Friday in Nature, Saturday Recovering, and A Beautiful Sunday

On Friday, Luke, Liz and I went out to Hampstead Heath and spent a wonderful afternoon among trees and open fields. But before we left, right as I was walking out of my building complex, I met a woman from Iraq. She didn't speak a word of English, so I had some slight communication problems to say the least. I talked to her for a while, even though she probably didn't understand a word I was saying to her. I couldn't tell if she was homeless, but it appeared no one was with her. I reached in my pocket to give her some money, but she refused, kissing her lips with her hand and then pointing to the sky. I was really surprised at her overall kindness toward me photographing her. It was really cool meeting someone that I couldn't speak to and coming away with that experience.
There was beautiful light and we finally broke out the frisbee and tossed around for a while. It felt really nice and made me relaxed and tranquil. We went back after the sun went down and prepared for a crazy night out in London, where I got to see two of my friends studying in Madrid. It was a great night, one to remember, at least what I didn't forget.

















Saturday was pretty bad; everyone was feeling a bit under the weather. Night came, and I was still feeling lame, but I went out anyway and met some pretty cool people in Shoreditch.
Sunday I woke up refreshed and feeling much more ready to spend the day in a productive manner. After a goodbye breakfast with some sorority sisters, me and Luke went to Russell Square and met up with our friend Jake. Dave, Taylor and Andrew came a bit later and we tossed the disc around again under cloudless skies. Then we headed over to my friend Pat's place for a relaxing afternoon of T.V., hookah, and horribly unhealthy food to eat. I really love the 7 photo series of Luke I posted, but I can think of someone who might appreciate it more than I do.


Luke Warm, a changed man.

Sunny Weather, Sad Feelings

Today was absolutely gorgeous outside. The weather has been unbelievable this past week, nothing what I expected. Hopefully it will last for a while, but I’m really looking forward to fall. This morning, after sleeping a couple hours, I got up and met my mom for breakfast before she left to go back home. The couple of times we ate breakfast together was in Marylbone, the neighborhood her hotel was in. It was really nice sitting at the outside tables, being able to watch people pass by in such and easygoing manner. After we ate, mom came through by purchasing some staple grocery items for the flat, one of which was lots of toilet paper. We then checked out this really cool Button store that apparently has been around for a long time. It was closed, but I can always go back, unfortunately for my mom she can’t, at least for a while. Her taxi dropped me off and that was the end of my mother in England. It was really nice seeing her in this environment because it’s been a while since I’ve had a vacation like experience with family, blood speaking of course.





When I got back to my flat, my roommates were all still sleeping, obviously considering the night we had. So I cleaned a bit and consequently starting the awaking. It was a pretty lazy day to say the least, but I did make a very good purchase to watch streaming football. We caught the second half of the Manchester United vs. Chelsea game, only 8 pounds for a year, definitely worth it.
Later just around sunset Luke and I ventured out of the flat for a walk, feeling cooped up. We took the tube down to South Bank and walked up towards the Thames and onto the Embankment tube and back to our place. There was a really nice crispness to the air, almost like a true fall night. We took some photos, but we weren’t really feeling it much. I got a decent shot of the eye, but it’s the eye so not that interesting. Then we stopped to shoot outside a carnival game and I saw this couple making out. I don’t really like the photo that much, but I just wanted to post it. When Luke seems sad, it makes me sad, sometimes.

These are photos I took during a day spent with my mom. I have to go shoot down at the Thames right now so I can't write about the day now, but I will be posting later tonight.

Bath

Today I went to Lacock and Bath.

The main man for The Lady Luck Club, who played at the Festival of the Thames



A street vendor down by the river



A little boy, who after his 10 seconds of fame and admiration of the London crowd, wasn't very happy about getting down from the stage.



I left the concert field area because I really needed to pee. Ada came with me because even I was nervous about the amount of people around us. We had to go to the portapottys to the side of the field and I noticed a construction wall blocking off areas away from the Thames. I looked through a hole and stumbled upon this shot. A man taking a smoke break out back. I think the lighting is really cool, and reminds me a lot of the photographs my photo class were admiring in class by Gregory Crewdson. It almost looks like a staged set, but it's not.



I took this when my mom and I went out to a Lebanese restaurant. I really love how her clothing blends in well with the environment.

Mother In Town

Liverpool Street tube station

Speakers' Corner

Today I went to Hyde Park and shot a speaker at the famous Speakers’ Corner. Terminator 24 was his name and he often referred to himself as Lucifer. Some things I actually found myself agreeing with him, but for the most part it was a lot of nonsense.

Shoreditch

Yesterday I traveled to Shoreditch by myself to meet up with Julia, Liz, Graham and Ada. It was great not going with the group because I was able to stop and take photos at my own will, and not hold-up the group. Shoreditch turned out to be even cooler than Camden in my opinion. So many young people were out on the streets or grabbing drinks at open lounges. We decided to stay the evening and that is when I started to get some cool shots.

camden Town

Yesterday I went to Camden with Liz and Luke. It was a very interesting part of London that we were seeing for the first time during the day. There was a much younger demographic, and more “artsy” than most of the other parts of the city we’ve been to. Ironically enough, my shots were very abstract and “artsy.” In general nothing much was going, so we just walked around backstreets and residential areas, admiring the beautiful architecture and charm. We found a pub called George the IV, which had flowers covering practically every part of the building on the outside. It had a wonderful old pub smell to it, with your typical working English men gathered in patches, drinking their pints. Now you know when you’re in a pub that doesn’t cater to your average tourist when two visa cards get declined because they don’t ever have to take American credit cards. So Luke saved the day and paid for our drinks. We went back home and had some friends over for a relaxing night.

Cleaning and Ducks

08/09/08

Today I woke up and decided with Luke, my other roommate with no class on Monday, to clean our entire flat from top to bottom. I mean we really cleaned, everything from dishes and laundry to vacuuming, and overall organizing. It felt great, especially when we were done, but it completely wiped me out. We went to Hype Park after to get some fresh air and explore a bit, but I wasn’t thinking clearly and just wanted to sit down. After sitting on a bench for a while, with nothing having grabbed my attention, I decided to go home and come back at night, hoping for some more interesting photos. My one post will show you exactly just how captivating some of the things I was seeing. Wish me luck for the night shoot; hopefully Hyde Park is nicer than Central Park, sorry Mom.

Regent Street Fair

07/09/08

On Sunday, Liz and I ventured out of the flat, down to the Piccadilly Circus tube station, and walked up Regent Street, and back to the flat. There was a wonderful street fair going on, with food vendors and store promotionals all along the closed street. My eyes seriously couldn't stop to focus on one thing, simply because there was so much happening, people watching alone was the best part of the street fair to me. I felt really cooped up, and going out one way on the tube and walking back was really nice and relaxing. The following photos were taken as we walked north back home.


This Picture is for Dave. The street fair had all sorts of really weird "attractions" so to say. One of which was an old New York car or something with a naked blow up doll. I found it absolutely hilarious, and deserving for the post.

The we ran into Hagrid and Dumbledore. Harry Potter obviously originated from England, this moment made the little kid and me go crazy. They came out of nowhere and seemed as though their path collided with ours, because we found both of ourselves in the midst of a huge crowd in matter of seconds. Curious as to what was happening I looked up and a gigantic Hagrid man was hovering over me.

There were amusement rides like carousels and Ferris wheels, which added so much color to the grey sky and dull buildings. The light made peoples’ faces stand out and made for a decent photograph.