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.
– 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 –– 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 –– 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 –– 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 –
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.
– This place is like no other restaurant ive been in –– this photo was taken by turning the table lamp upside down and using the light from it –– a bad quality photo but I still like it –
Its 3:53am on Friday morning and I basically cant sleep so Ive decided I should just get up and have a productive Friday. this morning Ive got a bit of running around todo, i basically need to get a second passport for a visa I need and only have today to really get that done, so thats my first job of the day. after that its getting my life back on track before sailing into the weekend of some good old chin wags with my mates that I haven’t seen in a pretty long time.
But before then I want to talk about Air Canada Rouge, Im not sure if any of you have flown with this airline. If you have, then you know what im talking about, its pretty crazy. Ive just sat on a 8 hour flight, without a TV or ipad to keep my company. they ran out of Ipads. they idea is basically give out ipads of $10, which come with films and games, which in theory is a great idea, but the execution failed. I know they’re a budget long haul airline, which is perfect for saving a few bucks but so is Norwegian Air and they have smashed it. Norwegian Air are like the same price as Air Canada but they’re planes are clean, smooth and they have that scandi touch, which just makes it one of the best airlines I’ve flown on.
What they do, is give you cheap seats and a TV but you pay for your food and drink, that might sound like a bad idea but if you pay and order on your TV in front of you, if comes straight away, the air stewards are just all over it. where as Air Canada, they do the classic food trolley, I went for the chicken and only found out after the flight that it came with mash.
One thing I can say with pride was my idea to tape my phone to the seat in front of me which basically meant I had a TV, genius. so my top tip for Air Canada, take some duck tape with you on the fight just incase you need to tape your phone up to give you a TV or even if something falls off the plane you can duck tape it back together again. both are strong possibilities.
Norwegian Air have changed up the game and are the best cheap airline out there! hands down!
anyway thats just me forcing my opinion on you. heres my snaps from the journey home, it wouldn’t be complete without a snap from the plane window looking down on Toronto.
– back in london and on Oxford cirucs –– the upgraded TV on Air Canada –– thats Toronto down there –
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.
– a photo from the drive across town –– look at what theyve done to the pole, it looks pretty cool. Ive got some better snaps, ill show you them some other time –– the street near to canada’s first china town –
A Few years ago I brought a 1967 VW Beach Buggy for my dad and me to drive, it was a sick little car when it worked and we would always need new parts or an MOT. The last time I took it for a spin, the accelerator peddle would get stuck on and the car would stop. which made of an interesting drive. when I brought that car at the age of 16, I could get insured and didnt even have a license, when I passed my test the insurance was so expensive it was really worth it.
Today my love for beach buggys has been re-lite. across the road from our hotel today was this VW car meet, with people selling parts and showing off their cars. The beach buggies were pretty impressive but thats not the main reason I decided to go, I love looking at those cars and seeing people impression but I wanted to photograph the people who import all this, it cant be easy finding classic VW parts in Silver Lake Chicago, it must take a network of people to find all the small parts like a 60’s Beetle speedometer or a carb and its these people that I want to photograph.
I was speaking to a few people about what its like selling old VW car parts and the life style it brings and the whole thing is pretty interesting, every purchase has to be calculated and thought about. can they use it on there projects or can it be cleaned restored and sold on. its definitely something which has to be a hobby first and then maybe possible make a living from it down the line maybe.
What my favourite thing about these classic cars is the fact that none of them are standard, everyones added their own personality to them, like the crazy Mexican’s who have built a massive table football  on the back of there VW camper and then all just play football and laugh, its their two favourite things football and VWs coming together in a way that you wouldnt find in the back of a toyota Prius. classic VW’s just seem to have a personality that no other car has.
anyway enough of hearing my views, heres my snaps. By the way these were all shot on a 20mm 2.8 canon lens. I think its my new favourite lens.
