"The Fountain" by Darren Aronovsky

The central theme of the whole picture is "Love" and what man will do to keep it alive!

First things first I thought the acting in this picture was out-bloody-standing!

I have to be honest and admit that I have never really seen Hugh Jackman act, but his performance, with the always impressive Rachel Weiss was nothing less than excellent. And equally important their on-screen chemistry worked wonderfully well and director Aronovsky must take credit for that!

The script was fine and I mean just fine!

I didn't find anything, like one line or exchange that stood out, and considering the importance, scope and subject matter that the movie tackles I was looking for something with a little more depth, meaning and at least some clever turns of phrase!

All of the above was lacking and considering the director's previous pictures I was a little disappointed.

The cinematography was however simply outstanding! The general tint of the whole flick was very dark but in the third act especially I have to say there were a few shots that Kubrick himself might have applauded! Thinking again, maybe not!

As a complete film "The Fountain" was extremely and intelligently well lit by all concerned!

But what I think the film suffers from is that it looks tired! The project took six years to get into post-production and I really think the movie itself suffered from that and it shows!

Darren Aronovsky is still one of the most original and dynamic directors to come out of NYC and without a doubt will be a force in film to reckon with for a long time to come!

The Oscars, Florida & oakfasdfias

So there were a few pleasant surprises from the Kodak Theater, Hollywood last night and none more so than Alan Arkin beating Eddie Murphy for the BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR award and also "The Lives Of Others" snatching the BEST FOREIGN FILM from "Pan's Labyrinth"

I'm not going to talk about "Marty" apart from that he did deserve "AN" Oscar, just not one for "The Departed" Why didn't they present him with a 'special' award? One that recognized his whole volume of work? His service to cinema? Don't you think he's more deserving? And where the hell was Robert DeNiro? Loser!

You can't put "The Departed" in the same catergory as "Mean Streets", "Taxi Driver" and "Goodfellas'" It just doesn't belong! It needs to sit in the corner and sulk! "I haven't been bad! I was just made this way!

Anyway enough said! NOW thank God his wait is finally over! Now "Marty", pretty please go out and make a masterpiece without ripping off an original feature! "Infernal Affairs" deserved a lot better and so do you!

It's late and here are some more pictures from Florida!



I was kinda' hoping that one of the kids was going to get attacked, so I waited, and waited,...then I heard the bell for "Happy Hour!"



You really can't beat the sunset's down there!

I keep meaning to try and make these blog images bigger so you can actually see what I've been trying to photograph, rather than forcing everyone to squint and lose their fucking eyesight! Its a work-in-progress, but if anyone has any hints and tips please be kind enough to help this retard out!

"And the Oscar goes to...?"

Here's my personal picks for the major awards for the 2007 Oscar's!

Tomorrow I'll tell you how many I got horribly wrong!

LEADING ACTOR: I've gone for Forest Whitaker for his performance of Idi Amin in the so-so movie "The Last King of Scotland" His acting in this feature is outstanding and is larger than life than the picture itself! My heart though would love to see fellow 'Brit' Peter O'Toole suprise everyone with an upset! Ryan Gosling would be a very close call also as he was nothing less than superb in the sublime "Half Nelson"

SUPPORTING ACTOR: I haven't seen the picture but I'm going with award trends and picking Eddie Murphy. Personally I would rather see Jackie Earle Haley or Alan Arkin upset what will prove to be one of a few 'politically correct' choices for this year!

LEADING ACTRESS: This is easy! Helen Mirren! My mother called from England today telling my wife that Mirren is nothing less than brilliant in the role of "The Queen" Tough catergory this year with outstanding actress's with outstanding roles behind them! Not an easy choice for the jury, but again I'm going with form and putting my money on the favorite!

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Adriana Barraza is my personal choice, but Jennifer Hudson will win on merit and also because this is another 'politically correct' award choice that the panel's hands were probably tied on! Rinko Kikuchi would be my second with brave and outstanding work in "Babel" - and to be honest the supporting actors in that movie were the best part of the feature!

