Celebrating Summer

I'm having a hard time believing we've already reached the last weekend in June. Every year, I make a mental note to take time to fully enjoy summer and all the things I love about it. To savor the season the way I did when I was little.

Evan Sklar

But, for some reason, time refuses to move as slowly as it did then. As much as I adore Fall and the sweaters, boots, and tights that come with it, I always find myself surprised by its arrival and slightly disappointed another summer has come and gone without feeling I've celebrated it to its fullest.

Randy Harris Photography

While my days don't promise to be leisurely this summer, I am trying to make sure I embrace as many of my favorite things about this time of year as I can; I am hoping this will help me feel I enjoyed the season as much as possible by the time cool air start to blow again.

Union Photography

I've made my most-loved gazpacho recipes and experimented with new additions. I've enjoyed Hawaiian Shaved Ice, gelato, frozen yogurt, and popsicles, foods I enjoy year-round, but are certainly required eating in hotter months. I've even been able to spend a couple hours lakeside.

Katie Baum via 20x200

I intend to keep adding to my list over the coming months, and I am going to do some work towards reaching my goal right now as E and I head out to grab some of our favorite gelato! I hope whatever your plans, your weekend is full of simple delights of the season too. Have a great one!

Summertime, And The Living

I'm not a fan of heat, but the summer tends to offer good chances to get nice pictures outdoors. It's been a busy few weeks, and I had the closest thing I've had to a holiday for a while by going to Download with Lucha Britannia; not that I wasn't working there, but I wasn't working on anything else while I was there, and a respite from trying to think in five directions at once was welcome, even if the mud and then heat and then mud gave me nosebleeds for two days solid when I got back. Lucha Britannia works around a formula of fights and performances, and Download is probably the perfect place for it, being filled with thousands of guys who want to go "woo! ewww! fuck yeah!" at every possible opportunity. Here's some shots of the show and the festival.




















From one world to another; I did a job for Tesco, a few days after changes at the top were announced. There was some confusion about who was doing what - the people I was there to shoot were Tesco suppliers rather than employees - but I liked these pictures of folks there inbetween the tasting and talking.





Which leads nicely to these pictures I did for the Drawing Degree Show Catalogue at Camberwell..








Tesco workers of the future need entertaining today; here's Josh Knowles and Trixie Malicious' new project Chakrelax. These pictures will be 'shopped onto new-age backgrounds of forests and stars.





Meanwhile, here's Joe and his band Lazarus and The Plane Crash playing possibly their 2nd ever show. It was good!






Two people I met through Joe are Amechi and Tammy. Here's a series of shots of Tammy as Britannia.







Another person I met through Joe is Amechi. Amechi introduced me to various photographers when I was but a young hobbyist asking for places I might go to watch the real pros do their thing. Here's Amechi.



He's opened a vintage market on the corner of Kingsland Road and Regent's Canal. It's called The Pattern Market. Here's some pix I took for him.







Finally, here's some shots I did for Mike G, general musically-talented person and leader of the Badger group I have taken pictures of from time to time. I took some shots during a music video he was shooting for a new project.







It was quite fun, I wouldn't mind doing some more shoots like that during a video shoot. Someone else carries all the lights for a start. Here's Mikey.



That's all from me for now. Hope you're enjoying the heat.