Bartolomy’s Diary

Went to the Macbeth where I ran into an old m8 of mine Adam who I did a few jobs with (like the Banksy stuff 3 years ago) and we both still can not believe how much his stuff fetches on the market…
Anyways I was there to shoot Danish unit Oh No Ono for Notion magazine, I had to wait 20 mins before they were ready to do so and after the wait It was quite simple really. I used two locations and the whole thing took ten minutes.

Tomorrow yours truly is on top of the world, well not that high but quite high, I am going to be on top of One Canada Sq. in Canary Wharf, for Londoners that is the big one with the blinking light…..the wetaher forecast is well dodgy, an excellent excuse to come back again for some sunny shots

Spent all day yesterday going through pix and today paperwork and trying to get some mess cleared up, yet I have the feeling I have created more mess heh heh…
Next week shooting more in Greenwich, Canary Wharf and Blackheath and surroundings…..all to build a catalogue of shots for The Guide.

Monday eve I went to The Design Museum to shoot portraits of Ken Garland, Peter Smith, Violetta Boxhill and Lucienne Roberts. The last three were there well early so I captured them at ease, Ken Garland on the other hand arrived late, a few mins just before the start of the talk and wasn’t really in the mood to have his shot taken the second he walked in. He gave me one good expression with the first shot and the rest was just mucking about and of not much use. That first one was a winner though. The talk itself, well I’d say that Emily King did a great job to have the thing going in a very smooth way last week and that is what was lacking here. Still very informative and some good work to look at.

On the way back I caught this couple while waiting for the 149 Bus (a.k.a. Hellbus)

Yesterday I spent all day in Greenwich from half 7 where I met Mark Kebble at Starbucks and from there we plotted and trotted along Greenwich and its museums. We started outside the Old Naval College, they were not many peeps around so I started shooting some landscape style building shots. From there we moved to the Fan Museum which was quite interesting, I took a few shots around there inside and some of the fans were nothing short of being a serious works of art. The great thing is they change the collection every quarter (they have 4000 fans in their collection). From there up the hill and that’s where it’s starting to become clear to me it’ll be a tough day because I am humping besides my camera bag a heavy duty gitzo tripod with me. By the time we arrive at Rangers House I am soaking….
Rangers house is way cool, it holds the Wherner Collection and I am stunned by its quality and loved looking at the Dutch paintings. From there we move past the Royal Observatory and I take some shots looking down below with Canary Wharf in the background. Killer view.
Right after that we head off to the National maritime Museum where we are given a super quick tour through the building, a great place to go for families no doubt, lots to see. I really liked looking at Nelson’s uniform (love to shoot it actually) which he wore when he died.

From there on to Greenwich Theater where we met and lunched later on @ Café Rouge with James Haddrel. Most pleasant. From there we marched to the Old Royal Naval College where we taken on a tour through some of the rooms and even some ‘hidden’ places, most informative.
Then Mark had to leave and I was left to my own devices and captured some scenery shots and got caught in the rain twice (literally soaked) and thought bollox I am off, went through the pedestrian tunnel towards Canary Wharf and kept on shooting till darkness had kicked in at half 7 and decided to call it a day after twelve hours of humping…..

Some shots……

The Mexicolas gig aint happening for me, as they have no guestlist and they are first on at 19:10, plus they are treating it as a warm up show for the tour which is about to happen, the doors are open at 19:00 so barely anyone will be in there.
I shall try and catch them at Dublin Castle and Waterrats in Oct. And maybe even in Saaaaarf End and Tunbridge Wells that very same week as Dublin Castle.
Cat the Dog’s show tomorrow has been canceled as well as they are still in the USA busy recording.
Saturday I might shoot a Scandinavian band for Notion, but I am not holding my breath with how things get canceled etc…

It is raining BIG time while I am writing this and the forecast is cooler but still bright, yeah right.

Tomorrow I am supposed to go to Greenwich and shoot landscape shots all day for some cover trys for Mark Kebble @ The Guide (that’s a poorer version of Angel Mag. for the Greenwich area). Something I am looking forward to do, it’ll be a challenge to spend all day in a neighbourhood and come back with some nice shots. I hope the weather plays along……….

