NEWS

2008-12-08T17:52:00.005Z

Couple of new bits of gear, first of all this Nikkor 10.5mm f2.8 fish eye. Its great, Ive used it quite a bit already, its ace for landscape stuff, as I found out a couple of weeks ago when I climbed Coniston Old Man!

Here's us in the campervan drinking a cup of tea before the climb.

Also, its was a while ago that I got this thing called a lensebaby, its pretty sweet, but its definatly got a time a place!

Here it is, with its aperture rings and their holder.

I also made a product tent, which Ive used to shoot these photos with!

here that is...

x

More music stuff.

2008-11-27T11:13:00.009Z

More music stuff. there are a load of photos here, waaaay to many for a news page/blog post!

So James Rhodes, a second year student from my course was making a couple of music videos the other day, and he asked if I wanted to go along and get some snaps for him, it was an ace set up, three video studio lights, and a bunch of mics and wires, in a big room. I got loads of stuff I liked, heres some of it!

Holy State

2008-11-10T17:10:00.009Z

Early start this morning doing some promo shots for the band Holy State, a punk band consisting of people from Norwich, my home town, but they're mostly in Leeds now.

Here are the final 4.

The Lock and Keys

2008-11-10T13:41:00.007Z

Some friends of mine play in a band called the Lock and Keys. I went along to one of their gigs on Saturday to take some photographs of them, some of them are better than others, but all in all, I'm happy with the results.

Oblong

2008-11-06T17:34:00.006Z

I spent the afternoon at Oblong, which is a social/resource centre in Woodhouse, Leeds.

Duncan, one of the guys that works there mentioned they could so with some new photographs for their website.

I did a few, but here are a couple of my favourites.

I put a second light to light up the bottom right corner, its subtle but I think it makes alot of difference.

2008-11-05T14:06:00.011Z

loads of news, not sure where to start!

Well, Ill start with the rubbish news that i broke my thumb, which sucks!

Took some BMX snaps though, which i have been a bit too busy to spend much time on recently it seems...just boring old hyde ones, but still.

Jono and Kyle, table contest. votes on a blank postcard to my address!

been doing loads of dissertation stuff which is interesting, getting into this book by Susan Sontag called regarding the pain of others. And a few war picture books, its shocking stuff but really reassures my stance as a pacifist.

Got a DVD to watch called "war photographer" about james nachtwey, who is an amazing photojournalist.

heres a few of his shots.

Indonesia 1998 - a beggar washes his children in a polluted canal.

Palestinians fighting the Isreli Army, probably petrol bombing tanks.

http://www.palsolidarity.org/

Collapse of the south tower. 9/11.

and a good quote about photojournalism...

"I have been a witness, and these pictures are

my testimony. The events I have recorded should

not be forgotten and must not be repeated."

ok, so thats made my work seem trivial and rubbish, but its so inspiring to see work like that.
There is loads more on his website http://www.jamesnachtwey.com/ Please take the time to have a look.

I got a new lense in other news, its called a lensbaby and its a very sickly effect lense, but it definatly has its uses.

Here are a few shots using it.

That just about sums up halloween too...

Elections last night, stayed up till just after 2, then woke back up for the big one at 4am, good result, glad that military minded old dude isnt going to be in charge with his joke of a vice president. Obama seems to be able to hold his own with Bill O rielly, that gets him my respect!

busniess cards

2008-10-24T18:47:00.001+01:00

I went to the printers today to print my business cards.

I chose a few different colours and weights of card I liked, and got the design laid out in indesign ready to be sent to the Risograph, which was the print method I chose when I started to design my card.

As far as I can gather, a Risograph is pretty muck like digitally and easily screen printing onto paper. You send a one colour design to it and produce a master, which is like a screen, and this sits on the drum and the ink gets sqeezed through it onto the card.

This is the mos eco-friendly way of printing anything short of potato stamping with octopus ink or something it seems!

Here are a few snaps of the cards...

I know its dumb because the chances are you've already got my web adress, but please get in touch if youd want one for any reason, I'm really proud of them!

x

Documentaries

2008-10-20T23:54:00.007+01:00

Ive been watching a fair few documentaries of late, I really love how easy it is to absorb knowledge when it is presented to you in a gripping, interesting way.

Im fascinated by the world, how it works, and how it doesnt work, not just humans, but nature to. I love being baffled by animals I have never seen or even heard of before, and seeing images of places i could only dream of going.

I love the feeling when something clicks, when you feel you understand a certain issue, and you have a more informed view on something.

I love reading too, i try to read a paper most days, but it is time consuming, and sometimes im not in the mood to read, but im always in the mood for a good documentary!

I wish i was more into filming and video, as i would love to be a part of a good documentary, I woul love to see and learn the things these people get to first hand. I would love to get into this more with my photography, and i know i should get around leeds and find some stuff going one here that needs documenting.

My dissertation is about war photography, and the media, and the more reasearch i do the more fascinated I am with it, im tempted to bugger off to some war torn part of the globe for a while to document whats going on, but there are a load of things keeping me here right now, Like university, and my girlfriend and my friends and money and the fact I'd probably fuck it up!

In a couple of years when I've done uni, and Ive saved up money, then Im gonna go, and im going to take as many photos as possible. I feel so inspired by the world right now.

I hope never to watch neighbours again as there is always something more interesting and inspiring...

Here are some of my photographs from a Demo at the weekend, we opposed a protest put on by the British people party who were trying to demand white music for white people, and get hip hop out of HMV.