– VW camper, table football edition –– these guys were selling old VW manuals and magazines, just happy to be there –– he was happy really –– this photo just made me smile –
today we drove from St.louis to our next destination Chicago for the fourth location on this little filming trip. its fair to say this country is absolutely bonkers but in a good way, from the size of the food portions to the crazy ideas that people seem to have and then make them work. like the city museum in downtown St.louis, where they have a 10 story side and have decided to park a school bus and a plane on top of the building, it was the sort of place were kids and grown ups can just run around and explore climbing weird structures and old planes high above the city sky line! I thought it was amazing but i wanted to explore the city and decided to go and check out downtown, I got about 5 blocks from the museum when a bunch of motorbikes started racing down the road pulling wheels and stuff just like in the movie creed it was nuts. my camera was on completely the wrong settings, so the photos were just over exposed. thats why I need the Leica M.
After this little de tour, we hit the road heading for Chicago, driving north on the 55, around an hour into the drive we went past this crazy vintage car dealer, it literally had every car you could imagine from pre 1970, including rolls royce’s, ford pops and the car that malcoms parents drive in Malcom in the middle. unfortunatly it shut like 10 mintues before me got there, which basically meant we could only look at it from the fench. I still managed to get some photos of a burnt out car they must of brought to resort. I have no idea what car it is, but I properly like the picture.
Im now at the hotel in Chicago in the area of Lake on The Hill, not sure if im near a lake but it sounds like I am. the lady at the reception told us to go and try the famous restaurant Portillo’s across the road, its fair to say that is was a good shout. that place is amazing and as its somewhere that I quite like, so heres some info on it.
Portillos was founded in 1963 by a man names dick portillo, After he was honourably discharge from the marine corpe decided to open up a hot dog stand and invested $1,100 in a 6 x 12ft trailer and parked it on North Avenue in Villa Park, Chicago. he called it “The Dog House”. the van didnt have any running water so he would have to run 250m to a local bar every now and again to give his stand a top up.
4 years later he had turned it into a successfull business and decided it was time for a revamp and opened “Portillos” , it basically took off and he went on to open more and more locations. then in 1983, the first drive though opened in Downers Grove (Chicago) and instantly became know for its quick service and good hot dogs.
this place is quickly developing a name for its self all over the US and has now opened up in southern California, Florida, Wisconsin and Minnesota. If you ever pass one of these places, trust me and stop off for a hotdog. they’re crazy enough ship anywhere in the USA!
I also drove along route 66, which i didnt get todo last time as my mates didn’t think I was a good enough driver to drive the RV. well this time I did and it was pretty cool. Im also not sure if this post fits in my project, Cool Unknown America. But I feel like this is cool america off the beaten track so it should be allow and its my project so I can say its allow, so it is. I suppose this post is more of a dairy kind of think which I quite like.
heres my snaps from today, let me know what you think! Im also not sure if this 20mm prime lens is working properly, so tomorrow im going to put it through its paces and see what happens. so if tomorrow photos are crap I apologies in advance.
– route 66, just off the north 55 –– st. louis city museum –– the vintage car dealer on route 66, is burnt out car was waiting out the front –– Portillos, chicago. Hot dog and fries. Well worth it –
this is the first day of my mini project Cool side of Unknown America inside of the 3 photos a day project. the plan is to show the of the tourist trail america, just the suburbs and where locals go and what day to day life is like. for my first day I wanted to show night time in St. charles. this historic town dates back to 1796 and if your ever round here you have to try the toasted ravioli on main street. I think I mentioned it yesterday, but this stuff is worth checking out.
On the way back to the hotel from location today, there was a sign that apparently ready “Cool stuff, cheap”. well as my first photo project is called cool side of unknown america, it was only right I waited for it to get dark and  then go take some snaps of it to open this project up properly! thank you Libby for pointing that sign out!
I wanted my first shoot to be a night time one, I think photography at night is not the easiest thing, but when the light hits a certain focual point it really opens the photo up, it creates some sort of mystery to the rest of the image and tells a story in its self. when you take away all the light and only have a small outline of a object or person in the for ground and then something lite up at the back of the shot. for me it adds a whole new dimension. that was my thinking tonight, give you guys something to look at a few times and notice something else, maybe something that I havent even seen. a lot of the time, I just take a photo by accident and the somehow that turns out to be one of my favourite. for these photos Ive got the ISO pretty high, because I need it for light but I also like the grainy look it gives these photos especially because they are black and white.
