Bartolomy’s Diary

I meet Mark Kebble briefly to pick up my copies of Angel Magazine with Tobias Menzies on the cover, something I am quite chuffed with, inside looks good too.
Mark does not stay around for long in the pub and deserts me claiming to be busy and whatnot yeah yeah……….he is up for some heavy benders later this week, so he is rationing himself!!!

Just over an hour later I meet Stateless’ Chris James and Justin Percival who are doing a lil’ acoustic number at The Bedford, a pub in Balham, somewhere I do not frequent that often Great looking and above all a cozy pub, visited by all ages.
What’s even nicer is the little concert area where they hold acoustic gigs 3/4 nights a week…
It all goes along a Jules Hollandy style, bands play 2 tracks and move on. Then there is a break and all bands reappear to do another two tracks.
the sound is good, the lighting could have been a bit brighter but I manage (not using flash, feels way too intrusive to do that). Terri and I enjoy ourselves big time.
Would like to see the entire band do this, and take ‘revenge’ for the Camden show in Aug.

The next day I am shooting for Total Spec.
Karmyn Thomas (the model who graced the Sept issue of Angel Mag.) was unfortunately booked for a proper job so I got Eva Gil back in and had male model Steve Young pose with her.
The shoot started almost two hours late due to traffic, closed doors and what not, something that really pissed me of, as I just stand there with my hands in my pocket and play pocket pool………..it’s the useless faffing about at fashion shoots that gets to me….
In the end I blaze it all through, and we are done by about half 4, that’s 11 shots in 5 hours…..back to old standards I guess….

From there it’s of to the Waterrats where Jamie ‘GAYME’ Evans, Dell Carter and Tim Trotter aka as Mexicolas are finishing their tour. Jamie looks terrible and should be in bed. We chat and get updated with whatever the f00k we have been doing since Saaaarf end two weeks ago and make our way to their dressing room downstairs (a room filled with a tiny sofa, 2 chairs and a water tank ). Then again I never knew there was a dressing room…. We chat on and the rest of the band and soundman Scott join. It’s 20 mins before the gig and Jamie wants to throw up, now I had my camera at the ready and did take one shot, it’s at that point I put the camera down, what is da point…. I follow him to the side room where he is warming up, and feels rougher, but he gets on with it…
And that’s what the gig shows, they get on with it, and boy does it sound good. Forget Dublin Castle and Chinnery’s, this gig is the business. Not as murderous as The Half Moon show, but a good second. Love the pix, they document the eve well….

VIEW ENTIRE SET OF MEXICOLAS @ WATERRATS HERE

Since Thursday I have been sitting behind the pc and do nothing else but photoshop, something that gets rather boring and time consuming after a while.
The WiG Mag. story needed quite a lot, as a matter of fact I still have not finished yet, but a picture (or better said a series of pictures) is emerging.
The Notion spread is here btw, I am thinking of calling it ‘Global Warming’ :

yesterday Terri and visited Ben Bruges and his missus Sally and their son Thomas at their home in Catford. Some great food and wine and after that yours truly stood and shot in the pouring rain to try to make a ‘christmassy’ looking cover for The Guide. The flower beds that were in front of Lewisham town Hall had been removed (what a waste) but I just stuck to the trees and its lights, the trees hadn’t shed many of their leaves in the past few weeks but it was better than last time. I love the drama in these shots. In some of them you can see the lines of the rain coming down, no way would you capture this on film that detailed.

Tuesday started at about half 10 and worked till about 6 pm when the light was about to go, did 6 shots for Notion mag. with stylist Alexis Knox. The shoot took its time (also because we ended up walking back and forth between the locations and the base) but turned out well satisfactory. Models Marlando Vassell and Alex Crowe did a good job, extra bonus was the weather which was just beautiful. I shall post the pix tomorrow, some photoshopping needs to be done first.

Yesterday shot in Old Street area for WiG mag., a Latin dance story with tango/flamenco influences. We started relatively late as traffic was a bitch and some were delayed by up to 40 mins. After that we managed to shoot 9 different outfits. Model Eva Gill was a dream to work with, probably the best model I have worked with in a very long time, I had a great time shooting her. The pix came out great. I am very happy with the outcome.
The backdrop needs extensive photoshopping as well, so before I show some stuff I need to do a few ‘repairs’ first. Which is what I am doing today and to be honest I rather lie in bed for a few hrs

Got a message from Tobias Menzies: “Thanks muchly Bart! Looks good.” which is nice to receive.

