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.
– This place is like no other restaurant ive been in –– this photo was taken by turning the table lamp upside down and using the light from it –– a bad quality photo but I still like it –
Today I just wanted to go out and take photos of people, I havent done that for a long time and it was something I was determined todo. After finishing work at like 6ish, I headed to sainsburys grabbed a red bull and hit the street just to take some photos and chill out, it was one of those days where you are hoping for something good to happen, like the time I saw a man sun bathing on Shoreditch highstreet.
it was just one of those days where you have to wait and wait and wait for that photo opportunity, lucky enough a guy walks past holding and an umbrella and I think I managed to pull the shot off, you might also be able to see the guy furthest on the right giving him some weird look.
Street photography is something I really want to get better at, I really enjoy walking around and just taking photos of people, who are posing or doing anything. they’ve just switched off and going from A to B. Alot of it comes down to right place, right time, so I think Ive just got to carry on taking as many photos as possible and one day I might take that amazing photo! not sure about my writing skills though, i think thats a lost cause.
Anyway heres my snaps enjoy.
– not sure what he needs the umbrella for, but be probably had a good reason –– she is in full toga part mood –– this guys a legend –
This weekend was mostly spent painting my living room and kitchen, it was only meant to be the living room, but after we raided Homebase for just about everything they had we said “F@ck it lets paint the kitchen too” . Lucky amy left me to decide on the colour, she said it was my choice and she wouldn’t get involved. when she said that I knew it would be a cool wall. What she actaully meant was, I would pick colour and then she would do the rest, Lucky I wanted bright orange, she was happy with that, so we ended up getting a very very bright orange.
then it was just a case of painting the whole thing, which is ok for the first 4 hours but doing a few coats on the ceiling was horrendous. but theres no better feeling than looking back at your work and getting that feeling on self-accomplishment.
any way I completely forgot to take any photos till like half 9 and night, so heres a few close ups of my favourite parts of the room. theres still work to be done, so Casa Del Josh isn’t finished yet. But we are close. Very very close.
– this is the new addition, the coco nut tree –– loud and proud – this orange is Morroccan sunset, crazy isn’t it –– the mirror needs a clean –
The other day a company called SleekLens got in touch with me and asked if I would try out there PreSets for Light room and let them know what I think. Long story short it’s a quick way for you to edit photos on Lightroom, without having to adjust the exposure or contrast. This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, is it a way for me to save time editing photos, will it help to improve my blog?
SleekLens asked me to try the Presets on Landscape photography, so the best thing for me to do was head over to Hampstead Heath early on Saturday morning and see what I could capture and see how good these Presets are.
Sleek Lens sent me the Through The Woods Presets, which are aimed at Landscape Photography. I wont go on any more, Ill let my photos do the talking.
– before the Preset is Applied –– using the TtW|2-Exposure- Darken Shadows-1 – I’m pretty happy with the colours of this photo, but my favourite part of this photo is the shape of that tree, it looks like a proper tree. if you get what I mean and the colour helps to define that –– before a filter is applied –– using the TtW|1 – Base – High Dynamic Range – my main focus was shooting in photo with a high aperture, to help bring out the cloud in the back ground, then because im shooting RAW, i will be able to bring the the tree up i n Lightroom, and was basically me testing to see if the Presets could do that and I can tell you that they can –– Before a Preset is applied –– using the preset – TtW|1-Base – Monochrome Fantasy – I wanted to see how good the black and white presets were and what better thing to test this preset on than a white focal point, with dark shades in the background. Im happy with this, but I think black and white presets are a difficult thing, because B&W always looks good to me , but when I shoot stuff like this I want to bring out the grass in the middle of the photo a bit more, make it more defined, I think it looks a bit blurry and could be a bit more sharp, maybe I was using the wrong preset, if you know a better sleeklens preset, holla at your boy! –– Before a Preset is applied –– Preset used: TtW|0_All In ONe – Warm Shadows – this was a bit of a wild card photo, I wanted to snap something that had a busy foreground and also movement in the back of the shot. I wanted a Preset that used the clarity tool on the leaves to help define them a bit more, while at the same time not distorting the people in the back, I want it to be quite a shallow depth of field and not do anything to crazy, just highlight a few colour, I would say this has done this pretty well –
I’m pretty happy with the outcome of these photos and think these presets are going to be a really handy tool for when I’m doing these posts. Will I use it everyday? No. probably not, I enjoy editing photos and the process that I go through to get these posts online, but when its 1 in the morning, I’ve been working all day, and just want to get to sleep, these presets are going to be a life saver.
They could also be a valuable tool in learning how Lightroom works, choose a preset you like and then work backwards from there, how did the preset use the clarity or White balance to get your desired effect? To finish off and not to sound like some rambling on blog, look into these presets and figure out how or when you would use them, I think they are something every photographer should have in their inventory, but not a necessity.
Overall I would say Sleeklens is an 8/10 and definitely has a professional feel to them, Heres a link to their website go check it out and see if they are any good for you, if you have any more questions about this, let me know and ill be happy to answer any questions, or if you think i’m completely wrong let me know too.
Check out these links to SleekLens and also some of the stuff they get up to, its a great idea and is a game changer for when you need photos edited quickly and without losing that professional feel.
