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B328 – CHESSINGTON WORLD OF ADVENTURES HOTEL ROOM REVIEW

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Last night I slept in a bunkbed. I had the choice of a double bed but I chose the bunkbed all for the content of this post, tonight Im staying at Chessington World of Adventures and its pretty cool. Not only do they have Bunk beds but they also have a Lizzard in the reception and the lifts look like your in a hot air ballon. If I was a kid this would be where I would want to stay.

I suppose this post is my kind of review of this hotel and straight of the bat it gets a 6.5/10, I would give it higher but then thats probably unfair to all the 5 star hotels out there, but if I was coming to the theme park of a day out then yea I probably would stay here first and make life easier. For in room entertainment I feel a bit let down, no nice tv and the themed rooms aren’t that themed im in the jungle room and it doesnt feel too much like a jungle. chuck some themed wallpaper up and make it feel like im in the Lion king. There are two pats to this hotel so may be the other half is more themed. One major flaw is the temperature of my room, i would have to say its probably the same temperature as the Sun or maybe a big bon fire it just wont go colder. Climate control in a hotel room is the difference between a good nights sleep and a few hours broken kip. not that Im complaining or anything because there is a lizard in reception!

If we were to judge the food here I would probably give it a 5/10, my reason for a kind of low number is because I didn’t order an adult meal, Danny (this guy I work with) and I went half on the kids menu, we literally ordered everything they had on that menu and at one point it was hard to tell the fish fingers from the chicken dippers so not great and the beer here, not a massive choice and premium prices which you just have to accept at hotels.

This place is perfect if you want to pack a full day of Chessington in and dont feel like an early start but maybe a night or two would be enough, anymore and I would probably think about going somewhere else. but the bunk bed is comfy and the rooms are a nice size, I also apparently have a few of the animals but its dark now and Im leaving the room before it gets light so Ill just have to take their word on that.

Heres my photos.

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– this is the cool reception, i would take a photo of the lizzard but it was asleep and I couldnt get a good photo of it –
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– the room and my bunk bed for the night –
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– the kids meals were actually a good shout £18 for four kids meals, cant really beat that –

 

 

B327 – CLAPHAM?

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As most of you know today is Sunday and that means that about 60 percent of the nation are waking up today with a hangover and I think I speak for both Amy and myself when I say we are part of that 60%. Last night was an experience, Clapham is probably a place I wouldnt go to again, for those of you that dont know London, theres is part of South London called Clapham, its a great place to watch rugby or football but when it comes to a night out, Claphams a bit weird. Sorry to the people of Clapham, but its not you its me.

So after a few bars around the infamous Clapham Common, we decided it was best to head to a safe bet and jump on the DLR over to Peckham and see what the Bussy Building was all about. I wont go into too much detail about the night because I think everyone would start to think of me in a different light. Its all good now thought because we’ve woken up at my parents and after a bacon sandwich everyone is ready to attack this day and watch as much TV and eat as much food as possible.

I think theres a plan or something to get up and go for an early lunch and then head back home, its fair to say i am in full Sunday mode, which is probably the best kind of mode. its kind of annoying though because I really need to get off the sofa and get dressed but right now I just cant be bothered, if only someone could invent a shower that you could use of the sofa. Maybe thats what my next project should be, a shower that you can use anywhere.

Anyway heres some photos from yesterday. I hope you like them.

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– Amy giving it some sass last night at Bussy –
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– dinner in Clapham is something I would definitely do again –
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– driving to Clapham last night, Anders your a legend –

B324 – I WILL BE BACK BUT THIS TIME WITH MY CAMERA – **NEW FORMAT**

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Right now is a pretty busy time for me, yesterday ended up being about a 14 hour working day, with a fair few other things that made it a bit more of a tough day. but that is all in the past now, its now Thursday and Ive woken up a bit earlier to get this post done. The only issue with that is, I dont think Ive woken up early enough, I think maybe I got my timings for this morning a little bit wrong. So the plan is now to type as quick as I can and make some time back up.

Yesterday started off a really cool location, we were over in Essex on a shoot in a Dock yard, obviously doing something that I can really talk about, the whole day has given me so many ideas for future shoots that I would love todo. I feel like places in the UK like Dock Yards are held in a really cool ere in the UK, they all have that cool working mans vibe, where sons follow dads and dad follow Grandads down to the docks and to keep the UK stocked up with supplies. I would love to come back to this place and just take portraits of the people working here, I bet all of them have a story from the docks.

