Well I have been running with a backpack now on longer runs for nearly a year and a half.. Basically since I knew I was taking part in the Marathon de Sables.. Up till now the most I'd put in it was around 6-7 kg but today I used 10kg...
after running - my video diary
I needed to test equipment to use on the Sahara run and make some notes about running with a heavy load.. In the desert my pack will start off anything between 12-15 kg - so it's important to test these things now rather than later.
Points:
1) Pack felt heavy at first but got used to this very quickly. Happy that back felt fine and shoulders too..
2) Although shoulders felt good - the straps on the OMM Backpack tended to cut in a little.. this could get painful with use in hot conditions.
3) Turning round while running - do this very slowly or when you turn back to face forward, the pack can roll round and knock you off balance.
4) Breathing: straps NEED to be pretty tight and therefore restrict breathing.. this needs to be done in long slow breaths rather than short little ones.
That was the OMM Backpack and next time i'll test the Raidlight one to see how that fairs.. The other thing to remember is that the weight will be better distributed throughout the pack - for testing I put two dumbbells in a towel which tended to stay at the bottom of the pack in one area... Maybe I will have to try out better weight distribution too.
Friday, 2 April 2010
Sunday, 28 March 2010
Ice Bath
(contains offence language)
Went for a run today.. that was 21.5 miles and I thought after.. let's do this Ice Bath thing.. it's suppose to be good for you, so why not... well.. as you can see I was in a lot of pain! However, even though I only lasted 2 minutes, I did feel better for it.. When I got out of the bath I felt my legs warm up very quickly - the blood was being pumped in so fast.. amazing! I think I will probably do it again but try and stay in a little longer - I got out because my toes felt extremely painful.. they actually felt like someone was cutting them off!! lol! Well, you get the picture, if not, watch the video.. warning - there is some swearing in the video!
The run rounds off another long week of runs - this time totalling 52 miles.. I've spaced them nicely and not run too hard and that's why I feel good now.. next week more of the same and soon I will start to 'taper' before the London Marathon.
As I write the total on my charity page is now £1,170 so I am very pleased with the donations I am getting.. At the moment I am running a bet with EVERYONE for £50.. basically it goes like this - you pay £5 into my charity then let me know what time (down to the second) my official London Marathon time will be... you could win £50.. maybe give it a go? I'm hoping to arrive between 3.30 and maybe 3.20 if i can... up to you.. page is here: http://www.justgiving.com/mds2011
Ray ...x
Sunday, 28 February 2010
51 miles..
So this week i managed to rack up 51 miles in total.. that's running. On top you think - that's a lot.. then consider the Sahara Marathon is 150 miles in 6 days (not 7) and it brings you down with a THUMP. However, moving from 40 to 50 miles was easy.. I now feel moving greater distances from week to week is easier than when i was running less miles.. ie 15-20. When I was running 20 miles per week, an increase of just 5 miles was very noticable... Now, that has changed drastically.
I'm not sure exactly what this is down to but i'm glad that it has come to light.. It means my goal of the MdS seems so much nearer - just add the heat and weight (on my back) as extra factors - but I am sure I'm nearly there now. I'd like to moderate my training through summer, regulating it from say 35 miles up to 60 miles per week.. but not always the same mileage.. terrain must change often too - like trail or mountain running for instance.
I'm planning on running the marathon distance maybe twice before the actual London Marathon in late April - this will prepare me even more for the distance. I'm happy to have passed the 50 mile mark - its a milestone if you will pardon the pun. ;)
I'm not sure exactly what this is down to but i'm glad that it has come to light.. It means my goal of the MdS seems so much nearer - just add the heat and weight (on my back) as extra factors - but I am sure I'm nearly there now. I'd like to moderate my training through summer, regulating it from say 35 miles up to 60 miles per week.. but not always the same mileage.. terrain must change often too - like trail or mountain running for instance.
I'm planning on running the marathon distance maybe twice before the actual London Marathon in late April - this will prepare me even more for the distance. I'm happy to have passed the 50 mile mark - its a milestone if you will pardon the pun. ;)
Thursday, 18 February 2010
Infrared
abandoned boat
Originally uploaded by Ray Wise
Without an infrared camera or film for my old 35mm its near impossible to make an image which resembles one. However, using an infrared effect in Photoshop helps... This is an example. Taken in New Zealand on the South Island its a basic shot of an old abandoned boat. The image was first edited using Tonal Contrast to bring out the details and then the Infrared mask was applied. This difference between it and using black and white (desaturation) techniques are quite astounding - bare in mind this doesn't work with all scenes and should be taken lightly. Lastly I applied some contrast and sharpening.
Tools used are all from Color Efex Pro 3 by Nik Software - details here: http://www.niksoftware.com/colorefexpro/en/entry.php
Ray
http://raywise.co.uk/
Sunday, 7 February 2010
Post Processing
Most photos really need a little post processing on a PC or Mac when you upload them from your camera. This shot is a prime example - I've opened it for you in Photoshop CS2 to show you the original version:
(click on photos for larger view)
You can see lots of light from behind the tree but the tree itself and other details are too dark - ie sheep and wall. Now, if you wanted silhouettes you could increase the contrast and be done with it but I'm going to attempt to show you how I bring these shadows up a little.
On the next screenshot I am changing the colour scale in Colour Balance - you can use Auto Colour but this doesn't always give the result you are looking for.. Remember this is NOT the same for every photo and you have to use your eye to gauge when it is at its best.
Shadow/Highlight is next - again this can be easily overdone so be careful.. my settings below should be ok for most processing however, watch out for added gainyness or halos.. Halos form between highlight and shadow - if it is pushed too much a white glow will occur around a dark object which looks surreal and unpleasant.
So without pushing the shot too much I still need more exposure on the dark objects - even after the above trick. Below I am going to create a new layer. Layers are found in the windows list but are usually out already on the right hand side of the screen. Right click and duplicate layer. You will be asked what to call the layer - I have left it as is.. "Background Copy"
Once you chave named your new layer it will appear in the layers box above the 'original image'. Make sure the top (copy) layer is selected.
