Bartolomy’s Diary

August 31, 2010

Corinne Day R.I.P., more movies, Chief, Rose Elinor Dougall, May68 and Eliza Doolittle.

First of all, I have been caught by a bug and that knocked me right off my socks, I have been bed bound for the entire bank hols, anything but fun. Could be a lot worse actually since I found out that Corinne Day succumbed to brain cancer this weekend as well. She was only one year older than I am now, met her once at The Lab which was next to Click Studios many many years ago. Personally I favour her older work a lot more than the stuff she did in the mid noughties, nevertheless the world has become more boring without her, no doubt.
R.I.P. Corinne Day!!!!!!

I watched some more movies, which you do when yer in bed ;)
Robin Hood, not bad, but not Gladiator either, something in between that and Kingdom Of Heaven. Cate Blanchet is good, but Max von Sydow does it for me, amazing he is still around and acts his arse off.
Entourage has shaped up a tad, bit more edgy, wonder what Vince is up to with his newly found coke habit and his porn star g/f. Then Wild Target with Bill Nighy and Emily Blunt, which was a lot better than I thought it would be. Next was The Prince of Persia, which was ok (this year’s Pirates Of….) but Gemma Arterton, what is the big deal with her??? Alfred Molina on the other hand is the real star of this film, he steals the show.

Here are some shots of Chief, May68, Rose Elinor Dougall and Eliza Doolittle all coming out for Spindle very shortly.

August 18, 2010

Three days left, voting ends this Friday the 20th.

Filed under: Uncategorized — barto @ 06:44

Please go over there and place that vote, THX :)
Vote for my Book in the Photography Book Now competition.

August 9, 2010

Vote ;) and a shedload of movies…. and a Heavy metal book in the making.

Have you voted yet????
Please do so, click on the link in the post below, THX

I was working on a CMS (that is Content management System) website from Oxylusflash as it had an integrated shop etc, and guess what the whole thing is so buggy that after working on it for the past few weeks I have decided to dump it, I wont buy anything from Oxylusflash that soon again.
I remember buying a picture gallery from them as well, a few years back, and the damn scroller raced over the page like a madman and there was no way to slow it down. Great ideas, insufficient coding, oh well, looks like the current site stays a while longer and the shop will have to wait.
Having meetings and post production, I am going to Chichester this week as well (don’t ask…)
Some shoots with some cool bands lined up soon, should be good if not great :)

I watched From Paris with Love, Luc Besson produced it and his stamp is marked all over it, Travolta can let rip and it has some funny bits in it, of course the film is devoid of some serious plotting but for a no brainer evening flick this is just perfect.
I also watched Luther the series with Stringer bell (from the Wire) or Idris Elba as he is known in real life. well, in a nutshell: UTTER RUBBISH, the story was just Swiss cheese. The good thing about it were some of the baddies, I bet they cherished playing such degenerate characters (shit, I would….). Entourage and Hung are in full swing as well, both could be better (read sharper), maybe fatigue is kicking in…….
Cemetery Junction, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant all Hollywooded up, too polished, and just mwah……
Clash of The Titans, mwah once again…..
Last but not least La Horde, a French zombie flick, imagine Luc Besson doing that and you get my drift. Bloody, sometimes funny….it’s ok. Some good camera shots in the confined estate where 90% of the film is happening in

Oh and now I have started scanning my best Heavy metal shots in for a forthcoming book, hopefully out in time before x-mas. ;) I may post a few over the next few weeks.

August 2, 2010

Please vote for my book

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — barto @ 17:32

Vote for my Book in the Photography Book Now competition.

July 28, 2010

Chief @ The Barfly, Kenwood House, Rose Elinor Dougall, Eliza Doolittle

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , — barto @ 18:57

I have been very lax with my online diary, and with Facebook and Twitter being so easily at hand I do not think I wil get more pro active with this section, every few weeks a post or so. Plus since I am about to design a new website which will have a new diary integrated inside this section probably will live on for another 6 months but then…..
Anyway…

Wednesday the 14th I went to The Barfly to check out Chief.
I was pleasantly surprised by their material but at some times their harmonies sounded a bit drowned out, pity. Still a band to watch closely.

