B310 – THROWBACK THURSDAY !

So at it is Thursday its probably only right that I do kind of a mini throwback of the past week (that is kind of my excuse for not really taking any photo yesterday), when I first started this blog, I said that the challenge was going to be getting up and taking photos on a really cool winters day and well last night I kind of did fail the challenge. but luckily I had a few cool pictures that Ive taken recently so why not just post them?

Near to where I work theres this canal and as I’ve nearly been there two weeks I think its time that I took a little lunch time walk along it to see if theres anything I can photograph, so I think that is my plan today. especially at Lunch time when the sun is at its highest but because it winter you get really cool shadows, so who knows it could really work out and maybe ill get some cool photos. I think it just comes down to the fact I need to man up and brave the cold, because otherwise I don’t think my photos will be nearly as good as they can be.

Im determined to put more time into my music project and really get that off the ground again, I need to get out to gigs and fully surround myself with music I think, show what can be done in the extra time before and after work. Im quickly running out of days and now its time to step up a bit, I know I keep saying that but its true I really need todo more. Ill spent some time today putting together a plan for gigs and photography ideas and then see about putting them into play. Sorry to all those readers that probably think I’m faffing about at the moment, but trying to juggle life doesn’t seem to be as straight forward as I originally thought.

Heres some photos from the past 7 days. enjoy.

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– Ive seen before photos with water in the bottom of the shot to add some thing extra, I gave it a go and maybe I need to give it another go and try and bit harder –
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– a photo from box park the other day –
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– I dont think theres a better place to take street photos at night, east london is by far my favourite place –

B309 – CLEAR SKYS AND COLD WEATHER – PERFECT

Last night was one of those nights, while on my walk to Old street, my photos just seemed to happen. I think half of that was down to the light, I had hit the perfect time, just as the sun was setting and theres this cool kind of blue light in the sky. I know it might sound a bit weird as well but I think it definitely helped that it was ridiculously cold. A lot of the time I walk around and really struggle to take some photos decent photos that I actually like, that definitely wasn’t the case last night.

One of the things I have learnt about myself over the past 309 days is that I really love street photography and take pictures of people and capturing those random moments that we all see happen and that give us those little chuckle to ourselves. thats definitely my favourite thing to photograph, but Ill also take a clear cold night where you are given loads of strong, bright, contrasty colours from shop windows and the odd coffee shop.

At the moment I really don’t have a lot of time to make it down to gigs and music venues to work on that photography project, which is really annoying. The only way I could make it is if I probably stop eating dinner and cut my sleep down but as I think that would probably do more damage than good, for now Im just going to put it on hold and get through the next couple of weeks / months and then pick it up from there. So sorry to anyone that Ive been speaking to about gigs for events, I haven’t forgotten about you.

my plan for the future is to write these posts that night instead of the morning before work, I just dont leave myself enough time and now spent my morning rushing around. theres nothing better waking up in the morning before work, knowing that the post is ready to go. C’mon josh up your game!!!

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– Bethnal Green Road towards Shoreditch –
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– I cant remember if I have taken a photo of this before, but I like this shot so Ill post it anyway –
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– its like the hand it pushing him back –

B306 – I GAVE UP AND HEADED TO THE PUB

The plan yesterday was to get all those jobs done that you need to in preparation for work next week and just to get my life in order, but after a Barclays paying in machine took all my money then going out of service. Meaning that it had swallowed my money and now I have to wait till they sort the machine out and I get my money back. That is how my morning went, so from there I realised that my day was destined for disaster and if Im going to fail I want to fail properly, so Weatherspoons became my next location and somewhere I planned to wait out this bad fortune and even worst weather. Some times its all thats needed, cheap beer and friends that will laugh your bad luck and thats exactly how we went on till it got to that point went vision became impaired and life got lighter. I do need to apologies to Amy who came to meet us, just to be met by the instant realisation that she was now my Saturday night carer. So for that Amy I am really sorry and thank your for the GBK burger and fries, Im sure the meal was amazing if only I could remember it.

We are now up early on Sunday and I feel like yesterday was a terrible idea, but it was good to see some friends and have a good old Saturday day time beer, something I haven’t done for a while, normally I get caught up with photography or some other idea that we come up with. Well anyway the plan for today is to go over to amy’s nan’s house and then onto a family meal with all of her family, some of which I haven’t met before so today will just be a case of making sure I don’t make any bad jokes, spill a drink, knock something over or just generally do something wrong. As you can tell Im not nervous at all.

