12 - London

After saying my goodbyes to the boys, I headed to the airport in Prague bound for London via Stockholm. Arriving in London in the early evening I caught the tube over to my hostel in Swiss Cottage. I then proceeded to stay for two nights while I tried to work out what to do i.e. a place to live and somewhere to work. I did manage to get out and explore Central London including visiting Big Ben, St James Park and Buckingham Palace.

After staying at the hostel and then going all around London; staying with a mate in near Crystal Palace, my cousin in Bethnal Green and then another hostel. Finally after going to around 5 - 10 rental inspections I got a room with two legends in Bethnal Green. Bethnal Green is an up and coming area in East London, close to Shoreditch. We lived in a great little three bedroom apartment right on the canal near Victoria Park with a ten minute walk to the tube and close to plenty of buses.

I thought finding a job would be a fairly simple process but it was far from it. I applied for dozens of jobs, had interviews with recruitment companies and meetings with anyone who I thought I could potentially get some graphic design work through. Alas due to my experience, I was unsuccessful. After a tough couple of months on the job search I finally decided to grab a bunch of CV's and head down to the Stratford Westfield to drop them off to managers. After popping into a number of shops, I walked into Levis. After speaking with Lee the manager, he interviewed me on the spot and gave me a job to start a few days later. I've never been happier and more relieved and went home to tell the lads and enjoy a couple of beers.

For the next five months I worked at Levis. I certainly love the brand and the people that I worked with but the money was terrible and being paid monthly was extremely difficult. About half way through after transferring numerous amounts of the money from my Australian account, I started to revaluate my prospects of being able to stay in London. Fortunately my flatmate Rob gave me a lifeline by offering some work in his factory. This helped immensely and so I spent a month or so working at Levis' plus a couple of days at the factory. Eventually the work with Rob dried up and I was again left with one source of income and a continuing increase to my debt levels.

Eventually it all came to a point where I had to make a decision, stay or go home. I decided to get in contact with my old manager in Sydney to enquire about possible work. He said there was nothing going but he would contact me within the next few weeks if anything turns up. Two weeks later I received an email to say he could offer five weeks work from around Easter time. That was it for me. I told him yes and began to work out flights home. I was very glad to have something to go back to but also very sad. I loved London, I had a great place to live, awesome flatmates, a good circle of friends and was also dating a great girl. But I knew that if I wanted to be able to afford to travel again anytime soon, I had to leave. So within the month I was on a plane bound for Sydney and straight back to work.

London will always a place in my heart and I look forward to the next visit to catch up with everyone in August this year. It's a shame I couldn't stick out the two years but at least I gave it a crack and had a blast doing it. Can't wait to visit all my friends in London sometime soon.
 

London

1: Big Ben 2: Subway - Waterloo, 3: St James Park 4: Wellington Arch, 5: Bubbles outside the Tate Modern, 6 & 7: Spitalfields Markets,
8: Victoria Park Canals, 9: The Lord Napier - Hackney Wick, 10: Burning stuff - Hackney Wick 11: Primrose Hill, 12: View towards Central London from Primrose Hill 13: Car - Primrose Hill, 14: Houses - Primrose Hill 15: Becca Wong - Portobello Road 16: Afternoon skate - Victoria Park 17: Icecream - Victoria Park 18: Family for a day - Victoria Park 19: Spring - Victoria Park

Shot on a Mamiya 7, 80mm f4.0 lens and Fuji Pro400H and Kodak Portra 400 and 160 film. Developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab in California.

08 - USA 01

So after our amazing road trip through Arizona, Utah and Nevada we packed up the hire car and drove back to Vegas. We then dropped the car off and jumped on the greyhound bus to our next destination, San Francisco. Now for anyone that hasn’t caught a greyhound bus before, well it’s very basic. Uncomfortable seats, power outlets in awkward spots and pretty terrible wifi if you are lucky to be on a bus with one. We had decided to catch a bus instead of flying to SF to save money ($40 compared to $150). The compromise was travelling 14 hours via LA and catching two buses. So leaving LV around 4pm with a quick stop in San Bernadino to change buses, we eventually made it to SF by about 7am the next morning. Absolutely shattered, we made our way to the hostel before catching up and some well needed rest.

We then proceeded to stay in San Francisco for the next five days wondering the streets, seeing the sights and catching up with friends. So waking up around 4am on our last day, we packed the last of our things and headed to the airport bound for Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto.

