I've been mulling over the idea of an update to my 2012 series 36 Reasons To Love Camberwell for a while and now I'm getting down to it. I feel the area changing more rapidly than ever.
With that in mind, I want to document not just my favourite places, but Camberwell as a whole. I've been out and about experimenting and with the sun out yesterday evening, what better excuse than to go out with my camera! Hanging out at Bus Stop K on Camberwell Green is a good start.
As some of you may have worked out by now, Mrs PBTT and I are a bit obsessed by all things antiquey and retro, and I do love a good rummage in a car boot sale when we go away in Van Wonka.
Being a bit of a hoarder, and living in a one bedroom flat, we sometimes have a bit of a problem stopping ourselves from another gorgeous teapot (current tally is somewhere in the region of 8 or 9), or beautiful 50's bar stool. Lately, Mrs PBTT's has been buying things on the grounds that "It would be a great prop for a photo shoot". So selfless of her. Such concern for my business!
However, occasionally you see something that you just have to buy, no matter the price. Such is the case when we went to a car book sale last month near Thame. It was the wedding portrait that first caught my eye. I always find it sad that someone's happiest day is reduced to a house clearance and ends up on a tarpaulin in a field one Sunday morning in September.
But underneath this seemingly normal but abandoned wedding portrait was a photo of the wedding breakfast. And what a photo! It reminds me of the Last Supper by Da Vinci, or the Accidental Renaissance concept mentioned in the Guardian recently (there are more photos in that vein here).
(All the photos can be seen in a slideshow gallery at the bottom of the page).
Every time I look at this photo I see more, discover more, and love it more. It also raises new questions on each viewing.
The light shining in from the window on the right. Exactly how many people can you get to smoke in one room?! Everyone seems to have at least one cigarette in their hands and I'm sure I can see a couple of people with an extra one up their noses just for luck.
What is the joke the best man has just cracked? The lady in the black hat, with her head bent down(below the bride and groom in the picture). Is she laughing, falling asleep, or is she struggling to hear what is being said and is this a look of concentration?
This photo was taken less than two years after the war ended. Rationing was still in force. Look at the wedding buffet. It's fairly spartan, especially by today's standards. Or have they already finished eating and the catering staff (assuming there are catering staff) tidied up a bit.
There are champagne glasses, however. Are they full of champagne, or did they drink elderflower champagne? Whilst copying the photos for this blog I noticed the bar at the back for the first time, with what looks like beer bottles and what may be champagne, but who can tell? There's definitely no Coca Cola or lager!
Clothes rationing didn't end until 1949 so where did such the wedding dress come from? Was it borrowed? Did she save up her coupons? The bride also has a pretty spectacular bouquet, and the tables are covered in daffodils, which would have been in season at the time.
(All the photos can be seen in a slideshow gallery at the bottom of the page).
Who is Barry Westwood, the photographer? Did he take two photos and then splice them together (you can see the join down the middle)? Or did he make a mistake and needed to redo it? He is based in Pinner, but where did the wedding take place? All I know is that it is dated the 30th April 1947.
However, the biggest question by far is who are they? What happened to this gorgeous couple? (I love, love, love his hair style!) Why did their precious wedding photos end up in a Car boot sale? Are there any living relatives or grandchildren out there who loved this couple but didn't realise these photos would end up in a forgotten pile? I'd love to find them. Partly to find out more about the wedding and the people involved, but most importantly, to give the photos back to the family.
Can you help? Please, please spread the word on Twitter and Facebook.
If you have any information about these photos, or know anyone who may be able to help, please get in touch at tom@tomleighton.co.uk or leave a comment below. I'd love to hear from you.
TomTom.
(All the photos can be seen in a slideshow gallery below).
Tickets Please!
A little while back, in July to be precise, Mrs PBTT and I went to the local Camberwell bus garage open day. No, we are not bus spotters, or whatever they are called, but there were plenty of men on hand (and they were all men) if you wanted to know the difference between a mark II and mark III Routemaster, or to know which route the blah, blah, chassis runs on or whatever....
No, the reason we went is because I'm a nosy parker and I wanted to feast my eyes on the old Routemasters and get a free ride on a bus as it went through the bus wash, which is like a car wash but sooooo much bigger and more exciting. Obviously. Problem is, everyone else thought the same and the queue was massive.
So we had to make do with getting to play at being a bus conductor (which is way more fun than any grown adult should ever admit) and seeing the beautiful (they don't make 'em like that any more) LGOC B-Type bus, which has now been beautifully restored by the London Transport Museum and is doing the tours as part of the WW1 commemorations.
We also got to tick off a few of my obsessions. Namely, finding collections of things and photographing them, and Camberwell. Old bus tickets, from 1 - 10, most of which passed through Camberwell. What do you reckon? Do I need help?
Find out more about PhotosByTomTom's still life portfolio. CLICK HERE!
I recently did a shoot for Toby Tiger down at Toby Tiger HQ in Worthing.
