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I was recently approached by Howard Mosley-Chalk a writer and comedian from York who was preparing an article on Urban Exploration for Haus magazine.

Haus Digital Interview

Obviously I jumped at the chance to offer my thoughts on the subject and to provide a few photographs to be displayed on the Haus website. Howard asked some good thought provoking questions about attitudes of explorers and about the dangerous aspects of my hobby and I’m really happy with the final article.

Please have a look at the full article / interview and let me know what you think

Leave only footprints, take only picture – The full article.

Thanks again to Howard for emailing me about the story.

Just want to say thanks to photomavi.com for publishing my photograph:

I was approached by photomavi on flickr to include the photo on his website which hosts a great collection of ‘no photography allowed’ signs. Check out the site by clicking on the image below:-

The new Black & White Gallery Page on www.benscamera.com is now up and running please check it out here.

Featuring some of these photographs:

Above a Lightroom processed final version of the photograph below! Which do you prefer the processed or unprocessed?

For years I failed to investigate the possibilities of this program, foolishly assuming it to most likely be a slimmed down version of photoshop! Far from it Adobes Lightroom is a brilliant little program not only for processing images (including raw files) but also for cataloguing, tagging, and non destructive editing. I must admit I now use the program probably more than photoshop for my everyday tasks, however dont let me mislead you I still much prefer the standard camera raw processor bundled with photoshop. Perhaps because I am so accustomed to the setting and knowing how to achieve what i am looking for in my images.

I have built up quite a library of processing action on lightroom which can be applied to a variety of image types in a non destructive way, i.e. its simple to reverty back to the original image or export the edited selection.

In the following images you can see 4 completely different processing styles each bringing their own dynamic to the shot, which do you prefer?

Quick shoot with Louise in the purple room, processed from Raw with Adobe Lightroom. All 4 images shot with the Canon 50mm f1.4 lens with 580EX MK I attached to the camera.

The Digital Photography School have recently done an article about self portraits! Made for interesting reading and some decent tips for those of you who like to play around taking creative photos of yourselves

Self Portraits – 7 Tips for Going Beyond the Basics

5 Day, 4 Night Photography focused trip with my Father. Krakow is officially now my favourite European City!

Trip kicked off from Liverpool Airport a 3 hour flight with easyjet over to Polska.

Once landed we jumped on the shuttle bus for about 10 minutes to a local train station and caught the train into the centre of Krakow. Upon arrival we had a quick walk through the main Market Square on the way to our Hotel scoping out some of the local bars , and restaurants for the night ahead. After we dropped off our bags we made out way to a little local restaurant, the menu was in Polish there were 3/4 tables only 1 person in there and it just felt brilliant, tiny little independent place just off the back roads. Following tips from a nice bloke we met on the plane we went for soup starters (man was his tip dead on the nail if you ever go to Poland try as many different soups as you can!) and I had stewed beef for main. Food was served within a few minutes, both the starter and main at the same time which was a little unusual, but it was beautiful! After trying the local cuisine we headed for a few drinks at a couple of bars including a stop at the Tower, what can I say about this place… walked down about 3 flights of stairs into an underground shelter like pub full of little rooms and banging disturbed over the PA system! settled in for a couple here and the jukebox kept throwing out all sorts for SOAD, NIN, Killswitch just to name a few. We went back a few night during our stay I must say saturday night was the busiest but I’d make it a definite stop on your list if you go! (continue reading…)

First photoshoot with Flecking Records yesterday! Went to the Bowling for Soup Party in Your Pants tour to take gig photos along with an interview with Bowling For Soup and MC Lars. Gig was awesome, Interviews went well and the photo have come out a treat! Cant wait to show you all but you’re just gonna have to wait until the next issue of Flecking Records is out in a week or so!

Until then check out their site and have a flick through their magazines! Looking forward to working with them again soon!

Special Thanks to Frankie Genchi for hooking me up with the gig, the photopass!

Thorpe Marsh Power Station was abandoned in 1994 The site is now currently being partly used as an electricity substation and the majority of the main Power Station buildings have been knocked down. All that remains is one large storage building with nothing inside and the 6 Huge Cooling Towers in all their glory. I’ve visited this site a good handful of times now and each an every time I see the towers in the distance upon my approach i get goose bumps. There is something really appealing about the sheer size of these things and being able to relatively freely walk around them.

A Little Background / History to the place from Wikipedia :

The station was commissioned in 1959 and was built as a prototype for all the large modern power stations in the UK. It opened in 1963. It contained 2 generating sets powered by coal, and had a gas turbine set using an industrial static version of a Rolls-Royce Avon aero engine with a capacity of 14.9 MW. On 7 January 1973 four workmen died. The CEGB was put under investigation for breaches in safety provisions but they were found to have all died accidental deaths.

The station has been closed since 1994 and the 45 acres (18 ha) site was acquired by Able UK in 1995. Much of the station has been demolished and now only its six cooling towers (each 340 ft (100 m) high and 260 ft (79 m) in diameter at the base), two ash slurry hoppers, railway sidings and the station’s large adjacent electricity switching station still remain. The switching station was nearly flooded during the 2007 Yorkshire flood, which would have knocked the grid out according to news reports. The structures still stand now because it is feared that any explosion would cause the banks of the nearby canal to rupture. They also contain asbestos, which would contaminate land for miles around the site. There have been several controversial proposals for the site, including a car distribution depot and more recently a huge landfill site, neither of which have proven popular with the local residents.

Some of the photographs I have taken of the site:

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