gelupo

at design junction a few weeks ago, i spent a lot of time pestering

the bloke at the gelupo stand.

it was my ambition to get the first flat white from the one-of-a-kind

la marzocco machine.

like my plan to get a pair of air yeezy 2's, i failed.

i did however get to try some of the fantastic gelupo ice cream

i'm not that much of an ice cream fan to be honest, but i had a few samples

of the gelupo stuff and i can honestly say it was magic darts.

loads of different flavours

though obviously i was going to plump for a boring one.

raspberry

because raspberries are good for your...

parcelfarce

typical behaviour from parcelfarce

£16 v.a.t. i can understand. but £8 for telling me i owe £16 v.a.t.

grrr !

my mum

i went to see my mum a couple of weeks ago.

it was the aged relative's birthday so i thought i'd put in an appearance.

fair play to my mum. maybe 15 years ago i made her a birthday card.

well, i got a bit of card, folded it over and did a watercolour painting on it.

she has it framed on a wall in her house alongside some proper watercolours.

bless !

genes

maybe this collecting bearbrick thing is in my genes ?

http://markwhitfieldphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/my-bearbrick-collection.html

look what my mum has on display at her place

( ok they're not bearbricks but she has loads of these... i just photographed 3 )

1

i think this is robin hood

2

i'm not sure who this is. perhaps it's one of the three musketeers

being played by donald sinden.

3

no idea.

anyway, what i'm saying is... i blame my mum.

that's right

regular readers... you guessed right ?

what happened next was...

1

3

like a boss !

converse x schoeller

these are good.

very important shoes for this time of year.

as ever i'm going to start with the tease.

it's a good solid box. nice one converse.

oh no !

another tease

but i wanted to show you one of the converse first string touches.

the drawstring bag.

this is a really nice detail and it's a trick nike have missed.

you can't beat a nice drawstring bag.

tease 3

but this is the king of all drawstring bags.

it's made from a neoprene type material.

the shoes too are made from neoprene

a nice clean silhouette with a neoprene upper.

waterproof... or at least rain proof.

they come with the standard converse first string lace dilemma

three sets of laces.

which would you go with ?

have a guess which ones i went for.

the heel tabs are canvas maybe, but with a waterproof covering

details, details.

on the heel strips are patches to show that these are a collab with schoeller

so there you have it. seriously water resistant trainers. perfect for the 

autumn ( not the fall )

if you can find a pair of these i'd definitely advise you to splash out on them

( leave it )

as for me...

i opted for a dark blue lace.

now bring on the rain.

la marzocco

at design junction the other week there was a very special bit of kit.

it was a la marzocco machine. i was told it was the only one in the country.

matte black.

with a window

so you can see the inside of the machine

or
you could use it as a mirror i suppose.

after almost two whole days fiddling with it, you could also use
it as a coffee machine.

grrr !

the girls

i met these two girls briefly when i was on a shoot in new york

a couple of weeks ago.

while i was photographing a certain guitarist, these two were mucking 

about just behind me, taking photos of each other and singing loudly.

using my best hugh grant accent i asked them if they'd mind awfully

if i took a couple of photographs of them.

they didn't, so i did.

1

2

and that's about the end of my story i'm afraid.

as soon as i turned my camera on them, they started behaving

nicely, just posing and smiling.

regular readers can probably guess what happened next... right ?

39 square meter cafe

one evening in beijing, the team were walking back to the hotel after

a meal when i spotted some interesting items through the window

of a tiny coffee shop.

unfortunately the shop was closing but the manager let me take

a few photographs as he was tidying up.

the reason i wanted to take photos was because the items on display

were rare. extremely rare 400% bearbricks.

1

they were set back in little alcoves in the walls and were behind pretty thick glass.

2

i'd never seen these in real life before. they are perhaps the rarest of all

bearbricks.

they are called karimoku editions and they are hand made from solid wood.

not only are these karimoku bearbricks but they are kaws versions too.

