Category: united states of america

B362 – THE ANNUAL SPEAR FAMILY TRADITION

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First off let me start by saying Happy Easter I hope everyone is doing exactly what they want this weekend, I plan on catching up with the family and eating chocolate, lots of chocolate. Right now though I have ended up waking up at like 5am and decided that this is probably the best time to sit down and write a half decent post, in about 30 minutes I’m expecting the kids to wake up and a massive game of hide and seek or tag to kick off and I want to be in the best possible position for what ever game we end up playing and not have worry about getting this post done.

Today is the day of the Spear family Easter egg hunt and for those of you that have been reading this post of the past year will know from last year’s egg hunt, its not something that can be done lightly. It’s a full blown Egg hunt by which everyone (the kids) has their own bag and run around the garden collecting eggs, there aren’t any winners or losers just the person with the most eggs is what the adults tell the young ones Flo (age 4) and Phoebe (age 10) but that’s not the way I see it, right now its war and when chocolates on the line it’s every man or toddler for themselves. Watch this space people.

One thing that does feel weird when I think about it, is the fact that I was doing this blogging malarkey and this is now my second Easter post, its crazy to think how much my writing and photography skills have improved. I’ve gone from being that drop out dyslexic kid who struggles with all things grammar and can’t really write, to someone who’s now confident in the content I put out there and actually enjoying the process of writing and getting my ideas from my head. Don’t get me wrong there are still many mistake that make it through but when you think about the first posts I wrote, they were literally 2 sentences long and full of mistakes, to now writing mini essays about topics that I find genuinely interesting. It’s a massive change. I’ve gone from having a writing age of about 7 years old to now probably a solid 16/17 years old and that’s something I’m pretty proud of and I have a whole website where I can show the improvement. I just know that its something I need to keep up and try to push to new levels and see just how far I can take this whole blog thing, I’ve got some really interesting plans / ideas for when this 3 a day is over and I hope that I can continue to interest you guys into reading my posts.

I was going to leave those “cringy” reflection posts for the last day but to be honest I couldn’t think of anything else to write so I just thought I would give you guys an insight into what I think of my writing. Moving on from that, its time for my second cup of coffee and to get prepped for the Easter Egg hunt, they maybe family but its time to get my head in the game and find those eggs, may the best person win, good luck Flo and Phoebe, you’re going to need it.

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– Stopping off on the way to Michelles for a quick beer –
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– And relax –
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– I cant believe ive been doing these post of a whole year and havent taken a picture of Kings Cross or maybe I have and just forgotten –

 

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 –

 

 

B355 – I LOST THE FIGHT

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Yesterday was not a photo friendly day and by that I mean that the whole day until the evening was pretty much one big 9 hour fail. I decided yesterday morning that it was time I put that ikea light we brought a few months ago up, well that light is now in the bin, I dont know who designs lights at ikea but who ever you are, just make it simple but yet effective, don’t just say “hang it on a hook” because that is not a clever idea.

After fighting with this light for a good 2 hours, I was now on my way to John lewis with my tail between my legs, looking for a new light fitting. I did manage to get one, how ever it quickly became apparent that in order to put a light up, you need to know a thing or two about electrics. Long story short, the light is sitting in my wardrobe waiting for an electrician aka Amys dad to put it up but some people out there would be proud of me because at the same time as buying the light I also got a floor lamp, just incase my plan didnt work. So we arent just sitting in darkness, we can still see. Thats what you call future proofing yourself (I have just read this back and realised how boring this all sounds).

After fighting with the flats lighting, we then headed out to meet some of our friends and went to some place in Brixton called, Brixton Jam. its kind of like a disco night at a club, to be honest im not really sure what else happened but I do know that we didn’t get home till like 5am, which is probably the latest Amy and me have ever got home. I know, I know, its a crazy life we both lead.

I think the plan for today is to head over to Notting hill this morning and grab some coffee, and have a pretty chilled out day before I head off to work this evening. So I will be taking my camera and hopefully get some pretty cool photos of possibly my favourite part of London.

heres my photos from yesterday, all photos were taken on an Iphone.

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– you cant tell but this photo was taken at like 4:30 this morning, thank you mr mayor for keep the tubes open 24 hours a day on weekends! –
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– Amy about to clear up on the pool table –
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– dave –

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 –

B329 – NEED TO ORGANISE YOUR PHOTOS AND VIDEOS? HERES SOME TIPS!

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So I have some news, Im pretty sure that im Ill but not like normal man flu ill. I feel like death. Right now its all about survival  and my body has decided that its probably best to shut up shop and get some good sleep. so thats what im going todo. Its pretty Ironic that I thought the last push when i passed the 300 day mark would be a walk in the park, oh how I was wrong. Im pretty sure that the next 46 days are going to be full on and pretty difficult to take three photos each day but im determined to power on and somehow make it to the end, right now though its all about just kicking this virus.