ANIMATED FEATURE: "Happy Feet" - pure guess and anotherI reminder that should start watching a lot more of these amazing feature films without sticking my nose up in the air like a pretentious snob!

ART DIRECTION: What I'm hoping will be the first of many award this evening for the excellent "Pan's Labyrinth"

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Guess? "Pan's Labyrinth!" But I did adore the dark, sombre mood of the "Children of Men"

COSTUME DESIGN: I'm a bloke so I went with my balls! "The Devil Wears Prada" Enough said!

DIRECTING: "Babel" Another one of my 'PC' predictions! Personally I'd rather see either Clint win or "The Queen", but certainly NOT "The Departed!"

BEST PICTURE: Again, "Babel", but I wouldn't be surprised if the joke, I mean "The Departed" gets it! On a personal level, "Letters from Iwo Jima", or "Little Miss Sunshine" to totally rock the Hollywood boat!

FILM EDITING: "Babel" Although I didn't like the film as much as EVERYONE else did (!) I have to bow my head to superb filmaking! Just PLEASE get better leads next time!

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: "The Lives of Others" Yes I'm going for an upset as I think this is another award "Pan's Labyrith" will reap! Either way I won't be upset!

ORIGINAL SONG: One of the three nominated from "Dreamgirls!" Duh!

VISUAL EFFECTS: "Superman"

SCREENPLAY-ADAPTED: "Borat: Cultural Learnings Of America For Make Benefit Glorious Nation Of Kazakhstan!"

SCREENPLAY-ORIGINAL: "Babel" Fabulous writing just not the right cast in the leading roles!

Well let's see what happens!

Beat this for a boring introduction?!

"Here's a few more shots from our recent trip to Ohio!"

Yes! I wanted to use the most mind numblingly boring, tired and dreadfully tepid introduction I could come up with for these three new photographs! What do you think? Quite outstanding I thought!

Not the pictures! The introduction!

I'm actually hoping that these photographs might one day end up being popular for this website?!
Maybe somebody will buy a print! Maybe one day the galleries will finally open their cyber doors before I shave my hair off?!

Watch this blog for the latest updates!

So the first image was taken on the campus of Ohio State University. I think this building was the gymnasium, day rooms and maybe even a research center? I just liked the reflection of the sunset against the windows and yes it reminded me of that Kate Winslet movie too!



The next shot I took down by the river that er, flows through um, Columbus, Ohio. Maybe it's called the "Columbus" river? No! Probably not! Anyway it was taken with a Canon 20D with a 70mm-200mm F2.8 lens. I just liked the simplicity of the color, contrast and form.




Last but not least! The the final shot was again from the campus of OSU and nobody knows what this building is about! I was going to find out but to be honest who cares! I did slightly over saturate the sky though but it looks "NICE!" And maybe a little Orwellian too? Maybe it could have been used as background scenery in the movie "Gattaca?!"



So it's been a long day. My new job in 'the village' is going good. The commute is a blessing (!) and I know there's not many people in this city that can say that! The weather is starting to warm up. Yankees baseball is right around the corner! Let's see if they can do something in October! Mmmmm, more on that in the summer months!

"Pan's Labyrinth", "The Children of Men" and "Babel"

Three films from three exciting Mexican directors but with mixed results!

Quick review of each one and I'll start with my favorite out of the three and that is "Pan's Labyrinth"

Outstanding feature in pretty much all facets of a motion picture!

Beautifully crafted story full of childhood fantasy, wonder & innocence, balanced with the horrors of the Spanish Civil war, while in the middle of all this a lonely little girls struggles to come to terms with a new family headed by a father in lust with Franco's fascist regime both at home and at the front lines!

The line, "He won't even know your name", is the cornerstone of the father character and the most memorable in the film!

Directed by Guillermo del Toro with such skill it truly is a wonder to watch this chap work! Bit heavy on the ultra-violence but worthy of many awards and a lot of people will be looking at his next feature with much anticipation and interest. Good luck to you sir!