I am shooting for Notion today near Kingsland Rd. boy girl story in an urban setting. Mostly knitwear and coats, bit of Starsky & Hutch feel to it. Should be good fun, the weather looks great, wintery sun. Couldn’t ask for more.
Tomorrow it is shooting for WiG Magazine, finalmente.
The Latin dance story (no title as of yet) with heavy influences of Tango and Flamenco with Eva Gill modeling should be real blast, light wise too. Next week it’s action time with a story I wanted to do for years and now looks like it’s about to happen. It’s a two day shoot as well. And there is a reflective story in the making for Total Spec as well, also a boy girl story.

Here it is, not out for another 8 days.

I wasn’t really going to go to any gig, I felt tired after walking around most of the afternoon checking out locations in Hoxton etc. The Mexicolas were playing in Tunbridge Wells, I did not fancy the trek and expense, especially when the train was leaving from Charing X and not from London Bridge as thought originally. It would have been a total nightmare coming back that same night.
It was only in the evening that Terri and I decided to see Jeremy Huffelman and Toby Orms’ band Invaders. It has been a year since I saw them last night straight after the bust up with Apartment’s David Caggiari and his management / record label Kuba Music, in the comedy pub near Piccadilly Circus. I say hello quickly in the dressingroom, or whatever you can call it @ Waterrats, more like an equipment shack…
Minutes before the gig my name gets shouted out and I turn around and it’s director Andrew ‘traitor’ Wills, he has put on a stone since I last saw him. That’s what happens if you quit doing production, sit on your azz all day in an office/plane/car making risk assessments etc. and live da good life, welcome to da club.
Jeremy Huffelman on the other hand, looks sharp. Toby Orms these days is armed with shades that I just want to nick
The gig is being recorded for a possible live e.p. but there are problems with the sound throughout and off course this doesn’t really please the band, but from where I was standing some of the songs sounded excellent, very clear and crisp. When I congratulate them at the end of the gig they think I am taking the piss and their mood is grimm. The lights are a nightmare to shoot in, courtesy of Smyle, the company Andrew Wills works for, they flare in the lens like no other and play havoc with the metering and above all the focusing system.
Here are a few that came out ok…..

Doing a lot of of planning today and yesterday regarding the shoots over the next two weeks, all fashion.

David Caggiari was using one of my pix which I have asked him to stop using, his reply: ‘get a life’.
Touching……, no realy.
He has been busy checking his name through this diary on several ocassions this past year (there are logs that keep track of this typo stuff son) as he is dying to know whether I have anything bad to say about him.
Thing is I have said what I wanted to say a long time ago, and I am done with you ‘younger brother’……

Meanwhile the Mexicolas gallery has been updated and the Zaha Hadid talk pix are up on the Design Museum page HERE

Checking locations out this afternoon and maybe go and see a gig….

Here are some tear sheets from the latest issue of Notion Mag.

I left for Sidcup to go to Aydin Colour to drop Mustafa’s spyder off, and it probably will be the last time I will ever set foot there for the simple reason that his own greed has shot himself in the foot. He has increased his prices by 60% and then claims it is still cheaper than Metro….well yeah that is one way to look at it, but you don’t treat clients that way.
The other is that an old pal Joe Barnet from Outback has contacted me yesterday and has offered the same service £ 0.50 cheaper and it’s only down the road…….guess what Mustafa………..
I could mention some other things but I am going to let it slide….but lets face it a grudge is for eternity not just for Christmas, KUTTEKOP!!!!

So after that it was off to Saaaaaarf End to see the Mexicolas, I catch them at Chinnery’s at the seafront when the sun has just gone down and they have finished their sound check. They head for the fish and chips place 500 yards further down (and not worth the trek), why is that seaside food places are so fucking shit, you go one or two streets behind the seafront for a restaurant and the food in most cases is excellent. A bunch of complacent money grabbing m0f0s that need a slap for sure.
We head for the hotel, ’super duper luxury’ in da Travelodge (trauma from the Apartment tour is all coming back….. ) where we kick back and chat for an hour and a half.
From there it is back to the venue and the band retire to the dressing room and play on stage just after 10 pm. Del Boy Carter is playing his 101st gig and has decided to commemorate it by wearing a dress, tights and a headband. I catch him changing into it, next thing I know his sack is turned into a hamburger….
The show itself is a little better than Camden but not more than that, sound wise a mess and I ask myself why they actually bother places like this….
I may try and catch them in Tunbridge Wells on Friday and otherwise hope to see them when they play at XFM on Tuesday next week, and Waterrats the week after that.
Some shots:

