estate in Nuneaton, was not particularly misty, but I still like the shot. Rather than including the streetlight I was parked under in the frame, I went for tighter framing, using the light to accentuate the shape of the car. We were probably only out of the car for a minute, but the shot came out well.

It was still misty on Boxing Night, and having been stuck in the house all day, I decided to head out and get the misty photograph I had not achieved a few days prior. Instead of taking the MR2 out, I decided to walk up to Hearsall Common, to photograph the Hearsall Star, a local festive landmark. I had taken a few different compositions, but this one with the cars was my favourite, as the cars and their lights added a bit of an extra something that was missing from the frame. I was not sure if there would be much traffic late on Boxing Night, but I am glad that there was. Walking home from this I slipped on some mud and bashed my knee, but it was worth it for this photo.

Coventry Ring Road Photowalk

Posted on by

In Coventry we are proud of our ring road, which loops around the city centre, just outside of where the old medieval city walls were, it is notoriously tricky to drive on, with junctions merging into each other. The secret is to ignore usual best practices and stay in the right lane unless you are leaving at the next junction. When I heard that a group of local photographers were going on a photowalk around the ring road I was keen to join them, and somehow the stars aligned such that I was free on the day, and it was not raining either! It was a dry day, but the weather was pretty dull, so I made the decision early on that I would try to shoot in black and white, feeling that it would work well with the grey skies and grey architecture. I considered using my X100V, as it is a camera made for street photography, but I wanted the flexibility of switching lenses, so opted for the X-H2S, mainly with the 35mm f1.4 prime lens.

We met at the canal basin, and took some shots around that area whilst waiting for the whole group to arrive. I like the canal basin, it is just across the ring road from the city centre, but feels so much calmer, especially on a chilly Saturday morning, when the canal was as flat as a millpond, which made for some great reflections. That is until a couple of swans swam through and spoiled my fun.

As we left the canal basin for the ring road, my inner car photographer was coming out – I was trying to combine a silhouetted person walking across the bridge with a car driving under it. Then I saw this hot rod truck approaching – it did not quite give me the shot I was aiming for, but in my view an interesting truck makes for a better shot than perfect timing/composition with a Toyota Prius.

We crossed over to the inside of the ring road, and walked around anti-clockwise, stopping to take photos. Our first main stop was Nauls Mill Underpark – somewhere I had not been since I borrowed an X100V from Fuji a few years ago. It is an underpass which has been done up as a park, with seating, a climbing wall and logs planted into the ground. I used some of these logs as framing, and waited for someone to walk into, or out of the shadow of the bridge – my plan worked! Although I think I would have been happier with a slightly faster shutter speed, I think having the slight motion blur works for this image.

Our next main stop was the abandoned housing estate at Spon End – the flats have been empty for a while now and are due to be demolished, it felt strange to be walking around what would have once been a busy area. Hopefully something nice will be built there soon, as it is a good location near to the city centre, with the River Sherbourne running alongside.

From Spon End we carried on round the ring road, criss crossing through the many subways on the south side of town. I liked this composition with the light and the square hole, I just needed to wait for a subject to walk into frame. We did not have as much time here as I would have liked, but it is somewhere I can revisit.

I thought I knew Coventry well, but I had never previously noticed the Frank Whittle building at Coventry University, with its hexagonal patters was pretty spectacular. I have driven past it loads, but you cannot see if from the road, as it is hidden behind the old Whitefriars monastery. I felt like I could have done better here, I had some shots with cyclists riding past, but I needed either a faster shutter speed, or a much slower one to get more motion blur. Another area to return to…

I did not take many photos on the last section of the ring road, but I did notice a few areas which would be good for some static car photography, so next time I have a free afternoon and a clean car I will give those a go. As we got back to the start we stopped for a well earned hot drink and cake at the Transport Museum cafe – we had been walking for more than four hours and I had done over 16,000 steps! It was great to get out exploring my home town, and to meet some other local photographers, the fact that I got home and was pleased with a number of my images from the day is the cherry on top!

Top Five from 2023

Posted on by

The PistonHeads.com Photography Forum had a thread to share your favourite photos from the previous year, in this case, 2023. As it is usually your “top five” photos, I chose five and also decided to share them on my blog, as I have done in previous years.

This was my favourite photo of Henry, taken when we were in Peebles on our Summer Road Trip. Owen had not been feeling very well and did not want to go out, so I took Henry for a walk to the park. The colours on this rocket worked well with Henry’s t-shirt.

