Tag: life

B185 – I COMPETELY FORGOT IT – PT.2

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Firstly I want to apologies for yesterday post being so late, I genuinely thought I pressed post, but obviously I did and only realised when amy sent me a message telling me I didn’t.

forToday is just me carrying on from yesterday and talking about how much I like this weather and where the sun seems to be in the sky. Im not sure if its because im finished at the right time but between 5:30 and 6, the sun seems to be in just the right place to give me some cool camera flares. for most people it must be an annoyance and just get in your eyes while driving or some other really British complaint, but for photographers a like this is a great time of year.

When I finished work  today, i thought my idea of grabbing some lens flare shots was dead in the water, not only did I have to run across town to Argos and get some storage boxes, but I also had todo it during rush hour, possible my least favourite time of day. its like a bunch of wild animals travelling around in a coke can, no one wants to be there. But as I got off the train at Highbury and Islington at 17:40 the sun was perfect and I decided to walk a bit slower than everyone else and just take some snaps. and to be honest im pretty happy with how they turned out, my favourite from today has to be the business man walking to the platform looking out the window with his hand covering his eyes from the sun, for me that is perfect for talking about sun flares.

Flares are basically a quick way of turning a dull photo into a cool photo, it adds this other layer to your photo. I know a lot of people add flares to their photos in photoshop, but I always think its much better to try and master the art of flares before going ahead an modifying them.

Heres my three photos from today, I have one question for you guys though, why do adults ride push scooters?

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– Highbury and Islington today at 17:40 –

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– sun flares this time of year are sick –

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– why are adult scooters a thing –

B182 – LETS DO SOMETHING COOL

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three hundred words that all I have to write each day, I love taking photos, but the writing is the hardest thing on this blog. I’m sorry for the lack of energy on these posts these past few days, Im just fighting through the Jet lag and trying to crazy amount of work, to get out the other side. but today has been a really good day, Ive started making plans for a really cool project. something I can properly sink my teeth into, Ive got a plan and all I have todo now is stick to it and make sure I can put everything in place before I go away next week. So not a lot todo at all.

what I like about doing this blogging thing is my plan that Im just going todo what ever I like with it. thats basically my plan, not think too much into it and just see where I end up. I really want to start upping my content and put out some cool photos that aren’t just everyday stuff. like jumping a car or shooting fireworks over a lake, something incredible and completely not the normal, thats my kind of project. If I can just get through the next month and stay dedicated to making stuff happen theres no reason why those projects wont come to life. Obviously those arent my project idea’s but they follow the same line, something which has an element of risk but with a massive reward. I started this blog to improve my photography skills and its about time I started to test my self and see what I can do with a camera.

again im sorry for the lack of content but unless I stay awake 24 hours a day, I don’t have enough time. but I will I promise you.

In other news I picked up my new blinds tonight, went to put them up and found out I don’t own a drill. so if anyone lives in bethnal green and has a drill that would be really helpful.

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– this is a photo I took this morning, god I love my coconut tree –
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– one of my favourite places in the past months, Historic Downtown St. Charles –
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– Missori, America, everyone should go and see St.louis its a really cool city –

B181 – PLEASE LET ME SLEEP

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For the past months I’ve been properly excited to have a Sunday, and today that’s what I had. For some reason Amy and me woke up at like 6:30 this morning and decided we should head over to Cambridge road flower market first thing and grab some more plants for the flat, the plan is to basically have like an indoor balcony. We don’t have an outside bit so doing the best we can with the extra big window ledge.

I’m telling you now it’s coming along nicely, I’m not going to post any pictures because I want to reveal the thing look once it’s done m, which will hopefully be soon. I’ve got my eye on a few things that will finish it off. Anyone after getting hold of a pine apple plant and some other planets I’m not sure what they are but we headed back to the flat and make a plan to head over to Epping forest.