So the plan for today post Im going to dive deep into my photo archive and see what I can pull up from my early photography days, lets see what there is… my top tip is to archive everything, keep it logged because these photos and video are important content and some day youll want to look at it back and think about those cool moments. My photo archive is still pretty much all over the place but it is getting better, I have a rough understanding of where everything is and for me that is perfect. You dont need an excel spread sheet or anything too crazy. The secrete top tip is just to dump everything in files, you can call it anything you like. from “Birthday Party 2016” to “summer 2017 shots” and back them up onto two separate drives, keep everything in two places and youll be fine. Media Management is important and as long as you can figure your system out then that all that matters.

If your someone out there who knows that your media storage is terrible and all over the place drop me an email to joshfspear@icloud.com and lets come up with a way to organise it all and keep your files safe! trust me you will thank me later! no money needed just good Karma!

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this sheep looks how I wish I felt – 5 Aug’16 in the Lake District
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because everyone love Holland – 28th Sep 2016 at the Hague
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– and this place because I dont think anyone could sit here and not appreciate that window – Prada Museum -17 July 2016 – Province of Novara – Milan

 

B272 – WHAT A WAY TO FINISH THE YEAR

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Im not really sure where to start with this one, new years eve was probably one of the best nights in a long long time. these last three days have been pretty incredible and spent with some pretty incredible friends. this blog post wont have anything from the actual party as all of that stuff is on a Go Pro, we put a Go pro up in the corner of the room and filmed the whole party so expect a highlights reel soon.

before the antics of last night some of us decided that we needed to get up and go for a country walk even though it was completely tipping it down but that wasn’t going to stop us, fresh country air was worth it. after walking through a few fields, making friends with some horses and eventually finding a road which lead us straight to two of proper country pubs, the type of places where you have that one local who doesn’t speak words but more bumbles and mumbles his way through sentences. nothing is better than coming across and local pub which looks like its been there for the past 100 years and every item of photo on the wall feels like it could tell a story, thats the type of pubs we were in. but after a short live disaster of not being able to get a roast dinner, the kitchen had stopped serving, we sat down and just kind of forgot to get up and order food, but we did managed to get some left over roast potatoes which only showed us what we could of had. About 100 meters down the road was a different pub call the Fox, it was half pub half Italian restaurant so that was our back up choice and to be honest pizza is always a good option in my eyes, so that put us back on track.

I also just want to say sorry this post is late today but to be honest when I woke up this morning I wasn’t sure if I would be able to move of the day, but now Amy and me have just checked into an amazing Hotel in Bristol of the night and currently just trying to decided what move to watch on the projector screen that we literally have in our room! that was my number one reason of booking this place.

Heres some photos from the walk yesterday!

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– two boys one pint –
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– Rob trying to convince the sheep he’s their leader –
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– this is Ellis trying to find the pub –
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– making freinds with horses –
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– pub found –

 

 

 

 

B249 – AN UPSIDE DOWN TEMPLE TO A COIN LAUNDRY

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From North Carolina to Shanghai, every build is different, foundations change, tactics differ and people’s ideas get thrown around. If you stand on the street in North Carolina, not in the city of Raighley, but on the outskirts in the suburbs. Things you take for granted like shops and restaurants are built quick and for maximum capacity’s. They are basically practical places to get done what you need to get done, they do what they say on the title. No messing about. 
If you travel to some where like Kensington in London, that little part of the UK where a flat will set you back £1M or will all of a sudden be standing in a building that’s meant to not only stand the test of time but built to look like something from Mary poppins. Red brick the works. 
Then you travel 12,000 miles to China and end up in Shanghai and all of a sudden you starring up at an upside town temple that looks like it’s been carefully put together out of 100 meter look match sticks. It’s literally like something that a baddest budist has dreamt up.  

What I like about that all these buildings is that they all serve the same purpose really and that’s for people to use to eat a task done. It doesn’t matter if that task is to pray, live in or some where to wash there clothes. A lot of the time, I’ll just get from city to city and not really look up, even in London a place I’ve lived my whole life, I just walk around and don’t really take it all in. but if you actually just stop for a second and look around, everything is actually pretty cool in its own weird way. 

Here are some photos that I’ve taken from the places I’m talking about. It’s a bit of a rushed post today, but we all have days like this right?

– the Mary poppins buildings around Kensington, London –
– the upside down temple in Shanghai –
– a coin laundry by the side of a road somewhere in North Carolina –

B231 – JUST A DOG WEARING SHOES

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It’s weird not posting these each day, I’m not really enjoying it. I love following the stats and getting to see what people think of my photos, it’s one of those things if I post each day I really try and set my self a brief for each day, ie something to concentrate on, but at the moment I’m just snapping shots when I can.

Not really sure if that’s a good idea, but at the moment it’s the best I can do.

Today is show day and I can now say that I’m working on Victoria Secrets Fashion show in Shanghai!!!! The rule of posting photos still stands, so if your expecting to see Back stage photos of Super modes wearing underwear and wings. This is the wrong place, instead I can offer a shot of a dog wearing shoes.