3

these three are regular karimoku editions

4

maybe these don't look much here, but in real life you can see the craftsmanship

in them. they look really, really nice.

5

hmmm... i'm not a transformers fan but these things are pretty decent too

( they are transformers right ? )

6

i think this one was a 1000%  but i honestly can't remember.

all i remember was the place was closing for the night and the next morning we flew 

back to london.

the place was called 39 square meter cafe and it was a 5 minute walk from

the opposite house.

if you're in beijing and you fancy a coffee in a real one-off joint i recommend

you search it out.

oh and in case you were wondering how much one of the karimoku
kaws bearbricks would cost, brace yourself....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KAWS-400-Wood-WWT-Bearbrick-Wooden-Japan-Karimoku-NEW-/320955288039?pt=US_Action_Figures&hash=item4aba6d09e7

behind the scenes in a hot, hot kitchen

this was a couple of months ago, in beijing.

out of shot on the left is a big peking duck oven.

it's an open oven with a massive fire inside.

what i'm trying to say is... it was hot.

i can't show you the photos i took there, but i can show you this frame

i took after taking a few steps back.

the bloke in the middle is preparing the ducks.

in front of him is a trough which contained duck heads.

on the left is the boss.

fair play to the boss. she's standing right next to the oven here

so i know the side of her face must be burning. the floor is slippery

and she's wearing miu miu heels. 

pretty difficult working conditions, but she handled it... 

like a boss !

elephant

looking down at my footwear today

nike af-1 i.d's

elephant print

the view of capri from ana capri ( 10 iphone shots )

another cheap panoramic shot today.

this is an effort i did when i was in ana capri and looking down at capri town.

i think it's about 10 iphone shots.

snowflakes

hmmm...

pinch and roll ( n7 version )

i decided to try the pinch and roll

but i think i'll stick with the turn up in future.

three spare photos from china

to be honest i may well find some more spare pics from china

over the next week or so, but here are three i just found.

1

the opposite house hotel exterior.

( i love this hotel )

2

the door to my room at the opposite house 

3

some duck's feet in a dish.

what ?

j-ro in w1 ( photos by me )

this was maybe a month ago now

j-ro on location at sketch, w1.

me in w1 ( photo by j-ro )

this was maybe a month ago now

j-ro took this shot in the bathroom at sketch, w1

polo shirt by aape

jeans by hiut

af-1's by nike

queue

this is a tricky photo to show you on this blog format.

you really need to see it bigger.

perhaps if you click on it or double-click it will look a little better ?

basically it's the queue outside of design junction on opening night.

as i left i took a series of shots with my phone then joined them together

( cheaply ) in photoshop.

maybe you had to be there ?

pinch and roll

a friend of mine does a thing with his trousers.

it's called the pinch and roll.

i think he said it's a south london thing from back in the day.

a few weeks ago, we were having a coffee in w1 and i asked him to show

me the technique.

so here it is, a step by step.

1

you turn up you trousers. one turn.

2

then pinch the edge and bring it forward.

3

swing it in an anti-clockwise direction keeping it tight to the ankle.

4

then start rolling upwards.

5

er...

6

er...

7

and just keep rolling i guess.

8

and there you have it.

in fairness it looks pretty good on him.

maybe i should give it a try ?

on the great wall of china

on the great wall of china i saw a model and a few chancers

attempting to do a bit of a photo shoot.

they were struggling though, due to the heat, the bright light

and too many australian tourists.

the model was doing that thing that most models do...

messing about with her mobile

however she did look up and give me a bit of a smile when she saw i had a camera.

i took one shot, said thank-you, then carried on with the team walk along the wall.

a little while later as i was walking back to the cable car ( that's right )

i bumped into her and her crew again

once more she gave me a bit of a smile.

( i just noticed that the boss's boss is in the background of this shot, and also

i think that's the boss in the background on the left )

a few steps on i bumped into one of the assistants who was using a big

reflector to shelter from the hot sun

at least i think that's what she was doing.

perhaps she just couldn't put it away properly ?