Second and without of a shadow of a doubt is Alfonso Cuaron's "Children of Men."

A simple tale told in a childless future of the New World Order society which is clearly closer than we think!

The film follows the story of Clive Owen's character as he becomes involved in an underground plot to smuggle out a pregnant woman while stopping to smoke some "pot" with Michael Caine (excellent cameo!) and getting shot at by both the British Police Force and the "Terrorist" group (CAN you tell the difference in their motives?!) who are trying to help the birth of the first baby in nearly 20 years!

Eerie, atmospheric, you name it, but this film had a great look right from the opening sequence! I though the acting was great especially from Clive Owen and Michael Caine. Julianne Moore was pretty forgetful and the supporting cast did just that and didn't try for much more.

Remember to watch for this line from Michael Caine, "Pull my finger!"

"Babel" - mmmm, in last place and for the right reasons! I found this a huge disappointment considering the director, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu whose first feature was the excellent "21 Grams" and I was expecting something a little better than this to be brutally honest!

First off it's essentially the same structure as "21", but on a grander scale in all aspects - cast, story and budget etc,.

And, for me that is quite simply where this whole movie went wrong!

I would love to say that Brad Pitt & Cate Blanchett give the performances of their lives, BUT quite simply they don't!

They are far outclassed by the supporting performances of Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi (who quite rightly have been nominated for Oscars!) The story, or lack off was more than apparent from the outset and why all of the media critics have jumped all over this with teenage zeal is beyond me? Really break it down and it's not that great!

In a sentence, "Babel" was summarized by my friends 8-year old daughter with, "So this film was all about a gun!"

But I'm sure it will Oscars!

Ohio - 2006.

Apparently the word "Ohio" means "Hello", or "Hi" in Japanese?

My wife told me that this evening just before I started writing this post!

Can anyone else confirm this? Maybe my friend Khat? (He is married to a Japanese lady you know!)

So we enjoyed a great trip to Columbus, Ohio late last year. My wife, Melissa is a "Buckeye!" Born and raised in Columbus and as a mad foreign devil I have absolutely no idea what that actually means?!

I enjoyed a whole week of watching Hi-Def DVD feature films on my father-in-law's brand new 55" Sony TV that has a picture that I cannot even begin to describe! I WANT one!

While my wife Melissa enjoyed shopping, shopping & more shopping!

But getting back to the movies! It's the "Oscars" this week so I'll be posting some very candid thoughts about the event during this coming week! I'm going to have two choices for each catergory - my choice for what "WILL" win and my choice for "WHO & WHAT SHOULD WIN!"

Now back to Columbus, Ohio!

Our trip was in the second week of December and I did also manage to take some photographs with my wife and also hang out with her friends in some cool and up-coming trendy spots in down-town Columbus (or what my wife likes to call "downtown England", as apparently my country fits, geographically (!) into the state of Ohio?!

Ha! Real rib-tickler that one!

So, we meet Jeff & Pablo at "BoMa" - "Bar of Modern art", and this place turns out to be more than a bar!

This place is an ex-church! I'm serious! The whole building used to be a place of holy worship!

We're talking stained glass windows with the best of the biblical cast! There was the 'Virgin Mary", "Peter" and his fishing buddies, a couple of other Apostles that I couldn't recognize (this atheist did suggest to higher management that they get the windows cleaned!) and get this bloody the altar was the DJ booth, they had also turned the choral seating section into 'nose bleed' seats and the 'confession boxes' - erm,..You really don't want the they did with those!

But it was a great joint! Fabulous food, great cocktails, a variety of differently themed bars and to top the lot prices you wouldn't believe!

Anyway, enough banter! Here's a picture from the campus of OSU!

The light reflecting off the window reminded of the film, "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind!"

You too - right?!

Movie review - "Crash", 2006.

What a major disappointment!

I have to say right from the outset that I DO NOT and WILL NOT understand HOW this film won the Best Film Oscar Award last year?

