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 thinking for todays post was that over the past few days Ive taken some good photos and instead of leaving them in my hard drive to one day my post on instagram, Ill use today as a day to post them. After all it is Wednesday and probably like me have that mid week feeling.
Today hasn’t started exactly how I wanted it too, the plan for today was to wake up at like 7am and go for a run, then start my day. Well its now 10:30am and Im still in bed, so not the best start to the day but Im planning on pulling it back with a day full of something productive. Before the end of last year I started a big photography project on music cultures in London and today I get back in the zone and shoot a band later on in Camden called Tayne Band. they are playing at the lock tavern in Camden, so it should be a good little gig.
but right now my plan is to get out of bed and go on the run that I was supposed todo this morning, I said I would ran 2.5 miles three times a week this year and I can fail at the second hurdle. Ive got to at least make it through January. the plan is just to put the running shoes on then I don’t have an excuse not to go, because the shoes are already on my feet.
Ive also got a little video I need to start editing, so maybe today is a good time to sit down and get that done, its one of those projects where again, until i sit down and say ” I’m not leaving this seat till its done” I wont finish it, so maybe today and tomorrow Ill dedicate to getting it done.
Sorry if this seems like I’m just sat here procrastinating, because well I think I am but I will not give in to the powers of Netflix or some other kind of TV series.
Here are some of my other favourite photos from the past few days.
– don’t fall over amy?– if only this shot was in focus –– amy trying to take a serious photo as the security guard was walking over to tell us we were allowed to take photos there –
One of the perks of having a girlfriend that works in fashion is that she’s always up for taking photos, yesterday morning we decided to travel over the Greenwich and have a little adventure finding cool locations and seeing what sort of photos we could take. its fair to say the weather was freezing and definitely not just cardigan or roll neck weather, so me being the amazing boy friend I am decided that every time amy had to take her jacket off, I would do the same. Thats some big boy friend points right there.
Fashion photography is really something I want to explore a bit more, what I think interests me so much about it, is the fact that fashion can be interpreted in so many different ways, so you cant really go wrong. and as I’m someone who practically get everything wrong all the time, that is a concept that really appeals to me. the only problem is Im not that much of a fashionable guy, maybe I need to watch Zoolander a few times and get myself up to speed with the lingo. It is mens fashion week this week so maybe Ill go to a show or something and take some photos of the people going into them, they all seem pretty trendy.
Apart from my aspirations to be the next top photographer, today I went on my first run of 2018, only a 2.5 mile run but my plan is to run 2.5miles three times a week for the next 4 months after that I will step it up to 5 miles and then 4 months after that Ill step it up again. I think the injury I had in the middle of 2017 was probably good for me, its taught me a lot about my body and probably made me a better runner. but for now, its back to me getting my leg used to running again and also time to lose my baby fat.
its currently Monday morning and I’m on a mission to keep myself busy with some ideas I have and want to put in place. I had a job cancel on me at the last minute so now im unemployed this week, so if anyone wants their car cleaned or grass cut theirs just a chance I might take you up on it.
Here are my photos from yesterday, enjoy.
– this is her complaining its cold –– the jacket is off! –– greenwich is the perfect place to take photos –
Sorry this post is a bit late, I had a plan in place to wake up early and go over to greenwich for the sun rise but that soon changed as soon as I heard my alarm, my excuse is that because amy works 5 days week if unfair to drag her out of bed at 6:30am on a sunday. I’m not too sure that excuse has worked. but any way we are now up and ready to go only a few hours later the only problem is that I still need to edit and write about my photos from yesterday. its really weird writing the past and the future but I’m going to do my best and make this as simple as possible.Â
After selling the spare bed yesterday we decided that it was time to grab a chest of drawers to tackle the crazy amount of clothes that are now accumulating in the flat, even though Amy still hasn’t completely moved in yet, it kind of makes sense of her to leave some clothes her. if any one has been shopping for a chest of drawers before you will know how extremely stressful the whole process can be, not only do you have to go round shops but you also have to deal with the over priced wooden boxes which places like Habbit, St Elm, made and loaf seem to charge and non of them really had what we were looking for. then I had the genius idea of looking on Gumtree and boom we were on our way to an antiques store in Crystal Palace and firstly there are hundreds of antique stores in crystal palace and all of them have a amazing stuff. The chest of drawers we had seem on gumtree was really right for what we wanted it for but next door was this 1920’s Oak chest of drawers which was perfect, the guy was selling it for £140 but after some of my negotiation skills kick in we managed to get it for £120, he also chucked in two packets for sour sweets for good measure.Â
Oh and we also made some home made burgers for dinner yesterday, I tried to make a home made posh fast food, not sure that worked out, maybe ill just leave that to the professionals. We took a normal home made burger and added some of our own stuff to it, like some chillies, onions and garlic, we also used Selma to help hold it all together, the trick is to cool it on a slow heat of long time, so it doesn’t fall apart.
