london

Borough Market is for the urban trendy, people with a willingness to queue for an inordinate amount of time for Monmouth coffee, tourists and food lovers*.  The hipsters go to Maltby Street.

* No shame in any of these – I love Borough Market

Saturday I had my first Eat & Snap gathering.  I had been a little nervous into the run up, never actually having taught anyone what I know.  We met at Village East which is on the loveliest little street in Bermondsey.  After having regular a ol’ chat with the snappers over brunch I felt relaxed and some friendships had already been formed.  After eating I handed out some ‘tip cards’ explaining camera settings and rules of composition and showed some camera examples.

I had planned to head down to Borough Market but we were told by the restaurant manager that Maltby Street was just down the road so we decided to head down there instead.  My weather mojo had worked well and although it was overcast (which is actually great for a bit of street photography) the rain that the weather man had told me would be happening all week never materialised.  I had heard about Maltby Street Market but hadn’t been so it was really great to see something different.  It is only one small street but it is packed with good food and awesome little restaurants under the railway arches.  I’ll definitely be heading back to check some more out.  The snappers headed off, got sidetracked by purple walls, and details, asked a couple questions, had some points clarified, looked styling in stripes and colours and snapped away.

All in all it was a great day and as a bonus I got some great shots of some styling hipster locals and a cocktail.  I’ll share later this week.  I’ll also link up any thoughts from the snappers involved, but you can follow some thoughts from instagram and twitter if you like.

Read what my snappers had to say: Charlotte

Also …

A little while ago I went to the Transport Museum to see the exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of the underground.  A selection of underground posters are on show giving advice on how to use the underground, where you can get to and the wonders of modern technology.  The one poster that has stuck out in my mind is the one above which was made in 1926 showing the future a hundred years from then.  You can’t see the detail, and I can’t quite remember the timings, but basically it suggested that in the future travel would be revolutionised with high speed trains to Scotland taking around 20 minutes and flights (in blimp type aircrafts) taking approximately 36 hours.  What intrigued me about this ‘future reality’ in particular was how we perceive things will be in the future based on what things are like now.  In 1926 trains were long established but cross-Atlantic flights were rare, the first trans-Atlantic flight had taken place in 1919 going from Newfoundland in the US to the UK and taking 23 days!  At the time, then it would have seemed impossible that flights would be so fast as only taking the suggested 2 days but surely trains would only become faster (as I imagine train speed had already increased exponentially by that stage).  Standing at the vantage point of 2013 I know that flights are exceedingly faster than that and have to say that the I am doubtful of a train being invented in the next 10 years that will take me to Scotland in 20 minutes when it currently takes me 2 hours to get across London.

I guess what I am taking away from this is that your current reality can distort the way you see your own future.  Perhaps sometimes we need to suspend reality and disbelief and imagine how different our worlds can be in a year or ten or fifty.  Things might not always go according to plan but did you imagine that ten years ago you would be sharing your life on the internet and you would walk around with things devices that allowed you share ‘hipster’ photos and 140 character messages with people around the world, some who you have never even met.  Imagine what you could do if you put those same ‘unexpectations’ on your dreams and yourself.

p.s. the Poster Exhibition is still open to the end of October 2013 if you want to find some vintage design inspiration!

Over the weekend we popped down to Camden Market.  We used to live in Camden but haven’t been down for a long while.  It can feel very touristy but I think they have definitely upped their game in terms of the food they offer.  We didn’t go into the ‘stable’ bit but the West Yard area (which is in the Lock section) has a great variety and quality which is now on a competitive level with other food focussed markets.

Time for a plug.  My cousin and her friend sell their baked goods at the market which include giant biscuits!  I have to admit my sugar free diet took a bit of a nose dive with the offer of fudge and their peanut butter chocolate biscuit is to die for.  They use as much organic, sustainable and fairtrade ingredients as possible which I love (at least you can get fat on stuff that isn’t bad for the planet, right?).  I have to say these two are quite an inspiration as they have at the ripe old age of 23 have already decided not to waste life doing what people think they should do but started their own business selling products they love and are proud of (and should be).  You can find them on facebook and twitter (I’m failing in my cousin duties in helping them to set up a website) to see when they are at the market.  They also do catering!

Just a quick one for the Londoners out there.  On Tuesday evening I took event photos for the Inkygoodness Beermat Characters Illustration Show.  I got there a bit early and had a chance to look around.  I would really suggest that if you are a fan of illustration to head down as there are over 80 artists who contributed to the show and these mini pieces of original art are all available for sale at very reasonable prices.

The Poopdeck pirate prints are also on show and available for purchase.

I love been involved in creative projects supporting such a wide range of artists.  There is definitely a piece there that you will love.

A photo series from the Lomography coffee developing workshop.

I used to live in Shoreditch and loved the changing art on the walls.