Next I went to Exposure and made the exposure +1.00... Click on ok and you see a big change straight away - however the lighter areas will lose their colour somewhat.
Getting the colour back could not be easier.. Select the Eraser tool and set it up as you see below.. Opacity about 28% and Flow about 31%... You can now erase the areas you lost the colour on.. and the layer underneath (original) will come through.. I erased the sky and the grass areas.
Afterwards right click on the layer and Flatten Image.
The only thing missing next was a little colour in the tree.. again a little trick for getting this back is a follows: Make a new layer with nothing on it - select this layer.. and then select the gradient tool. I selected the already made grey to clear brush and changed the grey to yellow.. I then dragged the mouse from the top middle of the image to the bottom middle..
If you have done this correctly the gradient will be on the top layer (new layer) and the original image underneath still intact. Looking like below...
As you can see that look is unatural - but if you go to layers again and change the style from Normal to Soft Light, it will only appear on the dark area.. (the tree)
Finally I'm happy with the shot - sometimes at this point you can add some sharpening but I don't feel it's necessary here. Below is a split with the Edited version on the left and the original on the right:
(click on photos for larger view)You can see lots of light from behind the tree but the tree itself and other details are too dark - ie sheep and wall. Now, if you wanted silhouettes you could increase the contrast and be done with it but I'm going to attempt to show you how I bring these shadows up a little.
On the next screenshot I am changing the colour scale in Colour Balance - you can use Auto Colour but this doesn't always give the result you are looking for.. Remember this is NOT the same for every photo and you have to use your eye to gauge when it is at its best.
Shadow/Highlight is next - again this can be easily overdone so be careful.. my settings below should be ok for most processing however, watch out for added gainyness or halos.. Halos form between highlight and shadow - if it is pushed too much a white glow will occur around a dark object which looks surreal and unpleasant.
So without pushing the shot too much I still need more exposure on the dark objects - even after the above trick. Below I am going to create a new layer. Layers are found in the windows list but are usually out already on the right hand side of the screen. Right click and duplicate layer. You will be asked what to call the layer - I have left it as is.. "Background Copy"
Once you chave named your new layer it will appear in the layers box above the 'original image'. Make sure the top (copy) layer is selected.
Next I went to Exposure and made the exposure +1.00... Click on ok and you see a big change straight away - however the lighter areas will lose their colour somewhat.
Getting the colour back could not be easier.. Select the Eraser tool and set it up as you see below.. Opacity about 28% and Flow about 31%... You can now erase the areas you lost the colour on.. and the layer underneath (original) will come through.. I erased the sky and the grass areas.
Afterwards right click on the layer and Flatten Image.The only thing missing next was a little colour in the tree.. again a little trick for getting this back is a follows: Make a new layer with nothing on it - select this layer.. and then select the gradient tool. I selected the already made grey to clear brush and changed the grey to yellow.. I then dragged the mouse from the top middle of the image to the bottom middle..
If you have done this correctly the gradient will be on the top layer (new layer) and the original image underneath still intact. Looking like below...
As you can see that look is unatural - but if you go to layers again and change the style from Normal to Soft Light, it will only appear on the dark area.. (the tree)
Finally I'm happy with the shot - sometimes at this point you can add some sharpening but I don't feel it's necessary here. Below is a split with the Edited version on the left and the original on the right:
Wednesday, 3 February 2010
New Shoes!!
New trainer time for me - Asics Kayano 16 - which is a step up from the 15 I was wearing.. these are a bit lighter and have more shock absorption in the heal.. which you can really feel if you walk in them - however, this is not entirely comfortable.. These are out and out road running shoes - built for the over pronator, which is me :)
Trainers need to be replaced anything from 300-400 miles - or if the drastically start to wear - however this might mean a wrong fit. Trainers need to be worn in - that means no more than 30 minutes running per day in them for the first 2 weeks. This will mould them into your foot better and reduce the risk of heal blisters. This is a pain for me as I'd increased my runs to at least 7-8 miles at a time - about 50-60 minutes.. So I've had to cut this down - however on Sunday when I ran 13 miles I took my new shoes in a rucksack and changed into them 30 minutes from the end :))
It's a good thing to slow down for a couple of weeks anyway and give my muscles a rest to recouperate. Next race for me is the Fleet Half Marathon in March so i have plenty of time for these to bed in before then,.
Saturday, 30 January 2010
Photography Meetups winter theme competition
Well I have some good news to share.. one of my shots just one a competition :)I belong to a Photo Meetup group, as you may know. They had a winter themed competition and my above image came in first place.! I'm stunned and happy at the same time as we have a lot of very talented photographers in the group... The other good news is that my shot is that it will be on show, with some other images from the group at Putney Library from 14 Feb - 6 Mar. the address is 5/7 Disraeli Road, London, SW15 2DR > more details are here.
Details about the shot. I have to say it's not one of my favourites but from a shoot I did in Jan 2009 at Richmond Park in Surrey (not far from Putney). The temperature was about -6C and everything was covered in frost - including me by the end of the morning. More examples from that and other days to Richmond Park can be seen at my Flickr Account.
If you live in or around London and are interested in joining the group, here is the Photography Meetup website:
http://www.photographymeetups.com
Ray..
http://raywise.co.uk/
Friday, 29 January 2010
Your chauffeur awaits m'lady
Your chauffeur awaits m'lady
Originally uploaded by Ray Wise
Last summer I went with my sister and family to Hever Castle in Kent.. there was a wedding on there and I was lucky with this shot when the Rolls Royce arrived it parked plumb in front of me. Luckily there was nobody around to erase from the shot and I got a clean image.. The castle frankly dominates the shot for me and the car just an interesting feature. I used a sepia tone to bring out the contrast better however, the colour version works well too.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Movies seen lately
For full reviews go to my Flixter page.. However, all the films i've seen lately tend to be on a par with each other as ratings go.. My opinion may not count for much but i like to let you know what i think and who knows, it may save you some money :)
My favourite of the bunch was It's Complicated - a romantic comedy with a twist - or two... or three. Meryl Streep stars along side some great acting from co star Alec Balwin. Steve Martin also plays an important role however, i did find his work a little dull and doesn't really add to the comedy value.