I would love to hear what people think of these photos, I might just be a bit delirious after work and none of this make sense and for that I’m sorry!
Heres my snaps, enjoy.
– its the perfect picture to get this project started –– I know its weird but ive always wanted to come to one of these –– photographing motor bikes is just fun –
So it seems these past few days Ive been in a bit confused as to what day this is of me posting, Ive been sat at my laptop trying to figure out how I messed up counting. but ive figured it out and its all correct now I think.
its my first proper day in the south and its a really cool place, everyone it proper nice and just happy to chat, from the people in Walmart to the guys we are down here filming. At the moment its around 26 degrees, I have no idea what that is in fahrenhiet, but apparently its not too bad for this part of the world, the hurricane has brought down the temperature a bit.
tonight we went to some bar in town and had a few beers and some food, it was good to speak to people from this area and to learn about them and how they live compared to life growing up in London. I completely forgot that its legal to carry guns in this part of the world and when I saw a gun at the bar, it was a bit of a shock. drinking a pint and carry a gun at the same time is something Ive never seen, but thats how they live so as long as my nights not ruined, who I am to judge.
Im happy to be there and looking forward to seeing more of this place and definitely think I should come back not for work, but to take cool photos and get to know the people better. I want to explore the south more and really see what this place is about, it’s full of people with a lot of stories to tell.
on another hand the food is crazy, today I tried deep fried corn on the cob, its not for me, I dont think I will ever be eating that again. ill stick to the way my mum does it. Burnt.
– Taking photos of striaght roads is pretty fun for some reason –– this is a post box –– Hurricane Irma has emptied the shelves –
for most people in the states and canada a Dodge is just a car, but for us brits every dodge is a viper, they even sound cool ” I drive a dodge” and the car Im driving for the next few days is no exception. I have no idea what model this is, I only know it says dodge on the front and is pretty big. Ive only been in Canada for about 5 hours, its now 21:30 at night here in Toronto but thats like 2:30 in London, so its been a pretty long day. My plan is to say awake for as long as possible and then fall asleep for like 7 hours and be completely back to normal, Im refusing to let jet lag get the better of me.
since ive been here Ive literally seen the motorway and in side of the Chinese restaurant, so I can really comment on what its like here, but so far it does look really clean and the people seem really cool. Wish I had time to get out into the forests and stuff maybe see a few bears, but im not confident that will happen. but I have heard a rumour of some cool islands around here which you have to get a boat too, so hopefully if tomorrow isn’t so busy we might be able to get out and explore some.
If any one know of anything fun todo in Toronto, I would definitely like some inside information on this place. I really want to go and see the CN tower, but im not even sure if that is possible. I have 4 days here and will probably have a few hours spare over the four days, so anything quick, easy and not too busy would be ideal.
Anyway heres some photos from my last few hours here.
– even the gease stick to the pavements –– there she is, what a beauty –– Sport at the front, soccer mum car at the back –– this was the street I walked down earlier, looking forward to seeing more of Canada –
Just at the airport waiting to get on my flight, so thought I should get this post in now.
First stop on the list is Toronto and then on to the states, I think. Yesterday was my last day in London, so did all those things like breakfast, pack and eat some more. Lucky I managed to get some clothes washed and fresh socks. Not sure if I have enough Clothes for the month but we will just have to see.
A big shout of out to apple for fixing my phone yesterday evening. I really needed an unlocked phone that works, and they basically saved me a load of money. There’s a first for everything.
Looking at my schedule for the next 20 something days it’s going to be hard to keep these post updated at 10am each day, so it could be any time really. I’m determined to to let it slip but we will just have to see.
– good bye London, see ya soon –– brunch’n, yesterday at borough market –– I’m not going to miss this, the underground –
joshfspear.com 