Category: united states of america

B168 – COOL UNKNOWN AMERICA – CLASSIC VW MEET. PT.3

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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.

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– VW camper, table football edition –
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– these guys were selling old VW manuals and magazines, just happy to be there –
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– he was happy really –
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– this photo just made me smile –

 

B167 – COOL UNKOWN AMERICA – ST LOUIS TO CHICAGO PT.2

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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.

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– route 66, just off the north 55 –
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– st. louis city museum –
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– the vintage car dealer on route 66, is burnt out car was waiting out the front –
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– Portillos, chicago. Hot dog and fries. Well worth it –

 

B166 – COOL SIDE OF AMERICA – NIGHT TIME. MID WEST. P2

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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.

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– its the perfect picture to get this project started –
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– I know its weird but ive always wanted to come to one of these –
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– photographing motor bikes is just fun –

 

B165 – The Cool Side of Unknown America – photography project

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So today was has been my best day so far, I had 146 views. so thank you to everyone who checked my post out.  which is putting me on target of getting 12,000 overall views for the whole year I’m doing this photo challange, which is probably annoying a lot of you with my posts each’ day. its the end of a long long shoot day in pretty hot temperatures here is St.louis missouri, and for once im pretty happy to be in the best western hotel room. anit nothing wrong with some cheap bed sheets and thin walls.

its days like this were I really cant think of any to write and the urge to fall asleep is taking over. the last 45 mintues has been spent editing photos ive quickly taken through out the day, i really cant complain becuase im pretty happy with them. my plan before I came out to america was to just take nice photos each day. but that plan has kind of changed, as im here working and meeting people that you wouldn’t meet everyday, I think my plan now is to show life in america away from the tourist routes, like New York, LA, Nashville and Florida. I want to try and get across what everyday america looks like, from the cool little houses, to the massive stretches of roads. All of that is important, it gives an under the cover look at america. for a country with so much personality and with the constant cool factor, it think I should concentrate on showing the cool side to unknown america. maybe thats what I will call this project within a porject. “THE COOL SIDE OF UNKNOWN AMERICA”. great brainstorming session guys, youve really helped me to nail this one. for the rest of my time in american, Im going to try and show you the cool side to this great and crazy country.

If this fails in 5 days time, im sorry. but heres my first snaps from this project inside a project.  I think for day one of cool unknown america, I should show where people live and the roads they use. this is never going to be political photos, just cool pictures from inside the bigger picture of america. I dont even know what im going to write about for the daily posts, but im sure we will figure it out. if you have anything you think I should include, please let me know.

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– the view from my room, this morning there was “loads of fog” they should see biggin hill in January! –
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– over here the car is king and more importantly the pick up truck is in charge, everyone uses the pick up truck –
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– the most american house I ever did see, it ever had a swinging chair on the porch –

 

B164 – THE DAY I LOST 20,000 PHOTOS.

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20,000. Thats the number of photos I may have lost today. my hard drive that I’ve been using for the past 2 months has gone down. its not being recognised in any computer. Im pretty sure its the SATA bridge but there no way to know until I get back to the UK and can run some tests, so I wont know for certain until the 29th if Ive lost those photos. Now, no one comment “did you not back them up” because I have, and at home I have two back ups for all my photos, just not any back ups from the last two months. I was going to back up those 90 days when I got back. I try to back up every month but to be honest I just havent for the past two months. this isn’t a lesson, this is just a test to see how good I am at digging myself out of a crappy situation. I got this. this is just what technology does, it breaks and goes down without any warning. I was using a professional 1TB LaCie Rugged, and its just gone down.

Im praying to god that I can fix this when I get back, by simply switching out the SATA bridge with one off Amazon or ebay. heres a link to the one I will probably buy.

https://www.amazon.com/IO-Crest-SY-ADA20079-Adapter-Cable/dp/B0057UAB2K/ref=sr_1_25?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1505357243&sr=1-25&keywords=sata+bridge

All I need todo is unscrew the casing of the drive and then disconnect the actually hard drive from the SATA to USB bridge that will be at one end and then plug it into my new one that you’ve brought of Amazon. easy.

if the same thing has happened to you, heres some tips: make sure you buy the right bridge, because depending on if you have 2.5 inch drive or a 3inch drive that will depend on what replacement you get). its easy todo and im pretty sure anyone can it do. please drop me a message at joshfspear@icloud.com with your make and model or the broken drive and I will help you to find the correct part.

