the best camera

There’s a saying in photography that, ” … the best camera is the one that’s with you.”

Meaning, there’s no point having a Canon 7D if you’re always leaving it at home because it’s too big to carry about.

iPhones have only proven this point further. Often I can’t even be bothered slipping my compact S100 in my pocket, but most times, my phone is about.

With this in mind I shot this latest European trip on my iPhone only — a quick blast to beautiful Mallorca for an amazing wedding, plus a few days either side in London.

Any post-processing was done on the phone itself, using Snapseed. Maybe not the best shots, but they’re the shots I took with the camera I had.

Let’s get into it:

SHOREDITCH.
I don’t know what’s going on here. I like that it’s some sort of meta-thing about the subject of the lost poster becoming lost.

SHOREDITCH, nr BRICK LANE. Nice street art round this way.

BATTERSEA.
Cool to see some old signage and typography remaining here n there.

SHOREDITCH.
Street art by Roa.

PALMA.
The catedral is impressive from any angle. Damn it’s big. Take that, Moors.

BUNYOLA.
View of our mad villa from the train.

BUNYOLA.
Looking across to Villa Francisca from Villa Barcelona with the Serra de Tramuntana beyond

WEDDING GAMES.
‘Battleshots’ which we created as a wedding present.

HONOR VELL.
Wedding venue under the hills

HONOR VELL.
This guy cooked enough paella for EVERYONE.

BUNYOLA
Kimbo and FuzzPeach enjoying themselves.

BUNYOLA
Entry courtyard for Villa Barcelona (stables too, I guess).

PALMA
Downtown delicatessen, Mallorcquian style.

PALMA
Catedral again.

AIRBOURNE
The sheer horror, excess and waste, that is an Air Brunei meal.

LONDON.
Stoked to see the RouteMaster buses still in action. I heard they were extinct.

KENSINGTON.
Pretty church at dusk

KENSINGTON.
Posh, bland houses and stupid cars. Ahh, rich people…

 

 

 

What to do in Melbourne town.

For anyone headed to Melbourne, here’s a selection of things super-cool-shit that kept me occupied around the city.

Accommodation. I stayed at littlegeorgestreet, in Fitzroy; kind of a post-modern B&B that I organised through AirBnB.

The lovely host, Ramona, worked at an organic bakery around the corner so breakfast was a treat. As was her amazing home with its collection of vintage sports equipment. Such a top find and only $60/night.

Ramona's groovy pad

Galleries and stores. So many to choose from, especially ’round Fitzroy. A few standouts were Lamington Drive in Collingwood with its awesome and awesomely cheap prints. Made me long for a house to hang them in.

panelpop goodness

Also Third Drawer Down for quirky gifts, and PanelPop, which prints photos or art onto recycled stone, framed with recycled timber. Freakin’ rad. We also went and checked out Space Invaders – street art at RMIT until Nov.

Bars n t’ings. First morning in Melbourne I focussed on getting lost among its multitude alleys until I stumbled upon Bar Americano, a tiny cafe serving the finest coffee I’ve  had since Italy.

Later that day we hit The Hardware Societe for lunch and then Thousand Pound Bend for a bunch of Doss Blockos beers. Originally, these beers were brewed at a squat in NY, and they come in a paper bag. Ghetto chic, huh? They also taste superb.

Finally to wind up our bar crawl, Anj took us to New Gold Mountain, an unassuming door in Chinatown requiring a phone call to enter and home to gold-standard cocktails.

Other junk. While visiting with my pal KJ, she decided she needed a vintage bicycle. Luckily, just around the corner in Fitzroy, we found Cameron Threthowan, a man dedicated to matching Melburnians with bikes. And boy, does he love his bikes. After enquiring about one stately cycle and pointing out in no uncertain terms I was not a customer, Cam insisted I take a spin, because “…they’re like dogs – they need a good run now and again.”  What a champ.

Also of note was the launch last week of Characters by Stephen Banham; a typographic journey through Melbourne, blending signwriting and storytelling. And regular readers of this column will know just how I feel about typography. I’m buying a copy.

lyrical typography

In my little-known capacity as a frustrated typographer and designer, I recently found time to make an attempt at presenting song lyrics as graphics.

This was inspired by the discovery of a website called Music Philosophy, found through the always amazing Lost At E Minor.

It looked like a lot of fun, so I had a go, as I’m forever quoting lyrics, writing them on t-shirts, jotting down neat ones in notebooks and so on.

Much of the enjoyment came with sourcing and screwing around with new fonts. I’m right into typography lately, even if my manipulation of the graphics etc, leaves a bit to be desired.

Must be such a great job though, working as a typographer. Turning words into art. Maybe I’ll combine it with journalism and have entire features appearing as intricate art projects, hundreds of metres long.

My own efforts were clearly inspired by those appearing on the Music Philosophy site, but I chose a few fave artists whose lyrics meant something to me.

It’s only my opinion, but the original site was cheapened slightly through displaying the lyrics of a few questionable musicians (Alanis Morrisette, Des’ree and My Most Hated Band In All The World – Live. Yuk)

There’s more than enough amazing musos out there to avoid promoting the work of chumps.  (Why, why do people like Dave Matthews Band? Why?)

But music is obviously a very personal thing though and Mr Music Philosophy remains far more talented than I’ll ever be. Enjoy.

Hmm, I'm pretty sure Trent Reznor wrote that.

my favourite from the site

Modest Mouse and Bukowski. Bingo! (That's mine)

Architecture in Helksinki. The band name deserves its own.

good old Youth Group. That's mine too.