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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 –

 

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 –

 

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 –

B158 – Im in a STATE OF EMERGENCY / Hurricane Irma!!

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So good news is I’ve landed in the USA, bad news is I’ve landed in North Carolina, where they are currently in a state of Emergency for Hurricane Irma. Everywhere has sold out of water and the military are on stand by. Its re assuring to know that the hotel I’m staying in also doesn’t have any bottled water. We are just following the Hurricane at the moment and waiting to see what it does with Florida, if it travels north up the coast, it could be an issue with us or does it travel in land, either way its looking like our flight out of Raleigh on Monday is going to be delayed as that’s when they are excepting the weather to hit us. The waitress in the bar next door said they are expecting to get hit with possibly a category 3 Hurricane, I have no idea what that means but im sure its nothing compared to a category 5.

The worst thing about this whole saga, is that when there’s a state of Emergency, the sale of alcohol is stopped. Meaning I cant even have a beer and ignore this whole situation.

For now the plan is to stock up on water, food and anything else and then carry on as normal till we have more news and then depending on how it goes drive somewhere safer or try and get on a flight. What ever happens, I will try and capture as many photos as I can. Im sure the whole thing will be fine, over the next few days we will have a better idea of what is happening and worst case I just end up getting my socks a bit wet.

In other news I met a nice guy called reverend Jones from South Carolina, he was up this way to preach and sing at a funeral and was staying at the same hotel as him. I managed to grab a photo of Reverend Jones, what a guy he was. Top man.

Heres my photos from today, started off in Toronto Canada now in Goldsboro, North Carolina.

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– Reverend Jones, South Carolina, USA –
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– flying into a state of emergency –
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– Toronto yesterday morning –

 

B157 – I got the shot though.

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Today has been the first day of filming and so far so good, everything seems to be coming together. Its going to be an exciting four weeks I think. Im writing this post just after lunch time on Tuesday, Its been a bit of quite time and thought it would be productive of me to get this done sooner rather than at 11 O’clock tonight. Tomrrow I hit theroad for a 7 and a half our drive, from Toronto to Kingston and back to Toronto, all while filming, so it will take a fair bit of time. I think this is going to be a bit of a baptism of fire, which should be good for every one, I’ve just got to remembered to put everything on charge tonight and then just lock everything down tomorrow.

I’m sat here writing this and Im not going to lie I have only got two photos in the bag, I’m still trying to think of a third photo, I’ve seen a few of these black squirrels bopping around, they are literally jet black Squirrels… if I see one again I’m going to snap it and post it one here, but now I’ve said this I probably will never see one again.

It feels a bit weird writing this post with only two photos in the bag and not at the end of the day, but it’s the better option rather than me missing a day or doing it late tonight and having to wake up really early in the morning.

One thing I have noticed about Canada and if anyone knows more about it let me know, but the sun seems to be a lot lower, the light in the morning is so much nicer and lasts a lot longer than in the UK its doesn’t seem to be golden hour, but more like a golden two hours, which helped me to get that shot of the suburbs today.

This also wouldn’t be any sort of daily blog if there wasn’t a picture of the Kenworth truck, these things are massive and rule the roads, I remember the first time I saw one in the UK and it made those English lorries feel like some sort of go-cart, I cant imagine how hard they are to drive, but I wouldn’t mind giving it a ago. They are sell from anywhere from $30k all the way upto $100k+, and weigh an average of 68,000lbs which is 30.8 tonnes. If you were to look at something like the Volvo FH Lorries, which are pretty common on the roads in the Uk they weigh 14,572Lb, which is 6.6 tonnes. So these American Kenworth Semi trucks are just over 4 times heavier than a common lorry in the UK.

An even better fact is the Kenworth on average gets 8 MPG out of their trucks, in the UK the Volvo FH is getting 9.8MPG to 13.5 MPG with Germany Light (what ever that is, anyone know?), so I guess we are a little bit more efficient… but they definitely get more marks for the overall look, these things are like 30 tonne beasts.

Moving on, hopefully by the time you’ve read this Ive got some cool photo of a black squirrel, if not I’m sorry but I hope you like which ever one, future me has decided to upload. Sorry for rambling on about trucks and lorries, I kind of got a bit carried away with all the facts.

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– this thing is a monster –
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– a nice quite canadian suburb –
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– me trying to take a quick photo of the black squirrel but having my settings completely wrong, least I got the shot though –

B150 – MY NEW TOY

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After one stollen package and then one being delivered to the wrong flat, my new flash gun has arrived, its one of those ones that sits in the hot shoe on top of my camera, so naturally the photos tonight are of Amy and me, testing out the flash after dinner. its only the Amazon basic Flash, Ive been looking at getting on for a while now and the other day amazon had a sale on and were selling them for £20 with prime, so I thought it was time to see what these things are like.

and first things first, it was so easy to set this up, i have no idea about the technical side of it, but focusing in low light is so easy, im not sure if the flash, kind of works as an auto focus or what, up all the stills came out sharp. What is also really good about the flash is that it draws all the other light, so even in “well lite” area’s you get a much better image, for £20 this has got to be on the cheapest camera essentials you can get, I cant wait to take more photos and really see what its like.

