Pembrokeshire In Focus: June 2011

Saturday, 25 June 2011

Pembrokeshire Fish Week drops anchor

The hugely popular Pembrokeshire Fish Week has sailed in once again, casting off with the open day at Milford Marina.
Despite the weather - and for the first time this year, an entry charge - crowds of visitors sampled what was on offer.
An array of food, arts and crafts and charity stalls, cookery demonstrations, children's activities, street performers, dancers and sea shanty crews guaranteed that locals and tourists alike were left hooked.
For more information about what's on for the rest of the week, visit the Pembrokeshire Fish Week site.
Here are a few of my shots from the opening event...

Tuesday, 14 June 2011

Preparing for war

Fighting men and officers prepared for deployment to Afghanistan by taking part in live firing exercises at Castlemartin tank range last week. Among them was Corporal Matthew Hartt, from Whitland, who joined the Army at the age of 16. Now 26, he has seen active service in Iraq and this will be his second tour in Afghanistan with the 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards. The regiment is due to head to Afghanistan in the autumn and for some of the soldiers this was their first experience of live firing exercises.

Thursday, 2 June 2011

Bowled over by England performance

People tend to look at me as if I’m a bit strange when they discover I like cricket. I don’t know why it should be so shocking that a woman can happily sit through a whole Test match – and understand what is going on.

With cricket in my blood, I would spend many a childhood Saturday afternoon walking around the boundary with my pals with our bottles of coke and packets of crisps, climbing onto the rollers and playing in the nets. Admittedly, as we got older our attentions may have veered slightly from the game to the players themselves. And we progressed from coke to cider with varying consequences.

I’m not sure I should reveal this to a worldwide audience, but I will also confess to having a bit of a crush on Shane Warne as a teen – but that was a long time ago. It was when he looked at his best and cricket was what he was best known for. It was a fleeting infatuation and no, he didn’t send me any texts.

Anyway, I digress. Last week we made the long-winded train journey up to Cardiff for a day at the England v Sri Lanka Test. And, unsurprisingly, I took my camera. My kit is slightly limited so I had to make do with my 55-200mm lens. It was day two and England were in the field so I snapped a few close-up shots of the players. I have cropped some of the action shots - I shot in RAW and kept the ISO down, knowing that I’d need to crop them. There are so many things on my kit wish list, but a longer lens is near the top of it. I just need to keep saving the pennies.

Day two was the only day rain didn’t interrupt play and it seemed England were set for a draw at best, so it was a bit of a shock to see them bowl Sri Lanka for just 82 on day five and win the first Test by an innings and 14 runs.

First shot of the day: Stuart Broad in bowling action...