MerriMaking

With festival season digging its toes in I thought I'd tell you about these guys so you can silly up your wardrobe ready for frolicking in a field with your most loved friends.

Merrimaking started out as a Duo in 2009 after finishing Uni Meg and Harri wanted to make animal hoods and sell them at festivals to make a bit of cash, I don't think they betted on the boom they've had in the industry over the last two years. 

I found out about them in Oh comely magazine. Thank you oh comely as usual.  Merrimaking makes seriously cool hand made animals hoods, on there website you can can chose from 4 different animals and then customise it with a lining OR if your bold and brave you can ask them nicely to commission one for you. I got a fawn one for my friend for her birthday last year, I spoke with Harri via email and she was so friendly, chatty and really helpful what more could you want.

For my 22nd birthday my friends sent in a picture of my Japanese akita Juno and asked if they would make one that looked like her. They had no problem and I was thrilled with my birthday present!

These days there knockin out a bit more than cute animal hoods, they've started making tees, hoodys, bum-bags and hats as well as collaborating with artists to make some limited addition cool shit. 

There hoods start from £25 and the bigger the commission the bigger the price tag but if you want quality and something awesome that is far from cheap and tacky then you have to get your hands in your pocket. If your thinking its a bit pricey for something silly to wear at festivals, wait till winter when you've got the flu, you'll be glad you've got something warm and happy snuggled around your face. 

http://merrimaking.co.uk/

Portable Speaker

So I don't know about you but summer is in full swing here in Preston, the weather here is immense and so is my prickly heat but I refuse to moan! Last night me and my friend Timm led on a blanket and watched the stars at 2am in T-shirts, how can people not make the most of this weather!  A necessity for this whether for sitting in the sunshine on the park with friends and for shoving new music down your mates throats is a portable speaker and a good one at that.

This is the Phillips SBA3010 soundshooter it comes in a range of colours but the most available are blue and orange, I do wish mine was purple but it is blue, you cant have everything I guess, I picked mine up over winter in Argos for £19.99 and its remains one of my best purchases I'e ever made, I use mine every single day! It is compatible with my blackberry, i-phones, laptops, computers, iPod and general MP3 players. It claims that there isn't much it isn't compatible with and I've yet to find what it doesn't work with either. This little thing is wrapped in rubber so if your a clumsy bastard like me you'll appreciate it, this robustness makes it more appealing. It fits in my bag and sits in the palm of my hand, it has a retractable cable which is a decent length and and its got a rechargeable battery which last a solid 8 hours. It works by two mini speakers sitting on top of each other that combined offer 2 watts of  mono audio output. Basically its fucking top. The clarity of sound it offers is nothing to roll your eyes at. I've never once regretted my purchase and you wont either.  

Mr Gnome

My find of the month is Mr Gnome. They are seriously good! A boy girl duo from the Midwest create explosive, experimental, indie rock/sad core style music, I cant really describe them but they are definitely the best words for the job. I found them after investing a bit of my discovery time on YouTube, watching recommended videos which is always a bit of a gamble,. You have to put yourself through exposing your poor ears too some of the draining drivel that lurks on there but sometimes you get lucky.  I dunno about you but I get pretty excited on the discovery of a new band, introducing it to my life and recommending them to my friends is always a fun part, its like a little achievement 'hey check out this band I found' and if they like them too then you might as well just high five your self. 

The first song I listened to was 'the way' I'd recommend starting there, after you've listened to that try 'ate the sun'. What I love the most is that its only a boy and girl giving it death - how crazy is that, either there full of energy or they've got anger issues, either way they make some incredible music, some songs are so different and varied in style and deliverance that they sounds like a different band all together - this can be bad in some cases but for these two its the best thing about them.

Scott Connick

Scott Connick is an Illustrator that I just came across on Facebook, I was bored and scrolling through pages, I'm sure it doesn't surprise you the amount of horrendous bollocks that is on there but as we discussed earlier boredom leads to all great things. He's based in Liverpool and he's fucking ace. From what I've gathered (I may be wrong) he draws in ink and fills in digitally which gives his images this sort of clean, bold tactile feel to them that you just cant help but like, he has major talent and a wicked style which is clearly assisted by his well fed imagination. Plus he drew Ryan Gosling so he's gone up even higher as a talent artist in my books if you ask me. That man is a dream.

You can find him on Facebook which includes links to a twitter, tumblr and other cool stuff that he's on. Check him out, he has stated that he's open to all kinds of commissions. https://www.facebook.com/connickillustrations 

How to make a cloud

There's  not much to say about this really apart from I WANT TO DO IT NOW, I came across this on a group on Facebook and just thought, why don't I think of these things. Either way this needs to be in my house and the world will be a better place. Just to justify a reason I'm sure it will come in handy on a photoshoot.......some day.

Oh Comely Magazine

I discovered oh comely magazine hiding behind some crappy fashion mags in whsmiths, I must say I was pretty excited about everything I saw as I flicked through it. I was more than happy to part with a mere £4 so I could have it, it was issue 5 that I started and I've not missed an issue since. The thing that is so special about this magazine is that its so carefully put together. Each awesome thing it features you can feel the time that was put into sourcing it. Its not full of any old shit, it doesn't bang on about 10 day bikini bods, it couldn't give a fuck what is going on in Towie nor does it shove Aztec hippy drivvle down your throat. Its special. 

My favourite thing I've ever read in oh comely is a story about someone who worked bagging bread rolls every day at a bakery at 5am this person talked about why being bored is good for you. You tend to not have any other choice but to think deeply about things and I started thinking about how you should appreciate everything and see a good reason for everything because if this person managed  to find that they gained from such a tedious job I really should stop moaning about trivial things and see that everything is good for me. You can read it here at this link or find it in issue 8.

http://www.ohcomely.co.uk/content/333

I've not got round to getting issue 16 yet but I'm pretty excited, this one looks a bit different but in a good way.

Easier with Practice

Easier with practice is a film I rented on a whim whilst I was in blockbuster a couple of years ago. If your into indie low budget films with an amazing soundtrack and a bit of a quirky storyline and snappy dialogue where very little happens then you'll enjoy this. 

My interest in cinematic photography heightened after watching this. I kept pausing it at scenes that looked really good and thinking I wish I could create photos like that.

 The music in is is just amazing as well. The main song for the film is a song by Rock Plaza Central called 'when we go how we go pt 2'  if you play it loud it somehow reminds you of good memories, it does for me anyway. Easier with practice is directed by Kyle Patrick Alvarez, Brian Geraghty plays an awkward individual with horrible confidence yet manages to stay charming and heart warming throughout. He's a writer who has just made a book of short stories about people, he's on a book tour with his brother who I thought was quite frankly a complete wanker, but that was his job as an actor so well done Kel O'neill. 

The reason I am putting it on here is I was in the pub the other night and I was drunkenly talking my friend Craig's head off about this bloody film, every time people bring up my photography, its the only way I feel like I can describe what I actually do. I start talking about and can never find a good time to stop. I just think its amazing and I have this pushy urge to want everyone I know to give it a chance, the ending is also pretty sweet and makes it all worth it.