Snaphappy52Shoots

More street photographs from a couple of days last week in Newcastle.

I also bumped into fellow photographer Chris who was doing a model shoot near the Theatre Royal. Here are a few pics of Chris, Chloe & Sammie

That’s it for now. You can find links to more of my work on my other blog posts.

Keep safe!

John

October’s Here…

It was sunny today so I met up (well socially distanced and outdoors) two fellow photographers in town (Newcastle if you aren’t a regular follower!).

Here are some of the results

Hope you like them (was blessed with great light today)

For those interested my camera today was the Fuji X-T3 with a 50mm f2 attached.

Thanks for looking, comments and questions welcome.

John

Street Photography – Newcastle

I hadn’t been out for well over a week. New Covid restrictions brought into my area and other bad news on the Virus front had left me pretty “down” to be fair. Looking like we are facing another 6 months of Government incompetence, conflicting Scientific advice and information. It’s not a good time generally right now. But I forced myself to get out with my camera yesterday. So here are some of…

Chloe – Model Shoot

Once again I tagged along with a photographer friend to photograph a really lovely model Chloe. The shoot was supposed to be outside on location but the weather wasn’t the best. So we utilised Chloe’s flat, which was packed with some great stuff (and her 4 kittens!).

Here are a few shots from the afternoon.

You can see all of the images from the shoot here Chloe

Hope you enjoyed! More…

Post more often…

…..you said! So your wish etc! Here are some street photos I took around Newcastle yesterday.

As you can see weather was “variable” in town yesterday.

Thanks for looking. Comments and questions always welcome (although to pre-empt a couple..”No, I don’t ask permission” and “it’s not illegal or against the Law”).

Until next time. Stay safe!

John

PS I hate this block thingy it…

Newcastle folk captured on …a Friday!

Last one for today….

Until next time….although I was up photographing/videoing a horse and it’s rider at 6:30am this morning !! So maybe I will share those next!

Stay safe!

John

My heart hasn’t been in blogging much recently. But I have been out and about taking photographs these last couple of months. Here is a flavour.

You can see a lot more on my website here Latest Street Images

That is just a small selection.

Hope everyone is keeping safe and well. Until next time.

John

Fame…

…is a strange concept nowadays in this modern world of Social Media.

I was out indulging in my favourite hobby Street Photography. I was wandering around Newcastle Upon Tyne in my usual way, camera in hand, snapping away at anything that caught my eye. Some of you will have seen the results I occasionally post on here.

Well last week I snapped and posted this image

Nothing special…

Slowly….

Getting back into my photography. For the last three months or so it’s all been – well you know…!

Anyway last couple of weeks I ventured back into my familiar hunting ground of Newcastle. Although it’s no longer familiar at all.

Thought I would share some of my shots.

You can see more of my work here

Street photography

Or follow my Instagram feed My Instagram

Thanks for…

My Musical Journey – Part 4

Things get “rocky”

Firstly – apologies for the gap between my last “Journey” post and this one. I have probably written it in my head about 10 times, each with a different slant or approach, usually at 3am in the morning!

I think I have an angle on it now..so here goes….

Do you remember this photo from my earlier post ? (I think A Musical Journey (Part 2)).

No…it’s not “that” Blondie!

We…

Took the camera out…

Headed into Newcastle yesterday (mainly because I had a “slot” booked at my fave 2nd hand record shop). But this was my first visit post “relaxed lockdown”. Anyway here’s a few images I took…it’s still weird days!

Those people waiting for Part 4 of my Musical Journey..I’m working on it!!

Anyway, thanks for reading. Back soon. You can see more of my Street Photography here :-

Street…

Into The Music..

We set off for Bath in the College bus on the Friday afternoon. The bus was full and not the most comfortable. It was packed with a mix of mainly older “heads” (long hair, denim, scraggly beards, hip and aware of the benefits of marijuana) and us three….the straightest and most naive people there…apart from our driver, who I think was called Bill. The poor sod had to do the full journey on his own. He was very old – about 40!! – and definitely NOT a “head”. But credit to him for putting up with us. The journey took forever and all I can really remember is a guy in the seat opposite having one of those early Philips Cassette players and one  tape “Gris-Gris” by Dr John The Night Tripper which he played over and over again until his batteries started to die out and the music became slower and slower…and what (to me) was already pretty scary stuff about zombies, voodoo and the like became even more nightmareish as darkness fell. I love the album now…but whenever I hear the opening track it takes me right back to that bus 50 years ago!

Dr John – Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya Listen for yourself (Imagine you are in a dark bus at 2am!)

The only other points of note were buying a bottle of non-alcoholic beer at a service station and being stuck in the longest traffic jam when we hit the outskirts of Shepton Mallet where the festival was being held. We also picked up a few hippy hitchhikers who squatted in the aisle as we threaded our way towards the campsite parking.

Buses Coming In (Photo Jeff Culpit)

There were around 100,000 people at the Festival (this was the year after Woodstock and the Isle Of Wight Festivals) There were terrible traffic jams and artists couldn’t get in to perform.  The organisers had provided tents free of charge…which were needed.  Being a music Festival..it rained on and off!

The three of us jumped off the bus and headed with the throngs towards the stage area. We got a good spot….but I think it started to rain…so we headed towards the tents.

