St. Petersburg, home of the £500 lunch!

Not my favourite destination, but before I got there, somewhere I'd always wanted to visit, because of it's deserved reputation for beauty. In the couple of days I spent there, that beauty seemed to be more of a surface thing. I wouldn't describe it as the friendliest of towns, but a very interesting one. My visit was quite a humbling experience, due to the city's enthusiastic disdain towards visitors.

Another stupid hat.

Homo-eroticism aside, what was not so obvious about the banya from the programme was its side room complete with bar, flashing lights and stripper's stage, with pole.

We'll always have Leningrad.

The Ladies of the Bread Counter.

The meat girls were not so friendly.

Mushrooms for shoes.

St. Petersburg!

From St. Petersburg

Food Fauxtography

Carl Warner's world of food

Norway!

Playing with my food.


Ever since visiting Svarlbad and Tromso a decade ago I have wanted to come back to Norway, it's different in subtle ways to the rest of Europe, not exotic but has a parallel universe feel to it. Absolutely one of the best places I visted on the Rough Guides, also one of the most expensive, they are oil-rich [North Sea Oil - remember that? I think it bought some tax cuts for the well-off here in the UK in the 1980's] and their currency is separate to the Euro and consequently very strong. Alesund is billed as an Art Deco town, very pretty and friendly, and it gets rather wild in isolated pockets at the weekend. Delicious food but bring your own everything if you are even thinking of being on a budget there.

If you want to stay on a lighthouse or fly up a fjord,
this is a good place to start

What lurks beneath.

Taken in the admirably North Sea-focused Alesund Aquarium where, instead of the usual tiny sharks and tropical celebrities, they have mainly cod and plaice on display, because that's the kind of fish you need to know about if you live there. That's Norse efficiency for you not so much puritan, as practical.

The fish?

I dunno, some kind of deep sea bastard fish I reckon. Looks like a cross between the
Coelacanth and Alien.

The master bathed in God's Holy Light.

The Chef from Maki who cooked the most delicious spread of fish

I ate this, otherwise it would have eaten me.

The proper chopper.

Another fucking sunset.

Bleeding Rust.

Post Card

Runde Island is clean, neat and sweet, but still feels real, not like the Cotswolds, now so manicured and expensive, you can't afford to live there if you work there.

Big sky country and big sea water.

From Norway

Runde Island, see sea bird central.

The Death of Total Request Live...

Here is a link to an article about the demise of
mtv's flagship "music" show , which I was interviewed for on account of working on its precursor, the slipshod and fun if unimaginatively-titled, "mtv live". As the crotchety quotes they use imply, not an especially sad day for me.

People often ask me what the best thing about working with Carson Daly was, and it's an easy one to answer: it was the sex.

Halong Bay from home.

Here's what my camera saw as we were chasing the magical light at the floating village in the extraordinary Halong Bay in Vietnam.

Halong Bay - the orange that pre-empted the pink.

The knights of the road.

Hanoi has famously mental traffic, operating on a more intuitive flow [chi?] principle more than the western concept of stop and go. Still it's fucking terrifying, even when you understand that the key is simply to "go with the flow".

Because people spend a lot of their life on two wheels in Hanoi, it is one of those places where you feel the city on the move - their mass transit system being a never-stopping river of scooters.



Also the gear people wear on their bikes is subject as much to fashion as practicality.



I was also struck by how much the folk on their scooters and step-throughs looked like medieval knights as they fought their way through the other riders on their mounts.

Most fortuitous.

I have been remiss

and have left the updating of this later than seems polite, apologies if you [and we both know it is only you], felt you'd been kept waiting.

So what to do?

Well today it's been nothing, and I feel I have so little to provide. Having been lurking on the so-called"internet" and frankly pillaging blogs for their music, especially this brilliant one:

http://cicodelico-obscure-grooves.blogspot.com


I feel I should give something back to the out there.


A picture?

A soup recipe?

So here's two pictures from Rachel Blackman's powerful performance in her one woman show "The Art of Catastrophe" where you can see just how far she lets herself go inside and out in the context of a relatively short performance.

God's Fireworks.

From Sea of Ice and Fire.

When sitting at this desk my back is to the sun as it sets. I try to leave the door open as much I can, so I can hear and feel the outside, even whilst working. This afternoon, I had the sense I should go down to the sea and this is what I was rewarded by.