Monday eve I went hook up with Jamie ‘gayme’ Evans and Co. of the Mexicolas at about 6 pm, they are setting their stuff up and are spending some time soundchecking, I take shots while they are doing this. They are not entirely happy with the way they sound but live with it so to speak.
We hang about at the front of the building buying beers and chat, and get pestered by all kinds of pikey scum begging for money. It all tends to become rather boring except for one bloke who ‘works’ for a living and tells some excellent jokes. We laugh out big time, I take some shots as well.
Just before the show the band is doing warm up and I capture that too, and I am thinking things can not get much better coz the stuff is to my liking but the show itself is a massive downer, the sound aint that good at all and besides that midway the set I stand next to the PA and realise it has been turned off, besides the high tops for the vocals there is nothing else coming out of there, the in house gimp (who could do with a wash btw!!!!) thought that Scott, Mexicolas’ soundman was putting things too much in the ‘red’.
Jamie’s vocals sound good though, less raspy and raw. Shame about the rest…. The band is desillusioned about the whole affair and wishes to forget their 100th show as quickly as possible. They are playing tonight in Southend and I will jump in the train to capture that, as they regard their 101st gig a lil’ more special;)
Some shots:

Yesterday it was meetings galore, I am doing two fashion shoots next week (one for Notion and one for WiG) and had to discuss a few bits about them and then also the week after when I am shooting for 3 days (1 x Total Spec and 1 x WiG). I shoot a few test pix of some possible models one is Eva Gill who I wish to use for a Spanish dance style shoot, and I like ‘em.

Friday eve what should have been a great end to a great week turned hella sour for me. I did not get the chance to shoot her portrait, the whole celeb style treatment of Zaha Hadid basically prevented that, besides the people who work at Zaha Hadid’s office did not have the balls to bring it up with her, when this has been discussed on numerous occassions.
I could go a lot further but not going to…….just shot during the talk. Which I thought was alright, the power point presentation was very good, actualy much better than her website.

I have been asked to shoot a fashion spread for Notion in 2 weeks time. Meeting on Tuesday to get the ideas flowing.

And here is some more Stateless from last Wednesday’s gig @ the Soho Review Bar
The gallery has been updated as well….Stateless Gallery

Here is the cover for the Nov. issue of The guide (you have seen it all here first )

I still have no idea whether I am allowed to shoot Zaha Hadid’s portrait………..
Next week Mexicolas and perhaps Jeremy Huffelman’s band Ingayders, eh Invaders who are playing and recording @ Waterrats.

I almost blew the gig out as I managed to create a blister on my heel the size of a 2 pounds coin, painful, but after ‘packing’ it I manage to get to Soho and meet up with Chris James and David Levin who are in the pub close by, the rest of the band is delayed as they are stuck in traffic. This results in the band not having a soundcheck at all…
It has been a few months since I have been @ Soho Review, I like the venue but its pricing policy is steep to say the least and some of the staff are utter wankers….
We head of before the first band is on to shoot a few tourism shots at Piccadilly, the band is just smirking/laughing away, then again I am joking/mucking about as well….. The first shot is in front of the horses fountain and Chris James asks me whether this is not too touristic, I reply “guess what the next shot is going to be like when you are in front of the branded lighting 100 yards further up”….. the whole thing takes 5 minutes.
We walk to Waggamama for a quick meal and from there head of back to the venue where the Banarama style band is drawing huge cheers of the crowd, I am amazed how this night managed to draw over 150 punters in there, I just hope they stick around for Stateless which the large majority does.
The gig itself is good, it’s not great, I have seen them do better at The Barfly or 93 Ft. East for that matter. The sound is good, the lighting a photographers nightmare and I play around with settings/techniques and still can’t find a rhythm to keep shooting…..it pisses me off, prolly also the reason I can not get really into it….There is very little front light, it comes from the side and shines straight in the lens……a nightmare.
Besides that there is a permanent mist/fog which is just a pain to shoot in, I mean in a big hall fair enough but in a small gaff like this it’s traumatic, ok I am exagatering a tad but it is just a massive haze and combine this with the lighting and you can catch my drift I am just fed up shooting in places like this…..
The fact that the crowd sits 20 feet away from the stage is not a positive factor either and this has its effect on the band too, who only get into it by the 2nd half of the show. There are some technical difficulties but nothing too major….
Justin and Chris will be back to do an acoustic on the 29th will go and see that no doubt. The band needs to show its face in London a lot more though. A proper tour is needed………………and I need to *cough* capture it all :-0

Straight after the gig transvestite night kicked of in full at The Soho Review Bar, some real tall beatches buhahahahahahahaha

