Molases
Blog
Question time. There is a place where my photography is seen more than anywhere else, but probably appreciated the least. Where do you think that is? Google Maps. My photos have been viewed 31,000 times and counting there. Thirty One Thousand times. I have a total of 42 pictures on…
Read More
IN-NO-V8 Talks - Episode One - In which Stephen Gets Lost
Blog Memory Recent
Trying this new thing. Be Gentle.
Read More
Fragility
Fitness Memory Recent
Hot and Cold. There are people that thrive in one condition, and tolerate the other condition. In my experience, few people enjoy both extremes. As for myself, I can bear being 'too hot', but find little to enjoy in being 'too cold'. Canada, at least around this end, is certainly…
Read More
Europe and Home Final Part – Caythorpe and London
Photography Recent Travel
Onwards.....and literally upwards.....at least if you see forward progress as North being up.... In what was an increasingly familiar routine, my belongings get repacked, and I am out for an early morning departure. This particular days' journey is probably the longest and most complex of the ones in my trip.…
Read More
Europe and Home Part 5 – Portsmouth and Glastonbury
Photography Pictures Recent Travel
The whirlwind tour of the UK continued with a super early morning drive to Eastbourne where my mom dropped me off for the first of many busses around the UK to see a few other friends before my time was up. We said our goodbyes, and it was a 4…
Read More
Europe and Home Part 4 – Bexhill and Mom
Blog Recent Thoughts Travel
A relatively short flight on RyanAir brings me to the good old UK. Feeling pretty tired again with minimal sleep (up at 4 for a 6am flight), but all goes well.....well-ish anyway. There is a wait for my bus, so I settle in the airport cafe, and a little before…
Read More
Europe and Home Part 3 - Pisa
Blog Recent Travel
Back on the train! It's a short hop from Florence to Pisa. I asked two Italians before I left 'what's the best thing to do in Pisa' and their answers were exactly the same...'Get drunk'. It didn't exactly fill me with confidence to hear that, but I was only going…
Read More
Europe and Home Part 2 - Florence
Blog Photography Recent Travel
Bundled on to a train with my stuff in the Italian summer heat, and I am on to my next destination, Florence. First, I am impressed by the trains and facilities in general, comfortable, regular, fast, and due to the size of the country, it feels like everywhere is connected.…
Read More
Europe and Home - Part 1 - Venice
Blog Recent Travel
So. Saturday night. Flying to Europe from Montreal. On the Plane. I get 3...count 'em....3 seats to myself....thanks to these lovely old ladies moving to a different section. (I didn't force them to move, honest...) And STILL I cannot sleep....my brain is working overtime. I am visualizing the complex plan…
Read More
I should start here.
Blog Memory Recent Thoughts
It is May. 2017. I am 46. I am 14 days from a return to the UK. I haven't seen home in a number of years. On this whirlwind trip around the UK I will also see a few friends that I haven't seen for a long time. A couple of…
Read More
Validation
Blog Thoughts
I just dipped my toes in to the new season of Black Mirror, the first episode, called 'Nosedive' deals with being digitally 'liked' to the 'n'th degree, in fact, your social standing, lifestyle, livelihood, day to day existence depending on it. It got me thinking. Do we have the ability to…
Read More
Pain is a person.
Blog Recent
Let me begin by admitting something. I am a wimp. I don't think I am being overly unkind to myself, I am just being realistic. I am not a manly man; the kind of arm-amputee-its-just-a-flesh-wound type of alpha male. My relationship with pain is a long one, to the…
Read More
I am not Deadpool (and so am you)
Blog Recent Thoughts
Featured Image - Chibi Deadpool by Teimari "The forties are the time when you begin to take notice of certain aches and pains. Your body and brain behave in inexplicable ways: Less hair on your head, more in your ears and nostrils. More memories in the bank, less synaptic firepower…
Read More
Intimate Distance
Blog Memory Recent
This title is something I struggled with for much longer than the inspiration for the blog itself. First...I want to say that anything contained here is from my own skewed, flawed, imperfect perspective. As it can only be. And it may be completely wrong. Second. To be frank...who cares. She…
Read More
Sky Scared - My first drone flight.
Blog Recent
New experiences. Ooooh. So, my stabilizer friend, Sunny, was kind enough to pull a few strings on the other side of the world and get me a drone at cost price. It all happened in a rush. We were talking about it last week, it was shipped from China on…
Read More
On Failure..
