Tuesday 24 April 2012

Demotix account and a photo published

Just to let you all that I have set up a Demotix account and will be posting my news based photo projects on their. I will still be posting all my work here so don't worry. Its just that Demotix is a good was to publicise news based stories and photojournalism is one of main passions.
Head on over there now and check out my first story about the cyclist demonstration outside of the Addison Lee offices.
http://www.demotix.com/news/1172636/cycle-demonstration-addison-lee-offices-london

And if you don't know what that demonstration was all about you can read these two articles that feature my photography
http://road.cc/content/news/57094-cyclists-converge-addison-lees-offices-die-protest
and this one written by Jon Day (keep an eye out for him and hunt down his previous writing)
http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2012/04/24/jon-day/at-the-addison-lee-die-in/

I will be posting up my personal set of shots from that day here very soon.

Sunday 22 April 2012

Shot Of The Week

Good morning my sleepy sunday people and welcome to the Shot Of The Week.

Some of you may have read the Evening Standard article last Friday (20th April) titled

"Chain gangs, spot London's cycle tribes"

If not then you can find it here
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/chain-gangs-spot-londons-cycling-tribes-7665099.html

Nothing especially new or amazing in there but they did include cycle couriers in the write up and as you all know, that has been my day job for over 10 years now. Apparently I am a superhero of olympian hights....... SWEEEEEET ;)
Anyway it mention the rivalry between cycle couriers and taxi drivers. Now I'm not going to open the can of worms that comes with that discussion. I have met vial, horrible, scum of the earth taxi drivers and I have met wonderful, kind and helpful ones.  I think the same can be said for human kind in general.
It did however mention a certain courier who is now sporting a very ummmmm how shall we put it? Direct message of his view? on the backs of his legs.

I did approach the ES about using my images in the article but as yet, no reply.
So here it is for you folks, if your easily offended then look away...........




Ok lets add a footnote.
This is not my opinion, just a photographic observation of someone else's. Hell, one of my friends and ex-colegues is now a taxi driver.
I also have no ties or biased support for the Evening Standard and have only included the link to their page as reference to the article so you could read it for your self.

Enjoy your sunday :)))))))


Sunday 15 April 2012

Shot Of The Week

Right, here as promised is another Shot Of The Week. I'm still not fully functional on the dslr so this week is an iPhone shot.
If you were in London a few days ago you may have seen the super heavy hail/rain storm. If not, well it was heavy (although short). Sadly me and my daughter had just decided to go to the shop for some dinner supplies. We got stranded there for a while untill it eased up a bit and the blinding sunlight started to break through. That's when we made our break for it.

Enjoy

Ps. Please excuse any weird spelling, spacing or words etc recently. I have been using the Blogger app to get some of these done and well, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it ;)

Wednesday 11 April 2012

Follow me on Twitter

Hey everyone, hope the bank holiday was a good one.

Just to let you all know that I have now added my Twitter account to the blog. You can find the button in the top right corner underneath the Subscribe via Email section. There should also be a Twitter button on the left side of the page that will follow you as you scroll down. Just click on either of these and it should let you follow me on Twitter.
That way you can keep up to date with what I'm doing and never miss a blog post again (presuming your not already following via email or Blogger)

Also don't forget that you can share the blog (or just a singe post) via Facebook and Twitter just by clicking the button at the bottom of the post or above the Subscribe section.

Comments, advice, criticism (constructive please) are always welcome here so feel free.

All photos are available to buy as well if you see something that you like. Send me an email if your after something similar but not quite what you see. The work on this blog is just a small fraction of the work I do.

Monday 9 April 2012

"Step Right Up" for the bank holiday

Here after a slight delay ;) are my favourite pics from the set of "Step Right Up"

This was another production stills job I did for the students at the London Film School in Covent Garden. I posted a little teaser a few months back but here are a few more.

Enjoy the rest of your bank holiday folks.











Shot Of The Week

Right then, lets get this ball rolling again.

My dad has been a life long fan of cycle racing since his own racing days back in his childhood, growing up in Kent. It was him and his passion that got me on a bike and probably the reason im still riding and loving it today.
With out that love for bikes and cycling I would never have become a courier. I would never have met all the amazing people I have met, seen the weird and amazing thing I have seen, had the crazy times that Iv had and all the other things that I owe to being part of the cycle courier community. And most importantly I would not have met my amazing wife (who was also a courier at the time) and had our two amazing children.

Herne Hill velodrome is situated in south london and has been there since the 1948 olympics if im not mistaken. It is an amazing track and the perfect place for beginners and professionals alike to hone their skills.
One of their annual event is the Good Friday meeting which features, amongst other things derny racing.
These are the pace bikes for the cyclists that circle the track just ahead of the rider. Im not going to give you a whole brief on it, you can search the internet for that but lets just say its pretty cool to watch!!!
The even cooler thing is that my dad is a derny rider him self and has competed on this very track amongst others.

Here is a shot from this years meet of the winning derny/cyclist in the forefront. I don't have names at this point but I will update the post soon to give the credit were credit id due.

Enjoy







visit http://www.hernehillvelodrome.com/ for more info on the track

Sunday 8 April 2012

On the road to recovery

So, I had the pins that were holding my thumb removed on Tuesday. The hand is still sore and bruised but I'm getting allot of the movement back and a bit of strength.
Yesterday was the first time I was able to fully operate the dslr. Good times!

So you can expect to start seeing some new work on here very soon I hope.
In the meantime here is a shot of those lovely pins. They went in at the base of the thumb and down the inside of the bone. Yummmmmmmy!

Wednesday 4 April 2012

The waiting game

While we were out in France I got the opportunity to test out the D700 with some long exposure night time shots.
I love long exposures.
I used to shoot them on film, down the train lines and out int he city. I just love the feel and look you get from the street lamps, the shadows and the extra detail that gets burnt in.
Would it surprise you if I said my favourite film is Bladerunner?

Shooting them on film is great for the look and I love it but it is allot more hit and miss with super long exposures. So with the D700's low noise capabilities I have been looking forward to testing it out in the field.

Well it was definitely a test in the field.

Here are a couple of the shots. They were taken around 11pm on wards in the middle of the countryside. Pitch black with a thin crescent moon and clear sky. They were shot on a 24mm and the times were 10min and 18min.

Enjoy