Category: blog

B182 – LETS DO SOMETHING COOL

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three hundred words that all I have to write each day, I love taking photos, but the writing is the hardest thing on this blog. I’m sorry for the lack of energy on these posts these past few days, Im just fighting through the Jet lag and trying to crazy amount of work, to get out the other side. but today has been a really good day, Ive started making plans for a really cool project. something I can properly sink my teeth into, Ive got a plan and all I have todo now is stick to it and make sure I can put everything in place before I go away next week. So not a lot todo at all.

what I like about doing this blogging thing is my plan that Im just going todo what ever I like with it. thats basically my plan, not think too much into it and just see where I end up. I really want to start upping my content and put out some cool photos that aren’t just everyday stuff. like jumping a car or shooting fireworks over a lake, something incredible and completely not the normal, thats my kind of project. If I can just get through the next month and stay dedicated to making stuff happen theres no reason why those projects wont come to life. Obviously those arent my project idea’s but they follow the same line, something which has an element of risk but with a massive reward. I started this blog to improve my photography skills and its about time I started to test my self and see what I can do with a camera.

again im sorry for the lack of content but unless I stay awake 24 hours a day, I don’t have enough time. but I will I promise you.

In other news I picked up my new blinds tonight, went to put them up and found out I don’t own a drill. so if anyone lives in bethnal green and has a drill that would be really helpful.

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– this is a photo I took this morning, god I love my coconut tree –
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– one of my favourite places in the past months, Historic Downtown St. Charles –
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– Missori, America, everyone should go and see St.louis its a really cool city –

B181 – PLEASE LET ME SLEEP

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For the past months I’ve been properly excited to have a Sunday, and today that’s what I had. For some reason Amy and me woke up at like 6:30 this morning and decided we should head over to Cambridge road flower market first thing and grab some more plants for the flat, the plan is to basically have like an indoor balcony. We don’t have an outside bit so doing the best we can with the extra big window ledge.

I’m telling you now it’s coming along nicely, I’m not going to post any pictures because I want to reveal the thing look once it’s done m, which will hopefully be soon. I’ve got my eye on a few things that will finish it off. Anyone after getting hold of a pine apple plant and some other planets I’m not sure what they are but we headed back to the flat and make a plan to head over to Epping forest.

Who knew that Epping forest was actually anywhere near Epping tube station, I just imagined it would be like the new forest and you can just get off the train anywhere and be surround by country side. That was definitely not the case and the only answer was the head into a local pub for the good old English pub grub, no alcohol though just a pint of orange juice.

We basically just looked around Epping and headed back to London to grab some supplies for the flat, I have good news. As of tomorrow the flat will now have blinds, I’ve been here for 3 yeas now and finally blinds are going to be installed! It’s been a long wait, but it’s happening and I can’t wait.

I suppose this is a proper Sunday post, nothing to extreme just a chilled day out, on the other hand I can’t sleep through the night and keep waking up at like 2ish for a few hours I’m pretty sure it’s the jet lag and it’s happened to be again now, it’s 2:37 on Monday morning a few hours ago I was passed out now I’m wake awake! Does anyone have any tips to get back to normal, I love sleep and really want a full nights sleep.

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– this guys got a strong shirt –
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– I really want to get a proper tree for the flat –
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– this is amy getting excited about pillows, when did my sundays become about flowers and pillows – ” Green goes so well with orange –

B180 – 6 MONTHS LATER

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right, its happened. Ive left my camera at a party last night so all the photos I took yesterday are at my mates house. meaning that not only have I woken up with a rough head but Ive got no pictures from yesterday and haven’t got my camera for today. the plan now is to scroll back through some old photos and have a little reminiscing.

We are now two days away from the 6 month mark and to be honest I’m pretty happy with how its gone, when I first set out on this I had a target of getting a thousand views a month for the first 6 months and I can now say that we have reach 6,497 views in the first half of this blog. the target has been smashed, so thank you.

this whole photo challenge is not the easiest thing in the world and is taking a lot of energy to post every day and write something but I cant believe how much its helped my writing, which I think has got better. 6 months ago my every day writing was terrible from spelling mistake in emails that shouldn’t have mistakes to writing instructions for other people that just didn’t make sense. Now I feel a lot more confident I’m what I write and feel like I can back it up. this whole thing has also helped me to understand more about camera’s, photography and lighting, I’m now thinking bigger and better and what to really push some ideas forward and get s**t done.

