Names

I recently attained the title of odd-parent from my long suffering friend Gwyenth (yes - she's Welsh). Odd-parent as in a god parent with a lack of religious responsibility. The day was celebrated in traditional Welsh style with a rainy day, a few ales and a longer walk than expected including the standard pushing a heavy pram through a wet grass field whilst being chased by some angry cattle. My favourite.

Here's to lovely Gracie (that's my new odd-daughter).

River Usk.

Gwyn, Gracie and rain.

That's Gracie with a very well behaved (not very often) Rufus. More pictures on my flickr account here.

Greenman

Went to Greenman festival on the weekend and had a great time apart from realising that I'm older now and that lack of sleep, carrying a box of wine around for sustenance and sleeping in a tent just doesn't help.

Some great bands most notably Coco's Lovers, Laura Marling and The Burns Unit who are now on my shopping list. Check out this video of Coc's lovers playing out of the back of a van powered by bikes - awesome!

Getting there

I'm well on my way to Novo Mesto in the heart of Slovenia to take my seat at the 11th annual Fotopub photography festival. After a brief stop in Brixton to check up on the latest batch of gentrification and a trouble free but solo flight from Gatwick I arrived in Ljubljana with only a few hours to wait for Rebecca to join me. It's a long story but I booked the last seat on a flight out of Gatwick so we travelled at the same time from different airports to the same destination. I won't be booking any separate tickets ever again!

Rebecca and I have prepared a great schedule for the participants of the multimedia workshop at Fotopub and I'm looking forward to meeting our students and getting to work. It's going to be a busy week in Slovenia as the students have five and a half days to learn about photofilms, get out in the field and collect their material and build their finished pieces. The work will then be shown in Novo Mesto next Saturday as part of the Festival.

I've brought quite a bit of kit with me, the usual cameras, lenses and more cameras along with a laptop and additional speakers and a healthy dose of cables and headphones, so I ditched my current book for the trip. I was therefore left with the inflight reading material which is usually enough to drive anyone crazy. Not so as the Adria Airways magazine was pretty goo and even featured a piece on the Fotopub festival, which was nice.

Why Photofilms?

Rebecca and I were asked to give a small interview online the other day to ready ourselves and our participants for the multimedia workshop we are teaching in Slovenia at Fotopub next week. I thought I was prepared for everything that morning, but not perhaps for having the camera turned on us. Borut Peterlin from Fotopub was obviously very persuasive and so the video was switched on. So if you are struggling with the tuesday morning blues and the remnents of the weekends hangover please feel free to enjoy this video.

If you got to the end are still wondering why you should make photofilms? Then maybe you can't be helped. No seriously, it's because it's such a wonderful way to tell a story, that engages not just the audience but the subject so well.

In fact I have a new one sitting here to show you, I Just need the client to give the thumbs up.

le kandahar

I don't go on holiday often, although I'm sure my friends and family would disagree. I do constantly find myself in unfamiliar places but I'm usually working. This week is the exception to the rule (or perhaps not..) as I find myself in the French Alps in a town that the Tour de France has made very popular. The hill climb up to Alp d'huez has photographers stationed on the hill to capture the hundreds of amateurs that ride this section of the tour every day. It's not something I can really get behind as I am here to compete against nearly a thousand people riding the other way down the mountain and not on the road. To cut a long story short bikes require lots of spanners etc.. and this weeks spanner (in the works) is my spot of flu. So I haven't really ridden a bike at all. Instead I am sitting in our chalet working on material for the upcoming Fotopub 2011. I'm working with Rebecca Harley as a mentor at the photography festival that will be putting in it's 11th appearance in the small town of Novo Mesto in Slovenia. We are going to be passing on all of our skills to teach a dozen people on the multimedia workshop how to really wow people with their photofilms. I have a new photofilm that is with the client right now and I will be loading onto this blog as soon as I return to the UK. In the meantime...don't get the flu when it's sunny outside, don't ride up hills and go check out the Fotopub schedule - there really is something for everyone and I hope to see some familiar faces.

I leave you with this nugget. Shall we guess when this resort was built? Who would name their chalet Le Kandahar nowadays..

Multimedia at Fotopub

As the weather repeats it's ever changing rain and sun game in the run up to the Glastonbury festival and you continue on regardless, although getting more use out of your waterproof trousers than you thought necessary in June. Maybe you should be thinking about what to do this summer? A trip abroad.. perhaps Europe.. hmmm been to France sooo many times, maybe further east. How about Slovenia, it's next door to italy, on the adriatic, you could swim in the beautiful lake Bled, visit the stunning Julian Alps, take in the capital Ljubljana, visit Maribor for the world downhill mountain bike racing or perhaps visit the small town of Novo Mesto for this years Fotopub festival.

If you hadn't guessed already I am excited about the Fotopub photo festival happening in Slovenia, 25th-30th July 2011. Not just because it's the 11th year this wonderful events been happening, and because I have heard and seen so many great things about it but also because this year I finally get to go. This years Fotopub has a great lineup of mentors and events with talent such as Ed Ou, Brenda Ann Kenneally, Epsen Rasmussen and more attending and I have been looking at the site with some excitement. So I guess being asked to be a mentor and to teach the multimedia workshop has only one downside - I won't have time to go and the see all these other great talents speak. I'm sure we will be able to catch up over a beer..

It's been a long week what with us not having a kitchen (long story), a photofilm commission on the go, another in the pipeline and with Fotopub asking Rebecca and I to come and teach. It all came about through our wonderful Hinterlands workshop in Devon that we (Rebecca and I that is) ran in collaboration with duckrabbit in May of this year. It went great, so great that duckrabbit felt happy to recommend us to the Fotopub team, and I am really happy they did.

So.. If your twiddling your thumbs at home and are wondering what to do in July - head to Fotopub. And if your interested in multimedia, slideshows, photofilms or whatever you call them then come and signup for the multimedia workshop. It's going to be a great place to produce a short multimedia piece and to have a stunning week all at the same time.

MSF in Kibera

I worked with Médecins Sans Frontières the other day to produce the audio for three photofilms all about people living with HIV in Kenya's Kibera slums. The BBC world news had the piece on their front page today which I am really happy about. The pieces go back to visit three people from the Kibera slums with HIV who's lives have been changed as a result of taking ARV's over the last six years. If your interested in seeing the other pieces they can be found on the MSF site.

It was a challenging and very long day including not much sleep, too much driving, a lack of headlamps in the car and a super long edit so I'm really happy that the BBC decided to use the piece.