We had a fab day with some lovely kids, a great new assistant in Hannah Hughes, lovely weather and this...
..two of my newest models had only eyes for each other, and are apparently inseparable. And it's about the cutest thing I've ever photographed!
See what you think.
I've been working on a new project to recreate an A to Z of sweets. This is all to do with my obsession with old school sweet shops. Every time I pass one, I have to buy a quarter of humbugs! So here's a few test shots. I haven't decided on a few things like the background colours, style and lighting, but here's a taster of what to expect soon.
[Update 17th July: I've now got M...is for Milk Bottles. I'm finding out that some sweets don't like to play ball and are really ugly close up! I'm going to have to find a way to get round this].
It was rather warm Sunday, and I had to nip back to London from Norwich (which is lovely by the way) to say hello to some clients yesterday at Bubble, and Dot to Dot.
and it's always lovely to see Poco Nido and their gorgeous shoes (still waiting for the adult sizes to get made). They were at Dot to Dot, which is relative newcomer to the kid's fashion trade show lark. It meant I got to see some great new brands, and hopefully I may be working with one or two of them sometime in the future.
My highlights were the beautiful prints of Spud Kids, reminiscent of 50's designs and patterns.
I also loved the bow ties in the boxes by Anna Liv. The boxes reminded me of the pencil cases we had at school (I've still got mine), where I carved my name and what seemed like very funny ideas at the time.
I know that Mrs PhotosByTomTom is rather partial to some African prints, so she'll love the designs by What Mother Made.
I am so envious of the photos for Young Soles. You should really check them out.
Marmalade & Mash's designs are really elegant and stylish designs, with the best name I've seen for a kid's fashion brand this year!
Then off to a rather warm Bubble to say hello to lots more (overheating) people. I really wanted to see the fashion show, which was a lot of fun. I'm sure I spotted a Poppy dress in there somewhere!
You don't have to say cheese do a good photo!
I had the first of the two workshops this morning as part of Camberwell Arts Open Studio.
We had a lovely time, and as you can see, just because your son isn't smiling, doesn't mean you can get a great shot!
What do you think?
Have you ever looked at children's portraits done in a studio and thought that they were a bit, well, cheesy?
Yeah, me too!
I have been asked in the past to do children's portraits but resisted for a long time because I didn't want to go down the cheesy photo look.
Some bright spark (probably my wife. Let's face it, she's the brains of this outfit!) came up with the idea of doing children's portraits in a way I would feel comfortable doing and PortraitsByTomTom was born (Couldn't really have done any other name, could I?)
If you want to see more information then go to the PortraitsByTomTom pages. Prices for a fashion shoot for your little'un start at £345, which includes £100 towards prints and artwork, but to launch PortraitsByTomTom, I am giving an extra £50 discount when booking online.
Just enter the code PBTT50 at the checkout before the 30th June to claim your discount.
Looking forward to having some fun with you all in the studio!
I recently did a shoot for Skribbies in my studio. The images have now been released and I am really chuffed with the final look. Judging by all the comments on Twitter and Facebook, and from Jen at Skribbies, I think others are too!
Very exciting stuff in PhotosByTomTom towers today. I've been shooting some product and still life shots of the brand new Mini Moderns designed 20th birthday mugs for the Camberwell Arts festival. They are gorgeous, and will SO be a regular feature in the studio. Mugs will be on sale this weekend but they are a limited edition, so be quick if you want one.
16th May. A wee update for you. Mugs are on sale at the Camberwell Arts Etsy Page. But be very, very quick. The first lot went in less than 48 hours and the second batch are flying too!
If this cocktail were a 007 film it would be Live & Let Die. Blog by PhotosbyTomTom aka Tom Leighton
Read MoreTurns out quite a lot. Though when shooting the mums and dads did have to decamp to the corridor.
I did a shoot today with the fab people from Skribbies. We managed to fit the 6 models, and parents, and brothers and sisters (including a gorgeous 12 week old baby), and make up with two lovely assistants, and Jen from Skribbies...and me.
You'll be able to see the final shots in House of Fraser in a few weeks but here's the sneak preview.
New camera, new styles: Part 1
I got my new Nikon D800 a few weeks ago, but as is always the case when you buy new equipment, I discovered that I also needed a new computer, new hard-drives and software updates to use it properly. My retirement plan to become a monk in the mountains will have to wait a little longer!
Yesterday was one of the first days I’ve had to really try out photos and I thought it was about time I tried something different. I don’t normally get to shoot in black and white so it was refreshing to have a go. I’m also more comfortable shooting with a 50mm lens so I thought I’d use my emergency 24-85mm lens wide out for a change. This ain’t the best lens in the world by any count- I’m known to be accident prone, so lucky for me this lens is indestructible!- but I wanted to see if Lightroom 5 can really do what it says it can when it comes to lens correction. Judge for yourselves, but I’m pretty impressed.
