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)
– this is Dexter –– I want to drive in the mini club –– this is a rock on the beach –
I did have 3 photos ready to go for Thursday, but then I started looking back at the past 144 days and though I should maybe do my first ever through back Thursday. Ive been trying to think of my favourite day of the past 5 months and I think that its got to be when Amy and me spent a day by this hidden beach that you could only get to by beach of if you swam somewhere on the Amalfi coast, not sure where it was but for some reason that day has stuck with me, we literally did nothing as well apart from swim, eat and sleep.
we sat on this beach for ages, would get up every 20 mintues of something and go swimming, doing the proper brits aboard thing, swim and the full asleep. I don’t know why this is my favourite day, its probably because its the last time I can remember seeing blue sky since being back in london, where we’ve just got that flat gray weather. not that Im moaning, its definitely better than that crappy January weather we get any way, looking back through all these photos, its one of those things were now all I want todo is be on that beach again doing the same time.
One of the best memories I have from that day was Amy and me trying to get a picture of her flicking her hair out of the water and looking like a mow-hawk. When it works, the pictures look amazing, but when it doest thats when you get art! the best picture I have is of the fail. from the photo it looks like amy is trying to all angelic in the water in front of those Italian boys in the back ground but its just gone massive wrong, obviously that isn’t the case, but I definitely think thats what this photo looks like.
anyway heres a phone of the hair water flick fail and some other cool photos from that day.
– amy being all angelic in the water and stuff –– the hidden beach –– I miss that water –
This weekend was mostly spent painting my living room and kitchen, it was only meant to be the living room, but after we raided Homebase for just about everything they had we said “F@ck it lets paint the kitchen too” . Lucky amy left me to decide on the colour, she said it was my choice and she wouldn’t get involved. when she said that I knew it would be a cool wall. What she actaully meant was, I would pick colour and then she would do the rest, Lucky I wanted bright orange, she was happy with that, so we ended up getting a very very bright orange.
then it was just a case of painting the whole thing, which is ok for the first 4 hours but doing a few coats on the ceiling was horrendous. but theres no better feeling than looking back at your work and getting that feeling on self-accomplishment.
any way I completely forgot to take any photos till like half 9 and night, so heres a few close ups of my favourite parts of the room. theres still work to be done, so Casa Del Josh isn’t finished yet. But we are close. Very very close.
– this is the new addition, the coco nut tree –– loud and proud – this orange is Morroccan sunset, crazy isn’t it –– the mirror needs a clean –
yesterday was one of those day’s spent prepping for up and coming shoots, arranging kit and trying to get as much kit as possible in to peli cases, just like a big puzzle. So for that reason, my photos from yesterday aren’t that exciting.
One thing Ive realised about this little project I’m doing is, what you have to do is always take photos, even on days when you know what your going to write about, those are the days where if you see a cool angle or nice lighting, take a snap on your iphone, because they have become so handy to me on days like today when im struggling to put anything amazing together, Im just quickly scrolling through my phone for bangers I might of taken last week. thats basically whats happened today, but I don’t want it to be a complete throw back to old photos from previous days. so “m going to throw in some photos I took yesterday as well.
Enjoy these snaps, I’ve uploaded four just because I want to keep you guys happy.
– ignore the tissue next to the lens I forgot to move it –– taken yesterday, on my route to work –– the view through a 85mm prime – as you can see it looks burry without a camera –– the only bit of blue sky I saw yesterday, but I got to play with camera’s so its nothing to complain about –
The other day a company called SleekLens got in touch with me and asked if I would try out there PreSets for Light room and let them know what I think. Long story short it’s a quick way for you to edit photos on Lightroom, without having to adjust the exposure or contrast. This is something I’ve been thinking about for a while, is it a way for me to save time editing photos, will it help to improve my blog?
SleekLens asked me to try the Presets on Landscape photography, so the best thing for me to do was head over to Hampstead Heath early on Saturday morning and see what I could capture and see how good these Presets are.