Blog Recent
When I go and see a movie, I will always have an opinion about it, but good or bad, I will always stay to watch the film. My general outlook is that you can learn as much from a bad movie as you can from a good one. Even if…
Read More
Where we go, where we've been.
Blog Memory
There is a memory I replayed this morning, a clear moment in time. A humid city square next to an ancient wall, stormclouds gathering, between showers, the concrete slick and shiny. I was walking alongside her, drawn to her side, as was my habit. She was the flickering lightbulb in…
Read More
Haiti - Day Six - The Bittersweet
Blog Recent
The sun rises on a final day in another world. The sound of church bells becomes a part of the morning routine now. Not to say that in six days everything becomes routine, because I just have to glance over the balcony and take a breath and listen to the…
Read More
Haiti - Day Five - Crossing Over
Blog Recent
Today was an early start....wasn't every morning? We were up before sunrise again with the over enthusiastic church bells (did I mention they are recorded, not live? I felt sightly cheated about that bit...church bells from speakers from an on-off switch feels slightly like religion-lite). After breakfast...finally got a hold…
Read More
Haiti - Day Four - Contrasts
Blog Recent
After the more emotionally turbulent day previously, we were up again at the crack of dawn...quite literally...I was shuffling around before sunrise, at 5.30, only to find that there was no electricity, water, or church, which was supposed to be the reason we all woke up early. I filmed the…
Read More
Haiti - Day Three - Pride and Prejudice
Blog Recent
A day of thoughts for me. The timetable was relatively simple, Church in the morning, then a free day, a trip to the beach. I am staying on a church compound, a gated community, containing a couple of school buildings, a small walk-in clinic, a pharmacy, the pastor’s building, containing…
Read More
Haiti - Day Two - Church and State
Blog Recent
Saturday morning comes early. Really, really early. As is life, it seems around here. Awake with the heat of the sun means awake at around 6-6.30, maybe earlier, evening sleep comes around 9pm. [fvplayer src="https://in-no-v8.com/webm/daytwo01.webm" width="600" height="240" autoplay="true" loop="true"] I had slept in fits and starts, but was rested enough…
Read More
Day One - Welcome to Cap-Haïtien
Blog Recent
2.27 am – Saturday, January 17th. Cap-Haïtien, Haiti. 93 percent humidity, around 21 degrees. I don’t think I have ever flown for so short a distance, and yet come to a place so far away. I set out from Miami International Airport having only slept about 3 hrs the night…
Read More
Week One
Blog Recent
It's the first week of 2015, or rather, the first week of 2015 has already passed us by. Just like that. One week from 52. A year sounds so short when it's broken down into smaller parts. Our human invention, time, dissects moments, stopwatches the world. The passing of time…
Read More
Closer and Further Away
Blog
On the first day of a new year I find myself watching a movie from a dead director. It began as a play, in 1999, one of the stage performers being Maggie Gylenhaal, playing Alice. The same playwright, Partick Marber, then went on to adapt the play to a screenplay, and…
Read More
Remembering
Blog Memory
The picture shows a boy lying on a yellow foam matress in the back garden, basking in the sunlight. When people ask me what my first memory is, I detail this moment. The sun is blinding, I see the light behind my eyelids, I open it to a full, summer…
Read More
Words: Worth
Blog Thoughts
Today's' episode is bought to you by the letter...well...all of them. "another thing, baldrick, belly, bird's nest, blackness, box unseen, breach, case, charged chambres, chaste treasure, circle, city, clack-dish, cliff, commodity, constable, corner..." I recently stumbled across a post on Reddit talking about how we hear our own voices differently than…
Read More
On ego (and the losing of)
Blog Recent
What to do? You are a content creator. It's your job. (You, meaning me, in case you're confused.) You are paid to create. In the act of creation, you become attached to your creation. How can you not? You invest time and effort into making something, and in any context,…
Read More
I am a mirror. I want to be a beacon.
