Tag: america

B193 – 24/7 THIS PLACE DOESN’T STOP

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The city of New York is like nothing I have ever experienced before, its never been somewhere thats top of my list and Ive always been pretty chilled out about coming here. but oh my god, this place is like a big fun fair for people who love cities. One of my major things about a city is for those societies that will happily bend the rules sightly to get what they need done, im not talking about shooting some one or robbing a bank, im talking about those little inconveniences that some cities are just scared to break. Like J walking, in places like Sydney if you J walk your a law breaker and should be dealt with appropriately, its really frowned apon, but in New York people love it, it makes crossing the road so much easier, cars dont even beep you, they just try not to run you over.

One of the first questions everyone asks themselve’s when they get to a new country or city is “Can I live here?” and most of the time its yes, you get caught up in the moment and just think you can, Ive done it but rarley have I thought about it deeply enough to think it could actually work. Like LA for instance, I love LA and would happily go there for long periods of time, but could I actually live there? probably not, its way too big and my body is in no shape to be flexing my guns on venice beach.

Where as New york is the extreme version of London and seem to have all the same idea’s, people like to create stuff and have a good time. I feel that new York is some where I could call home and would love to explore and get to now more about it. One thing is for sure though, I would need some ear plugs because this place is 24/7 and people seem to always be making noise.

I would love to go on about my pro’s and con’s for living in a different city or country but I have a 6:30am call time tomorrow and would love to get some sleep.

Heres my photos from today. Bon appetit.

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– Its true what people say, new York traffic is like nothing anywhere else, it just seems to go on and go and on –
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– one of the photos I took on my way to get some food –
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– something is always happening on every block –

B192 – THE ONLY WAY TO SEE NEW YORK

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There’s a few main things everyone does when they arrive at a new city. Most activities are surrounded by the main tourist spots, eating food food and having a look around the individual shops that you always find scattered around city streets. But if your really looking to see a city and get to know the streets, there’s only one thing todo and that’s jump on a bike, get rubber side up and cycle around without a Scooby Doo of where you’re going.

That’s basically what I decided todo, this morning after waking up, getting my work done early I decided to head to the big smoke. When I got to down town New York I quickly realised that B&H camera store was closed and now I had no idea where or what I was going to do. So jumping on a bike was the best option. Nothing is better than cycling around a city just explore and finding your feet.

After a few Highway Code incidents I was pretty much a local, the main rule when cycling in New York or really any city is, if you see a gap, go for it and don’t hesitate. Once I got over the fact everyone drives on the wrong side of the road, my first stop was Brooklyn bridge I’ve always wanted to see the Hudson River from that bridge and today I actually did it.

New York is a place that’s basically featured in 80% of all movies America movies ever made and cycling around you start to recognise street corners or building that have definitely been on screen and that’s half the fun of this city. trying to figure out what street has been on what film.

I would give you a complete time line of what my day consisted of, but what’s the point. I would rather talk about the fact the only way to see New York and feel some way part of the city is to grab a bike and just see where you end up. And if by any chance you end up in Broadway, go and try the $1 pizza by the slice store it’s called joeys pizza and is the perfect place to finish up your cycle. who need some expensive gourmet sandwich when you can get a re-heat pizza for a faction of the price.
Tomorrow is the first day of filming and the end of my 12 hour holiday. My legs are pretty much dead. I’m not sure the total amount of miles cycled but it’s got to be about 15. From Times Square down to Brooklyn and back up and around noho / soho. in my defence today is an adjustment day, and the best way to get rid of Jet lag is to exercise. and thats exactly what I’ve done.

Heres my photos from today, enjoy.

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– cycling around this city early morning was pretty cool –
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– this was somewhere I always wanted to go, Brooklyn Bridge –
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– this is somewhere i just happened to find, New York Supreme court, how many movies do you know from this location –
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– In the distance is the statue of Liberty –
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– my typical New York photo –

B191

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Its been 25 hours since I left my house and the day is finally over, im laying in my bed next to Williamsburg Bridge and its fair to say this is amazing. out of my window I can see the Empire State building and the Rockerfalla, what a view to fall asleep looking at. right now I should feel tried but this city doesn’t seem to sleep so its only right that I stay awake that little bit longer just incase I miss something.

Ive only explored the city this afternoon for a few hours and only walked around seeing the sites and just getting my bearings but already I know this place moves at like 100 miles per hour, blink and you’ve missed someone walking around in an Elmo outfit while someone rides bike the wrong way down a one way street, while a group of taxi beep him like crazy. Im struggling to find the words to describe this places, the closest thing I can think of is “London on Steroids”. thats literally New York.

With such a short amount of time here before moving on, I’ve got to be really careful about what I choice todo, the main thing on my list is going to the B&H camera store tomorrow and checking that place out, its been on my list of things todo for ages and tomorrow is my chance. if you know about it, then you know why I want to go, if your not sure what im on about. heres a link:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%26H_Photo_Video (i know people don’t agree with Wikepdia but for this purpose its fine).

I also want to walk across the manhattan bridge and just see the sites really, maybe hire a bike if I get time or something like that.

Anyway I was only going to post three photos of today, but I’ve changed my mind, whats the point in taking loads of photos of this place each day only to post them every now and again when Im back in london. today is a bit short and sweet, but thats because my brain is slowly falling a sleep. tomorrow we will conquer.

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– this is my view during the day from my room –
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– this is my view at night, while in bed. New Yorks sky line is like nothing ive seen before –
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– I love New York –
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– this place is constantly moving at full sleep –
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– it was like this guy was waiting for someone to take a photo of him –

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

B172 – THIS IS A PROPER PIZZA

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I thought today I would have a look back at some Iphone snaps, Ive got a few days left of America before heading to Canada for a bit and then I will be heading home. So this seems like a good idea, since most of the time I carry my 5d with me where ever I go, there hasn’t been many iphone photos. Which is a bit annoying because I enjoy using my phone as a camera. its really good at just capturing photos in the moment and not as “set up” as a DSLR can be sometimes.