I saw The Ghost Writer, Roman Polanski latest flick. Nicely modelled on Tony & Cherie Blair :-)
Great suspense drama, keeping you on edge for the whole duration. Excellent movie go and watch it.
Also started to watch a series (6 eps) called Eastbound and Down, and it had me roaring with laughter. the first three minutes there’s a dozen fucks and at least half a dozen middle fingers……if you liked Bad Santa then this is the sorta stuff you’d like. It’s all a bit grotesque and just when you thought it could not go any worse it just does…….I loved it.

Terri and I went to Kenwood House and Hampstead Heath just to chill and it was just fab, after that Cats Thai restaurant, same great food for the past dozen or so years, always top nosh.

Last week i was at the Farnborough Airshow for a fw days taking corporate pix and get blasted away by the noise of jet fighters taking off, funny you’re at a defense style gathering and the louder the engine the more people smile from ear to ear, I suppose that is their way of having a sense of humour since I could not detect it in any other way. And boy oh boy does this lot love rules…….more than the actual army. Two days of that is plenty for me……

Then the next day I shot Rose Elinor Dougall for Spindle Magazine, she showed up in the morning at my place and just got on with it, no fear for the camera whatsoever, chatting away and a real pleasure to work with.

In the afternoon, the whole team, left by cab to go to the West End to shoot newcomer star Eliza Doolittle. Eliza was more picky about what she wanted to wear and look, but I have to give it to her once on the set all good, and as with Rose also very comfortable in front of the camera, the whole thing was done in 90 mins.

Both chicks look killer in their own way, you’ll see soon enough.

Friday just before the shoots my first dummy copy of The Kiss arrived. I am happy with it to an extend, but some text will need to be added on which will be done in the shape of some sort of interview which will be done in a few weeks. That and the font needs changing.

Then last weekend off to Holland and celebrate my mom’s 75th birthday, good times seeing family.

This week, post production up the yaz000000000. Nice stuff to work on for Ponytail and Spindle.

July 13, 2010

Chief for Spindle Magazine, “From dummy to genius” self publishing seminar, my very first photo book The Kiss

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — barto @ 21:09

On Thursday I shot the band Chief, from Santa Monica.
The band was doing an acoustic when I arrived underneath the railway arches in Crouch End, a place I am well familiar with. Shortly after that I shoot for ten minutes and it’s job done. Got a real nice shot of them walking on my tarpaulin. As a matter of fact all the pix I have done for Spindle Magazine’s second issue have been very much to my liking.

Last Friday and Saturday I went to Foto8, where a seminar “From dummy to genius” was being held about self publishing photo books. Something that has got my interest since I am about to release a book or two myself. My first will be The Kiss, my second one will probably be either The Bench or my Heavy Metal shots from the 1980’s.

Here is the first draft of The Kiss:

I saw Clash of The Titans, which I rated better than I would have before actually seeing it….
A French film called “The Army Of Crime”, which was ok. Entourage has started again I thought the first ep was just saw schmaltzy, but the second episode has made up for that first one BIG time. Repoman with Jude Law and Forest Whittaker, not bad.

Oh and I watched Holland against Spain of course, Holland the losing finalist at the World Cup in South Africa, the only thing people will remember about that final is the butchery some of the Dutch players have shown. Dutch football has never looked this fugly ever before, shameful display. That did not do Holland any favors.

July 7, 2010

Rockliffe Hall Spa Secrets Shoot, Football, May68

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , — barto @ 10:41

Here are some of the images from the Rockliffe Hall shoot, the lay out of the spread could have been done miles better. I am showing a few bits.

Been around, been away, watched the Dutch team, of course, on its way to the final (how is an entirely different matter…..), and did a few shoots:

I shot 4 pages fashion for Spindle, which came out nice, then shot May68 who came by my place. I am shooting Chief today and there’s two more acts later on this month of which Eliza Doolittle is supposed to be one of them, we shall see…..

Believe it or not I am slowly working on a new website which will have pretty much everything nested inside one nice site but first I am concentrating putting a book together on The Kiss.

