Category: project

B183 – LONDONS UNDERGROUND RULES

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Like most londoner’s I have to say I don’t really have much love for the under ground, its busy, hot and expensive. today Ive probably spent about 4 hours on the underground going from A to B and then B to C its been like that all day, after the first hour or so of having my head phones plugged in trying to ignore the guy drinking RedBull 2 center meters from my face at 8am this morning, you start to notice things about this place, like watching someone watch some play a game on their phone and pull a funny face when that person fails a level, you can tell they are thinking ” I could of done that” or watching someone try and be all inconspicuous while reading a business persons email they write on the way to work.

All of this starts to make a terrible journey quite fun, its almost like the unspoken rules of the underground. one of my favourite things todo was watch people race to get a place in the isle between the seats just so they can claim the next available seat. All this is what makes London such a fun place, people all have this weird etiquette that you wont find in any other city, its kind of a method to the madness.  eye contact, that is by far the best thing on the underground, its that horrible moment when you catch someones eye not just once but a few times and now both of you feel awkward so its a quite change of song or refresh of emails on your phone before trying not to look at them again. which will almost fail every time and theres that last weird look you both give each other people someone steps off at the next stop.

Since ive started watching out for all these traits i’m 100% guilty of my tube rides have become a lot more fun. its better during rush hour when everyone is in full work mode. you wont really see if at weekends you’ll just see this guy (see picture below).

So london underground, if you feel you got to strike then please make sure its for a good reason, your not the only ones who rely on this service to make some money, don’t hold London to ransom.

Just incase your wondering the strike Thursdays strike has been postponed.

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-Tuesday Morning at victoria train station waiting for the tube –
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– Saturday morning tube rides, anit nothing like them –
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– its always easier to sit –

 

 

B182 – LETS DO SOMETHING COOL

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three hundred words that all I have to write each day, I love taking photos, but the writing is the hardest thing on this blog. I’m sorry for the lack of energy on these posts these past few days, Im just fighting through the Jet lag and trying to crazy amount of work, to get out the other side. but today has been a really good day, Ive started making plans for a really cool project. something I can properly sink my teeth into, Ive got a plan and all I have todo now is stick to it and make sure I can put everything in place before I go away next week. So not a lot todo at all.

what I like about doing this blogging thing is my plan that Im just going todo what ever I like with it. thats basically my plan, not think too much into it and just see where I end up. I really want to start upping my content and put out some cool photos that aren’t just everyday stuff. like jumping a car or shooting fireworks over a lake, something incredible and completely not the normal, thats my kind of project. If I can just get through the next month and stay dedicated to making stuff happen theres no reason why those projects wont come to life. Obviously those arent my project idea’s but they follow the same line, something which has an element of risk but with a massive reward. I started this blog to improve my photography skills and its about time I started to test my self and see what I can do with a camera.

again im sorry for the lack of content but unless I stay awake 24 hours a day, I don’t have enough time. but I will I promise you.

In other news I picked up my new blinds tonight, went to put them up and found out I don’t own a drill. so if anyone lives in bethnal green and has a drill that would be really helpful.

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– this is a photo I took this morning, god I love my coconut tree –
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– one of my favourite places in the past months, Historic Downtown St. Charles –
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– Missori, America, everyone should go and see St.louis its a really cool city –

B180 – 6 MONTHS LATER

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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.

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– 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 –
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– 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 –
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– 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 –
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– 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 –

 

 

 

B180 – THE BEST FOOD IVE EVER HAD – SKETCH, LONDON

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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.

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– This place is like no other restaurant ive been in –
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– this photo was taken by turning the table lamp upside down and using the light from it –
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– a bad quality photo but I still like it –

 

 

B179 – THAT SCANDI TOUCH

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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.

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– back in london and on Oxford cirucs –
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– the upgraded TV on Air Canada –
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– thats Toronto down there –

 

 

B178 – PHONE SNAPS- AIRPORT AFTER AIRPORT.

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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.

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– a photo from the drive across town –
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– look at what theyve done to the pole, it looks pretty cool. Ive got some better snaps, ill show you them some other time –
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– the street near to canada’s first china town –

 

B174 – I’VE NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE

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I know Canada is this wild place but somethings I wont believe till I see them and wild deer and stags walking around the streets like some 13 year old are one of them. Just as we arrived at location this morning two deer have poked their heads out from behind a car and just casually started walking down the road.

I literally jumped up to grab the big lens but after a few seconds of trying to find it, I decided to settle for the 24-105. I never thought in a million years that these things would be roaming around the streets and not scared of humans or cars, over here they just don’t care. When you start the morning with seeing deer walk around the town you know its going to be a good day and to be honest it was, filming went smoothly and we managed to get back on schedule. its weird now becuase after this location its back to London and im starting to think of all the things ill do when I first get back to my flat and honestly I cant wait.

Amy if your reading this please make sure their is yorkshire gold tea bags and some fresh milk, I havent had a proper cup of tea in a month.

Next to location on the way back from grabbing some supplies this morning, I noticed this really cool foot bridge which looked like it went on for miles, so I decided to stop off quick and take some photos, when I got there it was like something out of a movie, these guys live on the river, but have done it in kind of pirate style, they have turned their boats into raft kind of thinks with other boats and have like this little community out on the lake. just floating around, unfortunatly I only had a 20mm prime with me so could get any close up shots but I still think I made it work. My plan is to wake up extra early tomorrow and go and get some early morning photos. lets see if that works out or if I snooze my alarm again.

heres my snaps, I uploaded 4 because I felt like it was a good idea.