Tents (Photo Jeff Culpit)

We set out our sleeping bags…and got out a deck of cards to play whist or some such.  All at once two guys dived into the tent and asked if they “could crash here?”. In the spirit of hippyness and peace and love we of course said “Yeah Man..cool”.

Then another hippy stuck his head in the tent and asked the (to us bizzare) question ” has anyone got any shit?”.  Now Eric was a right sarkie bugger and said “not yet but will have one later!” But to our astonishment one of our new tent mates said yes, pulled a foil wrapped bag out of his pocket and started to cut the green lump into sections with a knife….ON MY SLEEPING BAG! At this point our hippy vocabulary increased 100 fold and we realised we were in the middle of a drug deal!!  The horrors!! We looked at each other and in the vernacular of the time, we grabbed our stuff and split!

We went back to the bus…(which is where my Pass Out ticket came from) and left our sleeping bags etc and headed back to the main stage area to await the start of the music.

Now I will be honest some of the next bit is very hazy….it was 50 years ago for God’s sake…and I can mix things up. I did write down my thoughts next to that “pass out” ticket 2/3 years afterwards in my Ticket Book. There is also a terrific website with a ton of information and photographs (where I sourced many on here from) about the 1970 Bath Festival here The Bath festival Of Blues and Progressive Music well worth a look for anyone interested.

This is the page from my “diary”

The first few paragraphs relay most of what I have typed above.  But on the music This is what I had written:-

Fairport Convention – Good

Flock – Good

Maynard Ferguson – Ugh! (Sorry Maynard…I just was not into Jazz in 1970)

It’s A Beautiful Day – Good

Colleseum – Great – Except for J Hiseman’s 40 min drum solo (I’ve never been a fan of them..who is??)

Johnny Winter – Good but fell asleep. (me not Johnny Winter.). Edgar Winter O.D. on the drums ( now this is just not true! I heard it from someone at the time on the bus journey back..and to be seen as “cool” I repeated it.  But it’s a bit problematic..Edgar Winter didn’t play drums and wasn’t in the band at that point!!)

Steppenwolf – Good but again fell asleep (all the bands were running very late!) Hell Of a version of Born to Be Wild. (Actually the only song I would recognise!

Pink Floyd – Lights Were Fantastic – fell asleep (Says a lot about the music!)

Canned Heat – Played for three and a half hours but I didnt hear them.  At this point I gave in and headed for the bus where I could get some proper sleep away from the noise. I then realised our bus driver spent most of the weekend asleep in the luggage Bay of the bus!

Sunday am “Diary” continues

Now’t happening cos’ none of the acts can get in because of traffic jams. Surprise! Donovan however turns up (not supposed to) and played all his favourite raves – drags a bit after 3 hours!! Eventually Frank Zappa & Mothers Of Invention get on stage. We hear two songs then we have to go, bus driver has to be back for Monday!

We didn’t miss much..just Led Zeppelin, Hot Tuna, Jefferson Airplane, Dr John, Country Joe McDonald. The Moody Blues were due to play…but it rained really heavily after Led Zeppelin so they couldn’t go on. We were virtually home by this point.

I’m not sure if I saw The Byrds or not? I think I did..but my memory could be playing tricks.

I arrived home at about 7 am.but had to be back at college for an exam on the afternoon. I made it and actually passed!

Eric, Paul & I “dined out” on being at Bath for weeks afterwards. Anyone who knows me will say I STILL dine out on it! I tend to lie and say I saw all of the bands!! But what the experience gave me was a never ending love affair with Blues & Progressive Music which perseveres to this day. From this point on I was a “head” as Danny Baker calls us.  I bought albums to carry tucked under my arm to show off how “cool” I was…I started to go to gigs as often as I could.  I had found a spiritual home.

More in Part 4…

John

A Musical Journey (Part 2)

Well, if you got through Part 1 without falling asleep…here is the second ..

Out Of Africa

I was like a fish out of water starting secondary school upon our return, following a year in Junior School, (where I first met Brian Littlefair who steered me through the unknown. I will never forget his kindness that first day). But I was lucky..the secondary school was well run and I was fortunate…

I am a collector of stuff. Always have been. I have kept nearly all my concert tickets, music press clippings and of course records and CDs. I have a lot. I’ve always thought about recording in some way the part music plays in my life. So here goes..it’s a bit disjointed, for which I apologise, and who knows whether I will get to the end. Anyway…here’s the first bit!

Into The Heart Of Darkness

(I…

I used to do a lot of music reviews. But haven’t for ages. I was asked by my good friend Alan of Rocking Magpie to dust off my quill and do a review of an artist I really love. You can read my words here Rory Gallagher Review

More of Alan’s excellent reviews here Rocking Magpie

Thanks

  John

Some more of those photographs…..

It’s been awhile since I have put anything on here. (My excuse is that I have been alphabeticising..is that a word?.. my CD collection!).

So here are a selection from my last load of Street photography, including a few from another behind the scenes from a model shoot.

As always comments/question welcome. More of my street photography can be found on my website here https://johnjobling.smugmug.…

My record of it in photographs can be viewed here

October – Street Photography

My best Street photos of the month collated here.

Thank you for taking the time to look. If you like it please give me a 👍🏻 .

Take care

John