Heres my photos from today, enjoy.

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– amy and the shop keeper picking up the sweets that amy (or possibly me) knocked over –
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– a great shot of a great support system –
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– Weatherspoons, six nation rugby, Saturday is sorted –

B301 – MONDAY NIGHT FOOD

So yesterday was my first day of work and as a result I did the same thing as everyone else in London. I stopped off at Sainsburys and starred at the oven pizzas thinking that because its Monday I might as well go for it, well that maybe something I would have done in 2017 but its now 2018 and Im determined to cook as much as possible, nothing to crazy each night, not like some weird roast beef with home made horse radish, more like the dish I went for last night which was actually really easy and cheap.

for those of you at Ive talked to about cooking, you probably know that Ive been using the Yummly app, which is basically somewhere I am getting all my recipes from and last night was no exception. The meal I decided to cook was called “Summer In Winter Chicken” I like to call it – Pesto Creamy Chicken. And its actually really straight forward.

the ingredients were:

1 tablespoon olive oil

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts

200 grams cherry tomatoes (pack)

3 tablespoons pesto

3 tablespoons crème fraîche (half fat is fine)

fresh basil (if you have it)

and then you literally just follow these simple steps and your done:

  1. Heat the oil in a frying pan, preferably non-stick. Add the chicken and fry without moving it until it takes on a bit of colour. Turn the chicken and cook on the other side. Continue cooking for 12-15 mins until the chicken is cooked through. Season all over with a little salt and pepper.
  2. Halve the tomatoes and throw them into the pan, stirring them around for a couple of minutes until they start to soften. Reduce the heat and stir in the pesto and crème fraîche until it makes a sauce. Scatter with a few basil leaves if you have them, then serve with rice and salad or mash and broccoli.

I left out the Broccoli, because I forgot and decided that I would have it wish some mash potato, which was just because I had some potatos in the fridge. If you cant be bothered to cook one night, give this dish a try.

Its now Tuesday morning and Im just getting ready for work and about to attack this day, I forgot how hard it is to photograph during the day when your working so maybe Ill just have todo loads more of my favourite food recipes, otherwise we could start to run into some stressful evening chucking fairy lights round Amys check and taking some photos of her.

Heres my photos from yesterday. Enjoy

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– the walk to works isnt that bad really –
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– this is mid cook, pesto and creme freche now involved –
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– doesnt look that good, but it did the job –

B293 – I NEED TODO BETTER

Having a bit of a lazy Monday morning today, its like 12 O’ clock and I’m still in bed. I am doing work but I’m still holed up refusing to get up. I think this kind of behaviour is fine as long as I’m still getting stuff done, you don’t need to be out of bed at 7am and cracking on right? some days you can do what needs to be done laying flat in a warm bed, I put it down to the perks of Freelance life.

Today I’m going back to some thing I haven’t done for like 100 days, that is the Iphone challenge, what i do it look through my Iphone to see what photos I might have on there that I can use for todays post, I also try to see a good photo and then just take it on my Iphone quickly to store it up for when I have days like these. As Im still at my parents house I want to try and get out later and give mooney (my dog) a good old walk, go out into the country side and see whats going on. maybe try and get some cool landscape photos, I know that its better to get up really early for that kind of thing, but I’ve missed the boat on that one now, so I suppose Ill just have to go this afternoon before it gets dark.

I think how I have to move forward with this blog is the day before I need to give my self a goal for the next day, like right tomorrow I’m going to photograph people or tomorrow is all about Landscape. that is probably the best way to move forward, so each day Ive got the goals and I know what i need todo, because right now Im not thinking about the next day till it gets here and I realise Ive missed an opportunity or something. Maybe Im getting to complacent, time I stepped my game up a bit more.

Thats my conclusion from today, here are my photos, enjoy!

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– this is a photo of the long walk ways at Bank station, its like human rabbit holes down there –
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– bristol train station at the beginning of the year –
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– that time I was at the British Library –

 

B228 – THE HIGHEST BATH IVE EVER HAD

today a bit of an early start, got a lot happening today but looking forward to getting on with every. its the first day of shooting so need to rush over to location, its like 6am now leaving the hotel at 7 to get there for 8. 

