Heading home for a couple of days on monday to see my sis so probs wont post anything for a good few days.

til then…

We did some different arrangements during the shoot. We tried some of the band sitting down with their feet forward, and its one of these shots they used. I dont think it one or even in the top 10 best pics from the shoot they could have used. Paul is pulling weird face for starters. But i suppose thats something you have to get used to being a photographer. Editorial differences. Im still really grateful for them using the pic though and printing it half the size of the page (A3) However i wasnt credited.

Heres the front of the mag and my pic inside with the interview.

Thats all for today.

cheers

http://www.dazeddigital.com/rise/gallery.aspx?user=f68508ad-5cec-4e02-83f1-302f10bd92e4&gallery=1

Im not expecting anything from it really but it is good to try and keep my name bouncing around the place and hopefully after not too long somebody will remember it and hopefully give me some money. Mmm, that would be nice.

peace out. 

Next up was a gig that i covered for NARC (www.narcmedia.com) which is a North east based music Magazine i write reviews and take pics for. The band was called Stars of The Lid (www.myspace.com/starsofthelid) who are essentially one of the fathers of the whole Ambient, minimal, drone based instrumental music movement and theyve been going since the very early 90s. The gig was held in an amazing location, a church called ‘The Church of St.Thomas the Martyr’ which is in the center of Newcastle. The band was made up of two guitarists with a range of loop pedals and keyboards and a string trio of cello, viola and violin. The band also has two projectionists and the musicians were pretty much in complete darkness until the projections lit up pretty much the entire back end of the church. A truly holy experience believe me…

And finally this morning i shot some photos for a Artist friend of mine called cat who is designing and making the costumes for a play that is going to be on at the Edinburgh Fringe this year. The play is based around mental health and music so she designed her own jazzy looking straight jacket, and today got a dancer/actress friend of hers to model it for me while i took some shots. We shot the pics in a communal artist studio space in Heaton called the Waygood which i didnt even know existed. It was such a cavernous strange building. This made for some cool shots on the strange stairways and halls. It was a really cool session and i think there is more to be done with other things relating to the play so there could be some more stuff like this up here in the future…

Well thats my photography adventures for the last couple of weeks. Ive been working on another biro drawing recently but its being a bit of a chore and taking far longer than any of the others while being a lot simpler. Still i enjoy it though. I should get it finished in the next few days and whwn i do i’ll post it up.

til next time.

peace 

But wait for it, it gets better…. i havnt even done anything either!! Yep. My last week or 2 has been pretty fruitless from the creative side of things, but its been quite enjoyable. First of all i had zero money so that limited my options quite a bit, but things are a bit more back on track now. I also went home for a few days here and there and helped steve (landles… my boss) do a wedding which was good fun but being a in a suit and tie in 21 degree weather from 10.30am to 11pm isnt really that enjoyable ha ha. My girlfriends house mate laura had her 23rd birthday on the same day as well so i went straight back to newcastle, caught an hours kip then headed to the party. How i had the energy i dont know but im glad i did. It was a good laugh. However, I wasnt laughing by 8am tho.

Over the bank holiday weekend we went and checked out the Star and Shadow market which im gonna be involved with in july, trying to peddle some of my drawings. It seemed really cool and im excited to get stuff done for it and see what happens. Even if i dont sell anything it’ll be a good way of getting more people to see my work hopefully. The rest of the weekend was spent lounging in the sun, either in Heaton Park or Helens back yard. We also ventured to the Cluny for a couple of pints with mates.

I also worked out how to wirelessly sinc my flash to my camera so had some fun messing around with that, making people look moody and what not. 

Since i havnt really been that productive over the days ive been talking about i’ll post pics that ive taken since my last post.

I’ll get some proper stuff up here soon. promise.

charmed.

Anyway. Ive been back in Durham over the weekend gone, for my brothers birthday. It was cool. Very chilled. Good eats, good convo with family and stuff so a good one all round and joss my brother seemed to enjoy it to.

Over the weekend i also went to a Hardcore alldayer in the tiny ex-pitt village of Sherburn Hill. When i was younger, some guys from our town used to put shows like this on all the time in a place called the rowing club. Unfortunately it was knocked down so the options for venues has been limited, so shows like this only happen now and then round our way. Still though, every time theres one one, all the old faces come out the woodwork and its amazing. If you’ve never experienced a show like this then your missing out. Hardcore punk is literally the most expressive thing i can think of. The amount of passion that pours out of these bands and the kids who go to see them is ridiculous. Its just an awe inspiring thing to witness. And from a photo point of view it means you get awesome pictures. Expressions, movement, passion, sweat, spit, blood. Its all there.

I was really buzzed to take lots of photos through the day, but the idiot i am i left my camera charger at home and with only 5% battery left i was going to have to be quick with what i shot. However, like i said… with the amount of energy that was kicking around the place it was gonna be hard to get a bad photo. I decided to only take shots of headliners ‘Cursed’ who literally kicked the shit out of everyone. I managed to get 9 shots out of my camera before it died and these are the best of the 9.

Take it easy.

