My Birthday

For my birthday Pieta, Jenna and I went to Pressure Drop. A play/gig about English life in 2010 for middle class white folk. It was at an art gallery called the Wellcome Centre in Euston.

Billy Bragg and his band provided the music. Wicked.

There were 3 stages + Billys stage scattered throughout the space. The crowd gathered and moved around the gallery as the actors moved from stage to stage. It was amazing. Fantastic, passionate acting with a great storyline and rad tunes provided by Mr Bragg and co.

I got to meet him again which made my night. He's so cool! I got an autographed book too which I can add the Bragg memorabilia pile. He's playing 20 nights so I may go back.

After the gig we headed to Shoreditch as I was taking photos at a bar called McQueen. Cool place. 3 rooms, bars, bands, djs, performers. It was a rad night, with rad peeps.

The next day we decided to hit the park and catch some rays. We bought a shit ton of food, cider and Jenna bought me the raddest cake EVER. It was a STIG Top Gear cake. U rock Jenna. haha genius.

Evan and Amanda joined us but after about 45mins the clouds came so we went and chilled at Jenna's. That night I was working at a new place in Brick Lane called 93 Feet East. Trendy area in east London. It was wicked. Amazing bands and DJ's. Huge crowds, 2 huge rooms, outdoor bar and food stall area serving all sorts of cuisines. I got asked to take photos there every event they have now so I'm pretty psyched about that one. Only thing that sucks is getting there and back! 1 hour each way isn't fun. But that is London.

Tonight is Gang of Four and after party! Yew.

Some photos of my Bday weekend.

Springaling ling

So Spring has arrived in London town. The weather has been amazing the last two weeks, getting up to..GET THIS 20 degrees! Nothing but sunny days, although today is overcast ;(. I spoke too soon.

I have been doing a bit of photography in a few clubs around London. From trendy designer bars where the cheapest drink is 25 pounds to, alternate clubs in Camden playing wicked bands to Cabaret style bars in Shoreditch. All fun, all interesting. Money is okay, contacts are good too. I don't want to do club stuff forever but it will help build a good client base for more photographic/design work.

Kate Scissor was over from oz Friday night. We showed her around Brick Lane (a cool spot in East London), there's everything from outdoor bars, restaurants galore, food stalls, markets, vintage clothes stores, op shops, old style diner bowling alley, record stores, galleries, clubs. Very rad spot. We had a few drinkies there then decided to move on and just go wherever the night took us. We stumbled across the Ten Bells pub where Jack the Ripper frequented and got his victims drunk before slaying them silly.

We then stumbled across a silent film being screened in Spitalfields, there were tons of people sitting down watching the film. What was cool is there was a rad instrumental post rock band playing along to the film haha. Crazy. There was a cool outside bar with heaters so we had pints and desert before heading onto a cocktail bar down the road. Deadly, we punished about 6 cocktails each..that I can remember. Then ended up in Oxford Street somehow, again..can't remember. The rest of the night was a blur. I passed out in a bus and must have dropped my phone. A nice lady woke me up and handed me my phone. Genius.

Last night we went and saw Parkway Drive. It was mental. Sold out at the HMV Forum in Shoreditch. People were going off. It was so good to see the Byron boys shredding.

Anyway some photos below of the park "common" just up the street from our place. It gets packed on weekends now, people stripping down to their undies. Freaks!

Camera Gear to date..

Canon 50D Dslr Body

Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flashgun

Canon T50 35mm Film Slr with 50mm Lens

Tamron 70-300mm 3.5-5.6 Lens

Samyang 8mm 3.5 Fisheye Lens

Canon 28-135mm IS 3.5-5.6 Lens

Canon 17-55mm IS 3.5-5.6 Lens

Fancier Sling Bag

Fancier Ball Head Tripod

Lowepro Travel Bag

Lomo Fisheye 2 with Flash

Lomo Fisheye

Lomo Underwater case

NEW WEBSITE FOR EVENT PHOTOGRAPHY

Yo, I have created a new website for my club/band/event Photography.

Check it out and pass it around.

tagyoureit.tumblr.com

TAG YOU'RE IT

I also have a new email address - danenicholaswalker@googlemail.com

RUSSIAN CIRCLES & EARTHLESS

Of late..

I thought I would post an update of what's been going on in ol Blighty of late.