Thats bullshit. I hate hip hop, not because of what is represents, but because its just not for me, but without black people making music there would never be the blues, there would never be rock and roll, there would never be punk, metal, anything! wed be stuck with opera and classical stuff probably!

The BPP were over shadowed by anti fascist supporters, the public could at no point see a sign, or hear a word the fascist scum were saying. Which is good, it turne dout to be a really successful anit fascist demontstration.

Strike anywhere

2008-10-06T10:03:00.003+01:00

Went to see Strike Anywhere the other night, it was a good time. Ive seen them a couple of times before, and it was awesome. First time was the Ferryboat (rip) in Norwich about 4 years ago probably, maybe even five, and it was awesome. Next time was about a year and a half, 2 years back at Joe's Well (rip!).

I didnt think i would enjoy it as much this time, so I took my camera, thought Id get some snappers. It felt wierd, really competitive cos there were like 2/3 other cameras pointing in the dudes face. I set up a light stage left and then held the other, then gave it to my friend up front for a while and tried some longer shots.

It was really hard to compose an image at a gig like that, and I was dissapointed with the results, but there again i was only shooting for about 2 songs.

the gig was ace though, the band were tight as anything (as you would be if youd been playing together that long). There was a table of anarchist/anti fascist info which was really great to see, as its rare you see that at hardcore shows nowadays. The singer fully supported this demo thats going on next weekend against the british peoples partys demo about how hip hop is evil.

Anyway, heres the photo...

The gig was

Busy Still

2008-10-02T17:44:00.001+01:00

Ive been super busy still, less photos, more design work, which you are probably staring at right now. Ive got a new website, a new business card, new portfolio, new CV. Feels good!

x

Busy bee!

2008-09-30T18:12:00.006+01:00

Ive been pretty busy recently, got a couple of new flashes and remotes, thats all working fine everytime now, so im happy and have been busy making the most of it!

Been doing a few bits for Merlin over at www.merlinmason.co.uk.

Done the portrait for a small web based article on my friend Dre, dont know if im supposed to put that on until it goes on the Dig website though. I was happy with the results though, and so was he i hope!

Lots of new BMX things, ill put a few on, been riding the jumps alot recently, which was fun till I fell off and headbutted a berm. To put it like street dave would :(

Please view big!

I started back at college, and now having decided on what I want to be doing, am quite enjoying so far, rather than going in worried everyday like the past 2 years. The 'penny has dropped'. Finally!

For my first brief I decided I was going to "brand" myself, and create a new website, business cards and protfolio, and use this to get some jobs, to basically improve my portfolio, and make it more professional.

Have come up with a logo, and a set of fonts I will use, and have a rough idea for the business cards, and the portfolio, Im just trying to work out dreamweaver, life is stressful.

here is the business card roughly...

The fancy bits were made on illustrator and added on.

Thats Basically my logo.

Im going to get these printed at Footprinters workers coop on recycled card using soy based inks...so whilst being young professional, I know I am still me...haha!

There was a jam at Becketts park recently, to which the PDF can be found at www.ls6bmx.co.uk.

2008-09-12T16:54:00.004+01:00

Not been too busy as of late, I've been having a lot of trouble with my equipment which is really slowing things down. ..but ive got my loan coming in soon, so I bought a couple of new bits and bobs to prepare me for a busy year of taking photos.

So...quick bag check! you might wanna click this so its big.

But...its all unreliable.

So Ive done some more research and Ive bought a Nikon sb-24, a Nikon sb-26, another set of ebay slaves for back-up, a diffuser for the sb-24, and one more Sunpak flash (he wanted a tenner for the cable, or a tenner for the whole thing...)

Hopefully I'll be back in business real soon, and surprisingly the whole lot has cost me under a hundred quid, for three new flashes, a transmitter and three recievers, and a diffuser. Winner.

Exciting about having equipment I can rely on, as I'm sure are the riders who have to do things over and over cos my flashes didn't fire.

So thats that, if I get another boring 10 mins, I might do another bag check.

Went to Beckets park today, remember the place where theres been a few photos of jake doing a tabe, and turndown and kyle of man doing a tuck no hander?!

Heres what I got, I had to borrow one of joes lights, and should have done from the start. Ah well, few days time and ill be able to use 3 of my own!

ace.

shooter

2008-09-04T10:56:00.002+01:00

Today Digbmx put my "shooter" article online. Its a few snappers and a little interview.

At first I was really unsure about wha to send through, im really happy about my choice apart from maybe the sheeps head one...I really wanted to send something non-bmx that was really eye catching, different and just interesting. but it might well be a bit too different and interesting?!

DIGBMX

2008-09-02T17:56:00.002+01:00

Dig used some of my photos for the Coventry Confrontation jam article on their website! exciting stuff!

www.digbmx.com

RUSH

2008-09-01T14:49:00.004+01:00

Amazing band. Cant believe its taken 21 years of listening to similar stuff to discover them!

I decided I wanted to edit an LS6BMX video after we got back from the trip, and here is what I came up with...

2008-08-29T20:58:00.000+01:00

I've been busy doing BMX stuff, loads of it. Ive edited a video, been on a trip, taken loads of photos...update soon!

Micheal Forrest

2008-08-23T08:57:00.002+01:00

My best buddy from Norfolk just emailed me some branding work hes been doing, for a charity called lifenets. I thought it was mint, but im not sure if they were clever enough to recognise his talents! what do you think?

