black and white

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

September 19, 2017September 19, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

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!

B169 (1 of 1) — – the caddy is something I want back home –

B169 (1 of 1)-8 — – black and white just adds to the photos –

B169 (1 of 1)-11 — – this tool was probably once pretty useful to someone –

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

September 16, 2017September 16, 2017 joshfspear1 Comment

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.

B166 (1 of 1)-3 — – its the perfect picture to get this project started –

B166 (1 of 1)-4 — – I know its weird but ive always wanted to come to one of these –

B166v1 (1 of 1) — – photographing motor bikes is just fun –

B136 – Slow Shutter Speed

August 16, 2017August 16, 2017 joshfspear2 Comments

Tuesday was pub quiz night, a serious thing. I have to say they aren’t really my strong point. but it was a good laugh anyway, on the way to the quiz though we had a bit of a long wait at Shoreditch over ground, so I spend the time having some fun with sow shutter speeds, its basically where you let everything go blurry but things that don’t move stay sharp.

Its good because if you have all the settings right you can catch the right amount of light to really bring out the photo. I think that street photos look good in Black and White, it adds this extra feeling to the photo and its hard to have a snap in colour and still have the same effect. Thats down to the fact that street photos always have the feel to them imperfection being perfect to capture the moment, which transfers to B&W photos so much easier. Deep Stuff.

Something I think is important to slow shutter speeds, is still capturing the fact that things are still moving in the photo, if the shutter is too slow you’ll lose that and if its that little bit too fast it will just look like a blurry photo, I had my shutter around 1/6 with F5 and ISO 400 .

So for now I’m just going to have all my street photos in B&W, but I suppose I might give colour street photos a try soon. but for now, heres my photos.

B136-1 — – I like the movement that blurry photos give you –

B136-1-3 — – it helps to give a sense of things running around –

B136-1-4 — – I like this one, amy once again being used as a model, if I was going to do it again I would have amy stand still and completely in focus –

B116 – RAIN DROPS ARE MORE LIKE BURGER BUNS.

July 27, 2017July 26, 2017 joshfspear1 Comment

so im now 116 days into this 3 photos a day and a brief paragraph thing, and trying to come up with things to take photos of and write about after working a days work anit so easy. but today I though, I would write about rain, the brussel sprout of the eco system, everyone hates it, but if it was for rain, we would probably most definitely be dead. it clears out the Carbon Dioxide from the air, keeps plants alive, which then keep us a live.

So heres a few interesting facts about rain and if anyone has any ideas on things I should take photos of, then please let me know. Im in an office all day at the moment and need to start doing some exploring.

The highest amount of rainfall ever recorded in 24 hours is 182.5 centimetres (71.9 inches) in Foc-Foc, La Réunion. This occurred during tropical cyclone Denise on January 8, 1966.
The highest amount of rainfall ever recorded in one year is 25.4 meters (1000 inches) in Cherrapunji, India.
Antarctica is the driest continent on Earth.
Under certain conditions, rain can fall from the sky without ever reaching the ground. It happens when rain falling from a cloud evaporates or sublimes as it approaches the earth’s surface.
rain has a smell. When raindrops fall on dusty or clay soils, they trap tiny air bubbles on the surface which then shoot upward – as in a glass of Champagne – and burst out of the drop throwing aerosols of scent into the air where they are then distributed by wind.
Raindrops are shaped more like hamburger buns. As a rain drop falls, it becomes less spherical in shape and becomes more flattened on the bottom like a hamburger bun.

B113-1-7 — – Norfolk rain the other day –

B116-1 — – rain clouds, the sign of summer in the UK –

B095 – Street Photography for the next 5 days

July 6, 2017July 6, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

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.

B095-1-2 — – business on top, fitness on the bottom (running in a shirt) –

B095-1-3 — – just going to meet my mates –

B024 – Black and white

April 26, 2017April 26, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

So this is my last week at work before I move on (goodbye barcroft). On my way home from work last night, In a bit of a rush I just took a few photos that i thought looked good. I like black and white photos at the moment, so I think there will be quite a lot of black and white photos in London to come.

B024-1-3 — – for a quick snap this turned out ok –

B024-1 — – I like the bridge in this photo –

B024-1-2 — – this is pretty cool, with the shape of the flats –

B012 – SEE YA LATER LONDON

April 14, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

For easter weekend Im getting the hell out of Dodge. First stop is Norfolk to see Amy’s family and then its on to a little place called Huntingdon for a family easter egg hunt.

As yesterday turned out to be a bit of a rush, heres a few snaps of the train journey last night.

B010-1 — – At least Liverpool street station wasn’t too busy last night –

B010-4 — – Shout out to Amy for actually booking tickets –

B010-3 — – Not by the hairs on my chinny chin chin –

B004 – A Leica of the day

April 6, 2017April 6, 2017 joshfspear2 Comments

Yesterday, I managed to persuade Red Dot cameras to lend me a Leica D-Lux for a few hours. Heres some snaps from my lunch break. It wasn’t easy giving it back.

B004-1-4 — Im standing on a dolphins head – Photo Credit: Laura D’Alberto