If your looks at my photos my photos today and thinking that Ive filmed in the a weird frame, then thats because I have. from now on I think my plan on really busy days is going to post photos that I put on my instagram story. for two reasons really, firstly on those busy days if you can be bothered to read through my paragraphs of grammar mistakes then just head over to @joshfspear and look at those photos stress free and also I think that its easy to take good portrait mode photos on the insta story and they are really easily transferable to WordPress and sometimes with this blog taking the easy root is the difference between an extra 45 minutes in bed.

Here are my photos from yesterday, much love! and please let me know what you think of these photos, its a new idea for me to use not everyday but maybe every now and again.

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– I wish I could of gone on a ship, they are pretty impressive  –
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– even the stair cases have the work mens vibe. I will be back to the docks with my camera in hand to photograph it more –
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– dont those tall machines look like something out of starwars –
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– this is me, looking all professional –

B323 – MY HOTEL ROOM – 7/10

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So tonight im staying in a Premier Inn somewhere in Essex for a shoot tomorrow. I also know what most people are saying about the fact that im spending my night in a premier inn and to be honest they couldnt be further from the truth. For me a Premier inn is perfect, they have all the requirements I need for a short 10 hour stay. I have a nice sized room, clean bed, safe room and best of all a shower that gives me no only hot water but cold aswell.

For most of you that read pages like like these you are probably used to reading about 5 start hotels and villas in Mexico, all I can offer you is the concept that Premier Inns do the job required and dont leave you with that felling where you want to sleep in your clothes. these places are actually safe havens for people like me, where the idea of short work trips normally involve cheap hotels and uneatable breakfast options. We see a premier Inn on the call sheet and instantly feel relieved  that its not a holiday inn or worst an independent holiday chain, that has a name like “Sunshine Inn” or something just as misleading.

for me the proof is in the shower, if its a good hotel then both the hot and cold water will run an even speeds, giving you a solid mid water temp and nothing too freighting and this Premier Inn is no exception. that have managed to get that situation just right. meaning that tomorrow at 5am, i will be about to have a full and near perfect shower. I don’t need luxury just the chance to sleep a stressfree few hours and include a 3o minute shower in the morning.

Here are my pictures of the Premier Inn room im currently staying in, for me its a solid 7 out of 10.

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– clean bedsheets make all the difference –
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– a good size room is also the difference between a good nights sleep and a bad one –
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– the shower head isnt too impressive but lets the water temp is consistant –

 

B322 – YOU HAVE FOOLED THE NATION. GRANDE BIG MAC.

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Since the whole Brexit thing began and whether your pro Brexit or against the whole situation or maybe your confused, theres one question we can all ask. Is the Grande Big Mac actually worth it? Ive heard a lot of people complain about bread to meat ratio and size and now I’m confused but rather than make a irrational decision, i thought I would investigate.

Ive decided that I would take this into my own hands and find out if its something I would buy or avoid. My plan is judge the  whole process. And first off theres the counter, you arrive and your met by this massive picture of a grand burger and your eyes that you down to the boxes sitting in the heat self, the boxes are pretty much the same size as a size 11 shoe box. No joke they are gigantic. Excitement has started to kick in and now all I want todo is sit down and enjoy this box of pure joy.

So now I have the burger in my hands and its time to dig in, but first we need to put a story to bed, is the actual meat in the burger the same size as the other burgers or has Maccy Dees properly upped the game…

I can tell you with a heavy heart that the burger meat inside is no different, what Mcdonalds have done is just make a bigger bun and sell the country a lie. for me a burger cannot be judged on its size, but rather the contents and favour. If your going to sell me a “grand Big Mac” and call it your extra large burger then please give me the burger to match.

As far as a burger at Mcdonalds goes, a Large Big Mac meal is £5.09 and a Grand Big Mac is £5.49. Thats a hole extra 40p and for that you get more bread. Im not going to talk about health facts or calorie count, because you can eat what you want but in proportion in my eyes. I can tell you now that Im sat on the sofa and my stomach feels like its going to explode.

Congratulations Mcdonalds on a really smart publicity stunt to apparently celebrate 50 years of the Big Mac and that seems to have worked for the first few weeks but now your plan has been uncovered and the people aren’t being fooled. I think we should name your Grand Big Mac, MacBrexit. We understand that they never look like they do on the adverts but this is a step too far,  You may fool the people once, but you will not fool them again. (hopefully).

But on the other hand, Junior Big Mac. That is a great idea, people love your Big Mac Sauce and everyone loves a cheese burger, on that front you have given the people what they want and combined the two and for that Ronald Mcdonald, I thank you.