Photo update

2008-08-20T22:07:00.021+01:00

last week Will from DIGbmx offered me an article they do on their website called a shooter. Its basically a little interview of photographers and a few of their photos. Ive been kinda planning doing a bunch of new stuff for it, but the weather has been shitty and its not really worked out that way. Ive done a load of new photos but I dont like any enough to speak for my photographic abilities really.

Here are a load of newuns anyway, and why I'm a failure.

fev railhop. not sharp enough.

Bonkers air from gez. visually not that exciting.

Gez alley oop luc-e, nice photos but like the rednecks said.. "where did he come from, where did he go?!"

Gez Icepick. Problem is it was a double peg, not quite up to standard!

Its a flyout, like the photo though!

Joe cage ride. not got the "x factor"

Rad trick, like the photo, not quite photographically interesting enough though.

Joe bailey, sick wallride. to be honest its a definate maybe.

Kentucky phil. Flash didnt fire...

Launch of the cage.

Gez big 180, didnt time it quite right so he is not tucked too great.

Liam oakes. I was having a nightmare with flashes. lightings not great at all.

Liam straight hop. nuts, not sharp though. like the ceiling.

Liam, table, madonnas tits. Nice lead in line, not the best angle or lighting.

Kentucky phil. Really amateur looking crap shot with one flash on a cord, slaves were aggravating me too muck to bother!

Kentucky phil. pegs to over. looks like a wheelie, not an easy trick to shoot!

Thats it for now!

New LS6BMX video

2008-08-19T11:25:00.000+01:00

Summer 08 from Ls6bmx on Vimeo.

This is the latest video from our BMX "media collective?!"

Filmed and edited mainly by Kyle Harvey, the brainchild of Ls6bmx.

The website is coming very soon and there are a bunch of my photos on there, as well as Joe Baileys photos, hes a really good photographer from Kings Lynn who now lives in Leeds.

2008-08-12T15:35:00.006+01:00

Been canny busy recently, so there I haven't updated this.

Well, it seems like I've been busy, I think its just been the weathers been awful and I've been away and doing other things.

So photowise, Ive done a few recently, so Ill just put a bunch up.

Few BMX ones from here and there, and a few others.

Howard, Yarmouth toothpick.

Howard, Upride to downwhip.

Me Nans cat.

Gez, hip table.

Kyle, hip tuck.

Kyle, table.

Last two I'm not happy with, theyre not sharp enough. lightings ok though!

Kyle Harvey

2008-07-22T16:16:00.005+01:00

My housemate Kyle Harvey has just got his website up and running, looks good!

He used one of my photos and put a bit of text on it, I think it looks really nice what hes done!

And remember kids...We are the streets.

If only the twockers that stole Sallys car knew that...thieving little bastards. I bet you any money they get away with it. We end up losing out big time, and they do it again and again. I have no faith in the Police, but this is one final test!

Merlin

2008-07-22T00:28:00.003+01:00

Merlin asked for a photo to go on his website to show the book he made. So I took this for him. Check it out.

2008-07-22T00:18:00.002+01:00

Lovely day at appletreewick.

Danny Clayton

2008-07-21T10:31:00.008+01:00

Few pictures of Danny Clayton and Greg yesterday.

360 fakie.

Turndown fakie, not sure if he pulled the fakie.

Wasn't sure weather or not that flash being in shot is good or bad? Any feedback?

Greg invert.

Greg Invert.

before the storm

2008-07-19T18:43:00.002+01:00

shredder from bardford. Really bloody long flat rail.

evening skatepark session

2008-07-17T22:38:00.012+01:00

Just been at the skatepark, evening sessions are canny good, its not too busy, and the light was really really nice!

It would have been great if Kyle had clicked this!

photo manipulation

2008-07-17T18:39:00.004+01:00

My brother sent me a couple of photos for me to take a look at for him, this one i thought had a lot of potential, but it was taken on a pretty basic camera, which doesn't have particularly good colour saturation and stuff.

I tried not to do too much with it, but I didnt like the shape, or that bin in the bottom right, so I cropped it to be a bit shorter, put some of the colours up, and burnt the sky in a little, to make it look a little more looming.

internet and the lake district.

2008-07-16T15:07:00.007+01:00

Havent updated this for a while because we haven't had the internet in our new house. Recently I have been trying to shoot a photo a day, to make sure I'm nice and busy and not wasting my summer.

So...theres been quite a few, and here are some of them.

First, on our street there is a bit of grafitti on the pavement that says "ghetto". I looked at this and knew I wanted to do something with it. Sally has broken her foot and has it in plaster, so I thought it would make a good shot of her on her crutches walking past it, as it has kind of a story or something to get you thinking about the image a bit.

I set up one off camera flash to the front of her, which really brought out the colour of her skirt and the rain.

Next photo I took was of Kyle of Gypo. He wanted a portrait for his About Me section of his website. When I asked him what he had in mind he wanted to go out to a bus stop in Adel, it was raining and miserable, so that seemed to be as good of a location as any that day! I set up a couple of flashes inside the bus stop to light that and his face, and snapped away!

Three of these can be found on www.kyleharvey.co.uk.

Couple of slightly moodier ones here too taken in a car park in Leeds uni, a popular riding spot for when its raining, so I thought id see if location photography translated.

Bit too forced and moody?

The next day i went to take some photos of my friend Jims shop, the third estate, he wanted some sort of abstracty interesting, arty shots to possibly be used on the website or mypace or something. Here are a few.

Thats that.