Blog Recent
Here's how it goes. I work with clients to realize their own visions. I translate their thoughts and ideas to moving images. I strive to achieve the things they have in their head through the digital medium. In essence, I am a mirror. I attempt to reflect their ideas back…
Read More
Dating. Missing
Blog Recent
I have a profound sense of loss and longing after a blind date. It's not to do with the blind date partner. I'm not entirely sure what it is. Online dating is a modern cure for the age-old symptom of loneliness.I think I stay single because I am afraid of…
Read More
I am falling in love with my cellphone
Blog Memory Pictures Recent
[gallery columns="5" ids="249,250,251,252,253,254,255"] Until a couple of years ago, I was never much of a smartphone guy. My fascination with cellphones, at least aesthetically, had begun sometime ago, back when I lived in China, I found them cheap and useful, and on my westerners salary, I could afford a relatively…
Read More
Fat
Blog Fitness Recent
Disgusting image! Yeah! Woo! That is 1lb of fat. I lost a little over 4 of those in the last 7 days. Thats the equivalent of half a healthy baby....or 15-20 medium sized potatoes. The thing is...the human body can fluctuate up to 5lbs in any given day...water weight, time…
Read More
Thought Thirty-Five: Walthamstow
Blog Memory
My mom was punched in the face. Did that statement make you pause the coffee cup half way to your mouth? Make your eyes flick from the youtube video to this particular collection of pixels? Well, I guess it should, but there's some adjustments to that statement you should know.…
Read More
The Sky and the Ground are One
Blog Fitness Pictures Recent
A grey day. The kind of day where the concrete has more texture than the skies, but they meet in perfect tone and hue at the horizon. A run. I have yet to run for an extended period of time without breaks, which is a frustration, but it is early…
Read More
Freeform
Blog Recent
Writing without an idea, at least for me, is a little dangerous. You never know where you're going to end up, how you got there, where you're going. Unchecked, uncensored thoughts jostle for attention, craving to be digitally immortalized, rendered in pixels for all to see. From the banal to…
Read More
The Start
Blog Fitness
[gallery columns="4" ids="211,212,213,214"] First 3 days of the diet and exersize. Urgh. Headaches during the first couple of days. Unavoidable. Body is switching from comfort food, crappy snacks, junk food, to something more natural. Or perhaps just another kind of artificial. Who knows these days... First bodyweight/sandbag/kettlebell workout yesterday for....well,…
Read More
Let It Go
Blog Fitness
And I sure did. The last year hasn't been particularly kind to me, in a number of ways, but in the case of this post, how I have treated myself. I have gone from marathon running and triathlon prep-ready, to overweight, lumbering, unhappy. Gah. There is a laundry list of…
Read More
Fresh Start
Blog Pictures
Nothing (much) to see here. Testing out my blog after years of not using, and adding some random smartphone pics from my new phone. More meaningful stuff to come... [gallery ids="194,193,192,191,190,189,188"]
Read More
Two Three Four Seven
Blog
I dont consider myself a runner, I never have, a reluctant one at best. In September 2010 I took part in my first formal run, doing the 10k from the 20th Montreal Marathon. It was a fun experience, crowds, noise, roadside entertainment, and a finish inside the olympic stadium, which…
Read More
Thought Thirty-Four: Bizarre
Blog
Well. That was…odd. 40th birthday. Yeah, i’m THAT old. Deal with it. Anyway, I have been messaging back and forward for a week or more to organize a photoshoot with a model who for all intensive purposes shall remain nameless. Well, we figured on a time and place, and it…
Read More
Thought Thirty Three: John Lennon’s Bed
Blog
Launched a website at midnight on Sunday. Got two hours sleep. Went to the scene of John Lennon’s famous ‘Bed-In‘ hotel room. Almost exactly 42 years ago that this event happened. Hard to believe. It was part of a promotion from a local events company, they staged their own ‘bed-in’…
Read More
Thought Twenty Seven: Man Love
Blog
I was a young man who once loved a young man. This is my confession. 1989. Portsmouth, UK. I was 18. It was the year of Tiananmen, the Hillsborough Football Tragedy, and the Fall of the Berlin Wall. Before the rise of the Internet, before Cellphones. And I was in love.…
Read More
Thought Twenty Six:Cat+High Place=Black Eye
Blog
Yes, my kitty cat, my adorable ball of fluffy fun managed to give me a black eye this morning. Let me explain (Mists of recollection descend, screen goes all wibbly wobbly, flashback commences) The weather is changing here, and during the winter, my cat and I curl up together for…
