More Confessions

On saturday night I brought all my gear along to The Loft, Maidstone, to get some sick shots of the crowd, there to witness CASPA & TC's onslaught of bass lines. The ingredients for the night involved not only two of my favourite bass artists, but a warm summers evening, a large percentage of my old friends (back from uni) and of course the infamous cheap drink deals. What ensued therefore was one of the best nights out I've had (/endured due to extreme heat and ear melting bass intensity) in many weeks.

Of course there were a few drawbacks... Too hot to enjoy concentrating, too drunk to understand how my camera actually functions without fully auto settings, and a malfunctioning flash, as I had attached the hot-shoe cable on backwards (not the lack of battery power as I had assumed at the time.)

The lesson I effectively learnt here: work is work so don't go looking for a good time when you want results, it will only end in tears. I am understandably disappointed in my self but refuse to regret my decision as it was such a sick night. Massive props to Benno for his performance that night, as well.

This is basically all I achieved before I Immediately threw in the towel. How lucky Mr. Hoad is, although he needs to work on his tan lines...

Norman, have you stolen an Apple? Ohh ma'am.

I would like to draw your attention to the eccentricity of my best mate,

It's Ross's Birthday on Tuesday, but I shall be working so I went out last night with him. The following occurred on the way home with our good buddy namely, Mandrews. So many laughs, I love drunken walks home & I love Ross. Happy Birthday, mate.

(Note please, the same joke, just further up the road, only on a squashed shorter bike this time.)

(I have absolutely no idea what sparked the following scene, I can only assume they wanted to create something 'artistic'. It definitely worked. So Well. Brilliantly in fact.)

Nightmare.

So I finally get a photo shoot arranged and to make sure the scene I have chosen is perfect I make the trek up to it for a reccy shot in the same lighting conditions, the night before. Bare in mind that for the previous week and a half the weather has been flawless, I was expecting nothing less then epic results.

After about 9 or 10 days of beautiful sunshine, the time for my shoot draws near and sure enough the heavens open with hale stones. So from roughly 75 odd degrees to straight down icey-apocalypse, at possibly the worst time conceivable. I obviously Sin to much.

Alas here is the best of my reccy shots. It was suitably idyllic and the sole reason why I love Kent.

SURPRISE

Startling the older generation...

Warning: It upsets them.

Millie Molly Mandy

Today is the 28th June. This means one thing, it's Triple M's Birthmas and everyone who has ever had the pleasure of meeting her knows what a gentle and friendly soul she is. She may not qualify as a real dog, but she certainly makes a fine companion of a pet none the less. However, her secondary (but most important) occupation is surveyor and protector of the Goodman estate, as demonstrated below...

Goldsmiths Drama Society Continued...

The following 3 shots were taken from the same drama society event, however during previous plays...

Black Swans

Yet again, the Goldsmiths Drama Society are taking self-written pieces to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Amongst the three plays heading up to Scotland in late August, is a performance from a contingent called the Black Swans. Secular from their respective course timetables, they have rehearsed and executed a poignant piece that tackles emotions and struggles synonymous with the current economic climate.

I went along to one of their final rehearsals which interestingly was one of their first performances to a sizable audience, to see if I could get some promotional shots of the scenes. This was a reasonable task as the thought of blasting my flashgun into the eyes of already nervous actors, was not favorable, especially considering how intimate the venue was. Over coming many a failed test shot due to poor metering and way-over exposed facial features, & using an absurdly high iso, Do not ask me why when enlarged the photos saturate so much however I managed (I hope) to achieve acceptable images that give you an idea of the tension with in the performance.

Their play was in fact lucky enough to be picked from roughly 3000 others, to be mentioned in the official press release which as you'll see, many a big name is also included in, too. The press release can be found here (roughly fourth paragraph down):

Edinburgh Fringe Festival

This shot turned out to be my personal highlight.

JBN's BACK

This week marks the return (FOR GOOD) of one of my bestest, buddy 'ole pals. His lengthy stay in the eccentric, eastern European, wonderland that is the Great Estonia, despite being resident UEA student, has come to an end. As exciting & culturally beneficial as the trip was, we are all glad he's home on British Soil now, for good. His laavly other-half, Manning, & him have thus immediately come to visit. Slapping on the glad-rags and consuming mint Liquor from the Czech republic, (mouthwash) in preparation to smash up London Town, the resulting shots were taken with a big smile on my face.

OWWWWW!

I've just returned from DOWNLOAD festival 09, which consisted of 5 days of filthy Rock N' Roll-fueled fun in blisteringly beautiful sunshine. I can honestly say contained with in this small portion of days were the very best hours and also some of the very worst hours of my entire life. Fighting for my life in epic scale, moshing, crowds & surviving on a foul meal of sausage and chips for £7 each night, were tough, but being no more then an arm's reach from my hero, Nikki Sixx whilst screaming my heart out made it all worth while. To be quite frank, I could type here all day and all night on euphoric emotions and feelings I experienced during this festival & give you my opinions on the performances of most of my favourite bands, for even longer.

Rather then bore you though, perhaps these shots will give you a rough idea of just how awesome the atmosphere really was.... Ignore the quality though, SLR's were banned :(

See the Line-up that justified my excitement:

here: http://www.downloadfestival.co.uk/lineup/index.aspx

Confession

I am still playing, I'm dossing.

Instead of feverishly arranging models and shoot locations (although I am trying, just rather half-heartedly), I am currently still just exploring my new camera's capabilities and dramatic lighting tricks. I have little excuse for such behavior, other then just working a lot more recently to cover the time off I have coming up for festivals. However, the results of experimenting have pleased me somewhat. As I discovered in the third shot of this post, when you give this new sensor technology the right intensity of lighting, from the right angles, it draws out some disgusting detail. Disgusting in the good way of course. 

My shots this time, come in the form of a selection of portraits of my good buddy, Jonathan Titmuss (best known for his Tom Cruise-Esc acting, famous cousin and being a bloody nice guy 100% of the time), has anybody who knows Jon ever been pissed off by him? Other then that cheeky homeless man who wanted money in New Cross and thus received brutal punishment for trying to take Jon's, obviously.

Subconsciously though, a sinister mood seems to be my main criteria for a result.