The photos I want to show today are from the first 50 days of this project. I’m not trying to show where Ive come from and to where I am now, because Im happy with the photos, I think if I was to look back at my photos and think what should I of done and what I didn’t do, then my brain would explode. The plan here is just to look back at some cool moments that otherwise would get lost in just the shear amount of content that i’m posting here. enjoy these photos.

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– trekking over to hampstead heath at night to find this view, after 3 hours of being lost in the pitch dark we managed to find the spot –
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– a different time when I went out at night to get this shot. I dont think theres a photogrpaher in london who hasn’t taken a photo of st pauls from this bridge –
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– on an adventure with amy in camden, amy hadnt been to camden before so went we along and done it properly, the stables, the zoo everything –
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– this was just after I found out about my leg and realised that I wouldn’t be able to run the ultra marathon in Switzerland, im still waiting for it to heal so I can run again. 146 days later and I still cant run, Im hoping that by the end of October ill be able to run short distances and slowly build up to the goal of completing an Ultra marathon –

 

 

 

B180 – THE BEST FOOD IVE EVER HAD – SKETCH, LONDON

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Yesterday was all about getting some good food, so Amy and me headed off the this little restaurant in town called Sketch. If you’ve heard of it before its probably becuase its one of the coolest places to eat. I booked that table about 4 weeks ago and was struggling to get a good table, thats how packed this place is. the food was incredible too, we had the duck Foie Gras for starts with the leeks and razor clams. both of us have never had clams before, they we actually really good.

for mains I though it would be rude not to have the Kent Lamb loin, as i am from kent and know that we do good food. it was perfect and the sauce they put on the top was unbelievable, no meal is complete without a side of chips. so thats what finished us off.

Amy let me have a taste of her Sea Bass main meal and after spending a month in america where you think fish is fresh, this was a different level of fresh. its fair to say that all the processed food in the states, was starting to become more of a mission and having that food has brought me back to reality. its now lie that america josh had started to put on the pounds, a mixture of 1 minute pancakes and Chuckey cheese, had started to show. but lucky I’m now back to good fresh food.

I do love going to new cities and countries and exploring loads of places, but I think theres only one city I can call home and thats London. I even love the rude people that give you funny looks on the tube. even they have a certain London look, that you don’t find anywhere else in the world.

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– This place is like no other restaurant ive been in –
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– this photo was taken by turning the table lamp upside down and using the light from it –
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– a bad quality photo but I still like it –

 

 

B178 – PHONE SNAPS- AIRPORT AFTER AIRPORT.

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first off, yesterdays post was a bit cringly and maybe I should of wrote it before I ended up at the pub.

I was sat on the plane from  Victoria to Toronto thinking of fun things I can do on days like today where its just airports and waiting around or im at home watching TV with out any plan to leave the sofa, I decided that it would be cool to come up with a kind of fun project for those days. at first I was thinking of do like a travel tip thing or give my advise on something, but then I realised im a terrible traveller and even worst with advise. Ill always do the wrong thing when it comes to packing and organising,  that basically means I shouldnt give my travel tips out, it wont help anyone.

Thats when I came up with the idea to create some sort of genre for joshfspear.com and on those days, I post photos from the depth of my phone and show some photos that didn’t make the cut but are still pretty good. I want to think of some cool name for these posts but maybe simple is better so Phone Snaps it is.

The photos you see below are from the past few days in Victoria, one of the coolest places I’ve ever been to, its somewhere I really want to go back and explore. one of the crazy / cool things that happened was when a paragon falcon, flew down and landed in the middle of the road in front of me before taking off to attack some black birds that were just minding their own business. it was like see something from a David Attenborough documentary.

I think everyone needs to come and see this place and visit downtown harbour. Victoria is also home to the oldest china town in Canada, that fact was told to me by a taxi driver who wasn’t to sure of his way round the city, so sorry if its not true. I didnt get a photo of the china town but there is a photo of the street a block over.

Another cool fact about this places is that they seem to paint all their street lights and cable boxes that you see around the city, so instead of seeing some horrible gray box or a ugly pole that sticks out the ground you basically see some cool art painted on the side or even a photo. I have a cool shot of this on my hard drive, but thats not with me at the moment so you’ll have to see it in a throwback photo or something.

anyway enjoy the snaps and sorry again if you couldn’t understand yesterdays post. Oh and I think I’ve set this to post at 10am GMT, but I have no idea when it will go up. I don’t really know what time zone my laptop is in at the moment, its got jet lag I think.

