nice light..

i've just returned from a lovely weekend in the Chilterns (my my that sentence has a lovely ring to it).  i didn't know it was the aforementioned area until i had to get a train from said place into the big city....now i do. anyway i had a lovely tour guide and i enjoyed every minute of it. we (thats me and the guide) didn't take any pictures though. it was mainly dark so they wouldn't have come out.

i did however find a few frames on my camera from the other evening when there was particularly nice light coming through my office/bedroom window.

christmas spirit..

its not particularly christmas like around here as the run up to the festive seasons grand finale happens on the london streets. how about this for starters..

i know who it is - i just can't say...

almost working...

little fiats with big engines racing at the Race of Champions at Wembley.

india makes brixton market seem clean..

i must admit that our original plan of catching a train across india to darjeeling from delhi may have been inspired in some small way by a certain film...yeh that was well out of the window pretty quick. but i think i could get to enjoy the train travel. you just need to be relaxed, have a sense of humour and not be in a rush. otherwise your fucked.

we were constantly bombarded with other travellers who didn't think much of our two stop trip to darjeeling and jodhpur.  the usual went a bit liek ' so your not seeing the taj mahal'...'your not going to goa...oh'.  but i really enjoyed spending a little more time in a place...it made you feel relaxed enough to enjoy it.  the stress can sneak in pretty quick in india.

as the pictures describe the two places were pretty different....from lush moutain tops which dropped to minus temperatures as soon as the sun went down to arid deserts where i could barely sleep due t the heat....is a bit of a change . something that with the added pollution really worked the sniffling at times.

my favourite things....the food, the colours, the good smells, the weather, the size, the diversity, tuktuks, the people, the unnerving driving, chai, dal, that scarf, the train, the view, the history, saffron lassi, kashmiri dum aloo

and i didn't particularly enjoy...the taxis, delhi airport security, the (bad) smells, the facilities, the phone networks, the stray dogs, being a toursit, the trains, the delays, spicejet, people who have no idea what hand luggage is, being ill, dubai airport, bald tyres, the rubbish, the pollution, the poverty

twenty hours and counting...

so we booked a plane and got out of that mess and finally managed to pick up our next train in delhi to the wonderful town of jodhpur.

i cant put a picture here because this computer is made from rocks and i don't think it will do that.....i can tell you that the smells, sights and sounds of this wonderful place are fantastic and i am now over my dissapointing train wait.

there are still lots of dogs which i am keeping well clear of due to the 'leg' thing and more cows filling the ever smaller streets.....so when i am not walking around in amazement i am dodging cowpats, leeky drains and leftover dahl

rough tot up of the currys consumed so far.....15....nice....and the mango lassi....mmm

(i've added a pic of this lovely web cafe now....)

your train has been delayed by 12hrs....

i thought that was bad news until tom promptly arrived back at our pile of bags informing me that it would be thirteen hours meaning we could maybe catch our train at gone 2 in the morning....and no i do not need my shoes polished!

just into a week in india and tom and myself are stuck in siliguri which i have to disagree with the lonely planet on. it may be vibrant and a market town - but i'm really not in the market for fake sportswear, a cow or a shoe shine ( i mean i have suede boots for christsakes)

this probably isn't the best time to be writing a blog post but as i think of all the wonderous places in india i also think about how i am stuck in the corner of a strange internet cafe (pink crumbling walls-and i don't want to know who has used all these webcams over the years) which now has a copy of toms passport-poor tom.

anyways if we do make it up at 1am, and manage to get a taxi through the nighttime beeping, diesel fumes and past the roaming people/cows. and if our train does come, despite the fact i have no faith in it what so ever - we will be back in delhi and hopefully on to jodhpur. which is blue. the colour not the feeling.

and we have eaten a lot of curry.....and darjeeling was nice - and beautifulish...

i just been to wales

i love wales

once you have crossed the final frontier and payed the welsh fare of 10.60 (thats the van for you) you suddenly enter a world of proper welsh communities, the hate for the english, rain, more rain, sheep, good fish and chips, empty beaches and more rain and hate of the english.

still - you've got to love somewhere you can park the van up for a week - have a cuppa and no-one cares.

fixie..

