What a question, makes you wonder ey? We live in such a fast paced lifestyle in London, well I do anyway. In this age of connectedness, it’s so easy into fall into the comfortable booby trap with your day job and other projects. Once you fall into that trap, you probably won’t realise your in that situation for a whole minute. Luckily for me, I have a whole bunch of personal projects outside of work to drown myself in – photography, Y&Y, a documentary amongst other things. Even then, I still feel like I’m always working and doing the same but different things all the time!? So when was the last time I tried something new. You’ll have to hop on after the cut to find out.

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Eastpak – Website

Eastpak, the urban lifestyle brand has unveiled it’s latest campaign with it centering around the thought provoking question (see title of post, duh). We all dream about the future, make plans and promises but how many of us actually follow through with them? I’m determined to follow through with one of mine. I signed up for the 10k a few weeks back, my first ‘race’. Not really a race but you know what I mean. I’ve started training for it with 2 week intervals in between each run so far o_O going to have to sacrifice another part of my life to complete this challenge.

Satisfaction is what the EASTPAK campaign is all about; by reminding us of the things that truly inspire us and what we really live for. So my aim for the next few months is to visit as many new places as possible. In the coming few months, I have Sweden, Belgium, possibly Norway, Hawaii, LA, San Francisco and Seattle on the cards. I will bless you with the photographs, I hate to do this but ‘YOLO’. One day I’ll get to a position where I’ll be able to travel the world for a year while someone else looks after my company…. *dreams*

Have a gander at EASTPAK’s mini site – click here

It’s fair to say that we’re renowned for rain all year around. Come on, where else do you get monsoon rain in the middle of Spring!? Londoner and photographer Gavin Hammond has made use of the city’s non-stop rainfall through photographing beautiful reflections from the puddles. Hammond’s series entitled London in Puddles almost looks like a painted series showcasing its citizens and architecture through the reflections. I’ll always post work that represents London in a beautiful light, especially since the Olympics are around the corner which most of us feel like it’s going to be shambolic. More on the reverse.

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While the rest of us moan on Twitter about the awful weather, Gavin created art. Do something.

Ever taken photos on Instagram and thought to yourself ‘whoa, that would look good as a fridge magnet’?… indeed we all have. Well you’re in luck as courtesy of Mint Digital, ‘StickyGram’ allows you to do just that. StickyGram is a printing service that allows you to submit your Instagram photos for printing onto a cool personalised fridge magnet, they come out in the best quality possible at 50mm x 50mm (same size as original instagram photos). Also worth mentioning: as promo for the launch of StickyGram on Android, a black cab with a mosaic of instagram magnets on it’s roof was sent around London.

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Everybody is a photographer, or a least that’s what Instagram will have you believe. Over 27 million users on the iPhone alone are in current use of the app with that number hitting well over 30 million when you include android users. The next logical step would be to own an actual Instagram camera rather than just the app right? Well ADR Studio have gone along with this belief and have gone ahead and designed/produced this concept design. The have turned the Instagram icon into an actual camera called Instagram Socialmatic. Would you buy an Instagram camera? Peep more pics and camera specs after the cut.

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Instagram Socialmatic Specification:

- 16 GB mass storage
- Wifi and Bluetooth
- 4:3 touchscreen
- 2 main lens, first for main capture, second for 3D filters, webcam applications and QR Code capturing
- Optical zoom
- Led Flash
- Internal printer to make your Instagram photos real
- Paper cartridge with Instagram Paper Sheets
- Dedicated 4 colors ink tanks
- InstaOs 1.0, which put together Facebook and Instagram App feature

Shelley Jones is a photographer/film maker, currently working as a freelancer in London and most importantly a friend of Y&Y. Found her through that ‘Space Hoppers in Venice’ video on one of my random vimeo viewing sprees and have kept myself updated on her work ever since. I think it’s safe to say that we’re all quite intrigued by Shelley’s work, more so her concepts and inspiration, so I thought it would be cool to do a mini interview with her. You can have a read of it and see some of her work after the break.