Really wanted to take a photo of my girlfriends back as I thought it would make a really interesting subject as it is tattooed. I had visions of it being a really dark and shady, so we spent a good while trying to get the lighting right.

Couple of new photos on the BMX front from the weekend.

At the weekend a few of us went to the lake district to stay in a barn and get a way from the city.

I took a whole bunch of photos, most of which can be found here.

Here are a couple of my favorites though.

Last thing, cos this post is huge, I went out with Kyle of Gypo to take a photo of him peddle feeble grinding a ledge. He didn't pull it, but i got a mint photo of him falling off! I only wish Id set up the flashes to light the floor at the bottom of the ramp so he was frozen a bit sharper!

x

Were movin house

2008-06-30T00:42:00.003+01:00

Got back to Leeds today, merlin was packing away all our videos and computer games...

...best video collection in BMX?

Cymru

2008-06-29T23:28:00.015+01:00

Me and Sally went to wales for the weekend, we took a few duvets, a tent, our trangia camping stove, and a boot-full of other stuff, and hit the road friday night!

Obviously I took my camera and got a few shots over the weekend!

These are from a place where we stopped to cook ourselves breakfast in the morning, it was a lovely little village, really reminded us of the lake district, we sat on a rock with the paper, lit the stove and got some soup!

The next day we headed to Conwy, with a mission to catch a crab, we ate all the veggie sausages wed bought especially, as were both vegan and didnt want to use meat, but luckily we met these two kids who had bacon, but no crab line, so we bought the line, and used their bacon...

I was really interested in these kids fascination with crabbing, they reminded me of a couple of old fisherman, talking about the tides, and the bait and time of year and stuff, they seemed to have a real knowledge of the sea and their hobby! I set myself a little brief to document them going about their everyday business to see what I could come up with...

there you go!

Kinda did the same with birds, absolutely fascinated by them, so I wanted to shoot some photos of some! Need a telephoto I reckon...

just been down the trails

2008-06-25T22:44:00.004+01:00

evening session with the lads like.

For me it was the jake gun show, which sucks because I wanted to get some of Kyle o'man and gypo doing those things with the foot and the tweak. bloody jake.

Jake invert.

jake turndown

second angle

chase gun

Loddon Fayre

2008-06-24T10:19:00.006+01:00

I thought I had my batteries charged, but I only had my flashes charged and forgot my camera battery charger. So I only managed to take photos on the Saturday, at the Revolutionz BMX demo at Loddon Village Fete!

Most of the photos I took seemed to be of Pants, who I defiantly think is one of my favorite riders, dude is amazing!

Patty Banks Hopped this high too, but I think I must have slightly mistimed it, which sucks, cos it would have been nice to have a photo of someone else!

The money shot.

Inherited an old chinon flash off my Grandfather, and an old Claud Butler Racing bike too. amazing!

Off to Norwich

2008-06-20T09:44:00.004+01:00

Batteries are charged, memory cards formatted, ready for my weekend in Norwich, a weekend of family, tractors and hopefully the Norwich BMX scene!

Me, kyle of man and Simon went for a monster bike ride along the canal yesterday, it was really fun, then we headed to becketts park for a bit, because kyle of man hadn't done his tuck no hander for the day and was starting to shake.

Quick set up by the hip to get a photo. It wasn't the sunniest of days, which could have made the photo a lot more exciting and intersting, so I tried to keep the lighting focused mainly on him, so I could darken the rest of the shot a bit, and make It have a bit of atmosphere.

boshdy.

One from the canalside too.

x

2008-06-17T16:29:00.004+01:00

just couple of photos from yesterday.

Lee going pretty much upside down 360ing the spine at hyde, the worst place to take photos because of the dull colours and that line of trees making any sort of long-shot impossible because you just lose the subject to the background. There are a couple of flashes on him here, but its still hard to see.

Kyle of Gypo, wallride to tuck, angle one. could have done with a flash to the left of the camera, and then stopped down a little.

Nicer lighting here i think, the colours look better. Going to buy one more flash defiantly, because it needed one either side of him, and the foreground lighting, but I only have two flashes right now, so i had to make the sacrifice of subtly lighting the foreground from behind the camera, and then him from one side.

Charles tuck no hander out of the wallride. Same light set up as the previous shot, this was really hard to time right as his arms were extended for such a fraction of a second. This is as good as I managed, I have a feeling its a tiny bit early though.

beddows birthday

2008-06-16T12:27:00.011+01:00

Went to Nottingham this weekend for Beddows birthday camping trip. It was ace, there were some interesting characters and some good friends it was good to see!

Here are some photos, both riding, and camping related!

Arnold Ben, 360

Specky Simon, X-up

Golden axe

"ah com aart ere, wiv me meats, build mesen an aaarse!"

A night to remember

If the bar aint bendin, stop pretendin!

STP downside footplant

Arnold Ben, footjam nosepick.

2008-06-11T17:29:00.006+01:00

Went out to take a few photos just in Leeds today, as the weather looked a bit crappy so we didn't go to Bradford. We stayed at this one rail for bloody ages, then everyone got bored and went home. not a very exciting day!

Unfortunately nothing actually got pulled on this rail, but I got a couple of photos I was happy with, so I've put them up, and I'll go back to get it again.

Joe Bailey, pegs to over, pre-storm.

2008-06-11T00:30:00.005+01:00

Went out this afternoon with some of the lads to take some photos, seemed to be having a pretty off day, nothing came out too good, my flashes were being really unreliable, which is annoying, going to go out tomorrow to Bradford I think, that will go better I hope, anyway heres some photos from today.