Who knew that Epping forest was actually anywhere near Epping tube station, I just imagined it would be like the new forest and you can just get off the train anywhere and be surround by country side. That was definitely not the case and the only answer was the head into a local pub for the good old English pub grub, no alcohol though just a pint of orange juice.

We basically just looked around Epping and headed back to London to grab some supplies for the flat, I have good news. As of tomorrow the flat will now have blinds, I’ve been here for 3 yeas now and finally blinds are going to be installed! It’s been a long wait, but it’s happening and I can’t wait.

I suppose this is a proper Sunday post, nothing to extreme just a chilled day out, on the other hand I can’t sleep through the night and keep waking up at like 2ish for a few hours I’m pretty sure it’s the jet lag and it’s happened to be again now, it’s 2:37 on Monday morning a few hours ago I was passed out now I’m wake awake! Does anyone have any tips to get back to normal, I love sleep and really want a full nights sleep.

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– this guys got a strong shirt –
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– I really want to get a proper tree for the flat –
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– this is amy getting excited about pillows, when did my sundays become about flowers and pillows – ” Green goes so well with orange –

B180 – 6 MONTHS LATER

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right, its happened. Ive left my camera at a party last night so all the photos I took yesterday are at my mates house. meaning that not only have I woken up with a rough head but Ive got no pictures from yesterday and haven’t got my camera for today. the plan now is to scroll back through some old photos and have a little reminiscing.

We are now two days away from the 6 month mark and to be honest I’m pretty happy with how its gone, when I first set out on this I had a target of getting a thousand views a month for the first 6 months and I can now say that we have reach 6,497 views in the first half of this blog. the target has been smashed, so thank you.

this whole photo challenge is not the easiest thing in the world and is taking a lot of energy to post every day and write something but I cant believe how much its helped my writing, which I think has got better. 6 months ago my every day writing was terrible from spelling mistake in emails that shouldn’t have mistakes to writing instructions for other people that just didn’t make sense. Now I feel a lot more confident I’m what I write and feel like I can back it up. this whole thing has also helped me to understand more about camera’s, photography and lighting, I’m now thinking bigger and better and what to really push some ideas forward and get s**t done.

The photos I want to show today are from the first 50 days of this project. I’m not trying to show where Ive come from and to where I am now, because Im happy with the photos, I think if I was to look back at my photos and think what should I of done and what I didn’t do, then my brain would explode. The plan here is just to look back at some cool moments that otherwise would get lost in just the shear amount of content that i’m posting here. enjoy these photos.

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– trekking over to hampstead heath at night to find this view, after 3 hours of being lost in the pitch dark we managed to find the spot –
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– a different time when I went out at night to get this shot. I dont think theres a photogrpaher in london who hasn’t taken a photo of st pauls from this bridge –
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– on an adventure with amy in camden, amy hadnt been to camden before so went we along and done it properly, the stables, the zoo everything –
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– this was just after I found out about my leg and realised that I wouldn’t be able to run the ultra marathon in Switzerland, im still waiting for it to heal so I can run again. 146 days later and I still cant run, Im hoping that by the end of October ill be able to run short distances and slowly build up to the goal of completing an Ultra marathon –

 

 

 

B177 – A SEA PLANE

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Sorry for this post being a bit rubbish, Ive had a few drinks and just looking forward to gettign back to Amy. At the momement we’ve had a good explore of victoria and ive basically got to pack for my flight at 6am tomorrow. Candada has been amazing and I love this place but im looking forward to my sleep.

one thing ive learnt about this place is how freindly everyone is, they all just want to be freinds with the next person. im just walking out a oub while im writing this, so basically im in the perfect state to be wirtiing a message. people should come to canada and just experinance the wild, see the dear and take in the view.

tomorrow we fly home and I cant wait to spend the 19 hours travelling just to see amy, thank you bobo for introducing us, i think im abit drunk but not too sure. sorry for any messages that people don twant to read, I just want to buy a leica. anyway its not my fault, I blaime the people that brought me some shots.

