Tag: lifestyle

B361 – THIS IS GIVING ME A MINI HEADACHE

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you know how I said yesterday that I had a pretty cool place to go and check out, well, heres a kind of mini story the day. At the start Amy and me headed out for breakfast in Covent Garden, it had just started raining that really heavy and wet rain that gets through even the best gortex jacket. We had just finished our starter at brunch in this really cool little greek restaurant and the conversation came up about how we were going to get to the location and then we realised that trains weren’t stopping near by and the bus was just not really an option. I know what you are thinking, uber? but to be honest, it would just have been a pain getting one there and then getting one back would have been a nightmare. things really wern’t looking up for us and this plan, it was time to make an extreme decision, so…

After our meal we headed across the road to a coffee shop to think of a new game plan, we were both pretty clear that we didn’t want to head back to the flat and spend the rainy day inside watching movies and eating food, we wanted a mini adventure and to see something new. it has been the first time in like 6 weeks, where we literally have the whole day to spend together, one of us didn’t have to work in the morning or disappear in the evening, so we wanted to do something fun and make the most of it, but every idea we had didn’t work out, see a last minute west end musical? not one on at the right time. London Dungeness? Nope, just nope. Then, just as we were about to finish our coffee’s, Amy had the idea about going to the design museum in Kensington and boom we had a plan and somewhere to go!

For yesterdays mini adventure I decided to take the 28mm lens, its something that I think has real potential and one that I want to get to know better. I like to think that I know how to get a lens to focus and can take an OK picture with basically any lens you put on my camera. After all, I have been doing it literally every day for the past 361 days. but for some reason I just cant get the focal length right for really any picture, its so annoying. I cant seem to get it perfect, its giving me a headache. But Im not just going to put this lens on the side and not use it again. it must have been made for a reason, and I’m sure its portraits and street photography, maybe I just need to spend some more time with it and get to the bottom of what it can be used for.

Heres some of my shots from yesterday, I hope you like them and just so you know, I will be using this lens again today and will do my best to figure it out!

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– us sitting across the road trying to make this day work out –
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– we found a big puddle with some water fountains so I decided to jump in it –
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– see I just cant work out the focal length of this length, maybe I need to use the aperture to make these photos sharper, but this is a stair case inside the design museum –

B340 – Happy Friday 

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Yesterday after work it was all abit go go, I had to get from the studio back to my flat and pack ready for a weekend in Norfolk. I did manage to sit on my sofa if a bit while I’ll took my shoes off but was then back up and out the door heading for Liverpool Street station. 
But now we have made it here and really enjoying our Saturday sat surrounded by baby twins and a girlfriend who can’t leave them alone.  

My idea of the photos today was to just have some fun with my iPhone and camera on the way up to Norfolk, however the photos you see below are only from my iPhone as I want to show you my other camera photos later on this week. And I know I’ve said it before but I love the iPhone camera, it is so handy for just capturing moments on the fly. And yes the Samsung camera is amazing but for me the iPhone just does the job perfectly, I suppose in a way it’s like comparing a canon to a Nikon camera. 

In other news, I think the plan for today is just to relax and chill out before heading out later to Cromer and going to my favourite pub, the Welly. I’m even taking a day off from using my Laptop normally I would set up in a corner of the room somewhere and edit / write these posts on my laptop but today I’m just doing this from my phone and not thinking about life too much. My plan each day is always to write at least 300 words and I’m not even sure if this is 300 words but to be honest I’m not even going to check. I think it’s best if you just enjoy my photos and briefly read this. 

Anyway, hope everyone is having a good weekend. And enjoy these photos. 

– arriving in Norwich last night, happy Friday –
– the train on the way up, you know it’s been a busy week when your enjoying a 2 hour train journey –

– I wonder where he got his ballon from? –

B339 – PEOPLE DEEP IN CONVERSATION

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Firstly I just need to say that I have no idea how I’m going to get through the last 25 days of this photo blog challenge, about 100 days ago I was trying to think of a cool way to finish this, one idea I had was flying to somewhere like Mexico for the day or doing a big finale, but not my goal is just to complete 365 days. Days like today make that challenge harder than thats been for the past 339 days. I dont mean to go on about it but today has been especially hard because the whole day has been spent somewhere I cant photograph and then by the time I get home its 9:30pm. but I suppose thats there winners win right?

the past couple of days Ive been thinking of a new game plan, and ways that I can keep the photos creative and at a high standard, one idea Ive got is to make sure I take loads of photos on the weekend and then ration them out throughout the week. I know, thats not techincally three photos each day, but it still counts right? I think thats going to be my only way of getting through this without having to post terrible Iphone photos that lets be honest no one really wants to see.

If Ive learnt anything so far, it would have to be that I absolutely love photographing people and capturing moments between people mid conversation or if I can, while they day dream. So I think what ill do for todays photos is show you some other shots from Speakers corner, a place where people are deep in conversation with strangers about literally any topic.

