testmeat photoblog

little feet

i've have a lot of late nights this week. i go to bed fairly late anyway, usually getting about six hours of sleep a night, but the difference this week is that i've been busy and working up until i go to sleep. as a result i've been feeling more knackered then i should when i wake, and this morning i was actually woken up at half 9 by work saying "where the fuck are you?" that never looks too professional. strangely just before that phonecall i was dreaming i was involved in a track and field type event with everyone at work, and i was racing around the track really, really slowly. it's as though my subconscious knew that i was going to be late, but could only transmit that message in a coded metaphor. then again, had i been dreaming about a giant alarm clock i suspect that would have made zero difference. anyways this shot is of my neice after her christening and i'm planning doing the same this weekend. sleeping that is, not lying in the garden with my feet sticking out of a pram.

here's the original

30th July 2010 ]]>

the cloud gate

i'll be the first to admit that the recent lack of posting on here has been nothing short of disgraceful. no updates for three weeks looks worse when i think that i've probably been sat in front of my computer for a lot of those days. unfortunately my attention has been distracted by various jobs and tasks. this has kept me from both posting and taking pictures for the best part of a month. i'm not going to promise that this will improve in the near future, but i'll try harder. with a long absence of posting there's pressure to make sure you return with a strong image, almost as though you'd been waiting that long to post a quality shot. well this isn't one of those. but in a way it's pertinent, as this was the much anticipated view that i'd trekked for four days on the inca trail to witness. i took this at the sun gate, and somewhere behind the clouds is machu picchu. the word anticlimax was created for moments like these. thankfully, if you stick shit out for long enough, sometimes you do get rewarded.

here's the original

28th July 2010 ]]>

that’s what a turkey looks like??

for real? that meat that people only ever eat at christmas? that's a little too dry and a little too bland? who knew that it looked like this? i guess there's no correlation between how crazy an animal looks and how delicious it tastes. i think i'll stick with boring ass chickens on my plate.

here's the original

8th July 2010 ]]>

¡sí se puede!

i took this as i was changing peruvian soles into bolivian bolvianos before crossing the border. when i got back onto the coach, i asked our guide what ¡sí se puede! meant. instead of a translation, i got a story:

back in 2003 cienciano, cusco's main football team, qualified for copa sudamericana - which is the south american version of the uefa cup, or europa league as it's now called. this was quite an achievement as cienciano weren't a particularly successful club. however my guide, being cusco born and raised, was just happy that his club had a chance to participate in the competition. in the quarter finals they managed to overcome the brazilian club santos who are one of the biggest clubs in south america. then in the semi's they beat atletico nacional who are probably the best team in colombia. they then faced the argentinian river plate in the final who, as r. burgendy would say, are kind of a big deal. the final, like the previous ties, would be played over two legs. however the argentianians argued that the cusco club had an unfair advantage playing at home due to the high altitude of the stadium. unbelievably this argument was upheld so cienciano were forced to play their 'home' leg in arequipa, the stadium of their rivals melgar.

the away leg was an end-to-end, back-and-forth affair that finished 3-3. this left the tie hanging in the balance, but cienciano were still very much in it. only two other peruvian teams had made it to the finals of an international tournament, and both had lost, so cienciano represented peru's best chance of finally becoming victors in south american football. as a result lots of new cienciano fans came out of the woodwork, and the entire country began to support the plucky underdogs against the argentian giants. well, with the exception of the fans of their arequipan rivals, some of whom went to the match just to support the opposition. the second leg began and it wasn't long into the game when cienciano had a player sent off, they now had to play one of the best teams in the continent with ten men. they found it difficult to get a foothold in the game, and while they made it to half time goalless, they didn't seem that threatening.

the crowd grew less vocal and more subdued as the game went on, as though they were waiting for the inevitable. then one fan began to shout out ¡sí se puede! ¡sí se puede!. the people around him to a cue from him, and began chanting as well, and it soon spread around the entire stadium. with all of the cienciano fans chanting ¡sí se puede!, willing their team on, 15 minutes from time this energy transferred onto the pitch and the peruvians scored from a free kick to make it one-nil. the crowd were ecstatic, and the chanting amplified. cienciano actually finished the game with nine men, after another player was sent off, but the only important numbers were the one goal scored and the zero goals conceded.

the team were crowned champions of south america, the players were regarded as heroes, and ¡sí se puede! became their mantra. all of which was a long way of saying ¡sí se puede! translates into yes you can! - an encouraging affirmative similar to the exclamation rob schneider's character shouts in the waterboy.