Maybe i should give a bit of back round about steetley before i wack my pics up …

1937:Site acquired by Steetley. New process allows magnesium to be produced from sea water.
1938: Plant opens and expands rapidly.
1961:Chimney built which is seen across Hartlepool.
1962: World’s largest settling tank built on the site.
1967: 5,147 tons of magnesium produced a week.
1997:Britmag takes over the site from Redland.
2002:Britmag goes into administration, and the site is reborn as CJC Chemicals.
2005:CJC also falls on hard times and the area falls into disrepair.
2005:Culford Properties become free-holders of the site and draw up plans for a 500-home estate.
2006: Children caught by the Mail diving into the settling tanks.
2007: (August) Children snapped by local resident playing among the rubble.
2007: (September) English Nature opposes building plans because of breeding birds near the site.
2007: (October) The council puts £100,000 aside in case they have to clear the site.

So yeah, the place is pretty old and has fallen into massive disrepair… probably mostly due to the gangs of scallys nicking all the metal from it to sell as scrap. There must have been about 5 crews of lads working different parts of the site while we were there. Whether they were part of the same team i dont know. We were a bit worried at first. Wandering around an empty expansive wasteland, far from help with potentially over a thousand pounds worth of camera equipment… and them with crowbars, blowtorches and saws. But they just told us not to take any pics of them and they were sound.

But anyway, enough talk. Heres a load of shots i took. Some ive boosted up coz i was lazy and didnt expose them properly but mainly ive just added my watermark coz im quite proud of these.

As you can see, the place is a mess, but the colour from the rust, grass and erosion from the left over chemicals has made it an amazingly colourful place. I thought it was amazing.

We have plans to revisit, since milky has to take more shots. So i probably will too and i’ll post up here.

hope youve enjoyed these as much as i did taking them.

well, i did, and it was really cool and refreshing as well as a bit challenging as i seem to have misplaced my tripod. I just had to just had to look for things to rest the camera on, or just rely on keeping as still as i could since i would be shooting without flash at night and just hoping there would be some good light, from the moon and stars or street light. Anyway, i found some cool interesting images and found a few things im definitely going to go back and shoot once i find my bleedin tripod. 

Right, heres a few i took.

Well yes thats it. After this little trip out im definitely gonna get back into my night photography. Look out for further posts of stuff like this. 

Im going to hartlepool with a friend on Thursday to photograph a chemical waste land. Dont get to say that too often but its true ha ha. Should get some awesome shots… if my shoes dont melt or i get cancer before we leave, but anyway, i’ll get some images of that up soon.

laters peoples.

Ive just discovered the Photography of Jessica Dimmock. She completed a 2 year long documentary project in 2006 entitled ‘The Ninth Floor’ and it really is an unreal project. The project centers around a group of heroin users in New York and the place they live in. check out this amazing video that showcases many of the photos. So beautiful

http://mediastorm.org/0021.htm

Im feeling particularly inspired today so i think im gonna go out later tonight and do something i havnt done in a long time. Take some photos… FOR MYSELF, instead of for others. I’ll post the fruits of my labours in a day or so.

Enjoy the vid.

However, i have been busy with drawing and photographing when ive had a spare minute. So, im gonna blast loads of stuff up now to make up for lost time.

The main reason i was away for so long was because i had a gig under my ~~~ name (you’ll find a link in my blog roll), which i mentioned in a post a while ago. I always get very nervous and like to spend a lot of time practising when i have a gig in the pipeline. I like to be meticulous about what im going to play down to the very last note so it ends up consuming a huge amount of time. But, it went well and i enjoyed the whole night massively. The other people i played with were absolutely unbelievable as well. Mass (who i have some photos of on this blog) and Richard Dawson (www.myspace.com/richardmdawson)  just tore the roof off.

And as an added bonus, a new aquainetence of mine, Mr David Float of musicfilmbroth.com came down and filmed all 3 bands sets for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunatly wordpress wont let me post videos on here so you’ll have to go to the website and look for them. Theyre fairly easy to find. Just go to www.musicfilmbroth.com and there about half ways down the front page.

Please turn this up and try and forget about the talking in the backround. The audio was recorded from the back of the room near the bar… cant have it all can you.

Enjoy

So, that over with, i was finally able to get on with some more visual stuff in the form of a new drawing which i finished the other day. I like this one. Its alot more solid than a couple of others ive done and a lot more balanced but i’ll let you be the judge of that.

Ive also arranged to get a stall to try and sell some of these at a local arts and craft market in July. Its an awesome event with local handmade things that cover a huge variety of styles and mediums, from Photography, to clothing and art, to cakes and jewelry. I think its gonna be a good one and hopefully i’ll sell a few prints.

Now, on the photography side of things, ive been commisioned by a band called Supercharger to take a whole portfolio of pictures for them which is really cool. Im to photograph a few gigs as well as do some promo shots, coupled with some documentary stuff of them in the studio. Ive already shot one gig which i’ll post a handfull of pics from below and im due to do some ‘in the studio’ shots tommorow sometime which should be a lot of fun.

So, thats it for now. Hopefully my next post wont take 3 weeks this time. hope you’ve enjoyed it.

peace out