I think this whole thing has become a group effort, if you keep reading the post and enjoying my photos. then maybe, just maybe we will come out the other side of this blog. right now Im scared that one day Ill just sleep for 60 hours non stop and miss few days. but until that day heres some cool photos of people deep in conversation.

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– I would love to know if this conversation was based around a Macdonalds coffee cup –
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– I dont think this man agrees with the statement made –
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– this guy was just happy with life –

B333 – THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN A VERY DIFFERENT BLOG POST

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Well I suppose its fair to say that I definitely all kicked off again yesterday right? that snow came out of no where and really started playing with peoples mentions, even Waterloo a train station that has around 250,000 people use it each day, decided that the prospect of snow on a Friday was too much and had no choice but to shut up shop. fair play though, I would probably do that if I knew i could. after all its Friday and I don’t use Waterloo station so I cant really rant about if, but if I did have to use Waterloo last night then it this would probably be a very different blog.

For a friday though it was pretty hectic in a non hectic kind of way, after working in east London and having quite a good finishing time, I then headed into town for a different gig and I have to admit I hadn’t done much research on but turnt out to be a pretty good laugh. Im not really sure if I can say what it was yet, so I might just leave that one for a few weeks and when its out in the open, Ill let you guys know and we can talk about it then. Sorry but thats just the way of the world.

I have got a killer plan today, today im basically doing a really Life admin day, including haircut, gym signing up, clothes shopping and some finances. Im then going to finish up by cooking a meal Ive never cooked before and sitting down to enjoy a good movie, I know that doesnt sound too fun, but I really want to start saving some money for a Leica and maybe going out drinking isnt the best thing for that. I really want to take some cool photos today so I might travel out when its dark and have some fun with the nifty 50mm lens. who knows.

Heres my photos from yesterday.

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– I love seeing bikes with snow on just one side, it looks really cool and abandoned –
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– before the gig, I stopped off for coffee at this really cool cafe in Soho, it was literally full of people speak Chinese and all they served where Marcha cakes –
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– see here are the Match cakes! if you ever walk around Soho and want a coffee / tea / matcha cake, you should stop here. Im not sure what the place is called, but you should try and find it! –

 

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 –

 

B320 – SAVE YOURSELF!

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Saturday and just like most Saturdays I seem to have at the moment, this one was no different. It involved awaking up pretty early, getting dressed and heading out. The first mission was to get a hair cut but after the que was over two hours, it was quickly apparent that I was going to have to suck it up and walk straight back out the door and head over to Amys Nans house to help with some gardening stuff, not really sure what you call it, but my job was basically to move some rubbish from the garden and fill a skip up.

After we had moved everything into the skip, it was time for me to get a quick lesson in putting up a fence, something that Im pretty sure if push came to shove, I might be able to do my self now. I also got to use a sledge hammer, I refuse to believe anyone that says they instantly don’t feel more manly as soon as they pick up a Sledge hammer and I could of sworn that after I used the sledge hammer I had way more hair on my chest than when I started. but thats taking things to a completely different post entirely.

After my day of learning new DIY tips, it was onto the part I was dreading, the place thats sucks your sole and leaves you broken and craving a cheap fake hot dog, the places I’m talking about is Ikea and for some reason its Amy loves it. I genuinely believe that she would happily walk around there from dawn till dusk. luckily we were only making a quick pit stop there to pick up a wardrobe and some other little things, so we didn’t have to hang around and look at 20 different types of kitchen cupboards. I would just warn everyone out there, that if the idea comes up in conversation to head to ikea on a Saturday night, please try to re-schedule, you will be saving yourself a whole lot of stress.

Anyway, here are my photos from yesterday, sorry they aren’t the best. it was all a bit rushed yesterday.

Oh and sorry if youve sent me a message recently, I will get back to you. I just haven’t had time to sit down and do it. Ill try and get sometime today and respond!

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– At the back of the garden, learning more DIY tips and stuff –
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– Amy rocking the Ikea look –
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– this is just a picture of the train ride, I still love the low light shadows you get this time of year –

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 

 

B315 – SOMETHING THAT WILL STICK WITH ME FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE –

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I’m not really too sure how to start this, its something that I doubt will ever happen to me again, for those of you that have been reading these posts of the past few months would know that back in November, a homeless man stopped me in the street and asked me for £10 so he could get a hostel for 5 days, he then told me that for two weeks a hostel is £20. I decided to walk him to the closest cash point and withdraw £20, I didn’t know his name, background or if he would just spend the money on crack. all I had was his word that he just wanted to get a roof over his head and a chance to get back on his feet, if I was him then I would want someone like me to give me a chance.

well after a long 12 hour day a work and feel pretty stressed on the way home, I literally hadnt thought about what I was going to write about or do, this shabby looking man on Bethnal green road stops me and says “excuse me” I assumed it was someone begging for money, he quickly stopped me and told me that he remembers me and just wanted to say thanks and that he now has a door key!!!!! they homeless man I gave £20 four months ago now lives in a house and is getting his life back on track, and just saw me and wanted to thank me. A stranger gave someone in need £20 and that has gone on to help him turn his life around and get off the streets. to me that is incredible, I literally cant think of the words to describe it.

