All Change

So after what seems like for ever sat in front of a computer screen, the blog has been moved into my website. This means this blog your reading right now, will now end.

But, honestly, don't be upset (like you would) all you need to do is go straight to my website and click on BLOG. Or just click on this...

http://jamesbowden.net/blog

...that will take you right there. Please bookmark or follow along on RSS. I will aim to put all the old content up there, and new content will be added all the time, especially as I've got a few pretty exciting projects coming up in the next few months.

enjoy.

Robin Hood & Ferries

Fforest

Its been a busy ol week, though not allways with the work, the waves have been GOOD!

Shot a wedding at the weekend at a wondefull spot called FForest farm in west wales, and it was a simply stunning day. So now im labouring through the thousands of shots and editing them down, sheesh its tough. Tomorrow I get back the films I shot too, 120 & 35 and loads of polaroid love.

Here is a few previews of the day. 

I love storms

We had this great little lightshow over us last night. So whilst Anna mourned the loss of the king of pop, I stuck my camera out the window and took these. 

Super Eight

Last year I shot a load of Super 8 film, got them processed and then forced my friends and family to sit in a dark room whilst I projected them on the wall with my temperamental projector. Needless to say not many people stuck around till the last film. 

So, eventually I sent them off and got them tele-cinied. What that means is that we can enjoy them on the screens now. 

I personally think it's not the same...but it's better than letting the films gather dust in the corner. 

This one is mostly shot on Lundy Island and a little bit in wales. Silent and unedited...just how we like em. 

kit

Kit, it's a personal thing...but I'm always intrigued into what everyone else is using. Be it cameras, lens', film stock, wetsuits, bread...whatever...It's just nice to know.

So here is a little picture of what I am mostly using at the moment, no I don't keep them in the fridge, in fact I don't know why I put them there, but anyway...

a good weekend

Planning

big plans are being made...niiiiceeeee

The Project

It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.

-- Ernest Hemingway

1952 Vincent Black Lightning

Click here for my favourite track. And as for the photo...this is Rollei Free, hitting over 150mph on a Vincent Black Lightning, in 1948 and smashing a world record for motorbikes in speedos (aparently he tore up his leathers in a crash just before this attempt)

Matt Squared

fellsy...no PS, no saturation slider, nothing...

Processing

Just picked up 18 rolls from the lab...it's been a good afternoon!

here is a few bits from oz mixed up with the batch.

Travel Companion

I've talked about it many times, but my Rollei 35 has risen the the ranks and is now sitting pretty as my favourite camera ever. 

Now that is a pretty big call, I mean I have alot of cameras (thanks ebay) but as a travel companion it's hard to beat. It may not have the sharpest, crispiest of lens', but it sure aint no coke bottle lens either. It's got that kinda trashy but sharp combination that is hard not to love.

The B35 model was one of the bottom end rollei 35's built in the late 60's/early 70's and to make it cheaper they put in an uncoupled solanium (no batteries) light meter. Sooo anyway, what this means is you can read the light meter, set the aperture, shutter and focus...all from waist level, it takes shooing from the hip to a new level. This means you can go for all sorts of sneaky little shots, and roam the streets firing this little mini away and G public is none the wiser.

I almost cried when I broke my Rollei in Warsaw earlier this year, got the shutter and lens barrel jammed somehow. So a few days later whilst sitting in my hotel room in Moscow, I set to work on it with my penknife (the little screwdriver bit to be precise) and rebuilt it, it was fiddly and I ended up with 3 spare screws at the end of it, but it was fixed...and worked like magic. Now try fixing a broken modern digi camera with a penknife, yup, It's just not going to happen.

So hats off to Heinz Waaske, the German designer that created the top dog in my camera bag.

Slides

So from my office in the garden I have been organizing all sorts of little things... and some exciting ones too, but along with that, I thought I would finally get aquatinted with flickr, so here is the first little slideshow of some of the film stuff from the train journey I took earlier this year. 

Ania

Ania, my connection in Warsaw (on the left) and the cousin of a good and talented friend from Tasmania, Pickles. Thanks to the both of you for all your help at the start of this year...

Chaff

So whilst the mass organisation of my life continues I'm still sifting through the Sweden shoot files, sorting the wheat from the chaff so to say. These are just a few of the offcuts I pulled off the pile this evening, they won't make the cut, but I like them none the less.

Jack being angry, Jon being stressed and Karin looking all country living.

zzzzzZZZ

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ...uhh...time for bed

Whilst in Sweden

While over in the land of lakes and elks we did a few things for howies new company...teepay. It's a cool idea and me thinks it should do pretty well, and shooting these tee designs was much, much fun!

me hand

this is about me, now i love to write, but writing about yourself…now thats not easy.

this should be going up on the website...soon as poss.

byron love

visit this if you have a chance. It's my good chum Jonno's blog. He was one of my hosts over in oz and has a great little thing going down in byron bay. 

Sorry about the board buddy! 

Sweden for 15 seconds

Just a quick update from sweden...Fredrik and his chums shaping the trails...

Wellingtons Hut

Hidden steep on the slopes of Mount Wellington is this wonderfull little hut. It's hard to find, hard to get too and even harder to breath once the stove is lit inside.

Escapades

So I'm back from a wondrous time of going AWOL over in Australia, and now it's time to get back to work.

Shortly after arriving back I got handed a copy of the howies Summer 2009 catalogue, and I was pretty chuffed with the outcome. My train escapade is featured in a 26 page feature in the middle of the book and even the cover, Not only that, but the product work I did with Anna and Zoe in australia is looking good on the other pages. So massive thanks to the howies guys for giving me the opportunity to do something a little different for them. 

Yesterday I rushed up to bristol to set up a small exhibit I will have running in the howies stores in Bristol and London, my train and Factory work is being featured in their 'Staircase Galleries' and you might spot a few other pieces of mine scattered around the shop. So if you find yourself in either Carnaby Street, London or Queens Road, Bristol...pop in a have a peruse, hopefully I will be able to change the prints a couple of times, to keep things fresh as a daisy...

Now I'm enjoying the sunshine in Tenby Wales, before heading off to Sweden on Sunday for the next...Job? (sounds strange calling it that) 

Reasons

10 Reasons to go slow

1. Footprints, those dirty little carbon ones
2. It’s cheaper
3. To challenge yourself
4. Because the other people tell you that you can’t
5. Because you realise you can
6. To go somewhere new
7. To learn how to pack light
8. To realise that the journey is important
9. It’s something to talk about over a wine fuelled dinner
10. To travel.

Slow Down

You need to go somewhere far away, somewhere eight time zones and seven thousand miles away, or somewhere just a little too much of a walk away. How do you do it, well you chose the easiest and quickest way, don’t you? Book your flight, check in at the airport, twelve hours and your there. Pick up the car keys, hop in the front seat, ten minutes and your there. Job done.

It’s not the only way though, there is another way. 

It’s called Slow Travel. 

It takes longer, it’s harder, takes organisation and at times it’s just not comfortable. But slow travel isn’t about comfort, effort or time. Slow is taking the train to china, or taking the bike to the shop a few miles away, slow is about enjoyment and reward. But what slow is mostly about is simply going slower, enjoying the ride and stopping off to smell the roses along the way. 

After all, there isn’t a rose to smell in an airliner. 

Van Diemen's Land

Cold nights, chopping wood, camps, log cabins, sunburn, dirt, snow, driving, campfire cooking, fishing, boats, no internet, no mobiles, no plan...love it

Peed

Pawns, pros, points, peaks and packing the car. All the P's in Byron bay. 

Happy Easter