The Fatigue of Bright Packaging

April 10, 2024

A few weeks back I was trying my best to avoid emails and thus stuck a podcast on.

I was listening to Colin & Samir interviewing Grammy award winning musician Jacob Collier, and early in the episode he referenced a concept he called “the fatigue of bright packaging. He didn’t massively expand on this term, but it got me thinking about the undeniable shift in popular culture that seemingly has lots of us lusting for the imperfect.

These days I prefer YouTube to Netflix. I listen to more albums produced and mixed in bedrooms than in studios, I check the score of Ryan Reynold’s 4th division football team before searching the Premier League results. More than any of this though, I’m finding I no longer care for photographs that try too hard for perfection, like this…

Photos trying too hard - for me - typically display a couple of symptoms:

They’re normally flawless. Void of noise, perfectly sharp, exposure bracketed, focus stacked and everything you think might’ve possibly needed cloning has been, be it footprints or floppy flowers.
They’re loud and dramatic. Blazing golden hour light, stretched out mountains and a model clad in a yellow anorak for good measure posing slightly unnaturallly. You’ve seen these shots. If these photos could scream for your attention, they would.

Anyway, I bring it up because thinking about perfection has become a huge part of my workflow, and while I’m doubly sure not everyone will agree with this take it’s been food for thought for me, in what is increasingly my quest for a portfolio full of scenes that look as though I’ve just stumbled across them.

It turns out the best way to build that is, well, to stumble, in the middle of the day when most do, warts and all.

James

7 Days in New York City

February 08, 2024

Well, I’m fresh back from the Big Apple with a face battered by icy winds and feet broken by at least 30,000 steps a day in barefoot shoes, but what a trip to kick the year off with.

Like all great world cities New York is a cocktail of diversity in people, cultures, food, architecture and luckily conditions when I was there. I’d visited once before as a wide-eyed 18 year old with Emily many years ago, but we didn’t stray too far from midtown on that trip for fear of being out of reach of restaurants dedicated to fleecing tourists, so this time I was keen to get a little further afield. The trouble is, doing so makes you realise how woefully inadequate a 6 night stay is.

I’ll be back, maybe in summer next time, but here’s a selection of what I saw on this trip…

My favourite photos of the year...

December 07, 2023

I remember getting the chance to go on holiday abroad a few times as a kid, and being utterly bewildered as to why people in airports looked so grumpy. In my little mind these people were knee-deep in the most exciting thing known to man; travel. Yet their faces suggested they were in prison.

Fast forward a few decades, I too now stand in the security line silently raging inside. Nevermind that I’m about to travel thousands of miles in a matter of hours in relative comfort, the process can only reasonably be considered completely unbearable.

It’s fair to say then that my days of travelling internationally by choice are numbered. This year though I’m glad I continued to suffer the duty free mazes, the hidden fees, the delays and lost bags, as they helped me get most of my favourite photos of the year.

A lone tourist surveys and photographs the remnants of a huge swell from a big storm the day earlier.

After a morning spent in a cab on the outskirts of Abu Dhabi searching for scenes of interest this is the best I got back to the hotel with. For whatever reason it has been growing on me ever since. I think it’s the colours and weighting. And I’m a sucker for clean lines too.

A fisherman, a ferry, a volcano and seagull, all bathed in the best light I’d seen in a week. Another grower, but again it’s the weighting I like best I think.

*Wild Atlantic Way, Ireland. (May 2023)*

Early in the afternoon I’d lined up a shot of this camper only to have another tourist come and park right in front of it. Lucky really, because it spurred me to head back at sunset when the light was much nicer.

I’m adding this 2 days after posting, since I’ve just printed this photo and sat at my desk in December those summer colours look completely irresistible. And sure, this was also well past my bed time because it’s June, but worth it I think.

A morning strolling around a little fishing village didn’t offer as much as I’d hoped, but I did catch this conversation bathed in light. My kind of photo this.

I’m no wildlife photographer as you know, but if you see a polar bear for the first time and get a decent shot, I think it’s likely to make your list of favourites for the year.

A very wet 2 hour stomp on a hilariously remote Arctic island proved a real treat. One of the least accessible places in the Northern hemisphere, in other-worldly conditions.

An abandoned weather station set against a fjord full of icebergs. I’m not sure I’ve seen anything that better fits my obsession of finding manmade things draped on nature aesthetically.

This guy was contemplating a plunge for a long time, and I don’t blame him. The North Sea isn’t the tropics. I do love it when a single frame taken in a fraction of a second somehow genuinely manages to tell 1000 words though…

I ran past this scene in the middle of nowhere in rural France and couldn’t not return in decent light for a photo. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear this looked exactly the same 10 years prior, but a good example of a shot that presents more questions than answers, to me at least.

The very last and best photo I took on an intensive week-long shoot in Switzerland. The cloud cover came at the perfect time and presented the cabin perfectly.

It’s hard to capture the essence of a world city in a single shot. This is my attempt in Amsterdam and I don’t know if it achieves it, but I am taken back to the city instantly when I look at it…

One of the simplest photos I took this year, and I think one of my best. Complimentary colours, a blend of human and nature, and close to home too. I doubt it’s to everyone’s taste, but caring about that is always dangerous.

A bit close for comfort was this bloke. Still, I should thank him for making a nice silhouette, even if he did almost busy the emergency services.

So a year I'm delighted with all in all. And one thing I’ve noted, most of these shots came after a period of frustration (hours, days or weeks) and therefore act as a reminder to me to stay sharp, since you don’t know what’s around the corner.

Thanks for your support this year, it means the world.

James

A week in Portugal

November 15, 2023

Last week I split 7 days in Porto and Lisbon with my photography nerd and friend Roman Fox.

Thankfully for me Roman had previously spent a lot of time in both cities, which ultimately meant I didn’t have to engage my brain much as I just followed along like a lost puppy. But I did learn some stuff too, namely:

I’ve never encountered more polite drug dealers.
Shorts is still an option in November if you’re willing to have locals stare in disbelief.
Other than that, the locals are all smiles.
Compared to the UK it’s an incredibly affordable place to travel. Food is both fantastic and cheap.
The mix of Atlantic coastline and rustic cities makes it a phenomenal photography destination.

I’ve been told for years I should visit Portugal but for some reason never moved it to the top of my list. I now realise I’m an idiot. Here are some photos.