Yesterday I came up with a little idea to incorporate fairy lights into some photos, im still not really too sure what how I plan on using them exactly or what sort of topic im going to go for but the plan was just to experiment with them a bit and see what I could come up with. so when Amy was back from work it was time for us to give it a go and see if we could kind of replicate what I had pictured in my head. We kind of did what I imagined but I definitely think we need to use a lot of more lights maybe some longer and smaller lights and then shoot from a bit further way maybe.
I really liked the colour that we ended up capturing in these shots and definitely like the way it looks, I’ve woken up this morning with a few ideas on how I can improve these photos so maybe its just a case of me going out and getting what it is that I need and just start shooting.
My biggest problem in life is that I think up so many ideas that I try and do a small bit of each idea and not concentrate 100 percent on an idea till its done, I try and do like 5 other ideas all at once. which just means I end up in complete chaos. I might spend this morning writing down like my top three ideas for the next month and then spend time soley working on those and figure out a kind of time table of when I can work on certain projects, then its just about me sticking to that timing and making sure I get what I need to done by a certain time. Then I basically have no excuses.
Heres some of the test shots from yesterday, Bon appetit!
and obviously thank you amy for letting me take photos again!!
– I hope you can see what we were trying todo –– does it just look like amys got a bit tangled up in the christmas lights? –– we used this alley way near the flat and I kind of like the colours that it give off –
Yesterday was Sunday and on Sunday I met up was out and about taking photos for someone who had put a post out looking for a photographer to collaborate with. It was literally the first time Ive ever said yes to something like this and to be honest it was actually pretty fun, the “instagramer” I met up with was this girl whos just moved to london from Brodeaux in France. and as Im really trying to shoot more people and portrait style photos it was perfect.
Trying to choose a location in London has to be one of the funniest parts about a shoot, I
love brainstorming locations and trying to find the location that best suites an idea of style, my choice of location yesterday was going to be the Barbican Centre, Aline wanted to shoot somewhere with tall building and an urban feel and in really the Barbican is perfect for that. It also has quite a lot of water and I like to shoot near water. At the moment my think with portrait photos is that they look a million times better if you incorporate an element into them like water or fire. I would love to include fire into a photo, so please anyone ready this that might be able to breath fire, please let me know!!!
I think from now on I’m going to try and concentrate this blog to photographing people as much as possible. from shop owners to dancers, I really want to cover the whole spectrum of people. theres like 6 million people in London, so if I cant find people to photograph, I must be doing something wrong.
Also sorry this post is last, I got a bit carried away editing the photos from yesterday. it took a bit longer than I expected. Im now not too sure what my plan is going to be today, I definetly think I should pick up my camera and head out for a few hours, maybe Ill have a shower and think up some cool ideas.
Heres some photos from yesterday, I hope you like them.
– @alineadjemian go give her a follow –– the barbican is probably one of my favourite places in London –– Im learning so much about instagram photos at the moment, its not as simple as you might think –
Yesterday was the big man’s aka my dads 60th birthday party / gathering thing at their house. which was a really good day, the whole side of his family were showed up including his mum, brother and sister, so it was kind of a Spear party. but as I’m doing dry January I was sticking to the cups of tea and occasional orange juice, but even still it was good to see the family that I haven’t really seen in a few years.
I idea behind yesterday was that because he’s reached the grand old age of 60 that for his birthday he should get 60 presents to open, yep thats 60 presents. so the everyone chipped in and had to bring either 15 or 13 presents each, im not sure what the exact number of presents need to each person but I just knew I need to get 13. what was really good is that everyone got loads of different stuff from bonsi tree seeds to my brilliant gift of 13 bottles of his favourite water. It goes without saying that the best part of the day hands down has to go to the cake, and that was all thanks to my sister who pulled it out of the bag and amazingly got someone else to make it. but nether the less, the cake was like 6 layers of pure chocolate heaven, I kind of wish that I brought some back with me last night, it would of been perfect for breakfast this morning.
This morning Amy and me are back at the flat and up kind of early, im off to take some photos for someone, and Amy’s got a pretty busy day too. but as long as we manage to fit a roast dinner in there at some point ill be happy.
Heres my photos from today, I hope you like them!