Tonight was just about going out after dinner and seeing if it works and what we can do with it, Ive already started thinking of some cool things I can do. I really like the idea of shooting some fast movement stuff, like skateboards, boris bikes or even the occasional pet. for now though you’ll just have to check out these photos I got of Amy at 9:30 last night, she’s a good egg that one.

Heres the snaps, let me know what you think or if you have any tips for using the Flash, I want to up my low light photo game.

Thanks again amy for being my model!

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– amy getting ready for her big moment –
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– “come on josh bake off is on” –
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– swag’d out #HypeBeast –

 

B149 – Get me to the beach!

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I don really know much about yesterday, It was spent doing not alot but going to a lot of places, like the beach, where I only had black jeans so brought a pair of yellow swimming trunks only to discover that they were see through, so bit of a nice view for Amy’s extended family as I came out of the sea at low tide. I have to say though that my Sand castle building skills were perfect, it was the sand that let me down. a bit to wet for mould properly, but I like to think I made the best of a bad situation and got it built.

after that we literally headed to the pub for some food and drove home, life moves a lot slower in Norfolk which is completely different to London. Thanks Amy family for a good old weekend.

think i’m going to keep it short and sweet today, i’m still absolutely nackered.

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– maxium relax –
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– this is my Sand castle –
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– the view from the car home –

B148 – A £200K ASTON MARTIN

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Bank holiday Sunday, in Norfolk was a proper Bank Holiday, spent eating food and drinking beer, before the food started there was a classic car show on the cliffs. where a load of classic cars meet up to basically show a little piece of history.

The best thing I saw was the radio club, talking in morse code to someone in Tokyo, Japan! but was we got into to frequency levels and all the dots and ders, I was a bit lost. its quite cool to this though that theres another way to contact someone on the other side of the world other than using the internet, these guys are using frequencies! its a pretty cool skill, it makes me want to learn Morse code for absolutely no reason at all, a part from that fact I can use it at a classic car show.

on a cooler note, there was the new Aston Martin Vanquish S a 200 MPH, 0 – 60mph in 3.5 second car. it comes with a v12 engine and produces 595bhp, but dont worry because with all that you get 14.1 miles to the gallon. With all those little carbon fibre parts aswell this car weighs, 1739kg. Now I know nothing about cars, I little got all this information from the Aston Martin Website, I just know that 595bhp, Ive been 130mph in a BMW and that felt fast, so 200 in a Aston Martin must be insane.

Any way, heres a few photos from the classic car show, it was definitly worth a visit and this weekend has really made me want to get a car again, dont think it will be an Aston Martin though.

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– this is some fast and furious stuff –

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– the Aston Martin Vanquish S –

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– this is Amys favourite car –

B147 – this weekend!

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Back by the sea this weekend with loads of amy family for a little shin dig, so should be a good little bank holiday. nothing major really happening apart from loads of dog walking and a few beers. nothing beats an August Bank holiday, especially by the sea.

On a walk saturday we bumped into a mini car club drive thing down by Cromer beach, it reminded me how sick those little cars are, and now I kind of want an Old mini, I have no idea about cars but they are amazing. who needs a rolls royce, when you could have an old school mini.

Anyway, theres a load of prep that needs to be done before all of Amy’s family arrives so ill keep this short and sweet. I got a bunch of shallots to cut, so heres my photos from yesterday. enjoy.

(sorry for the spelling mistakes)

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– this is Dexter –
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– I want to drive in the mini club –
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– this is a rock on the beach –

B146 – what I like to photograph!

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Not sure what to write about today, im literally struggling to keep my eyes open. its really early on Saturday morning, im two coffees and a large macdonalds coke down and still going. but it is a good day becuase im on my way to Norfolk for the Bank holiday weekend where im just going to eat and eat and eat.

My idea of the photos today was to take them on my journey to the station, see if I could make the one stop on the tube more exciting, it actually worked, I left a bit earlier so I could take photos but Im pretty happy with the result.

the good thing about doing this whole project is that its helping to me figure out what I like taking photos of, if its landscape or people or adventure. I think its hard to figure that out, with everything today like instagram and facebook, its so easy to take a good photo, but its hard to figure out what exactly you want to shoot. 5 months ago, I didnt really have an idea, I couldnt decide, I knew I like to take photos but I couldnt work out what my favourite thing to shoot was. I would just take hunderds of photos each day and see where I ended up. but not I really think about what im going to take a photo of, and ive realised that its people. I love taking photos of people. they are a hard thing to photograph, because a lot of people don’t want to have the photo taken, so its all about being quick and not drawing to much attention. A good tip that i’ve found works, is to set the shot up, wait for someone to walk into it and then take the snap, that way they think they’ve just walked into your shot, rather than you snapping them on purpose. simple and effective.

anyway heres my snaps from this morning!

(and sorry for any spelling mistakes )

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– i have no idea who they are –
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– liverpool street this morning –
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liverpool street, really early this morning –