We also cooked some Sweet potato fries as well, and the recipe of that is just below this the burger instructions.
The basic ingredients you’ll need are:
1 small onion peeled and diced
500g good-quality beef mince
1 egg
1 tbsp vegetable oil
4 burger buns
All or any of the following to serve: sliced tomato, beetroot, horseradish sauce, mayonnaise, ketchup, handful iceberg lettuce, rocket, watercress
Tip the beef into a bowl with the onion and egg, then mix. (and anything else you want to add to the burgers, trust me add what you want)
Divide the mixture into four. Lightly wet your hands. Carefully roll the mixture into balls, each about the size of a tennis ball.
Set in the palm of your hand and gently squeeze down to flatten into patties about 3cm thick. Make sure all the burgers are the same thickness so that they will cook evenly. Put on a plate, cover with cling film and leave in the fridge to firm up for at least 30 mins.
Heat the barbecue / frying pan to medium hot (there will be white ash over the red hot coals – about 40 mins after lighting). Lightly brush 1 side of each burger with oil.
Place the burgers, oil-side down, on the barbecue. Cook for 5 mins until the meat is lightly charred. Don’t move them around or they may stick. Oil the other side, then turn over using tongs. Don’t press down on the meat, as that will squeeze out the juices.
Cook for 5 mins more for medium. If you like your burgers pink in the middle, cook 1 min less each side. For well done, cook 1 min more.
Sweet potato fries
Ingredients
500 grams sweet potatoes (peeled and cut in to long strips)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 180°C. You may need to adjust the temperature slightly dependant on your oven.
In a large bowl add the sweet potato and pour over the olive oil and give them a good coating.
Sprinkle over the salt and paprika and also give them a good coating. Lay evenly over a non-stick baking tray.
Cook in the oven for 20 – 25 minutes until crispy.
Serve on their own as a snack or a side to your favourite meal.
This is a pretty long blog and sorry the photos arent the best, yesterday was just about getting through the day without punching one of those “I love the January sales” people.
Heres my photos, enjoy.
– it was love at first sign –– it was literally what we were looking for, antique shops are the way forward –– my attempt at posh fast food –
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 –
After the craziness of New Years eve, it was only right that instead of driving straight home and back to reality and Amy and me booked ourselves into a good hotel room and just mong out on the sofa. the perfect place is a hotel called the Berkeley Suites, located next to Bristol British Museum and Art Gallery and in the area of Brandon, the suites are like three rooms, including a living room (projector screen), A bedroom and then the obvious bathroom. it just seems like this place has thought of everything you might need without over doing it with those chairs that no one ever sits on and what has also set this place as one of my favourite is the face that it has a light in the ceiling!
No joke but most of those posh hotels or places like the radisson Blu, don’t have a light in the ceiling, I love a Radisson Blu if I’m working and end up in one of those ill be over the moon, its perfect for working but when you want to have a proper break you want more of an apartment rather than just your normal hotel room with a coffee machine and a kettle. I want what the Berkeley Suites have done, they have given us a little kitchen thing, with a proper coffee machine and even some small hobbs, so if we want to cook then we could.
