Back to Nature's Oven

The past year has been one for the books. I made amazing friends in both London and Paris, saw beautiful places, ate incredible food. Now it is time for me to return home, Arizona, for the summer before I return back to London. I will be honest and say my favorite place was London. It may be because my best friends, Matt and Izzy, live there. Or maybe since we got Little Leaf off the ground. Yes, you heard right, Little Leaf is now officially open at Greenwich Market and Brick Lane Market, serving vegan pizza at the food stall.

My mother and brother came out to Paris for my final days there, then we went to London for a week before returning home. It was fun to show my mom around Europe showing her all my favorite places. We walked 48 miles in the week we traveled around. I showed them some neat cafes around my house, went to the Eiffel Tower, walked up to Montmarte, took a train to Versailles to see the palace, and much more.

After Paris we took the Eurostar to London where my mom met Matt and Izzy for the first time. We went to an Indian restaurant and ate our weight in curry and naan bread. We were all so exhausted after walking around London Bridge, Tower of London, Brick Lane, and others I can't remember right now. It was a terrific experiences and I couldn't have done it without the help of my friends and family. 

Now I'm back in Arizona where you can cook steak on the sidewalk and bake cookies in your car. I've been trying to beat the heat by going up north to Sedona and thanking the inventor of air conditioning. It is nice to be back and seeing all my friends and working with familiar people again. 

Traveling Shoes

Seattle, WA.

I honestly didn't know what to write this week because I honestly haven't done much. It's been raining all week and I've been editing photos. I decided to talk about my experience as a whole so far. My whole life I've been extremely privileged to have the opportunity to travel. Growing up I moved to several different states and visited most of the continental United States. Along with that, I also was able to visit various parts of the Caribbean and Mexico. I had taken these experiences for granted when I was younger, complaining some of the time because I just wanted to hang out with my friends. It wasn't until later on in life that I found the importance of traveling and experiencing different cultures. As a child I didn't understand why others acted the way they did. Even little things such as eating different things for breakfast that I would eat for lunch or dinner. 

Throughout America you can see vast differences in speech and behavior. My family in New England will eat a lot of seafood, for example on Christmas a lot of the time we will have lobster rather than turkey or ham. In Arizona we eat a lot of Mexican food and Texas has a lot more barbecue. The other day I was talking to one of my friend from Tennessee, that's going to my school in Paris, and we were comparing common phrases we would use in our parts of the country. 

Now those are just differences within a single country, imagine how shocking it is to travel thousands of miles to another part of the world and experience their culture. Common things that I enjoyed back home are unheard of here in Europe. I know most of you that are over the age of 21 have enjoyed a few mimosas on Sundays, but here nobody I've talked to has even tried a mimosa. They always say, 'why dilute the champagne with orange juice?' I guess they have a point, so in London they drink Prosecco and eat roast on Sundays. One of my favorite things to eat is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Well, in Paris there will be a wall of jelly with one kind of peanut butter and it's triple the price because they don't really eat pb&j's here. Instead, they put jelly on crackers or nutella on toast. 

London, England

Phoenix, Arizona

Culturally there are so many differences that I could write a post just on that. Some examples are here in Paris you 'faire la bise' (kiss cheeks) when you say hello or goodbye to a friend, but in America we would just hug. My friends thought it was so weird that in America we hug so much. The French regard the hug as more intimate that kissing cheeks, but for me I feel the other way. It has been funny seeing my friends reactions whenever I forget and hug them. As a culture, many holidays aren't celebrated, like halloween has just become a thing in Europe. They also don't have prom in high school or greek life in college. 

Paris, France

Okay I understand those are just minor differences between different cultures and aren't very impactful. However, if you add all of those up you soon realize that everything you're accustomed to is different to other cultures. People here think the things that I do are weird, but to me and my culture back in America, it's normal. I think it's important for everybody to experience different cultures to give them a different perspective on the world. There's so much going on in the world right now, good and bad. Maybe we need to put ourselves in their shoes to help realize why people are acting the way they are. Perhaps, it's hard to understand because they experience things differently than you. My parents taught me something from an early age, which is to treat others as you would like to be treated because we're all just people in the end no matter where we come from. I hope everybody has a great week and I will see you next time.

Sights for Sound

My friends, George and Joe, went to follow their passion and start up a company that matches bands with venues, called Sights for Sound. Months of preparation go into their first event, finding the perfect venue, sound and light technicians, designer for flyers and banners, somebody to build the stage, and finally a photographer, me. The band is Cathryn Joseph, a indie, Scottish singer, and the opening act is Kristin McClement, an acoustic solo singer. George and Joe had found the perfect venue for the gig, St. John's Church in Bethnal Green.