Read More
Thought Twenty-Five: Unrequited Love, Desire, and other mysteries
Blog
Without love our life is … a ship without a rudder … like a body without a soul. ~Sholem Aleichem Every day, we strive to achieve something. Whether the goals be small (catch the right bus, finish the work, be on time for our meeting) or large (be a better…
Read More
Thought Twenty-Four: Bad Dreams, Bad Movies
Blog
Funny, looking at the title I just wrote. Dreams are really what movies want to become. More Immersion than 3-D smell-o-vision, or any exotic technology yet to come for a long while. I remember the film ‘Strange Days’ where theres a little gadget that can record experiences and replay them to someones…
Read More
Thought Twenty-Three: Lets Go Running
Blog
Strange things happen during a run. There have been books, documentaries, endless reams of documentation about running, the art of running, the loneliness of a long distance runner, etc, so I wont attempt to top those respected works, but I thought I would take you on a run with me, while it…
Read More
Thought Twenty-Two: Bits and Pieces
Blog
My mind cant focus on one particular thing, so this is a random mash up of the mush sloshing around in my brain cells right now. First, I should really write more in this blog. I apologize if anyone actually reads this for the scarcity of blog posts. I know…
Read More
6 Months In…
Blog
Well, here we are. 6 months down, to the day. I was saying I didnt want this to be a fitness blog, so most likely this is my last direct post on the matter, or at least the last post only discussing this. I am down to my target weight,…
Read More
4 Months In…
Blog
Yup. 4 months in, 25 pounds later, same towel, same box sized room, same expressionless face, but thats me. Ok, Im not buff, not chiseled adonis-style body, stomach still painfully noticable, but im getting there. Im 4 months into my 6 month exploration, again, Im trying to avoid the words ‘diet’ and…
Read More
Documentary Blog – Day 6
Blog
The days tick onward….fatigue is setting in a little, not so much that we dont have enough sleep, as Musa says ‘the brain is good, the body is not’ For him the hardest thing is the driving, 4, 5, 6 hours every day. He keeps leaving his glasses in various…
Read More
Documentary Blog – Day 5
Blog
What started out, in theory, to be a relatively light day’s activities turned out actually to be particularly heavy. A large part of it, as is the norm now, was driving, getting lost, finding things, getting lost again, and then figuring out where we were going (or as Musa somewhat…
Read More
Documentary Blog – Day 4
Blog
Better day, although technical problems that Musa doesnt know about yet, so that will probably bring him down again. Some snags on his camera. We went to a North American Indian reservation (now, I know a good percentage of you right now are visualizing teepees, chiefs in big headresses dancing…
Read More
Documentary Blog – Day 3 – Regina
Blog
Difficult day. A little demoralizing. 6 millions things to do, and none of them quite working out. Back to Regina for another days shooting our First Nations Veteran, Howard Anderson. This time we were being filmed as we filmed the guy, but another woman working for a local cable company,…
Read More
Documentary Blog – Day 2 – Regina
Blog
Yesterday was the first day of filming. 3 hours drive from Saskatoon to Regina, the capital city of the province, to meet our first interviewee, Howard Anderson. He is 86 years old, joined the army, like his father before him to fight for his country. He has a photo album…
Read More
Documentary Blog – Day 1 – Saskatoon
Blog
It’s Tuesday morning, and I wake up in Saskatoon, a city of 200,000 people. So, what am I doing here, 2000km west from Montreal, you might ask? Well, this is day one of filming a documentary for my main client, Musa Kala. Over the past few months, we have been…
Read More
Thought Seventeen: First Love 3
Blog
The car slowed and stopped as she slipped past the vantage point I had from the front steps, but I already knew what was coming. I was kind of numb about it, in denial. I knew, but I didnt know, or wasnt really preparing myself for the news. Anyway, she…
Read More
Thought Sixteen: First Love 2
Blog
So, despite the level of stress, we continued. During that summer, I lived in London with my mom, and Rosalie in Portsmouth with her parents. We traveled to see each other when we could. In spite of everything, we were solid, strong, firm in our commitment. Or, at least, I was. I…
Read More
Thought Fifteen: First Love 1
Blog
It is true what the majority of people say, that the first time you fall in love, you fall the hardest. Its the only time in my life I have ever trusted someone unquestioningly, and would gladly give myself to them. The only time where I can confidently say that…