This weekend we ended up seeing friends in Essex (actually I became a PC engineer….coz I had to fix someones PC as well) and Saturday we just slouched about, some paperwork, a movie (La Vie En Rose, which was a good film about Edith Piaff), it all went way too fast…

Tonight Design Museum with Ken Garland and three more, so a full on agenda. Later this week, if all goes according to plan, gigs by Mexicolas and Cat The Dog, and maybe even Invaders

After that I went to the offices of BJP to drop my disc off with a selection of the-b3nch shots and have a wander about in town, ended up going to the games shop (boy PC games account for nothing compqared to the consoles) and to HMV (was bored in 3 mins and left). Took the train back and spent all afternoon tweaking the folio website.

I recieved my compliments from Karmyn Thomas’ mom for the pix I did of her daughter for Angel Mag.
I love fanmail

This weekend I have to do all types of paperwork.

I went to Sidcup yesterday to pick my prints up only to find out that my printer had done the whole set on luste paper instead of glossy, you’d think after doing this 10 x for me Mustafa @ Aydin colour would twig things a tad better, but hell no. Instead I get a torrent of abuse for not telling him….sure I’m to blame.
On top of that the portraits of the design museum needed a little tweak, just a touch more contrast as it looked kinda weak and greyish…so it works out for the better

I then met Mark Kebble for a couple of drinks (life of an editor looks cool if you ask me) in Angel and discussed more up and coming work, which looks like next week with some landscapes and such which I look forward doing.

After that I went to Kingsland Rd. where I went for dinner with Ben Bruges, we have decided to start a film project, I will not divulge the theme and idea just yet, a few things need sorting first but no doubt watch this space!!!!

I have decided to enter a competition as well, I am submitting the-b3nch to the BJP International Photography Award, no idea how this will be recieved, then again you don’t try you don’t get.
That’s today’s mission getting it ready and sent off as the deadline is coming Monday.

Monday eve I was at the Design Museum to see Gary Hustwit’s film Helvetica , which ran at about 80 mins and which was very good to say the least. Never knew you could make an entertaining film about a font set…..I was not bored for a second.,

Beforehand I took his portrait and also shot Matthew Carter (typographer) and Emily King (design editor of Frieze Mag.) Jonathan Barnbrook was there as well but as I had shot him already so I let him be….
Gary Hustwit had no problems coming over as a tough New Yorker, although his look in this country would be more someone from up north.
My g/f words not mine……
Matthew Carter told me to take as long as I needed, and that was quite different compared to some of the other guys who will pose but have a “get on with it” aura…… Emily King was easy too, looking forward doing this again coming Friday and Monday.

View a gallery of the talk here…..

Yesterday I managed to get the folio site finished, hoorah…thanks to some coders from Pakistan and Romania they sorted it exactly the way I wanted it. View the site: NEW ONLINE PORTFOLIO
Make sure you have your screen resolution set to: 1280×1024 or you wont see the text at the bottom.

Been decorating the ground floor, a tidy up so to speak, still spent most of the weekend doing this. It had to be done as the weather was nice and temperature is dropping already plus the rainy season is about to hit us etc. It would take ages to dry. Missus is happy, so that makes me happy

I have watched a few films which were ok, Tarantino’s Death Proof was pretty good, a couple of times he borrowed heavily from himself (there’s a scene which is just like R. Dogs and some other really reminded me of Pulp Fiction). I thought the lap dance scene by Vanessa Ferlito was ace, it was really well done and so was the car crash in the middle of the film. Kurt Russel looked great too, not loads of dialogue just like Snake Pliskin again, a mean M0f0.
1408 on the other hand was a bit tiresome to watch although they must have had a ball wrecking the sets, story wise this couldn’t really keep my attention span going….Samuel L. Jackson was hardly in it….
The Good Night was pretty good too, although this looked like a massive blag if you ask me, someone winged themselves a cool cast together and voila, but it did turn out to be an enjoyable flick.