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– a photo from the drive across town –
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– look at what theyve done to the pole, it looks pretty cool. Ive got some better snaps, ill show you them some other time –
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– the street near to canada’s first china town –

 

B174 – I’VE NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE

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I know Canada is this wild place but somethings I wont believe till I see them and wild deer and stags walking around the streets like some 13 year old are one of them. Just as we arrived at location this morning two deer have poked their heads out from behind a car and just casually started walking down the road.

I literally jumped up to grab the big lens but after a few seconds of trying to find it, I decided to settle for the 24-105. I never thought in a million years that these things would be roaming around the streets and not scared of humans or cars, over here they just don’t care. When you start the morning with seeing deer walk around the town you know its going to be a good day and to be honest it was, filming went smoothly and we managed to get back on schedule. its weird now becuase after this location its back to London and im starting to think of all the things ill do when I first get back to my flat and honestly I cant wait.

Amy if your reading this please make sure their is yorkshire gold tea bags and some fresh milk, I havent had a proper cup of tea in a month.

Next to location on the way back from grabbing some supplies this morning, I noticed this really cool foot bridge which looked like it went on for miles, so I decided to stop off quick and take some photos, when I got there it was like something out of a movie, these guys live on the river, but have done it in kind of pirate style, they have turned their boats into raft kind of thinks with other boats and have like this little community out on the lake. just floating around, unfortunatly I only had a 20mm prime with me so could get any close up shots but I still think I made it work. My plan is to wake up extra early tomorrow and go and get some early morning photos. lets see if that works out or if I snooze my alarm again.

heres my snaps, I uploaded 4 because I felt like it was a good idea.

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– this deer is Jay walking –
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– its so weird seeing them just walk round the streets –
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– canadian pirates –
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– this is that long foot bridge that goes on for miles (i think) –

B175 – ONE CRAZY DAY

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Today has been on of those filming days where you are literally jus running around none stop of 14 hours trying to make everything work. sorry to sound like a work-a-holic but sometimes I have nothing else to say. Im now laying in bed, looking at the photos from the day thinking about what has happened today, its all a bit of a blur, but I have to say Victoria is an amazing place and surrounded by water, which helps to make for a better climate that Southern America which has been crazy hot.

My plan today was to show you some of the best parts about this island in Canada called Victoria but all I have done is work. so lets just share some fact with you, in 1871 british columbia became the sixth province and proclaimed capital of canada. basically putting it in charge. in 1778 Jame cook, that guy who discovered America became the first european to set foot on Canada and proclaimed it to be a discovery.

What I like about this part of the world is that everyone is friendly, Amanda and myself were at the bar tonight when suddenly two local drinks called a shaft were given to us by this nice local who just wanted to chat. A shaft is basically this mix of a few sprites which make something that taste like baileys. thats what I like about this place, everyone is ready to make freinds and be drinking friends.

sorry for all this mistakes in todays post, im just a bit tired and ready to go to sleep but wasnt prepared to miss todays post and fail at my job of posting each day for the whole year. Ive had a great time travelling america and canada and soon to be heading back to the uk for a few weeks before going out on my next adventure. thank you for following my post and hope you enjoy these snaps.

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– this car today was amazing, makes me want get this car –
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– even the industrial parts of vancover look amazing –
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– i want to buy a skateboard and join this guys

B174 – AIR CANADA LOST OUR CAMERA GEAR

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I’m sat on the plane from Chicago to Vancouver, the TV’s don’t work and that’s something I hadn’t planed for, so now I’m trying to think of cool ideas instead of just looking at the head in front of me and listening to the only album I have on my phone.
One idea I came up with for today post, is to create an instagram story @joshfspear of some cool photos of my journey from Chicago airport to my hotel in Victoria, British Columbia. As today is literally just a travel day and nothing else, its hard to find cool stories and develop a meaning or idea behind the post, so I thought I would take you on the travel day with me and show you some of the cool things Ive seen along the way.

– Vancover to Victoria –

Air Canada have also lost some of our camera gear so its now looking like im going to be staying awake until it arrives sometime tonight. Apart from that, today has been a pretty good day and ended with us taking a small plane across the sailors sea from Vancouver to Sidney at golden hour which was unbelievable. I was speaking to a guy on the plane and he was talking about the food and wild life in this part of town so now im pretty excited to see what this place has to offer. that plane journey was one of those where I will look back in 10 years time and think how cool it was, from see where salt water meets fresh water to the barges pulling logs along the rivers to paper factories. it was all just like another world.