Clapham Junction (my hood) life is bloody sweet. Love the area, great house and housemates, rent is super cheap for London $140 aud/week...Double room, super fast unlimited internet, 600 cable tv channels (I only watch one station...DAVE, 24hr Top Gear) and all bills included. Dooshin! Food and grog is super cheap here, plus we have a fresh fruit and veg guy who sells his produce on the street on our doorstep. Full bag on Fruit+Veg for under 3 pound. 6 pk 440ml beer (any type) for 5 pound. Large Pizza from Tesco's 1 pound. Travel is expensive though and gets costly if you go out lots like I have been. Buying drinks at pubs/clubs can get expensive but I usually get free drinks if I'm taking photos. There are some rad bars that do all you can drink (any drink possible) for 5 pounds from 7-9pm.

So after not working for around 7 months I think it's about time I start looking for something. My funds are depleting although I'm not too worried, life is good and I'm happy. It's hard to get bored in London, if I was bored I probably would be working already.

I don't particularly want to work for anyone and I'm enjoying photography so I intend on pursuing it until I'm either broke or making enough money to survive. I applied for a casual photography job the other day at a designer/up market club called Supperclub, in Notting Hill - they are all over the world. I got a call straight back and was asked to come for an interview shortly after. I got the job the next morning. It's 15 pound an hour which good for UK pay...thought it was 12 but my math sux. I'm looking forward to it, plus the opportunities to get more work from here are going to be good. It's cool because I get to party, get free drinks, get to meet heaps of people and don't have a boss on my back. I just do my own thing.

My mate Wade has been helping me out with work and getting my club photos up to scratch which is awesome. I bought a $600aud Flash last week, it works wonders. It would want to at that price! I just bought another lens today for $50aud. Score! Plus about 60 Photography magazings for $30.

Wade's girlfriends band Paper Crows just got signed to Lily Allen's producers new label so we did a full on photoshoot for them. It went extremely well, we shot it in the woods in the outskirts of London. Their producers came down to see how we were going. They were surprised I think and very happy with our work. They work with the Pussycat Dolls, Tom Jones, Shakira, Destiny's Child etc so it was bloody cool for them to be so stoked on our photos. I'm sure it will bring some more work our way. So now Wade and I are teaming up to create a photography business over here. In the middle of it all now. He has good connections, his photos are great and we have very similar ideas/styles which works well. My background in design and photo manipulation helps too. So there's no reason why we can't make some money doing what we love and working for ourselves. We're both very passionate, motivated and....pretty broke! So that helps.

I've been surviving on freelance work from back home, doing design stuff for various people. It's keeping me even which is good. Although I just bought several hundred pounds worth of gigs tickets for some upcoming shows. So many good bands coming it's stupid. These are some of the gigs I'm going to.

Grails (fav band at the moment)
Earthless
Shrinebuilder
Cancer Bats
Trash Talk
Against Me!
Slayer
Converge
Between the Buried and Me
Kylesa
Billy Bragg (playing on my bday)
Cathedral
Astra
Russian Circles
EYEHATEGOD
Band of Horses
Red Chord
Aborted
Cold Cave
Dinosaur Jnr
Eric Clapton
RATM
Crosby Stills Nash
Sepultura
Black Sabbath
ZZ Top
ELP
Uriah Heep
AC/DC
Iron Maiden
Megadeth
Iggy Pop
Trap Them
ETID
A Storm of Light
Jeff Beck
Motorhead
Echo and the Bunnymen
Alice in Chains
Motley Crue
Anthrax
Gallows
Rollins
Municipal Waste
Sick of it All

And I just got a call from Ben Walker (literally while I'm typing) saying that he has tickets to Glastonbury for me if I work 3 shifts there. Led Zeppelin are confirmed to play! F*&k! Goosebumps.

Other than that, I'm loving it here. There's so much to do every day/night, wicked bars, pubs, restaurants on our doorstep. 7 mins to central London. Tons of wicked art and creative people. The weather is awesome finally too. T-shirt weather, 18 degrees and SUN! Everything is starting to look nice now, not grey and beyond freezing. I want to start exercising, I'm so unfit I think? I've lost 7 kilos since I left. My diet is healthier than ever, WAYYY less booze too. Just not enough exercise. Plenty of walking but it's not enough to keep fit. I would be happy to live here for a few more years yet but will be home when my visa runs out in 18 months. Might try and get an ancestry visa after that. I don't want to go home. More travel though in between... Italy, Austria, wherever.

Back to Morocco end of May when Rob arrives, then Switzerland with ROBBOOOOO and Ev! Wicked. Cannot wait for that!

So that's pretty much me up to date.

New Paintings

I started working on some new paintings lately. Loving it. Please click to enlarge. I've added 3 of Leah to show you the process of building up the artwork.