June 23, 2010

Moving Image Talk @ The A.O.P.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — barto @ 06:58

Last night it was off to the A.O.P., that is Association of Photographers to witness a talk about the integration of making moving images. Since Nick Knight has jumped on the wagon (and we all MUST follow!!!!) and certain TV eps have been filmed with DSLR’s it seems like a logical step to do….
Present were Duncan Smith (photographer turned film maker), Steve Knight (from Direct Lighting) and Charlie Swan from Swan Turton. Duncan’s presentation was ok, I hope he does not present like this towards a client coz he will be jobless for life…..
Steve Knight, hard to listen to not hear him sell, since owning a rental company is what he does for a living. And Charlie Swan had some basic interesting info regarding copyright and how much more complicated the whole thing is becoming. Can’t wait filling in a gazillion forms.
All in all quite interesting to hear but it is pretty obvious that no consistent business plan is in place at all, nor is there anything ready to be able to deal with the editorial market which will want the material for a snip with all rights included no doubt, none of the major publishing houses has officially dealt with this yet but by the end of the year you will hear the ruffling of many photographer’s feathers…..mark my words. The market will want you to do all this for what they are paying now, no different than the idiots who expect you to do all the post production for a snip.
Another thing, which no one dared to bring up, is that film makers from now on will get undercut by us, we used to be two separate entities but film makers will lose out on this so called progress.
‘Oh I have got a cousin who has got a dslr…………………………’

Here is Suzanne Strutt from Profile Models, she popped by this morning.

June 22, 2010

Spa Secrets Rockliffe Hall shoot, Holland, Movies, Crete and Zoe Brown

Went to Holland early June to hook up with some mates from the army days (20+ years ago), Richard Meerding and I met early on Saturday, after not seeing each other for almost 20 years and in the blazing sunshine we hung out at the army base of the air mobile brigade in Schaarsbergen (near Arnhem) where we just drank beers and chatted and chatted……many memories later we decided to retreat to our hotel where more drinking ensued from which it was easily to move back to our rooms.

Then Terri and I went to Crete again, this time all 5* treatment at the Capsis Resort Out Of The Blue in Agia Pelaghia. Places like this are meant to keep you inside as much as possible. We went only on a couple of trips where we specifically wanted to go to, such as the nunnery @ Moni Savvathianon which was an oasis of peace and very well kept convent. So many flowers, just a joy to walk around. A few days later we went to the village of Anoghia, this village suffered badly when the Germans exacted revenge for the abduction of their second in command General Kreipe. Here the men mostly wear black, the younger ones wear camouflage pants as well, even though they look tough (and they are….) they still approach you and talk to you. We had lunch there @ their main square and it was great to be away from the pampering for a bit, but not too long though ;)

Other than that the pool, and reading WW2 books (about Crete of course).

All I have been listening to is a lot of Nevemore. I went to see them live at the 02 academy, and I hated Warrel Dane’s performance, laughing it all off a little too lightly (his voice not being right and royally screwing up the second take of the video recording of “Emptiness Unobstructed”, hate that song btw, sounds like it is catered for the German market. Their new album “The Obsidian Conspiracy” is good, it has some decent songs on it (”And The Maiden Spoke”, “She Comes In Colors” and the title track). But some real stinkers too: “Without Morals” and “Emptiness Unobstructed” are really weak.
I only want 120 minutes of shredding, nothing else:-), to me Jeff Loomis is the star of that band.
I seriously doubt whether Warrel Dane can handle the Sanctuary material he is about to play. Time will tell.


The Kiss in Aghia Pelaghia

I started to watch the series Breaking Bad, on recommendation of my brother in law David Potasnick, I must say it is fun to watch, in short mix Weeds and Dexter together and you get a close feel as to what it’s like.
Then I also started watching Treme (pronounced Tri-May), the new series by the guys who brought The Wire. The first ep it is kind of hard shaking of some the actor’s characters they played in The Wire, but after that, some intelligent drama that takes its time to develop its characters.