San Francisco

So after spending just over three weeks in Canada, we hopped on a late night bus out of Toronto bound for Buffalo. We were heading to Buffalo to catch a the train to NYC as it was again a cheap option to get to our next destination. We ended up waiting on an abandoned train platform in the early hours of the morning before our train eventually arrived and we were headed to NYC. Arriving in Manhattan, we then hopped on another bus to go across the bridge to New Jersey for the night. One of my brothers friends works for the Marriott in the US and could get us cheap deals every now and again on rooms in Marriott's across the country. This one happened to be just over the other side of the Hudson River in NJ. So after a quiet night in our hotel, we headed back to Manhattan to catch a bus seven hours south to visit our friend in North Carolina.

Finally we arrived in Norfolk, Virginia and were greeted with our friend Lindsey who came to pick us up. We then jumped in her car and drove about 45 mins south to Outer Banks. Outer Banks is a 200-mile stretch of peninsulas and barrier islands separating the Atlantic Ocean from mainland North Carolina. It's a quaint part of NC with lots of holiday beach houses and a small local population. But come summertime, the population surges with lots of people staying during their summer break. There is also a lot of history in the area with the Wright Brothers first ever flight occurring in the Outer Banks.

We only had a weekend here but we saw as much as as we could. This included exploring the sand dunes of Kill Devil Hills and a small road trip down the coast to Hatteras to check out some of many lighthouses plus some cool small towns with lots of abandoned buildings from past times when many more people use to choose Outer Banks as the holiday destination of choice. Lindsey then droves us back up to Norfolk early on the Monday morning and we jumped on the bus, heading north to Philadelphia.

Outer Banks, North Carolina

Philadelphia is somewhere neither Bryce or myself had been before considering the amount of travelling we had done throughout the USA. It's a very cool city with a lot of history, being one of the first cities founded in the late 1600's after the British first colonised the country. Again our time exploring was very minimal (two days) but I managed to walk around most of downtown taking photos on Mamiya 7 of anything interesting I could find. We then jumped on the MegaBus and took the four journey to our finally destination of the USA leg of our trip, NYC.

Philadelphia

New York City is huge. There is so much to see, do and places to drink and eat. It's of course a must to visit if you have never been to the USA before. But for us, it was more stop over on our way to Iceland and Europe. Nonetheless, I took full advantage of being there again (previously visited in 2010) and relentlessly journey around the city with my camera in tow. Visiting iconic locations like Central Park, the amazing view of Manhattan from Rockefeller centre and admiring the view from Brooklyn looking across the East River at sunset. But I also explored the lesser known places including streets of Bushwick, Green Point and East Williamsburg and Coney Island seeing some amazing street art, cars and meeting the colourful characters of such a great city. We ended up staying pretty far out in Brooklyn, not far from Coney Island, in predominately asian community which was an interesting experience. But finally after spending just over week, we headed to JFK airport and flew to one of my favourite places on earth, Iceland.

New York City (Manhattan, Brooklyn & Coney Island)

All images shot on a Mamiya 7, 80mm f4.0 lens and Kodak Portra 160 and 400 film. Developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab in Los Angeles, California.

07 - Canada

So after spending a a couple of weeks travelling around the deserts of Arizona, Utah and Nevada and visiting San Francisco we eventually made our way north into Canada in the July of 2013. Canada will always have place in my heart after living in Vancouver for six months during the 2010 Winter Olympics. This was the first time I had been back since leaving in August 2010 so I was keen to catch up with lots of friends while also photographing the beautiful surroundings and also visiting some new destinations. 

Our first stop was Victoria, the capital of British Columbia which is located on Vancouver Island. My brother and I went and stayed with out friend who lived on the island for just under a week, exploring the west coast of Vancouver Island and also going to a small music festival. After having an absolute ball, we departed Victoria with my next destination being Vancouver while my brother flew to Chicago and we would meet again at a later point.

I ended up staying in Vancouver for over a week wandering the city taking photos of iconic locations while also visiting friends I had made on my previous journey. I also ended up taking three new portraits as apart of my 25 portrait series which I was extremely happy about. After a great week, I then caught a flight over to Montreal where I was to meet up with Bryce and continue travelling together.

Montreal is my favourite city in Canada. That great mix of french culture with a really bustling and creative city. We ended up staying with a Guatemalan guy from AirBnb which was one of the best choices we ever made. He showed us lots of great places to eat including the best tacos I’ve had in my life which you definitely wouldn’t have found out if you kept to the regular tourists routes. We stayed in Montreal for about 4 - 5 days before jumping on a bus over to Toronto for our last stop on our Canadian adventure.

