rain, strong coffee and farmers...

day four on the tour with the help for heroes lot...

my surviving memory from today will be my hotel room which is a cross between a prison cell and a student halls room. i think it's the linoleum floors that really set it off. obviously these are added to by the pod bathroom where everything gets wet - including your room and must finish off with the bed made of foam. no - not that expensive memory foam type stuff - just that stuff you see offered 'cut to size' on the side of the road all over the uk.... i am going to exclude the vile colouring of the room -  orange, red and orange - yes that includes the orange linoleum floor, as my room yesterday had plastic curtains so i feel you have to give these budget hotels some leeway....

it does make you laugh when you see these places though and they have the most unrealistic names - mine is the premiere class hotel. when did it get to the point where all the good stuff was refered to with normal names and the utter crap by names declaring the quality (or lack there of!)...

in terms of bike riding today - i have been trying my hardest to get a shot of the cyclists looking like a team - a 'tour de france' fake with them idling their way through idilic french countryside. but it's not that easy!  the riders only stay together in a pack for about 200 yards before and some mornings they set off from different locations - so you can literally be waiting by the side of the road for a nice shot for an hour and it still doesn't happen. i think ten is the most i have in one picture. the worst bit about that being that after waiting all this time the riders spot you and will then be sporting a big smile, waving erratically or just staring at you....none of which really works. oh well.....

......stop press....just got back from my dinner (we ate out as our hotel only has a vending machine) to find french farmers dumping manure and just general piles of shit infront of the gates at the eleclerc at the end of our road - about 200yards from the hotel - nice. there was a copper there but its france - so they were allowed to dump it. obviously not very happy about something....well - theres going to be a few more unhappy peeps in the morning....

help for heroes...(day two or three)...

i'd say this was day three but its day two in france...i've been working on it for three days...today the help for heroes crew and myself got to experience some truly exceptional weather changes and i for one was a little miffed after standing on top of a landrover in a gale freezing myself to be stripping off only an hour later in the blistering midday sun....france eh..

visited pegasus bridge in benouville where troops from the d-day launches headed into enemy fire 65 years ago to defeat the germans...all interesting stuff - quite the history lesson...

help for heroes...

i'm out in france covering the help for heroes charity bike ride for the sun newspaper. it's a great cause and some of the blokes here are riding bikes on this trip after recovering from horrific injuries.

this is just a selection of stuff from the first day in france - day two of the trip which heads from portsmouth over the mighty english channel to france and onto paris. it's a pretty hectic schedule and there aren't to many opportunities to get tour de france style shots in the beautiful french countryside but hey ho.

timmay..

this one goes out to timmay. i'm super jealous that he is off to whistler for the summer to ride downhill but i'm also stoked that i've inherited (with a donation to the whistler fund) his pimp fixie. enough said...

published...

you just know when you've arrived in the countryside....

the fields of clover, the endless midges, the beautiful silence and the winding country lanes. small shops with only two copies of the paper, dog walks, mowing the lawn and wellington boots. but as you stroll back to the fire with a few logs in tow the lasting memory of being here, and not there -  is the beep your phone makes when it has voicemail despite the fact it never rang in the first place. it's actually really nice not to have signal but it does have its disadvantages in that usually the time you don't have signal is the time you need to organise a particularly difficult trip involving immeninent travel, numerous contacts and a wide range of people trying to get hold of you....typical

piece in the Sun's music supplement today on Kasabian - see here. glad to see that SFTW used a nice selection of my shots from last weeks shoot before the bands gig at the Brighton dome as part of the Brighton festival.

Off in the next few days to France to follow the Help for Heroes on a fundraising bike ride so will post en route...watch this space. See more info at  www.helpforheroes.org.uk/

running around..

despite the fact the work is not flooding my (or anyone else's) way at the moment I have been rather busy with jobs, recovering hard-drives, editing, tidying and generally keeping the m4 in use.

Kasabian at the Brighton Dome for The Sun's - 'Something for the Weekend'

stress test..

tom..

just back from one of my favourite haunts - the hospital to check on the illusive spider bites - once again antibiotics win the day. there was a guy who turned up with a face mask on looking a little pale so maybe i have the pig now too!

on the photo front i am trying to sink my teeth into a new project and i have another series of pictures i did before christmas on the clothing brand howies which i would like to finish. its all to do with the weather at the moment - my life revolves around the weather - and doctors appointments...  i am enjoying the new 5d - used it at a particularly dark conference the other day  and iso 1600 has never looked so good - it was a lifesaver!

moving on this is tom at his house in bristol.

new website...

i have just put the finishing touches to my new website.. 

mikelusmore.com which has been on an official hiatus for about a year now is back online with a new fresh look and a new system behind it to make it easier to keep up to date. Please take a minute to have a look at what i am doing at the moment and keep up to date with my blog for any updates..

check out the stories page for new audio slideshows i have been working on including most recently on traditional spring lambing or read my blog from the site..

thanks...

rachael & max...

portraits of rachael and max - a graphic designer and chef - at their flat in bristol... nice flat isn't it...