I could not have a favourite photo of Henry without one of Owen too. I took this one at a friend’s barbeque in the summer, whilstt is not technically perfect, I liked how the colours of the bubbles work with Owen’s shirt and draw your eye through the image.

I do not do much “street” photography, but enjoyed the Coventry Photography Meetup group photo walk at the War Memorial Park. This was the only photo I was happy with from the morning, but I am still really happy with it and it made it worth it. Even the 5:30 alarm!

Another photo from our summer road trip, this time from our final stop in Saltburn-by-the-Sea. As we were finishing up our dinner, I could tell that it was going to be a good sunset, so I rushed back to the flat we were staying in, grabbed my camera kit and headed back down to the beach. This was my favourite photo from that evening – and I took a lot! It was almost totally dark by this point, but that meant I could use a long shutter speed to blur the sea.

I managed to shoot more mountain biking last year, including three downhill races at Stile Cop, this was my pick of the images that I shot at the most recent race, in December. It was the first outing for my Fujinon XF 50-140mm f2.8 lens, and it was a good job I had it, as my old lens would have really struggled in the woods on a rainy December afternoon. Of all the shots I got during the race, this was my favourite, you can tell that the rider is fast, and their red kt stands out from the dull background.

Mushrooms of Coventry

Posted on by

The other week most of the photographs I took were of mushrooms, both in my local woods, and on bike rides around the city. The first ones, were a mountain of mushrooms in the “fairy village”, I had noticed them on a previous bike ride and thought it would be worth returning with the camera.

Whist photographing the mushroom mountain I noticed a tiny baby mushroom growing out of a log – I needed to use the macro extension tubes to get close enough. It is hard to tell the scale from the photo, but the lush green plants surrounding the mushroom is actually moss. The mushroom was less than one centimetre high.

After I got back from my photo walk in the woods, I went out for a bike ride, taking my X100V along in my rucksack. I am unsure if it is the weather, or if I am more attuned to seeing mushrooms, but they seem to be everywhere in the woods at the moment. The X100V is not the best camera for this type of photography, but it is the best one that easily fits into my bag.

Later on in the week, I went back to the woods with Owen and Henry, Owen was excited to see the mushroom mountain by the fairy village. It was even bigger than when I photographed it. Henry was just happy to be messing about in the woods, but I managed to get him to pose for about three seconds. Unfortunately I was too slow to capture my friends from Godiva Trailriders who rode past us on their Saturday morning ride.

War Memorial Park Sunrise Photo Walk

Posted on by

I am not a morning person, or should I say, I am not a getting-out-of-bed person. On the rare occasion, I do get up early, I love it. And today was one of those days. The Coventry Photography Meetup group had arranged a sunrise photo walk in the War Memorial Park – starting at 6:00, and as the forecast was due to be nice first thing, I set my alarm clock and joined them. Unfortunately, the weather forecast lied – it was a grey morning, but not quite misty enough to be atmospheric.

The first frame I took was of these daffodils in front of the war memorial, the flowers added a well-needed splash of colour. Moving down towards the skatepark, I switched to my 55-200mm lens, as there are usually plenty of squirrels there. I got a few photos of them, but 200mm is not really long enough for wildlife photography – I feel like it is a good jack-of-all-trades lens, but not really great at anything.

However, when the sun eventually popped out from behind the clouds, my eyes were drawn to the backlit tree at the edge of the park, and the 55-200 was definitely the right lens for the job. To make the image I knew I would just have to wait for someone to walk (or ideally ride their bike!) along the path into the frame. Even better was a jogger, his visible breath showing how cold it was, adding to the story. I knew straight away that this would be my favourite shot of the day (and is the shot at the top of this post). A few minutes later a cyclist rode past but the light had already gone.

Henry’s February Half-Term Holiday 2023

Posted on by

At the end each term, Henry’s nursery set him (us) homework, to share a few photographs of what he has been up to over the holiday. Owen also had this homework when he was at nursery, but I did not think to share the photos on my blog. As it is a nice recap, I have decided to share them.

This picture is from our family ride at Hicks Lodge – Henry did so well riding the blue trail.

Photo: Bob Craik

The boys stayed with my mum and dad in the Cotswolds, and took a trip to Cogges historic farm.

On the way back (sort of!) from collecting the boys from my parents house we called in at 417 Bike Park for Henry’s first visit to “the barn of dreams”.

Photo: Jennifer Craik

Whilst I was photographing the Cannock Chase Winter Classic mountain bike race, Jen and the boys rode their bikes up to the playground at the local park.

