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. 

Immaculate.

So it became time again (nothing to do with pay day, I swear), to retain my status as the High-top extraordinaire. My previously purchased pair were part of a special edition package Nike produced to represent lovers of 'Heavy Metal'. The combination of 80's metal typography, clean black leather with shiny gold tick & added gold studding on the ankle, made these Terminators the sickest design I'd ever laid my eyes upon. Alas now they have been out classed with the sister pair in the Heavy Metal package, the Vandals, which I promptly purchased on friday. I also took this opportunity to test out my new fixed lens and shot these magnificent bad boys in all there glory on my bed, at f1.4. Enjoy and be jealous...

FRAHW YRANAC

It's all a matter of perspective...

Testing. Testing.

First shot with the beauty dish.

Many more to come.

Clinic Poetry

My good friends and fellow Goldsmithians have come together to form a poetry collective named Clinic. Consisting of Andrew Parkes, Rachael Victoria Allen and Sam Buchan-Watts, the 3 very talented writers explore their past experiences & challenging interactions, through portrayal of emotions expressed in poetic flare. As a collective they have had several readings now and impress all who dare to listen... here are some shots of Clinic at their lastest reading in the New Cross Inn.

Read and enjoy all their poetry published on the Clinic blog...

@ clinicpoetry.blogspot.com

Please excuse the poor quality of resolution in these shots.

Self P.

Below is a shot I took of one of my photo shoots. Serving as a self promotional shot for my attempt at portraiture of the self [intentionally cryptic of course], I have made the image as striking as possible using a fish-eye lens in combination with a super contrasty, cool-tone effect.

 The original film print is stuck to the front of my bedroom door functioning as a collection of signifiers synonymous with me, hence a replacement for a sign gracing my name.

Summer's here: Proof

Temps are up (touch wood) and the sunshine is prevailing. One of the advantages of having a tree just outside from your window is the occasional treat when you're sick of the derelict architectural view. This critter was surprisingly uplifting at the start of the day. One of many I assume I'll enjoy over the coming months...