iphone 4s front and rear camera

here are three photos i took on a shoot last week with my iphone.

1

as she was feeling cold, i let robo-cat wear my destroyer jacket.

the conversation went like this:

me: it suits you

her: yeah, i know

( maybe you had to be there ? )

2

on the floor, five pairs of scissors

( as a side note, i have a yellow pair right here on my desk and a white

pair in my kitchen. if you're going to have some scissors you might as well

have the most stylish scissors you can find eh ? )

3

this was taken using the front camera on my iphone.

it's a very poor bit of kit but it does at least let you see what you're doing

when trying to frame a self-portrait.

www.michaelsodeau.com/shop.html

http://techland.time.com/2011/10/17/review-of-the-apple-iphone-4s-camera/

weekend in paris

i'm off to paris for the weekend... 

( i know )

... in preparation i bought myself a new polo shirt a couple of days ago.

oh yes.

sketchy

taking a breather during a shoot at sketch

not bad

late birthday present

robo-cat gave me a late birthday present a couple of days ago

an oil painting of my favourite subject... holding a cup of coffee

not only did she capture my misery, but she made me look younger too

outstanding !

self-portraits in w1

i had a shoot at a restaurant in w1 this afternoon.

just before i had to leave, i set up a self-portrait.

i'm wearing a black bape polo shirt with gold trim,

evisu no.3 jeans with black trim,

brown boot leather nike air force 1's with gold trim.

after posing for this shot i shouted over to my friend 'g' who does pr

for the restaurant, and asked if she wanted a piece of the action...

she did...

keep this between the two of us, but i don't think i've ever smiled and laughed as

much on a shoot as i did with 'g' today.

though as you can see, i regained my composure for these two photos.

see you soon 'g'

nike air force 1 i.d's ( limited edition safari print )

i got a buzz from reception yesterday afternoon...

"mark, package has arrived for you... looks like trainers"

a few minutes later i was staring at this box. 

standardly i took a photo of this with my phone and sent it to my mate neil.

( it's what's known in the game as 'the tease' )

another tease ? my pleasure

by now you've seen the title of this post so you can probably anticipate...

'the reveal'

that's right. the limited edition material for the month of april was safari print.

i used a similar method to how i treated the limited edition elephant print...

 no subtle touches for me, just all over safari print.

( those laces are going to need sorting out by the way )

talking of laces, i opted to have the dark brown laces fitted with gold tips

gold dubres too

here's a close look at the safari print material

it's funny stuff. leathery but with a soft almost suede finish

i chose not to have contrast stitching by the way... i didn't want to make these

too lairy after all !

i got the lining and heel tab stitching in dark brown to match the laces

and to make the nike air and swoosh merge into the pattern as much as possible

i was debating if i should choose a white midsole with a gum out

but i'm not a fan of a white mid to be honest so i picked a dark brown midsole

with a gum outsole

dark brown stitching on the midsole

dark brown trim too

all in all i think these are perfect for summer ( if we ever get one )

as ever, the final touch is a gold tag with brown leather inlay.

outstanding !

flat white at workshop coffee

on sunday i skulked over to sensory lab in w1.

remember sensory lab ?

http://markwhitfieldphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2012/02/sensory-lab.html

but guess what ? they've changed it's name to workshop coffee.

it's the same place, just with a different name.

left to right: flat white, latte.

if you ever swing over to selfridges and fancy a good coffee, 

sneak around the corner to workshop. it's a gem.

essentials

there's a website i check most days, and on that website,
one or two times a week they do a post called 'essentials'

http://hypebeast.com/tags/essentials/

i guess the idea is to show which items are essential to you each day.
what are the things you can't do without ?

while i was home alone today, i decided to photograph my 'essentials'
and after giving it a fair bit of thought i would say these are the things i need or
 use every day. i don't use my laptop every day, i don't need my passport most days.

but the items below, they are things i would term as 'essentials'... well, kind of

   1. white mountaineering x porter bag

   2. iphone 4s with fake wood cover

   3. bose headphones

   4. panerai gmt

   5. okayama project denim bracelet ( for japan red cross charity )

   6. 'michael' spectacles by stüssy

   7. jambox speaker

   8. fiat 500 car key with japanese lie detector key ring

   9. bape x porter key case

  10. fuji x100 with roberu x6shiki strap

  11. bape orange leather camo wallet

art and sole

ok, i've had a good flick through the art and sole book now

http://www.markwhitfieldphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/art-sole.html

and i'm most impressed. if you like trainers and design then i reckon 

you should seek it out and give it pride of place on your coffee table.

here are a few pages from the collaborations section which caught my eye

1

because...

http://markwhitfieldphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/new-heat.html

2

because...

http://markwhitfieldphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2010/09/adidas-superstars-35th-edition-lee.html

3

don't judge me !

http://markwhitfieldphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/adidas-superstars-35th-anniversary.html

4

i love these... and they're french !

http://markwhitfieldphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/holiday-footwear-part-one.html

5

crooked tongues with the accessories pack

http://markwhitfieldphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/crooked-tongues.html

looking back trying to find the old posts of these kicks made me realise

i haven't done a proper post about my adidas / colette century lows...

