Category: paris

B365 – I CANT BELIEVE I MADE IT!

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Well, its finally here, blog post 365 and it feels a bit weird. For the 90% of my facebook friends that have had to put up with these posts each day and who are just not interested, don’t worry its over. But for those that have read these and showed a small amount of interest, this is for you.

Its over, Ive managed to post 3 photos a day for 365 days and now Im thinking back at the days all those times where I’d given up precious sleep or I’ve been rushing around writing from my phone and its all built up to this moment trying to get these post done. Now, 150,000 words later, 2TB’s of photos and countless hours walking around trying to make each day interesting and worthy are over.

It all started from a conversation with Amy on a weekend away, that turned into me basically going full steam ahead everyday for the past year and in turn has been one of the craziest years or my life, I’ve worked all around the world, including two months in America and China, completely ruined my leg and had to basically learn to walk again, now living with Amy (my girlfriend), completely done up our flat and now working on some really cool projects and productions that I’m pretty proud of.

For todays post I was trying to think of a cool way to end it, like set off loads of fireworks or fly to some amazing beach and finish with a cocktail and some sun burn, but to be honest looking back at the year, the only way to end is to really show 25 of my favourite photos from the 1200 that I’ve posted. Photos that might over wise be forgotten about and disappear into the depths of my hard drive. I’m now sat on my Lunch break at work scrolling through photos and laughing at all the stuff that’s gone on, from coming home after 18 hours a work with nothing to photograph so running down stairs and buying some fruit to cut open and photograph to seeing someone sunbath on Shoreditch high-street drinking beer in just a pair of hot pants or even that time I flew back from Victoria, Canada on a dodgy plane that had no in flight entertainment so for 15 hours I taped my iPhone to the seat in front of me and watched weird low budget films the whole way, just after I had been in the path of Hurrican Irma and witnessed what state of emergency meant in North Carolina.

This blog has been one of the best things I’ve ever done and if it wasn’t for Amy saying “you should start a photo blog” then we wouldn’t be here today and I probably wouldn’t have the confidence or even writing ability and photography skills I have today. Im by no means an expert but I like to think from where I was last year, I’m much better. So thank you Amy for putting up with the words “I gotta do my photos” to helping me figure out tough posts and just generally putting up with the daily stress of being with me.  Your alright you are and I owe you big time.

Looking back at my writing a year ago I have no idea how I even managed to send an email let alone put together an interesting paragraph, but this past year I’ve written around 150,000 words with a minimum daily count of 300 words, its not just given me confidence in my writing ability, its also helped me talk to people and just going with my gut instinct, then having the confidence to see a task through till the end. That’s something I didn’t realise I didn’t have till I’ve started thinking about my next steps and how confident I am about what I want todo next. In the words of my good friend Anders “I’m no Neurosurgeon, but Ill give it ago”.

This photo challenge might be over and the stress of posting everyday is now in the past but I promise this wont be my last post, I’ve sat down this past month and thought of ways to carry on and what direction I should move in and to be honest what I have in the pipe line is something that I’m even more excited about and can’t wait to share with you all. But right now, its time to get some sleep and just enjoy the fact that I’ve managed to see this all the way through to the end. Not even the Chinese government or countless timezones and flight delays were able to stop me.

So one last time.

Here’s my photos from today. Enjoy.

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– this is how i plan on spending the next 2 weeks, before I start putting work in on the next project. I will still blog but just not daily – 

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– doing my final walk around bethnal green taking photos for the blog this evening, it kind of felt a bit like a victory lap –

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– I will always take street photos and try to capture cool moments where ever I am –
Before you see my favourite 25, I just want to say thank you too the 13,500 readers from 119 countries that have read my daily blog, not all hero’s wear capes.

On to the next challenge and a new direction for joshfspear.com

Peace out and thank you for sticking with me through the terrible grammar and countless spelling mistakes!