Henry’s October Half-Term Holiday 2022

Posted on by

I thought that as Henry started pre-school at Owen’s school, we would no longer have his holiday homework of sharing photos of what he had been up to during his holiday, however pre-school have asked us to do it too. So once again, as I have collated the images anyway, I figured that I may as well post them here too.

I have already shared this photo in my recent post about our walk in the woods, but it is one of my favourite photos of Henry, so sharing it again!

The main part of Henry’s half-term was going to Norfolk with my parents (and Owen). We went to collect the boys, and I took this photo at the park where they were staying. We also went to the seaside in Hunstanton and had fish and chips at “Henry’s of Hunstanton“.

Jen had taken Owen to a birthday party and the plan was that I would take Henry swimming, but neither of us fancied that – so I took Henry to the bike trails in Bedworth. They are the nearest man-made trails to our house, and have a gentle loop that I thought would be perfect for Henry on his pedal bike. He warmed up with a few laps of the nearby skatepark on his balance bike, but then he told me we could put his balance bike back in the van and that he would ride the trails on his pedal bike.

Henry did not like the look of the roll-in at the start of the trail, but as it was quiet he could sneak around it and start on the flat. Initially, he was not too confident and pushed his bike around for the first half lap, but when I said that I would get some photos for his teacher he was keen to ride. After I got some photos I followed him round the track. He was so excited, saying, “I did it Daddy, I love it” – a proud dad moment for sure! Then he kept going round the track, telling me off if I dared to stop taking photos.

Day Off Ride with Owen

Posted on by

Yesterday, was a teacher training day at the boys’ school, and I woke up looking forward to a day at work, as I had an interesting little project to complete – however, upon checking my calendar, I realised that I also had the day booked off! After double-checking that I really was not meant to be working, the disappointment was quickly replaced by thoughts of “where should I ride?”. Jen and the boys had plans in the afternoon, so it was tempting to ride by myself, but I had not ridden with Owen since falling off at Northampton Bike Park, and I had taken Henry to the trails in Bedworth the day before, so I thought it best to ride with Owen.

Given the choice of a few local places to ride, Owen just wanted to ride the skatepark at the War Memorial Park, where we go most weekends. So I switched things up – we would ride there! Owen did not take much convincing to take a longer route, via a fun trail alongside the Kenilworth road. Which I had handily pre-ridden the day before. There were a few road sections, but all on quiet roads and we were past the rush hour. I know that Owen is sensible when it is just the two of us out on bikes.

The fun part of the ride starts at pretty much the furthest point from home, especially when you add a detour to see the ducks at Warwick Uni. It is also the highest point, so we stopped for a snack before hitting the trail. The run down the first few sections was fun, albeit slower than I am used to. Owen coped admirably with the natural trail conditions – he is more used to purpose-built trails, and the leaves hiding roots and other obstacles added to the difficulty. Luckily (or more likely due to global warming?) the trail was not too muddy yet, so he did not have that to cope with. About halfway down, just before we crossed Cannon Hill Road, we stopped for a photo break, as I really liked how the leaves on the ground matched Owen’s jersey (that he chose when we were in Wales the previous month). One benefit of not being on a dedicated mountain bike trail was that I could get Owen to ride the “wrong way” down the trail to get better light on the photo.

At the War Memorial Park, Owen conquered the wet grassy bank that had caught him out on a previous visit, learning that knobbly mountain bike tyres are much grippier on wet grass than smooth BMX tyres. The mountain bike was also easier to roll down the ramps at the skatepark. I was disappointed to find that the new ice cream shack, opposite the skatepark was closed – I am yet to see it open. Owen wanted to ride straight back from the park, so we went along the road, through Earlsdon, then our regular route along Hearsall Common, through the woods and down the “Co-op Hill”. The ride was almost 16km – one of Owen’s longest. After the ride Owen had a busy day – a play date and a Halloween party. I had an afternoon of life admin, somewhat spoilt by my van not starting, which also happened on a day off earlier in the year.

Summer Solstice Walk

Posted on by

Yesterday was the summer solstice – so I decided to go out for a walk with my camera, with a vague idea of capturing the sun going down for the shortest night. I was walking between Coventry and Balsall Common and could not find an interesting view to the west. However, I did like this shot of a lone tree in the golden light.

Usually, on a warm summer evening, I would be out on my bike, but with my knee still not right after my ride to Hatton, I have been enjoying getting out for walks with my camera instead.