This film for me was a complete and utter wreck after the first 45 minutes promised so much. I am 99% sure I have never seen a film just totally fail in so many critical and obvious ways - and that it went on to win an award is a tragedy for the medium of film and the film industry!

The only consolation I have is that I never spent hard earned money buying a cinema ticket or paid to rent it as I think I would join the new trend of demanding ticket money back after leaving the movie theatre!

That said, I will admit, that the opening forty-five minutes was strong and gripping. The tight dialogue, along with excellent shot selection drove the pace of the picture with verve, good character introduction, decent opening plot arcs and then,...then I heard the music for the first time and felt my face go pale!

From that point on the whole picture went crash, bang, whallop and fell into every cliche any intelligent mammal could imagine! Then add bad structure, which must be embarrassing as this was a non-linear piece, with absolutely NO further character development and if I missed any it was left behind as road-kill! And GOD! This piece from then on was just nothing more than irritating, annoying - bit like a wart, 'roid or a veruka!!

But, going back to the music! Jesus H. Christ! Oh, bad is not the word! I do feel sorry for people who enjoyed this feature! But PLEASE tell me that the soundtrack at best was nothing more than "New Age", 'noodley' bollocks that would be better suited to one of the new art-house real porn pictures rather than a movie that was trying to be a very serious examination of racism within the modern social context, and blah, blah, blah,...

I have convinced myself (and it didn't take a lot!) that there is a hidden agenda, a secret clique of bad minds of taste that vote for material of this degrading nature because I think any honest jury must have had to fall asleep behind the wheel to award this movie any award - let alone the Oscar!!

Lastly and to be bold, I will say that it reminds me of another recent Oscar tragedy when Adrian Brody won best actor in a leading role for "The Pianist" over Daniel Day Lewis for "Gangs of New York" - I don't think I need I say anymore,...do I?

Drizzled extra virgin oil chucked over a pot roast of shoulder!

We'll this is a little late but, here's how I avoided the dreaded "back-up - 2006!"

Bloody Valentine's Day!

"I'll cook tonight love! Whaddya' fancy? Another Beef stew?

The plan worked and the only things I missed were the frozen ground garden peas, the pearl onions, toasted peasant bread and six smashed garlic cloves!

But apart from these essential ingredients dinner went down well!

And to finish we enjoyed a tart dessert, coffee from Costa Rica, and some smelly French cheese!

Everything was was not broken up and not dancing.

Then I looked over my left shoulder at the 17" desk top screen that screamed,

"FOLDER ME! FILE ME! ORGANIZE YOUR LIFE! DON'T FORGET THE META-TAGS! I'M LONELY! CHECK OUT THE RATINGS OF THIS SELLER! I HATE THIS 007 WALLPAPER! AND DO YOUR F******G LAUNDRY!

Some Tips: Use unsalted butter instead of a virgin! You do need all of the ingredients I forgot!

And I do humbly apologize about the spelling!

Good night!

Raws, Jpegs, my wife's Lasagne and backing up!

This is the most mind numbing, spirit crushing, tedious part of being a photographer!

Eating my wife's Lasgane!

No! I mean backing up!

Seriously, whether it's film negatives or slides from a long time ago or today with all the digital file formats like jpegs, raws & tiffs - I personally (and I know I'm not the only one!) absolutely hate and I mean HATE filing images, titling images, sorting images into folders, indexing images and then finally backing the whole bloody lot onto DVD's, CD's and hard drives!

I hate this whole process with such a passion!

At least 2-3 days before I know I HAVE to do this I start to get sick!

I twitch, shiver and shake! My stomach starts burning acid! My eyes begin weeping in public places! Sometimes I have been know to develop rashes in a matter of minutes! My wife, her friends, our friends, even my friends - won't talk to me, the cat thinks I'm from outta' feckin' space and the neighbors close their doors as they see me approach down the corridor! And I won't even go into my bowel movements,...

Anyway, tomorrow night - is the night!

And I HAVE to do it!