– now thats what you call a cake –– the big guy aka Ganrad –– Nanny B and the kids –– 60 presents, look how good those bottle of waters look –-Nanny B and Richard and lynne + Mathew –– Nanny B again, Mathew and the little monster that we all call Florence –
I kind of fell like my idea of posting these each day at 10am has completely gone out the window so far for 2018. but todays post is late again, not because I was laying in bed asleep, but mainly because I’ve been sat here editing photos from last night and time just ended up getting away from me.
Last night I was at a gig over in Camden at a kind of famous venue, The Lock Tavern. If youve ever been to the round house, then the chances are you would of walked past this venue. its a small pub on the left hand side of the round if your walking up from camden high street. Its a venue that is so easy to walk past, its literally on the corner of the road and just looks like any normal pub, but if you were to walk upstairs is a completely different vibe and always seems to have really interesting bands playing.
Through the powers of instagram and email, for the past few months Ive been speaking with a band called Tayne, the are a kind of an experimental, noise, pop genre that kind of make up there own rules which makes them so much better. One minute there setting up and getting ready to play, next the lead singer Matt Sutton has taken his shoes and top off, and they are absolutely slashing the guitar and syncs. Its refreshing to hear a band just get up there and do exactly what they want, no holding back. Its a shame that all I can do to show you what last night was like is post up here some photos, they play pretty heavy music but it all seems to work out, nothing is about them just being loud or over powering. they create songs that work.
Im happy that I’m back on track with this project that I’m working on and looking forward to all the future gigs that I’m planning on going too.
Here are some of my favourite photos from yesterday.
– One of my favourite photos from last night –– really good gig, Wednesday night should always go like this –– cut his finger open, plays on… –– really worth the trip, next gig is on feb 1st. be there or be square –
My plan today was based around just getting up and out, there was no chance I was spending another day sat on the sofa, so I decided to go somewhere I haven’t really been to before, Greenwich. its kind of like an old maritime dock place, and actually has some really good history. its feels like your stepping back into some kind of Pirates of the Caribbean movie set. The main reason for going over to Greenwich was to do something I haven’t done for a long time and thats Landscape photography, I used to take landscape photos all the time but as I live in somewhere that is so good for street photography that kind of became the type of photography I started to do, and don’t get me wrong I love street style photos but at the same time I love exploring new places and getting a bit muddy in the process. I know Greenwich isn’t exactly muddy but there are woods to explore and it does have that countryside feel.
its now starter day and both Amy and me are up early trying to get the day started, ive already got rid of our spare bed, now its time to clean the flat and then head out in search of some new storage stuff. Ive got £10 in my pocket and my goal for this week is to somehow turn that £10 into £20, I’m not sure how exactly I’m going todo that but I might head out to a flea market or something and see how I get on. So if you see anything really weird and over priced on ebay its probably me trying to sell something I have no idea about.
Heres my photos from today, I really wanted to focus more on Landscape and try to add some sort of humor into the photos when I can.
Enjoy.
– “which ones big ben?” “hold on let me find my map”– the view from the observatory is pretty good –– the london sky line has to be one of my favourites –
Before I get back into the main part of this post I’m going to give a bit of an overview on how today has gone. At 10am this morning Amy and myself woke up in our Amazing hotel room and instantly realised that we were both destroyed, I was ill and for some reason Amy’s legs wouldn’t work. Turns are both sick, me a bit more ill than her, but ill non the less. I think its just a case of us crashing, Christmas is normally a time of resting up but if anything its been the complete opposite, im not moaning about it, I’ve had the best two weeks.
The plan was originally to checkout of our hotel and going and have a look around Bristol and take in all the signs, well our plan quickly became to get on the first train we could and get back to the flat.  Once we made it onto the train the next mission was to start editing the Go Pro video I made the other day, there’s no better way to make a train ride go quicker than to start editing a video, but well rendering took a bit longer than expect. The whole train ride really so I did manage to get a little sleep.
That leads me to the next part of my blog, what we did for dinner. We needed spice and a lot of it, when you’re ill nothing is better than spice, it cleans your nose and almost gives your body a kick start which is just what we need. Amy came up with the good idea of having a curry, making it from scratch and also learning a new recipe. If any of you are in need of a new dish and what to add a bit of spice in your life, then please feel free to give this recipe a go.
