B324 – I WILL BE BACK BUT THIS TIME WITH MY CAMERA – **NEW FORMAT**

Right now is a pretty busy time for me, yesterday ended up being about a 14 hour working day, with a fair few other things that made it a bit more of a tough day. but that is all in the past now, its now Thursday and Ive woken up a bit earlier to get this post done. The only issue with that is, I dont think Ive woken up early enough, I think maybe I got my timings for this morning a little bit wrong. So the plan is now to type as quick as I can and make some time back up.

Yesterday started off a really cool location, we were over in Essex on a shoot in a Dock yard, obviously doing something that I can really talk about, the whole day has given me so many ideas for future shoots that I would love todo. I feel like places in the UK like Dock Yards are held in a really cool ere in the UK, they all have that cool working mans vibe, where sons follow dads and dad follow Grandads down to the docks and to keep the UK stocked up with supplies. I would love to come back to this place and just take portraits of the people working here, I bet all of them have a story from the docks.

If your looks at my photos my photos today and thinking that Ive filmed in the a weird frame, then thats because I have. from now on I think my plan on really busy days is going to post photos that I put on my instagram story. for two reasons really, firstly on those busy days if you can be bothered to read through my paragraphs of grammar mistakes then just head over to @joshfspear and look at those photos stress free and also I think that its easy to take good portrait mode photos on the insta story and they are really easily transferable to WordPress and sometimes with this blog taking the easy root is the difference between an extra 45 minutes in bed.

Here are my photos from yesterday, much love! and please let me know what you think of these photos, its a new idea for me to use not everyday but maybe every now and again.

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– I wish I could of gone on a ship, they are pretty impressive  –
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– even the stair cases have the work mens vibe. I will be back to the docks with my camera in hand to photograph it more –
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– dont those tall machines look like something out of starwars –
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– this is me, looking all professional –

B323 – MY HOTEL ROOM – 7/10

So tonight im staying in a Premier Inn somewhere in Essex for a shoot tomorrow. I also know what most people are saying about the fact that im spending my night in a premier inn and to be honest they couldnt be further from the truth. For me a Premier inn is perfect, they have all the requirements I need for a short 10 hour stay. I have a nice sized room, clean bed, safe room and best of all a shower that gives me no only hot water but cold aswell.

For most of you that read pages like like these you are probably used to reading about 5 start hotels and villas in Mexico, all I can offer you is the concept that Premier Inns do the job required and dont leave you with that felling where you want to sleep in your clothes. these places are actually safe havens for people like me, where the idea of short work trips normally involve cheap hotels and uneatable breakfast options. We see a premier Inn on the call sheet and instantly feel relieved  that its not a holiday inn or worst an independent holiday chain, that has a name like “Sunshine Inn” or something just as misleading.

for me the proof is in the shower, if its a good hotel then both the hot and cold water will run an even speeds, giving you a solid mid water temp and nothing too freighting and this Premier Inn is no exception. that have managed to get that situation just right. meaning that tomorrow at 5am, i will be about to have a full and near perfect shower. I don’t need luxury just the chance to sleep a stressfree few hours and include a 3o minute shower in the morning.

Here are my pictures of the Premier Inn room im currently staying in, for me its a solid 7 out of 10.

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– clean bedsheets make all the difference –
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– a good size room is also the difference between a good nights sleep and a bad one –
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– the shower head isnt too impressive but lets the water temp is consistant –

 

B321 – HYDE PARK IN THE MORNING, NOTHING BEATS IT.

So today Im at the Baftas working not partying I should mention, my plan was probably to show you some photos from before my day, during it and after. but then something happened that I really didnt expect, it was my walk to work. I did what I always do when im at the Royal Albert Hall, I get off at Lancaster Gate and walk through Hyde Park to the stage door. Nothing crazy.

Well this morning as I got off at Lancaster Gate and noticed that the sun was just coming up, it was roughly 7:35 or something (My call time was 7:30 so I was running a but late) As I entered into Hyde park it was unbelievable, the sun was hitting the sides of everything and the water was still, it was literally magical. I felt like I had just walked onto a set of a feature film which was going to win a BAFTA for its lighting, I instantly when for my 5d and then realised I had left my beautiful camera at home, my only choice was to pull out the iphone, and my god Im happy i did. For some reason it just feels right that I took these photos on my Iphone, it gives the photos a feel of just an average londoner walking through the park if that makes any sense. No special lens used, no expensive camera, just amazing light and a bog standard 29mm f2.9 iphone lens. Im definetly a fan of mobile phone cameras and the photography they are capable of.