(Matt Damon)
The Informant was a great suprise - starring Matt Damon this is a true story about a business man who turns informer on his company.. Damon plays a great part and really shows us his true acting colours which is nice to see... I hear also he is making another Bourne film - could this be a step in the wrong direction? We'll have to wait and see..
The other two are fairly run of the mill action thrillers which are a good ride but nothing much to write home about.. Watching out for Fish Tank and 44 Inch Chest - two British films which are receiving some great reviews - hope to bring you these real soon...x
My favourite of the bunch was It's Complicated - a romantic comedy with a twist - or two... or three. Meryl Streep stars along side some great acting from co star Alec Balwin. Steve Martin also plays an important role however, i did find his work a little dull and doesn't really add to the comedy value.
(Matt Damon)The Informant was a great suprise - starring Matt Damon this is a true story about a business man who turns informer on his company.. Damon plays a great part and really shows us his true acting colours which is nice to see... I hear also he is making another Bourne film - could this be a step in the wrong direction? We'll have to wait and see..
The other two are fairly run of the mill action thrillers which are a good ride but nothing much to write home about.. Watching out for Fish Tank and 44 Inch Chest - two British films which are receiving some great reviews - hope to bring you these real soon...x
Monday, 25 January 2010
Photo Mettups - Battersea
Every month or so I attend a photo group meetup organised through Facebook. They also have their own site : http://www.photographymeetups.com/ . We go to various places al over London - this time we went to Battersea Park and surrounding areas. Its always a nice day out and a great chance to meet other people interested in photography also.
Well the weather was very grey and cold - it wasn't long before the gloves came out. But the worse thing was that the light was poor. Grey cloud covered the sky for most of the time we were out and this made getting some good shots difficult. I had to bump up my ISO to get as much light in as possible.. Still, there were plenty of people out and children on scooters - all making great subjects :)
Top shot is from a rose garden which had some interesting features including this item.. I used bleaching techniques to get the effect. Above a shot across one of the small lakes - the building is a pump station which looked nice in the frame.. Processed in HDR. Below, is a simple effect gained from opening up the aperture and using the curve of the fence to take you to the people - a bit of abstract fun.
All the photos from the day are in my Facebook Album if you have access.
http://raywise.co.uk/
Well the weather was very grey and cold - it wasn't long before the gloves came out. But the worse thing was that the light was poor. Grey cloud covered the sky for most of the time we were out and this made getting some good shots difficult. I had to bump up my ISO to get as much light in as possible.. Still, there were plenty of people out and children on scooters - all making great subjects :)
Top shot is from a rose garden which had some interesting features including this item.. I used bleaching techniques to get the effect. Above a shot across one of the small lakes - the building is a pump station which looked nice in the frame.. Processed in HDR. Below, is a simple effect gained from opening up the aperture and using the curve of the fence to take you to the people - a bit of abstract fun.
All the photos from the day are in my Facebook Album if you have access.
http://raywise.co.uk/
Friday, 22 January 2010
New Website - Ray Wise Photography
I've finally gone ahead and bought my own domain and set up a photography portfolio. Here's the link http://raywise.co.uk . The site is broken down into a few categories and will show my style of photography across these ranges. Users can add comments without logging in and add links to their own sites or others.
I have to say thanks to my many Flickr friends who have given me the encouragement to pursue this idea. Their comments have given me belief in myself to go forward and take a chance in the professional world. Thanks also to Getty Images for giving me the chance to share my work in their database - some of which have been licensed already.
Have a look at the new site - please let me know what you think of the design and any problems you might find.. cheers.
I have to say thanks to my many Flickr friends who have given me the encouragement to pursue this idea. Their comments have given me belief in myself to go forward and take a chance in the professional world. Thanks also to Getty Images for giving me the chance to share my work in their database - some of which have been licensed already.
Have a look at the new site - please let me know what you think of the design and any problems you might find.. cheers.
Monday, 18 January 2010
a little love goes a long way....x
a little love goes a long way....x
Originally uploaded by Ray Wise
I've been looking at this image for a while wondering weather to upload it or not.. However, blending it with the Haiti disaster made a lot of sense because a picture paints a thousand words and what I had to say went with the photo..
I think too many of us take our lives for granted - going about our daily habits, regardless of others less fortunate. Even walking down the road for others is either impossible or fearful. There's a well know saying that goes - there is always someone worse off than you.. this is true to a point - but someone is always on the bottom of that list.. think for a minute about that..
#
#
#
brings it home doesn't it? I find that bringing myself back down to earth is a good thing and I try to do this often. Events like the Haiti Earthquake hits everyone in such a shocking way that we all feel this. However, if we all remembered this at least once a day throughout our lives, I'm sure that the world would be a happier and peaceful place. x
Sunday, 17 January 2010
40 mile week
Another Sunday gone and this is the stage I tot up my weeks running miles... So this week, I ran every other day starting Monday -11 miles, Wednesday - 8 miles, Friday - 7 miles and today - 15 miles. This makes this week a 41 mile week.. great news as I thought it was going to be tough to achieve this through the winter - without the use of a dreadmill... but lets face it, anything longer than 30 minutes on one of those things and you are just sooo bored.
It's always nicer to get out on the street and run there. So I have been increasing the length of my runs from 7 miles and over. The shortest used to be 5 miles which I'm glad to put behind me. This coming week I may cut back to around 30 miles again but I will see how it goes.
