renovating

B313 – DAVE SAVED THE DAY, THEN WE WENT FOR PLAN B.

February 11, 2018February 11, 2018 joshfspear2 Comments

Today was the day that is finally happened, we managed to clear some space in the flat and get all of my aunties stuff back to her in Cambridge, it would of been possible without the help of my good mate Dave and his van, who after a quick call Saturday morning was on his way to my house to help me get it sorted. I would like to say it went smoothly but after getting a skateboard wheel stuck in the lift (we were using the skateboard to ferry stuff out of the flat), it was time to re-evaluate the plan and decided that it was probably best if we just carry the boxes instead. As always with these things as soon as we started to move the rain moved in just to give us that extra thing to deal with, but we were deterred and powered through the hangovers to get the task done. But it was all worth it because now the only thing we need todo is go wardrobe shopping and then its plain sailing in Flat 315.

Its now Sunday and Im up even earlier than I was on Saturday because todo I’ve got shoot over in Hackney that Im actually really excited for “anit no rest for the wicked”. its always a weird feeling working on a Sunday because it always feels like I should just be sat in a pub enjoying a Sunday roast, but at the same time theres something really chilled about working on Sundays.

The other thing that Im actually really happy about at the moment is the Sky, the light at the moment seems to be perfect, the other night there was this really cool blue shade in the sky and now i’m up early and its clear the sky is like the orange colour. Im not sure if i’m just used to seeing gray but this time of year feels to me like the best time of year for amazing colours and shadows.

This is quite quick post as I’m now running a bit late and still sat on in my boxers on the sofa. heres my photos, enjoy.

B313-1-4 — – this was us trying to re-think the strategy –

B313-1-3 — – Cheers dave and your van, your a good egg you are –

B313-1 — – this is the kind of sky im talking about –

B241 – WHY DO IT?!

December 1, 2017December 1, 2017 joshfspear2 Comments

Today Ive spent my time involved in some manual labour, Ive basically been scraping wall paper off my hall way and then painting it white, this has taught me two really important lessons, that I will definitely carry with me for the rest of my life.

Lesson one, if I ever need to scrap wall paper off a wall again, pay someone else do it, there nothing nice, easy or rewarding about scraping that stuff off. Ive been there and Ive got the medal now its time for me to sit back and in the future let someone professional do it properly.

Lesson two, painting a white wall white again, its properly just as fun as taking the wall paper off. I also managed to literally blow up a light bulb socket with my head so I’m not really sure if my paint job was even and will have to wait till day light or a new light gets fixed to actually see if my job is even. by the way it wasn’t on purpose, I stood on a chair and moved really quick and my head just made contact with the light bulb thing.

apart from those two extremely good life lessons its also been a good day, the hall way has been on my list of things to get done for a while and today I knocked it off my todo list. I’m now completely nackered but need to power on till 3/4am as Im working on an over night job Friday and need to try and get used to being up at night and asleep during the day, my thinking is 3/4am is a good time go to sleep.

When I was in the mist of completing the painting I was thinking of things to photograph, it was way to cold outside to venture out for some street photography so my idea was to show how a photo looks before its edit and also how it looks after a few changes. I wanted to use a boring photo as it makes it easier to see the difference as theres no “WOW factor”.

the photo you see below was shot in .RAW which basically means you can do a lot more editing and manipulation. how that happens is by the camera sensor remembering all the information collected when you press the capture button, meaning you can change the white balance, the thing that makes either white, white or makes white that weird egg shell colour you some times see.

If a photo is really dark, say you shot inside a house at night and were trying to take a photo of your family and when you looked at it back you noticed the only thing you could see was the light on the fridge door, well because you shot .RAW you would be able to bring the exposure up in Lightroom or photoshop and be able to see what is going on. The files are slightly bigger than .jpegs but if you camera can shoot .RAW. do it! you really wont regret it. just buy a bigger memory card, and back your photos up regularly.

have a look at these photos below and see the difference, they were shot in .RAW. look at the different shades of white on the paint pot and see if you can tell the different. If it was .JPEG they would near enough be the same colour depth and not looks as good.