Seeing wayne tonight has really made me think about how we can effect peoples lives and that someone like me who let off fart bombs at school and spent most of my life doing stupid stuff has actually just had a direct effect on someones life and given a complete stranger hope and a second chance!!!

I asked wayne if I could take a photo of him but he was to worried and thought that his family might see it, I completely understand if I was wayne then that would have been my answer. I just hope that wayne carries on getting his life back on track and is someday proud to be photographed!

Wayne if for some reason you read this, I wish I got your phone number or email address! if you do please drop me a message and lets talk! my photos from today don’t really matter, its more about the bigger picture I suppose. thank you wayne for stopping me tonight, its going to stick me with for a long time!

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– looking out the flat this morning was pretty cool –
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– the only reason waking up early is fun, you get to see sky’s like this –
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– heading back to the city after shooting all day –

B305 – CANT RECOMMEND IT ENOUGH

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I think everyone in the country likes the fact that it was Friday yesterday, probably the only think better about Friday is the fact that tomorrow is Sunday and that means good food and time to chill. Before we start thinking about Sunday we need to appreciate a good Friday, yesterday for the first time since 2017 I had that Friday feeling, you know that feeling that when it starts to get to 3/4ish your plans for the next few days start coming to mind and it all gets exciting.

One reason for me starting to get that Friday feeling was because I was going to see that new movie. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, and do you know what it definitely lived up to what everyone has been saying about it, I literally cant recommend it enough. I really wish that I listened more in my media classes at school so I could now go on to write something really interesting about the characters and script, but unfortunately I was probably smoking round the back of the bike shed or causing some sort of mayhem during that lesson. So Ive done what every kid does when they need to give some answer but not really sure what the answer is, Ive gone to google and copied some reviews from there. Here are two reviews that I think really say what I want to say about the film.

“Funny, brutal and breathtakingly beautiful. Two exceptionally raw lead performances, supercharged by a bold script from Martin McDonagh, could make Three Billboards this year’s Awards-upsetter. ” Terry White, Empire – Full review here *** SPOILER ALERT *

https://www.empireonline.com/movies/three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri/review/

“As we watch this wonderful movie we’re able to see who Mildred and all the others really are, and, better still, who they may become.” Joe Morganstern – Wall Street Journal Full review here – SPOILER ALERT – https://www.wsj.com/articles/three-billboards-outside-ebbing-missouri-review-signs-of-life-too-vivid-to-miss-1510253127

I really hope a lot of you get to the cinema and see this film, it has to be one of my favourite films in a while. Today is a good day, Ive got fair amount of things I want to get done as well as tackling the growing pile of washing that has been building up in my wash bin. but first a coffee and maybe a little Saturday morning chill.

Heres my photos from yesterday, enjoy!

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– this dog has definitely got some skills when it comes to drawing –
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– who doesnt love a trip to the cinema –
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– Amy acknowledging it was really cold yesterday –

B287 – TESTING SHOOTING A BRILLITANT IDEA

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Yesterday I came up with a little idea to incorporate fairy lights into some photos, im still not really too sure what how I plan on using them exactly or what sort of topic im going to go for but the plan was just to experiment with them a bit and see what I could come up with. so when Amy was back from work it was time for us to give it a go and see if we could kind of replicate what I had pictured in my head. We kind of did what I imagined but I definitely think we need to use a lot of more lights maybe some longer and smaller lights and then shoot from a bit further way maybe.

I really liked the colour that we ended up capturing in these shots and definitely like the way it looks, I’ve woken up this morning with a few ideas on how I can improve these photos so maybe its just a case of me going out and getting what it is that I need and just start shooting.

My biggest problem in life is that I think up so many ideas that I try and do a small bit of each idea and not concentrate 100 percent on an idea till its done, I try and do like 5 other ideas all at once. which just means I end up in complete chaos. I might spend this morning writing down like my top three ideas for the next month and then spend time soley working on those and figure out a kind of time table of when I can work on certain projects, then its just about me sticking to that timing and making sure I get what I need to done by a certain time. Then I basically have no excuses.

Heres some of the test shots from yesterday, Bon appetit!

and obviously thank you amy for letting me take photos again!!

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– I hope you can see what we were trying todo –
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– does it just look like amys got a bit tangled up in the christmas lights? –
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– we used this alley way near the flat and I kind of like the colours that it give off –