Housed

Old Vic New Voices is a lot more than a community and outreach department at The Old Vic. As well as working with schools, the team also develops programmes to cultivate and support new talent and works on thought-provoking projects. Their Community Company is about to perform their first production, Housed, on The Old Vic stage and I was lucky enough to go take some photographs during one of their rehearsals last month.

The cast ranges in age from 16-60s and well as on-stage talent from all walks of life, there is also a large backstage and production team. I only got a chance to see a few scenes in rehearsal but was impressed with the writing, direction and acting. I can't wait to see the finished product!

Dapper Dan

A couple of weeks ago, I spent a laughter filled hour taking photos of my friend Himesh in his flat. I walked through his front door to be greeted by a very snappy chap. His jacket was ridiculously smooth to the touch (I stroked it a bit) and I loved his classy but bright bow tie.

We had a lot of fun playing with different angles and ideas while still aiming for a simple straight-forward portrait. I think we were both pleased with the end results- I've shared two below. If you'd like to see more of Himesh, I'd highly recommend his Tumblr: A Weekly Read. He curates a varied and interesting range of articles and I always look forward to seeing what he's chosen!

I Kind of Drift Away

You may recognise Sarah from a very recent portrait post.  When we got together this time we decided to have some fun with balloons.

Well, let me tell you that inflating 30 balloons is not fun (they're dry and rough on fingers). Transporting 30 balloons is not fun (I had to walk to our destination and back as I obviously wasn't going to fit on a bus and managed to pop one of my balloons within 30 seconds of leaving my flat). But the shoot itself? Lots of fun.

The Horniman Museum very kindly gave us permission to traipse around with all our balloons in tow taking photographs and I enjoyed showing Sarah a glimpse of the place. I would very strongly recommend a visit if you've not been. The grounds are beautiful, with interesting gardens and a giant set of instruments to play outside plus so so many curiosities inside.

Sarah pulled out all the stops for a relaxed, glamorous look that fit in well with the surroundings. One moment looking sophisticated, the next more Mother Nature.

I think we both learned a lot from the shoot and enjoyed experimenting and playing - and the constant changing position of the sun (from beaming down to shy) gave me plenty to worry about when setting up shots.

Here are a few of my favourite photos from the day. Sarah is sharing her own post over on her blog, so do visit her too and have a look around while you're there!

Time Travel on the Heygate Estate

I've always been drawn to photographs of abandoned places but have never been brave enough to find them myself. Just over a year ago, a friend and I made an attempt at urban exploring around the Heygate Estate, which is probably the closest I'll ever get to being daring and brave.

Almost as soon as we arrived, we ran into a man who thought he was a time traveller. After gently extracting ourselves, we didn't have any more interactions, though we did walk past a social centre and church that was still in use, see several motorcyclists cut through and walked past a small community of people who still lived there. They were having coffee outside in a manner that didn't quite fit with the surroundings. Everything was boarded up and it was eerie and a little sad to think of all the people who had lived there.

Some people have said the estate was rough and crime riddled, others say it was a community and miss living there. Either way, proper gates have now gone up, there are dogs patrolling, and walls are starting to come down. I thought it would be worth looking back at the estate as it was a year ago.

A spritely East London shoot

Sarah describes herself as an Urban Pixie and I couldn't agree more! From her elfin smile, to her otherworldly hair and the way she attracts many a stander-by to come say hello, she can certainly appear to be from another land (Canada in fact!) with a slight city, punky vibe.

She's always a joy to photograph and we met up on Saturday for a mini-tour of the side-streets of Brick Lane to take advantage of the colourful and and ever-changing street art on display.

We had a lot of fun dodging down side-streets, repeatedly running into various street art tour groups and turning down many an offer for the best curry meal in London!

Run London Run!

I watched the London Marathon live for the first time last year and was absolutely blown away by the atmosphere and excitement of the day. I had so much respect for the range of runners and it was exhilarating to stand on the side and get caught up in the crowds cheering for people - often choosing a name from a jersey and shouting out a bit of extra encouragement.

I took my camera down nice and early this year in the hopes of catching sight of Mo Farrah and was so excited to have him past so close to me and so close to the finish line at about 24.5 miles. It was inspiring to see so many other elite athletes before the steady stream of amateur runners began.

I stuck around for several hours and ended up catching a wee bit too much sun, but it's addictive and hard to peel away as you witness runners pushing through walls, splashing their friends with water as they spot them amongst the spectators and helping their fellow runners to the side of the road for medical assistance, most likely adding time to their valuable personal bests.

I snapped so many photos, but have pulled out my favourites.

Eyes bigger than my stomach

I decided to challenge myself in the first few months of this year and have been trying to photograph food like crazy. It's taken over my weekends a bit (I've eaten well) but now I'm needing a little break from it all to asses what I've learnt and give my waistline some time to recover! All recipes came from various Moosewood cookbooks. Yum!