me and gooner jeff at arsenal v spurs

my mate graham, who is a top sports photographer, just emailed me these

photos he took at the arsenal v spurs game on sunday.

1

schoolboy error from gooner jeff... always look at the camera.

2

a slightly more relaxed pose from me this time.

as for gooner jeff... i think he was having a flash forward to the 88th minute

when he would lose a fiver to me over one of our traditional stupid bets.

( this time we bet a fiver on if there would be any red cards in the game.

he said no, i said yes, and scott parker saw red two minutes from time )

self-portrait in w1

monday started well with some portraits and interiors.

naturally enough i found time to... etc, etc

t-shirt by supreme

top by john smedley

jeans by evisu

elephant print af-1's by nike

the return of robo-cat

'14' couldn't assist me.

wallet-boy couldn't assist me.

so i had to go back to the future and put out a call to robo-cat.

not only did she agree to help, but she was on sparkling form too. top girl.

sample conversation...

robo-cat: if i had a puppy, i'd call him snowflake.

me: well, maybe if it was a white dog you would, but what if it was black ?

robo-cat: if it was black i'd call it "i am the sensational diamond"

you couldn't make it up.

taxi

i don't know if i ever posted the photo on my blog, 

i just tried to find it and i couldn't... hmmm...

let me explain.

a couple of months ago i saw a cycle courier who had very strange tattoos

on the backs of his legs. i asked him if i could take a photo and he said yes.

my friend danny is a black cab driver.

i messaged the pic to danny and he asked if he could forward it on to a taxi

driver's magazine as they had a photo competition each month.

so after the arsenal v spurs game i walked to islington with danny, to where

he'd parked his cab and he said he had something to show me...

1

there's danny's cab with the taxi magazine on the bonnet

2

there's the 'caught on camera' feature and... what's that ?

3

my photo scooped 1st prize this month 

skill.

the nook at wild and wood coffee

in the whole of london, is there a nicer room to have a cup of coffee

then in the nook at wild and wood coffee ?

i don't think so.

my view from the back seat ( top deck ) of the 17

on saturday i took a 17 bus to theobalds road.

from there it's a pleasant 10 minute walk to the west end.

i took the gangster seat on the bus.

( top deck, back row corner seat )

from my this vantage point i spotted...

1

a bloke sitting a few seats infront, flaunting a fake tag heur and making a

phonecall that i didn't think was necessary.

2

standard n7 youth. grey tracky bottoms, grey hoody, bad posture, loud phone.

3

a stag posse, looking bored and lost on the mean streets of kings cross.
( i know... this is a bit out of whack and i'm blaming the bus's dirty windows for
this... you know, making it difficult for the autofocus )


and that was about it really

arsenal v spurs. sunday 26th february 2012

as you may know, for 2011/2012 i am the proud owner of an arsenal season ticket

( and i use the word 'proud' quite incorrectly there )

as you may also know, the thing i've enjoyed most about the season so far has

been the pies.

before the game against spurs yesterday i treated myself to a chicken balti pie.

it was hotter than i felt was strictly necessary so i left it to cool off for a while.

as i had spotted a supporter a few rows down who i just had to take a photo of

er...

after saying goodbye to robin i went to say hello to my mate graham

who was there to take photos of the game for a national newspaper.

after a minute, robin came down and asked graham to take his photo with

the arsenal mascot, the gunnersaurus.

good lad graham.

ok, i'm going to miss a predictable part of the story now, save it for a post of

it's own and fast forward a little to when i was back at my seat.

the walrus was singing like a good 'un

and gooner jeff thanked his lucky stars that his season ticket wasn't for 

4 seats to his left.

i won't say much about the game only that it was the best 90 minutes i've seen

at the emirates all season. arsenal went from 2-0 down to winning 5-2.

at the final whistle the crowd went crazy.

i'm not an arsenal fan but fair play to them... what a result.

breakfast like a boss

here's what i had for breakfast on saturday

greek yoghurt, australian honey, blueberries from chile and pancakes from waitrose.

me v gunnersaurus rex

did you really think i would stand near a dinosaur who was wearing an arsenal

shirt while i was holding a chicken balti pie and not have my photo taken ?

behave.

adebayor takes a penalty against arsenal ( bad language warning )

yesterday at the emirates, with spurs already leading 1-0

they were awarded a penalty after bale was tripped in the box.

up stepped ex-arsenal favourite adebayor to take the penalty.

