bikes and things

Had the day off work today for a shoot which was cancelled so finished an edit from earlier in the weekend and headed out to Peaslake on my own for a bit of a spin his afternoon. I arrived to find an empty car park with only another car with two people packing up. Had a quick chat with them and got on with some pre-ride faffing.

Worried it might be crowded on the trails.

I’m not sure I’ve ever been for a ride on my own around the Surrey Hills. It’s the kind of thing I used to do when at Uni round QE Country Park or even before that in Box Woods many years ago. Since then it’s always been in a group of people but it’s been harder and harder to get the usual lot out to ride. We’re all much busier than we used to be I guess. Anyway, after getting of the slightly weird sensation of riding on my own I started to settle into the flow and head out to the trails I wanted to cover. It felt strange not keeping pace with anyone else and also not wanting to push it too much on the downs as I am partial to hugging trees at speed. One thing I noticed was that I wasn’t stopping as much, not rushing up a hill then re-grouping together. The trails seemed to flow better as a result and the only noise being my breathing. It felt incredibly peaceful to be amongst all the trees with no one around.

Just me, the trees and the wildlife.

I made the classic mistake of leaving the flat in my riding shorts and not packing a spare set – hey its sunny now so why not. The trails were obviously soaked from a good few days of heavy rain. Puddles everywhere and some of that famous UK Slop and Grime™ in evidence. I also used being on my own as an excuse to have a play with my new toy – a 2nd hand GoPro and gimpy looking chest harness. I got half way down T2 and thought, I love this trail and it’s flowing so well today why am I not filming this? Back to the top and tried to ride it faster and smoother, failed at both but ended up with this little clip below.

Not bad for a first go I guess but not entirely sure about the music. How do you choose sound tracks for riding videos? Add Metallica an hope for the best? I’ve never edited video before either but found it fairly straight forward in iMove ’11. In terms of the camera mount I think I like the perspective but it needs to face slightly higher to capture more of the trail. It’s hard to know how to set it whilst you’re standing as you’re in a different position on the bike. Will have a play next time. There’s more clips from today but I don’t think anyone else really needs to see them.

Beautiful light after the storm

Back to the carpark which was again empty, packed the bike away and sat in wet shorts back home. Wonderful. Looking forward to grabbing a few more solo rides in the future. Back soon.

Muddy beard face

Back in January I posted about a Tumblr blog I’d found via Twitter – Need some design inspiration? This collection of images and format inspired me to start my own version entitled – architecturepastebook.co.uk.

At first I wasn’t sure whether I would use it or whether I would become bored with it. I’ve embraced it entirely and have, shock horror surprise surprise, become a little obsessive about it. It started out as a way of recording a series of precedent images I was looking at during work time. Rather than save images to a folder on the server and lose any idea of what they were or where they had come from, I would chuck them at the Tumblr. We would then refer back to them later in the day when we were discussing design progress or the development of the architectural language for a series of construction details. Previously I had started to use the Gimme Bar web service but hadn’t connected with it in the same way really. For some reason the Tumblr (with the chosen theme) seemed a better way of doing it. Also as it was public there was a certain pressure to keep the quality up.

architecturepastebook.co.uk – something to dip into for inspiration?

The blog has grown from a semi-personal scrapbook (or paste book) into a slightly more public semi-curated archive of great Architecture as well as the occasional inspirational image. The way Tumblr works is also part of this more social feel to the site as people can “reblog” posts. I can also do the same to theirs which allows me to re-use content I like from others, it’s through setting this up that I’ve really engaged with Tumblr. It’s become a place to record images I’ve seen during the day from the likes of Dezeen, ArchDaily and designboom as well as a few select users and groups on Flickr. Sometimes I will select a series of images from a completed building which I think is worthy or often just a single image that provokes a response such as a texture or composition. Sometimes it’s just nice concrete which I’m a complete sucker for.

I’m intrigued by the idea of a visual archive that can be looked back upon, something along the lines of day books or sketchbooks that I keep at work. I’m obsessive about these and love sketching details or small areas of plans or sections. I think we also suffer from sheer overload of visual information – “Where was that great detail in the magazine from last year? Oh I saw something like that a while ago, it was interesting how they solved it” etc etc. This is my way of addressing that and trying to keep inspiration to hand. The way I post also allows me to keep a link to the original article which I can refer to for further information.