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Thanks for doing this interview with me Shelley! Looking at your work, you seem to touch all disciplines of in terms of digital art. What do you call yourself? A filmmaker? A Photographer? An artist?

My pleasure! I guess I’d just call myself a photographer/filmmaker, I do other things too such as photo-manipulation but it isn’t my main focus.

I found you through your ‘Space Hoppers in Venice’ Project on Vimeo. Can you tell us what inspired you to create that? It reminded me of Dragonball Z!

I’ve never watched Dragonball Z! Me and Mark had bought Space Hoppers randomly the year before in uni and we made a short stop-motion video the year before to celebrate my final day of being a teenager, and then we spontaneously decided to go to Venice and decided to take one of the space hoppers with us to make a short film! The initial film was going to be one of us running around as if we were being chased, really tense etc, and then the ending showing that we were being chased by somebody on a space hopper, but we just ended up doing this in the few hours before we left on our last day, which I’m glad we did as the other film would have probably been terrible!

You were at University then… what have you been up to since?

Since then I’ve interned at JN Motion, and then finally made the move up to London in December after coming up a few times a month for shoots. I’m doing a lot of collaborations with stylists as well as some behind-the-scenes videos for other shoots, mainly portfolio building and networking, which is fun!

What have been the pros and cons of being a Freelancer in London?

The pro’s are definitely that I can choose my own schedule, I feel more creative at nocturnal hours, so it suits me better. The con’s are definitely finding paid work as a lot of shoots I’m doing are for portfolio purposes, so financially it’s tough, but definitely worth it!

I would describe some of your work as quite dark and abstract; how would you describe your work?

I’d definitely agree with dark, I guess it’s also surreal, whimsical, dreamy.. 

Where do you get the inspiration to create stuff like that?

A lot of my inspiration comes from being in nature, watching horror movies, certain emotions, vintage photographs, surreal/fantasy films such as Jeunet & Caro’s ‘Delicatessen’ and ‘The City of Lost Children’ etc.

What’s been your favourite project?

I couldn’t possibly pick a favourite! The majority of my shoots have been a lot of fun! One of my favourite’s was ‘The Curious Riot’ film which was for my friend Julia Kaspar’s graduate collection, we broke into an old coke works back in Wales and set up a laboratory with lots of test tubes and powder paints and then set off homemade smoke bombs on the old railway track that was there. The whole time we were hiding from the guard who apparently had a huge guard dog, so it felt like an adventure!

Got any new projects in the pipeline that you can tell us about?

I’m working on a few personal shoots, I’m shooting a film at Dungeness Beach in Kent which apparently looks like the end of the earth, and then doing a shoot and a film for Suitcase Magazine which is launching soon.

Fancy collaborating with other artists?

Of course! I love collaborating with musicians (I work with a fantastic composer who lives in Spain who’s composed for several of my films, Jesús Menguiano) as well as stylists, designers etc. It’s great to collaborate with new people and come up with ideas together.

Where can people find your work?

My work is on my website and my vimeo

Berta Vicente Salas is a Spanish photographer, I came across her work very randomly on Flickr and am pretty impressed. Looking at her flickr, she has such a wide scope of photography in her library, she’s really versatile, she’s got THE eye and she’s also quite clearly very creative. Some of her photos are very theatrical as they draw you in, in a way that makes you think of a backstory- some are creepy as hell… i.e the main photo! But I think the photo with the girl manipulating the water in the glass bowl is simply amazing. Berta could shoot my album/single cover any day… more photos after the break.

Berta Vicente Salas

Photographers of the world this one is for you. If you’re a snap happy person much like our very own Yin then why not enter the Adidas ’Take The Stage‘ competition. The task is to submit one horizontal picture of anything that you desire, it doesn’t have to be a new pic it can be one taken a while ago that you’re very proud of. Having submitted your picture your task then is to get as many people you know to vote for it. The 10 entries with the most vote will then be judged by Adidas and David Beckham where they will chose their favourite with the winner getting the opportunity to join Beckham on the set of a photoshoot. Does this appeal to you? For more info watch the TV advert on the flipside and/or head over to the Adidas website.