Im writing this post to help anyone else who might be in this problem and has had a drive go down. its possible the worst feeling when you’ve lost content that you think is not recoverable. Im not saying its 100% that I’m going to be able to get it all back and if I cant I will be paying someone to do. it has added about 10 times more stress to my day and to this blog challenge!

to everyone else, read this and then go and back up all your content. please just do it for me. If I have lost all those photos I’ve taken on the first half of this trip, trust me they were probably the best photos you would ever of seen! they were incredible.

anyway heres some cool photos I took today in and around historic downtown st Charles just outside of St Louis. its about a 40 minute drive and is worth it. the street is full of cool little shops and is famous for its fried Ravioli, we wanted to try it last night but ended up with a burrito. tomorrow it is on the cards. enjoy these photos and let me know what you think.

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– this man was just sitting on the curb drawing on his diggery do –
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– this car looks like something out of a movie –
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– cant beat a good sunset shot –

 

 

 

 

B163 – watch out for boxer bombs

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For a day off its been pretty busy, we started off at some place called gringos which is this crazy store that sells just about everything you could imagine from life size giraffes to day of the dead napkins. its one of those cool stores that goes on forever and sells everything. the weirdest thing is they have a sign on the floor warning you of dog poo from these two shop dogs called Darren and Darren, im not joking they gave two dogs the same name! if your ever on Shaw street in St louis by the botanical Gardens you cant miss this shop, stop by and say hello. the people who run it our legends.

After the first stop we moved onto the Botanical Gardens for a little adventure, its so strange how just by walking around plants and stuff can be so relaxing, i’m definitely changing my bath room at home into a forest. it would literally change the game up so much, I dont think I have any other option than to buy a bunch of plants and stick them in my bathroom. Im going to draw a few sketch’s for when I get back and hit the ground running.

Some time after we left the Botanical Gardens, we made a decision to head down town and check out St louis, we basically ended up at the baseball park, trying to buy tickets for the game this evening against Cincinnati reds, after we got hold of some tickets, we had to go to the fan store and by a hat, which in turn ended up with us blowing a bit of money to make us look like die hard fans. I would say its a success and now ive got a cool hat and jumper out of it.

The day off has been a success and now we are ready to get back to work tomorrow and finish off what we have started, “m ready to crack on and make some good TV. right after Ive got a good night sleep and a bowl of lucky charms tomorrow morning.

heres some photos from today. Im right this as the st Louis Cardinals carry on playing, at the moment they are up 13-6, so hopefully they win. I’m now a die hard Cardinals fan and only want the best for my team.

Sorry for any spelling mistakes, Im not going to proof read this.

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– the st louis cardinals –
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– whats a Boxer bomb? –
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– the botanical gardens, st louis –
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– he has know Idea what a boxer bomb is… –
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– my baseball stash –

 

B162 – New day, New state

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That us done with North Carolina, next stop St. Louis Missouri, im currently at the airport watching planes take off at Raleigh Airport with a beer and burger. tomorrow is our first proper no work day off since getting to this side of the world and I actually cant wait. There’s not a definite plan but I think a water park is on the cards.

I have to say that North Carolina has been interesting from their choice of food, its just steak and deep fried fresh asparagus to the amount of guns that everyone has. In the uk you think that people in America might own one or two guns, but everyone I have spoken to seems to have about 20!

I defintatly want to come back to this part of the world not to work and rush around but to just take photos and meet the people. Its one of the those places where everyone has so much to say and its pretty cool to hear peoples views. You can’t agree with everyone but you can hear him or her out. Then make your opinion. I think we could each other learn a lot from each other.