If I was to give people one top tip about using a phone to get good shots, it would be not to worry about how good the Iphone X is and how amazing the camera is, Im pretty happy with my Iphone 6s right now and definitely don’t think that for an extra £50 a month the Iphone x will improve my photos that much.  If you was to buy an Iphone X on an £80 a month contract, then over the course of 24 months you would spend an extra £1200 on the phone, that means that for the same price you could get a Sony RX100 or Fuji X100f and still have cash left over, now trust me they are some powerful pocket rockets. I personally think Iphone X is over rated, its good but its not life changing. With camera sensors I just think that each sensor model creates its own feel and vibe, at the moment I love the iphone 6s picture quality, thats not to say in a few months or years ill be in love with the iphone X, because I probably will be.

its now coming to the end of my dinner break at work, so Ill stop the rant and if you were hoping to see a photo of my at the BAFTA’s heres one from a few years ago.

Heres my photos from today.

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– I hope Will and Kate are happy with his view –
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– I know I say it most days but the light this time of year is definetly something to rant about –
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– living in East london, you forget how good Hyde Park is –
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– I bloody love london and my Iphone –
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– me in a rare occasion of wearing a suit, I think this photo was taken in 2015 or something. Look at that hand gesture –

 

 

B320 – SAVE YOURSELF!

Saturday and just like most Saturdays I seem to have at the moment, this one was no different. It involved awaking up pretty early, getting dressed and heading out. The first mission was to get a hair cut but after the que was over two hours, it was quickly apparent that I was going to have to suck it up and walk straight back out the door and head over to Amys Nans house to help with some gardening stuff, not really sure what you call it, but my job was basically to move some rubbish from the garden and fill a skip up.

After we had moved everything into the skip, it was time for me to get a quick lesson in putting up a fence, something that Im pretty sure if push came to shove, I might be able to do my self now. I also got to use a sledge hammer, I refuse to believe anyone that says they instantly don’t feel more manly as soon as they pick up a Sledge hammer and I could of sworn that after I used the sledge hammer I had way more hair on my chest than when I started. but thats taking things to a completely different post entirely.

After my day of learning new DIY tips, it was onto the part I was dreading, the place thats sucks your sole and leaves you broken and craving a cheap fake hot dog, the places I’m talking about is Ikea and for some reason its Amy loves it. I genuinely believe that she would happily walk around there from dawn till dusk. luckily we were only making a quick pit stop there to pick up a wardrobe and some other little things, so we didn’t have to hang around and look at 20 different types of kitchen cupboards. I would just warn everyone out there, that if the idea comes up in conversation to head to ikea on a Saturday night, please try to re-schedule, you will be saving yourself a whole lot of stress.

Anyway, here are my photos from yesterday, sorry they aren’t the best. it was all a bit rushed yesterday.

Oh and sorry if youve sent me a message recently, I will get back to you. I just haven’t had time to sit down and do it. Ill try and get sometime today and respond!

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– At the back of the garden, learning more DIY tips and stuff –
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– Amy rocking the Ikea look –
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– this is just a picture of the train ride, I still love the low light shadows you get this time of year –

B319 – APPLE STOP BEING ANNOYING

The plan for todays post is to kind of do a recap of the week through photos that Ive taken on my iphone, post like these are actually pretty good todo because I seem to take loads of photos each day on my phone that I just completely forget about until I look back through the phone.

My normal workflow for posts is to dump all the photos on to my hard drive and then edit them in Lightroom before I even think about what Im going to write. From there I open up WordPress and start to think of a way of starting the post. Well today Ive ended up doing things a bit different, all because my phone needs to be updated, so now Im writing this without even decided what photos Ill use. Normally I would wait for my phone to update and then just go through the rhythm  of posting but as today Im spending my day off getting up early and running about to get a bunch of done, like get my hair cut and also put a fence up. Thats something I also only found out about last night and something Ive never done before, so that should be interesting.

This week has really been about early starts, I think Ive been up out and out the house before 6am more times this week than any other week of my life. people will probably call me lazy but I like to think of that as a lucky statistic and something that will probably change from now on, I got a feeling that I have a lot more early starts coming my way.