Ingredients
4 tablespoons oil
4 cloves garlic (crushed)
1 onion (Large, chopped)
3 red chili peppers (‘s, chopped)
4 teaspoons Madras Spice paste
1 tablespoon turmeric
2 tablespoons mango chutney
1 can coconut cream
1 tablespoon sweet chili sauce
1 tomato passata (large carton around 600ml)
1 bunch coriander (chopped)
4 tablespoons greek yogurt
2 chicken breasts (chopped)
Instructions
Step 1: In a large pan, heat the oil then fry the garlic, onions and chilli for about 5 minutes stirring regularly.
Step 2: Add the curry paste and turmeric and stir in.
Step 3: Add the mango chutney, coconut cream, sweet chilli sauce, passata, coriander, fenugreek and Greek yogurt and leave in a low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Step 4: While your curry simmers on a low heat, cook the chicken and once its white the whole way through dump it all into the pan with the rest of the curry
Step 5: let that all simmer till your 30-minute timer goes off, I decided to add an extra chill 10 minutes before the end of the timer just to add a little extra spice.
I managed to get two good sized meals out of it and some left overs. Thank you too the App Yummly and also http://www.jamandclottedcream.co.uk/ for the recipe, I’ve tweaked it a bit but I cant take full responsibly for this dish.
One last thing, my goal for this blog is to reach 500 subscribers, so if you are reading this and haven’t yet subscribed. Please can you subscribe and ill be sure to follow your post.
Heres my photos from today, I hope you like them! and im sorry if I keep moaning about being ill!
– trying to get the timeline rendered by the time the train pulled into paddington didnt happen, I literally had my laptop open on the tube –– arriving back in Bethnal Green –– the Curry apperently smelt amazing ( my nose is blocked so I didnt know)
New Years eve eve and the plan for yesterday was to travel to Bristol City Centre and see what was going on, we did try and do some of the sightseeing like going to a Cathedral and walking along the river. I never realised that the queens old yacht the Balmoral was moored down here, I didn’t even realise it was called the Balmoral till I saw it and recognised it from photos and stuff.
With everyone running around like crazy yesterday I didn’t want to have a big camera out it pretty big to just be carrying around all the time so my plan was just to have a Gopro in my pocket and see how it turned out, and to be honest it was probably the best idea, I literally just put the gopro on wide and snapped away. I was determined not to just use my iphone as much as I like it.
After we made the trip to the catherderal we all needed to hydryrate our selfs and the only close place to grab some liquid was to head into a local establishment called A Hole In The Wall which just to happens to be a pub. From there it pretty much set the tone for the evening and we ended up going to a few more pubs and actually ended up in a Jazz pub called the Old Juke which is a famous Bristol Jazz club and last night had 1930’s jazz bands playing, which was actually really cool we all got our swing dancing on and jived to the music. At that point I really wish I had my 5d with me so I could take some great photos of the band and the people in the bar, everyone was dressed really cool. it was like stepping back into the 1930’s.  By this time we were all full hydrated and didn’t need to be drinking big drinks anymore but knew that it was still important to stay hydrated so the only option available to us was to move onto small drinks like tequilas. Past that point its all a bit of a mystery, but from what I’ve heard this morning we all had a great night.
Its now New years eve and im looking forward to seeing what the days got in store for us. I’ve decided to post 4 photos today, I hope you like them.
– this is by far the coolest photo from the day –– the only photo i got from the 1920s bar, i have got some gopro footage that im going to try and turn into a short film later on –– dave and me kissing by the queens old yacht –– a group photo from one of the bars, not everyones here –
Well thats christmas done with and now its just time to sit down and enjoy some christmas movies while waiting for New Years to come around. One of the best things about christmas is the fact that there is no limit to the amount of food you can eat.
Today was spent at my sisters over in Petts wood and to be honest it was pretty perfect, Flo has got to that age where is actually enjoys christmas and can open presents in previous years it was a bit of a lost cause getting her to open anything, but this year there was no stopping her. There was kind of a running theme for my presents todo I got both an RC car which I cant wait to test out on some jumps and maybe a stair case or two and also a Drone that is definitely something Im going to be flying around London in the next few weeks, so get ready to see a few photos of a drone in a few places that maybe a drone shouldn’t be flown in. its almost like I’m 15 again and santa has brought me new toys to play with.