Movies: Unthinkable (a nasty piece of crap with S. Jackson); Hot Tub Time Machine (a John Cusack flick that started to be cool for the first ten minutes and then got mullered by the empty suits that hold the strings of the purse…I want my 90 minutes back!!!!), Green Zone, another time waster, doe snot even come close anywhere with the Bourne stuff, as a matter of fact it is run of the mill BS, avoid!!!!

Today I took a dozen pix of Zoe Brown @ Profile Models for a possible shoot. Like this shot

May 28, 2010

Jesca Hoop for Spindle Mag.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — barto @ 22:10

Here is Jesca Hoop for Spindle Magazine. I shall be doing two new features for them in the next few weeks.
Styling: Alicia Aimee
Hair: Ken
Make-up: Xabier Celaya

May 18, 2010

Spindle Magazine, Spa Secrets and RJD

Some pix I did lately for Spindle Mag, out on Thursday, going to the launch in Brighton as well.

Styling: Lisa Nicolaou
Hair: Ken
Make-up: Xabier Celaya
Model: Juli M.

Styling: Lisa Nicolaou
Hair: Ken
Make-up: Xabier Celaya
Models: Kirsten & Kirstjan

I have just about finished doing the post production on the Spa secrets shoot. Some of the stuff came out terrific, will post some next week or so….

Then there’s the news that Ronnie James Dio passed away, probably one of the best Metal singers there was ever around. I met him in 1983 and the year after that. Very nice man, amazing voice. The world has become a more boring place without his presence.

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May 9, 2010

Rockliffe Hall

Filed under: Uncategorized — barto @ 10:51

Did a shoot last weekend at Rockliffe Hall up north near Darlington (that’s just past York). Stayed there for two nights and shot a ten pager for Spa secrets Magazine, the mag. itself had not done any proper fashion editorials since I had done it last which is a few years back. Room and service was superb. food was pretty good too. But it would start the bore me a tad if I had to eat that type of food for a week tho.
The pool area was boiling hot, at some point I went pale and needed to get out and cool down a bit. The Monday afternoon I get to shoot some very nice pictures inside the old part of the building.
If golf is your game or a quick quiet weekend with the missus, then this place comes highly recommended, I had a nice time and brought back some neat shots. I will show a few in a week or so.
I have laser eye treatment planned this week.And it is really time to concentrate on a new project, but what…………

April 25, 2010

New stuff

Filed under: Uncategorized — barto @ 07:39

Here are some outtakes from Spindle Mag’s shoot on Emma Bell.

Styling Lisa Nicolaou
Hair: Orekondo
Make-up: Xabier Celaya
Model: Juli M. @ Profile

The real stuff will be out in a few weeks.

I shot some more fashion which will be uploaded to my main website today.
I was supposed to shoot for Spa Secrets Magazine this weekend, but it has been postponed until the next

March 18, 2010

The Paramount Club, Films, The Kiss and Ponytail Issue 5.

Filed under: Uncategorized — barto @ 07:07

Having lost a small bet (!), Peter Gallina and I made our way up to the top of his so called London office; The Paramount Club, the members only gaff that occupies the top three floors of the Centre Point building right in the heart of the West end. I thought the whole affair was overpriced, my main dish arrived lukewarm, nah it was cold. The starter of rocket salad and parmesan shavings, too plain and way too expensive. The desert was good and so was the booze, the view is spectacular of course.
Later on I hear that the place almost went into receivership had it not been for Stephen Fry and a few others to cough up some millions to keep the place afloat. I would get rid of these stupid parties for a load of plebs and treat it a tad more exclusive

I have not posted in a while and that is simply because I had fuck all to talk about. I am quite dissapointed with the fact that I more or less decided to terminate The Kiss as a project. Now I was more or less thinking of ending it anyway but seeing fellow photographer Brian Harris’ collection at Alamy, made me more or less lose interest in continuing this project. Even tho that of his collection almost half are not really kisses, and more like embraces or the moment just before or after (I have a ton of them too but personally to me that isn’t The Kiss), and his approach is more journalistic and mine more out of a fashion point of view I decided that it’s time to move on. I will probably work towards a book, I have no clue as of yet on what to tackle next, we will see.