It seems that some perseverance has paid off, don’t know if anyone remembers but more than a year ago I wrote to a few CC companies who blagged me into having PPI (payment protection insurance) for credit cards, turned out that as a freelancer it is completely useless, provided you work more than 6 months for the same boss (which more or less defeats the purpose of being a freelancer….). From the 4 companies I wrote to, one paid up in Nov. 2006 before I went to the Ombudsman to have this dispute sorted and now the second company is about to pay up up as well. It’s about 700 quid me reckons and that’s nice to get that back. Although I can’t wait for MBNA to cough up as it is a few grand they owe me, hopefully they will soon

Today I am going to shoot Stateless, I am looking forward seeing them again as they are a fantastic band. Besides that it’s of to kent to pick up some stuff from Mustafa @ Aydin Color, if he hasn’t screwed it up that is…

Meanwhile the Cat the Dog photo page has been updated with pix from Monday.

Busy day yesterday, left the house at 10 to pick my lights up from the Design Museum to grab a cab to go to the offices of Angel Mag. where I meet up with Mark Kebble from where we walk to the Almeida where we are about to shoot Tobias Menzies who is rehearsing for the up and coming play Cloud Nine. I had seen Tobias before in the last bond flick Casino Royale, but not really clocked him until I had to know about him for this job. We meet the PR Nikki in the theatre and leaves us to our own devices which is great.
I set up my lights and Tobias Menzies walks in and is all ease, as a matter of fact it is so easy I suspect trouble but no, absolutely nada, it’s a walk in the park. While I am chatting away I realize how comfortable he is in front of the camera, absolutely no fear whatsoever. The b&w headshots are for the cover, the shots outside for the inside content, while I am yacking away about Bond, we have a few laughs but the best bit is while I am asking about his going naked for Rome part while Mark Kebble is above us on the stairs and he yelps out “you are stealing all my questions, Bart” laughter all around which give some great shots. I stick around for the interview and it shows that he is a total pro and is at ease with any question, the tabloid subject is dealt with at ease as well. In short a great hour and some great shots. It’ll be published by the end of the month.

From there to the pub for a quick pint and then it is of to The Design Museum to drop my lights off again and have a quick chat with Michael Czerwinski about forthcoming events there, there are not a whole lot, but the ones that have been sorted are well worth the trouble….some big names and some great opportunities for some more great portraits, well up for it…
Then I grab another cab to go to Hackney as I have found out that Cat the Dog are doing a video for “Gotta Leave”. I arrive at 4pm and the shooting has not even started yet, it’s all a low budget affair but not one of the crew is sitting still and they are blazing on like there’s no tomorrow.
I hang around till 11pm and shoot while they are being filmed and near the end I drag them one by one into the crew bus to shoot a portrait which came out satisfactory.
A long and tiring day but productive at the same time.

Cat the Dog Gotta leave video shoot

Went to Blackheath again to do some more shots, the light was just great. I then went to Catford and managed to take only one decent shot, the actual shot that i wanted to take couldn’t be done at this time, the blue lighted trees had too many leaves on and were obscured a lot.
I will have to wait about a month for the setting to be good.

Oh and here is a Stateless bandshot I could not be fucked to work on from August, the result is ok, still doesn’t even come close till the very first one. Gonna try and do something nice next week, if they let me…..

Tuesday eve Terri and I went the Victoria Apollo to see Wicked.

Now I am not realy a theatre going person at all, but Terri managed to get a couple of really good seats so it would have been stupid not to go. In a nutshell I was hella impressed, lighting was excellent (then again after 2 years going it should be like clockwork) and the audio was stunning, as a matter of fact I was so suspicious of the quality I thought they were lipsynching. It was perfect.
During the break I asked the sound desk guy were the mics were and he confided in me that they were hidden in the hairline….hmmmm. I mean it was crystal clear.
A stunning performance by Kerry Ellis, during the second act she was raised up high above and the lighting storm that was created made some real dramatic viewing….
I loved every bit of it, I checked out the pix in the program and the website and to be really honest I would have done a much better job

Today I am going to Catford and Hither Green, gonna try and capture something……don’t know what yet.
Besides that i am prepping for 3 fashion shoots for the next few weeks….

This morning I went on top of One Canada Sq., I must say it was cool but I had hoped for some more clear sky as it was grey grey grey, I was lucky it wasn’t raining, managed to get a few decent shots in but would like to be back there in a late afternoon on a sunny day….
From there quickly to Greenwich to hook up with Mark Kebble from where we walked to Blackheath, after which our ways seperated and I walked around Lee as well, however by that time it was raining BIG time and I had enough of getting a soaking so I made my way home.
Tomorrow Catford and Hither Green….