( you might want to watch this with the volume turned off

unless you want to hear gooner jeff using some industrial language )

that was a nice little celebratory dance by adebayor wasn't it ?

i think gooner jeff and most of the arsenal fans did something pretty similar
when the final whistle blew.

final score. arsenal 5 spurs 2

a bearbrick for kk

i have a friend called kk.

the other day i bought her a little present.

do you want to see it ?

ok, here it is...

i wonder if she'll like it ?

new iphone cover !

what the what ?!

how many iphone covers does a bloke need ?

i've shown you my bape camo gizmobies cover ( which was a big fail )

my gucci silicon case ( which is excellent but covers the flash )

my ikku denim snap case ( which looks good but isn't that protective )

the elephant print snap case ( also looks good but not too protective )

now look what i bought...

it's an one piece hard rubber case from j-crew

it's smaller than the gucci case and doesn't interfere with the camera flash.

it's slightly raised all around the phone ( unlike the ikku and elephant print cases )

plus i do like a bit of camo.

( though i am tempted to customise it with "n7" on the back using a silver krink pen )

nike air force 1 i.d. ( limited edition elephant print )

a day after neil received his i.d's a package arrived at whitfield towers.

as you know, i'm pretty much running n7 these days.

the reveal...

seriously... elephant print all over... why not ?

though i thought long and hard about a sail midsole and gum out,

in the end i plumped for a black mid and an ice outsole

as you know, i love an ice outsole. it can appear to be almost invisible

from certain angles, giving the shoes the appearance of floating.

also it takes on slight properties from the midsole used with it...

so an ice sole used with a black mid, looks different to an ice out

used alongside a white mid... or a gum mid.

the limited edition elephant print leather is pretty sweet

it's quite a thick material and also it feels a little suede-ey if you know what i mean.

i even used elephant print for the tongue

and ran with grey laces ( with silver tips )

the elephant print heel tab nicely hides the grey stitched nike air and swoosh

textbook behaviour from me... i can't be doing with branded heel tabs

here's a good look at the materials.

elephant print, black mid with grey stitching, ice out, grey laces and silver dubres.

teamed up with some selvedge denim and the streets of n7 will soon be heated

all day every day.

on my coffee table this week

the return of everybody's favourite feature.

here's what's up this week

hmmm...

cd: le voyage dans la lune by air

i've been playing this cd all week. air coming back like carlos tevez.

recommended

book: skippy dies by paul murray

this was a present from mrs w. 

great title, interesting cover.

i haven't read it yet so hold off on this one.

dvd: the skin i live in by pedro almodovar

my favourite film of 2011.

you will never have seen a film like this before.

maybe not everybody's cup of tea, but i would definitely recommend it.

the dream team in fleet street

last night the dream team was reunited once again.

same venue as last year ( ye olde cheshire cheese, fleet street )

this time i didn't have a camera to get a group shot so i 

had to use my phone to take a solo shot of each of us.

it wasn't a late night, but it was a great night.

nick... let's not leave it a year until the next drink.

von greenberg... i'll speak to you soon when you phone to offer me a job !

nike air force 1 i.d. ( limited edition elephant print )

for the month of february 2012 nike made 500 pairs of air force 1 i.d's available

on which you could use a white / grey elephant print leather.

naturally enough the words 'air force 1' and 'limited edition'

were enough to get me interested.

likewise those words did the trick for my entourage king-pin neil

and he also pulled the trigger on a pair during the morning of february 1st.

20 days later i received three picture messages from neil.