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– it was at this post that the idea for the blog was created, Bleinheim Palace –

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– playing with the gopro after amy picked me up from the pub, thanks mush –

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– walking through hyde park early morning is something I wish I could do more often – 

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– london has been the perfect city for this photo challenge, thank you to all the grumpy people that dressed up as storm troopers or sun bath on highstreets, you have made this blog a million times better –

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– the day I found out my leg was ruined and I wouldnt be able to run the ultra marathon or walk for that matter –

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– moving in with this one, so happy we have done the most of our ikea shopping tick list, please no more –

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– explore italy, she has some how managed to put up with my constant photo taking –

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– its always good to see stuff like this on your way home –

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– this dog still is one of my favourite dogs ive come across –

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– in four years of living in Bethnal Green, this year I saw the most snow ive ever seen in london –

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– Norfolk sea side is one of my favourite places to photograph, the colours always come out perfect –

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– this image was the first one I had taken shooting in RAW, and my god it was worth the switch from JPEG even is the files are bigger

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– I am looking forward to the summer again and getting more colour in my photos

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– this is one of my favourite photos from the past year, right time, right place i suppose –

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-again, right place right time, the sea gull literally dived down and stole her fish and chips –

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– seeing people jamming on the guitars in St.Louis was pretty cool, hopefully Ill get to go back there soon –

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– seeing a deer walk down the street in Victoria, Canada. Luckily I had a 70-200mm lens on my camera at the time –

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– water planes on the river in Victoria, a place that I would love to explore when im not working –

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– 15 hour flight, using my phone at a TV. that was an experiance I wouldn’t do again in a hurry –

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– walking round New York, this photo was taken somewhere near the brooklyn bridge –

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– flying out of New York –

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– the view from my room in Shang hai, that place is like no where else ive been –

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– christmas on Bond street, these two were well into the christmas sprite –

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– flo doing what flo does best, cause havoc –

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– our drive to the flat in Italy, the Amalfi coast is somewhere I would love to go again –
Peace out everyone, its been fun.

Much love,

Joshfspear

 

 

B364 – THREE STONE HEAVIER

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ahh Tuesday morning and the end of the four day weekend, its kind of weird because I kind of feel like the four day weekend is kind of like the End and beginning of a new year, I’m not sure if its because of the end of the tax year or if its because the blog ends tomorrow. but for some reason its starting to feel like a new chapter. but before a “new chapter” starts I think its probably best if I just drag out some more easter photos just one last time.

After waking up slowly yesterday and chilling out in the morning, it was time to jump on a train back to London and sort ourselves out for work. I think its fair to say that we all left yesterday weighing at least 2 stone more. Ive had an easter egg for breakfast two days in a row and now I’m not really sure what todo with myself, I kind of feel like its acceptable to have a chocolate bar before 9am today but then again that might not be the best idea. I think I can speak for both Amy and me when I say thank you Auntie Michelle for a really really good easter break and an even better spread of food. We didn’t have the best weather but in a way thats kind of better because then everyone just goes into sleepy mode and we all just sit around chilling out, instead of trying to think of a way to make the most of the weather. kind of what easters all about, even though I wouldn’t of minded some sun and maybe just maybe temperatures above 20. today is a short and sweet post as I really need to get dressed for work, so hope thats ok with you guys.

Anyway, heres some photos from the weekend. I hope everyone had a good Easter and did exactly what they wanted too with the four day weekend.

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– Heading back to london –
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– I wish this was desert every day –
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– weather wasnt on ourside but sometime that makes weekends like this every better –
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– My dad wanted me to post this photo the other day but I forgot, Release the Chimps Beer it made him chuckle –

B359 – THE CANON MACRO LENS, WORTH IT?

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So today I had more of a play with the Canon 100mm f/2.8 L series Macro Lens, its basically a lens that can magnify objects close up and give you a view of something that the human eye might not necessarily be able to see. Now the lens RRP is around £900 which for a Canon L series Lens isn’t really too bad, its like of a mid price lens and something that I think every photographer should at least have access too, its a great lens to have a play with and is the perfect lens to just pull out the camera bag one day and mix your photography game up abit

For this review I decided to do it as fair as possible, so I set up some lights and created a kind of mini studio, with a black bounce board and a magic arm to hold up the object. My plan was then to tether my laptop to the camera and after each shot go through the image and work out if I was happy with the point of focus. I wanted an object that had different textures and something that no matter how close you could get you would always discover more and more detail, my object of choice was trimmings off the plants out the front of the office.

My idea was to shoot with both a high ISO and also bring the ISO right down and use the shutter speed to control the light, and because I was using a Tripod I could now minimise camera shake. for those that don’t know the ISO is basically something that you make higher for low light conditions and decrease for well lite shots, my idea was to use a high ISO and a fast shutter speed to see how that effected the shot, and I definitely lost detail when close up and in full Macro mode, it made the shots a lot more “grainy” but once I lowered both the ISO and shutter speed, I noticed that my photos were a lot smoother and the level of detail had gone up ten fold. I was now capturing light in even the darkest areas of each photo but because I was shooting with an amazing lens, I could pull focus on the areas I wanted too and blur completely out areas I didn’t think added anything to the photo.