A few films I have been watching and recommend:
A Prophet - my fave for a long time to come.
The Messenger - hard hitting and a bit of a downer but still good flick.
The Hurt Locker - good film, whether it deserved best Film Oscar is a different debate.
Fish Tank - superb British flick.
Shutter Island-Not Scorcese’s best but still highly watch-able. Really reminds you of old school film making, with modern technology at hand.
The Pacific- Band of Brothers 2010, hardcore action at times, some of it is gruesome.
Up In The Air - George Clooney charming every m0f0 on the block with this one.
And I watched the Wire again as my missus had not seen it, series 5 just finished. That’s 3x for me; enough really.

Then I have been shooting two fashion stories for a new mag called Spindle, and they will also publish the shot of Jesca Hoop. I also have stuff to be expected on the PiX website with articles on S.C.U.M. and Friendship.
Ponytail has pubbed some pix of mine from way back during the Heavy metal years. Four page story with shots from Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth and Venom. And some drivel of course.

Here they are:

I have just come back from Holland, Easter break, it rained like mad in the weekend, and it was sunny on both travel days, typical……did not bother to take my camera, felt like the thing to do.

Oh yeah I spoke to Lord Wilson, they are sober apparently, and they are coming in the late summer. Spindle will do a piece on them with a shot of mine.

February 12, 2010

Joana and the Wolf @ Favela Chic

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — barto @ 16:58

I went to see Joana and the Wolf at Favela Chic, it has been a while since I saw them last, Feb.’09 to be precise, and at the very same venue.
The band has improved a lot, it’s more dancier and two of the old songs have been re arranged for the best as well.
A really good show. I took pix for about 5 mins.

February 7, 2010

Stuff

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — barto @ 10:10

First of all, I have a new main website :)
It has already been there these past few weeks, but now it has been finished for now and I can officially say that it is at its most up to date status.
I have added older pix from the Heavy Metal days, also did a piece about this for the next issue of Ponytail Magazine, out in April. Flowers are back also, but will need further development, I want to do more with film, that’s for sure.

A few pix from Hyde Park, last Sunday.

And here are a few more from Paris

January 18, 2010

Paris

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — barto @ 22:07

Was in Paris for the weekend. Saturday, the second we checked in the hotel it rained all day. Sunday was much better with some nice sunny spells, went up the Eiffel Tower, and watched the sunset, nice to see the sun dissapear over the roofs of Paris. And although everything on average is 6/7 floors high, not many buildings stick out like they do in London.
Took a few

Then of course The Kiss in Paris, this city is like world champion when it comes to this, Doisneau’s picture just shows me that what was then, still is now, probably even more these days. The one near the Eiffel tower is the hammer for me. I am surprised nailing a shot like that, lucky I guess.

January 6, 2010

Welcome to 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — barto @ 13:24

Here is Robert Brunner from last December @ The Design Museum.

Some flowers from god knows when, I love the nuances that only film can give you:

I was in Holland for a week, only came back on the third, it was hella cold there, sort of like it is here now ;)
I just hung with my family and took a few shots, it was just too cold to stay outside (I know I am soft) but the glorious sunlight made up for that.
This week is quiet but next week I am supposedly to go to France for a few days.

December 24, 2009

Friendship, Jesca Hoop and Gran Canaria

Some of the peeps I have been shooting lately:
Friendship, saw them first at Die! Die! Die!’s show at Cargo. Went to the Stag’s Head (fine pub that is :) ) and watched them play, and thought they were pretty good.
Took some shots at the beginning, super quick and fun.

Then I shot Jesca Hoop, this time with a whole team and the results are mega pleasing, did the whole thing in 2.5 hours and had a fab time.
Styling: Alicia Aimee
Hair: Ken
Make-Up: Xabier Celaya

The Kiss in Las Palmas last week, lovely weather there, being back here is kind of depressing.

Merry X-Mas everybody!!!!

November 19, 2009

Karen Gillan

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: — barto @ 07:37

Here’s Karen Gillan, who will feature as Dr. Who’s new assistant in the up and coming new series out next year. I shot these before she got picked up on that, but knew she was acting besides modelling……
She was great to work with, easy.
The last shot is my fave, soldiering on…….