One thing has really surprised me is that amount of bikes that are in the city and the comparison to London. A few months back someone introduced this public bike scheme where you can pick up these yellow bikes via an App and then drop it off where ever you want, two days later the bikes had been destroyed, seats stollen and wheels buckled. Not in China, they literally have exactly the same bikes but times a thousand, there are hundreds on every street and not a buckled wheel in sight. China is this country where people stick to rules and one of the coolest things is everyone has a job (apparently). From what I saw which to be fair is very little, the streets are cleanish and there’s this proper hustle and bustle about this place, it feels like a super power city and I suppose that’s exactly what this place is. 10 years time and Shanghai will be this place with hovercrafts and jet packs, I promise you!

 

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– Victoria Secretes fashion show 2017 –
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– one of the weirdest buildings Ive ever seen –
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– just a dog wearing shoes –

 

B215 – PLANES, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES – AMERICA TO PARIS (KIND OF)

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After getting home Saturday at like mid day from travelling back from Ludlow, Massachusetts , I decided that I would spend the rest of the day chilling out and not running around taking photos, but instead sit on the sofa and watch TV and then on Sunday think of something to post while waiting for the Eurostar. Its not that time and I’m sat on the train waiting for it to depart.

We are off to Paris for a few days and just going on a bit of an adventure, there is no better place to go that paris when its this time of year, I don’t think theres a person on this planet that doesn’t like Paris in the cold. that might sound strange but trust me its true.

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– the english weather welcoming us back to the UK, anit nothing like gray English cloud –
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– Up and out early this morning, who needs a Sunday lay in anyway? –
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– this was one of the pictures of a car I took ages ago in Chicago, I just wanted to follow the Planes, Trains and Auto Mobile theme –

My photos today are basically just of my transport this past 24 hours, Ive done planes, trains and automobiles (forgot to take photos of the cars Ive been in, that is really annoying now Ive thought of that), but I have been in a car so ill just have to post an old photo from when I was in a car.

Today isn’t going to be my best post as Ive just been getting back to normal, but now Ive got two days in Paris expect some good photos to come. I might even post four pictures tomorrow who knows. Im just looking forward to being back in Paris, we have a fair bit planned and our first stop apparently is going to be this Dior fashion thingy, I’m not too sure what it is but Amy seems excited.

At the moment I’m also trying to use the Eurostar Free wifi to get this post online and that is proving to add quite a bit of stress to my Sunday morning. Its slow Really slow, I hope someone out there can relate to my frustration right now.

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– the english weather welcoming us back to the UK, anit nothing like gray English cloud –
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– Up and out early this morning, who needs a Sunday lay in anyway? –
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– this was one of the pictures of a car I took ages ago in Chicago, I just wanted to follow the Planes, Trains and Auto Mobile theme –

B214 – IM GOING HOME!!

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Right now its 14:44 on Friday, Im sat a Bradley international airport in Massachusetts about to board a plane to Boston, Ive got an hour till we take off and from Boston I have a flight that will take me to London Heathrow. its now the complete end of my time in America and after two months on the road going from Hotel to Hotel its time to head home and finally do some washing and get on my DIY skills on, I’ve got a hall way to paint and some more blinds to put up! so get ready for some DIY posts, they will be coming thick and fast.

right now though Im scrolling through the photos Ive taken on my phone and think its only right to post some photos that I have taken on my phone before they disappear into the hard drive of my computer forever.

If I had to choose one city that has left a mark on me it has to be New York, that place is probably one of my favourite cities Ive visited in a long time, it just doesn’t sleep and every corner has something happening and thats what I like. Nothing stops in New York, its just on the move constantly. I will 100 percent be coming back to New York in the near future.

On the other hand, the state that surprised me the most and rank up there of cool places is New England. thats the area Im in now, apparently its were the english first landed when they discovered America, thats where it gets its name from. If I could get hold of a mountain bike and had a few days off I would loved to of just cycle round the forests and explored this area, it just looks like a cool place to have an adventure. that sounds like a pretty cool idea now Ive just said that. Amy? Can you cycle?

Ive really enjoyed this trip and feel like Ive managed to see a fair bit of america is a short period of time. but now I just need to come back and really get to know it when Im working. Heres list of the places Ive been in the last few months. New York, New Jersey, Massachussets, Flordia, Illinois, North Carolina, St.louis, Toronto and Vancover. Looking at that im really suprised that I haven’t missed a day of this blog yet and not really sure where Ive found the hour or so it takes to write these each day.

Tomorrow I land back in the UK and have to  rush home for a hair cut, pack a bag and get ready for a few days get away in Paris. Amy and Me are going there because theres some fashion show that she wants to check out and I owe her a birthday present. so get ready for me to put my best Zoolander outfit on and explore the city of Paris!

Heres  some of  the photos from my phone of these past few months.

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– New York at 6am –
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– Ive never seen an exhaust like this, is it legal in the UK? –
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– a view from New England –