underworld live!

As promised, some more pics from when I went and photographed Underworld - note Karl wearing my sparkly customs and can you spot Mysterious Al in the crowd?

goodhood is one

GOODHOOD is probably my favourite apparel store in the world. It's a strong statement. The shop itself is well designed both physically and graphically, with an intimate feel minus any whiff of that elitist fashion snobbery. They stock independent brands that you won't find in every other shop or online store. Amongst some staple tees and bags there are garms and accessories that push a little more creativity and unusualness that encourages you to maybe take a trip outside your normal wardrobe. Jo & Kyle (owners) are some of the nicest people you will meet, and they know their shit, they've done their time.
So it was a joy to learn that they have succeeded in keeping their doors open for their first year. A feat so difficult for many others in these hectic times. To celebrate they had an understated get together at the store with plenty of beer, music and a run of free t-shirts for the lucky attendees. Big upz! Roll on year 2!

sunday stroll

I met up with my good friend Jamey who I used to DJ with back when UK Hip Hop was exciting. We wandered around the Barbican Centre on a little photo outing, just to see what kind of pics we could get. I used it as an opportunity to get to grips with my new tilt/shift lens.
(click to enlarge)









This is just a small selection. I have uploaded the rest to my flickr page here.

fabric

(sorry I almost forgot to write in this post! So lazy) Anyway err, what happened, oh yea, I went to Fabric with primecuts to check out Benga who was playing in room 3. I've never seen that room so packed in all my life. At one point there were those type of crowd surges you get at festivals and heavy metal gigs where you think you might end up on the floor and getting trampled on. Brilliant.





We then headed over to room 1 where Q-bert was entertaining about 10 people. Now don't get me wrong, Q-Bert is arguably one of the best scratch dj's in the world if not the best. He has contributed such a great deal to the evolution of turntable based music and I'm sure been an ispiration to every scratch DJ. Unfortunately time has moved on and Q-Bert hasn't. Putting on a 10 minute repeating beat and scratching over the top of it (no matter how technical and funky) just doesn't cut it anymore in a club.
Anyway, luckily the room filled out for the boys and they smashed it apart as usual with MC Wrec. I took a couple of pics to try out me new lens...


120% darkside justice.



One amusing moment of the evening was when myself and Primecuts were standing at the back of the room watching Q-Bert and a girl came up to him and asked 'Do you know if the Scratch Perverts are on next?'.
Little did she know she was actually asking a Scratch Pervert. Oh the funny drunken Fabric youth of today eh.

tilt/shift

Normally the focal plane on a lens runs from near to far and vice-verca. A tilt/shift lens throws all that out the window and allows you to tilt the front elementand twist it around to give you many options of where the plane of focus lies.
I have just bought one (they are not cheap), and this week I went out late at night to try it out. Click on them to enlarge and see the effect the lens has.




This is not the best subject matter for this lens, but it's the best I could muster on a spur-of-the-moment outing. Stay tuned for some seriously nice pics with this lens. I have a project planned that I think will be a smasher!