November 8, 2009

Fireworks Display Alexandra Palace

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — barto @ 14:20

This year my missus was well determined to make it in time for Bonfire Night in Alexandra Palace, as we missed out 2 or 3 times due to traffic etc. And yet every year no matter what we plan we get caught up in it. In the end it look us 90 minutes to get there, like 5 minutes before blast off. And you know what….it was like looking at last year’s, like someone was playing a movie of last year’s fireworks display……………

I took a bunch of pix, I shall post a few, some are pretty and others are like more extreme, I will probably end up using them in some kind of fashion shoot, as a backdrop at some point.

I would not mind going and shooting the Lord Mayor’s show this coming Saturday and beef up the collection.

I am shooting some artists these coming weeks, you’ll see who :-0

Javier Mariscal

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , — barto @ 10:01

Multi talented Spanish designer, and a joker too.
When I asked him to just stand there without the plastic object he had just picked up and fooled around with, he looked so good that after clicking a few frames I basically got it and stopped straight after, a winner and so are the funny ones.
Here are three in a raw finish.

October 28, 2009

INFERNO

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , — barto @ 16:28

Took me a while, I have been changing some bits even as late as last night, but that’s it.

Styling: Gillian Hyland
Hair and Make-up: Rachel Young
Model: Ashleigh @ Profile

October 21, 2009

Die! Die! Die! tour in England part 2

Last week I hung out and travelled about for 4 days with Die! Die! Die! who had just been on a successful European tour.
The first show I join them on takes us to Brighton, only having left the capital for about 30 minutes I get hit by a bad case of food poisoning and need to go for no. 2, only to be on the motorway and the rest of the crew not taking me serious enough to pull over, I end up marking my territory in the van, lucky for them there’s a service station just down the road when it is all happening. This of course gives the band plenty of ammo for the next few days, should have pulled over fellaz ;)

The gig at Jam is ok, but there are barely any lights so not much fun to shoot actually. Nor do I feel well after all this food poisoning situation and am not sure whether I can go to Birmingham the next day, however a good night’s sleep makes me feel good to undertake the journey.
Has been a while since I have been there, I shoot the whole set from behind Michael, as I wanted to get some shots from behind but I end up being locked in for the whole set, much to sound man James Goldsmith and Tour Manager George Beleznay’s chagrin. I end up taking some cool pix tho, so it was well worth doing that.
London the next day is probably the best gig of all, there’s some proper crowd attendance 120 odd and the response is very good. They end the set with Will from Friendship on guitar and play Nirvana’s “Breed”, quite a laugh….
On all shows the band only play three songs from “Promises Promises”, nothing of their debut (which they did at Buffalo Bar tho) and the rest is of the yet untitled new album which should be released early next year. A single is expected to be released shortly before X-Mas.
I have had the privilege to hear the unmastered album, and I can tell you that it is killer, it blows “Promises Promises” away, it is more mature and an extra layer added on yet still very intense. The band had tightened up their live act as well while being away in the EU, the second they started playing in Brighton I thought they played a lot tighter than as they did in early Sept.
I am plastering a few pix down, I have decided to do a book on them which should be coming out @ some point next year, you’ll see.

October 4, 2009

Ron Arad @ The Design Museum

Filed under: Uncategorized — barto @ 12:17

In the evening Ron Arad, I checked his website beforehand, he does make great objects. When I had a chat with him while taking pictures he was being a joker.
His talk was presented with a chaotic flair……

Paul Smith @ The Design Museum

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — barto @ 08:44

I was given an hour notice to be told that Paul Smith was at three in the afternoon and not in the evening, so I jumped in the shower and cycled down only to arrive sweaty. Went straight into set up and shot ten frames and that was that. Only after watching his talk, which was excellent btw did I get a chance to assess things.
Must do that again, NOT.
In the end however I have a nice portrait, he wears his clothes effortless and with a certain nonchalance. I like the way the stripes react with my technique.

