competition answer

ok, no competition winner for march.

here's my breakfast the other day in new york...

i opted for the 'warm and fruity'

oatmeal served with fresh berries, banana and raisins.

on the drink front i had a fresh orange juice, iced water and black filter coffee ( 3 refills )

9 times out of 10 i would have opted for corned beef hash but i just wasn't in the mood

for it. porridge is a firm favourite of mine so the warm and fruity option seemed to

be the way to go. 

and you know what ? as bill and ted would say, it was a most excellent breakfast.

local shoot

i had the second most local shoot of all time yesterday.

it was in n7, but i had to drive there.

the bloke i had to do some portraits of was a top man.

he's a local author, painter and well respected film buff.

cheers harry !

by the way, the closest shoot i had to whitfield towers was a year ago when i accepted a portrait job and was told the subject was to be photographed in her home... which just

happened to be in the next street ! 

myself and bad twin just walked through the park to get there... perfect !

self portrait in w1

i had a very interesting shoot at a private members club in w1 today.

it has it's own small garden area, which is quite unusual.

i'd just had my hair cut a couple of hours earlier so i just had to 

find a place for a sneaky self-portrait...

t-shirt by comme des garcons

trousers by marc jacobs

medicom bearbrick air force 1's by nike

hair by mario at georges, essex road n1

pose by mark at maddox, w1

chinatown soccer club map of the lower east side

one of the bonus items which came with my arkitip world cup issue was this...

click on it to see the details. it's a pretty sweet map of the lower east side.

competition time

it's my intention to have a blog competition each month.

so far we had a winner in january who correctly identified my luggage...

http://markwhitfieldphotography.blogspot.com/2011/01/delayed-trip-to-seville.html

we had a keenly fought competition in february

http://markwhitfieldphotography.blogspot.com/2011/01/ideal-husband.html

oops ! i just realised, the second competition was also in january,
ok so i skipped february. anyway now just in time, here's the competition for march...

today, 29th march 2011 i landed back in sunny london after spending 3 days in new york.

on my first morning in manhattan i skulked over to the flame diner for breakfast.

here's a photo i took of the menu...

now you might want to click on the photo to enlarge it...

my question is: what did i order for breakfast ?

it's on the menu and should be easily readible.

to make it a little harder, just incase of a tie, i also want you to guess what i had to drink
( and there was more than one drink )

any reasoning behind my breakfast decision will also help me to choose a winning entry.

the prize will be something or maybe more than one thing, new york-ish.

two many cooks

i did some portraits of a chef a couple of days ago.

this is one of the shots which didn't make the final edit.

and this was the final shot of the day...

i passed on to him my recipe for chicken fried rice, chips and curry sauce...

he wasn't impressed. 

is there any chance ?

is there any chance ?

look what finally turned up at whitfield towers this morning...

priority mail ?

i'll do the jokes !

when was the world cup ? june 2010 ? well now it's march 2011 and finally...

arkitip send me their world cup south africa 2010 special edition.

i've had a subscription to arkitip for 3 or 4 years now and would offer you this advice...

if you're thinking about taking out a subscription... don't !

car for sale. one photographer owner.

did i tell you that i'm buying a new jam jar ?

well if anybody is interested...

it's a fiat 500. 3 years old. just sailed through it's first m.o.t.

it's done 31,000 miles... one careful owner and all that

no scratches or anything. it has chrome wing mirrors and chrome front bars,
fog lights, red leather seats with ivory leather steering wheel and gear knob.








i don't know much about cars to be honest...

er... it's red... it has two new front tyres, a boot which holds a surprisingly
large amount of photographic lighting equipment. it has a glass roof thing,
uses petrol not diesel and is taxed until april 2012








er, did i say it's red ?

i think it won some car of the year award but i could be making that up.
the seats were designed by back specialists and are very comfortable...
i don't think i made that up... i'm sure i read it somewhere.

oh it has little holders inside in which you can put four flat whites !


i can't sell it until i get my new motor though, which will probably be at the end of may.

johnny cupcakes

better late than never... i just discovered johnny cupcakes.

johnny just opened up his first shop in london a couple of weeks ago

and when i swerved over to take a look,i just had to treat myself to one 

of the london exclusive t-shirts...

this is how the t-shirt gets wrapped up by the way. pretty sweet.

here are the labels inside the neck...

one of them is shaped like an oven glove. very nice.

here is the johnny cupcakes tag. not on the sleeve , but on the bottom of the t-shirt.

and here is the london exclusive t-shirt that i bought...

you beauty !

let's have a closer look...

you beauty !

i was so impressed with the johnny cupcakes shop that i bought a few presents

which i am going to take with me on friday...

can you guess where i'm going to on friday ?