Breakfast, Having Chinese food for breakfast is actually quite a good idea. nothing better than noodles and some fried rice for breakfast. takes a bit of time to get used to drinking a coffee at the same time but its quite good in a weird way. I will dedicate a whole post to the breakfast here, i think it desevers it. I have never seen noddles and seafood for breakfast before.

The jet lag is still real, its probably some of the worst jet lag I have experienced, I keep waking up at like 4am and cant get back to sleep, normally i do some running or maybe a swim but I can get past the hotel bar, which is proving to be a bit of an issue.   One thing to talk about is the fact that the time zone is really confusing and I cant work out what the time is in the UK. I know we are 8 hours ahead but I keep thinking the UK is in front. thats probably the jet lag talking but for some reason my head just cant figure it out. the only good thin about waking up at 4am is the fact that I can have a bath with this view, it is literally the best bath in the world. I don’t think anything will ever compare to it!

My plan for these post while im away is to write some bullet points each day and then when I get back to the UK fill in all the gaps. I think thats probably the best thing for me todo, I will probably regret doing it that way, but I think while I’m here i need to get as much sleep as I can because my days are going to be filled with running around trying to get everything done.  

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– A Breakfast of champions? –
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– sorry for the bad light, I didnt want to turn the lights on at 5:30am, this was a bath to remember –
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– looking up inside the hotel –

B224 – I dont like being an adult

Well the day in a life of josh is one of pure excitement, today was the first time in over two months that I have actually had a afternoon during sun light at my flat for me just to enjoy. My plan head home at 2pm quickly edit some photos from the short film I have been working on yesterday and this morning, before sitting down to watch some tv and chill. well, that quickly went out the window. after turning on the kitchen tap I quickly realised it was blocked like properly blocked, my only option was to take the sink piping apart and see if I could fix it, with no luck and time not on my side I had to make the call to a local Plumber and cough up the money for him to turn up with a £3 plunger and fix the proper in under 20 minutes. lets just say I had to pay him enough money to buy about 55 plungers, but least its fixed now and I suppose I can no fix the problem if it happens again. so I guess I’ve learnt something new today.  I dont want this to be what its like being an adult, why do I have to worry about these kind of problems.

tomorrow is the day I fly to China for a week long job and as some of you may know China doesn’t allow social media and I think that include WordPress. The job im also going on have said that not a single photo can be taken which means that for at least 15 hours of the day Im going to be somewhere I can take photos. Making this blog even more harder todo each day. Im basically going somewhere, that its literally impossible for me to Blog from both by the government and by the production company. But I am josh spear and I can make this work, just like I managed to get my kitchen sink fixed…

any way here are my photos from today, I would like to say how much fun I had the past two days on that short film and cant wait to share it with you and i would also like to add that everyone should owner a decent plunger. it will save you a lot of money in the future.

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– rory wanted me to post a picture of me, so here it is. enjoy –
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– I took this sink apart and in return got covered in drain unblocker acid, smart one josh –
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– there only one place amy and me could go after that event. the pub –

B222 – DO YOU THINK I DID THE RIGHT THING?

I need some help, basically today I gave this homeless man £20 so he could get two weeks in a hostel for the Homeless put together by the Crisis charity, Ive had a look online and trying to work out if I’ve been hustled or not? my biggest mistake was not getting his name or taking his picture, he seemed genuine but I just want to find out if he actually spent the money on a bed, im thinking was two weeks is a good amount of time to get your stuff in order, I just hope he didn’t spend it on crack or alcohol. does anyone know how I can find out if he did get shelter? Its nice to be nice right?

In other news, today amy and myself set out on a mission which involved going to this fabrics store and also picking up some paint. I’m talking about mission up cycle our dinning table, I can that is was a complete success and I will share a photo of the table once its completely finished but I have to say we are both really happy with how its turned out. at first it was a bit touch and go with the varnish but once we realised it got darker as it dried the problem was solved.  I think we have both got a bit of a bug for this kind of thing now and definitly think we should up cycle some more stuff, I, also now the proud owner of a proper staple gun and really want to see what this thing can do.

so its been a bit of a busy afternoon and its now pretty late, tomorrow I have an early start and need to be up and with my a game for a short film I’m working on tomorrow. its definitely time to get some sleep.