The best news is I am feeling very fit without many aches and pains (there are always a few). I've probably put the mockers on it by saying that but hey ho.. The only thing I think will happen soon is me buying new trainers... the present ones are still ok - but the mileage is up and heels are starting to wear down.. must buy some new ones at the end of the month..
Happy Travels..x
It's always nicer to get out on the street and run there. So I have been increasing the length of my runs from 7 miles and over. The shortest used to be 5 miles which I'm glad to put behind me. This coming week I may cut back to around 30 miles again but I will see how it goes.
The best news is I am feeling very fit without many aches and pains (there are always a few). I've probably put the mockers on it by saying that but hey ho.. The only thing I think will happen soon is me buying new trainers... the present ones are still ok - but the mileage is up and heels are starting to wear down.. must buy some new ones at the end of the month..
Happy Travels..x
Friday, 15 January 2010
in the deep mid winter
in the deep mid winter
Originally uploaded by Ray Wise
When I arrived at this point it was actually quite dark although the snow helped reflect the light. Processing a shot that is a little under exposed is tough, so over exposing a little can be a good thing.. I shot a single exposure which came out very well - however had to use adjustments in Photoshop to bring out the best in the photo.
I changed the colour balance away from blue to yellow slightly and used exposure and gamma to enhance the light patches. I've added a fog gradient layer and erased nearer details like the bush and trees on the right and close trees on the left.. Sometimes photos don't need sharpened but i find shots with branches and twigs usually benifit so i added this also.. hope you like.
http://raywise.co.uk/
Thursday, 14 January 2010
Winter running
Some people might say that running round London in the winter is beyond crazy.. However, if you think that running in temperatures of around -4C is bad... think again, the competitors running the North Pole Marathon face temperatures of around -30C... Think again?
However, it's still bloody cold out there and above is the kit I where when I go out and its below 2C. It's all about layers and avoiding spongy materials like wool, cotton should also be avoided.. Clothing has to breath but still stop wind and stretch when you run. Material to look out for is Gortex ,Lycra and many other similar longer names of fabric.
Base layers should be tight fitting and that which wick sweat from your body.. I use Nike Pro Fit compression shorts and top - these also help prevent chaffing. Amazingly enough your legs - once warmed up - stay very warm in cold conditions - you'll get used to what you can bare, for me, anything lower than 2 degrees C and the tights come out - but i will still where the compression pants under them ;0)
Again with tops - avoid cotton and try to keep layers lightweight and wickable material. Gortex jackets can be heavy and uncomfortable but are very good keeping out the wind. The days are shorter in the winter and weekday runs are usually in the dark.. I bought a cheap (£10) fluorescent bib to wear so that traffic and pedestrians can spot me a little easier.. this is well worth the money!
On top I wear a lightweight hat which is good up to about -4C... Anything more and you might find this uncomfortable on longer runs. Bio-ear is like plasticine and moulds into your ear nicely - they stop the cold draft from getting in completely. Moisturiser for face and lots of Vaseline for lips and we are ready to go.
Getting too warm whilst running? On longer runs I personally thing you should keep clothing on all the time... I seem to go through a warm stage after a few miles but this passes and if i have removed clothing it needs to go back on - this throws my body temperature again and i'm in a constant battle.. best to keep clothing on unless you are running under 5 miles or so.. again, you will know what is or is not best for you... Remember, these points are from my own experience so they may not work for you at all. Thanks for reading.
Wednesday, 13 January 2010
ice cream sky
ice cream sky
Originally uploaded by Ray Wise
I think that with landscape photography you have to allow an element of luck when it comes to the nature side of things.. take this shot for instance - in a different time and space it may not look as effective.. The snow on the ground and the soft ripples in the sky work really well together.. Very helpful :)
I also moved the camera to the right of the gate to make the angle go with the cloud formation... Its a funny thingbut something as simple as moving the camera placement can change the outcome of a photo dramatically.
http://raywise.co.uk/
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
the country lane
the country lane
Originally uploaded by Ray Wise
I am jealous of anyone who lives in a rural area.. I love these old country lanes and the stone walls that surround them. This shot was taken first thing in the morning and had to be a fairly long exposure.. however, i think , in fact almost regret not going back in the middle of the day to get a brighter shot.. C'est le vie as they say.. still, you can see what i was trying to produce here and the dark edge gives it a twilight feel- and with the purple tone of the early morning light - almost surreal.
http://raywise.co.uk/
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Oxford - Thames photo walk
Map details
So last week it snowed a lot! Even in the centre of London we had a few inches last a couple of days.. however, outside the capital was hit really bad and I thought it was an opportunity not to be missed with the camera. Travel surprisingly was not a problem and I actually got to Oxford earlier than I planned.. so I started walking from the train station in the dark at 07.22 .. the sun was due up at 08.10...
There was a LOT of snow, even the main roads had tracks of a few inches.. not good for cars - great for me.. it was still dark but by the time I'd got to my starting point the light was picking up and the sky was changing colour... It was really cold - I'd say about -5 or so and as there wasn't much wind, this was bearable.
Taking shots in such conditions is hard going - tip is to leave the lens cap off or it will keep misting up. I'd got so many layers of clothes on I felt warm anyway - and two pairs of gloves was a good idea.. under pair were my thin running gloves so I could still operate the camera with them on.
Soon the sun came up though and things felt a bit warmer.. Its was handy I was walking towards it as it was a nice feeling on my face.. and still no wind.. nice! A little indecision at the Abingdon bypass roundabout (where i took the next shot) and then I got on the Thames Path from the A4074.
There was a LOT of snow, even the main roads had tracks of a few inches.. not good for cars - great for me.. it was still dark but by the time I'd got to my starting point the light was picking up and the sky was changing colour... It was really cold - I'd say about -5 or so and as there wasn't much wind, this was bearable.
Taking shots in such conditions is hard going - tip is to leave the lens cap off or it will keep misting up. I'd got so many layers of clothes on I felt warm anyway - and two pairs of gloves was a good idea.. under pair were my thin running gloves so I could still operate the camera with them on.