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– As we can see, this burger box is pretty much taller than the fries box
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– the area of bread is impressive, its basically a mini loaf –
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– I made this picture black and white to help you compare the size of the actual burgers. please, make your own decisions. the Grand is on the Left, Junior on the right  –

B319 – APPLE STOP BEING ANNOYING

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The plan for todays post is to kind of do a recap of the week through photos that Ive taken on my iphone, post like these are actually pretty good todo because I seem to take loads of photos each day on my phone that I just completely forget about until I look back through the phone.

My normal workflow for posts is to dump all the photos on to my hard drive and then edit them in Lightroom before I even think about what Im going to write. From there I open up WordPress and start to think of a way of starting the post. Well today Ive ended up doing things a bit different, all because my phone needs to be updated, so now Im writing this without even decided what photos Ill use. Normally I would wait for my phone to update and then just go through the rhythm  of posting but as today Im spending my day off getting up early and running about to get a bunch of done, like get my hair cut and also put a fence up. Thats something I also only found out about last night and something Ive never done before, so that should be interesting.

This week has really been about early starts, I think Ive been up out and out the house before 6am more times this week than any other week of my life. people will probably call me lazy but I like to think of that as a lucky statistic and something that will probably change from now on, I got a feeling that I have a lot more early starts coming my way.

Something that is also really annoying me that the moment is Apples Airdrop, its like a spoilt child and only wants to work when it choices. Like todo for instant, Im not about to send photos via airdrop to my laptop, and now its making me late. Why does Apple make products that only they can fix, they should just make Airdrop so you can search of your  physical device. Not just wait for airdrop to find your device, Come on Tim Cook, what are you doing with you time at apple! stop making iphones every 6 months and start making your software better. give up on Apple Pages, no one like it, give up with Home pod, its just an overpriced speaker that you can only use with apples products. Apple you have really boiled my blood this morning and now made me late! Stop holding us all by the balls and creating amazing products, then just add some features which dont make it as good as it could be and then slowing us all done. Telsa just sent a car to in to space and you cant even create a piece of software that will allow my iphone to talk to my mac properly.

Sorry for the rant but Apple are in my bad books today. Here are some of my photos from the early mornings this week.

 

 

 

 

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– Walking across London bridge in the rain was actually quite fun –
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– this places makes me realise how old London actually is
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– coming out of Charring cross before everyone else is even up 

 

B318 – TAKING PHOTOS WITHOUT WALKING ANYWHERE?

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After the shoot today my plan involved rushing back to east london to try and catch a demo of the New fujifilm camera, it looks pretty sick and I think I may be in love but on my arrival to Wex Photo in Whitechapel I was met with the news that I was 30 minutes late and as a result missed the demo and the camera. Coming away from the shop feeling like a had completely failed on my post shoot mission I decided that instead of heading straight home, that I should now try and finish on a high and take some cool photos.\

The only problem with that was for the fact that since 5am I had been on my feet and running around carrying peli cases and tripods, so I needed a plan which involved taking cool photos and not really moving a whole lot. Thats when my idea came to me, theres so many cool artists around brick lane, that spend hours and hundreds of pounds painting the walls and adding some colour to this city, its almost becoming an accepted part of modern day society. if you have a nice clean wall, then someone going to put some art on it free of charge. there comes my mini plan for today. Why don’t I find a really cool wall and just photograph people walking past it and see if they even acknowledge it?

Apart from the guy that swore at me and polity told me todo one, it was pretty successful I think. after coming home and looking at the photos, I really like the choice of wall but I’m not sure what I think about the people being out of focus. I would love to say that was a choice but it really wasn’t, I wanted them to be in focus. so maybe I need to re-think my strategy a bit. I think the idea is there, I just need to now concentrate on the delivery now, I will be back and Im now thinking of this idea a lot more. Im not going to say anymore because I dont want someone to steel my idea, but if you do give it a try please send me some of your photos so i can see if you do it better than me.

Heres my favourite photos from today.

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– this is what the wall looked like when no one was standing in front of it –
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– probably my favourite photo from today, hes in my picture and maybe I made it into his –
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– she likes the art –
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– they look like they’ve seen something happening up ahead –

 

 

B308 – YORK FOR THE DAY

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Yesterday I had the job of travelling up to York for the day todo a quick shoot, its actually crazy that 2 hours from Bethnal Green, that you can be in the middle of the Yorkshire country side, breathing all that good air. Every time I go to places like York I always think that I could live there and just drive around on a quad bike all day and get muddy, but for some reason I think Ill always live in London or near to the city. I really like to think though that my a country boy at heart, if only i could do my job and live in the middle of no where with my bikes and maybe a few jumps just to keep the local hospital busy.