Sleek Lens sent me the Through The Woods Presets, which are aimed at Landscape Photography. I wont go on any more, Ill let my photos do the talking.
– before the Preset is Applied –– using the TtW|2-Exposure- Darken Shadows-1 – I’m pretty happy with the colours of this photo, but my favourite part of this photo is the shape of that tree, it looks like a proper tree. if you get what I mean and the colour helps to define that –– before a filter is applied –– using the TtW|1 – Base – High Dynamic Range – my main focus was shooting in photo with a high aperture, to help bring out the cloud in the back ground, then because im shooting RAW, i will be able to bring the the tree up i n Lightroom, and was basically me testing to see if the Presets could do that and I can tell you that they can –– Before a Preset is applied –– using the preset – TtW|1-Base – Monochrome Fantasy – I wanted to see how good the black and white presets were and what better thing to test this preset on than a white focal point, with dark shades in the background. Im happy with this, but I think black and white presets are a difficult thing, because B&W always looks good to me , but when I shoot stuff like this I want to bring out the grass in the middle of the photo a bit more, make it more defined, I think it looks a bit blurry and could be a bit more sharp, maybe I was using the wrong preset, if you know a better sleeklens preset, holla at your boy! –– Before a Preset is applied –– Preset used: TtW|0_All In ONe – Warm Shadows – this was a bit of a wild card photo, I wanted to snap something that had a busy foreground and also movement in the back of the shot. I wanted a Preset that used the clarity tool on the leaves to help define them a bit more, while at the same time not distorting the people in the back, I want it to be quite a shallow depth of field and not do anything to crazy, just highlight a few colour, I would say this has done this pretty well –
I’m pretty happy with the outcome of these photos and think these presets are going to be a really handy tool for when I’m doing these posts. Will I use it everyday? No. probably not, I enjoy editing photos and the process that I go through to get these posts online, but when its 1 in the morning, I’ve been working all day, and just want to get to sleep, these presets are going to be a life saver.
They could also be a valuable tool in learning how Lightroom works, choose a preset you like and then work backwards from there, how did the preset use the clarity or White balance to get your desired effect? To finish off and not to sound like some rambling on blog, look into these presets and figure out how or when you would use them, I think they are something every photographer should have in their inventory, but not a necessity.
Overall I would say Sleeklens is an 8/10 and definitely has a professional feel to them, Heres a link to their website go check it out and see if they are any good for you, if you have any more questions about this, let me know and ill be happy to answer any questions, or if you think i’m completely wrong let me know too.
Check out these links to SleekLens and also some of the stuff they get up to, its a great idea and is a game changer for when you need photos edited quickly and without losing that professional feel.
if you dont know of this place then you need to know. Londons Brough Market is food porn central, it literally has this massive selection of food from all over the world. I was walking around london yesterday getting some errands done and taking pictures of London on a Friday, and just ended up in Brough market, its the perfect place to take photos, everyone has this massive excited look on their face and just wants to try everything thing they see.
Brough market for this reason has always been on of those places I’ve wanted to photograph but for some reason never have, well yesterday I just ended up there and im glad I did, if you just go there and walk around maybe try a bit some tasters or just look at all the foods, youll realise that most Tesco’s and Sainbury’s are terrible for food choices.
When you type in London Brough Market on google, the first thing that comes up is the attacks there a few months ago, if you scroll past that ( I dont mean it out of disrepesct, I just mean theres way more to Brough Market, than the actions of a few confused boys) and just type in facts, you’ll realise that this place dates back to 1014 and was created by the Danes as a medievel market to stop off at and buy some stuff before heading into London. Its also the place with annoyed the authorities because it was just this little market which under cut all the City of London’s own traders.
So what did the city do, in 1444 it brought the Market off the people and chartered it as part of the city of London, which then lead to a 3 day riot. but its all good because in 1550 Edward the VI, sorted this problem out by officially selling southwark and the Brough Market to the city for £1000.