Soon the sun came up though and things felt a bit warmer.. Its was handy I was walking towards it as it was a nice feeling on my face.. and still no wind.. nice! A little indecision at the Abingdon bypass roundabout (where i took the next shot) and then I got on the Thames Path from the A4074.
Once on the Thames Path I followed it down towards Lower Radley.. trust me, if you ever want a beautiful river walk - this one is well worth a visit. Of coarse, it looked even better in the snow so the camera was snapping away like there was no tomorrow.. These shots are from my smaller point and shoot Lumix - the Canon 50D shots will be uploaded to my Flickr account.
After a bit of walking I realised that it was going to take longer to get to my target, which was Appleford. However, when I got to Culham bridge I made a stupid mistake a carried on rather than crossing over the river .. lol.. well, I thought the river walk was so pretty I didn't want to break off to early and go by road... There were NO river crossings until i got to Clifton Hamden - and then I had to walk back - this put another 6 miles onto the hike.. phew! Big mistake! Lucky thing is when I got to the train station I only had to wait 20 minutes.. it turns out the trains are about every 2 hours on a Saturday.. so phew again!
Last shot about reminds me of walking down the final couple of miles and a few cars not giving way to me - making me leap in to the bushes.. it seems funny now but this is the reason you wear bright coloured clothing and walk toward oncoming vehicles.. maybe some people who driving need to take a long walk sometimes ;0)
http://raywise.co.uk/
we begin here..
START: Well thanks to a few friends I am now blogging again.. So I thought I'd start fresh one. So what's it all about - basically an online diary of my events etc - mainly this will cover my training for the Marathon De Sables 2011, plus my general fitness activities, it'll also cover my photography - how that's going, the place I visit etc...and the odd movie review.
Friday, 29 September 2006
Raymondo interview by Adam Symbiosis
A wise old man once told me the secret to being a good DJ is to enjoy yourself. If that holds true then there’s one wise guy that’s had all the success in the world. Entertaining the masses for longer (and better) than some of today’s know-nothing upstarts have been eating solid food, Ray Wise, better known as Raymondo, has consistently provided great music at parties across the world in a career that’s seen him turn his skilled hand not just to DJing, but running a successful party, a fantastic website and also documenting the scene through his photographs and summarising it all into the famous club laws. To be honest if he hasn’t done it, it’s not worth doing.
But earlier this year he made the decision to abandon it all and spend some quality time on himself for a change. Deciding to retire from the full time rigours of DJing and running the website, the last few months has seen him take stock of his life and get back to the finer things. Raymondo’s Last Stand was a line in the sand, “It was a finishing point, I’d had enough and I wanted to take it easy. It was a great celebration of what I had and hadn’t achieved. Just like Mr Ben coming out of that little shop, don’t expect me to be away for too long. Just to prove that the old boys can do it.” I wondered nonchalantly if we might see him wearing a bowler hat for his return to the decks on October 7th, though you might be lucky to see him in his slippers and carrying a pipe. If however you’d like to be the one to help him in with his bag, then please send your details on the back of a postcard to the usual address. “I don’t want to be perceived to be coming back. I’ve got nothing to gain and really I’ve always had my full time job. Even when I was playing 6 or 7 gigs a weekend, I still went to work on Monday. Personally I don’t think you should lose track on that sort of thing, cause when it all falls down, where does it leave you? I’ve come back because I still have some love for it, I just don’t want to be doing it all the time. You’ve got to be something special to make a go of it as a full time DJ and you’ve got to have you’re head screwed on.” I wondered if it might also have something to do with the way some promoters paid their DJs. “I think the perception of our scene is a little higher than it should be. Our scene isn’t as serious as it should be and therefore perhaps the promoters don’t pay as much as we used to get but they shouldn’t take the piss. The larger events bring in more money, so they should pay the DJs more. I’ve been paid more money for playing in a small club then playing in a big club. DJs do get a raw deal at the end of the day. You could blame the promoter but then you could also blame the DJs, not to individually pick someone out but there are too many DJs who will play for free.” Maybe there should be a DJ union? Could DJs club together, with the shop floor stewards having it on the dance floor? There’s a thought to ponder. “If you pay good money for DJs, you tend to get good music because people are more bothered.”
It’s interesting, I thought as we joked about record trolleys with wheels and zimmer frames and the like. Is there an upper age for DJs? Should they be made to retire when they become older than the average clubbers parent? While this in no way affects Ray yet, there are plenty of other ageing DJs and rockers (think The Rolling Stones) still growing old disgracefully. “I’m not that old anyway,” he countered with a wry smile. I wanted to drill down into his reasons for coming out of his self imposed exile and playing for Chemical Reaction (CR) at Twisted this October. Of course if you haven’t heard of Chemical Reaction, you’ve been missing out. Constantly surprising the most jaded of clubbers with the depth in their DJ selections his reply wasn’t that much of a surprise to me. “I’m playing for Annetta (of CR), she asked me to play a classics set and would I mind coming back, as it were. It’s just what I wanted to do.”
Ray had a great understanding of the highlights of his career and as he recounted the challenges and successes of his career, you could see the excitement and the memories flash brightly in his eyes, “Personally I set out to achieve one thing and that was to have a fucking good time and I did that without a doubt. I just set myself one goal after next. The first goal was a warm up set, the next was after 12, then it was last set, then something in the middle. Then it was I want to play at Camden, The Fridge, I want to do this, I want to do that, I want to go abroad. There was always some new goal to reach and some goals I didn’t get.” He never played at Camden in the main room for example; refreshingly there wasn’t any bitterness, just a tacit understanding that there are always some things that you might miss out on.