You know what, after I actually get into it I do get a buzz as I start to remember all the photographs and how I liked taking them all in the first place. Good or bad. How they were all was shot. The compositions. The atmosphere - I could go on,...

The plan was to start the back-up earlier this evening, but I spent most of tonight trying to write this post and then watching "Three days of the Condor", and then, and then,...blah, blah ,bloody blah...

It's late so I'm off to bed!

By the way, the wife's Lasgane was outstanding!

Your first attempt was first class love!

Cheers!

The West Village, NYC, 2006.

As I was cleaning up in the kitchen tonight well early this morning (!) I remembered a few photographs that I shot from last summer!

So in between washing and drying dishes I batch converted some RAW files so here are a couple of shots from the shots I've looked at so far! (Photographers are weird! We do weird things at weird hours!)

I like this one! It's simple, the light was perfect,...the only thing missing was an empty wine glass and napkin? Maybe?!



Bistro, West Village. 2006

Everybody I know that I showed this photograph to was like "NO! Don't put it on the site! It looks like his head has hit the lamppost!"

So what! My timing was off by a fraction of a second! I like the shot! The fucking cyclist is not the point of focus anyway!



Express Delivery, NYC. 2006.

Fun...

"Talk To Me" a film by Pedro Almodovar and a couple of pics!

My left eye lid started hiccuping' tonight after I'd watched the Pedro Almodovar picture - "Talk To Me".

Just thought I'd share that thought with you!

If it happens again with the same director I'll warn all of you!

Maybe I should ask the film/DVD distributor to put a warning label on their product too!

Anyway (and that's one of my favorite words!) I don't have the time now to write a full movie review yet ( sorry Nick!) as I have another flick to watch, "Babel" before getting back to work tomorrow morning!

But, what I will say is this - the acting was outstanding, the plot, er, well, you could kinda' figure out the whole picture after all the main players were put into place, but that didn't spoil yet another class picture from this acclaimed Spanish director!

Although - having said that I did find a few scenes a bit slow and superfluous, but the un-ending of the piece made it worth the two or three yawns!

Still the film is thoroughly lucid, perfectly paced with great performances from the whole cast. The script I can't say much about, but the subtitles were good enough for a muppet like myself!

My wife, Melissa, who speaks fluent Spanish did mention a few lines that were so much more descriptive than the usual bland English translation, that I wished for a moment that I had of payed more attention to my languages classes many years ago!

Here's an example, "Sleep on it" (English Subtitle) - "Consulte tu almueda" (Spanish) - translates to "Consult your pillow."

If you are into the Art House/Foreign film genres than this one is worth net-flixing'/blockbusting' beyond a shadow of a doubt!

Anyway (!) thanks to more comments from "Phil" and my Canadian/Dutch pal "Bubbles", and "Bubbles" why the Hell hasn't "Arnold" written to me! NOT NICE! "He is number....in all of the Netherlands!"

Finally and without further ado here are some photographs I took last year!



"A Train" to 42nd Street, Times Square. 2006.



"Times Square - not far from the 'shuttle'. 2006.

Blog Comments!

This blog isn't even a week old and I'm already getting a few comments! Thanks!

To Dave - thank you "Squire" for the compliments and yes I'll tell you what the definition of what a "Squire" is! You will be impressed - I hope!

To Eric!

Thanks for the comments Dude and please keep them coming! We're hoping to get the galleries up within the next couple of weeks! I have to edit over 300 images with my webmaster next week so I'll keep you posted on our progress!

By the way keep the beard! Real chick magnet! (-:

And finally here's a crap picture of me in Florida!



More later today!

Nikon F1 - my first proper camera!

My name is Paul Anthony Lomax and I was born and raised in the town of Bedford which is about 50 miles north of London, England.

My grandfather handed me my first camera when I was a kid. Apparently I was running around on Brighton Beach kicking sand in the faces of 'gangsta hoods' and body builders when he stopped me in my tracks and let me loose with his Kodak "Brownie" camera!

I never picked up a camera again until after I had left London University to embark on a back-packing tour of Europe in the mid 1980's! Yeah, I miss the music, the fashion & the hairstyles too!