Charles, rail hop. The lighting is way too harsh on this photo from the right hand side, putting his right side in shadow. The light to the right of the photo is placed ok, but too powerful, and the other needed to be on a stand just out of shot on the left of the photo.

Kyle of man, footjam whip...one day anyway. I really like this photo, but unfortunately he didn't pull it. Shadows look nice, and the lighting is pretty good too I think. Maybe a tad too harsh. The sky has a nice colour to it, really nice blue thats reflected in the building.

2008-06-10T00:55:00.005+01:00

I've seen some really amazing old graves and have taken a few photos of some already, but i think I want to do a few more so me and Sally went for a walk to this graveyard the other evening right near her house to see if there were any nice ones, got a couple of shots I was happy with, but they're not really what I had in mind for this project, I think I see ambiently lit black and white photos.

whist we were there I messed around taking some photos of Sally using my flashes, I really want to get two light stands, at the minute I'm lugging around a tripod, which folds up to be pretty big, its heavy, and doesn't go that high! And I'm limited to one higher flash and one of the floor.

Hebden bridge

2008-06-09T00:23:00.008+01:00

Spent the day In Sowerby bridge, then hebden bridge today, it was ace. Really good weather, good company and amazing food at Dandelion and burdock. That place is amazing! Took my camera, heres a few snaps from the day! Sallys old work friend had a kid really recently, and it was awesome! Never really encountered a really small baby like that, it was pretty wierd!

creative match

2008-06-05T14:18:00.003+01:00

I put my work into the creative match flair photography competition. Why not? doubt ill win, but its still a good opportunity to get my work shown i guess.

http://www.creativematch.co.uk/?action=viewFlair&fi=3006

check it out.

x

street shots

2008-06-05T12:06:00.005+01:00

Dont really want to shoot photos at the skatepark anymore, its so dull and grey. Maybe when im a bit better and can make it more interesting.

Here are a few street shots.

Flashes

2008-06-03T12:26:00.010+01:00

Yesterday I got through a couple of dead cheap radio slaves, and went up to the skatepark to have a mess around with them. I had loads of fun and was pretty happy with the results, here are a few of my favourites.

This is Joe, there was a flash just out of shot on a tripod on the deck of the quarter, and a less powerful one on the deck just beneath him facing upwards, but I think that one is too crap to do anything.

Lee, toboggan, the ramp is too dark, needs another flash right behind me to the right to light up the foreground. Like the light caught on his chrome rim though!

Lee again, this time a flash on top of the sub on a tripod, and the other less powerful one facing upwards in the corner of the quarter and sub, dont think thats doing anything though!

I think this is one of my favourites, the lighting looks nice I think, and the trick looks really nice.

I was really happy with this one cos we shot it once and it was spot on timing, his axle must have been touching for a slip second, and somehow I got it spot on, first time, real fluke!

check it out!

Joe cut his leg pretty bad, and i got a couple of nice shots of that with my 50mm lense, which is really crisp and has a really narrow depth of field on f1.8.

Nature, well...kind of.

2008-06-02T10:53:00.008+01:00

Ok, so yesterday we were supposed to walk along to canal to saltaire, but the weather was awful, so we decided to go to tropical world, but I dont think either of us were sure what it was excatly, It was pretty horrible the way they keep the animals. In fact Ive been thinking about the poor monkey all night. I think Im going to go let the little bugger out!

Few photos of the less badly treated animals.

do it yoursen!

2008-06-02T10:34:00.008+01:00

So here are a few photos from a couple of house shows, theyre not great but its something I would like to develop. I think I;d probably need a slightly wider lense as its hard to capture the atmosphere as there is a whole band, a PA and tons of people on a living room, and its difficult to capture all that!

These are the Warboys

Cant remember the name of this band, but its Stu from SMP on drums and they were good!

This guys from the Afternoon Gentlemen

Ace, Ill put some more gig photos up next time theres one worth taking pictures at.

x

photo session

2008-05-29T16:02:00.006+01:00

Quick photo session at the skatepark, few ok photos, really looking forward to getting new flashes sorted as I'm starting to think loads about it, where they need to go and stuff, think itll be really interesting.

Here are a few from today.

Greg topside whip.

Greg lookback.

Greg table

Jake table

Jono table.

Awesome, cant wait to take more!

digital.

2008-05-29T01:10:00.002+01:00

Last week I decided now was probably going to be the only opportunity for a long time I have to buy a new camera. I was reluctant to go digital as it seems too easy, and I haven't ever really been that impressed with the results when i have borrowed a digital SLR. But the more I thought about it, the more sense it made. It is so hard to learn about colour, and lighting with 35mm, because its too expensive to shoot in colour, so it would take years to learn how to use it properly, and its costs too much and is too much effort and time to learn to use flashes.

I figured if I went digital, I could shoot loads more pic's, and see the results straight away, for free. I feel like I have enough knowledge of how an SLR works to get the best out of a good camera, so I decided to go for something semi-pro.

I got a Nikon D80 and a couple of prime lenses. A nikon 1.8 50mm, and a 2.8 28mm. To add to this I already own a Canon speedlight from a few years ago, which works fine, and I have ordered a vivitar flash from a brilliant shop in norwich, philips cameras. The I ordered a dead cheap radio transmitter and a couple of recievers, so I can have my two flashes off camera and wireless. Ace.

Im really excitied about taking loads of photos, and seeing whats going on and hoping it will help to improve my skills.

