Salisbury Cathedral

Spent a wonderful day visiting Salisbury Cathedral with friends at the weekend. No end of photo opportunities and a chance to see one of four surviving copies of the Magna Carta.



















A very kind lady named Margret offered to take this cushion embossed with my name on outside so I could photograph it. I found it in the chamber where the Magna Carta is kept, where no photos are allowed. It costs £12,000 a day to keep the Cathedral running and most of the workers there are people like Margret who kindly volunteer their time.




Following up culture with that other activity we Brits do well.

"Art", grime and pigeons

It must be London!

I've been very busy since I returned home. Having a great time, and managing to see my friends and family for the first time in year (felt like I'd never been away which was wonderful) whilst getting on with business bits. Been going to a few events and met a lot of interesting people and possible clients.



Borough Market – Looks dirty and decrepit, which may well be true, but I was fascinated by watching the traders at work, and exploring as the place is a lot more deserted than when I was last here over a year ago. I didn't take any photographs of the traders yet, but I am considering approaching someone to start a documentary project on the place.





Litter and pigeons – looking down from a footbridge near St Pauls.





This is a giant steel box billed as a sculpture at the Tate Modern. One side was open allowing you to walk inside, the two figures you see in the image are standing by it with me shooting from inside giving you some sense of the scale. It was really, really big, and raised on stilts so you could go underneath as well.



There is often a lot of good things on at the Tate, and I've been to some stella exhibitions* there, but the most telling thing about the place to me is that when you get on the escalator on the ground floor expecting to end up on the 1st, you instead arrive on the 2nd. No explanation or apology is offered.




*Street and Studio in 2008 stands out. It was an extremely well curated look at the history of street photography, and studio photography and how the two photographic disciplines from opposite ends of the photographic spectrum have developed and influenced each other. There were over 350 photographs exhibited, which would normally be to many and an information overload and result in loss of impact, but this was carried by the sheer quality and variety of the work, and the highly intelligent and informative way it was used.

Featured on David Ellingsen's blog

This week I had the honour of being featured on David Ellingsen’s blog. David is one of the top photographers in Vancouver and an extremely nice guy to boot. He was one of the members of my college portfolio review board and was evidently very impressed with some of the students work, and chose six of us to write up on. You can read his post here.

www.davidellingsen.com

Vancouver Winter Olympics 2010

I've not had to much opportunity to shoot during the Olympics, but between completing my grad requirements for College and getting packed and ready to return to England next week I've managed to to get out a little bit.


Shortly before the opening ceremonies.





A mother and child enjoy the free ice skating under Robson Square.





A policeman watches as the anti-Olympic protest gathers by the Vancouver Art Gallery on the day of the Opening Ceremonies. The protests have been smaller than expected, and met with a large degree of hostility by local residents. I am told the Police have had to hold back groups of testosterone and alcohol fueled young men from attacking the protesters.





Korea house. The Koreans are bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics and doing their best to impress the Olympic community.





A touch screen display at Korea House.





A lone figure walks along the Seawall towards the Burrard Bridge. The lights are from Vectorial Elevation, one of the more prominent installations put in place during the Olympics.





Two “Bobwheelers”, part of Offsetters, a group that is working with Vanoc to attempt to make the games carbon neutral. They are running a rather effective marketing campaign, suggesting that as the earth heats up due to climate change, sports such as bobsledding will have to become bobwheeling. They are traveling around the city dressed in this manner, where lines of people are forming to have their pictures taken with them.

In the background you can see the Olympic flame, and the controversial fence surrounding it that has been likened by some to a prison.





The “Girl in Wetsuit” sculpture by Elek Imrek, a well known sight just off the seawall in Stanley Park was decorated by an unknown prankster with some official Olympic merchandise. The individual (or group) responsible must have had a considerable amount of time on their hands as the ques to buy merchandise are reported to be extremely long.





Not exactly Olympic related, but I am getting very sad at the thought of not being able to see this sight, sunset from Third Beach in Stanley Park, and enjoying it in February whilst England continues to freeze over.

Vancouver Musician Portraits

Recently I have been taking portraits of Vancouver based musicians. There is a very strong jazz scene locally and I felt it wise to take the opportunity to involve myself in it in small way before I return to England next month.


James Danderfer






Tom Colclough






Doe and Mark Bender

Whistler

Headed to Whistler last weekend to hit the slopes before the Olympic circus rolls into town and I leave this fair country. Had a fantastic time, one of best resorts I’ve visited and the pistes were wonderfully varied. Despite subjecting my camera to the -15 temperatures I didn’t take a great deal of pictures as visibility was extremely poor, however it lead to some interesting opportunities during a short break in the clouds as the sun came down.

Seattle/Portland excursion

I headed down to Seattle last weekend to visit my friend Peter Davis and do a little shooting with him. As I was waiting for him downtown I happened upon the gentleman in the photograph above. He is what is know in Seattle as a "bin drummer", Peter tells me that there are many others. I took a few pictures of him from various angles before this young child walked up and started watching him intently. I knew this was the “decisive moment” and carefully took a couple of shots before running to the other side of the street to capture the emotion on the child’s face. Sadly the child’s mother must have swept him away as he was gone when I turned round.

I met with Peter and after a few drinks we elected to head down to Portland, Oregon the next day. Peter had not visited before so we hit the road, with a flask of mulled wine and thanksgiving leftovers to look forward to when we arrived.

I just love Portland, in fact I love that place so much I didn’t even shoot that much, just soaked up the atmosphere and enjoyed a few drinks with my friend. One of the best places we hit was the Sapphire Hotel. The staff there were delightful, to the point of buying us both a drink and allowing us to hang out with them after closing time.

The following day we checked out the China Design Now exhibition at the Portland Art Museum. The exhibition focused on the explosion of the creative arts in China in recent years. It covered everything from photography to architecture and was absolutely fascinating. The relationship of these new waves industries to the scaling down of state control is alluded to but never explicit. As with imagery, less it seems, is more.