here's the original

4th July 2010 ]]>

fucking up the system never felt so good

as a lot of trash talk and bollocks was spouted around the time of the race for christmas number one between rage against the machine and x factor, there was one element that i thought didn't get enough attention. while simon cowell insisted joe should get to number one as it would fulfil the boy's dream, rage promised that all the money spent on their single would go straight to charity, specifically the uk's homeless charity shelter. whichever side you took, you must be a particularly fucked up individual to prefer to give money to simon cowell's ever inflating wallet compared to a worthy and important charitable cause. midway through rage's set at their victory gig they invited out two people who "had a good idea" - jon and tracy morter who started the facebook campaign intent on stopping x-factor from their annual christmas number one. after a couple of speeches from zack and tom they then handed the morters a cheque for over £100k which had been raised as a result of their initiative. it felt genuinely inspiring to see the positive effects and massive results that can be achieved by the smallest and simplest ideas.

here's the original

3rd July 2010 ]]>

angelic

after my niece's christening we all went outside to get some fresh air and sun. i made a mistake that i'm guessing every photographer has made before, i forgot to change my camera from the indoor to the outdoor settings. if i'd have been more heedful then there's no way i'd have taken a shot like this - so i'm glad i left all of that heed inside.

here's the original

2nd July 2010 ]]>

7 trumpeters

it's strange how certain words or phrases that you haven't heard of before enter into the national conciousness. in the 90s if you'd have heard the words millennium bug you would have thought it was some futuristic disease. the year before last the term credit crunch would have sounded like some weird kind of cereal. and even a couple of months ago if someone had said the word vuvuzela i would have probably assumed they were talking about something rude. who knew it was in fact a traditional african horn which is quite possibly the most boring instrument ever invented. i mean seriously - one note - that's all you got - i've produced farts with more melody than that.

here's the original

1st July 2010 ]]>

betting slips

i wouldn't class myself as a gambler. i don't think i've ever bet on a horse, or gone to the dogs, and i rarely do the lottery. however every two years, i tend to place a few bets on the world cup or european championships. this involves a fair amount of time and effort, trying to predict results as well as work out the most likely combinations for accumulators. and i usually end up breaking even at the end of it. for this year's world cup i've stepped it up a little. this is mainly due to the ease and speed of going to an online bookies instead of a bricks and mortar version, and also due to an ipod touch app i've downloaded. this app allows me to bet from my sofa, whilst i'm watching the match. this carries a huge advantage to the gambler, as you can judge how a game is progressing, instead of the relative blindness of a pre-match prediction. a particular trick that works for me is to wait for about 10 or 5 or 2 minutes to be remaining in a half, and bet that the score will stay the same. the odds aren't that great, particularly when it's in stoppage time, but if you bet the right amount you give yourself a better chance of winning something. as it stands, through a combination of winning bets and other promotions, i've made £140 profit. this unexpected bounty acted as justification in my head to replace my knackered canon a620 so i put the money towards a new compact camera - a canon sx210. i thought it appropriate to debut it with a shot of the bets that put it in my hands.

here's the original

30th June 2010 ]]>

nakn

i've passed this sign lots of times before whenever i've travelled down to london, as it's right outside victoria coach station. i've wanted to take a picture of it before, but i'm usually in a rush to either catch the bus, or go to whatever i'm in london for. typical then that the only moment i had a bit of time it was when it was so dark i had to up the iso to barely tolerable levels to get a visible image. however i can make no guarantee that i will ever be in that area with time on my hands in the near future, so i figured it was still worth posting. if i do get another opportunity then i'll try and get a shot from the other side that has the N A K N letters - which should be all you need to complete the simple anagram.

here's the original

28th June 2010 ]]>

christened

i suppose one of the main reasons why people are usually christened at a very young age is so that you don't retain any traumatic memories of the big scary man pouring water on your head. chloe didn't seem as bothered as you might think, and was impeccably behaved for the whole service. her lively sister was slightly less so as she littered the service with her unique peppa pig impressions which somewhat detracted from the vicars convictions. mind you my camera sounded equally as noisy as i was snapping away so i probably didn't help matters, but at least i managed to get a photo out of it, albeit a noisy, grainy, high iso photo.

here's the original

27th June 2010 ]]>

lemur eyes

this was a ring-tailed lemur strolling about with her two kids clinging onto her belly. this was in the same fenced off area as the lemur i posted last week, but this time i managed to hide the wire but converting the image to black and white with the green filter preset in photoshop. i'm not really sure what this does to the image, from a technical point of view, but i was trying a few different techniques and that worked the best.

