Hanson at the Western Fair, London Ontario

It's no secret that Hanson are my favourite band, and have been since I was 9. You can imagine my excitement when finding out that they were coming to London, having lived in Australia most of my life their concerts were very few and far between before moving to Canada a few years ago. Another great thing about them playing at the fair was that I was allowed to take my camera with a 70-200mm zoom lens, something I had tried to do at previous concerts but had been made to leave it in coat check!!! As I could take the camera and as last summer I was front row at the Halifax show I wasn't too worried about being up the front, so was able to stand back, dance, jump and take lots of photos! Too many probably! Here are a bunch of my favourites in a slideshow to my favourite song from the new album Anthem.

And here are a couple of videos I shot of some old favourites! 

This time around

mmmbop

The best of the best?

I just had some good news! I will be exhibiting at the car free festival this Saturday in London (Ontario) and I'm going to show only analogue photos.. What to show though? I need your help! My contact with the festival said he liked my Chicago Holga pics, So i'm thinking those for sure. I was also thinking of showing my Fall/Winter/Spring impossible works, but I would have to find a suitable frame and then I'm not sure how much sun would be around (sun fades the impossible film) or if I go through all of my Lomography photos and find the ones that I think would be the most pleasing to other people- the ones I treasure are usually something personal that usually other people wouldn't get. I've highlighted some of my faves in my Lomography Facebook album so if you're in the mood for looking through eclectic photographs from London to London through a plastic lens (I think I just accidently found my exhibition title) then please, go to the album and tell me which ones to include! Here are some of the possible ones I will be printing.

Shooting a series

Since high school I have always thought of my photo taking as a series. I remember hearing the head of fine art when I was in my undergrad describing how once he started a series, It never ended, and to some degree I feel the same way. It is good when there is a way for it to come to an end of course, like for example the end of a trip.

During my time traveling Europe last summer I realized that I was making series, some without thinking about it, some that were continuations of other series I had done. I've already shared the ones on here of kids or of lovers but here is one a little less personal which was very well received when I put the photos on my facebook page.

The archways of Europe.

Munchen Munich

So my main reason for going to Munich was Oktoberfest, not going to beat around the bush about that. But when I got there and I walked around the center of town for a little while I realized what beautiful architecture it has and the lively city (I'm sure it was a lot more lively than normal because of the festival) has so much history, especially with the second world war, that it was amazing to go on the Sandemans free walking tour and learn all about it. Our tour guide was from America but had degrees in History and had written books on the Hitler etc so you know we were in good hands.

We went in the church which is said to have the devils footprint. He told us which buildings had been rebuilt since the war and also which bars to go to and which beers to avoid. While I was there I also went to the Dachau Concentration camp which was very sober and had a lot to read and look at but unfortunately I was on a bus tour and only had an hour and a half to look around and would have liked a lot longer than that. On a lighter note I went to the toy museum which was great as it had translations in English of the descriptions of each of the different dolls, action figures, robots, Steiff bears and Barbies that we were looking at and it was a very low entry fee.

Some creepy looking dolls in the toy museum

My classic aviator shot of the glockenspiel

An amazing car (I wish I knew cars, but all the guys on the walking tour were very impressed by it) on the most expensive street in Munich

Hop festival

No, I'm not talking of the hip kind. I'm talking of the beer kind.

The first weekend in September since 1990 the 'medieval gem town' of Faversham, Kent comes alive with different street performers, stalls, food stalls and the occasional English pub thrown in between. It celebrates the history that Kent, 'the garden of England' has with Hops where whole families would come down from the urban centre of London to stay in Hoppers huts and live for most of the month of September picking the hops in the fields. The hops were then dried out in oast houses which dot the Kentish countryside but most don't serve a purpose these days as a lot of the industry has moved to places like Germany and the United States.

Notting Hill Carnival

Carrying on from when I left Venice I headed back to my jumping off spot, England. The Notting Hill Carnival was very conveniently on during the weekend I got back and I had a wonderful time taking photos and grooving to the music in one of my favorite neighbourhoods of London.

To give you a bit of back story about the carnival Wikipedia states:

The Notting Hill Carnival is an annual event which since 1964 has taken place on the streets of Notting Hill, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea , London, UK each August, over two days (the August bank holiday Monday and the day beforehand).It is led by members of the British African-Caribbean community, particularly the Trinidadian and Tobagonian British population or 'Trinis', many of whom have lived in the area since the 1950s. The carnival has attracted up to 2 million people in the past, making it the second largest street festival in the world after theTrinidad and Tobago Carnival held in that country.

Seeing it from someone else's perspective

Wearing those headdresses like they mean it

Bobby's on Portobello Rd

Cotton candy love

No-one does a crowd like London

Some sailors get lucky with some sensible shoe wearing ladies

A few people from the crowd join a fun conga line

This girl has got her Primark fix

Some entrepreneurial kids

A wonderful mismatch of colours