i was informed the other day that my new fixed wheel bike was a bit last year according to the cool kids. despite what they think i'm not riding it for anyone to look at me - for a start i only know about 13 people in london (read 513 if i was on facebook). back to the bike - i do love it, although after my near death by scooter incident yesterday i see that front brake as more essential for emergencies than before. and before you ask - yes you can do stoppies.

when i'm not riding the bike at the moment i have mostly been selling my soul to the devil. only because they pay better - well actually they just pay - unlike everyone else. and yeh also a bird did a poo on my head head yesterday. nice.

the boys are back in town..

feeling sorry for me - tom and noah both dragged themselves to london to visit borough market. noah was a little confused and i remember clearly receiving a text stating 'london' as he arrived. yes that is where it is. tom cleverly coincided the trip with a "shoe type' event in clapham and noah, the lady of the hour (not noah - just the lady of the hour) and i bbq the evening away before attending a similar shoe based evening which was top drawer.no.it was rubbish.

then noah had breakfast with my girlfriend. terrible. didn't even get an invite.

back from the dead..

so this was my first foray back into the world of newspaper photojournalism after a few days of hospital food enabled me to stay in my bed for a little bit longer than i had expected.

infact it was only a few hours after writing the last post on here that I ended up in the a&e dept at the local hospital being told it would be a four hour wait before a doctor with obvious pain management issues would be stabbing at the back of my leg with a scalpel. an event that would then lead to me being holed up next to what can only be described as the most random selection of 'roomies' i have ever had. there was the guy that kept asking for the nurse to help him in a tone that resembled dying, mr noisy beeping noise, two guys with petrol generators for asthma nebulisers and then the guy who was handcuffed to his bed with a policeman at his side 24/7.

one thing that must be said for the first day back as i was snapping the latest la senza collection was that the commonising of the croissant on the english supermarket shelves only made my 'press breakfast' worse. because i don't think that a pack of high st faux french pastry can really be qualified as a breakfast....i mean you get better than that in the travelodge..

there's nothing quite like just putting it out there...

Just got back from the funchal 500 (no not quite sure yet) in the depths of Cornwall where the Transit (see my previous post) allowed me a lovely weekend with my special lady (no not like that).  Lots of tall ships but none as good as 'little willy' my favourite water borne vessel of the weekend.... Talking of willies and boats though (if Doug happens to be reading this, or anyone that knows Doug) this surely would be his boat - and he could go in it by himself - so there would be no problems...

Need to also remember not to get bitten by anything - ever again. I have a limp which really isn't doing anything for me in Brixton, I mean who would you rather mug......

van envy..

there's nothing sexier than a lady and her van..

if only i was good with paperwork....

I can only guess that if i was as good as the guy ( or gal for that matter) that owned the car parked outside my hotel last week at my paperwork i might own a rather stupid car too..

I think I am well on my way...

the keys would be nice...

as much as i enjoyed taking a picture of this lovely bike.......and it is lovely (note the colour coded chainguard to stop your trousers getting oily). i think i would have preferred the keys to the lock so i could go for a ride. you see after consuming a few pints of the local tipple and thinking that a camera bag would be a perfect replacement for a tripod i think a good ride around the city would have improved my evening somewhat...

i hear that there is always light at the end of the rainbow though...

windows and the past..

whilst working in the vicinity of the savoy the other day i saw this old chap park his glistening 80's mercedes with all the trims and spoilers...i thought the whole scene was a bit timeless....well a bit 80's anyway

westcountry snapper heads north...

I like to start my journeys fresh. So after a wedding in which I managed to break both my flashguns, I popped a few drunk people home in bristol and then drove to london for a blistering few hours kip before heading through hemel hempstead and nearly through a red transit van up the m1 in the pourning rain. With some beautiful but argumentative company i progressed grumpily and swiftly up to places where it says 'The South - Manchester' and to our destination.


Pictured is young Benjamin the latest addition to my long lineage. Very sweet but not for long...I'm his uncle.

tramp cuisine..

Stopped off in Bristol today to sample the culinary greenness of old man Gassons kitchen wizardry. started with green soup. then followed by green mash. we also had fish pie. proper pie - not with mash like the time i went with the said chef to a pub in Tetbury and they had the pie of the day - shepherds pie - thats not a pie thats like an all in one meal.posh people!

