thames fest

Yesterday was a lovely sunny day and I'm beginning to think that maybe we will get far more than our annual quota of 3 days of sunshine this year. Anyway I was couped up inside for most of the day so I had to get out before sunset otherwise I'd go mental. I headed into London and met some friends who were checking out the Thames Festival, so I checked it out too.

The only cloud in the sky.

River side rave. No chance of Jaws wrecking that party, although maybe a lost whale.

To me the idea of 'free running' or 'parkour' is great. Creatively using your environment to get around and excelling yourself in physical ability and exercise. But when it's got to the point where fake objects are set up infront of the London eye and a crew called 'Urban Freeflow' dressed in colourful t-shirts alongside a cheesy anouncer try to wow crowds - it all becomes just a little cringeworthy...

Onto better things. A man swollowing a very long balloon.

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!

pat tree

My friend Patrick recently died of Cancer. His funeral was on Monday, but on the Sunday evening before, a bunch of us decided to do some illegal tree planting in his name!
When we were younger we would spend many a happy weekend down the 'green chain walk' getting absolutely shit-faced and terrorising each other. In recent years Patrick became a very green fingered fellow and actually had allotment plots next to this walk. So what better place to plant a tree but along the same walk, looking onto his allotment.

Digging...

Placing...

Hammering...

Voila!


We then went and got some beers and came back to baptise the new glowing cherry blosom. Then I had one of my genius photographic moments (oh yea?) and we did this...

Hope you like it Pat!

If anyone wants to check out the tree, (and I should hope it will be there for fucking while!) you can find it here.

tourist

Recently I've been behaving like a tourist. I don't know why. I guess for many years now I've been thoroughly bored of my city and just put my head down when travelling through it, just trying to get from A -> B.
But since a year ago when I decided I just wanted to 'get the hell outta Dodge', I've been noticing my London surroundings a lot more. Little details in architecture, the people, some streets I never walked down before . . . it's alright actually.
The other day I past by Trafalgar Sq. (and an inflatable Big Ben).

Checked out some glowing lanterns in China town.

Then the other day I went on a rover boat from Greenwich to Westminster with my friend.

There are some crazy buildings along the river that you never get to see from anywhere else...


Canary Wharf, big up.

Tower Bridge, word.

Also went to St. James Park (next to the Queens house) and took in some nature and other 'tourists' feeding squirrels.


London, it's not half bad. I still want to leave though, haha.

blood and treasure

I went to see this new exhibition by Todd James (aka REAS) at the Lazarides gallery, London.




I love his colour palatte in this project, and seeing the pencil lines and paint application up close is so fresh. Although he talks of his influence behind this work being that of recent world news events, it seems to reflect many time periods from the 20th century - with the donald duck style sailor hats and the 70's esque sunglasses clad women for example.
I don't like much art that's been about over the past few years (I could probably write a book about the stuff I don't like actually), but Reas stuff ,especially this work, seems to appeal to me greatly. Go check it out. You might not like it :)

balloons, cake and fizzy pop

Last week I went with the Scratch Perverts and Al to a posh kids Birthday party. I don't know if it's really a good idea to have PERVERTS at a CHILDREN'S birthday party, but there you go. I say children, the birthday girl was 19. The SP's and myself were there to play some records and get really drunk. I managed to do the drunk bit quite well, actually we all got a bit smashed. Danger.
Good thing was, girls over 18 had to wear a band to show they were old enough to drink. Happy times.

Al and Jane 'Siesta' - Shanghai promoter and private party organiser extraordinairre.

The birthday girl and her pals.

Al couldn't handle it.

Tony Vegas tries to keep his eyes on the platters.

Yes mate, have another drink, it'll be alright!

last day of sun 2008

Today saw the 3rd and final day of sun for London this year. Tomorrow will be grey again, and the next day, and the one after that, and so on. Roll on summer 2009!!

amino

Recently did some press shots for a band called, yes you guessed it, "amino". So far this is my favourite shot I've processed and it doesn't even have any of them in! Hehe. Will post some of the finals up when they are done.

bowling to bowles

An all together more peaceful affair.

birthday bowling

Yesterday I became another year older. To try and distract myself from the depression of old age I decided to go 10-pin bowling with my friends...

The teams:


Everyone getting a good feel of some balls. Ball selection is important for a good finish.

Mysterious Al slips his fingers in a 12.

And it's game on!

Primecuts handling business.

Toshi's unorthodox bowling styles were interesting, and surprizingly effective.


We discovered Dj Plus One is in fact covered in as much 3M material as the FootPatrol ZX 800 shoe.

Eri's technique of ditching the ball and "staring down the pins", didnt really go too well.

I was on top form. No question.

Kyle GoodHood vs. MyzzAl

Kyle smashed it by getting a DOUBLE STRIKE on his last go!

Our teams final scores. Note how we all manages to get at least 2 strikes each. PRO.

Thanks guys & girls for making it speshal!