Toronto is a nice city but really doesn’t do anything for me. We had been there before (2010) but wanted to make another visit as we have Australian friends that live there. Canada is one of the easiest countries for Australians to getting holiday working visas so you can never go to far without hearing the distinct Aussie accent. Nonetheless we had a great time in Toronto. We spent almost 10 days in Toronto which was a lot but we had a lot of extra days to burn up before we were due to arrive in New York City and then make our way all the way down to North Carolina.

Vancouver & Victoria

Montreal

Toronto

All images shot on a Mamiya 7, 80mm f4.0 lens and Kodak Portra 160 and 400 film. Developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab in Los Angeles, California.

06 - Into the desert 01

It was the end of 2012 and after working hard in Australia for more then two years, I was feeling restless. I hadn’t been overseas since coming back from living and working in Canada as well as a trip throughout the USA in mid 2010. So after a few discussions with my brother, we decided on doing a big trip through the US, Canada, across to Europe and eventually the UK where I would live and work. I spent another six months working hard, saving my money and planning for the summer trip.

As apart of the the USA trip, I suggested to my brother Bryce that we do a desert road trip through some of the western states to get out of the big cities and check out some national parks. Previously in 2000, we had done a huge family trip through California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. It was an amazing trip in hindsight which took in many iconic national parks but being 14 at the time, I never really appreciated the magnificence and beauty of the unique places we were visiting. So fast forward 14 years and with a much more mature perspective of a 27-year-old, I thought revisiting these beautiful location along with my love of film and cameras would be a perfect combination.

So in early July 2013, I flew from Brisbane to LA to stay for one night before flying on to Las Vegas the next day to meet up with Bryce. The road trip didn’t start according to plan with Bryce arriving eight hours late after being on standby for a flight from Denver. So once he finally arrived we picked up our small rental car and drove late into the the night to out first stop in Kingman just over the border in Arizona. For the next six to seven days we drove hundreds of miles throughout three states. We visited the magnificent Grand Canyon National Park, took in the rich, red colours of Monument Valley, got to witness the beauty of Bryce Canyon National Park and gaze in amazement at the large valley formations of Zion National Park.

On our final day, we packed our bags into our rental car and made the trip back to Las Vegas en route to our next destination, San Francisco. This is still one of the best trips I’ve been on in my life and really made me fall in love with the desert. So much so that I’ve been back for a second road trip (post to come soon) and more plans to go back again sometime in the future. Feels like my second home! It was also the first time I completely shot using Kodak Ektar 100 and man the results speak for themselves. The gorgeous red and blue tones really shine through!

1 - 3: Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona 
4 - 6: Monument Valley, Utah 
6 - 7: Glen Canyon Dam, Arizona 
8: Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah
9 - 10: Kolob Canyon, Utah 
11: St George, Utah

All images shot on a Mamiya 7, 80mm f4.0 lens and Kodak Ektar 100 film. Developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab in Los Angeles, California.

05 - Australia in black and white

Black and white (B&W) film is the original and classic film look. No matter what colour films have come and gone, nothing really beats a beautiful B&W shot.

When I started shooting film back in 2010 using my Pentax MZ-S as my main camera, I was shooting all types of film. Colour negative, slide, B&W, expired and fresh film to see what I liked and didn’t like. This included TMax 100 and TMax400 which have become two of my favourite black and white films. Some of my favourite shots from those first two years (2010 - 2012) are mainly B&W. There is something about losing the complexity and overwhelming nature that can come with colour and get back to the basics: strong focus on light and shadow, contrast and subject matter.

That’s why I always enjoy going into the vault and looking at some of my favourites and strongest images from my time shooting both 35mm and medium format film. Since stepping up to the medium format game with my Mamiya 7, I have shot 90 - 95% colour negative film. But again, some of my all time favourites from the last few years are B&W shots. I would have shot 4 - 5 rolls of B&W film in the first six month of owning the Mamiya 7 with 2 - 3 shots that I absolutely love which wouldn’t have worked as well had they been in colour.

After shooting family portraits on Christmas Day 2014 (blog post to come), I’ve realised again the power and effectiveness in a great black and white shot. So going forward I will be incorporating photographing more B&W film, even more so with a potential overseas trip to come in mid 2015.

Pentax MZ-S & Contax G2 (Brisbane, Sydney & Melbourne)

Mamiya 7 (Sydney & Brisbane)

All images shot on Kodak TMax 100, TMax 400 and Illford Hp4 125 film. Developed and scanned by Richard Photo Lab in Los Angeles, California and RDFL in Sydney, Australia.