Something that is also really annoying me that the moment is Apples Airdrop, its like a spoilt child and only wants to work when it choices. Like todo for instant, Im not about to send photos via airdrop to my laptop, and now its making me late. Why does Apple make products that only they can fix, they should just make Airdrop so you can search of your  physical device. Not just wait for airdrop to find your device, Come on Tim Cook, what are you doing with you time at apple! stop making iphones every 6 months and start making your software better. give up on Apple Pages, no one like it, give up with Home pod, its just an overpriced speaker that you can only use with apples products. Apple you have really boiled my blood this morning and now made me late! Stop holding us all by the balls and creating amazing products, then just add some features which dont make it as good as it could be and then slowing us all done. Telsa just sent a car to in to space and you cant even create a piece of software that will allow my iphone to talk to my mac properly.

Sorry for the rant but Apple are in my bad books today. Here are some of my photos from the early mornings this week.

 

 

 

 

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– Walking across London bridge in the rain was actually quite fun –
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– this places makes me realise how old London actually is
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– coming out of Charring cross before everyone else is even up 

 

B318 – TAKING PHOTOS WITHOUT WALKING ANYWHERE?

After the shoot today my plan involved rushing back to east london to try and catch a demo of the New fujifilm camera, it looks pretty sick and I think I may be in love but on my arrival to Wex Photo in Whitechapel I was met with the news that I was 30 minutes late and as a result missed the demo and the camera. Coming away from the shop feeling like a had completely failed on my post shoot mission I decided that instead of heading straight home, that I should now try and finish on a high and take some cool photos.\

The only problem with that was for the fact that since 5am I had been on my feet and running around carrying peli cases and tripods, so I needed a plan which involved taking cool photos and not really moving a whole lot. Thats when my idea came to me, theres so many cool artists around brick lane, that spend hours and hundreds of pounds painting the walls and adding some colour to this city, its almost becoming an accepted part of modern day society. if you have a nice clean wall, then someone going to put some art on it free of charge. there comes my mini plan for today. Why don’t I find a really cool wall and just photograph people walking past it and see if they even acknowledge it?

Apart from the guy that swore at me and polity told me todo one, it was pretty successful I think. after coming home and looking at the photos, I really like the choice of wall but I’m not sure what I think about the people being out of focus. I would love to say that was a choice but it really wasn’t, I wanted them to be in focus. so maybe I need to re-think my strategy a bit. I think the idea is there, I just need to now concentrate on the delivery now, I will be back and Im now thinking of this idea a lot more. Im not going to say anymore because I dont want someone to steel my idea, but if you do give it a try please send me some of your photos so i can see if you do it better than me.

Heres my favourite photos from today.

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– this is what the wall looked like when no one was standing in front of it –
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– probably my favourite photo from today, hes in my picture and maybe I made it into his –
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– she likes the art –
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– they look like they’ve seen something happening up ahead –

 

 

B316 – ITS A NATIONAL PRIDE

With the internet being somewhere I am posting about everyday of my life for a whole year its hard not to reveal things, but there is definitely one topic that is forbidden and will not be spoken about in public or private, in fact its probably my biggest secrete, its something which I feel needs to be left between maybe my closest friends and family.  Ive been doubted and belittled by many and mis understood by a few but one thing is for sure, they may take the piss but they will never take my pancake recipe!!

And then once a year we have a whole day dedicated to this amazing dish and then because tradition dictates, we then get to throw them round our kitchens till we’ve run out of lemon juice and sugar. Im not sure on a lot of things but one thing I know for a fact is that no matter what you go through as soon as you throw that little sizzling mixture of carbs and dairy in the air, nothing else matters, you know you just need to nail the landing, no half flips, no folds, just land the pancake the other way up and you have successfully achieved what probably half the country will fail todo.

its a human right to have a great pancake day and enjoy the fruits of our labour, everyone should have the right to a “flippin” good night and I hope that everyone got in the sprite and showed that shrove Tuesday is something which makes Britain Great. We are a country of culture and diversity and a love for Pancakes. that should be celebrated and enjoyed indulged. So please think of thy neighbour on this holiest of days and celebrate the wonderful thing of flipping pancakes in a kitchen, just don’t try and copy my recipe.