Tomorrow we’re hitting the road early tomorrow and heading up to Cambridge to see my auntie and cousins which will no doubt be a good laugh. Im only up there for a night so think I’m going to have to make the most of it but that more than enough time to eat the fridge clean and drink all the beer. So Michelle if your reading this, I hope your ready for my arrival.
As its now mid night on christmas and im sat up writing this post I think ill leave it on one last note, thank you my Dad, Mum, Esme, Miles and obviously FLO for a christmas to remember.
I hope everyone had a great christmas and got everything you wanted! Im also now trying to think of a good New Years Resolution so if anyone has any fun resolutions let me know!
Heres my photos, MERRY CHRISTMAS!
_ i tried to spell Xmas with a sparkler but wrote it the wrong way and then run out of sparklers so this is the best I could do –
– flo giving mooney and hug (I think) –– it would be a christmas blog without a photo of the tree –
Last week I went to a gig that I had wanted to go to for a while, it was for a band called Mellow Gang, they’re this band I discovered while in America and was that band I would listen to on the long plane journeys and extra long passport queues, well this band are probably the reason I’m still sane. The gig was at the famous Seabright Arms on Hackney road, you’ve definitely read about me going to this place before, its like 2 minutes from my house and actually plays really good music most weeks. and even better a lot of it is free which makes the whole gig a no brainer.
I find it a bit weird writing about a gig I went to last week as its not that fresh in my head and I cant really remember all my favourite parts, but unfortunately Im really not able to post any photos today as Ive spent the day running around different Disney stores trying to get hold of this Doll for my niece (don’t worry she’s too young to read so no chance of her finds out through this blog what I got her), well anyway that didn’t go to plan as no disney store had the right thing so I just brought as much stuff as my bank account would let me and moved on to the next task, which I cant really talk about on here but I can say that even that didn’t go smooth as I had realised after being in the store for an hour trying to get everything completely perfect to the point where I had to ask for a tape measure, well I went through all that to realise I had left my wallet at home. but luckily after a short phone call to Amy for her card details we were up and away, I just need to go back tomorrow morning and collect it. I have to say this year I have really pulled it out the bag with my christmas presents!
I really hope you like me writing and photographing gigs around London because I actually enjoy it quite a lot. So if you don’t like what I write and photograph let me know why and ill see what I can do to make it better!
Also don’t forget I still have prints for sale, so dig deep and buy one. Ill even send you a christmas card!
– Mellow gang doing there thing –– Seabright arms on Hackney road, have a look at the Dice App for re gigs, trust me it is actually a pretty useful tool –– this was Phundo Art, a rapper from South Africa –
Yesterday my plan for the evening was to watch some junk TV and sit on the sofa, that all changed when I got a last minute invite to a gig at the Shackwell Arms, one of the best things about London is the amount of free gigs that go on literally every night, alot of the time they can be a bit hit and miss but theres one venue which always seems to draw a crowd and thats the Shackwell Arms in Dulston, its always got a decent sized audience and the bands that play are mostly amazing.
Last night was no exception, the band playing were called Tracey Bryant and before 4pm yesterday I had never heard of them and definitely hadn’t listened to any of their music. well that has all changed, they were literally one of the best free gigs ive ever been too, you know when a band opens up their set with the first song of just guitar thrashing riffs for 5 minutes that your about to witness something pretty cool.
The band are from Los Angeles and currently over in Europe on tour, and tonight they play in Belgium which is kind of annoying I was hoping they would be playing in London again so I could go along but I suppose Ill just have to wait till they come back for a festival or something, this cant be there last gig in London I refuse to believe it.
If you want to listen to these guys and trust me I think you should heres a link to their Band Camp profile, its got there latest album.
As from me I just need to say thank you to Anders for the invite it was definitely a gig not to miss and as my photography project goes on, Tracey Bryant will definitely be remember as the gig not to be missed.
Any way in other news my prints are now going to be selling in a few coffee shops around London, but you can also buy them on my website. So please help me out during this expensive time of year and buy one of my prints.
– so many amazing guitar solos it was just talent –– LA has some amazing bands and these guys were definitely up there –– these guys are going to be massive –
joshfspear.com 