Londonist Behind the Lens

I was recently fortunate enough to be featured on Londonist Behind the Lens, with an article about my street photography.

My 15 minutes of fame on the home page

The article

From the Archives: Dredd

Watching the Dredd film this evening got me nostalgic about my old job as a 3D artist for a games company back in 2001-2003. I worked on a few Judge Dredd games, and have dug out some of my old artwork from those:

Megavend: only the textures made it to the finished game [click to enlarge]

WAP game set in Mega City One. Remember WAP?

OlymPICS

I was lucky enough to be invited by a friend to go and watch the hockey at the Olympic Park today.

Not being much of a sports fan didn't put me off as I was very interested to see how the place looked and take some photos (I took several billion).

 

Orbit, 2012

I've added a select few to my Flickr page here, as well as some photos taken using my iPhone here (including some using the excellent photo-stitching panoramic app 'DMD')

Guarded, 2012

Going Viral

A few friends contacted me this morning to say that the 'Olympic Expectations Vs Reality' image that Time Out London put together yesterday using one of my photos seemed to have gone viral, with several thousand people having seen it.

As it was only on the Time Out Facebook page at the time, people had been emailing screenshots of it around to each other, so I suggested Time Out get in on the action and post it on their actual website.

And as of this evening, they have!


My photo used as part of Time Out's image

If you happen to see it used anywhere else, I'd be curious to know where and how far it's spread.

Time Out's Olympic Expectations vs Reality

A pleasant surprise for me this evening when I scrolled through Facebook on my phone and spotted this image on the Time Out London feed, which made me smile even before I noticed that the bottom photo was one of my own.



If anyone happens to spot the photo in the magazine, please save your copy for me.

Extra, Extra

Another of my photos was recently used on the Londonist website, which is always a compliment.

It was taken near Carnaby Street, London and is of a man with a ridiculous looking bike.


A Man with a 'bike'

Blogging + Lomography = LoBlography

The kind people at Lomography Soho recently had me along to their LoBlography event, where I met fellow bloggers for whom photography plays an important role in what they do.

I was lent a Lomo LC-Wide camera, which I now really want, as along with having an excellent wide-angle lens it allows for all manner of interesting experimentation, such as multiple-exposure photographs and half or full-frame shots (meaning you can fit double the number of shots on a film if you go for the former option). Once I was let loose in the streets of Soho, I basically went crazy trying every option on every photo.

The camera also allows you to take continuous shots with no separation between the photographs on your film. While I didn't do this for the entire film, I did try it out on a few shots.

You can see the rest of the shots I took either separately, or as one continuous image I've stitched together.

Thanks Lomography LoBlography. Thaloblanks.

Street Photography Update

I've added plenty of photos to my Flickr page recently.

See everything here, or just the highlights here.

Furry, 2012

Pipe Up, 2012

House of Liza, 2012

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oxford House

I was recently commissioned to draw this house in Oxford. It was a present from one owner to the other, and they both turned out to be at home on the day I traveled there to take source photos, so a fair amount of snooping around was required on my part.

House, Oxford, 2012

Taking your brain to another dimension

I've added a new section to my website for my 3D Photography.


Ladies Pass The Globe, 2012 (Red-Cyan version)

Photos were taken using a Nintendo 3DS, which includes a low-resolution 3D camera. It presents a challenge as there's no way to edit the images after you've taken them (so no cropping or adjusting brightness/contrast). And there's no way of turning off the annoying 'snapping' noise it makes when you take a photo, meaning everyone notices you!

There are a variety of options for viewing these, either as a 3D image if you have a device with a 3D screen, or as Wiggle or Red-Cyan versions. Wiggle shows the left and right eye images as a single animated gif and will leave you feeling dizzy. Red-Cyan allows you to view the image if you posses a pair of old-school 3D red-cyan tinted glasses.

Click to view my 3D photography

A Church Chair for the 21st Century

Someone I know is currently running this competition to design a new chair for the Church of England.

Knowing very little about chair design or what goes on in churches, I decided to enter it.


A Church Chair for the 21st Century, 2012 (click to enlarge)

Belle Epoque: Red Coat version

Two years ago Eric, the owner of Belle Epoque (the amazingly good patisserie on Newington Green) commissioned me to draw his shop. Due to the lack of a deadline, I finally got around to finishing it last week and it arrived fresh from the printers this morning.

In total it took about eight solid days of drawing by hand, then digitally colouring and shading. I've just handed it to him and he's already talking about having it printed on postcards and mugs, so I'm incredibly relieved he liked it!


Belle Epoque print (Red Coat version, Artist's Proof), 2012

The illustration is based on source photos I took on a Monday, the one day of the week when the shop is closed. My thinking was that I wouldn't bother the customers that way and no one would notice what I was doing, but within about 10 seconds of getting my camera out I noticed a red blob out of the corner of my eye jumping up and down shouting "draw me! draw me!". It turned out to be Eric, so that's him you can see in the doorway.

If you're interested in buying a print of this, email me on microsketchdesign@gmail.com and let me know. It is available as an edition of 20 as an unframed A4 giclée print on finest Hahnemühle Photo Rag archival paper for £50 (+P&P or free hand delivery if you live in N16) and I've already had two orders, so don't leave it too late.


Belle Epoque (Red Coat version), 2012


Also available is the Pâtissier version of the print.

Essaouira

Another previously unpublished drawing, this time from 2008. This was done on a holiday to Essaouira, Morocco. I don't think I'd considered this complete last time I worked on it, but I quite like it in this state.


Essaouira, 2008

My Old Desk

I've just had a rummage through the archives and found this drawing I did of the desk I used to work on a couple of years ago. (Things are a lot tidier in my current set up!).

Not the greatest drawing I've done by any means, but if nothing else it serves as a decent reminder to me of a scene I used to see every day.


My Desk, 2010

microsketch in the media: Londonist (again)

On of my photos was used by Londonist a few weeks ago accompanying an article on Ken Livingstone's rail plans (if he wins the next mayoral election, that is).

I took the photo using a Lomography Supersampler, which takes four quarter-sized photos in quick succession, which get developed as one photo.

microsketch in the media: southbanklondon (again)

One of my photos has again been picked as Picture of the Week over at southbanklondon, which is once again an honour!



The previous time this happened can be found here.

This is like, even more random

I love the GIF the Random Project have created with the images from my previous post!

Like, Totally Random

This is my postcard for Random Project 2012, the topic I was given being 'Home'. I was keen to show the limits to my involvement in the Olympics with this drawing.*

As they were keen that I didn't draw it on a computer, I totally ruined it by trying to colour it with real pens, which resulted in me making a real mess, with the coloured ink going dark when I went over the black lines. Pretty awful; I wish I'd left it black. Oh well!


Home (black), 2012


Home (colour), 2012


*I'll probably turn over to something else when the Olympics are on T.V.

***Click to see the wonderful animated GIF of this created by the Random Project***