In between decorating I have been working on some folio prints which will be sent of today or tomorrow and the website will probably be delayed till Wednesday, made some progress today but a lot of text needs sorting….
. Tonight Design Museum portraits of Gary Hustwit, Mathew Carter, Emily King and Jonathan Barnbrook (I shot Jonathan already)

DIY is done, for now, although this weekend I will do some walls on the ground floor, but that shouldn’t be too much of a job. And with regards the website it is going forward and I hope to have it done and dusted in 2/3 days. The whole thing is pretty much ready to rock but the descriptions to every pic are missing therefor it is not a good thing to go ‘live’ until completely ready. But when it does it will wipe the floor with the current portfolio link, you will see in a few days

Monday I am shooting at the Design Museum again, this time the filmmaker Gary Hustwit who managed to make a very entertaining film on just the Helvetica Font. Matthew Carter will be present as well. Should be a good one. Ken Garland will show there on Friday next week and the Monday after that there is another panel talk. Then it’s gig time with the Mexicolas and Cat the Dog (back from LA) and then perhaps I am going to Holland for a quick couple of days and help my mom.
In between I will go on some folio shopping days………..

The website has been delayed till god knows when, almost everything has been setup but an essential code is missing (that displays the text that goes with every pic.) and am working hard on fixing this. Besides that DIY; while it is still dry I have been busy painting, doors, window frames and the kitchen.

I was in Exeter again on Monday and snapped this couple.

After a weekend of DIY (glory…..) I actually looked forward snapping away at The Design Museum were a panel talk was held about cars, its design, the past and the future. Some interesting points were made and the hour flew by so to speak.
Before that I shot three members of that panel very quickly, I had taken Stephen Bayley’s already a few months ago. Alexi Sayle was easy, not very talktive but gave me what I wanted within the minute… Michael Harvey, the editor of Top Gear Mag., wondered with or without glasses but got right into it when I quized him about what his favorite Citoen was, but my main interest went to Dylan Jones whois the editor of GQ, someone who is normally shielded away from ‘wankers’ like me….
I chatted with him about his blog post at the GQ website about photographers and some celebs he has had some run ins with, some of whom are very big and famous and were mentioned but not named, of course I had to ask who did a certain thing but that was more out of professional interest I would like to see an entry on PR’s as well, I am sure it will be an entertaining read.
On the way back on the bus (tube strike…) there was a ruckus which was solved rather quickly but then some nutter (I am expressing myself mildly here) decided he wanted a piece of the action and even after that he lost it on the bus driver, it went on for 20 mins after which we had to get of and enjoyed the ‘peace and quiet’ of a busy road……
Read Dylan Jones’ blogpost HERE Blog No. 8 it’s well worth it.

Some shots:

Yesterday I had to go to Exeter and on the way back snapped a few at 80 miles an hr…….one of them is Stonehenge.

I had expected a cue like at Electric Ballroom the day before, but I could just walk in and pick up my pass and walk to the front. It was an early start (half 7) and there were about 150 people there when Cat the Dog kicked of with Devil In Me, the song they always open their set with. Sound wise all hunky dorey, light wise way too many spots behind them and not enough front stuff, pisses me of really. People who come up with shit like that need to be flogged…….
The set felt longer than normal, and although I was supposedly allowed to shoot the entire set I got thrown out after 3 songs again, security are jobsworths its FINAL!!!!!, so I took a few on the balcony behind the mixing desk. As a venue Koko is way cool. The band played a new song, they had rehearsed the morning/afternoon before and it sounded unconvincing, and it did to the crowd as well whose reception to that was minimal. Together with the song they played at Electric Ballroom (and which they also played this night) I wonder why they play songs like this, especially when they have a gem like “Ship Going Down” on their shelve, great melody and a catchy song and it isn’t played…..I wonder why.
All in all an excellent show, as good as ULU if not a tad better….
I see Danny and Darryl briefly after the show and a planned band shot aint happening as they are all over the place and busy enjoying themselves watching EODM, can’t say I blame them.
They are of to the States to finish recording their album in the States and will be back late Sept. doing a show @ the Buffalo Bar…..

Eagles Of Death Metal, well I heard their stuff and thought it was ok. It ended up a lot better live, plus add a high entertainment factor and you have a sweet sounding gig. I thought in general it was good, but was weird is that so called contrived (using Danni Saunders words here…) act during the first three songs that the snappers were allowed to shoot. Don’t get me wrong, it brings great pix, but the second we leave the pit it turns into quite a ’static’ band……. reminds me of Hole, they did that as well. Looks like I have missed a few meetings me reckons…..
Still a nice set of pix

Doing DIY this weekend, wahey.