I also have to agree with canon that an aperture of 2.8 is probably right and thing lower and the depth of field would become way to shallow. At the same time I wouldn’t mind seeing what a 100mm macro would look like with an aperture of f1.8, I know that would be very shallow but that mixed with something like a medium format camera would mean you could see even more than the human eye. Anyone out there heard of a f1.8 100mm macro?

All in all this is a great and lens and something that really mixes up not just my photography game but photography in general. Its a lens that I would love to add permanently to my lens collection and something that I think will help me to improve the overall look of my future photos.

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– this is a photo I wanted to take and show the whole head of the leaf and show how the focal length handles a wider shot –
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– close up, Im pretty happy with this but if I had a higher megapixel camera I would definitely would have cropped in further –
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– shooting something thats been out in the rain means I get to see how the macro lens handles reflections and contrast, I really think this lens is worth £900! –
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– This was my set up for this shot, probably the most effort Ive ever put into shooting a leaf –

B358 – MACRO PHOTOGRAPHY AND MY SHORT ATTENTION SPAN

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Today on my lunch break I decided that instead of spending it on Instagram or youtube I would grab the 100mm Macro lens and have a bit of fun with it. At first I wasn’t really sure what I could take photos of and figured out the best place to start was probably outside and try to photograph something close up and looking a bit weathered, when I headed outside I found an old piece of rope and boom I had my first thing to try the lens out on.

I know that a lot of people use it when filming but I hadn’t really ever given it a go taking stills, its a great lens and one that I want to get to know better and just have a bit of fun with I think. Since I took my photos, Ive been sat on google having a look into what other people have done with it and now I know that I dramatically need to up my game, I feel that with Macro photography you need to be a perfectionist and thats something I tend not too be, my attention span isn’t that long. So tomorrow on my lunch break I might just set up an object or something and spend like an hour just trying to get the best possible shot and see what happens, maybe I need to photograph flowers or something small but with a lot of colour and detail because at the moment, im struggling with the focal length, so I think I need to think more about my set up and use the right kit to get the job done. It seems to be really REALLY shallow depth of field and that makes taking photos without a tripod hard because you hand can’t be properly steady. I might even go full on crazy and set up like a mini lighting / photo area somewhere and see how good I can actually get my macro photography and make tomorrows post my full review of the Canon 100mm Lens!

Ive seen some amazing stills online and definitely think I can match them if I can just make my attention span last longer than 15 minutes.

Heres my first round attempts, let me know what you think!

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– I can definitely get this shot more in focus –
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– to be honest Im pretty happy with this shot, its a lightbulb if you didn’t realise –
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– the old piece of rope I was talking about –

 

 

B357 – NOT JUST A HUGH GRANT FILM

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So now im sat on my sofa after driving back from a long day of shooting in Kent, its like 10:30pm and Im trying to get this post done so i can watch an episode of Sinner before I go to bed. All in all today has gone pretty well, and it feels good to be back at the flat knowing that the shoot went well. The plan for todays post is to show you some more photos from the other day in notting hill, for those of you that arent so familiar with this place that features heavily in that film with Huge Grant which by the way is called Notting Hill, apart from that its been home to the likes of Jimi Hendrix as well as Damon Albarn and George Orwell.

I think though one of the best reason to head over to this part of town is for all those crazy little shops that sell thinks that you don’t even realise you need, till you see it for sale. thats the kind of place it is, like the door knob shop, which by the way I think it really cool, they basically create custom door knobs, how cool is that. I know plan on installing new door knobs on everything I can in the flat from cabinets to bedroom doors if thats even possible. Ive been fully sucked into this idea, I just need to get my vision past Amy first.

Notting Hill kind of has its own style that aren’t seem to be recreated anywhere in London, its got the hustle and bustle of Camden but the social standing of Chelsea, its a place where Sirs and Madams live in harmony with Goths and rock stars. Im not sure if thats just a 2018 thing or if its always been that way, though I cant imagine Jimi Hendrix is the type of person to live in a quite part of the town.

Im going to keep this post short as I need to catch up on Sinner and also spend to time chilling out. I hope you all had a good monday and all getting ready for easter.