It took a while to get it. Sunsets are such a photographic cliche, usually the best thing to do, is sit down and enjoy them.

Could I?

Obviously not. When the option of having such exciting and vivid colours to play with was there.

Plus I had to let the freezing sea water wash around me up to the knees to get the reflective picture I wanted.

I had to give to get what I got and right or wrongerly I like the pictures better because they weren't easy.

Icarus Groyne

From Sea of Ice and Fire Again

Whitecliffs lost in a cherry pink sky.

From Sea of Ice and Fire.

The Wire.

From Sea of Ice and Fire.

I was after some tension here, but also like that the wire was lit the street light above me and the traffic zooming past on the South Coast Road.

The reviews are in and the tears are flowing...

In showbiz, you're not meant to pay attention to the reviews, especially the bad ones. But what about the lazy ones? Or the lazy, bad ones?

As Britain feels the fangs of it's worst recession for decades puncture deeper into it's over-leveraged flesh, guess who's poncing about a series of glamourous and expensive parts of the world?

For the record I did suggest we visit some affordable locations, even some in the UK, but our programme has been about exciting, desirable "dream destinations" and there's nothing I can do to change that. I do wish reviewers could come up with something other than "Nice work if you can get it", a phrase repeated in at least three reviews of the show so far, and as a voracious critic and reader of reviews I think they could try a little harder...

Having said that I can only wait for the very considered and specific excoriation of my failings as television presenter and human being.

Some great faces well lit.

The glamour photography of Rocky Schenk I have become facebook friends with the divine Anne Magnusson [a big deal for me], and one of the shots of her on the site was by Rocky who does that Old Hollywood style of lighting which is so difficult to master. I keep on trying it but it's a surprisingly subtle style to do, and I think best done with real lights as opposed to flashes as the set up has to be both technical and then I think, a little bit intuitive. in other words, it's magic.

The agent for Toby Amies

is now Vivienne Clore , no longer Money Mgmt. Please contact Vivienne if you have any enquires regarding, presenting, writing, or directing.

Havana good time.

From Cuba, Mexico, Columbia

Here's a shot I took at the boxing school we visited in Havana in between sweating and puffing during my intensive boxercise for the cameras. If you manage to visit Cuba you should make it your mission to hang out with the people who live there as much as possible, if only because the government's not too keen on it, but mostly because they are friendly and funny and really enjoy interaction with people who can come and go as they please. Watch out for the young hustlers though, we ended up buying an $80 round of drinks thinking our new friends were best friends...

If you came here via the Rough Guide tv show, welcome! please let me know and thanks for watching.

From Cuba, Mexico, Columbia

The boxing school in Havana is called Gimnasio de Boxeo Rafael Trejo. They were friendly, patient AND pugnacious.

Who Listens To Techno

is the name of a programme I made with Llinos Jones for Radio 4 a while back.

Llinos made the packages and I wrote and said the bits in between.

There's currently a copy available here which I'm sure is very illegal.

http://share.ovi.com/media/futureimage.public/futureimage.10030

I'm afraid you have to copy and paste it as I can't make the html link work properly. Feel free to tell me how if you know so.

If you listen, please let me know. I really enjoy making programmes with and or about music for Radio 4, but it's odd to make musical documentaries on a speech station huh?
Or not?

Photographing something that isn't there

Lovely and sad:

Todd Hido

That was weird

I went to beautiful Blackheath today to have my picture taken to publicise The Rough Guides Series 2. It was for OK magazine; not, it has to be said, my organ of choice , but my sister was very excited. My co-host on the series Julia Bradbury managed to perform for the camera with enthusiasm and I have a nasty feeling I willjust look desperately uncomfortable. The photographer Cameron was very understanding and forgiving though.


But I still can't work it out, and I wish someone would let me know, am I F, E, or D list now?

Drako's tattoo

From TRAVEL PICTURES

It's his motto, modus operandus. Trust. Absolute. Unconditional. Could you?

Flores Island, Indonesia.

From TRAVEL PICTURES

Malecon, Havana.

From TRAVEL PICTURES

Oxaca, Mexcio.

From TRAVEL PICTURES

Nature porn, Santa Marta, Columbia.

From TRAVEL PICTURES

Meanwhile on the slab

From TRAVEL PICTURES

The sushi chef.