His early years playing in London started in 1995 for Sunnyside up at SW1 Club, better known as Pacha now. This led to more gigs around the capital and Raymondo became a well-known name on flyers and at parties like Sunflowers and Pickle. “My set for Pickle in the main room of Brixton Academy had to be my best ever set. I think it was their birthday party and it was a big honour.” Playing after a Dutch DJ hitting the crowd with some German trance, he recounted how the crowd just needed something different to pick them up. “Everyone was having a good stomp but I changed the beat a little bit and it went down really well. I finished up playing Underworld – Born Slippy and well…” You could say the rest is history. Resident at Pickle from more or less the start, he met both the Pickle and the Fever promoters in a black room with splatters of fluro paint thrown around the walls. “I got to know the both at the same time and luckily they both took me on! Pickle was a great party to play for. The way they did things were out on a limb, word of mouth type parties. We started off doing squat parties then moved up to bigger clubs; Stratford Rex is one I remember well. Then we went to Imperial Gardens where it really took off. There was a real good vibe.” Confirming just why they were the good vibe tribe and making me reminisce about some fantastic Pickle parties I went to.
Parties were always on Ray’s mind and he was putting on Overdrive down Croydon way long before he was playing in London. “Starting parties gave me some leverage in getting gigs in London. I’ve got some friends to thank for helping me with the parties. Me and a guy called Michael put this party on and the plan was to get one known DJ down from London every time to play at the party, which only ran till 2am. We’d put the DJ on last, I’d play before him and maybe another mate Ian before me and that worked well for me because even though the party wasn’t that packed I’d end up getting a set in return at the guests party or they’d put in a good word for me.” As his bookings grew the party had to be dropped, though the seeds for what was to become CiL / HDL were sown. “I was so busy and a lot of people wanted to know what I was doing so I made up a site just about me. Unfortunately I got a bit too involved in it and it started to take over. I think I forgot about DJing for a bit and cracked on with the website.” Changing the site from Webmondo to Clubbing In London (CiL), forums were added, DJ pages were inserted and pictures posted up. The fledgling site was born.
“Between all that came the record label. I had my own label, Transation, which had five releases. My first release came out on Tongue In Check, a record label in Oxford.” Another bug had bit Ray and he sat and learnt as much as he could during a series of visits to a studio. “I blagged it with Sid, who owned the studio, to make a track and he said, ‘Yeah, but the rights are mine.’ I though yeah fuck it, I want to get a track out so we went and cut a track. It was called Vanguard, the B side was something else to be believed in, but it was my track and it was out there.” I had to laugh when he told me the tune was released on a 10” vinyl but the pride in his voice was flowing over and I nearly spilt my drink as we talked about having a 10” record box. “Every time Adam from Lab4 sees me he always asks when I’m going to give him a copy of the track. They made a record and dedicated it to my track. It wasn’t even till later on in my career that he said it to me and I was quite astounded! I got very embarrassed about my tracks. When somebody played my records I used to run out of the room.” I wondered if his spare time might lend itself to producing again and floating around by the masses of records he stores away I was issued with a super secret copy of a never before released track, which has now been spirited away in my CD box. “Well if anyone wants to take it on, then let me know.”
We moved back onto the site and the change from CiL to Hard Dance London. “Looking back on it I should have just changed the site and not the name, it should have been made more versatile. At the time CiL was all about hard dance, though I had many people checking it out looking for other types of music. Still nothing ventured, nothing gained.” On the back of both the sites were some legendary Thursday and Sunday parties. CiL parties were being attended by all walks of people long before many of our junior wannabe promoters were even out of school. “I owe that all to Blair and Brendan who used to run Charged and they started Sids and made me monthly resident. Believe it or not it used to get packed there on Sundays. We sort of took over from them and took it to the next level, Thursdays was just an extension. Blair gave it a good crack, but had an argument with Victor (of Sids) and gave it up. One or two years later I thought I’d give it a go as Victor was begging me to go down there, I did it for a bit, gave it up and then started again. I’d been advertising it quite blatantly on HF so decided to be a bit more discrete and called it CiL and things just went from there.” In fact most people will tell you that it was the unofficial HF meet up for so long, it was by default the official HF meet up, with nearly everyone from back in the day attending at some point. “It was all a matter about getting the right DJs in. We weren’t charging on the door, there were some deals at the bar and we had Superbok by the tank. We were also quite lucky to have a pole in the middle as well. It was tiresome to run it ever week but I was helped out by Adam, my Australian friend who assisted on the party and the site. I was trawling through CD after CD though I always thought if someone went to the trouble of handing in a set then I thought well why not. It was all about giving people a chance. Even in the early days we had people who are now very famous, people like James Lawson and Tania Mann. Unfortunately Victor got a bit aggressive sometimes with the customers so in the end we had to pull it.” Still it’s not as if the party didn’t do the Mondo any favours in the many years it was running and he continued on to recount stories of Dean Peters, Phil Reynolds, Matt Clark and of course Ray himself taking turns to go on the decks on a messy Sunday afternoon. “One person would put a record on, then someone else would fall over and the next person would have to have a go. People just loved it.”