im not sure how much you know about these post but each day I try and post something that relates to the readers, but tonight I have nothing. im just impressed with how this has gone and the people that our reading this. at the moment I think its mainly my dad, but much love steve spear your a ledgend.

im currently in bed lookingat my travel plains for tomorrow thinking about how im going to make it work. sorry if todays post is a bit weak, its been a hard month and tonight Ive enjoyed my self.

enjoy these pictures and make sure thar you visit chucky cheese, that place is amazing. much love josh

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– this is a sea plane –
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– i like this picture –
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– a nother great photo

B174 – I’VE NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE

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I know Canada is this wild place but somethings I wont believe till I see them and wild deer and stags walking around the streets like some 13 year old are one of them. Just as we arrived at location this morning two deer have poked their heads out from behind a car and just casually started walking down the road.

I literally jumped up to grab the big lens but after a few seconds of trying to find it, I decided to settle for the 24-105. I never thought in a million years that these things would be roaming around the streets and not scared of humans or cars, over here they just don’t care. When you start the morning with seeing deer walk around the town you know its going to be a good day and to be honest it was, filming went smoothly and we managed to get back on schedule. its weird now becuase after this location its back to London and im starting to think of all the things ill do when I first get back to my flat and honestly I cant wait.

Amy if your reading this please make sure their is yorkshire gold tea bags and some fresh milk, I havent had a proper cup of tea in a month.

Next to location on the way back from grabbing some supplies this morning, I noticed this really cool foot bridge which looked like it went on for miles, so I decided to stop off quick and take some photos, when I got there it was like something out of a movie, these guys live on the river, but have done it in kind of pirate style, they have turned their boats into raft kind of thinks with other boats and have like this little community out on the lake. just floating around, unfortunatly I only had a 20mm prime with me so could get any close up shots but I still think I made it work. My plan is to wake up extra early tomorrow and go and get some early morning photos. lets see if that works out or if I snooze my alarm again.

heres my snaps, I uploaded 4 because I felt like it was a good idea.

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– this deer is Jay walking –
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– its so weird seeing them just walk round the streets –
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– canadian pirates –
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– this is that long foot bridge that goes on for miles (i think) –

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

B173 – YOU DON’T NEED A HELMET

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I’m writing this a day before I actually need too, the next 48 hours are going to be a bit stressfull, so I thought I would do this post way before I need to just to make sure that its decent and not completely rubbish.

Today I wanted to post more pictures of the junk yard I went too a few days ago, just because it was something that I think is worth posting. The whole idea of taking photos at a place where you would think to take photos is what I like about this and its made me want to go to more junk yards and take photos.

The first photo I want to talk about is the guy riding the motorbike, in Illinois is legal to ride a motorbike without a helmet. Now for someone from London its completely weird to see people riding motorbikes around without a helmet on, it just doesn’t look normal. But it definitely adds to the cool factor, it makes motorbike riders look more like Nomads than part of a society. Like this guy, he’s just cruising around looking like he’s going nowhere but everywhere at the same time. the guys probably just on his way to get some milk for his family at home, but that’s not the impression he gives. I’m not sure if I agree with the helmet laws over here, but who I am to judge.

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For all these photos I used a Canon 20mm prime, shot in Black and White but also used RAW + JPEG format, but so I had the safety of using an Uncompressed image but was using Black and White as a reference. When you shoot in RGB but plan on changing the photo to B&W later on you shoot completely different and don’t think about the lighting as much as to when your only seeing B&W as an in camera reference.

My tip is to always shoot in the colour scale you plan to edit in and release you image as. I think it makes a huge different to the out come of your photo. Someone might say differently but by shooting RAW + JPG, you aren’t risking anything.

Here’s my other two photos. As your reading this, im currently on my way to an airport.

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– I like the rough paint on the side of this truck –
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– not for sale –

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 –

 

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 –