Also went to Barry today using an address supplied to us by a woman who asked another woman for the numbers and letters of the address.....that'll be the postcode then.

champers and champers..

just returned from the yearly pilgrimage to the french mecca of mountain biking - morzine. the wee town sees more than its fair share of pyjama clad idiots on oversized bikes who seem to think that building braking bumps on the pleny is their job. no. idiots.

it was a fantastic week though which mainly consisted of impersonating the many scots on the trip, wearing through break pads, getting drunk, very drunk, eating, riding champerie (if thats how you spell it) and most memorably the pleny singletrack in the wet!

tidy

for george..

this is for you george (a little late-i know)

and for all you others who don't ride bikes (yes noah - there are people who don't ride bikes) its adults on childs bikes......playing in the woods

glaston berry..

so i finally managed to download the three flashcards sat on my computer at home.  i guess maybe glastonbury wasn't that bad after all....at least the sun was sining on my nice new specs

square eyes..

my mum always said to me if you watch too much tv you'll get square eyes and you'll have to wear glasses...

just on a coach to the motherland. watching people in the slow lane - few hippies in mini vans, fat cats in their porsches a man towing a portaloo, a family from germany, some students all squeezed into a tiny citroen, some bad boy in his escort and that is about that as the traffic has now reached such a slow level of progression that we keep overtaking the same people. rubbish.

there is a reason the train costs more - its quicker. much quicker.

going going gone...

its been so busy recently running around for the red tops, entertaining the getty and occasionally portraying the south west with my lens that in the only day i have left myself to do the everyday runnings of life (well yes - obviously i have taken days off for fun!) i have spent it paying bills, tidying, sorting out random stuff and generally realising that all the money is gone. well i guess it was only a matter of time.

oh yeah...and i didn't really enjoy glastonbury - but atleast i have a car park sticker to leave in my windscreen to look "cool" in london!

the trials and tribulations of having a car....

so i finally got myself a glastonbury ticket yesterday...it wasn't until i was sat in hammersmith at 1am paying the congestion charge that I read that I would need to purchase a car park ticket at the same time - well the woman at hmv didn't bloody tell me that! so now i can only assume that i will have to park in bristol and walk.....i mean it wouldn;t be so bad - atleast you can park in Bristol for free unlike in our capital where parking consists of a standstill hour of driving around looking for where you could maybe park.....followed by taking out a loan against your home to fund what i can only assume is the car park managers raging drugs habit.....and ending with the thought that you'll prbably have parked wrong and end up with a ticket anyway....
meanwhilst i visited st leonards on the south coast to photograph these two ladies..
but ended up just trying to avoid this odd character! be aware!

pickled onions...

had a strange visitor to the bristol flat on friday....carries a jar of pickled onions at all times.......

when it rains it pours..

i don't know if have ever felt this busy. but when the shit hits the fan it certainly does in London. its been a rollercoaster week which has left me with a cup of tea and a parking ticket..my first (touch wood). i met some lovely people in the isle of wight who helped me get a taxi (not easy). i've taken a lot of pictures. i did some work for getty (wohoo-jumps of joy!!). I saw how quickly people can change from being 'nice' to an insipid moronic bunch of fuckwits in about 5 seconds. i had a lovely meal out to celebrate the birthday of someone very special. and now i'm trying to find a proper place to live before i get pulled over by the cops again for not having a number plate and before i drive into another van at the traffic lights because i'm not concentrating...............these are the days beer is made for

how many pull cords could a man need..

pull cords in a bathroom in cornwall. what strange length choices. there must be a reason...

the new super market..

Its not hard to try and restrict yourself from shopping in supermarkets when your in the middle of nowhere...well you think so. In truth the local shop in ye olde village I am in is so low in stock of anything nice I find it hard to not get in the car and head to the big store...but faith was restored today by a local butcher with a pasty to die for and my new favourite veg store....yum.

its not like this everyday..

thats not my dog...but after much barking at me a pat on the head was all it took for it to become my best friend. it sat with me while i looked out to sea - all obedient..ahh it was cute

cracking london mkII...