My last day here has been filled with Pancakes, Burgers, Fries and extra large coke. I’ve had a burger for lunch and dinner and now cant wait to find a gym tomorrow and cycle till I fill normal again, its fair to say I’ve eaten the southern way these past few days, and now I’m ready for something that’s been grown and put on my plate with out any sugar or preservatives.

Anyway onto to the next state, I have no idea what Missouri is like and really excited to have a day off there and explore the city. St Louis is meant to be amazing so im looking forward to getting there and not spending the day on a schedule or with a Peli case.

Thank you Goldsboro for the big plates of food and for make me appreciate organic vegetables.

Sorry for the lack in creative photos, today I was just trying to get through it in one piece.

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– the waffle house near downtown Goldsboro –
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– sitting at releigh airport waiting for my plane –
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– getting the back end of the storm over here, so pretty rainy and cold, St louis is meant to be a bit warmer I think –

 

B161 – Downtown

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this morning a lot of time was spent filming down town, which meant we got to see what life is like in proper Downtown. and to be honest on a Sunday its pretty quite. aperently Goldboro is in the Bible belt, which means strict religious rules, like church on Sundays, no alcohol and all shops are shut. That basically meant we had the town to ourselfs, which was actaully pretty weird, the only other people there were the curious locals watching us, or the one lady who came up and asked “what is that?” while pointing to the camera…

North Carolina has been a tough few days and tomorrow we leave for the next destination, im looking forward to eating some organic food. its tough eating processed food all the time. one question I have for anyone reading this for the south, why are you using polystyrene plates and cutlery to eat? that stuff is bad for the environment and must cost you a fortune! some people east every meal off of polystyrene? why?

I dont want to moan but that is a crazy amount of extra waste, just use china like the rest of us and wash up after. trust me its not that much more time consuming and means you can re-use your plates. I will happily send anyone a link to cheap cutlery if you need help finding it. 70 polystyrene plates are $18, now that will last 2 people a month, or you could by 6 china plates for $30 and they will easily last you a year. and thats 3 each.

on a lighter topic, today I saw my first proper american motor cycle gang unspoken sons, at first they scared the hell out of people and one of them even looked like he was going to kill me or something, the president even introduced himself as Nasty, which didn’t make me to confident but after a quick google this evening I realised that they are actually a massive support of Children’s charities. so I think I’m pretty safe.

Heres my photos, hope you like them.

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– the unspoken sons MC, president a man called Nasty –
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– downtown goldboro after church –
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– a pick up truck cruising through town –

B160 – A NUCLEAR BOMB

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Im currently in a town called Goldsboro in north Carolina, its this small town which falls under the wayne county, form in 1787 by William Whitefeild iii. to be honest this place has got a fair bit of history and something I think is pretty cool to know more about considering the fact that I’m staying here.

One cool fact about this place is todo with a battle that happened here in 1862 called the Battle of Goldborough Bridge. the whole reason for this battle was because both sides wanted to have the strategic possession for the rail road bridge, like a proper western movie. General John Foster turned up at the bridge with his troops on December the 17th, with the sole aim to destroy the position and put a holt to the enemies supply chain from the port of Wilmington. John Foster managed to complete this mission and burned down the bridge on the same day that they arrived, this really annoyed the confederate troops on the other side. they decided to attack General Foster and his troops on their way back to New Bern. which kind of failed because the confederate troops ended off with more causalities that John Fosters men.

Another interesting fact is that in 1961 two NUCLEAR bombs were dropped 12 miles from Goldsboro in the town of Faro, by accident when a B-52 bomber carrying two 3.8 Megaton Hydrogen bombs broke up mid air and went through several stages of detention, one bomb was discovered but the second bomb broke up and it is believed that a big part of Uranium is still in the swamp somewhere. Maybe thats the reason some swamp people have 6 toes and 7 fingers…

Anyway, heres some snaps from today, I really wanted to go with the black and white shots today and shot a normal neighbour in this part of the world.

I hope you like these snaps.

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– Goldsboro, North Carolina –
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– the Neighbourhood –
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– the front lawn –

B159 – SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY

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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.

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– Taking photos of striaght roads is pretty fun for some reason –
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– this is a post box –
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– Hurricane Irma has emptied the shelves –