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– Amy having a look through the millions of fabric, im suprised that we still arent in there looking at different patterns –

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– the staple gun, me and her and going to get really close over the next few months –

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– Brick lane has it all, ive missed this place –
 

 

B220 – THE ITV GALA 2017

Today I was working at the ITV Gala, which is an event put on by ITV for its massive teams both in front of the camera and behind, it was an event full of all the stars from their biggest shows and big bosses. This post is now especially hard because my one golden rule is that I never post on social media about these jobs unless its already gone out on TV or if it doesn’t give to much away. I just don’t want to cross that line which makes me look unprofessional. I normally just ignore the day but as I now post three photos each day and today has revolved completely around this event, I don’t have a choice.

One thing I think is completely fair to say is the London Palladium is a pretty cool venue but it’s literally like a rabbit run and even after 13 hours of being there I still have no idea where anything was or even how to find the toilet.

The one thing I love about these types of jobs is that I get to see a bunch of old friends and have those catch ups with people that I might not of seen for a year or more. nothing is better than walking around a venue full of people and bumping into someone you might not of seen for 2 / 3 years and having a little catch up, its kind of one of those perks to the job. I remember a chat I had with my school teachers and my mum when they wanted to know why I was always late to class and the excuse was because I would just get chatting to someone in the corridor and end up like 5 minutes late to class, that problem really feels like its followed me through into my job but only this time Ive grown up so now Ive learnt to walk and chat, rather than just stand still.

If you have ever been to London you will know that the famous road called Oxford street is one of the busiest streets around and probably also one of my favourite, it was the first street I got to properly figure out and know where everything was when I started working in the city and now I hardly visit it which is a bit annoying. most of my work is based in east london or somewhere outside of the M25. Im going to start making the journey over to Oxford Street more often, thats a promise.

So for me to get back there today was actually a nice treat and when I managed to get some spare time,  I decided to venture out and grab a coffee and as you can imagine when I saw a middle age man stop in the middle of the tube entrance and pose of a selfie with the “oxford street” sign I could pull out my phone quick enough to take a photo. its crazy how so much can be happening on one street is such a sort period of time, there is always something to photograph on Oxford street.

Anyway enough of my chatting on, here are my photos from today.

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– I took this shot as everyone was leaving, I made a quick escape after the show – im kind of jealous I didnt go for a drink but I know tomorrow morning Ill know it was the right decision –
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– this guy made going to get a coffee so much better –
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– I wonder if anyone has ever brought a t shirt from this guy? next time i see a stall I think I might have to pick one up –

 

 

B209 – IM NOT IN A GOOD WAY

Its sunday, a day where most people are sitting at home watching a movie and looking forward to a week of work. while I have made the fatal error of accidentally eating Avacado, something I am really really allergic too, it literally brings me to my knees over night and takes me out of the game for a few days. there nothing I can do apart from sleep and rest. Its currently 8pm and im in bed, trying to get this post done.

my plan for todays post has gone completely out of the window, I wanted to talk about this old hill near our location which was were the revolutionary war was basically start and also were the army kept there Gun power. if you want to know more, here some links to the history for anyone who wants to know more.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Somerville,_Massachusetts

http://www.muldermedia.com/prospecthill/history.html

http://www.unionsquareneighbors.com/prospect-hill.html

so really cool stuff, but all that really happened to day was I did some work and moaned the whole day that I felt unwell. I like everyone to know what I am going through and feel my pain, im not really a suffer in silence kind of guy. That doesn’t mean this is just Man flu, this is a medical condition that must be treated with the highest respect. The clocks are also going back tonight so hopefully the extra hours sleep will work in my favour.

back to my photos the plan for today now is to show some photos I took on my Iphone over the last couple of days, I of course have to include the photo from my flight over New York a few days ago and some other cool photos from Massachusetts.

if anyone is allergic to Avacado too and knows any top tips for getting rid of this please please let me know. I’m scared to google it because the webdoctors always make me feel like a limbs going to fall off when I google something.

Hope you like my photos.

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– someville, Massachusetts on my trip today to find something to sort me out –
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– leaving New York the other day, I love that city –
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– this was the ceiling in the car rental place at Boston Airport, looks pretty cool –