In the background we had an old mix tape playing with some acid 303’s buzzing up and down and as the track developed it Ray pointed out it was one of his first mixes. I was suitably impressed by the skill shown so early on but it did bring me back to his semi-retirement. Taking it easy was a theme he couldn’t ignore but I wasn’t surprised after his many years of being an integral part of the clubbing scene. “I’m still coming down,” he told me with a laugh. “I’m doing all the things that you give up when you go clubbing. Simple things like going for a drink and a meal on Sunday afternoon, I was never interested before or was too busy playing or being asleep.” You might find him sitting next to your local pond fishing, or by some well-known attraction taking a photo from an unusual angle for his new site www.photolondon.net
I was interested in some final words from the Great Raymondo (as I was first introduced to him by a certain number plate), some thoughts on the club scene. Quite frankly no interview would have been complete without mention of the club laws. Brought into the scene primarily as a marketing tool (and quickly copyrighted) they soon took on a life of their own with clubbers collecting them like addicts looking for their next hit. “There were 63 club laws, there could be more, I’ve got them written down somewhere. We were running a party called Choon Town and it was all part of the promotion for that. We’d booked out Imperial Gardens before any other trance or hard house party had, it was a garage location before and the first time I’d heard about the venue I’d heard that someone had been shot outside, so I thought that was worth checking out,” he said with a laugh. “Instead of doing flyers, I decided to make a little booklet with each of the laws printed so that page one had laws 1 to 4, page two had laws 5 to 8 and so on. Then we shuffled the lot, got them photocopied, then gave them out randomly at clubs and people just started collecting them like mad. People would come up and say ‘Have you got page 9 as that’s the only one I’m missing!’” As a parting shot I challenged him on law 14. “Jesus!! I think that’s Rizla, but I’m not sure. You know when you get these annoying people come up to you and they don’t even speak, they just roll their fingers together expecting you to do something and you’re like what?? If you’re going to fucking smoke, bring your own fucking gear!! I always thought to carry some toilet tissue to hand out to these people, lets see you roll with that.”
Adam Symbiosis
Photos courtesy of Raymondo and Adam Symbiosis. Not to be reproduced without permission.
http://raywise.co.uk/
 |
But earlier this year he made the decision to abandon it all and spend some quality time on himself for a change. Deciding to retire from the full time rigours of DJing and running the website, the last few months has seen him take stock of his life and get back to the finer things. Raymondo’s Last Stand was a line in the sand, “It was a finishing point, I’d had enough and I wanted to take it easy. It was a great celebration of what I had and hadn’t achieved. Just like Mr Ben coming out of that little shop, don’t expect me to be away for too long. Just to prove that the old boys can do it.” I wondered nonchalantly if we might see him wearing a bowler hat for his return to the decks on October 7th, though you might be lucky to see him in his slippers and carrying a pipe. If however you’d like to be the one to help him in with his bag, then please send your details on the back of a postcard to the usual address. “I don’t want to be perceived to be coming back. I’ve got nothing to gain and really I’ve always had my full time job. Even when I was playing 6 or 7 gigs a weekend, I still went to work on Monday. Personally I don’t think you should lose track on that sort of thing, cause when it all falls down, where does it leave you? I’ve come back because I still have some love for it, I just don’t want to be doing it all the time. You’ve got to be something special to make a go of it as a full time DJ and you’ve got to have you’re head screwed on.” I wondered if it might also have something to do with the way some promoters paid their DJs. “I think the perception of our scene is a little higher than it should be. Our scene isn’t as serious as it should be and therefore perhaps the promoters don’t pay as much as we used to get but they shouldn’t take the piss. The larger events bring in more money, so they should pay the DJs more. I’ve been paid more money for playing in a small club then playing in a big club. DJs do get a raw deal at the end of the day. You could blame the promoter but then you could also blame the DJs, not to individually pick someone out but there are too many DJs who will play for free.” Maybe there should be a DJ union? Could DJs club together, with the shop floor stewards having it on the dance floor? There’s a thought to ponder. “If you pay good money for DJs, you tend to get good music because people are more bothered.”
It’s interesting, I thought as we joked about record trolleys with wheels and zimmer frames and the like. Is there an upper age for DJs? Should they be made to retire when they become older than the average clubbers parent? While this in no way affects Ray yet, there are plenty of other ageing DJs and rockers (think The Rolling Stones) still growing old disgracefully. “I’m not that old anyway,” he countered with a wry smile. I wanted to drill down into his reasons for coming out of his self imposed exile and playing for Chemical Reaction (CR) at Twisted this October. Of course if you haven’t heard of Chemical Reaction, you’ve been missing out. Constantly surprising the most jaded of clubbers with the depth in their DJ selections his reply wasn’t that much of a surprise to me. “I’m playing for Annetta (of CR), she asked me to play a classics set and would I mind coming back, as it were. It’s just what I wanted to do.”
 |
Ray had a great understanding of the highlights of his career and as he recounted the challenges and successes of his career, you could see the excitement and the memories flash brightly in his eyes, “Personally I set out to achieve one thing and that was to have a fucking good time and I did that without a doubt. I just set myself one goal after next. The first goal was a warm up set, the next was after 12, then it was last set, then something in the middle. Then it was I want to play at Camden, The Fridge, I want to do this, I want to do that, I want to go abroad. There was always some new goal to reach and some goals I didn’t get.” He never played at Camden in the main room for example; refreshingly there wasn’t any bitterness, just a tacit understanding that there are always some things that you might miss out on.
His early years playing in London started in 1995 for Sunnyside up at SW1 Club, better known as Pacha now. This led to more gigs around the capital and Raymondo became a well-known name on flyers and at parties like Sunflowers and Pickle. “My set for Pickle in the main room of Brixton Academy had to be my best ever set. I think it was their birthday party and it was a big honour.” Playing after a Dutch DJ hitting the crowd with some German trance, he recounted how the crowd just needed something different to pick them up. “Everyone was having a good stomp but I changed the beat a little bit and it went down really well. I finished up playing Underworld – Born Slippy and well…” You could say the rest is history. Resident at Pickle from more or less the start, he met both the Pickle and the Fever promoters in a black room with splatters of fluro paint thrown around the walls. “I got to know the both at the same time and luckily they both took me on! Pickle was a great party to play for. The way they did things were out on a limb, word of mouth type parties. We started off doing squat parties then moved up to bigger clubs; Stratford Rex is one I remember well. Then we went to Imperial Gardens where it really took off. There was a real good vibe.” Confirming just why they were the good vibe tribe and making me reminisce about some fantastic Pickle parties I went to.