( oops, i meant to post this last thursday. in that case, can you guess where i am now ? )

the white swan

on my road trip to north yorkshire i stayed overnight at a corking little hotel

called the white swan, in pickering.

in my room i counted eight cushions with white swans on them.

on my breakfast plate i counted ten blueberries

on my second breakfast plate i only counted one poached egg

in the bathroom was a framed clipping from a newspaper, which made me laugh.

the story was quite funny but i was also laughing at the front of the daily telegraph

calling itself 'britain's biggest-selling quality daily'

the room key had a massive old key as it's er... key-ring

it was heavy as you like.

in the welcome pack folder was a warning about the key...

no way was i going to steal that key.

the welcome pack had some other gems...

luckily i'd left my shell suit at home

i had no need for a spare blanket

but i did ask some staff members for spares and they did indeed look perplexed.

jess's friend maya would like this one...

why haven't i seen this done before ? it's a good idea. here's the menu...

standard menu style.

and here's the children's menu...

in writing that kiddies can read... right ?

it could only have been improved if it were written in crayon.

anyway, if you're ever in north yorkshire and looking for a good place to stay...

the white swan in pickering rates highly in my book.

afternoon tea ( and coffee )

in a picturesque little village called harome in north yorkshire,

the whitfields stopped for afternoon tea on monday.

we sat in the garden of a hotel called the pheasant.

if you're ever nearby, i'd recommend it.

the scones were magic darts and see those little cakes with three yellow balls on ?

they were incredible. the yellow bits were balls of pear and they were sitting in a coffee-ish flavoured creme on a soft biscuit-y base.

one of the other cakes tasted ( in my opinion ) of lamb but apart from that one it was

a most successful afternoon tea. beef and mustard sandwiches, scones, nice cakes

and good strong coffee.

two thumbs up for the pheasant hotel, harome.

how come ?

as you may know.

i like the odd cup of coffee.

i don't really like tea.

well, my question is... how come there are loads of nice tea cups

but coffee cups are mainly quite boring ?

we stopped off at a little pub in the countryside the other day and mrs w

was given this gem with her teapot.

i had a beer, but i reckon if i'd ordered a coffee it would have turned up in a

plain old mug. so what's the hampden ?

counting sheep

there's one...

helmsley castle

in helmsley i stopped for a while to look at the castle.

it was rubbish though.

tweed notice board

in a little town called helmsley, north yorkshire, i saw a very nice

notice board outside a hotel.

what a touch... somebody had lined it with tweed !

tokyo story ( part three )

remember the maid cafe in akihabara ?

well i saw these little lads in a shop just around the corner from the maid cafe.

i don't get it... i love baseball, japan and vinyl figures... yet i didn't even buy one of these.

what was i thinking ?

still, at least i had the good sense not to buy this, which was in the same shop.

a life size bust and arm of a coffee-shop waitress !

er...

the rest of these snapshots were all taken around shibuya and harajuku.

this is the famous pedestrian crossing at shibuya. i took this shot early one morning.

though it's best seen at rush hour... when it's absolute madness.

harajuku is the best place for people watching. it seems like everybody there is a model.

it seems to me that japanese people can throw anything on and they look cool.

i'm a big fan of the bobble hat.

look at these two

once again... great headgear

even this old guy had something about him

working the shades of brown, like a boss !

i saw this lad making his way to work on a skateboard...

could he be any cooler ?

i asked him to pose for a photo with his workmates...

they worked in x-large by the way.

note. all four lads wearing hats.

here's a comp shot of a girl in harajuku, just near the alife shop.

how fetch !

i like this shot because the bloke looks a dead ringer for a character from

the manga series 'tokyo tribes' which is a big favourite of mine.

this is one of my favourite photos from tokyo.

the starbucks in the background is a bit of a famous meeting place in shibuya.

i just love the way the girl in the centre is standing as she waits for her friends.

it's a shame the other people are on the edges of the frame but then again it is probably the busiest piece of pavement in tokyo so i was lucky to get a shot of her with a bit of space either side.

i like the girl on the left.

with her hand bag and her doggy bag !

i felt sorry for this little doggy though...

he has that look in his eyes that seems to be saying...

" just kill me now "

er... that's about it from tokyo.

let's hope japan is soon on the mend. it's a cracking country and i made some good friends there.

self-portraits in north yorkshire

i had a shoot in north yorkshire a few days ago.

here's a self-portrait where i liked the light, but i'm not sure about the wide angle

distortion of my arms

here's a more traditional self-portrait...

top by john smedley

trousers by stüssy x dickies

krink edition nike air force 1's

thanks to lisa for the fire ( and the coffee )