For a first shoot of the year, it was pretty good and with a really nice team, which makes it all that better. I think my only issue was that even though I knew I would be standing in a muddy field, I still decided that i should wear my new trainers that I brought on Saturday. Well done josh, great one. As I was spending the day in the middle of no  where I wanted to concentrate on taking some landscape photos, I think it would be a crime if I just took some photos on the train and some other kind of qwerky shots.

One thing I would love to know, is why do some hills have big horses and other things carved into the side of them? I saw the big horse shape in the side of a hill and wondered if there was a reason why its there and how does it?

My photos from yesterday are below, I really think I need to go back to York for a mini break and really see what its about. Ive only ever stopped by quickly in York for like 1 or 2 days. Maybe its time I go up there for a bit longer.

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– Im talking about that horse shape in the country side, is there any reason why it is there?
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– what could be better, even the puddles look better than they do in London –
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– this is what I want my view to be like from my window –

 

B307 – HELP THE HOMELESS – SECOND SHOT COFFEE

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Think I need to start this by saying that the meal was a success, I managed to get through it without an awkward moments and not a single drink split. So Ive come away feeling like it went well. Its now like 10pm on sunday and Im trying to write this and stay awake, Ive got to be up pretty early tomorrow and catch a train up north for the day, which I’m kind of looking forward to as its getting out of London for the day. As much as I love this city, I also love getting out and seeing parts of the UK, and tomorrow I get to see my old friend the Virgin Train economy coach.

With having a meal with some of Amy’s family that I haven’t met before, the plan for todays photos was to take them before we met everyone, so I didn’t have to worry about getting photos during and after the meal. Luckily my mind was in full creative mode and I managed to snaps some cool photos on the way to Wembley. My idea was also to use the Iphone as the 5d might have been a bit too big to bring along. I actually love the Iphone for taking photos, it makes life so much easier. the idea that I have a really good camera just a finger swipe up on a screen, has been a life saver for this blog and I don’t think I could have got this far without it. So for that Steve Jobs I thank you.

I hope everyone likes the photos today, my plan for this last stretch of the 365 daily posts is to really develop my writing and photo skills. I don’t have to get complacent and to see how much I can really improve, I think the trick is to read more and to concentrate to composition, put more thought into the direction of the writing and how it relates to the photos I take. Thats just my sunday night thinking, hope everyone had a good weekend. much love and all that!

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– Second shot coffe shop on Bethnal Green road, a coffee shop that helps the homeless. you can buy coffees and food for the homeless and they make sure they get to the right people. you also get the draw on the wall. Can you tell which drawing is mine? –
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– amy doing business on a sunday –
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– a shot from Wembley looking back on the train tracks from the bridge –

B303 – THE IPHONE PHOTOS

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This morning Im doing something I haven’t done since the last time I was working, Im bringing back the Iphone photos. for those of you who have really read the past 303 posts, what I do is take photos on my iphone and then store them up and when I haven’t really had the chance to take any photos that day, I just scroll through my phone and pull out some photo that I like. It kind of helps me keep the content up, and make sure that ive always got something to fall back on because days like yesterday when I literally just worked, came home and cooked a chilli, then by the time Ive sat down to eat anything its like 9pm at night and times just disappeared.

On my way to work in the mornings I have to walk under the A12, which is basically just like a mini motorway that runs through East London and out towards the M11. Well along this stretch of road is an old building that looks more like its been used for an illegal rave or something that anything else in the past few years. Literally the windows are smashed out and its covered in graffiti. I’ve been walking past this places for the week and every time I walk past it, I really wonder what its like inside. I know you should never go into old buildings and I would do it without the proper authorisation but I think everyone wonders what its like inside. So what I’ve done is just take some photos from the bridge that close to it and gives you a look in, I might try and find out who owns the building and see if theres anyway they can let me in for like 10 minutes.

My other photo today is of the stair case in the Tate Modern and is the kind of feature that if I could then I would 100% have in my future house, if you haven’t been to the Tate then definitely get over there, but maybe try and do it over two days, because one day is not where near enough time.

Anyway, heres my photos from today. Bon Appétit.

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– I really want to find out who owns this building and if they will let me in –
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– I bet the light leaks and shadows early in the morning look amazing –
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– I wonder if you can get this stair case made for a house? –