Mike Baluk Photography

Memorial ride for courier

2012-02-12T22:00:00.002Z

Photos up on Demotix of the memorial ride for fallen courier. Click on photo for link.

HS2 link

2012-02-02T18:19:00.003Z

The HS2 will go through the Broadwater lake nature reserve when/if it is built. This reserve is home to many species of waterbirds and Daubenton’s and Pipistrelle bats which are European protected species.

Hillingdon Outdoor Centre will be forced to relocate during construction of the HS2 Viaduct which will be built directly through their lake. If they will be able to return is debatable. The turbulence caused by trains running overhead will compromise the conditions needed for yachting .

Bike Jumble in Essex

2011-12-12T22:36:00.002Z

Leaden Roding, last Saturday.

Richard in Highgate

2011-10-14T23:08:00.003+01:00

Here is Richard playing the trumpet at the end of the parkland walk in Highgate. We found out that old railway tunnels have excellent acoustics.

RE-CYCLE

2011-10-03T19:13:00.006+01:00

Re-Cycle collect unwanted bikes and ship them to Africa. There they can provide transport for anyone from nurses to farmers with produce to sell at the market. Job opportunities are also created as bike mechanics will always be needed. Owning/Having access to a bike in Africa can make a huge difference to a persons quality of life.

These images are the first of a long term project chronicling the operations and results of the dedicated people at Re-Cycle.

Walton-on-the-Naze

2011-07-14T20:29:00.008+01:00

Lovely end of the road type seaside town where you can find fossils, WW2 bunkers and most famous for a Georgian tower which I didn't take a photo of. But it was very nice and there was an interesting couple selling fossilised poo.

Some more bike stuff

2011-06-21T00:35:00.011+01:00

This is a photo of Scherrit aka The Bike Whisperer doing what he does best. Wether you are a Triathelete, commuter, Mountain biker, whatever; You go there with your bike and Scherrit will observe your riding position and work out the optimum adjustments for you and your bike.

These two portraits were taken at the Smithfield Nocturne. On the right is Mark and his French 1955 Triplet. Left is Bryan of Catford CC. Organiser of the Hell of Ashdown.

Poland

2011-05-14T17:23:00.006+01:00

Visited family in Poland during Easter. These where taken in Dabie, a small village/town next to the Stettin Lagoon. It is an interesting place that is mainly residential, very green and has an area of abandoned industrial buildings that probably predate WWII.

Just 15 minutes away from the main Stettin station, and you are already out of town and into the countryside. The Stettin skyline is just about visible on the other side of the lagoon

Electric Pedals at Herne Hill

2011-04-18T19:31:00.003+01:00

Electric pedals come to Herne Hill to power a screening of Belleville Rendez-vous. An Excellent film in a wonderful location. What a great idea.

Some bike jumble sale pics

2011-04-17T17:52:00.005+01:00

Some images from my bike project. The first one is from a bike jumble sale at Ripley, just south of London. It's the biggest one near me and always a special event with lots of bargains to be found. I'll be down there in May looking for a nice steel touring frame.

The second photo is from a jumble sale at Herne Hill Velodrome. It's a smaller affair but it's in a lovely location where you can soak up the atmosphere and find lots of cool bits for your bike.

Sauze D'oulx

2011-04-05T23:59:00.002+01:00

Sauze D'oulx in March = Lots of sun. Almost too much if you have only packed ISO 400

G'wan Dave, take our trees, no one will notice...

2011-02-13T21:24:00.004Z

Being Quarantined at home with flu leads to boredom. Which leads to internet surfing. Which leads to meme hunting. My favourite has to be the woll smoth series. Hats off to our beloved PM, what a cool guy

Back from Kitzbuhel

2011-02-04T11:21:00.004Z

My trip to Kitzbuhel coincided with the world cup (of the skiing variety). The town was in uber party mode, up on the slopes it was business as usual.

Barcelona in November

2010-12-05T20:29:00.002Z

Ricoh GR1v

2010-10-17T22:21:00.003+01:00

I bought a new camera. A Ricoh GR1v. The idea is that don't want to lug a SLR around with me everywhere I go and I don't want to use a compact digi camera so this is the perfect choice. It's really small yet it takes fantastic photos. I've only put two rolls through it and so far, I'm very pleased with the results, It's also a great happy snap point n shooter. I decided that I needed a decent compact whilst I was on the aforementioned camping with large format trip. I wanted to have another camera with me apart from the big one so I could shoot incidentals and snaps but everything else was to bulky and I really didn't need the extra weight.
I have bought some rolls of BW 35mm (Fuji Neopan 400) from 7day shop specifically for it and I was impressed by the speed of the delivery. I ordered on Sunday, the parcel arrived on Wednesday.

Weekend wild camping trip

2010-09-11T12:36:00.004+01:00

Last weekend I fancied getting out of London so I went camping in the Chilterns. After packing my bag, I realised that it wasn't heavy enough so I decided to take the 5x4 with me. All this week I've been saying "I wish I took the Mamiya7 instead" but I think that in some masochistic, retrospective way, I'm glad I didn't. I might even do it again.
A big thankyou to Ant at Darkside for suggesting where to go and developing+contacting my B/W's ;)

Dunwich Dynamo

2010-07-29T18:43:00.006+01:00

The Dunwich Dynamo is a 120 mile night ride. Not a race, just a friendly (albeit rather long) cycle ride. It is on the Saturday that is nearest to the full moon in July. Starting in London Fields, Hackney. It progresses north east up to the village of Dunwich.
Here is a contact of the start of the Dun Run. I was slightly tempted to take the 5x4 with me. I would of liked to have shot the destination as everyone is ready to go and excited at the beginning and the end result is a mass lie-in on the beach at dawn which would of been a nice contrast. Maybe next year.

Brixton

2010-07-01T21:05:00.002+01:00

Every so often I get the urge to do the street photography thing. I was waiting in the Vodafone shop for my girlfriend to sort her phone out, doggy over here was waiting for his master to come back with cigarettes, we made eye contact. Then doggy yawned and looked away. I don't care, he/she will die before me. Hopefully.

The first post

2010-06-26T00:45:00.002+01:00

So, the first post: First trip abroad with the 5x4 (Lombardy) and I think it was a success, I've got some stuff I'm happy with and I was only slightly ravaged by killer-psycho mosquitoes.