Bartolomy’s Diary

Some shots from a quick test I did Friday afternoon, no retouching, just filtering

I left for Bulgaria on Sunday morning to arrive in the snowy capitral Sofia, did not stay there long as IO had a car booked to take me to Plovdiv. The journey itself is alright, a wide road between two mountain ranges, nice to watch for a few mins but after that kinda boring.
And that summs it up to me, I stayed there for four days but got really bored and ended up staying inside and watch a ton of movies on my new laptop. Did not catch any snoggers either (was cold), I saw one couple but they would have clocked me. Then there are the beggars, loads of ‘em, wherever you go they stick their hand out in front of you.
The hotel (Novotel) was an alright affair as well, in short I am not keen on countries like these, probably coz I am a spoiled westener
On the way back from Plovdiv to Sofia by car I took my wallet and passport out of my backpocket (did not wear a coat as it was 13 degrees celsius when we left for Sofia, where it was twelve degrees lower!!!) and lay it next to me, only to forget it and get dropped off by the driver and of course realise what I have done only by the time when I reach check in, I make frantics calls to my loved1 and she gets me the right phone number in a whiff for me to get hold of the company and get my stuff delivered pronto by the driver. The company Atlantic Tour Ltd in Sofia did a great job.

I arrived back late last night and was supposed to go and see Joana and the Wolf, but I fell asleep on the sofa, like you do, after the 12 hour journey, and to be honest I still feel tired.
Took a few pix., not a lot, I did not see anything I wanted to capture during the day at all………

So I managed to snag a similar mobo with extra bits for a good price on ebay.
Sunday I am leaving for Plovdiv the second largest city in Bulgaria. I have no idea what to expect but look forward to it.
I have been to Hungary in the mid nineties when my brother Eric ‘Bruderherz’ Kamp lived there and that’s about it when visiting that region, and this is actually deeper; Greece is not far away either.
I shall try and bring some snaps back

Besides lying in bed sicking it out last week I did not do much, I got a text from Tobi Magnussen to come over to his club and photograph the interior and some festivities on Friday, so I nabbed a plane from City Airport to Basel early in the morning and shoot all day and eve and then grab the first plane out at 5:30 am the second I get into my seat I fall asleep only to wake up ten seconds before we land, I get back home at half 7 totally shattered and sleep till 4 pm. I feel that I still have not fully recovered. Sunday morning while working on some of the shots the PC’s mobo gave up so the box is not accessable for almost a week. That is if I score another mobo………

I am going to Bulgaria this weekend for a few days, never been there so that should be interesting.

So I get a phone call late Thursday eve if I am willing to go to Paris again for the day and photograph punters inside shopping centers. Sure…..why not
I take the Eurostar again at 5am and arrive in Paris just after 9, it’s dry. The only letdown is I am either underground or inside two malls taking shots of punters using a bar. Just before sunset I manage to get outside in the jardin du forum des Halles for about 20 mins and to my luck I snag 4/5 couples, even a pair of handsome gays, not the first time I snagged them but it is rare for me to capture them just out in the open. The area, is a haven for druggies and its dealers, you can sense it the second you come up on the escalator. Other than that a lot of handsome peeps. If I were a model scout then hanging here would yield results in an instant. I leave by Eurostar the same evening, I fall asleep and wake up absolutely shattered, it seems my cold has gotten worse, I feel utter rubbish and can not wait to get home. I don’t even want to shoot the army of snoggers right outside the arrivals section at St. Pancras Intl. (there’s at least 20 couples, would have made a great overall shot), but I feel lousy and can not be fucked. Better luck next time so to speak.
Next morning early rise again to go to City Airport, the cab rieks of cigarettes and the daft sod can’t even give me a receipt, a ‘total pro’.
It’s sunny in Strasbourg but I stay inside the room of the Novotel most of the day, besides trying to get money exchanged which turns to out to be a real mission(the airport doesn’t do that for some odd reason) as my cash card gets snagged by the ATM at the airport . It takes me almost 2 hours to get this done and get a bit of food when all I want to do is lie in bed and get rid of this damn cold. I snag a couple but my mind is not set to it at all. The next day on the way back I snag another couple at the airport nothing too great, can’t wait to be back. But the weather is dreadfull in London and the landing approach scares me, we swerve like no other, in a small plane it feels like……..we’re going down……I am glad when we are on the tarmac. It’s windy and want to get home, only the cab comp. has sent the car to my home instead of the airport. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeet……NOT!!!!!