These photos from my phone, were taken around Chicago, the group of birds I think are king fishers but I’m not sure, they where all sitting on the grass by a road, I decided to jump out, try and sneak up on them and get a photo which didn’t really work out, they all bolted and flew off. which i think made for a cool photo the one time I didn’t have my camera and a good zoom lens and I see these. Next time ill be prepared.

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– I quite like the fact these birds have flown off, i think it makes the photo better –

I want to show is the stupidly big Chicago deep pan pizza, which weighs about 5lbs. No joke. When I walked into the kitchen last night and saw only a big and small box to share I was bit worried it wasn’t going to be enough. That wasn’t the case, four slices later and I’ve loosened my belt and gone a bit dizzy. That thing wasn’t a pizza it was more like a quiche. Half pepperoni half sausage was more than enough to feed 5 people. What surprised me how well it all worked together, not only was this thing more like a challenge but it had taste, I eat 3 slices before my body even realised and then after half way through the 4th, I hit the wall and it was all down hill after that. 16 hours later and I still haven’t eaten a thing.

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– this was too much pizza for 5 people to eat, they are about an inch thick with mozzarella –

 

I don’t really have a reason for taking this photo, I was in Starbucks and it kind of made me chuckle how all these guys were studying, facing the same way and looked like they were all sat like you would be if you were doing a test. I kind of like the mood they set.

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– this looks like an intense study session –

Let me know what you think of this new layout and if you think it works.

B171 – COOL UNKNOWN AMERICA – I THINK IVE LEARNT SOMETHING – PT.5

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Today is the last day of me doing my first mini photo project, Cool Unknown American. Im not really sure how much is unknown or how much everyone knows, but my plan was just to show the inner workings on America on a whistle stop tour of America these past few days. Im about to have a really busy few days, so I think its probably best is I go for a five part project.

I’m currently sat in someone’s garage as the temperature hits 95 degrees, its pretty hot and there’s no air con but that will no break me.

With these posts its always tough to figure out what to write about and with photos, Ive always wanted to let my photos do the talking and just let people read each image and take away from it what they please. That’s not really the case, if you can take a good photo that seems to be about 60% of it, the other 40% is your writing. How well you can capture and write about that photo. That’s what I’ve learnt about this project, my photos are only doing a percentage of the work, I need to explain the reason behind the photos and what I think. Maybe its time for a new shake up of this blog, change the layout and my angle. I’m coming up to the 6 month mark in 11 days and the past 171 days have taught me a lot.

Two of the photos you see below are from previous days, one is of this incredible sunset we saw over the Illinois river on the drive from St.louis to Chicago. It was like a 6 hour drive, on the same straight road of like 200 miles, we got bored half way through and turned off on to the old route 66, this photo was taken just after we joined back on the highway across over the river and then were met by this crazy sunset. I love taking photos of sunsets, they never get boring. my favourite part about this photo is the reflection off the river in the back ground, it makes it feel like mid west america to me.

The other photo is from the VW car meet, this guy was standing up on the flat bed trying to sell things I think. I dont know why, I just thought it was a good photo opportunity so i took it. that car meet was one of those moments that will stand out for me on this trip. I just happened to look out of my hotel window and saw all this craziness happening across the road, so grabbed my camera and just started taking photos. nothing was planned, it just all seemed to fall into place.

anyway I’ve just eaten way to much Chicago deep pan pizza to keep me full or the next week, so heres my three photos.  enjoy.

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– this is my view of the amazing weather outside –
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– sunset on highway 55, Illinois river –
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– this guy knew how to sell –

 

B169 – UNKNOWN COOL AMERICA – THE JUNK YARD TRIP – PT.3

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about a mile down the road from the hotel we are staying in, is this cool scrap / mechanics / junk yard that has a few hidden gems. From the freeway that runs parallel to the yard, you can see this 1970’s all white cadillac and as today was a prep day, basically getting ready for our up and coming shoots. I thought I would get in a bit of time to explore this yard.

On the way over I thought I would try something a bit different and shoot these in Black and White not edit them later in lightroom and turn them black and white. but completely shoot black and white. my thought process was that because theres a  complete mixture of items from eras and parts from around the world that have all ended up in the same place, the only way I would be able to get across the feeling abandoness *not sure if thats a word, but ill go with it*. was by shooting Black and white.

Its 99% worked, these photos have a feel of loneless and despair, everything you see in this junk yard once had a home, it was once used for a purpose and now its left out in the elements to rust away until its up-cycled and found a new home. Hopefully. places like this yard are full of stories, like the van below which to me looks like it has a bullet hole in the windscreen and the front completely caved in. what the hell happened to that truck? as someone who likes the over the top story line, I like to think it was involved in some kind of gangsta stuff involving two bonnie and Clyde characters who instead of robbing a bank accidentally ended up in my library because bonnie was drunk that day and didn’t scoop the place out first. which meant the police got involved and took a pop at Cylde the get away driver. so now their choice of get away van is sat rusting away in the junk yard in Chicago instead of Mexico.

I can almost guarantee thats no where near what actually happened, but thats the kind of crap my brain likes to conjure up when Im taking these photos.

heres my photos from todays mini shoot. thanks to Frank and Al for letting me explore their Junk Yard!

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– the caddy is something I want back home –
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– the bullet hole? –
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– this van –
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– black and white just adds to the photos –
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– this tool was probably once pretty useful to someone –
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– big and small –

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 –

 

 

 

 

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 –