Grandad's 80th Birthday Bash

At the weekend the Organ troops headed down to Halstead, Essex, with an abundance of champagne and food to celebrate my Grandad, Donald Sydney Organ's 80th birthday.
I always make my Grandma a calender every Christmas of family photographs, so this was a perfect event to get some good family snaps to use and I feel I got some really nice portraits, so I decided to put some of the best ones up. Enjoy!

Click on image to enlarge

The Elephant Parade - London

As mentioned in my earlier post dated Saturday 22nd May, I told of my plans to photograph some of the wonderful 250 elephants placed around London. Unfortunately i did not get nearly all of them done but did photograph as many as I could by walking from Notting Hill (where I saw the actors James and Oliver Phelps who play the twins Fred and George Weasley in Harry Potter getting onto the underground!) to Soho, going through Kensington, Hyde Park, Green Park, Regent Street and Carnaby Street. I thought the elephants were really imaginative and beautifully decorated and I shall continue to photograph as many as I can before they are removed. But for now, I hope you enjoy some of the photographs I have taken.

Click on image to enlarge.

"Travels On My Elephant" by Thammakit Thamboon (Notting Hill Gate)

"Naveen" by John Stefanidis (Notting Hill Gate)


"Oran (You Stole My Heart)" by Adam Bridgland (Notting Hill Gate)

"Lunacrooner" by Maria Ines Aguirre (Kensington High Street)


"Whisper" by Soju Tanaka (Kensington High Street)



"The Isles of London" by Stephen Walter (Kensington Gore)

"Fatima" by Natasha Mann (Kensington Gore)

The Happy Herd in Hyde Park

"Blitz" by Rasamee Kongchan (Hyde Park, Dell Garden)
"Dart" by Rasamee Kongchan (Hyde Park, Dell Garden)
"Vroom" by Rasamee Kongchan (Hyde Park, Dell Garden)
"The Swan" by Peera Bangkae (Hyde Park, Dell Garden)
"Ladybird" by Peera Bangkae (Hyde Park, Dell Garden)
"Spike" by Jirawan Suwanaklang (Hyde Park, Dell Garden)

"Blue Macaw" by Jirawan Suwanaklang (Green Park)

"Karma" by Professor Gordon Murray (Green Park)

"Spotty" by Nongklan Pornmingmas (Green Park)

"Elefun" by Rosie Brooks (Green Park)

"The Empire is not Striking Back" by Chintan Upadhyay (Green Park)


"Ampersand" by Luca Boonkerd Kaewdee (Hyde Park Corner)

"Zabriskie" by Storm Thorgerson (Hyde Park Corner)


"Tree Of Love" by Anchalee Intorn (National Geographic, Regent Street)


"Vanda" by Rosie Sanders (Swallow Street)


"R" by Gavin Tuck (New Burlington Place)


"Candy" by Isaac Mizrahi (Carnaby Street)


"Elephish" by Mariana Bassani (Foubert's Place/Regent Street)



"Bertie" by Julien MacDonald (Foubert's Place/Kingly Street)



"Kissed By Lulu Guinness" by Lulu Guinness (Carnaby Street/Broadwick Street)



The Elephant Parade Shop (Carnaby Street)


"Maureen" by Mackenzie Thorpe (Queens Walk, National Theatre)



"Sally" by Joanna May (Queens Walk, National Theatre)

The Rolling Stones - Like A Rolling Stone (Music Video)

I went to a talk by Andy Earl, a photographer who has worked with many hugely successful musicians. He showed us his music video for the Rolling Stones "Like A Rolling Stone" which is one of my favourite songs and videos. Learning how he made such an impressive video was incredibe, he used 12,000 still images shot using 2 Nikon 35mm cameras and a hand-held flash, a technique he perfected from art college, to create it. The video was directed by Michel Gondry and although you may not believe, contains no moving image whatsoever. By using the two cameras balanced on each shoulder and combining the images he managed to create this amazing moving image effect. I love the Stones version of Bob Dylan's original song and I think the video is breathtakingly good. Andy Earle is one of my favourite photographers in the field that I am most interested in and shows how experimenting and perfecting your own techniques can lead to such outstanding work. Thanks Andy Earl for inspiring me to do band photography!