With 2019 coming to a close very shortly, I thought I'd look back on the year and challenge myself to do some sort of write up without getting too spiritual or pretentious. For me, this years been a little different and there's been some highs and lows but overall I can't be happier going forward into 2020. I went back through my photo's and video's and picked out my top 3.

1.

Back in summer, we put on a surprise party for my best friend's partner at their flat in London. It was sweltering! So much so I thought the leaves were melting. Sadly this was down to our poor, merry state of where to put the bbq, which eventually scorched the leaves that hung above. A weekend full of silly dancing, good music, food and company.

2.

2019 was the year I thought I'd try my luck with owning a van. It's seen a lot of use in it's time so I was a bit weary of how good it would be or whether it would pack up on me. But touch wood, it's been brilliant! Just the ability to go somewhere new with the bike and a hammock in the back has been really fun. Driving to Dungeness was pretty great for a week off. I took this video in Teignmouth after staying the night in the van. Just by luck, there was a skatepark a minute's walk down the beach from here. Since then, the van has offered plenty more trips to Wales, Cornwall and any other skatepark I can find.

3.

Lastly, this photo made the list because it felt like a proper fluke. My uncle and I were in Austria on a snowboard trip - my very first snowboard trip which was very exciting. On the last day, we had a look around Innsbruck. Up until this, I'd only really shot bits of us snowboarding, an odd bit of architecture and of course loads of cars and curious looking motorbikes. We were doing a lot of walking. We walked past this wall and with the light, it felt like a great set up - even if no-one was in the photo, which is usually the case with my photo's. But in the spare of the moment, I cut my uncle off mid sentence and forced him to be in there. Awkwardness and how squinty his face is aside, I really love how it turned out. Plus it's a great reminder of how incredible snowboarding was which wouldn't of happened without this guy.

So there you go, there's my top 3. Until next year, thank you, Merry Christmas and Happy new year!

I went to Munich with my dad and uncle in 2012 for 4 days. It worked out cheaper to see AC/DC there than in the UK! It was a gift for my dad who's loved them for years but never been to a gig of theirs. Fortunately, it was the period where Brian Johnson was still singing along with most of the original band.

Whilst away I captured bits and bobs of our trip on camera. The photo's I posted as soon as I got home from our trip. I then owned a Fuji x10 and it was the first time it was real accessible to capture reasonable quality video content. One thing I've always enjoyed is being a bystander and recording the quieter moments of life. You might notice this in some of my photo's. If not, no worries I'm not going to ramble on at you that my "art" should be taken seriously. I'm not one of those types!

Sure enough over time, these snippets of recordings have accrued some serious storage space on my SD cards. I guess the hope was to one day compile these shots into some sort of video. So first up we have a montage from Munich which I edited in Premiere Pro and After Effects. I deliberately stuck to a no frills sort of edit, that means jump cuts to transition from one shot to the next. Empty frames for effect and some fun. All text has been set in a font I've been developing called Blight (more of that another time). Enjoy!

Music credit:
Alexei De Bronhe - Jakuzzy
Icons8 Stock Music