here's the original

26th June 2010 ]]>

simon cowell

before rage against the machine came on stage they played an animated video of simon cowell, surrounded by his many riches, lamenting rage's victory in getting to christmas number one. this was met with inevitable boos and jeers from the audience, particularly his comment that if the band were in x factor they wouldn't make it past boot camp. it was complete over the top pantomime which while amusing and enjoyable, threatened to undermine some the more serious and intense nature of ratm. when the band walked out and launched head-first into a storming version of testify all of these concerns left my head - they undoubtedly were for real and undoubtedly meant business.

here's the original

25th June 2010 ]]>

the sun and the reeds

the weather has been pretty good the last few days - however my recent postings haven't really reflected that. that's because i've got a bunch of gig and animal pictures, but no sunshine pictures. to slightly redress this balance, before i take some sunny shots, i thought i'd post one from peru last year. this was on the floating islands of uros and i don't think it would be inaccurate to say that this was almost as hot as my non air-conditioned office. so you know, it was pretty hot.

here's the original

24th June 2010 ]]>

not a place to park

when i biked over to cookridge to get a long exposure night shot of the communication tower i parked my bike in an estate around the corner. as i was dismounting a group of lads walked past and shouted "i wouldn't leave that there mate" in a manner that sounded infinitely more threatening than it did helpful. as a result i didn't feel particularly safe crouching in the field in front of the tower with my slr and spare lenses. i'm not usually too concerned when out late at night taking pictures, but i had an uneasy feeling while i was there so shamefully/sensibly i didn't hang around for too long. i think i wanted to make some kind of irrational point to myself by taking this shot of where i parked, but as soon as the shutter clicked i sped away.

here's the original

23rd June 2010 ]]>

incentivized recycling

i've been to a few outdoor gigs where they've brought in an initiative where you get money for every empty beer cup you return. at the rage against the machine concert you received 10p per cup - which was probably paid for my hiking up the price of the beer itself. i imagine it's supposed to encourage recycling as much as discourage littering - however it has a third repercussion as well. it turns your average music fan into eagle-eyed opportunists scouring the area for discarded empty vessels in an attempt to cash in. out of all of those that i saw, this guy was the clear master at this game and must have amassed a few hundred - an impressive tally. it would have been even more impressive if this photo showed him with both hands in the air - but that would be an altogether different accomplishment.

here's the original

22nd June 2010 ]]>

divine child #2

my second niece got christened the other week in the same church as my first. this time around i had a better camera, and, significantly, sororal permission to use it. i remembered taking a similar shot to this when i was there two years ago for round one so i attempted replicating it. the window and the child are slightly different, but you have to look pretty close to notice.

here's the original

21st June 2010 ]]>

guitar hero

i'm not quite sure how tom morello is viewed in the guitar community, or even in the musician community as a whole. i get the feeling it's the same as many other artists, respected and admired in his own genre, unappreciated, mocked or scorned in others. in my opinion, which is unapologetically partial, he should earn a lot of respect. that cat can do things with his guitar that i haven't seen anyone else do. it may look in this picture like he's giving his instrument an insecure hug, but he's actually flicking the pickup while scratching the fret to produce a distinctive sound that's a million miles away from strumming a d chord. it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but he deserves props for innovation.

here's the original

20th June 2010 ]]>

i’m a lemur... get me out of here

i was complaining last month about keeping animals in cages, not you understand from any welfare perspective, but because the cage ends up ruining the photo. i was having this trouble when photographing the lemurs, so instead of trying to hide the cage i made it a focal point of the photo.

here's the original

19th June 2010 ]]>

see mystery lights

i took this after watching the latest bill hicks movie. i only got into bill after his death, so i never had a chance to see him live. i think watching that film in a sold out cinema is probably the closest i'll come to that experience. the movie wasn't flawless it was great to laugh along at both old and new (to me) material. the man is a legend, and it was one of the few movies i've seen followed by a round of applause, and one of the fewer where i've joined in with that applause. since i had my camera with me i decided to take this shot on my way home, which from my eyes was just a regular long exposure shot of streets in the distance. after the 30 seconds had elapsed and i reviewed the result i was surprised to see colourful lights dotting the sky. i looked up again, and just saw dark ahead of me, so i took another shot, and got the same colourful result. now i'm sure my left-brain could come up with some unexciting explanation as to how these lights appeared in the sky - but after seeing bill hicks eulogise about his mind expanding experiences with psilocybin mushrooms i prefer to listen to my right-brain.