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– Driving back to london tonight, I love the london Sky line. this might be all out of focus but I had the wrong lens on the camera. Sorry  –
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– this guy just wanted to play the guitar and pose like a Glastonbury Headliner –
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– I really like this kind of mirror, the Cafe shops round Notting hill are worth the trip too –

 

B353 – A NEW VERSION OF FAST FOOD?

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So yesterday night I decided that it could be a pretty fun thing if I just came home with a bunch of random vegetables and some chicken, then just see what Amy and I can come up with. The kind of veg that I had was like spring onion, leaks, ginger, aubergine, fennel, onion, Sweet potato. I did have other stuff but I cant really remember, i did have a few beers before so everything was a bit hazy. we ended up making something that was actually pretty good, we added some jerk chicken sauce, chucked everything in a pain and just gave it a good stir. We then decided to make some sweet potato fries and boom dinner is complete. Ive found that the trick with sweat potato fries is to add a little paprika to the mix and just give it that extra something, trust me it makes them so much better than if they are just plain. Give it a go. its like a new way version of fast food, I genuinely don’t think Deliveroo could of got the food to me quicker or made / found a healthier choice.

After all that I decided that instead of sitting on the sofa and writing this post, I would take the evening off and just chill out on the sofa instead, watch some tv and just not think about anything other than what to watch next. Some times its good to spend an evening off not taking photos, writing posts or going out and not getting home till like 10-11ish. so yesterday was the the perfect opportunity to get some good old sofa session time.

It then became an idea to wake up early today and head to the gym for an early morning work out, I know that a lot of people think that sounds crazy but I swear if you work out in the morning, then your instantly in a better mood for the day and as it is Friday, why wouldn’t you want to be in the best possible mood? So thats why my photos don’t really follow each other today, Ive got two photos from dinner last night and the other photo is of Amy hopping to the gym this morning.

Hope everyone has a good Friday and some good plans for the weekend!

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– Amy loves an early start and especially when its time for the gym… –
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– my choice of vegetables –
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– it was actually surprisingly good, maybe its good way to eat dinner from now on, it might not look amazing, but trust me we were both pleasantly surprised –

 

 

B349 – THIS IS PERFECT

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When you stay in a hotel, the reason you stay there is for the bed, and nine out of ten times the bed is all wrong. You get given some rubbish pillows that feel like they’ve been folded in half one to many times and a duvet that is more of throw for your sofa than anything else. Well the Village Hotel in Dudley, Birmingham is not that kind of place, my room had at least a 14.5 tog duvet and the pillows to match, that is something that’s rare to find in a one nighter hotel.

If Premier Inn was a 4 star work trip hotel then this place is easy a 4.5 and its simple, this place has everything you need for a good nights sleep after a long day of work, from a gym and spa area that actually has a swimming pool deep enough to dive in (not that I went swimming), you could then head back to your rooms  and be pleasantly surprised that the showers they actually worked and for once didn’t give you third degree burns or worst frost bite, you are met with a constant supply of warm to hot water that actually does the job. One thing that has to be noted is the fact that they don’t have a luggage trolley, which makes my life 15 x harder. Most of the time when I stay in hotels its with a lot of camera equipment and instead of carrying 20 bags through receiption and into my room it’s nice to just put them on a trolley and push them around, even more so annoying in the morning. 

After some excersise and a great shower time to head down and get some food. That’s  when I found out about something that would put a smile on anyone’s face, I’m talking about game day chicken wings and beer all for something like £7. what more could you want, and what’s more suprising is the fact that this deal is in a hotel especially when they are showing all the football, so that being said I did enjoy the wings and also a few beers. So I will blame that on the bad grammer and poor spelling mistake into post.  but if you couldnt tell for the past 300 words, this hotel is really good and I would definitely recommend it if you need somewhere to stay in Dudley, Birmingham.

Heres my photos of the hotel, enjoy.

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– beer and wings all for £7 something, what could possibly go wrong with that –

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– look at that duvet, perfect. every one stop shop hotel around the country should take note –

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– I know its pretty stripy but I kind of like it. Amy can we do this with the bedroom –

B346 – THE BIGGEST BRAIN FART

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today I lost, just completely lost and when you lose like that, it better to just face the fact that today you didnt win, theres only one thing you can do and thats head to the pub and drink until you forget about it. Normally I would just power through and try and gain the day back but for some reason today I just didnt have anything left in the tank and just decided to call the day quits and head out for a drink with amy and that why my photos are just of three drinks that I had throughout the night. nothing else, no attempt to take great shots of even take my camera out with me, just a photos taken on my iPhone.