So yesterday I didn’t take any photos, literally not one. I spent the day sorting out all the photos Ive taken over the past 128 days, the plan is to create a portfolio of all my best shots, so you don’t just see them for a day and then thats it. My portfolio is now up and running and has loads of my favourite photos on it. the whole thing is actually pretty hard, ive never made anything like a portfolio before, so Ive been checking out some of my favourite photographers and see how they have done it and getting some inspiration. Ive got a few ideas, so just need to work on it. check it out and let me know what you think, you should be able to see a new tab at the top of the page called “my work”.
So for this post, here are three of my favourite photos thats Ive posted these past 128 days!
Today is also 13th anniversary of Donald Duck receiving the 2,257th Hollywood star! congratulations to the best Donald I know!
– SHOREDITCH HIGHSTREET –– from a few weeks ago, Victoria Park –– the m25, when it was actually summer, not just a rainy august –
today I thought it would be a good idea to go out early morning around bethnal green / hackney and practice my sun flare skills, its my favourite camera technique and something that I really want to get prefect. obviously, using something like a 85mm prime lens really takes a sun flare shot to the next level and I’m hoping to get my hands on one of those next week, but for now my 24-105mm will have to do the job. I know you can add lens flare in photoshop but I want to learn how todo them in real life first before I use computer software.
my plan is to watch a tone of youtube videos on lens flare and see how I can improve, but for now heres a few photos I took this morning. I want to show these ones and then maybe tomorrow ill show you a few more that Ive done after watching some youtube tutorials.
-I’m liking the over exposed look –– hackney road. 7am. –– the sun raise was perfect this morning –
right I think we can all agree that tuesdays, should be a day of no work. its the one day each week, where you forget about the weekend you just had and still to far off to think about the weekend you have coming up. they’re just a day where you work, go home and get ready for Wednesday. I always try and mix a Tuesday up, to give it something a bit different, but yesterday I had nothing. I just worked, had a mini shoot half way though the day, which was a bit fun. So on my walk home, I decided to take some photos of cool shadows, that mix it up abit. see what weird shapes I could find, that normally you would just walk past, but with the light being so SICK in the summer, I wanted to use that to my advantage.
Heres a few snaps.
P.s my camera is still broken, I stuck the lens in a bucket of water to take some underwater pictures of crabs and now its got water damage, im hopefully buying a new camera on Saturday,
– the door to get out for my work, the beginning of my walk home –-some alley way near bethnal green road, it looked cool so I stopped for a snap –– I have no idea why I like this, but it does look pretty cool with the orange –
Firstly I have to say, the Beetles have a zebra crossing on Abbey Road, the Libertines have a cracked out alley way inbetween Bethnal Green and Hackney, its literally called “up the bracket Alley” it used to be called Grove Passage, but someone stole the road sign and now probably has it hung up their mothers wall. the reason for this is because it was the location of the Up The Bracket Music Video.
Heres a link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0u_g6zNuP_I
This alley has become a shrine to the band, with people writing on the wall about their memories of the band and the impact they had, its actually an amazing alley for that reason, but what makes it even better is the fact it stinks on piss and covered in smashed beer bottles. It kind of makes it that little bit more special. that fact you have to walk through a black cab repairs garage under some dark bridge off of the main road, definitely adds a bit of an uneasy atmosphere to the whole thing.
I was at the gig a few years back where a guy stripped off naked and climbed the lighting rig, for no reason what so ever, accept they are at a libertines gig and thats what happens.
I genuinely don’t think my writing skills are good enough to describe this alley way and what it feels like to walk down it, Ill have to get my friend matt green and his “creative writing degree” to help me out on that one.
but trust me if there is one thing you HAVE todo next time your in London, take the adventure over to “Up the Bracket Alley” and check it out, don’t take your phone or go there after dark though it might not be the same experience.
Heres my photos of Up The Bracket Alley!
– looks just like abbey road –– road signs are over rated anyway, nothing a bit of spray paint cant solve –– below this was a suspicious puddle –– messages from all over the world! –
for the next 5 days Im going to concentrate on taking photos of people around London, its something that I’ve wanted todo for a long time and something I want to get better at. Street photography is big in London and probably to most popular type of photography around here, so I think its time I give it a proper try. At the moment, Im a big fan of black and white street photos I think they just add something else to the photo, so for now I’m probably going to concentrate on that, but well see where it ends up.
Heres some photos I took yesterday on my lunch break and after work having pizza in the park. have a look at ’em and tell me what you think.
– business on top, fitness on the bottom (running in a shirt) –– just going to meet my mates –– looks intense –
The whole point of this posting three new photos a day, is really to try out different techniques and just figure out what i enjoy taking photos of. so the other day Amy and me went to the park in the afternoon when the sun was low and tried out taking photos of someone just standing there and see how it played out. to be honest Im pretty happy with the results.
normally I only edit in Lightroom, but for these photos decided to start off in LR but then export to photoshop and see if I could get a different look and improve the stills. Photoshop is one of those programs that people spend years learning and I have experience with it, but now want to understand more about the software, and the best way todo that is to practise every day.
– trying to use the sun to add something else to these photos –– she’s a bit out of focus but I think it works –– you cant go wrong in black and white –
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