Ive also have to talk about my favourite part of the suite, the projector Screen. its perfect, its like having an invisible TV that when you want it to be part of the room its there and I would day is about 80 inches wide, and comes with two DLS Sweden speakers on each side, that really ramp up the home cinema feel. my new goal for 2018 is to finish the year with a mini home cinema of my own. It’s not all perfect though, we did have a small issue of you HDMI cable they supply to plug my laptop in to the projector not working, so we couldn’t watch the one film we wanted to watch, Gladiator. After a quick phone call to reception someone was on their way round, but as it was 8pm on New Years Day there wasn’t much any of us could do. Luckily there was Christmas films on TV so we just watched those instead.
if I wasn’t also doing dry January they have these small bottle of Complementary Sherry for everyone to dig in and enjoy and if you book through them they even offer you a free hamper. but if that kind of thing is going to fill you up then you have a bunch of good restaurants right next door including Byron Burger, Wagamamma’s, Wahacca, Choa and Thai Tapas. theres also a Waitrose and Sainsbury’s if you would rather cook in the kitchen thing.
Its fair to say that both of us really don’t want to leave this room, and have already talked about coming back for another stay, the plan for today was to explore Bristol a bit more but we both feel really ill so I think were just going to jump on the train and get back to London.
Thank you Berkley Suites and I’ll see you soon!
– the home cinema made took this place from a solid 7/10 to a straight 9/10– you have to love a good front door –– Ive never had a kitchen area like this in a hotel room before, I have to say it is working for me –– sitting down this morning to write my blog post with a proper coffee has made starting 2018 pretty easy –
Yesterday was a jammed pack day of Dog walking, car cleaning and more dog stuff. nothings better than having a productive day of doing things that aren’t really work related. but right now I’m trying to get this post done in 10 minutes before a hurricane walks through the door in the shape of my little cousin.
but back to yesterday, it all started when we ended up going on a bit of a group dog walk around Biggin hill, my dog Mooney isn’t really that keen on other dogs at the moment, she recently got bitten on the her my an bigger dog so she’s a bit scared of anything with four legs at the moment. it was good to get outside and do a bit of walking though I haven’t walked mooney in ages so that was fun and its also good to get her used to other dogs again.
After the dog walk it was time to clean some cars, my mums car was unacceptable dirty so now it was time to attack that with everything I had but before that I offered to clean my mums hairdressers car, its nice todo nice things right? Clean cars is actually pretty rewarding, you can see something that was dirty and once your finished it looks totally different in a way.
Last night we also had our mate Jocobs annual Christmas Party where people sing songs and play beer pong, but the highlight of the evening was by are my Beer pong skills and also the fact Jacob has recently got to new puppies which amy refused to put down the whole night
Sorry todays post is a bit rushed but Amy and me thought we were waking up early but we are going to have family to entertain before we then have to jump in a taxi and head over to a friends and drive down to Bristol where 20 of us have hired a house of New Years eve.
anyway I hope everyone is enjoy the christmas break and looking forward to 2018, heres my photos from yesterday! I hope you like them!
– starting the day with a dog walk is always a good idea –– me trying to take a photo walk cleaning the car –– Amy has now replaced me with a puppy –
Recently Ive started slacking with my 5d and been using my phone quite a lot to take photos and have really started to rely on that to get my three photos a day. the whole posting thing has kind of got easy in a away, I just take 3 ok photos each day and then do a bit of writing, where as at the start of the posting I was really excited to take like 200 photos each day on 3 different cameras and then spend a few hours going through them, but recently Ive got a bit complacent.
So now im New Years Resolution is to bring my game up a level so at the end of the 365 days Ive not only got a blog thats I’ve posted on each day but Ive got something which has photos that I can be proud of and something to show off.
Thats my hump day through process this morning, I also need to start doing exercise again because yesterday I had a burger and chip and then later on I did something I haven’t done for 24 years of my life. I had my first Morleys, for those of you that don’t know about Morleys let me explain to you what that is.
Morleys is a food chain or more of a cheap chicken shop based in South London in places like Croydon, Crystal Palace and Lewisham and in this food establishments they sell 7 pieces of spicy chicken wings and chips for the grand price of £2.99. its literally drunk food at its finest and now all I want to eat for the next year lettuce thats how the Morleys has made me feel.
But its not all doom and gloom its now snowing in London so hopefully it will stick around and we can all have a snow day!
heres my photos from yesterday.
– The view of London this morning before the snow came –– how cool are this wall paper at the Westtow pub in Crystal Palace –– the Burger last night, next year is all about lettuce –
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