Read More
Thought Fourteen: Things I Hate
Blog
As Bill Hicks once said ‘dont mind me, Im just filling up my hump of hate’. I hate being misunderstood. Misinterpreted. Misrepresented. Undervalued. Ignored. Mistaken. They may sound like a mini-list in itself, but actually, its all related. Soul crushing moments, like being at a party and saying a joke…
Read More
Thought Thirteen: More Dreams
Blog
Shrugged off 6 hrs or so of sleep. Still hanging over me like a constricting shroud. Downing an energy drink to break the funk of tiredness. Im not going to let this blog turn into a dream diary or anything, in fact, im not a great fan of those, but…
Read More
Intermission
Blog
Up until 8am, worked through the night on my own thing. Recorded an accapella version of a new track off Imogen Heap’s new CD. Debating whether to share it with anyone or not. Tried adding a video…its taking too long to make. May add to the video version sometime soon.…
Read More
Thought Twelve: Love
Blog
10 Things I love: I love the way my cat sleeps under my arm, next to me when I go to sleep. I Love the ‘a-HA’ moment when Im creating. That flash of inspiration, the breakthrough on something. The longer the struggle before the moment, the more satisfying the breakthrough…
Read More
Thought Eleven: I Remember
Blog
You see, its what you forget. What you lose. What slips through your brain full of holes. The little things, the stuff of life, the stuff that makes you smile, makes you cry. The lead character from the film ‘Everything Is Illuminated’, Jonathan, would collect things from an early age,…
Read More
Thought Ten: Begging
Blog
My policy on begging, beggars, etc. Dont give them money. Thats it really. Dont do it. This is a difficult and problematic decision to make, and theres bound to be people out there that disagree with me. After all, just like waitresses rely on tips to supplement their minimum wage…
Read More
Thought Nine: Dreams
Blog
No, I’m not talking about career aspirations, or goals, or wishful thinking, Im talking about the stuff you do when you snore and drool. Yes, I drool in my sleep, I admit it. Nasty habit, but Im not even sure if theres anything that can be done about it. Dreams…
Read More
Though Eight: Hitchiking Five
Blog
The longest trip I attempted, in my younger more optimistic days (not that im THAT old now, it just feels like it) was a trip from London, UK to the South of France to see a friend who was working in a holiday camp for a summer job. Im not…
Read More
Though Seven: Hitchiking Four
Blog
Ok then, we’ve pretty much covered this topic, but heres my two most unusual lifts: The first, forgive me, is a story I tell from time to time, so if youve heard it before, well, just skip over it, but it is still interesting. There is pretty much two main…
Read More
Thought Six: Hitchiking Three
Blog
There are days when it takes forever to go a few miles down the motorway, and there are days when everything just comes together, days when I was actually faster than public transport. I lost count of the number of lifts, of the miles travelled. I managed to cover the…
Read More
Thought Five: Hitchiking Two
Blog
So! If youve followed the steps in the last blog, then youre ready to go, and you stand a good chance getting a lift. Thumb out, smile, clear sign, dont let them get to you… Its a weird kind of feeling, hitching. You are completely at the mercy of complete…
Read More
Thought Four: The Magic!
Blog
I did my time in higher education (in fact, more than my allotted time, considering I tried, quit, and tried again) at, primarily, Newport College of Art and Design, in Newport, surprisingly enough, in Wales. The course was a B.A. in Fine Art, but it was a progressive course, at…
Read More
Thought Three: Tears
Blog
The first film I ever cried to. When I was a teenager, I would suppress the urge to display emotion in soppy films. Actually, its more accurate to say that I wasnt really moved by any of them to any extent. Memory is hazy, but I was 14-ish, in the…
Read More
Thought Two: Scorned
Blog
I was at school. I want to say, something like 14. Not entirely sure, but somewhere around that. Teenage crushes, finding your feet, defining your personality. Generally school was an unhappy time for me, but that can be saved for another post. Foggy recollection about this particular one. I had…
Read More
Thought One: Hitchhiking One
Blog
When I was a teenager, fresh out of University, or rather, fresh out of uncompleted University, I wanted to live the student lifestyle, hanging on to what mystique remained of the student life. Eating pot noodles, watching daytime TV, sleeping at unusual hours, living on the basics, and my travel…
Read More