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– Amy doing a flippin good job –
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– I will never reveal my recipe –
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– the early morning call time yesterday, up and out the door by 6am –

B315 – SOMETHING THAT WILL STICK WITH ME FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE –

I’m not really too sure how to start this, its something that I doubt will ever happen to me again, for those of you that have been reading these posts of the past few months would know that back in November, a homeless man stopped me in the street and asked me for £10 so he could get a hostel for 5 days, he then told me that for two weeks a hostel is £20. I decided to walk him to the closest cash point and withdraw £20, I didn’t know his name, background or if he would just spend the money on crack. all I had was his word that he just wanted to get a roof over his head and a chance to get back on his feet, if I was him then I would want someone like me to give me a chance.

well after a long 12 hour day a work and feel pretty stressed on the way home, I literally hadnt thought about what I was going to write about or do, this shabby looking man on Bethnal green road stops me and says “excuse me” I assumed it was someone begging for money, he quickly stopped me and told me that he remembers me and just wanted to say thanks and that he now has a door key!!!!! they homeless man I gave £20 four months ago now lives in a house and is getting his life back on track, and just saw me and wanted to thank me. A stranger gave someone in need £20 and that has gone on to help him turn his life around and get off the streets. to me that is incredible, I literally cant think of the words to describe it.

Seeing wayne tonight has really made me think about how we can effect peoples lives and that someone like me who let off fart bombs at school and spent most of my life doing stupid stuff has actually just had a direct effect on someones life and given a complete stranger hope and a second chance!!!

I asked wayne if I could take a photo of him but he was to worried and thought that his family might see it, I completely understand if I was wayne then that would have been my answer. I just hope that wayne carries on getting his life back on track and is someday proud to be photographed!

Wayne if for some reason you read this, I wish I got your phone number or email address! if you do please drop me a message and lets talk! my photos from today don’t really matter, its more about the bigger picture I suppose. thank you wayne for stopping me tonight, its going to stick me with for a long time!

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– looking out the flat this morning was pretty cool –
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– the only reason waking up early is fun, you get to see sky’s like this –
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– heading back to the city after shooting all day –

B314 – WHAT A SUNDAY

What a Sunday it has been, ive not only been part of a cool team which has managed to shoot two music videos in one day but ive also managed to sell a really annoying walking machine which has been taking up half the bedroom and now im sat on the sofa with a beer watching Jurassic world. It feels like a pretty productive weekend but also spent a lot of time with friends.

After the shoot today I went and met the cousin Charlotte for a drink, the first time I have properly seen her in a while, even though we live pretty close to each other. it really makes you realise that you need to make time for people a lot more. anyway Im now sat enjoying my evening before I need to wake up at 5am for a week of constant filming, maybe I should just order a crete of Red Bull now as thats probably my only way of making it through this week as the same man.

I cant wait to share with you all the shoot that Ive just done today and hopefully its out in the next few weeks, I think it will be something that everyone will love and I think is going to be a massive song from a pretty legendary artist. Im swarn to secrecy but once I get the all clear from the director I will share the whole thing with you. I suppose though thats the hard thing with this industry, everyone who works in it gets todo so many fun project but then they cant share them with anyone till they are out in the public but thats just the name of the game.

Anyway I hope you like my photos from today and I also hope everyone will join me in the celebration that December and January our out the way and work has finally returned to works normal ridiculously unsociable schedule!

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– Walking to work this morning, bethnal green just seems to have it all –
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– one of the best receptions Ive been into –
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– a beer after work is all i need –

B313 – DAVE SAVED THE DAY, THEN WE WENT FOR PLAN B.

Today was the day that is finally happened, we managed to clear some space in the flat and get all of my aunties stuff back to her in Cambridge, it would of been possible without the help of my good mate Dave and his van, who after a quick call Saturday morning was on his way to my house to help me get it sorted. I would like to say it went smoothly but after getting a skateboard wheel stuck in the lift (we were using the skateboard to ferry stuff out of the flat), it was time to re-evaluate the plan and decided that it was probably best if we just carry the boxes instead. As always with these things as soon as we started to move the rain moved in just to give us that extra thing to deal with, but we were deterred and powered through the hangovers to get the task done. But it was all worth it because now the only thing we need todo is go wardrobe shopping and then its plain sailing in Flat 315.

Its now Sunday and Im up even earlier than I was on Saturday because todo I’ve got shoot over in Hackney that Im actually really excited for “anit no rest for the wicked”. its always a weird feeling working on a Sunday because it always feels like I should just be sat in a pub enjoying a Sunday roast, but at the same time theres something really chilled about working on Sundays.

The other thing that Im actually really happy about at the moment is the Sky, the light at the moment seems to be perfect, the other night there was this really cool blue shade in the sky and now i’m up early and its clear the sky is like the orange colour. Im not sure if i’m just used to seeing gray but this time of year feels to me like the best time of year for amazing colours and shadows.

This is quite quick post as I’m now running a bit late and still sat on in my boxers on the sofa. heres my photos, enjoy.

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– this was us trying to re-think the strategy –
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– Cheers dave and your van, your a good egg you are –
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– this is the kind of sky im talking about –