Then I stole, I mean happened to come across a Nikon F1, when I was taking a train to Milan, Italy! A lovely Dutch tourist left this rock of a camera on her seat after rushing to alight the train! The F1 came with a 50mm F2 lens and my love affair with photography lit up again!

Anyway to cut a long story short I taught myself all of the technical aspects of photography that I could grasp, exposure, film stock, film development and darkroom printing. The only thing I could never learn, or in my case teach myself (along with thousands of other photographers!) was composition and Bresson's "critical moment."

I'm not a smart person so let me tell you all right now that I'm not a technical photographer! I "understand" all of the fundamentals of photography but really don't talk about them! A shot is a shot - however you get it! "Hook or by crook!"
The only 'techie' info your likely to get from me is what is on the RAW file!

So in the end I ended up shooting for the newspapers and later news agencies for nearly 10 years. When I quit that industry I got into travel photography through the cruise line industry before settling down with a beautiful wife and a cat right here in NYC!


My wife Melissa with her close friend Frank in Florida!

Here's a couple of black&white pics from our recent trip to Florida!


"Umbrella Man" on a chilly 70 degree morning!


"The Night Before!"

All comments are welcome and I'm off tomorrow so maybe I'll be able to post some more entertaining material!

(-:

monday, tuesday & wednesday...

JESUS! Talk about feeezing the balls of a brass monkey!

I'm sure most people in NYC have even felt their own blood turning numb and blue! - Closest we'll ever get to royalty!

So here are some more pictures from sunny Florida to warm you all up, make you smile and think of summer!



And another...



...and finally,...



I'll be posting some black & white photography from Florida next!

And I'll have more B&W to sell after I've foraged through quite a few DVD's full of RAW files so as to make a good selection for the website. I also have film negatives to access but please be patient as the neg's are still in England!

New Beginnings!

This is my first stab at establishing an on-line bona-fide.com business with photography I have taken over the years!

Wish me luck and I'm looking forward to having fun with the whole project come hell or high water!

As of now the picture galleries are still under construction and we're hoping you'll have access to them in the next couple of weeks or so - maybe a bit longer, but we'll see?!

If anyone in their right mind actually wants to contact me via email then that too is possible!
I welcome the brave and look forward to your honest and brutal comments over the coming years!

Until then you have to put up with these silly blog posts accompanied by a photograph or two, and the usual thoughts sane and insane that meander through the mind of an Englishman in New York!

In the next couple of days I'll get down & dirty with some history, our aims for this photography site/store and some characters you'll meet along the way.

Sunburn, Seagulls & Alligators!

I recently returned from a quick, but wonderful trip to Florida with my wife! Fort Lauderdale to be exact. The Florida that when it is 70 degrees and chilly people wear winter clothes compared to New Yorkers!

As an Englishman, the normal color tone of my skin is a light, pale electric blue so I enjoyed getting sunburned for the first time since I moved to NYC nearly six years ago! Nothing wrong with walking in the 'west village' looking like a fucking lobster!

And there's nothing like the smell of crispy bacon cooking in the mid-day sun until you realize its yours!

So while I was toasting myself at 70-75 sun degrees (gas mark 9) and admiring the palm trees (the last palm trees I saw were in Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket." And even those we're imported to be filmed in the "Docklands" of London! Oh, to be an extra!") I started to follow the flying patterns of the local Floridian seagulls as they circled, swooped, and dived bombed their way through the hotel's palm trees heading for direct hits on the slow moving, heavy and fleshy targets of swimming humans!

To cut a long story short I framed these three shots with an (18mm - 55mm lens mounted on a Canon 20D) against a background of pure, azure blue sky, palm trees and settled back to try and shoot a seagull on its last lap heading out to the golden, sandy beaches that meet the clear Atlantic Ocean! Dive! Dive! Dive!

So without further ado here are the two shots titled - "Ginger", "Biggles" and "The Red Barron!"

More tomorrow!