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Adidas:

Are you an up-and-coming photographer?  We’re looking for someone with an eye for an image to photograph David Beckham.  Show us your shots and you could be the photographer joining him on set. Pick a shot with heart and soul that shows why you are unique and deserve this amazing opportunity. Please note that all images need to be horizontal only. Once your photo is uploaded you need to ensure that you are one of the top entrants, get people to vote for you and ensure you are in the top 10 most liked photo’s.

Once the competition closes on the 20th May, adidas and David will choose our favourite person from the top 10 entrants, so you need to make sure you get some support behind you.
After you have submitted your entry, adidas will need to look at what you have submitted and make sure that it is ok to be shared with others. At certain times this might take a while due to the number of entries, please bear with us during this time.

A group of ‘Urban Explorers’ managed to climb to the top of The Shard undetected, the insanity…! I found this website through twitter over the weekend and I’ve read some pretty interesting articles. These guys document and photograph what they call ‘urban explorations’, from what I have gathered- they basically explore places they really should not be exploring…legally. Most recently, they set their sights on London’s very own ‘Shard’. In the article they talk about they infiltrated the presumably secure building site and made their way to the top partly undetected. The article in it self is pretty amusing and the photos are amazing… they’re not super high quality but they sure as hell reinforces the idea of London being gorgeous by night. More after the break.

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FULL ARTICLE

“In the end our entrance was surprisingly subtle. With the lack of an audible response, we assumed we had gotten in clean, undetected by the patrolling security guards until we reached the 23rd level. “Oi, stop!”, a voice echoed in the stairwell. Instinctively we hit the deck, slowly turning our heads to see who had caught us. No-one? Again we heard the voice, “Who are you?!”. The confrontation was happening two floors below, one of the stragglers had the misfortune and bad timing of bumping into a worker on his way back down. The worker was unaware of the larger group above his head, proving security hadn’t been alerted to our presence, his focus primarily set on taking the captured explorer down to security. We couldn’t help him now, he had taken one for the team and descended without incident or revealing us. With a silent thank you, we continued.”

OK can I point out again that these guys are INSANE! 

FULL ARTICLE

Hello, it’s been a while since I last posted someone else’s work to get your creative juices flowing. LA-based photographer Dave Hill beautifully captures a variety of music artists in really crisp 35mm and medium format images. A lot of people use B&W as a scapegoat to save their photographs from extreme noise levels of shooting colour in low-light situations but when done properly like this, it’s incredible. Dave’s renowned for his digital cinematic composites and creative Photoshop skills but with this range of photographs, he strips it all away and let’s the tones & shades do the talking. More imagery on the reverse,  my favourite has to be the G-Unit & Emery shots!

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It’s that time of the year where my productivity at work decreases by 27%…It must mean the announcement of Sony’s World Photography Awards. Photography is a passion and hobby for many however the majority like myself have never considered the thought of pursuing a career in the field. The World Photography Organisation (WPO) supports professional (and more importantly), amateur and student photography by lending a global platform to showcase their work in photojournalism, fine art and commercial photography. On Tuesday 20th March the Open & Youth category winners, Moving Image/3D Award Shortlist and the Tate Collectives competition winners were announced. Check out my favourites after the break.

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The awards which will also being taking place alongside ‘World Photo London’ at Somerset House is a month long event, is host to various photography exhibitions/events such as portfolio reviews, workshops and symposiums by international industry experts for professional veteran photographers to the hobbyist street photographer alike. The Sony World Photography Awards winners’ exhibitions, curated by Michael Benson and the Candlestar team, will continue through to 20 May 2012

World Photo London

The Last Hero

A Maze

Antwerp St. Anna

P

Taste the atmospheric