Cathryn Joseph performing at St. John's Church in London.

The day finally arrives as I pack my gear and head for the bus to take me to Bethnal Green. I walk up to the church and colored lights illuminate the front windows and everybody is doing last minute preparations before people arrive. I head to the back room to unpack and get ready to start shooting. I love seeing events in the prep phase because you can see how much work goes into it. The sound techs are running wires, the sound guy is setting up lights, the stage is being set up, and it's all done before anybody steps foot into the venue. 

The door opens and people flood through the door, grabbing drinks, and filling up the seats. Everybody begins to get quiet as Kristin McClement enters the stage and picks up her guitar. She has an incredible voice, it was such a pleasure to listen to as I photographed. Using the 24-105mm I had enough flexibility to get up close and to go up on the balcony to get some general view shots, I do wish I had the new f/ 2.8 though. Working with the f/ 4 was a little hard due to I'm still on the 5D mark ii. 

Kristin McClement performing at St. John's Church in London.

Kristin McClement finishes her set and Cathryn Joseph and her drummer enter the stage. Candles are lit in front of the stage to add to the mood. Those candles offered some nice photos though, using them in the foreground and blurring them out. The lights his Cathryn Joseph very nicely as she sat on her piano playing, I do wish there was more light on the drummer, it was very difficult to photograph him. To any lighting techs out there, please put a light in the front and not just back lights, for the photographers. It was an amazing night with wonderful music, however. I was honored to be apart of it.

Bonfire Night

The closest thing to the Fourth of July, here in London, is Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Bonfire Night.  The whole night came from a failed assassination attempt of King James I, in which they found Guy Fawkes guarding barrels of gun powder. To celebrate the day people make effigies of Guy Fawkes and through him in the bon fire. 

Woman standing outside Farmopolis watching the fireworks. 

Izzy's friend, George, invited us to this floating farm on the Thames in central London, called Farmopolis, for a gig that night. I honestly didn't even know such things existed. Fascinated to see what this floating farm was like, we got ready and hopped on the tube. As always, it's packed on a holiday, so we cram in where we can and get to North Greenwich.

It was surprising how such a posh area of London was so barren. We only saw one person on the way to the farm. We reach Farmopolis and it looked amazing. It consisted of three floating greenhouses and inside was even better! It had a hipster, nature feel with plants everywhere, a dining section, centrally located bar, and an open area with seats and bean bags for gigs.

There were two groups playing that night, one female duo and a 3 member band. As the night went on I felt it was time to take out my camera. I went around shooting the amazing venue and fantastic performers. Suddenly, the manager came up to me and asked me if he could have the photos for his website. Of course I agreed and he began to offer free drinks. Just a perk of being a photographer, always shoot and things will come your way!

Two people watching the performance inside Farmopolis.

 

 

 

Zombies in London!

Costumes, special effects make-up, pumpkins, and beer must mean that it's nearly Halloween. One of my favorite times of the year. I love seeing everybody's costume and just having a good night out. When I was living in Las Vegas there was an annual zombie walk. Just imagine 1,000 people dressed up as zombies walking down Las Vegas Boulevard, it's a sight to see!

Zombies posing for photos in London.

In London they have a similar event, but they call it World Zombie Day. Of course, I was excited for it, just imagine hundreds of zombies walking around Piccadilly Circus. As the day finally arrives, we get the fake blood out and cheap make-up kit from Sainsbury's. It actually turned out pretty well after we all tore up our clothes and applied the blood. Once everybody had got zombie-fied and bags loaded up with drinks we head off.

The scariest zombie I saw all day, casually walking amongst the crowd.

Just like any party we go to, we're running late. Didn't think anything of it until we didn't see a single zombie on the street and in the subway. Starting to second guess ourselves, we arrive at Piccadilly Circus. Finally, we see our first zombie and are relieved we didn't make a fool of ourselves and dress up on the wrong day, yes, we are completely capable of doing that.

Oh... my... god, these zombies are something out of The Walking Dead. People must have spent months on these costumes! There were WWII zombies, zombie clowns, zombie marvel characters, and some stuff nightmares are made from. Despite being magnificently undressed, we have a wonderful time. I had brought my Bluetooth speaker with me and started playing Thriller and other songs of the sort. It was great, people would start dancing and singing around us. It was a peaceful event, the zombies didn't get carried away and ruin property and the observers were engaging with the zombies. I'll see you guys there next year, I'm off to start planning my zombie costume.

More fantastic make-up being shown during the World Zombie Day walk.