bikes and things

I thought I’d get myself a new little camera bag after got back from my meeting in Oxford this morning. So off to Amazon I went and ordered a Billingham bag but the option on the side said that a third party seller would do it a bit cheaper with free postage. So great, click the button, order, get back on with work.

Then the phone rings.

Them: Hello, it’s about your bag.
Me: You don’t have it in stock right?
Them: No sir, are you going to be in your office for another hour or so?
Me: Yes of course, until 6pm.
Them: Great, we’ll stick it on a bike now.

Sure enough a nice cycle courier arrived with my bag. The shop? Team Work on Foley Street. I think they’ll be my new favourite camera shop from now on. Bye bye Calumet.

This image has been making most of the photographers I know, architectural and otherwise, a bit weak at the knees recently. It’s shot by Iwan Baan who is arguably the worlds best Architectural Photographer – for now. The image is the kind of thing that just wouldn’t have the same impact as shot with Instagram as some of the New York press have been doing, and which I argued against recently. The original article neatly describes their reasons for running the image as well the difficulties they faced keeping their publishing workflow going when all their infrastructure was down.

Another article has emerged this morning which is an interview with Baan himself discussing how he actually got the image. Some of the technical details read a little like a Canon ad but it’s interesting nonetheless. Someone should have told him that he could have had such high ISO four years ago with a Nikon D3S!

Another one of those photo projects which instantly rings the “why the hell didn’t I think of that” bell in my mind. Beautifully executed with a great sense of depth to all of the images. So enjoyable going through the sheer number of images on his site. A more in depth interview is also available over at It’s Nice That.

A few of my favourites below.

All images © Richard Hooker

So much to like about this little book, the man himself as well as his superb illustrations.

Some say he’s the ‘Master of pens’.
Some call him the ‘Justin Bieber of drawing’.
Some say he fucks about for a living.

Last year he started a project whereby he’d send an illustrated rude postcard to anyone who gave some money on his website. Apparently it was a little too successful and he had to close it after six days. Anyway, fortunately they made it into a rather nice book which has just been released, which you should definitley buy!

There’s also a great video of him explaining the project.

All images © Mr Bingo

Late to the party with this one but amazing what this guy can do even with skinny tyres.

Martyn Ashton takes the £10k carbon road bike used by Team Sky’s Bradley Wiggins & Mark Cavendish for a ride with a difference.

Via Alex & Kristian

EDIT: And now there’s an outtake clip too.

After my post the other day about the variety of bizarre notes we encountered on our trip, Mathew sent me a series of links to Flickr showing his own collection of signs daubed in paint or scrawled with a marker pen – entitled SME signage

The conversation then turned to those NO PARKING signs you see scrawled everywhere. Sure enough he’d been collecting those too. The ones you see on the front of garage doors and where they ran out space by starting the letters off to large.

Which also goes to prove my rule that if you think you’ve done something original on the internet you’re wrong. Someone has probably done it before you, and done a better job. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it though.

Just back from a trip away and I collected a series of photos of notes taped to or written on walls. All seemed to be telling us not do something, often laminated, mainly with bad typography or spelling and also often in red. I’m sure there’s a story behind each and every one of frustration with customers doing things improperly or just winding up the owner. Tourists eh!

SORRY

Burning of wood is prohibited.

NO

And my personal favourite of all…

Very funny little video. Must get down to Devon again soon.

Via Shannon.

I make no secret of my love for Instagram. Some of the best images or posts come from people who tell a story or narrative in either a series of images that could be read as a triptych, or build a story through their regular posts. One of the most amusing came from Mathew at With Associates recently where he took picture of his cat, Marcel, sat in the same position looking out into the garden.

Every day he’s be there and Mathew would take a picture and post it to Instagram.

Lots of people wondering…

What’s he looking at?

Why is he there?

Has he worn a patch in the grass yet?

So to end the series Mathew finally confronts Marcel.

It turns out he had worn a patch and we still don’t know what he was looking at or why he sat in the same spot for so long though. Great fun whilst it lasted.

All images © Mathew Wilson

Beautifully shot video* of an equally beautiful bike shop in Brooklyn New York – 718 Cyclery. Fantastic story behind it all and also a rather pleasant way of engaging with his market rather than just offering a straight service of selling stock bikes.

*When I say beautifully shot I mean a little heavy on the shallow depth of field and bokeh.