I have a new extreme sports project in the pipeline. I don't want to say too much now until I have started shooting.
Watch this space.........

Well, Danni and I have completed our move to Dorset. We are settling in okay, I have started my new job, which I am enjoying.
I have added some images to the BDS Round 4 gallery, and I will hopefully updat the sports section with images from the National Champs in the next few days.

I may have a new project coming up concerning greyhound racing at the Poole Stadium, so keep your eyes open for more info on that one, I shall keep you updated here on my blog. I should also be attending a few Poole Pirate matches before the end of the season, which I am really looking forward to, it's been a few years since I've been able to watch my local speedway team.

I hope you all like the new website banner, this design will feature as my new sig on all of my upcoming photography work. I was aiming for something simple, but recognisable, Which I have hopefully achieved with the aperture symbol.

Danni and I have just come back from a week in Dorset. We will be moving at the end of July.
I have managed to sort out a job, and we have found a lovely flat, just waiting for all the paperwork and credit checks to go through (fingers crossed for no problems).

The highlight of the trip was meeting my 6 week old niece for the first time. I am looking forward to moving back to the area and spending lots of time with this new addition to the family. She is gorgeous, and no doubt there will be some images of her at some point.

I also found a lovely poppy field whilst in Dorset, and this image doesn't really do the scale and size of this thing justice, it was truly beautiful.

I met up with Laurie and Mary on Wednesday. We were hoping to go and get some surfing in, have a bit of a photo session, but the weather/swell wasn't kind to us, so instead we headed down to Wareham Forest for a slacklining session. Good fun. Hopefully there will be more sessions with some interesting locations, and the surf shoots are planned for when we move down.

Click on the link to view the slacklining album.
http://www.jonathancarre.org.uk/060711-slacklining.html

Round 4 of the 2011 HALO BDS saw a field of over 300 competitors descending on Llangollen in North Wales. 

Saturday was a grey and dreary day, with the track thick in wet, clingy mud. The uplift service was a slow process due to the narrow country lanes that the trailers had to negotiate to reach the summit, but most riders still managed a decent amount of practice runs.

Sunday, and what a difference. Sunshine and heat! The hottest day of the year so far and the track was drying out fast.
Seeding saw on-form Danny Hart take the top spot, just less than two tenths of a second ahead of Brendan Fairclough. Fairclough was trying to make this 4 wins from 4 visits to Llangollen, but could he match the pace of the blistering Danny Hart, and just how much would the recent knee operation affect his ambitions of retaining the title of 'King of Llangollen'?

A good showing for CRC saw Joe Smith and Matti Lehikoinen in 3rd and 4th spots respectively, with local hero Al Bond rounding up the top 5 for the Elite Men's seeding.
Saracen Madison's Manon Carpenter took the bragging rights for the Elite Women's seeding, with 4.5 seconds in hand over Transition's Emily Horridge. Can anybody stop this young woman from Wales?

Manon went on to win the Elite Women section, posting a time just shy of 4 seconds faster than second placed Emily Horridge. Katy Curd of Rose Bikes took third, with Jess Stone and Emma Wareham rounding off the podium.

Elite Men's race runs came round and Steve Peat was looking fast, posting a first split time of over a second faster than anybody previously down the hill. That was all undone with an off in the very final section however, leaving the fan favourite with 17th place overall.
Next up was Sam Dale, who put in a very respectable time to take the Hot Seat. He didn't keep it for long though as Josh 'Ratboy' Bryceland, the next guy down, bettered the time set by the Sunn rider by 1.2 seconds, 2.5 seconds faster than Hart's seeding run! What, if anything, had Hart kept in reserve?
Al Bond, Matti Lehikoinen and Joe Smith were the next three down, and none could get within 1.5 seconds of Bryceland's time, would this be his first senior win?