I could go on here to tell you about another thousand years of history, but if you’ve read this much already and still not interested then you probably don’t want to know.
so anyway here some foodie pictures I took yesterday.
– that looks like proper food –– shes not sure on the cheese –– for some reason I just like this –
So yesterday I didn’t take any photos, literally not one. I spent the day sorting out all the photos Ive taken over the past 128 days, the plan is to create a portfolio of all my best shots, so you don’t just see them for a day and then thats it. My portfolio is now up and running and has loads of my favourite photos on it. the whole thing is actually pretty hard, ive never made anything like a portfolio before, so Ive been checking out some of my favourite photographers and see how they have done it and getting some inspiration. Ive got a few ideas, so just need to work on it. check it out and let me know what you think, you should be able to see a new tab at the top of the page called “my work”.
So for this post, here are three of my favourite photos thats Ive posted these past 128 days!
Today is also 13th anniversary of Donald Duck receiving the 2,257th Hollywood star! congratulations to the best Donald I know!
– SHOREDITCH HIGHSTREET –– from a few weeks ago, Victoria Park –– the m25, when it was actually summer, not just a rainy august –
In the week amy said about going to Brighton, to play that basketball arcade game. I was all over it, then Friday we found out it was pride weekend, which kind of changed the whole idea, we were now going for a bit of a day drink. Nothing wrong with that, so we dropped our favourite lesbians a messaged – Megan and Scarlett to see if they were going and boom we have a bit of a fun Saturday on our hands.
lucky though, amy booked an early train ticket down there, so we could have a few hours in the arcade first, she won at basketball but that was only because my basket was a bit off centre and I think the light on my side was a bit strong so it kept on distracting me and shinning in my eyes. not that its an excuse, I just want everyone to know the type of environment I had to deal with.
anyway we met up with Megan, Scarlett and a few other friends and had a fun afternoon, I didnt take that many snaps, just really had a good time. but heres a few bangers I did take.
– rule 1: dont eat fish and fishs on the beach –– the donuts at the entrance to the pier are amazing –– amy doing the British holiday thing –
Last night, we went up on my roof not like climbing up on it, but going up to the communal roof terrace. I don’t have a fob for the roof, so knocked on a neighbours door, the amazing women called paula, opened up. shes this really cool lady whos lived in this block for nearly 32 years, making her one of the oldest residence. ( she also has a number of classic motor bikes in the underground car park) making her a legend.
Well she came out on the roof with us, not because she didn’t trust us, she just know that Sandra our building manager, is watching at all time. we love sandra, but she scares me. Anyway, Paula was telling us about the time that the libertines threw a massive party on the roof and would pee off the side 50 meters up on the pavement below and how she regularly saw pete in the lift. Ive heard this story before from random people in Bethnal Green, but this confirms it. The Libertines are the ones to blame for us not being allowed to have parties up there, because they took it to the next level. it kind of makes me happy that they did this, even though I wasnt there. I know my parties could never of topped that and its nice to know that if these walls in the block could talk they probably talk about the time the band threw a massive party and played some absolute bangers while Pete Doherty pee’d on the pedestrians walking below.
Anyway heres a few pictures from Amy and mine’s adventure to the roof terrace last night.
-you take that snap girl –– view looking away from the city –– this could work –
Northumberland to London: 9 hours 30 minutes. this should not of taken this long, but because of one phone call our day got a lot longer. while stopping at a service station somewhere near Sheffeild, we were asked to go to Norfolk and shoot some more sequences last minute. So pedal to the metal and we are now driving over to Norfolk, only to get there and for it to be canned. but lucky we stopped near a McDonalds, which made the whole de-tour, I have to say it was probably the best Mcflurry Ive ever had.
Back in London now and on my way to work. I definitely think I should of been brought up on a farm somewhere with a quad bike and a dog called Boris. but London’s good for now and having phone signal is definitely a plus.
– theres worst breakfast spots – – I do love a traffic jam – – 1 hour 40 minute detour for a McDonalds, anit too bad –
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