Gallery Visits

2008-05-28T22:16:00.004+01:00

After deciding to just link to this instead of printing stuff out and handing it in, I have decided to put my gallery visit write ups on here...

First up.

The graffiti thing in college...

I am a very very stubborn person, I get things into my head that they are shit, and I generally stick with that opinion, you live by the sword, you die by the sword!

I have time for people publicly displaying art, and messages, but I have a distaste for the "graffiti style" you see everywhere. Ive seen it all before, it didn't interest me then, and it still doesn't ten years later.

I had a spare bit of time and I was in college, so I thought I should go check out what all the fuss was about.

I thought it was some kids who had the gift of the gab, and let college do their final exhibition all over college, and thought, you know, fair crack, good on them!

Then I found out that it was part of my 3070 pounds I paid this year to be here, and it pissed me off. There are so many kids around Leeds that would have given their leg to have an opportunity like that, and would have done it a hundred times better. The fact those guys were paid to come up from London to exhibit that stuff baffled me.

Surely graffiti is about non-commercial artwork, not paying some goons to come up and do a bit of vandalism on a canvas and get payed for it.

The work was different to a lot of graffiti you see, in that it was a lot worse, there was no, "wow, how did they do that with a spray can?" factor, it was just shit cartoons.

Great.

Next up. Frank Meadow Sutcliffe.

I went to Whitby, home of one of the best photographers in history in my opinion, and i took the time to go visit his Gallery.

Most of the photos i had seen before in books and on the internet, but still its was nice to see them framed and bigger.

He was something of a local hero, as almost every pub you go in, or cafe has one of his photos up, which is brilliant.

I didn't have a spare £20 to buy a book, but if I did I think I would have done.

Photography must have been really hard in the 1800's, without all the technology we have today, no automatic settings, no Jessops.

"Anyone who can see, can photograph"
Frank Meadow Sutcliffe.

Sainsbury centre for visual arts.

The SCVA (http://www.scva.org.uk/) is a free gallery in the University of East Anglia. I have visited this gallery many times in my life, and there are a few pieces i remember fro my chidhood that were the ones I liked best still when i went back this time around.

First of all there are a few Henry Moore's in the grounds, I have always liked the sheers scale and weight of these sculptures, they're so tough but still remain beautiful.

John Davies "Bucketman" was one of my favorites, it is a haunting, scary life size sculpture of a man holding buckets.

The Francis Bacons really interest me, they're so dark, and depressing, it immediately makes me think of what he must have been thinking and feeling.

Ive always really like Alberto Giaccommetti too, and its great to see some of his sculptures, and drawings here.

There was lots of really old art and sculpture from all around the world, and one piece from japan caught my eye.

Hebden Bridge.

I cant find any information about this place that we visited in hebden bridge, but it was by the canal, it was a sort of mini science museum, but about eco stuff and climate change. There was a bike you could ride to power a lamp on the front, and loads of other interactive things. In another part there were lots of drawings and other pieces of art work. I really liked the way it made learning about stuff easy for kids and it was defiantly suitable for adults too!

The alhambra palace, which I wrote briefly about in Feb was amazing, and when we were there, there was a photographic exhibition which had photographs from the 1800/1900s. I love seeing old photos, because of the process and difficulty of photography in those times. They were mainly of the architecture and sights around the alhabra, and were nearly as exiting to see as the architecture I saw there.

Reading

2008-05-28T21:30:00.005+01:00

This is a quick, last minute write up of some of the books I have been reading and that have inspired me.

First of all, fuck you heros, by Glen E friedman.

This is a book documenting the skateboarding, punk and hip scene from the late 70s, 80s and early nineties.

Its amazing.

Skateboarding is rad. Punk is even radder, and these are some of my favorite bands I could never dream of seeing live, captured in a way I really really like.

Another favorite was "Into the Wild", by John Krakauer.

Made into a really good film too, which is nice to see it wasnt ruined. Reading this book made me think alot about how there isnt only one path in life that is predetermined, there are people in this world who do all sorts, its really interesting.

Another favorite book is by Ed Templeton, called the Golden age of neglect.

Some really great lifestyle shots from a skateboarder, a pretty casual book, not every photo is amazing, some aren't technically brilliant, but it doesn't matter, because they're all interesting to look at.

One more Ive been looking at recently is called Recipes for Disaster, an anarchists cookbook.

Lots of great recipes for the summer I hope, some really good ways to use your useless surroundings and make them more interesting...some good ways to show views and opinions, or protest.

New Project

2008-05-28T21:16:00.002+01:00

Right now I am reading this book called Real England by Paul Kingsnorth, and its bloody good. It is about the decline of independents in Britain, well, the decline of Britain, the rise of globalisation and characterless clone towns. Its made me really angry.

One of the chapters is about the decline of the canal system, and how British Waterways, a public organization are playing monopoly with our canal land for short term returns, yet leaving the canals ruined and only good for yuppies to look out of their clone flat or offices at.

Not for living on, working on and keeping the tradition alive.

So hopefully Sunday, given the weathers good, me and Sally are going from Leeds City Centre, to Fannies Ale house in Saltaire, along the tow paths, documenting what we see on the way.

CV

2008-05-28T21:07:00.006+01:00

Just a quick post. Im trying to make my CV interesting, more interactive, to give whoever looks at it a bit more of an incentive to bother.

I want to include a few photographs on the CV, as they obviously speak alot louder about my work than words do. I want it to fold out too, as thats the interaction.

so here is on idea.