I am going on another day visit to Paris, leave now and come back tonight with Eurostar and then leave again for Strasbourg from City Airport tomorrow morning and back Sunday afternoon. Maybe I am going to get lucky

Here are the tears from Ponytail Magazine, it will be out in about 2 weeks.

Still trying to sweat that cold out……

Woah what a city. I can hit myself hard on the head for not going there sooner, the vibe, the city, the girls…..damn what an amazing place.
I took the Eurostar to Gare Du Nord and sadly arrive after darkness had kicked in. The cab driver starts speaking English like no other and this is what happens a lot of times. They know you are foreign and that I only stammer out roughly 50 words / phrases of French. This so called “they hate us and don’t want to speak English” is utter bullshit. Then again the Brits hate the French out of pure jealousy or ignorance or both…….Two people call me during my trip with this statement and I set them straight right away.
Too bad it’s rainy and misty. My hotel, in Courbevoie is nothing short of a dated dump, the rooms are spartan and look like they have not been modernised for at least 20 years, bladdered paint, rout marks and so on, a huge dissapointment. I spend two nights there and I only sleep and shower and do not spend a minute longer. Of course I do the touristy thing and start at the Eifel Tower, it’s huge, much bigger than I thought it would be, same goes for L’Arc de Triumph, stunning, also great to watch all this chaos around it. The cabdriver blamed it on the people who live outside Paris and do not have a clue how to use the roundabout.
One thing is for sure, back in the day the French aristocracy displayed their wealth big time much more oppulent than the Brits. I for one enjoy watching all the massive palaces/squares rain or no rain.
The French are proud of their stuff and so they should be, add on top the great photography all around, the level of it is great and has a lower cowardice factor than there is in the UK. Hmmmm I wanna move there now
There’s quite a few tricksters around who try this “ring” scenario on you, they bend over in front of you and pretend to find this ring and ask if it is yours, and of course a rewrd is uspposed to follow, a joke this whole act, they try to me 3x in the time frame of an hour and different places, like the Eiffel Tower and Montmartre….find some other pleb.
The French films get a much better advertising display than the Hollywood ones. Quite a few posters are influenced by the 60’s design of Truffaut flicks. I see very few Photoshop faux pass only in one window display (forgot which one), the young model was turned literally into a mannequin with her skin retouched, not one line on her face….why do people create such shyte? Beats me.

I did not expect to catch any snoggers in this weather at all, especially after the debacle in Vienna, but I could not be further removed from the truth, the shots come out great.

The 2.5 hours train ride from Gare d’Este to Strasbourg is rather uneventfull bar taking a few shots while looking back at the dramatic sunset. , the train does it non stop in 2 hours and 20 minutes. Strasbourg itself is quite a small place (especially in comparison with Paris). I walk about on Sunday afternoon, after watching Casino Royale at 10 am in bed. French TV is good, less tacky. I don’t have much hope for catching a few snoggers but am proven wrong again. In one hour I capture roughly 4 couples, very productive indeed. I go into the cathedral to have a peek at the art and it sounds more like a pub than a church unreal how the people are nattering and are being noisy not one iota of respect, Sunday eve the place turns into a ghopst town I stay in another dreadfull place Ibis, avoid these Travelodge style dumps. We drink two beers and I wake up with a hangover (that’ll be a first after two beers…..). My partner in crime Laurent Ferrere has the same, so the beers are fishy…….

I leave on Monday morning in a small Dornier propellor plane, you sit just above the ground so it’s kinda weird when approaching the airport. The plane drops like a brick and the tarmac starts to look awfully close…… City airport is king tho. From the moment I land and get home is within the hour. Try doing that with Stanstead….ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Terri is at home as she has been ill and managed to pass it on to me so I have come down with something as well. Going to take it easy for a few days as I have to go back to Strasbourg this coming weekend again.
The Kiss continues in full glory;