From TRAVEL PICTURES

Sashimi in Zanzibar

From TRAVEL PICTURES

Seen from the sea.

From TRAVEL PICTURES

Taken on the way to swim with a manta ray! Flores Island, Komodo National Park. Indonesia.

Shot with the Leica, and weirdly exposed due its being dropped from a scooter. But film shots now look like history don't they? Even if only taken a couple of months ago.

The most relaxing spot available at the foot of the active volcano.

The terrace of the extremely casual hotel/house we stayed at on Stromboli.

From TRAVEL PICTURES

Let's try a photo

From TRAVEL PICTURES

The River Avon. Worcestershire.

My new found love for Fillippino journalism

Desperate for all kinds of attention though I am, I have never had anyone write such nice things about me

Audrey N. Carpio is a truly great journalist, she should be given a Pulitzer immediately.

How I take photographs, simple and maybe simplistic advice.

Good photography is all about being in the right place at the right time.

And that is down to forethought, reaction speed and luck. It’s up to you to make sure you are ready for the opportunity to take a good photograph. It’s like knowing when ripe fruit will fall off a tree and being there to catch it.

Anyone can take a good photograph, photographers take good photographs consistently.

You are taking the picture not the camera.

Think of your head, eyes and imagination as a very very clever and expensive camera.

Try spending a day taking mental pictures without a camera. Then reshoot the day with a camera and work out why you didn’t get what you saw.

Get in the habit of taking your camera with you everywhere and experiment and shoot with it when you would normally read, watch tv, or stare into space.

Try to shoot a picture that says exactly what you can say in a single sentence.

Be gentle on your friends, only show them the work you think is best. Editing your own work will strengthen your vision.

Look at the light wherever you go, there will always be somewhere where it’s beautiful.

Your camera is only as good at taking photographs as you are. Do your best to understand it.

How does it auto focus? On the centre or all around?

How does it read the exposure, again in the centre or all around?

If it is slow in taking a picture can you speed it up by setting some tasks [like exposure or autofocus] manually?

If there are automatic settings like portrait and landscape and so on make sure you know what they do. Experiment by trying those settings out in other areas.

Experiment as much as you can, [if it’s digital] it doesn’t cost anything.

- try taking thirty pictures and then editing them down to one.
Do this several times and then try and limit yourself to taking one picture a day for a week.

Try taking as many different views of one thing as possible, a person or landscape for example.

Think!

What is the light doing?

Where is it coming from?

What is it doing to your subject?

Does it look better coming from the side, straight towards you, or from behind you?

Is the light making your subject squint?

Are you helping the person looking at the photograph see what you see?

Make sure you are seeing in the viewfinder what you are seeing in your mind or heart, if not move till you do.

Why are you attracted to what you are seeing in the viewfinder?

Is the composition the best it could be?

What is it you want to say with this picture?

Is it boring?

How do you want people to feel when they see it?

Can you say or do something to make what you see in the viewfinder more interesting?

What will the camera need to do to take the picture?

Will the flash go off it’s meant to?

Will the flash go off if it’ s not meant to?

Will what you want to be in focus going to be in focus?

Get in closer.
-always a good rule of thumb.

Learn the rules so you can break them better.

Portraits.

If you aren’t ready, tell your subject to look away whilst you sort it out.

[Watch someone else taking a portrait and see the natural expression drain out of the subject's face as they wait staring at a camera that’s being fiddled with.]

When you’re ready tell them to look back and get the shot.

Or crack a joke or tell them something shocking and then get it. But remember you’re taking a picture of them, not a picture of what they look like bored or uncomfortable...

Make your portrait victims as comfortable as possible, they are THE SUBJECT not you.

People are used to immediate results with digital pictures, but don’t show them the bad ones. Get rid of them as you go along. Only show your subjects the good ones, and generally it’ s best to do that once you’ve got what you need...

If you can find a way to overexpose your portraits a tiny little bit your older subjects will thank you for it.

Landscapes.

Often disappoint when you get the pictures home. Small cameras aren’t always good at showing the scale of a wide view.

A good way to overcome this is by adding something smaller into the foreground that gives the viewer a sense of scale [know as “foreground interest” in the magazines] and allows them into the area.

Again know what you want to say about the space you see before you, and look for the best way to say it.

Photography is best when it is the combination of light, time, thought and emotion.