October 3, 2009

Crete

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , , , , , — barto @ 12:20

My missus and I have been to Crete these past two weeks, had some lovely weather, also some dramatic fat fluffy clouds too, I think I took some nice land/sea scape shots and a few of Cretan life.
Terri and I travelled to Tsoutseros the first week and were in Agios Nikolaos and surroundings the week after. Tsoutseros is a small town mainly for the Greeks in the close vicinity, hardly a foreigner sets foot there which is great in its own way, it is easily accessible from Heraklion and has a very nice beach.It was quiet, but after 5 days of doing nothing too quiet, we were not mobile as there was nothing around where we could rent some wheels, so we went for Agios Nikolaos, where it was quiet but still busy enough for everyone with a shop (and there is some serious designer stuff there and especially jewellery)to be open, in Tsoutseros you had 5 tavernas and 3 VERY EXPENSIVE shops and that is it for your local entertainment, but the season had more or less ended for them.
In Agios Nicolaos we got ourselves a scooter and drove around some nice mountainous areas, the scooter just about managed it, we met some great people who helped us get us on our way and advised us in finding some great restaurants. We end up at some point @ Seles where we see windmills 100 ft high, then those huge propellers swooshing around, eerie. Genius here only shoots a couple on his iphone……..tsk tsk. The winds had come up big time, something I had not experienced before;and this was our 5th visit to Crete. This meant also changeable weather, but in the end I guess we had 80 % of the time blazing sunshine.
Really a chilled affair, we spoke to locals who happily pointed us to some great places to eat that were off the beaten track, whatever you do never eat on the main boulevard and/or water front, the food is never as good and always pricier.
We experienced two kinds of Crete, the commercial “gimme your money hubbah hubbah” attitude, and the one where you are treated like friends, we were lucky we had more of the second one than of the first.
Special thanks go out to our friends in Heraklion,; Vangelis and Effie who helped us out of some situations ;)

Here are some shots, with their descriptions:


September 13, 2009

White Light Parade in Camden from April

Filed under: Uncategorized — Tags: , , — barto @ 07:59

Ah yes, finally did some backlog.
Worked on these last week after being dormant on a HDD for yonks. I also, believe it or not, dropped some rolls of film off from more than a year ago of some flowers I shot. I have not done any this year, shameful really. But it now seems that my film scanner has gone belly up, the images come out completely dsitored, will need to look into that today actually.

Here are White Llight Parade shot in the corridor of The Dublin Castle late April.

September 11, 2009

Die! Die! Die! UK gigs part 1

Die! Die! Die! arrived last week in London and did a few shows, the first one at Jamm; in short the gig was a nightmare, it was on near 4 a.m. Unreal how big a mistake that was by the promotor, and hard to believe there were still 60 odd people watching them. the show itself was alrite, the sound was too loud and distorted. I did not get back home until 6 in the morning, been a while since I have done that. So the next day I just sat around and worked on some of the shots.
Offset Festival was on last weekend and on Sunday I gather with the boys at their place in Camden and we drive down to Hainault Forest where the site is, and it is a really cool small set up, friendly atmosphere and good choices of some nice food available. we hang about, chat, drink, hang some more till it is showtime. Shoot Andrew while he waits and hangs about behind the stage, and then the first half of the set on stage, where I get some pleasing shots. Later on in between the barriers a few more decent ones. I like the one of Andrew hurdling back on to the stage, it was about 2 meters high.
The show is good and they get a good response, as a matter of fact one of the best ones of the day, which brings me to the fact that Die! Die! Die! should have been third on the bill and not fifth. Next year then perhaps…..
I shot S.C.U.M, The Horrors and Clinic as well.

I am adding pix tonight and over the weekend.


The Kiss @ Offset

Then last Tuesday at an Artrocker night at Buffalo Bar the band played again, and they played great. I shot them for 20 minutes then stood next to soundman James Goldsmith and listened to the rest of their set, and it just sounded bliss. Killer sound, everything was clear, even Andrew’s vocals, I could actually hear what he was singing. One of my fave shows no doubt.

September 6, 2009

Offset festival

Filed under: Uncategorized — barto @ 06:00

Going to the Offset festival, Die! Die! Die! are on just before 4 PM, The Horrrors headline. I hope it stays dry today.

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