 |
Parties were always on Ray’s mind and he was putting on Overdrive down Croydon way long before he was playing in London. “Starting parties gave me some leverage in getting gigs in London. I’ve got some friends to thank for helping me with the parties. Me and a guy called Michael put this party on and the plan was to get one known DJ down from London every time to play at the party, which only ran till 2am. We’d put the DJ on last, I’d play before him and maybe another mate Ian before me and that worked well for me because even though the party wasn’t that packed I’d end up getting a set in return at the guests party or they’d put in a good word for me.” As his bookings grew the party had to be dropped, though the seeds for what was to become CiL / HDL were sown. “I was so busy and a lot of people wanted to know what I was doing so I made up a site just about me. Unfortunately I got a bit too involved in it and it started to take over. I think I forgot about DJing for a bit and cracked on with the website.” Changing the site from Webmondo to Clubbing In London (CiL), forums were added, DJ pages were inserted and pictures posted up. The fledgling site was born.
 |
“Between all that came the record label. I had my own label, Transation, which had five releases. My first release came out on Tongue In Check, a record label in Oxford.” Another bug had bit Ray and he sat and learnt as much as he could during a series of visits to a studio. “I blagged it with Sid, who owned the studio, to make a track and he said, ‘Yeah, but the rights are mine.’ I though yeah fuck it, I want to get a track out so we went and cut a track. It was called Vanguard, the B side was something else to be believed in, but it was my track and it was out there.” I had to laugh when he told me the tune was released on a 10” vinyl but the pride in his voice was flowing over and I nearly spilt my drink as we talked about having a 10” record box. “Every time Adam from Lab4 sees me he always asks when I’m going to give him a copy of the track. They made a record and dedicated it to my track. It wasn’t even till later on in my career that he said it to me and I was quite astounded! I got very embarrassed about my tracks. When somebody played my records I used to run out of the room.” I wondered if his spare time might lend itself to producing again and floating around by the masses of records he stores away I was issued with a super secret copy of a never before released track, which has now been spirited away in my CD box. “Well if anyone wants to take it on, then let me know.”
We moved back onto the site and the change from CiL to Hard Dance London. “Looking back on it I should have just changed the site and not the name, it should have been made more versatile. At the time CiL was all about hard dance, though I had many people checking it out looking for other types of music. Still nothing ventured, nothing gained.” On the back of both the sites were some legendary Thursday and Sunday parties. CiL parties were being attended by all walks of people long before many of our junior wannabe promoters were even out of school. “I owe that all to Blair and Brendan who used to run Charged and they started Sids and made me monthly resident. Believe it or not it used to get packed there on Sundays. We sort of took over from them and took it to the next level, Thursdays was just an extension. Blair gave it a good crack, but had an argument with Victor (of Sids) and gave it up. One or two years later I thought I’d give it a go as Victor was begging me to go down there, I did it for a bit, gave it up and then started again. I’d been advertising it quite blatantly on HF so decided to be a bit more discrete and called it CiL and things just went from there.” In fact most people will tell you that it was the unofficial HF meet up for so long, it was by default the official HF meet up, with nearly everyone from back in the day attending at some point. “It was all a matter about getting the right DJs in. We weren’t charging on the door, there were some deals at the bar and we had Superbok by the tank. We were also quite lucky to have a pole in the middle as well. It was tiresome to run it ever week but I was helped out by Adam, my Australian friend who assisted on the party and the site. I was trawling through CD after CD though I always thought if someone went to the trouble of handing in a set then I thought well why not. It was all about giving people a chance. Even in the early days we had people who are now very famous, people like James Lawson and Tania Mann. Unfortunately Victor got a bit aggressive sometimes with the customers so in the end we had to pull it.” Still it’s not as if the party didn’t do the Mondo any favours in the many years it was running and he continued on to recount stories of Dean Peters, Phil Reynolds, Matt Clark and of course Ray himself taking turns to go on the decks on a messy Sunday afternoon. “One person would put a record on, then someone else would fall over and the next person would have to have a go. People just loved it.”
 |
In the background we had an old mix tape playing with some acid 303’s buzzing up and down and as the track developed it Ray pointed out it was one of his first mixes. I was suitably impressed by the skill shown so early on but it did bring me back to his semi-retirement. Taking it easy was a theme he couldn’t ignore but I wasn’t surprised after his many years of being an integral part of the clubbing scene. “I’m still coming down,” he told me with a laugh. “I’m doing all the things that you give up when you go clubbing. Simple things like going for a drink and a meal on Sunday afternoon, I was never interested before or was too busy playing or being asleep.” You might find him sitting next to your local pond fishing, or by some well-known attraction taking a photo from an unusual angle for his new site www.photolondon.net
 |
I was interested in some final words from the Great Raymondo (as I was first introduced to him by a certain number plate), some thoughts on the club scene. Quite frankly no interview would have been complete without mention of the club laws. Brought into the scene primarily as a marketing tool (and quickly copyrighted) they soon took on a life of their own with clubbers collecting them like addicts looking for their next hit. “There were 63 club laws, there could be more, I’ve got them written down somewhere. We were running a party called Choon Town and it was all part of the promotion for that. We’d booked out Imperial Gardens before any other trance or hard house party had, it was a garage location before and the first time I’d heard about the venue I’d heard that someone had been shot outside, so I thought that was worth checking out,” he said with a laugh. “Instead of doing flyers, I decided to make a little booklet with each of the laws printed so that page one had laws 1 to 4, page two had laws 5 to 8 and so on. Then we shuffled the lot, got them photocopied, then gave them out randomly at clubs and people just started collecting them like mad. People would come up and say ‘Have you got page 9 as that’s the only one I’m missing!’” As a parting shot I challenged him on law 14. “Jesus!! I think that’s Rizla, but I’m not sure. You know when you get these annoying people come up to you and they don’t even speak, they just roll their fingers together expecting you to do something and you’re like what?? If you’re going to fucking smoke, bring your own fucking gear!! I always thought to carry some toilet tissue to hand out to these people, lets see you roll with that.”
Adam Symbiosis
Photos courtesy of Raymondo and Adam Symbiosis. Not to be reproduced without permission.
http://raywise.co.uk/
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