new york ( disappointing ) stories

i had an exhibition of travel photography a couple of years ago.

two of the prints which sold best were both taken in new york.

i think one of them is without doubt, my favourite ever photograph.

( what i mean is, my favourite photo that i have taken )

here it is...

it's used as one of my business cards and is also the home page of my website

www.markwhitfieldphotography.com

i wish i had an interesting story about it, or that i could tell you about all the hard

work and preparation that went into taking the shot but...

i was in a yellow cab with a couple of colleagues the day after i did the new york

marathon... well, what i mean is, the day after i photographed the new york marathon.

i love yellow cabs and i'm always photographing them ( i'll put up a yellow cab post

tomorrow to prove it ) anyway, as we were driving along, another yellow cab drove 

alongside us. i wound the window down and took 3 shots of it with my

leica minilux. one frame totally out of focus, one frame pretty average and this

was the final frame of the roll of film that i had in the camera !

it's pretty much the full frame. maybe i'm biased because i like yellow cabs

but i love this pic. the colour, the stencilling and of course the reflections in the window.

especially the 'i love lucy' part.

the other photo from new york i don't like anywhere near as much, but it is the

print which i sold the most of. my friend andy hooper who is a noted

sports photographer thinks this is a great photo too. perhaps it's because

i don't have a story about it. i think it's just a snapshot, not something

i tried for ages to get right ?

here it is...

once again it was taken with my trusty leica minilux using kodak

something or other negative film. ( yikes i've forgotten the names

of the films i used to use )

i was with my friend neil and we had just had breakfast at a diner

and were walking back to our hotel. he told me he had to make a 

quick call from a phonebox and that he'd only be two minutes.

i just hung around near the phonebox and looked around.

i looked up at the empire state, probably photographed a few yellow 

cabs going by, then looked down at a puddle infront of me.

hmmm...

i took two frames and neil said "come on mate" and away we went.

i must admit that when i got the film processed and printed, i was

very pleased with this shot...

but it's not as good as the yellow cab shot now is it ?

iphone food pics

sorry about the quality of these. i just found them on my iphone.

first pic is the meal i always have at a pub called the junction

in tufnell park. every time we go, i scan the menu and on each

occasion i find the only thing i can eat is...

ricki lake and jockeys

they always try to spoil it with cress or some other such green item,

but i always manage to get the message to the kitchen to just

keep it pure.

the next photo was my meal at a wedding last year. it was at a very

posh restaurant in mayfair. i looked at the menu and the main course

was full of things i couldn't eat ( vegetables and things )

i was just beginning to get my sulk on when the waitress brought

me this...

fish and chips !

the bride had given instructions to the restaurant a few weeks earlier

about my 'dietary requirements' and this is what they came up with.

genius !

and finally, a photo from a posh restaurant where i asked for a

side portion of jockeys...

i swear i nearly cried when they brought this to me.

it's like love and hate on the same plate... good and evil perhaps ?

i was not happy.

coffee

it seems like it's been a while since i bored you with 

photos of the coffee i drink.

so...

here's a cracking black coffee i was given during my shoot at the west house

last week. my friend bruno tells me i should never drink a latte after 11am.

he's a mechanic so i don't know why he tries to advise me on coffee.

still, he's italian and the italians generally know what they are talking

about when it comes to coffee related matters.

it was 11.30 am so i opted for a black coffee.

and here's a very average latte i had today ( at 10.45am )

at a welsh deli in the islington.

cymru am byth.

yesterday

yesterday, breakfast choice at whitfield towers was hot cross buns

or yoghurt, pineapple, grapes and honey.

i asked the kitchen for the latter...

which was absolutely spot-on.

our weekend away in oxfordshire didn't materialise so

we headed off to the west end for coffee and shopping.

 i made a sneaky purchase at the dover street market

afterwards we went to the dsm warehouse sale in islington.

while queuing up to get in i took this shot of some people who

had just come out and were checking each other's clothes out...

when we got back home i noticed a new motor in the car park...

the new shape seat 600 is quite sporty eh ?

i unwrapped my dover street market buy...

a comme des garçons t-shirt

then in a shock move, i helped out a little in the kitchen by 

cooking up the chorizo i bought in leon a couple of weeks ago.

ay caramba !

it was spicy stuff.

seat 600 convoy in leon.

i forgot to mention this when i did my post on leon a little while ago...

http://markwhitfieldphotography.blogspot.com/2010/04/spain-travelogue.html

but on the sunday, me and jess were just strolling around town, turned a corner

and boom !

a massive convoy of seat 600's driving through the old city.

it's hardly worth me captioning the photo's. i know they're not great

shots, but i just wanted to show the cars... they were so cool, and the 

organisers and owners had obviously put a lot of effort in.

it was a really nice thing to see.

gracias leon.

good job i didn't want to open my boot

i parked up in soho to grab a coffee...

later as i walked back to my car i found one of those g-wiz

cars parked parked in an extremely cheeky way.

hmmm...

krink edition nike air force 1

today i brought some serious heat to the streets.

these bad boys are so rare that i almost used capital letters to spell out 'rare'

i know they don't look that special from above. the gum sole is a nice touch 

but they just look like they are plain grey.

 but check out the details and the heat begins to hit you...

some subtle touches... krink lace jewels and silver tipped laces


krink instead of nike on the tongues

and krink instead of nike on the heel tabs

silver outsole and gum sole. nice combo.

these were designed by krink for nike and on the outer side of each shoe
feature the trademark drip style of krink's work

they work pretty well. the leather is a silver / grey colour and the krink
silver drip is not always noticable. when it catches the light it kicks out a little.

the shoes are covered in a 3m coating so when light hits them...

boom !

they really kick out.

they came boxed with a nike / krink silver marker too.

www.krink.com