This would be folded down the middle, leaving the back blank, not unlike a birthday card...and it would fold out to be portrait A4 sheet, a simple format for my C.V.

Another idea, which I think I prefer is to have it fold the regular way... so it'll look like this.

And then fold out to reveal this.

Reckon thats sweet for now, until I can think of something better...

work experience

2008-05-28T15:05:00.004+01:00

This year I have been on a few different work placements. While I was doing them I was sure that I was learning nothing and I didn't enjoy them at all. However after finishing them and being pissed off for wasting a few days of my life, I realized I had learned a lot.

The first placement I did was at a magazine called moneyfacts. It was set up through the parent of one of the kids my Mum teaches. It was supposed to be with a photographer, then it changed to a printing company, then it changed to one of the magazines that the printing company print. So, I went out and bought a new shirt and shoes, and got ready for my first day in the office.

I spent a week placing adverts into allocated spots, drinking coffee, and squeezing articles into pre-layed out pages. Then cruising istock photo searching for buzz words sort of relating to that issues main article. for example, something about protecting your money, we ran a picture of an umbrella on a beach. It was bollocks.

There were two really nice guys there, who had be so tamed by the fact that they worked for this shit magazine, with an asshole boss who would let them do anything remotely creative. They were really happy that they had managed to change the typeface to swiss rather than something pretty much exactly the same.

I had a PC all to myself for the whole time i was there, they didn't even have macs.

Then I spent a bit of time reading creative review, which was better!

I think the highlight of my week was making vinyl signage to go around the building. that was pretty interesting and fun!

Then they gave my the responsibility of drawing a pig to go on a mug and the box for the mug they were sending out to customers. I drew it on illustrator, which neither of them have ever used, because they use coral draw.

Here is the box, I lost the mug.

I think from this placement if I have learned that if I'm going to do anything "creative" I would want creative control. But I also learned that Graphic Design isn't for me. And that I really wasn't keen on the idea of working in an in-house design department, designing for one thing.

However, that didn't stop me from doing another placement with the "servicepoint" section of Lotus cars.

This was basically where people would come for things that needed designing, brochures, posters, flyers, powerpoint presentations.

There was a huge bank of photographs of lotus cars, and then a font and a colour you had to use, and then you would find a good photo on the intranet, put it into indesign, on a mac at least, then write whatever needed writing in the right font and colour, then print it.

We also did the magazine for the end of the year, as the placement was over christmas. That was very similar, but with more writing, and istock photo again.

Then i traced the drawing these guys did in in another department on illustrator and as far as i know it is the logo they use for the promotional material for the Exige S.

This placement confirmed the fact I don't want to be a graphic designer for an in-house department. I think thats all I learned really but it was still interesting. I wouldn't mind doing some work with the photographer.

Also, which has been great, I have spent a few days over the past year or so with the photographer Ricky Adam www.rickyadamphoto.com.

From going out with Ricky I have learned alot about Lighting and flash placement, although I have only just ordered a couple of flashes and radio transmitters and recievers to experiment for myself. I have seen his thought process, when you get to a spot, checking all the possible angles and shots. I have also been in a few of his photos, one of which was recently published in a magazine called urbanite.

Ricky has been really helpful in developing my photography, from advising me on the best equipment, to sharing some of his knowledge on lighting, or just showing me inspiring photos.

its been a while...again

2008-05-15T11:07:00.010+01:00

I haven't even thought about updating this in a long time, but I'm kinda glad, because now it seems like I've got a lot more to update with.

First things first. My project with Troy was a complete disaster, due to lack of communication, lack of experience, and a lack of enthusiasm the whole thing fell through.

It turned out to be a massive project, which was not going to go anywhere, his more recent work took a bit of a turn, and I didnt really like the subjects he was drawing and thought it would be extremely hard to market. I think Its hard to work with art you don't particularly like, especially when i have seen plenty of pieces he has done that I did really like.

And I really don't want to be a "marketer" or a salesman, or a web designer, so I think I can do something way more useful with my time. Although it is a shame.

I made a holding page for him, and took a bunch of photos and edited them ready for web, but he wants them all back because he is worried ill steal them for something.

Here is the holding page, which had the basic style. Its a very clean, clinical style, but it was what he wanted, and what the yuppies he'd be wanting to sell his work to would want.

I've also been on holiday to Morocco, where I took plenty of photographs, but Ive only got the colour ones back. Here are a few, post digital dark room, Klick make photos look like absolute dog shit.

So Ive got loads more, hopefully better black and white on their way as soon as I find a good time to hide in the darkroom!

I guess its time that i had somewhere to put all these photos, just in case anybody wants to look at them when I'm trying to get work experience, as I want to be seen as kind of professional, so i can get a place at somewhere decent.

Although I'm not keen on the idea of web design I decided i could keep it simple and ask my hosuemates to help, so I decided to buy www.tombing.co.uk.

Ive made a holding page, and a few of the other pages.

I am really happy with it, its totally simple, but seems just a little more interesting to me that alot of "cool", "good" graphic design.

Its gonna have photos, writing, and other design/drawing on it. ace.

x

update

2008-03-28T12:49:00.009Z

Ive not really touched this thing in a few weeks, i don't know weather thats because I have nothing to report, or just real people to report it to, i reckon its probably the latter.

Ive not really done a whole lot creative recently, apart from cooking loads of good food, and deciding to plant my own herbs as the first step to self sufficiency!

Off to see an amazing band called the sword in Manchester tonight, they're ace and have good art work.

