Adios summer, for what you were.

Its nearing the end of September, summers a distant memory and we now enter into autumn.

It’s been a interesting 6 months, dealing with work, juggling home schooling and trying to fit in some photography to document these ‘crazy’ times.

I think I am writing this blogpost with the same mindset as you, that a second wave is coming, god knows what it will look like.

Inevitably, these times bring folk together, I have discovered an added depth to the relationship I have with my kids, also my photography has taken on a new dimension, both positives.

The negative is trying to manage wellbeing and ‘calorie intake’.

I would consider myself bookish, I enjoy a good read, but being a single parent, finding time for some exercise is non existent in my daily schedule.

So trying to plan some order in my day, I purchased a Schwinn IC8 Spinning Bike for the house, only owned it 4 days, but I’ve enjoyed 20 minute spinning sessions at the start or end of the day, courtesy of the Peloton app, its that more enjoyable that the family are also participating.

Man, you earn every calorie or inch travelled, no free wheeling like on a pushbike! It’s shocking how unfit I am / have become. That’s the Q4 2020 challenge set. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn into a clothes horse!

On the book front, I try to avoid typical self help books, as they are too broad brushed in their approach. I’m open to all genres. I finished The Midnight Library by Matt Haig last week, nothing to demanding, quite a light hearted read but quite relevant in these times. I have enjoyed Haig’s work since picking up The Human’s a number of years ago. His books all have a slant towards mental health and positivity, he talks openly about his own struggles with mental health, his twitter stream is interesting.

On a final note, why don’t we push the clock forward 4 hours, rather than back 1, this will give us all a fighting chance over the winter.

Until next time, keep snapping.

Staycation 2020

A good friend of mine made an interesting statement about Covid19, back in May 2020.

He mentioned he was calling his girlfriend’s pug 'Covid' When I asked ‘why’? I was told, ‘its simple really…… it's stopping us going on holiday, we can't go out for an evening to the pub or restaurant and it poos everywhere'!

Both funny and apt.

I’m sat here writing this blog, returning back to work after my two weeks annual leave. No sun, sea or extravagant journeys unfortunately, lockdown in COVID-19 has kiboshed that.

I had some nice plans for 2020. April 2020 was supposed to be a trip to Istanbul with the kids. It was being billed as ‘kebabs and cameras’. I have been mesmerised by the street photography there for many years, in fact the tipping point was purchasing the excellent City of a hundred names, by Alex Webb last year. But alas not to be, this year at least.

Whilst this is depressing, it is providing me with some me time, catching up on photobooks, documentaries and also afforded me the opportunity to compliment my own body of work documenting these strange times.

It also provided a more grounded break with the kids, to have a couple of day trips.

First up was Broadstairs and Margate. I have always loved the allure of the British seaside town and all its kitsch foibles.

I hadn't been to Broadstairs before, and was given the nod by a work colleague. It was a lovely place with plenty of photo opportunities of the domestic holiday maker.

I wanted to take them to the Black Lives Matters exhibition at the Turner Contemporary Gallery, this was of interest to my daughter, who has taken an interest in the three marches that have been held Brighton over the summer, since the harrowing murder of George Flloyd by a police officer.

The exhibition detailed works evidencing black folks plight in the Deep South to get work through art and craft. It also had an excellent (albeit limited) collection of black and white civil rights photography front the 1960’s.

The Turner Contemporary Gallery is a stunning building situated to the east of the seafront, which also has an Anthony Gormley statue in the sea, at the rear of the gallery.

Whilst the town has regularly been voted the best seaside town in the UK to live, the remnants of the old Margate are omnipresent.

Arlington House is a beautiful brutalist residential high rise that dominates the skyline.

First completed in 1964 the site was advertised as “Britain’s first ‘park and buy’ shopping centre with luxury flats,” and marked the beginning of Margate’s redevelopment.

Arlington was designed by Russell Diplock Associates and built by Bernard Sunley and Sons, Originally the site was made up of 52 shops, a pub, a supermarket, a coach station, a filling station, a multi-storey car park and the 18-storey, 142-flat block.

I normally take the kids up to London for a day trip, but due to the depressed tourist market, we were fortunate to be able to book a 2 night stay at the Lancaster Gate Hotel, near Hyde Park. We snagged a bargain getting the room at 50% of the normal daily rate.

First up was West London, and Notting Hill / Portobello Road.

By daughter loves to see the whitewashed London terraced houses and flower lined mews.

For dinner we headed over to Tayyabs Restaurant for the mixed grill in Whitechapel, absolutely delicious. This place never seems to disappoint. I haven’t eaten here for nearly 10 years.

Day two was a mixture of shopping and sight seeing, we ended up heading over to Soho in the evening for a bite to eat at Bibimbap and to take some night photos of the lights in China Town.

As staycations go, it wasn’t bad, the kids and I remain healthy and well, so we can’t and shouldn’t complain.

Until next time, keep snapping.

A selection of the images within this article are available for sale on the Website or Etsy Store, if you would like to enquire about something else, please click the email icon at the foot of this page.

Sublime online

I'm writing this blog, some 24 hours after going live selling my #02 Zine - 12 mths with the GRii.

In three weeks time, its the first anniversary of setting up my website.

After pondering on setting up the print and zine store, I finally went live some 3 months ago. It's crazy that the catalyst to get this sorted was the boredom of the COVID-19 lockdown.

I have no idea why it's taken so long, but I can say that it's been a real labour of love.

Lockdown has afforded me the opportunity to ‘marinade' some images and projects, whilst jettison others. I have found this part of the process to be really cathartic.

The steep learning curve was getting to grips with MailChimp (for marketing), squarespace (commerce on the site) and finding suitable professional printing houses to print my work. Whilst the stumbling blocks were several, they were not insurmountable, it's also a process that you really need to go through to understand your prospective customers and business model.

I watch quite a few photography YouTube videos, whether these are POV street photowalks, discussion groups or influencers, which I have found highly informative during this journey.

I think it will be helpful to share this reference list in an upcoming blog post, so watch this space.

A recent post by Ted Forbes on the excellent The Art of Photography YouTube channel, pretty much sums it.

We get too hung up on buying gear, testing lens, tinkering with post production (Lightroom / Photoshop), we all need to be producing our work. Whether this is printing postcards or prints for family and friends, or prints or zines for our website stores, we must take our photos off the hard drive and print into a physical object, to hang it on a wall, put into a picture frame or a zine on a coffee table.

Whilst I would be a little happier if my print sales were a little more active, during this initial period, I'm really enjoying the activity surrounding the zine sales and after all, this is a marathon not a sprint. I also want to cultivate a steady and loyal following of clients, who want to enjoy this journey with me.

I have received some lovely feedback from customers on their purchases so far, so it's also been rewarding.

For those pondering this side of their photography, i urge you to take a leap of faith and go for it!, you (like myself) will be surprised and enjoy your journey!

Until next time. keep snapping.