– the best flight I’ve been on in a long time –

We are only here for a few days but I will make those few days worth it. But we are now off to a flying start with a beer and pancakes from Dennys.

– I like this part of Canada already –

If you’ve got some time go and check out @joshfspear on instagram and have a look at my story of the trip, its got some pretty cool photos. I think I’m going to do more stuff like this and now I’ve done one the ideas are coming to me.

Im not sure if any of this makes any sense, Ive been awake for way to long and all over the place, but I hope you get the gist. I’ve been writing this as the days gone on.

B173 – YOU DON’T NEED A HELMET

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I’m writing this a day before I actually need too, the next 48 hours are going to be a bit stressfull, so I thought I would do this post way before I need to just to make sure that its decent and not completely rubbish.

Today I wanted to post more pictures of the junk yard I went too a few days ago, just because it was something that I think is worth posting. The whole idea of taking photos at a place where you would think to take photos is what I like about this and its made me want to go to more junk yards and take photos.

The first photo I want to talk about is the guy riding the motorbike, in Illinois is legal to ride a motorbike without a helmet. Now for someone from London its completely weird to see people riding motorbikes around without a helmet on, it just doesn’t look normal. But it definitely adds to the cool factor, it makes motorbike riders look more like Nomads than part of a society. Like this guy, he’s just cruising around looking like he’s going nowhere but everywhere at the same time. the guys probably just on his way to get some milk for his family at home, but that’s not the impression he gives. I’m not sure if I agree with the helmet laws over here, but who I am to judge.

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For all these photos I used a Canon 20mm prime, shot in Black and White but also used RAW + JPEG format, but so I had the safety of using an Uncompressed image but was using Black and White as a reference. When you shoot in RGB but plan on changing the photo to B&W later on you shoot completely different and don’t think about the lighting as much as to when your only seeing B&W as an in camera reference.

My tip is to always shoot in the colour scale you plan to edit in and release you image as. I think it makes a huge different to the out come of your photo. Someone might say differently but by shooting RAW + JPG, you aren’t risking anything.

Here’s my other two photos. As your reading this, im currently on my way to an airport.

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– I like the rough paint on the side of this truck –
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– not for sale –

B171 – COOL UNKNOWN AMERICA – I THINK IVE LEARNT SOMETHING – PT.5

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Today is the last day of me doing my first mini photo project, Cool Unknown American. Im not really sure how much is unknown or how much everyone knows, but my plan was just to show the inner workings on America on a whistle stop tour of America these past few days. Im about to have a really busy few days, so I think its probably best is I go for a five part project.

I’m currently sat in someone’s garage as the temperature hits 95 degrees, its pretty hot and there’s no air con but that will no break me.

With these posts its always tough to figure out what to write about and with photos, Ive always wanted to let my photos do the talking and just let people read each image and take away from it what they please. That’s not really the case, if you can take a good photo that seems to be about 60% of it, the other 40% is your writing. How well you can capture and write about that photo. That’s what I’ve learnt about this project, my photos are only doing a percentage of the work, I need to explain the reason behind the photos and what I think. Maybe its time for a new shake up of this blog, change the layout and my angle. I’m coming up to the 6 month mark in 11 days and the past 171 days have taught me a lot.

Two of the photos you see below are from previous days, one is of this incredible sunset we saw over the Illinois river on the drive from St.louis to Chicago. It was like a 6 hour drive, on the same straight road of like 200 miles, we got bored half way through and turned off on to the old route 66, this photo was taken just after we joined back on the highway across over the river and then were met by this crazy sunset. I love taking photos of sunsets, they never get boring. my favourite part about this photo is the reflection off the river in the back ground, it makes it feel like mid west america to me.

The other photo is from the VW car meet, this guy was standing up on the flat bed trying to sell things I think. I dont know why, I just thought it was a good photo opportunity so i took it. that car meet was one of those moments that will stand out for me on this trip. I just happened to look out of my hotel window and saw all this craziness happening across the road, so grabbed my camera and just started taking photos. nothing was planned, it just all seemed to fall into place.

anyway I’ve just eaten way to much Chicago deep pan pizza to keep me full or the next week, so heres my three photos.  enjoy.

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– this is my view of the amazing weather outside –
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– sunset on highway 55, Illinois river –
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– this guy knew how to sell –