Brendog next, and the young Monster/Specialized rider was really looking to upset the party and claim his fourth win at this venue. However, he couldn't match Bryceland's run, and was over a second down by the first split. By the finishing line he had dropped a further 2 seconds on the Hot Seat time, and ended up finishing 7th for the day, not the weekend Brendan was hoping for.
That left it to Danny Hart, the on-form rider, and the favourite to take the win. The first split time came in, half a second in hand on Bryceland! Surely if he completed his run error free the win would be his. Hart certainly looked fast down the bottom part of the hill, and everybody waited eagerly for the time to flash up as he passed the finish...... just over 1.5 seconds down on Josh Bryceland! That second split time of Bryceland was just superb and gave him the overall win, the first of his senior career.

Fastest through the speed trap was also Bryceland, and so he joins the small group of riders to win the £1000 Tag Heuer watch on offer for the fastest speed trap of each race this season.

What a weekend! The spectators turned up in force for race day, the weather was great, and the racing was just unbelievable. The win for Josh Bryceland leaves him top of the overall standings at this point in the season, with just Fort William to go.
National Champs are back at Llangollen at the end of July, which promises the fiercest racing of the season as the top guns battle it out for the title of National Champion.

Elite Men

Josh Bryceland - Santa Cruz Syndicate
Sam Dale - Team Sunn Montgenevre
Danny Hart - Giant
Joe Smith - Chainreactioncycles.com
Matti Lehikoinen - Chainreactioncycles.com

Elite Women

Manon Carpenter - Madison Saracen
Emily Horridge - Transition Bikes
Katy Curd - Rose Bikes
Jess Stone - Gravity Girls Team/Trek
Emma Wareham - Leisure Lakes

For the full list of results see Roots and Rain at this link.

To see a selection of my favourite images from the weekend choose a link below.
Saturday practice - http://www.jonathancarre.org.uk/250611-llangollen.html
Sunday race - http://www.jonathancarre.org.uk/260611-llangollen.html

To view all of my images from the weekend visit my Roots and Rain account.

I was down at Llangollen today for round 4 of the HALO British Downhill Series. It was a rather dreary, overcast day, with the riders having to contend with thick, clingy mud on track.
The sun came out at the end of the day and the forecast promises sunshine for tomorrow, so fingers crossed for some nice shots from race runs tomorrow.
I have posted a handful of images to the album for today, more will go up over the next week when I have had chance to edit them.
Click on the link to visit the album.
http://www.jonathancarre.org.uk/250611-llangollen.html

The images from the second shoot with Johara for Prolimit are now up in their album.
Click this link to go to the album http://www.jonathancarre.org.uk/230611-west-shore.html
See my previous blog entry to read about the shoot.

Well I met up with Johara yesterday and we had a three hour session at West Shore. The weather was lovely, a large cloud bank moved over to start with so we had sun and cloudy spells, which had me changing exposures and WB on the fly.
The second part of the session involved me finally shooting from the water. I've been planning this for ages, but never really had the opportunity until now. One of Jo's mates brought along a nice black and pink wetsuit for me! It enabled me to get in the water with the waterproof housing I have from Aquapac and the second session graced us with constant sunshine.
A bit of practice is needed with the casing, as some of the shots had the lens piece creeping into view, but it shouldn't take long to master. The prospect of some rad images is much higher shooting from this perspective, rather than from the shoreline, and I'm looking forward to seeing what sort of images I can produce.
I'll just put this image up quickly now, and I'll hopefully get to editing this evening after work. There could be quite a few images to go up into an album.

Little play around on a curved sea wall today at Rhos-on-Sea. Images are so-so, but I thought I'd put them up for you to look at. May have to go back and get more horizontal!
That's the new West Shore hoodie that arrived a couple of days ago, and I love it! Really nice and comfy, and a little thinner than normal hoodies. Ideal for slipping on after a summer ride for the evening BBQ.

The shoot from my Little Orme session is now up in the Sports section. Click here to go to the album.
http://www.jonathancarre.org.uk/190611-little-orme.html

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