B241-1-3 — – this is the original photo –

B241-1 — – I have changed the white balance to 28k and done a few other things with the contrast / exposure / highlights and cropped in a bit –

B241-1-2 — – this has a 55k white balance and is obviously back and white –

B236 – PANIC ATTACKS AND COLOUR CLASHES

November 26, 2017November 26, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

A few months ago amy brought some tickets to see the Kooks play in Brighton, they are a band Ive wanted to see for ages and something which I’ve been excited for since she told me we were going. but before we can go to an amazing gig we had to do something that turns girls like amy into monsters / dictators, I’m talking about is IKEA. Yesterday we had to venture over to the warehouse of nightmares and shop till my credit card pops.

I saw a side to amy which scared me and it happened in the cushion department, we were trying to work out what colours go with what pattern and what fabric would work with the sofa. I never new that cushion shopping was a thing, I just thought they came with a sofa and that was it. who wrong I was. cushion shopping involves panic attacks and a lot of tongue bitting. Apparently my opinions will be taken into consideration but in the end they will be ignored, she even let me pick a cushion that she chose.

After cushion gate has finished it was time to hit the road and head down to Brighton and meet some good old chums and put the whole ikea experience behind us. the kooks smash it they were literally amazing the lead singer is a guy called Luke Pritchard and he knows a thing or two about performing and somehow have managed to hold down a top spot in British indie music since their album Inside in inside out was released in 2006. what was amazing about the show for me was when the blue curtain came down and he performed an acoustic set, for some reason when you bring the curtain down mid set it really makes the gig feel intimate. if you have the chance to see the Kooks definitely get down to a gig, tonight they are playing in Cardiff and if I could get down there I would.

As I spent the day running round doing a million and one things, all my photos were taken on my phone.

P.s Amy thanks for taking me around Ikea, you’ve given me the interior design bug and also for getting the Kooks tickets!!!!!

B236-1-4 — – this part of the set made it worth it –

B236-1-2 — – the literally havent aged as a band since 2006 –

B236-1 — – amy mid panic attack because yellow doesn’t go with the orange of the wall… or does it?! –

B233 – BACK TO LONDON LIV’N

November 23, 2017November 23, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

I have literally just slept for like 12 hours, i cant remeber the last time I spelt for that long and now I feel amazing. Im pretty sure Ive beaten jet lag and now back to normal. my plan for today was to spent the day sleeping on the sofa watching netflix but after a quick phone call with my mate anders im on my way to south london to go rock climbing at some place called the Arches. what happening to just chilling on the sofa.

Its been a bit of a productive day, I also put some blinds up in my living room this morning, but ill show you those tomorrow. I need to get hold of some velcro to finish them off, im not about to show pictures of half a job!

it feels good to be back in London and Im now motivated to get on with what I started 233 days ago! since I’ve been doing a lot of travel recently Ive had time to think of some cool projects I want to start, so I’m now going to spend the next few days seeing if I can put them into practise. work has started to slow down for christmas so Ive now got quite a lot of time on my hands, which is actually quite exciting. I really want to get a lot done in the flat and get it up to a level Im proud of.

Ive had a week of not being able to post and now Im finally back on track and ready to pull my canon 5d out and take some cool photos but first I have 4 episodes of the new Peaky blinders to catch up on, I didnt even realised that it had started again!

here are some photos from yesterday and also a shot from the Grand Hyatt hotel reception, Im struggling to get over this view.

B233-1 — – climbing yesterday, I think I could have a new hobby –

B233-1 copy — – welcome back to london, the best city in the world –

B141 – 48 hours later…

August 21, 2017August 21, 2017 joshfspearLeave a comment

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.

B141-1-4 — – this is the new addition, the coco nut tree –

B141-1-3 — – loud and proud – this orange is Morroccan sunset, crazy isn’t it –