Day books – full of notes, sketches and ideas.

As an Architectural Photographer I’m also keen on constantly upping my game and viewing imagery to critique and make my own work and techniques better. This constant viewing of other photographers work has also made me far more critical of the the visual representation and also the actual architecture that I see. This is also something I’m also keen to document – the stunning image or the play of light that the photographer recorded, the unique angle or way in which it was post processed or the composition of the image and so on.

Tumblr as a visual archive.

So, another website to maintain and curate but something that provokes a critical appraisal of work and somewhere to keep it all. Want to add something – an image or a project?

Submit something and I might add it.

Some friends of ours are going away for a long weekend soon and very kindly asked if we would look after their dog, Gina, for them. Emma’s eyes went fairly wide when I asked her and I was up for a long weekend of dog bothering so we said yes. We met them in Peckham Rye park to discuss details, have a coffee and generally play with the dog. Gina is an 8 month old Jack Russell.

A few pictures of course.

I’m catching up on a few things that have caught my eye recently. I’ve been adding various interesting links to Instapaper and then coming back to blog about them. It’s becoming an overwhelming list but this one definitely deserves a mention. Portraits are especially hard in my opinion and there’s a few people who are good at it but I definitely admire a good one. Pete Zelewski has been shooting a series of portraits around Soho recently. I’ve added a few of my favourites below along with a description of his project. Well worth checking out the rest of his shots on Flickr.

Since my arrival on these British shores many years ago, Soho has always been, for me, the true heart of London. Although historically synonymous with the sex industry, the Soho I know and love today will always be the centre of Bohemian London with its culturally diverse mix of inhabitants living and working in a place that never closes and where anyone can be whoever they want to be.

In early 2011, I began a continuing street portraiture project called ‘The People of Soho’ photographing local characters who I thought captured the true essence of the area. From stylish shop assistants to arty media types, to street savvy students and the casual passers-by, the people I met and photographed were the ones I felt made Soho the unique and vibrant place that it is today.

All images © Pete Zelewski

A lovely little find from my mate Nat. A series of photos which appear to show multiple exposures of buildings before, during and after demolition. The EXIF says a Sony DSLR so I’d imagine they’re blended but still, they have a strange ethereal quality to them and incredibly beautiful. Wonder how they did them from the same spot without having to leave the camera there? Well worth popping over to Flickr to check out the whole set. A few of the best below.

All images © Andrew Evans

I recently got a second hand Go Pro camera and took it away this weekend with me when seeing Nat & Cath in Bristol. Here’s the admittedly bad results but fun all the same. It was mounted to the front of the Brompton bag with the chest strap mount. A bit more experimentation needed but shows some promise I reckon.

Saw this shot from the top of the 63 bus on the way to work earlier whilst it stopped outside Peckham Rye Station. Definitely had a mild panic trying and get the iPhone camera to work quick enough to grab the shot before the scene changed / bus drove off.

So good.

Weekends are fairly precious and scarce at the moment. I’m usually working, tired, wanting to ride my mountainbike, wanting to hang out with Emma and catch up on all sorts of other things I usually should have done earlier in the week. Maybe even a quiet pint or two. I normally fail on all levels at this. Not this time though, managed to edit a shoot early Sat morning, send it to the client and then head out to meet some friends for a late lunch at The Riding House Cafe. Fantastic lunch and celebrating two bits of good news. Bit of a wander around Regents Park to walk off our food, pint at the Crown and Goose then home to fall asleep during a film.

Next up on Sunday was a ride around the Surrey Hills with Gary and Dave from work. A beautiful day for it and the Peaslake carpark was almost overflowing even though we got there early. The usual trails – xmas pud, T1, T2 etc then tea, cake, faffing, then over to do yoghurt pots, telegraph row, some steep one I forget the name of then back to finish on Barry Knows Best. We took it a little slower due to watching another rider being carried off the trail, heavily encased in a stretcher, then being loaded into an Air Ambulance. Then back to the flat to make pizza with Emma, have a nap and watch Homeland.

What a superb weekend. Hope the following is just as good.

Nice to see a bit of attention on Peckham from the AJ. Would be interested to see the final results though.