There you go.

Also off to see witchcraft in april, who were amazing last time, awesome! they also have awesome artwork.

Yesterday I bought a black lily, its really pretty and I'm hoping that I will be able to look after it well and make some nice drawings of it soon!

x

photography

2008-03-07T00:16:00.000Z

A few days ago I made myself even more of a geek and set up a flickr account. Its a place to put all my photographs that I am proud of. You should check it out.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/24396795@N04/

Also you should check out this book...

Even if your not Kev Keegan, the cakes taste absolutely amazing. x

Recycling and sustainabitlity

2008-03-03T10:57:00.000Z

I think I want to produce something that says something like this, but maybe turn the camp disco look down from 11 to about 3/4. Hopefully it'll work out like that. You should read this anyway.

www.animalaid.org.uk/images/pdf/factfiles/cchange.pdf

Competition

2008-03-03T10:14:00.000Z

Here is the depressing side of Alzheimer's disease, and a little insight into what we were working with.

The other competition was this weekend and had way better crack. Good to see everyone. Awesome to see Scott with a box of t-shirts, I miss DIY BMX companies. Looking forward to the next Flipped 'zine.

few photos...

There is one other competition I'm really into right now...

Communication.

2008-02-26T23:58:00.000Z

I hate not having a mobile phone. I think I hate the fact I need one so badly more though. What happened with we were kids? If you saw someone, you hung out, if you wanted to meet someone, you arranged it, kept an eye on the time, and made sure you were there.

Times are changing and so are we.

Wedding documentary

2008-02-25T12:11:00.000Z

In the summer my 20 year old cousin married a 17 year old girl. My cousin was in the army at this point. They got married, took a load of money off my uncle, then ran off to Amsterdam, got found sleeping in the car and caught taking drugs, then my cousin got dishonorably discharged from the army. There wedding was a shock, it seemed like a joke, nobody knew he had a girlfriend.

I went along to take photographs, I'm still in the process of developing them, it hasn't been top of my list of things to do, but here are a few, I reckon ill put the rest up soon.

Troy

2008-02-24T23:45:00.000Z

A few weeks ago, my girlfriend introduced me to a Kenyan asylum seeker called Troy. We went over to Chapeltown to pick up some of his art work from a shop that he had been exhibiting at. He hadn't sold a thing.

Technically his drawings are amazing, and his extensive portfolio is packed with absolutely beautiful drawings. We went back to his house and he was insisting on giving Sally one of the pieces he was trying to sell, saying it wasn't one of his best, and he still had its "sister" anyway. Every drawing he does, he does at least two of, two identical drawings, of amazing quality and detail.

Troy is having real difficulties getting his work out there, he is desperate to make it as an artist, and just managing to sell a few pieces for £30 would probably be making it to him. I have decided I want to try to put him together a nice portfolio CD, and maybe a PDF he could email out, an maybe even a website.

I think I can do this for my live brief at college, it would be amazing to do someone like Troy a favour, he really deserves to sell work, and to be appreciated, I hope I can do this.

Here are a few of his peices.

welcome to my blog.

2008-02-24T18:04:00.000Z

I guess this is where I put anything that interests me, any photos, drawings, writing, or whatever else inspires me, or pisses me off.

Where to start, I've had a busy few weeks traveling, which has been amazing. I spent a week with the parents in the Costa Del Sol, southern Spain. It is a horrible place, which has been taken over by the British and once beautiful Skyline ruined by huge, ugly, dated apartment blocks. The most xenophobic Brit could, and seems to, live out there without noticing a different culture, a different race, or language.

The mountain villages however, were lovely, orange and lemon trees lining the country roads, olive trees and the prettiest Almond blossom everywhere. Old weathered farmers tending to their goats, and towns nestled in the valleys and hills, like one huge white complicated structure, adding to the landscape.

We payed a visit to the Alhambra Palace, in Granada, which was absolutely amazing. The Moorish architecture and the ancient waterworks were incredible, really unbelievable. And there were a few cats about too! I am more than ready for my trip to Morocco in May, and am hoping to see more of the style.

Next came a trip to London. Never have I felt so claustrophobic, or insignificant in anywhere else in the world. I found it hard to be inspired because I seemed to reach saturation after a short time. I felt strangled by the size, and the need to rely on public transport, something I try to avoid at all costs. I hate the amount of money needed to survive, I hate the amount of money people feel it is OK to spend on stuff.

This war memorial for the animals who died in wars was awesome though!

"They had no choice"

I then had a brief couple of days back home, and went off to the Lakes, the complete opposite of the Costa Del Sol and London, and it was amazing. A real breath of fresh air, actual fresh air. There was beauty all around me, all for free, everything I saw was more inspiring than anything I'd seen in the past couple of weeks.

We took stew, a camping stove, a bottle of Whiskey, and a case of Buds. We walked for miles, pausing only for a drink of beer, or to admire something especially amazing. We took a camera, but no photo I could take could ever do a place like that justice. We spent two nights there, the first in a B&B for £50, the second in a farmers barn for £14. The barn was amazing.

Here are a few anyway.

I don't really know what the crack with these blogs is. I guess I'm supposed to write a bunch of stuff, and other people are supposed to look at it, and get something from it.

I'm not sure what. Or who. Or how much. I feel a bit reluctant to bother, it seems like a really weird hobby. But I guess if It's just somewhere to write some stuff, and put some of the photos that would otherwise just sit in the depths of my hard drive, or drawer, why not?