Back to the grind this morning after a busy last three weeks vying for the title of times young photographer. I am understandably a little disappointed that I am not the aforementioned person however damn pleased with the set of pics I produced for the competition...see above...

And so it is that I am back in london...it's raining and I am sat at a waiting train over the river of london...a few calls and hopefully a bit of work under my belt for the week...and an excellent curry with plantain in my belly...yum

prego prego...

I can't actually upload this now as naples is defunct of starbucks and all things wi-fi ish and the beauty of plugs - well especially naples airport. It does infact remind me of Bristol airport a little bit back in the days when I was small and my papa would take me there to have sausage chips and beans and the only place it flew to was birmingham...

i couldn't quite tell what the woman at the counter meant when she gavce the disaproving look and ushered prego prego towards me as I only stumped up 2 euros 40 for my 2 .60 drink... was it the lack of money or had she realised (like i had) that the only plug in the entire departures terminal was plugged ionto by their freezer which I had since unplugged for my laptop...hmm

well i think I may have worked out why napoli has a garbage problem...camorra -0 i don' think so. its their ad campaign. you see while the uk has employed their reuse recycle thing it seems napoli are going for a more direct approac "be different - waste" . not sure if thats the best way to go about it - i mean it certainly is a different viewpoint

round two...

After a week of sleep counted on one hand in the north of the country I am back on the sofa everyone loves so much. Not the one pictured below which was lovely..we're talking oval here.

Manchester was fun and included a brief stay at my sisters in Nottingham, me dropping and bending my 70-200, not having much sleep, me pushing the limit of mr devlins hospitality, the cheapest ncp car park ever (4hrs 2 quid), lots of pr sandwiches....mmm yum and a swift drive back to town on saturday morning.

This post doesn't really make any sense but then neither did the advert I read for a flat yesterday which read something like "two northern girls who like to drink and have a laugh looking for a flatmate, we like to watch neighbours, hollyoaks, eastenders - well pretty much anything...etc"

Besides is it supposed to make sense....

ideals....

In an ideal world; there would be someone leaving in the centre of this picture, i wouldn't be tired, i would have a real cup of coffee not gravy (or jus), camera noise would be non-existent and daylight would be plentiful inside and more.

Ah well....

I'll just savour the sun, look forward to an awesome cup of coffee, go outside, def not worry about the above picture and continue to profess that sharpness is for losers...mmm

you can always rely on a cuppa...

I got a by-line! I guess that would be winning a battle.....fighting a war.  I know it's losing the war - but I've not lost yet!. I may however be reduced to a diet of the following....

 

Now I would usually stump for the chocolate hob-nob with tea however these are my flatmates biscuits which were carefully replaced soon after.....can't be wasting food in these times of credit crunch's and increasing oil prices...

In other news I was thinking that Oval tube station has this thought for the day thing. I rarely read it...but my thought for today would be...

"eat some dried prunes - they're lush"

tilt & shift

Anyone who knows me will be aware at my fascination with tilt & shift pictures. I get emails all the time about stuff on tilt & shift lenses. One online article I read had an interesting comment on it yesterday. I think it was something like " have we not had enough of this yet!". All I can say is - my what a grown up...

So just for that guy...this is Clapham Rd, London as summer awakens itself....a weather pic..i think not.

It's raining again...wheres summer gone...damned flip flops

so....if your looking for a miracle

I visited the hobbit digging world of George a few weekends ago. Busy boy. Its all in the spade though I hear...

London on the other hand. I'll do pros and cons because I find it hard enough as it is...

Bad stuff for starters; waiting an hour for the number 3, an hour bus journey on the 3 which i waited an hour for, rain, more rain, rain when i was wearing flip flops, lack of sleep, light, noise, lack of work.

Good stuff for afters; finding the best pizza ever, ginger beer, sun, beer, the park, a shift....no really, broadband, that few hours of borrowed sleep..amazing, bean surprise

the oval office

A televisions eye view of the main man himself - mr concorde. He can be seen daily like this with the remote control and a massive bowl of cereal on his lap.

I've moved into the oval pad - known worldwide by other aspiring snappers and work experience wannabies....

Latest on the job front; haven't yet got a job yet.

Haven't yet got a job with PA yet......hmm...still awaiting the results on that one....

home

It's raining and we're out of milk..