here's the original

17th June 2010 ]]>

comms tower

i was out riding on my bike a few weekends ago and as the weather was good i decided to take the long way home. this took me through an area i hadn't been to before, and as i passed this tower i thought it looked like a good place to return for a night shot. and that's exactly how that shit went down. i took my tripod as i knew i'd need a really long exposure, however i hadn't factored in the difficulty with focusing. there wasn't enough light to use the auto-focus, and after quite a lot of trial and error i wasn't having any luck with manual either. the solution came in the form of my wide-angle which didn't complain once and provided me with a nice sharp capture. incidentally the light stretching between the bottom-left of the tower and the trees is an aeroplane which was coming in to land at the nearby airport.

here's the original

16th June 2010 ]]>

zack de la rocha

i've been a fan of rage against the machine for quite a long time, and was particularly into them around the turn of the century when i was at uni. i was therefore upset and frustrated when they split up in 2000, especially as i never had a chance to see them live. opportunity knocked this summer and i was one of the lucky few to get a free ticket to their victory gig in london the other week. i took my camera, as well as a rucksack with amongst other things my spare lenses. as the headline act drew nearer i made my way closer to the front and drew a lot of comments from people remarking how brave i was to have my camera out at a rage concert. when they finally made it on stage it became apparent why. i don't think i've ever been in a crowd so violent and aggressive. that's not necessarily a condemnation, as it wasn't malicious or hostile, just heavy and potentially dangerous. i was pushed and pulled around, waves of people were swayed from side to side, losing balance and falling on each other. the audience helped each other up, and then the waves restarted and again we all fell down. it was completely lacking in any control so i knew that for my, and my camera's safety, i needed to retreat. this was easier said then done as i was pushed and spun around, with one hand for balance and the other clutching onto my camera. i remember at one point smashing a girl in the face with my lens - i tried to apologise but within seconds i was transported to another part of the field in the moving, living crowd. as i got to a safe distance a guy tapped me on my shoulder and asked if i knew my rucksack was wide open. i went to inspect, while simultaneously getting smacked in the face by another crowd surge (is that called karma?) my bag definitely looked and felt lighter. i prayed it wasn't an expensive lens that was the casualty, but looking back towards the crowd i knew whatever had come out was now long gone. so i decided to forget about it, enjoy the show and check later. thankfully the only item that was m.i.a. was my cheap ass camera case, which was always a little too small for my camera anyway, so that was best of a potentially bad situation. and i also managed to get a few shots i liked such as this so ultimately i had no long lasting regrets about taking my camera.

here's the original

15th June 2010 ]]>

sniff it out

this is an asian fishing cat which was another cute animal from trotters world of animals in the lakes. it looked just like an oversized pet cat that you just wanted to go up to and cuddle. i have a feeling the fact that they chose to capitalise the words VERY FEROCIOUS on her website description page is a compelling reason to resist that urge.

here's the original

14th June 2010 ]]>

give the dog a ball

jess is a big fan of this ball. she seemed at her happiest when she was running along chasing after it. as luck would have it my niece derived almost as much enjoyment at throwing the ball - so it sounds like a perfect match. the rub is that my niece throws like a two year old girl, primarily on account of being a two year old girl, so you could feel jess's frustration building as she patiently waited to run after the ball, only to watch it projected a foot away from it's original location.

here's the original

13th June 2010 ]]>

headingley stadium

today i went to see england play usa in our first game of the world cup. there's a cricket ground near to where i live called headingley carnegie stadium which opened it's gates to allow football fans to watch the match on their big screen. they didn't, however, open their minds to the option of fans bringing their own alcohol to the event. to get around this we hatched a cunning plan which involved buying cheap beer in the local off-licence and passing it through the gates into the rucksack that housed this camera. no queueing and paying exorbitant prices for us. the match itself was neither a complete success or a complete failure (in that it finished 1-1) except to me who had bet that the argentines would win and the english would draw today's fixtures. i figured that way if england won i'd be happy, and if england drew at least i'd make a bit of profit. of course i'd still prefer england to win, but the extra £10.24 in my pocket makes it a little easier to take.

here's the original

12th June 2010 ]]>

a far away place

the world cup started today so i tried to find a suitable football shot from my archives. despite having posted a fair few soccer shots i couldn't find any so i decided to look back even further at south african photos i took two and a half years ago when i was over on holiday. i was watching the coverage tonight on bbc and they had a revolving studio in cape town that showed a panorama including table mountain, the new stadium and robben island - all drenched in evening, african sun. damn it makes me wish i didn't get pneumonia when i was driving to cape town and have to turn back via the plettenburg bay hospital.

the original didn't have a great deal standing out in it, so i decided to give it a bit of texture as well as boosting the colours and contrast. here be the original

11th June 2010 ]]>