1

giving me a taste of my own medicine he led with what is known as "the tease"

i took his personalised hang tag to be a direct assault on my authority,

using his postcode against me and then following it up with capital letters !

still, hats off to him... elephant print toe box with a grey leather tip,

matching grey midsole and a gum out... this shoe was oozing quality.

2

"the reveal"

oh what ? this is serious heat...

elephant print mid panel, grey leather foxing, heel tab, tongue, sock liner and laces.

neil then broke with mayor's golden rule and stuffed it up his jack sparrow by 

introducing a third material... white leather on the eye stay and the swoosh.

i thought this was a belting move but the clincher was using white accents 

on the midsole... top man neil, top man.

3

look at him... teaming them up with some nice denim and boom !

bringing heat to the streets of w4 

combibos coffee

as usual i got to my shoot in oxford about an hour early.

so i skulked into a nearby place for a spot of breakfast... it was called combibos.

i opted for some sort of special breakfast deal. for £4.90 i got

1

a big cup of coffee ( it was an americano )

2

this was massive.

a muffin stacked with a fried egg, a really nice sausage, some bacon

and the biggest hash brown i've ever seen.

i sneaked a little bit of brown sauce into the equation and i was onto

a winner here.

free wi-fi too. 

good effort combibos.

www.combibos.co.uk

self-portrait in ox1

ox1 ?

yep... oxford.

zipped top by loopwheeler

top by marc jacobs

jeans by evisu

belt by marc jacobs

air force 1 year of the horse editions by nike

.

m9 camera by leica

16mm lens by leica

tripod by manfrotto

i need

i've had a few camera-strap related disasters recently.

( mainly involving roberu efforts not fitting my cameras )

so, i decided to look online and buy a couple of new straps yesterday.

while i was researching the best products i saw this chap

it looks good eh ?

unfortunately i believe they only made 40-odd and they were all sold

at an art show in hawaii a couple of days ago.

grrr !

meat

meat.

i love meat.

look at this bad boy cooking on a hot rock, sizzling and spitting.

by the way, after i photographed it, myself and wallet boy ate it.

genius.

omotesando koffee

did i mention that i have a shoot in tokyo next month ?

well i have... it's next month and it's in tokyo.

er, anyway... i was just poking about on the internet trying to find a few

interesting places to check out when i'm not working.

omotesando koffee is supposed to be a great little joint by all accounts.

but look at their website and the map

http://ooo-koffee.com/

er...

can anybody out there translate this for me ? or please tell me where it is

in relation to other shops in omotesdando  ?

while i'm at it, do any of you have any recommendations of places i should

check out while i'm there ? you know my style... coffee shops, trainer shops,

places of interest nice places to photograph ?

thank-you.

i need

i saw this in a coffee shop in w1 on saturday

i think i need one.

keep cup

a few days back i bought a keep cup

i figured that it was a good idea, seeing as i'm forever getting take-away coffees

and getting through untold paper cups. you know... good for the environment

and all that nonsense.

as well as all that being good for the planet stuff, it's also a very nicely

designed thing and the girl in the coffee shop told me i could customise

my cup... like a bespoke coffee cup if you like. 

they had loads of them on a shelf and i put mine together using the 

coloured components exactly the way i wanted them.

there were lots of different colours available including some yellow bits,

dark green, blue, pink, purple, maybe even white, but i chose these pieces.

the orange clip on the orange lid might seem a bit lazy but that's the way i wanted it.

i'm looking forward to spilling coffee down my front from this bad boy in the near future.

why not check out their website ? there's a bit on it where you can design your own
cup... you know, a bit like nike i.d.

www.keepcup.com

and again...

maybe i can make this into a regular feature.

i've been photographing restaurants for many years now and occasionally
i get commissioned to shoot a place that i have photographed previously.

4 years ago in w1

4 days ago in w1

self-portrait in w1

outstanding work in w1.

top by marc jacobs

trousers by miu miu

air max 90 hyperfuse by nike

watch by panerai

underwear by jockey

what ?