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– this deer is Jay walking –
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– its so weird seeing them just walk round the streets –
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– canadian pirates –
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– this is that long foot bridge that goes on for miles (i think) –

B175 – ONE CRAZY DAY

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Today has been on of those filming days where you are literally jus running around none stop of 14 hours trying to make everything work. sorry to sound like a work-a-holic but sometimes I have nothing else to say. Im now laying in bed, looking at the photos from the day thinking about what has happened today, its all a bit of a blur, but I have to say Victoria is an amazing place and surrounded by water, which helps to make for a better climate that Southern America which has been crazy hot.

My plan today was to show you some of the best parts about this island in Canada called Victoria but all I have done is work. so lets just share some fact with you, in 1871 british columbia became the sixth province and proclaimed capital of canada. basically putting it in charge. in 1778 Jame cook, that guy who discovered America became the first european to set foot on Canada and proclaimed it to be a discovery.

What I like about this part of the world is that everyone is friendly, Amanda and myself were at the bar tonight when suddenly two local drinks called a shaft were given to us by this nice local who just wanted to chat. A shaft is basically this mix of a few sprites which make something that taste like baileys. thats what I like about this place, everyone is ready to make freinds and be drinking friends.

sorry for all this mistakes in todays post, im just a bit tired and ready to go to sleep but wasnt prepared to miss todays post and fail at my job of posting each day for the whole year. Ive had a great time travelling america and canada and soon to be heading back to the uk for a few weeks before going out on my next adventure. thank you for following my post and hope you enjoy these snaps.

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– this car today was amazing, makes me want get this car –
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– even the industrial parts of vancover look amazing –
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– i want to buy a skateboard and join this guys

B174 – AIR CANADA LOST OUR CAMERA GEAR

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I’m sat on the plane from Chicago to Vancouver, the TV’s don’t work and that’s something I hadn’t planed for, so now I’m trying to think of cool ideas instead of just looking at the head in front of me and listening to the only album I have on my phone.
One idea I came up with for today post, is to create an instagram story @joshfspear of some cool photos of my journey from Chicago airport to my hotel in Victoria, British Columbia. As today is literally just a travel day and nothing else, its hard to find cool stories and develop a meaning or idea behind the post, so I thought I would take you on the travel day with me and show you some of the cool things Ive seen along the way.

– Vancover to Victoria –

Air Canada have also lost some of our camera gear so its now looking like im going to be staying awake until it arrives sometime tonight. Apart from that, today has been a pretty good day and ended with us taking a small plane across the sailors sea from Vancouver to Sidney at golden hour which was unbelievable. I was speaking to a guy on the plane and he was talking about the food and wild life in this part of town so now im pretty excited to see what this place has to offer. that plane journey was one of those where I will look back in 10 years time and think how cool it was, from see where salt water meets fresh water to the barges pulling logs along the rivers to paper factories. it was all just like another world.

– the best flight I’ve been on in a long time –

We are only here for a few days but I will make those few days worth it. But we are now off to a flying start with a beer and pancakes from Dennys.

– I like this part of Canada already –

If you’ve got some time go and check out @joshfspear on instagram and have a look at my story of the trip, its got some pretty cool photos. I think I’m going to do more stuff like this and now I’ve done one the ideas are coming to me.

Im not sure if any of this makes any sense, Ive been awake for way to long and all over the place, but I hope you get the gist. I’ve been writing this as the days gone on.

B173 – YOU DON’T NEED A HELMET

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I’m writing this a day before I actually need too, the next 48 hours are going to be a bit stressfull, so I thought I would do this post way before I need to just to make sure that its decent and not completely rubbish.

Today I wanted to post more pictures of the junk yard I went too a few days ago, just because it was something that I think is worth posting. The whole idea of taking photos at a place where you would think to take photos is what I like about this and its made me want to go to more junk yards and take photos.

The first photo I want to talk about is the guy riding the motorbike, in Illinois is legal to ride a motorbike without a helmet. Now for someone from London its completely weird to see people riding motorbikes around without a helmet on, it just doesn’t look normal. But it definitely adds to the cool factor, it makes motorbike riders look more like Nomads than part of a society. Like this guy, he’s just cruising around looking like he’s going nowhere but everywhere at the same time. the guys probably just on his way to get some milk for his family at home, but that’s not the impression he gives. I’m not sure if I agree with the helmet laws over here, but who I am to judge.

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For all these photos I used a Canon 20mm prime, shot in Black and White but also used RAW + JPEG format, but so I had the safety of using an Uncompressed image but was using Black and White as a reference. When you shoot in RGB but plan on changing the photo to B&W later on you shoot completely different and don’t think about the lighting as much as to when your only seeing B&W as an in camera reference.

My tip is to always shoot in the colour scale you plan to edit in and release you image as. I think it makes a huge different to the out come of your photo. Someone might say differently but by shooting RAW + JPG, you aren’t risking anything.

Here’s my other two photos. As your reading this, im currently on my way to an airport.

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– I like the rough paint on the side of this truck –
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– not for sale –