CHARLIE PINDER

Yesterday saw me meet up with the one and only Prue Leith – original celebrity chef and founder of Leith’s School of Food and Wine and Leith’s catering. We met at her London pied-a-terre in Kensington – on the way there i had to take a diversion due to some road works and bizarrely drove by “her” cookery school (!) – and chatted over a cup of coffee while we decided on where to shoot. I had no idea that she came from South Africa – born in Cape Town and lived in Johannesburg. She sold her school and catering business a few years back and is now a writer on her 5th book!

An absolutely lovely lady who looks pretty good for a 69 year old i must say!!

Prue Leith

For all wonderful things and Prue’s life-story take a look at her website… http://www.prue-leith.com/

So – last week i was commissioned to do a very different shoot for the very successful women’s magazine “More”. I’ve done a couple of jobs for them before but this was very different. It involved me driving for 2 hours from Chiswick to Dartford (i know – that’s ages…i didn’t dare think it would take that long but i gave myself 2 hours..and it did!) to go and photograph Dea.

The girl whose mum nicked her fiance.

That was the story.

I got there at 9am to find no=one in and no answer on her phone. Suddenly, just as i was becoming very concerned that the shoot would be called off and i would have to drive back to Chiswick for another 2 hours, not 10 minutes after I arrived, did Dea turn up. Phew. Inside the house life didn’t seem too bad. Poala Recabarren, the make-up artist, immediately set to and after a while of looking after her (Dea’s) 2 year old son, Harry (I think?) did i get to start shooting. It was a fairly simple setup – 2 lights. Got the angles right and a few smiles later and this was the end result.

Look out for it in More ladies!

Dea

Yes. Reading this right you are. If you’re reading it that is. Monday saw me on a fun and interesting shoot for the guys at HCT. HCT are a Social Enterprise based in Hackney and are one of the fastest growing public transport providers of buses in the country. With their ever-increasing presence around the UK they are now moving from their offices at the bus depot to a more upmarket place near Old Street and they wanted some Wall Murals for their entrance area.

The brief was to get one of their double-decker red buses with a big yellow swoosh (their logo) down the side, and drive it around London for the day taking shots of it near London landmarks. So me and 3 others did just that! Starting at Piccadilly Circus, then on to Marble Arch, then Park Crescent and finishing with Tower Bridge. I wanted to do the Millenium Dome/O2 but we ran out of time and of light.

My favourite shot of the day was definitely this one:

Stopping the traffic at Marble Arch!

The driver literally drew up in front of the arch and stopped…

Brilliant!

The day was an experience and one that i would love to have again. Believe me – having my very own bus to drive about London without a bus pass and no route to obey was a great laugh. Kind of difficult to park though….

Wednesday morning is normally when i would go swimming but seeing the cold and misty morning, with rays of sunshine dappling the sky, i thought i’m not going to go and submerse myself in a lot of chlorinated water inside a concrete building…no…i’m going to go and ride it out. Submerse myself in the very nature instead. So on went the cycling kit and off to Richmond Park on my knobbly wheeled Cove i went. And was it worth it. Oh yes. So much so i’m going to do it again tomorrow morning (so long as its not raining that is…). I didn’t take a camera to record the beautiful scenery that there was , only my blackberry that isn’t functioning quite right, so i can only hope that the memory will burn brightly on my retina’s for some time to come. Especially as now its tipping it down with rain!

Guy Fawkes at Chiswick Park

Another 5th November has passed with a bang! Saw an amazing fireworks display at Chiswick Park with the full moon in the background. Beautiful! Next year, note to self, I must remember my hat and gloves..instead of borrowing Ben’s!

Taking advantage of the gloriously sunny morning today i, after the morning’s paper shuffling , headed over to the EcoVillage again.

The “EcoVillage” took shape in back in June 2009 after a 70 strong group of like minded Eco Activists descended on a plot of land which had laid empty for 3 years despite being “owned” by a development company. Prior to the development company putting hoarding around the site it had laid barren for 22 years according to local residents. With the hoarding came plans to build a 7 storey block of flats with a waterfront selection of restaurants and shops. However, due to Masonic law the building was interfering with a line of sight from a tower at the Kew Bridge Steam Museum. On this tower are “2 eyes of an owl”. The symbol of the Masons.

Plans were put on hold and the recession kicked in. In that time the Eco Activist’s moved in and despite starting with 70, soon dwindled to 6. Word spread. More and more “Bender’s” – living accommodation made from reclaimed items, “bendy” hazel branches and tarpaulins – have sprung up and there is now a healthy group of people living there day after day.

I decided to do a documentary project on them and photograph them over a period of time. The resulting photographs will be part of an exhibition on the 19th November as per the flyer below…

Exhibition Invite

In my time there i’ve met some interesting people..A one David Shayler (MI5 whistleblower and now self-proclaimed Messiah and transvestite by the name of “Dolores Kane”) and a Merthyr…

Merthyr

The story continues…

Had a great day out at the London Freeze Festival at Battersea Power Station on Saturday.

Old School Ski's

Not having been before i didn’t know what to expect but on arrival i saw a huge ski jump set up made from scaffold and 500 tonnes of real snow cannon snow. An awesome sight – made even more so by seeing these world pros jumping right there. on the snow. With Battersea Power Station behind them. Kind of weird if you think about it but amazing nevertheless. The commentators were the kings of the day in my eyes. Their vocabulary to describe these snowboarders was exemplary and the Oxford English definitely has to add them in…how about Rad-Diculous and Bird Flu Sick. Both obviously meaning very cool…

Snowboarder mid trick!

Never done this before and i think that my typing skills are going to have to improve..or maybe they will the more i type..and blog! Well its an exciting thing to be able to do this. Linked up to my new photography website and another place for me to display images, as well as let people know what’s happening in my life. I remember wanting to be able to do this 10 years ago when i was travelling, and the beauty of this now is that in a couple of months we’re heading to New Zealand for 3 weeks. With any luck i’ll be able to post on here about our travels and include all my travel photography from the trip (well, some of it at least). But for now you can make do with a bit of recent news. When i get into the rhythm of doing it that is.