Now I know what your thinking, something terrible must of happened and thats not the case, it was just a day where everything would just go wrong. from me following the shooting schedule and getting all in a muddle to me trying to catch a piece of fruit that was thrown at me and just completely missed, there wasn’t any major fails or problems just hundreds of little ones which only got more annoying as the day went on. Nothing seemed to slot into place and that really annoys me, but today is a new day and Im going to make this Friday a good day. my plan is to get up and get dressed head into work early and make sure that there aren’t any mistakes again and that all the issues I had with yesterday don’t happen again. and screw it, do you know what? Im also going to take some amazing photos and really pull this week back from the dead and then tonight I’m not going out for a drink or anything Im going to sit on my sofa and get some decent sleep because I think thats what the issue is here, for the last few weeks its been crazy and yesterday I just had a 4 hour brain fart.

Hope non of you are having a brain fart like me at the moment, heres my drinks from last night.

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– Beer one –
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– Beer two –
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– moving to Gin and tonic that was probably the best choice I made today –

 

B345 – ANY TIME IN THE PAST 100 YEARS

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Thursday morning and last day of shooting for the week, I literally couldn’t be happier. For some reason this week just seems to have taken it out of me and now I’m ready to get a decent sleep and hide away from the terrible weather than seems to be on its way again.

Back when i had a life, my week day plan was always to wake up like 45 minutes earlier, grab a coffee, sit on my sofa and open up my laptop and just start that days blog post but over the past 3 months that has really changed and now its just about getting the posts done at anytime I could. Well today I have decided to do my best and sit on the sofa with a coffee and spent some time just writing these posts, its probably my favourite way of doing it, and I maybe running out of time pretty quickly but you can never rush and artist (unless you have a floor manager and production team that would kick your arse if your not at work for your call time).

to lighten the mood a bit, I want to show you guys this morning are from… Yes you guessed it the other day at the beach in Norfolk, I promise its my last day of showing photos for that walk, but taking Landscape photos of the sea one on side and these really colourful muddy cliffs on the other with overcast clouds, I think really sets the mood and almost gives them a timeless feel. like those people on the beach in the first picture could almost of been there at anytime in the past 100 years, theres nothing in shot that I can see which would give away that its 2018.

I hope everyone is having a good week, here some the last of the photos from the weekend.

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– this photo to me, could of been taken at anytime in the past 100 years –
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– I should really take more photos with things in the foreground, I think its a cool style of photography –
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– just a crow sitting on a pile of sand. I tried to sneak up on it to get a better shot but it saw me and flew away –

 

 

B344 – PREMIER INN HATFEILD – 8/10 – “worth the stay and good food”

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So tonights Premier Inn is somewhere near a motorway around a town called Hatfeild, thats as much as I know about where Im staying to be honest and out of all the Premier Inns Ive stayed in, this one could be the best for customer service. The food was a bit slow but you cant judge a hotel off of one slight mistake, the rooms are clean and the food was actually pretty enjoyable. Today I decided to try something that has been a bit controversial and go for the fire noddles with chicken ( for an extra £2), and it was actually a pretty good choice and right now I know all those Wagamammas fans out there will be saying ” but it doesn’t have a thing on wagamammas” but thats not true.

With a place like wagamammas your standards are a lot higher but with some where like Premier inn its just about getting some sort of food inside you and today thats exactly what i got, good, kind of fresh food at a decent price. what more could you want.

I know this is going to sound like a first world problem and to be honest its not something thats a deal breaker but one thing I dont like about Premier Inn, is the length of their corridors and numbering systems. I know that they need to fit a certain number of room in but please guys add a few short cuts or something because when someone like me who travels with 10 bags and 15 peli cases needs a room we also need it to be easily accessible from the reception which 9 out of 10 times is not that case.

But for all its worth I would have to give this Premier Inn a 8/10 and a 4.5 star travel rating, its a place that does everything it says on the tin and also has a really good sized car park, which is perfect for long wheel base vans.

Hatfeild premier Inn on the M25 you have served me well.

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– these corridors are just a bit too long for someone with so many bags –

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– the best sight someone can see after a long days work, the famous premier inn bed –

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– my dinner the fire cracker noddles with chicken – pretty decent and quite healthy –