bikes and things

Carrying this thing everywhere now. Need to get a longer strap I think but here’s a few more.

This little beauty landed on my desk today. Second hand, but one careful, and talented, owner. Bought from the funds from a recent portrait shoot. Pretty isn’t she?

Whilst not really being fan of the term “test shots”, here’s some test shots! Yay. Turned quite a few heads in the office with lots of oooohs and ahhhhs also a few “Is that a Leica?” Looking forward to using it properly next week when I have some time off.

Sat seems to be my only day off at the moment so has becoming fairly precious. Not much photography but working hard on a project at work and been in every Sunday for at least six or so weeks so I’m trying tomake sure I actually do something rather than just sleep or look at the internet. Hopefully its all over now (after Thursday night) and I can start to get my life back a bit.

So we went into town to quickly grab a look at the Taylor Wessing Portrait Prize at the National Portrait gallery. I’m still amazed that it’s another ginger girl with ginger animal. It’s getting beyond a cliche now. At least there weren’t any massive vaginas to stand in front of this year. It was set in a tiny gallery and rammed with people which made the whole experience pretty grim. Maybe I’ll go back during the week sometime. I really liked a couple of the shots but I was pretty disappointed with some of them. I guess I’m not a photography critic though.

After that we headed out to the Royal Academy with the aim of seeing the Russian Constructivist exhibition – again too many people with a massive queue. So we had a look at the Tatlin’s Tower in the courtyard and then went to the ICA for a couple of drinks. Good chats with Ed and Emma and then home. All good.

Last Sat Emma and I ventured out into town to catch the last day of the Edgar Martins exhibition at The Wapping Project – Bankside. So glad we made the effort to go as the work is simply extraordinary. Emma also wrote a few words which I won’t repeat here but suffice to say she’s far better at the words than I am.

The work is rather neatly summarised by Robin Wilson over at the Architects Journal.

..perspective views onto monumental turbine halls, ‘portraits’ of specialist station equipment, control panel displays and empty waiting rooms with potted plants, alien, isolated, yet flourishing in these sterile environments.

It was great to talk to the gallery owner and understand some of the technical details behind them. All shot on 10×8 view camera with up to and hour long exposure also with selective flash added to fill in dark spots or balance overall lighting. The effect is one of an almost painterly like hyperreal quality where shadows don’t always exist. There also seems to be an amazing sense of perfection in the spaces that he’s working in which is constantly engaging when stood in front of the enormous prints. Some of the images feel timeless, or 70’s or even slightly futuristic. It’s hard to really get a handle of their context. Fascinating but ultimately too expensive to afford a print. I came away with a £30 book of his which is just as enjoyable.

I never used to be a bus person until someone taught me the error of my ways (when not on my bike of course). Always the top deck, always the left hand window seat, always looking around and seeing what’s going on – silently observing the world going on below you.

This experience is perfectly summarised by the below video (via Michal Dzierza). The child playing, the guy arguing on the phone with someone, the accident that everyone cranes their neck for, road works, cyclists, tourists, landmarks, the crazy guy, the gaggle of school kids – it’s all there. Beautifully shot & edited from 30 hours of footage. A lovely feel to it – watch in HD!

This is my mate Gav. He’s gone and left me and decided to go off round the world for a year instead of living the rat race in Bath and furthering his property empire. Must admit that I haven’t seen him much this year which makes me feel pretty guilty – especially when I saw him at his leaving do. So when he gets back I’m going to give him a massive man hug (as it makes him feel awkward) and go riding with him and spend some time catching up. You don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone I guess.

He even posted me a birthday card before leaving – my birthday is about 8 weeks away!

Happpy travels Gav! Looks like you’re off to a good start.

I’m sure everyone has seen this video by now but if not it’s well worth watching. Incredibly beautiful and also somehow strangely ominous that the forms the birds make whilst swarming – not sure if that’s the right term. Out of my field of expertise here.

With Associates have completed their November update to their redesign-our-site-once-a-month thing. The end result is great as usual but also sad to see our efforts for October go.

However the thing that’s far more interesting to me is the behind the scenes or process that goes into it. A fairly ambitious 4 hours was set to do the whole thing and again was recorded with a timelapse which fittingly is four minutes long.

And here’s a few more images from their Flickr set.

All images © With Associates.

A chat with Aleks on Sat reminded me of a few of these montages. Worth watching all three. I think the Tom Cruise running is the best. Once you’ve seen these I don’t think you can take this lot seriously again.

Tom Cruise – Running

Harrison Ford – My wife my family

And finally, Nicholas Cage – Losing his shit.

Got any more?

Lawrence reminded me of these two in the comments…

It’s the 90’s!

160 Greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes

Glad to not be at work today but rather in Cambridge hanging out with Emma’s Mum & partner, Snoopy the dog and Emma of course. Sunday was a bit of a write off as I seemed to lose all energy and then spent most of the day sleeping. Anyway, lots of good food and a walk with the dog so all good. A few photos below and also a quick video of Emma throwing the ball for snoopy. He’s mental for that ball, it’s like crack to him.