Ghent-Wevelgem

Yup, actually made it over to a race this year! Who'd have thought it. As yet, the photos don't have a home, but I should find out where you'll be able to see them shortly. However, such is the etiquette of these things, I can't show you the photos. Apart from that one above, which won't be making its way into print.

The trip itself was remarkably quick, easy and cheap, making it a prime race for British fans to go and see. With the ferry costing a mere £30, and only £60 spent of petrol, this is really worth a visit. Granted, it's no Roubaix or Flanders, but watching a bike race is better than not watching a bike race, and the atmosphere in the bars that line the Kemmelberg make it worth your while (although word from the rest of the new climbs is that you may as well not bother watching from there. You'd probably be on your own).

I'd wondered why I'd not seen scenic photos of the Kemmelberg before, and now I know: because it's bloody difficult to photograph properly. Your average photographer on a motorbike would have to park the bike, hop over a fence and elbow a few disgruntled spectators out the way to get a shot worth taking. So of course that's exactly what I did. Who needs accreditation?

As soon as the article's in print, you'll be able to see the offcuts right here. Hope you enjoy the print version, and hopefully you enjoyed the race itself.

Oh, ok then, pretty sure this won't make it into print. Have a photo of a spectator's chihuahua.

Cobbles, baby!

Well stone the bloody crows, looks like I might be going to some kind of bike race or something. As much as I wouldn't like to jinx, it, I'm banking on the fact I won't have any visa issues trying to cross the border into Belgium. That being said, I could still get a lemon from the hire car place and end up staring in panic and confusion at a smoking engine somewhere near Dunkirk: every silver lining has a cloud, after all.

This last week has been both action and vomit-packed. I woke up bright and early on Monday morning at 3:45am to drive to Bristol, where I was assisting photographer Conor Masterson on a shoot for the Fire Service. Initially all went well, we witnessed the firefighter training, got to have a go in a hovercraft in Weston Supermare and even ate a roast beef dinner with the firefighters on nightwatch in Bristol Temple Meads firestation (they even got called out during the meal, of course it was abandon food, straight down the polls and into the fire engine. Not before the plates had been put in the oven to keep warm, though).

Then things went a bit tits up. After meeting up with my erstwhile university housemate Chris Hawkes for a curry, I was struck down with a rather nasty dose of food poisoning halfway through the 5-day shoot. Somehow I soldiered on (although there were a few instances of abandoning ship to go have a lie-down). If anyone wants to go for a curry in Bristol, please, for all that's good and holy, avoid this place I know it looks swanky and with reasonable prices, but trying saying that with a mouthful of puke and bumfull of evil. Not happening.

We have three projects on the go at the moment, Ghent-Wevelgem/Kemmelberg this weekend, the ongoing Pie and Mash project, and finally a shoot about a certain local bike shop which will feature in the soon-to-be-released Boneshaker online zine.

The last shot in the Pie and Mash series, taken at F.Cooke's in Broadway Market, Hackney

Pie, mash and homemade grid spots

So it's been a while since my last post, and there's a very good reason for this: a run of frankly the most appalling luck since some bankers in America said 'You know what? We should give mortgages to people who can't afford them!'. There have been even more snapped chains, concussions, stolen credit cards, Indian visa bureaucracy putting a nix on my trip to the Tour of Mumbai, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.

So to take the bad taste out of my mouth since the India Incident, I've decided to plow my downtime until Gent-Wevelgem into shooting a project on London's most traditional fast food: pie 'n' mash. This morning was the first shoot at Manzes' Pie and Mash Shop on Peckham high street. Manzes is the oldest running chain of pie and mash shops in London, with the first in Tower Bridge opened in 1905. Graham, the proprietor and grandson of Michele Manze, who opened the first shop all those years ago, is now in charge and is taking pie and mash into the digital age with online ordering and 2-day delivery to anywhere in the UK. Not too long ago, he delivered a few pies to a private jet company. Turns out David Beckham wanted a few for his flight to LA…

Knowing that I'd be shooting in a place with poor available light and lots of reflective white surfaces, I decided that grids would be the best bet for this. A softbox would have just nuked everything and made it all rather flat and boring. Also, since this was shot in the middle of the shop on a busy Friday lunchtime, you would have seen more of all the diners eating, taking the focus away from Graham.

The problem was, though, that since I bought a load of Alien Bee kit, I'd have to order the grids from the states, pay shipping and import tax, and at the end of all that, I'd be out of pocket to the tune of around £100. Rather than do this, I decided to make my out of straws and duct tape. to be fair, there were two days of sitting around cutting straws. I made two, one 10 degree, and one 20 degree, and cut 500 straws into four one inch-long strips. Meaning there are somewhere in the region of 2000 individual pieces in these two grids. But on the plus side, the total cost to me was only £3, and they work just as well as the ones I would have bought, only downside is I can't use the modelling lights when I use them otherwise they'd melt.

Welcome to my life for the last two days…

Watch out for the full completed pie and mash story sometime in the next couple of weeks, that and Gent-Wevelgem, where I'll be situated on the Kemmelberg taking photos of people in bars watching bike races. Should be good.

Till next time.