... i'll remedy that in the next few days because they are seriously amazing.

also i almost forgot, i have a real cracking example of sneaker art myself

here at whitfield towers and i've never ever taken even one photo of it.

it's a piece that is probably one of the rarest items i own... a real grail piece.

i'll give you a clue... it is associated with a film.

any guesses are welcome, maybe even a sneaky prize if you guess right.

look who's back

look who's back

and busting into shot when i was trying to photograph myself at arm's length.

hmmm...

self-portraits in se1

is there any chance ?

another shoot in south london !

still, this was only just south of the river... 

i could see north london from just outside this place.

also it was a very friendly little joint 

( the manager made me a flat white less than a minute after meeting me )

and i shot a self-portrait less than five minutes after meeting him.

boom !

how do you like me now ?

maybe 15 or so minutes later i spotted another decent place for a self-portrait

and here are the deets:

jacket by maharishi

t-shirt by comme des garçons

jeans by evisu

zen grey air yeezys by nike

lumix gf-1 with leopard print strap by twinspanda

n7 pose and facial expression by me

go west

last thursday evening i schlepped it over to w12 for the second time in 2 days.

the reason ? drinks for my mate neil, who was leaving his job after 16 years.

i took a few photos, but they're kind of personal... if you don't know the people

in the photos then they don't mean so much or seem as funny as they do to me.

so, i thought i'd sum up neil's leaving drinks with this one photo of him.

sitting behind his roped off v.i.p. area sporting a very nice pair of af-1
supreme max air ( air max 95 )
the colourway is neutral grey / graphite / anthracite / neon yellow

top man.

flat white in ec1

the other day driving home from se1 i spotted a new coffee joint

just around the corner from twentytwentyone in ec1.

it's called 'ground control' and it has a parking space right outside... skill !

here's the flat white they made for me.

they use only ethiopian beans by the way.

oh also they sell magic darts little cup cakes.

it's a tiny little place with two tables inside and two outside but if you're

ever in ec1 i would give it a whirl... it's kind of opposite filthy mcnasty's

if you know where that is ?

kit

i don't know how interested you are but i thought i'd show you

how i travel with my leica kit, or some of it.

for an interior shoot i pack this

it's an orange pelikan case* with a headporter padded grip

inside is my leica m9 with a 16-18-21 lens and wide angle viewfinder.

a 35mm f2 leica lens

a 90mm f2 leica lens

spare battery

cable release

usb stick

piece of white tac

and hidden behind the foam are spare sd cards and my business cards.

hmmm... not the most interesting post eh ?

* they're guaranteed unbreakable and they're completely waterproof 

bret you got it going on

the other day on my shoot in se1, the owner of the restaurant ( bret )

made me this cracking flat white

as i was drinking it i thought about the only other bret i know...

outstanding clip from the flight of the conchords.

how can anybody not be cheered up if you say "you're beard looks good" ?

a handbag !

happy birthday mrs w

post game portraits

after the final whistle blew on another disappointing game at the emirates...

on my final game of the season at the emirates...

well, what would you expect me to do ?

that's right, i found a nice spot for a self-portrait, framed it, metered it

and then handed over my trusty gf1 to gooner jeff.

1

oh that's outstanding !

standing alone as loads of arsenal fans head home behind me.

what an excellent shot.

2

and again. fair play to gooner jeff, this is a great shot of my favourite subject.

jacket by maharishi, jeans by evisu, bobbito garcia af-1's by nike.

3

later on i went back to gooner jeff's house for a cuppa and he took one more
photo of me in his living room.
as you can see, i was most amused by his interior decorating skills.

what ?

3... it's the magic number

arsenal v chelsea, as i mentioned previously, was my last game of the season

( i'll be in gay paris when norwich come to town )

after the final whistle i posed up for an official portrait with my 

longtime arsenal mates, the two people responsible for me having a 2011 / 2012

season ticket... gooner jeff and danny.

the good, the bad and the ugly ?

the three amigos ?

the three stooges ?

the three wise men ?

take your pick, all i know is they are two of the best mates a bloke could have.

see you next season ?

hmmm...

walrus tribute

i had a few prints done of my photo of the walrus and took them

to the arsenal v chelsea game on saturday.

i taped one to where he had his season ticket

and gave the rest to his friend in seat 230

this photo was taken during the traditional pre-match playing of 

'the wonder of you' over the tannoy

this was the point when the walrus would begin his first song of the day.

he was certainly a character.

we know what you are

arsenal v chelsea on saturday was a pretty dire game.

apart from the pie at half-time, my favourite bits were the songs that

the arsenal fans serenaded chelsea with.

here we see the people's favourite, chelsea captain john terry flat out on the ground

after presumably taking a knock.

i thought it interesting that even though he was on the deck for quite a while,

none of his team mates went over to see if he was ok.

while he was waiting to be treated by the medical staff the arsenal fans

treated him to a couple of choruses of "john terry... we know what you are"

hmmm...

craftsmen

i just found these photos from a shoot i did a couple of weeks ago.

1

craftsmen at work making a stunning mirrored unit

2

me, unable to resist getting myself in the shot even though i'd just done

 a self-portrait... well, you know my theme song right ?

worst album covers

i know this is a cheap post and something similar pops up in 

magazines every so often but i thought i'd show a few here in

honour of my friend chris in toronto, who is somewhat of a collector

of these album covers.

1

are those elephants wearing beatles wigs ?

fantastic !

2

outstanding !

two strong looks from ken.

3

and her name is a bit of a mouthful.

4

no.

5

tank-top-tastic

6

where to begin ?

7

glad you like it

8

julie feels the disappointment as she doesn't get the dove she wanted.

9

great album to play at parties

10

great song titles on the cover.