Larmer Tree 2012 Images

20 Jul

What a great time was had at the Larmer Tree Festival last weekend – the festival staff pulled out all the stops and put on a great party this year.

My favourite images from the festival  are here on Flickr.

All my final images are here.

World Barista Championships in London

29 Jun

Last week London was abuzz with activity surrounding the World Barista Championships. The national champions of 54 countries came to London to compete for the title of World Barista Champion. Each competitor had 15 minutes to prepare four espressos, four cappucinos, and four espresso-based signature drinks of their own design. And they must do this all whilst talking passionately about the coffee they’re using. This year’s World Champion is Mike Phillips from the USA. Mike works for Intelligentsia Coffee in Chicago and he is the first World Champion to come from the United States.

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For all my WBC photographs click through here.

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This year I volunteered to be a ‘barista buddy’. My role was to help a competitor find equipment, ingredients and to provide local knowledge. I was the buddy to Honduran Champion Anna Lucia Hawitt and Argentina’s Gustavo Castro. Ana Lucia, in the big image above, placed in the top 12 during the preliminary rounds and made it through to the semi-finals. You can watch her semi-final presentation here.

http://cdn.livestream.com/grid/LSPlayer.swf?channel=worldbaristachampionship2010&clip=pla_299ee272-217d-47c6-b32c-1270917dbcc5&autoPlay=false

Moments of Clarity: Photo Exhibition

11 Mar

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For the last three summers I have been photographing at the  Larmer Tree Festival in Dorset, England. Last August, shortly after the festival finished, I approached the organisers of the festival and the Salisbury Arts Centre with the idea that we have an exhibition of my images from the festival. They agreed and on 17th March the private view/opening will take place at the Salisbury Arts Centre. The show, which includes my images and those of three other photographers, will be up from 18 March until 10 April.

Here is a selection of my images from the festival

I love being part of the festival community and seeing the same people every year, most of whom I see only at the festival. I enjoy going back each year as a photographer to capture the characters I meet there. I like to photograph the festival so I can remember it, but also so that others can experience the festival through my eyes and the pictures I take. These day it’s very rare that in normal life you can go out with a camera and photograph the people you see. But the festival has created an environment where you can do that. At the Larmer Tree Festival people let their guard down, which is rare in British society. My photographs feed off that and represent it too.

København

2 Dec

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Copenhagen is awesome. The world would be a better place if every human were required to spend a month there and see how a proper society orders itself. Rachel and I spent my birthday weekend there and I want to go back and stay forever! Yep – it was that great!

Here are some more images from our weekend in København.

Playing the Building

6 Aug

My friend Mark McNamara is in London for the rest of the month working on David Byrne’s sound installation Playing the Building at the Roundhouse in Camden.

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The installation consists of an old organ that is hooked up to actually play the building. The keys are wired up to motors that vibrate the girders, solenoids that ping the iron columns, and air jets that blast and make flute like noises. I spent two afternoons at the Roundhouse this week photographing the installation process. To see all of my images click here and here. Please join me in experiencing this art work on the evening of 20 August.

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Taste of Canada at Square Mile

25 Jun

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Last night the coffee community of London gathered at the Square Mile Roastery in Bethnal Green to taste four espressos from Canada. The conviviality and caffeine combined to push the colours up a notch as we downed espresso after espresso after espresso. Many thanks to James, Annette and everyone else who made Taste of Canada possible.
All the images can be found via this link.

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lost in londinium

11 Jun

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=5108579&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

lost in londinium from iambrianjones on Vimeo.

This little video is the result of a class I took recently. We were asked to use video to illustrate a quote relating to London. I chose the following quote by author V. S. Naipaul.

“I came to London. It had become the center of my world and I had worked hard to come to it. And I was lost.”

Gwilym is the World Barista Champion

1 Jun

Gwilym Davies – the current UK Barista Champion – is now the World Barista Champion. A few months ago Gwilym travelled to Atlanta, Georgia to compete with approximately 50 baristas from around the world for the title. Congratulations, Gwilym!
(I am just posting this now because I have been too busy drinking great coffee from this company🙂

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4378520&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=0&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Gwilym Davies, United Kingdom – 2009 WBC Finals

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=4263639&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

Gwillym Davies, WBC champion talks a little about his drink preparation

Lush Macro Flora

28 May

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Just throwin’ up some recent macro work I shot during a visit to the Royal Horticultural Society’s garden at Hyde Hall in Essex. I didn’t take any notes, so your guess is as good as mine as to what the plants are.

Follow this link for the full Flickr stream of all the images.

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Gwilym Davies 2009 UK Barista Champion

4 Mar

Congratulations to Gwilym Davies who has just been crowned the 2009 UK Barista Champion. I’ve just thrown this post up for people who want to know more about this great barista. (click here for full post with embedded media.)

Gwilym works outdoor coffee carts at two busy London markets. He uses coffee from East London’s Square Mile Roasters.

Gwilym’s winning espresso was a 50/50 blend made up of Finca San Jose Pulped Natural Red Catuaí from Erwin Mierisch and family in Nicaragua, and an El Molino de Santa Rita Washed Orange Bourbon from Jose Antonio Salaverria’s farm in El Salvador.

During the the final Gwilym’s espresso and signature drink attained the highest scores. The idea behind his signature drink was to enhance flavours that were already in the espresso he was working with. He created an infusion of butter, cinamon, orange peel, muscovado syrup, and dark chocolate that he added to the espresso.

Here is Gwilym’s semi-final performance:
http://www.viddler.com/simple/32717bbb/

Here’s Gwilym’s championship-winning final performance:
http://www.viddler.com/player/63f6f5e8/
Here are all the videos from the UKBC Finals.

Here is a video of the results and an interview with Gwilym:
http://www.viddler.com/player/ad07df2/

Here’s a podcast about Gwilym.

http://starbarista.googlepages.com/Episode_1_Gwillem.mp3

(Note: At the time of recording Gwilym was using beans from a different London roastery.)

Click here to download this podcast.

Here are some photos of Gwilym at work on Whitecross Market

Below is a map showing the locations of Gwilym’s coffee carts.
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=104091204455281198860.0004645d4dd3f70e7d302&ll=51.5258,-0.081394&spn=0.007797,0.022649&output=embed&s=AARTsJopiEQXUM95lsYxTwXQELwGDRd2bg
View Larger Map

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