Travel

Huji in Tokyo

While I was in Tokyo this summer, I discovered the HUJI app. Admittedly I was a little late to the party on this one however Japan proved to be the best place to start using it. We made it our mission to capture as many ‘clappers’ as possible and it was a lot of fun to ge the randomised vintage style light flares and effects coming through on our images.

All the photos that you see here were shot on iPhone and processed through the app with no additional editing. If you want to try getting some unique looks that really suits the kind of raw and candid images an iPhone tends to capture, I recommend giving it a try!

Autumn Colour in Japan

Following my previous post with images from my November Tokyo trip, I wanted to follow up with a post that focuses specifically on the stunning autumnal leaves I got to experience in Japan. The Japanese word for the autumn leaves changing colours is ‘Koyo’ 紅葉  and during my trip I too got to see the shift from yellows and oranges of November to deep reds into the first week of December. These images were shot in Kamakura, which was the capital of Japan from 1192 to 1333, Enoshima which is a small bridged island near Kamakura, and finally in gardens in Tokyo. I personally really love to see temples, gardens, and also to be by the water. Kamakura and Enoshima are really close so generally you would do both in one day by taking a short train between the two. Its basically a must visit day trip from Tokyo in my opinion!

November in Tokyo

I found cheap flights to Tokyo in November so obviously, I went. This was my fourth trip to Japan, and to be honest the more often I visit the more often I want to. I stayed at the amazing Mission Parkour gym with my friends, old and new. During my trip I also created some content for GoPro Japan, went to my first live gig in Tokyo and acquired two new Gameboys. On trip, I’d recently bought a Sony RX100V that I was keen to put through its paces as my pocket camera. Previously I’d been shooting on the G7X that Canon gave me, but I finally felt like I wanted to upgrade with something that could shoot raw and had a slightly improved image quality. The images that follow are from various moments during my time walking through various areas of Tokyo, both on solo missions and hanging out with my mates. It was such a warm november and the low sun and nice shadows led me to a colourful approach on these photos.

Abandoned Kupari

Every once in a while, I get an email for a project that results in an opportunity to shoot Parkour in a ridiculous location. So when the guys at WormApp asked me if I had any ideas for cool, abandoned places, in Europe, that might be good for a video shoot I got to googling. It wasn’t too long until I found Kupari, a beach resort complex of five hotels, abandoned since the 80s and looking amazing for parkour. A few days later, myself and Brad from Worm, were on a flight to Dubrovnik to go and scout the place. What follow are my favourite images from that scout.

Talia in Tokyo

During my time in Tokyo with Talia, I wanted to try to capture a series of a few portraits with different atmospheres. I aimed to capture images with the strong urban feel, along with the more relaxed and peaceful vibe of the shrines and temples we visited.

A few times while hanging out with my friends in Japan, they asked me ‘is she a model?’ but Talia actually has never modelled, apart from for her selfies. Effectively these are just fancy tourist photos, but it was interesting to work with the different styles.

The vast majority of these images were shot on the wonderful vintage lens, the Helios 44-2, a cheap russian lens I got from a charity shop that produces this wonderful bokeh. You can particularly see the effect in corners of the final images of this series.

Tokyo Three

In June, I went for my third trip to Tokyo in the last three years. It seems to be that I have been making visits to Japan an annual thing recently, and I can definitely see myself going again next year if I can!

Once again, I found myself enamoured with Tokyo and having recently put some time into studying more Japanese, was able to integrate with the culture in a way I hadn’t before.

I was joined by my girlfriend, Talia, who features in some of these images and will also appear in a seperate post, Talia in Tokyo, which is a series of portraits I shot of her during our trip.

These images are mostly shot with my Canon G7X, however a few are on Sony A7S2 and my iPhone! Enjoy.

Lisbon

In January, Talia and I took a short city break to Lisbon. I’d heard that it was a rather hilly city, but I was not ready for the level of hill that we experienced. In Lisbon, every day is leg day!

We explored the winding cobbled streets, up and down stairs and slopes. Our main tourist stops were the castles and cathedrals, the castle especially which offered fantastic views of the city.

Even though it was January, the weather was a wonderful 19C and sunny. Here are a set of some ‘tourist’ photos I shot on my Canon G7X, check them out!

Liverpool in the Fog

I visited the foggy city of Liverpool to join some urban exploration missions that my friends Danny and Stevy had been on recently.

While growing up, I spent many months visiting Liverpool and in some ways I grew up there as a result. Along with Cambridge and London, Liverpool would be my next most well known part of the UK. It’s also got some pretty interesting architecture, especially its two famous cathedrals.

What follow are a collection of images from the few days I spent up north, all shot with just my point and shoot wonder, the Canon G7x.

California Dreaming

I took a spontaneous trip to Los Angeles for a few weeks this summer to visit some of my friends there. Its always nice to enjoy the California Sun, and it was surprising to see so many of my fellow brits out there at one time. Unlike most of my trips, this one was more of a social visit than my usual tourist endeavours.

We spent a good amount of time at Malibu beach, chasing sunsets. It was really sunny and hot in LA, so it was nice to be by the water mostly. Here is a collection of some of my favourite images from my time in the USA, shot on my 5d3.

I’ve been trying to improve the way I edit my images in terms of colour, because thats something I think really helps refine an image to how I want it. I also did a shoot with a ballerina at Sepulveda dam, so those images will be up shortly too!

Beaches & Bali

After my time in Japan, I decided to pop over to Indonesia to visit my buddy Alex, who happened to be there. I’ve been to Bali once already last year, but I figured as I was already in Asia, it would be fun to go and hang out for a couple of weeks.

The one thing I forget about Bali is how much less developed it is. For example, I was staying in a guesthouse near a big rice field. One lunch in the attached Warung (kind of like a canteen) I realised that the rice in my friend rice, was grown in that rice field next to my bedroom. How rare is it to eat food that is grown metres away from where you are staying!

Another example, my local Indonesian friends tell me the default approach to the police stopping you is ‘don’t stop’. The police are generally trying to shake town tourists apparently, so the locals told me ‘just drive past them’. Its fascinating how the whole country operates slightly differently to what I’m used to in the western world.

The freedom you can experience there, is both liberating and intrinsically dangerous. Luckily for me, I mostly wanted a chilled beach holiday, so I took my Canon G7X and shot some tourist photos for fun. Here is what I captured…

Tokyo Nights

My second collection of images from my spring’16 month in Tokyo. I explored so many amazing places, scaled some rooftops and shot plenty of rainy streets. Tokyo is so wonderful to shoot at night because there is so much ambient light. Signs and lamps are absolutely everywhere so its really easy to shoot handheld (I know a tripod is better but this is just tourist stuff for me!).

Without a doubt its my favourite when it rains though, not only do the streets look so shiny and reflective, but the silhouette of a person with an umbrella is so timeless for me.

Images shot mostly with my Canon G7X, a few from my 5Dmk3! Enjoy!