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The Pier Hartlepool and a quick visit to the Steetley Magnesite May 2012

Ben Tucker Photography — Tue, 08 May 2012 18:56:46 +0000

Pier Hartlepool

The Pier Hartlepool, I’d seen photographs when looking at the Steetley site visits by others so I already knew this thing was big but still it was great to see it with my own eyes and snap a few images. Surprisingly you can walk onto the start of it with no obstructions so I’ll be doing that next time around. Your cant get too far along before there a huge break (probably made to prevent people walking all the way to the edge). Some more shots:

Hartlepool Pier

Steetley Magnasite:

Steetley Magnesite Hartlepool

Currently undergoing demolition. Visited 8th May 2012, a new perimeter fence has been installed and I found no less than 3 large diggers breaking apart the remaining structures and carting away debris. I’d say about 40% of the site has been cleared, the chimney / tower still stands despite reports that it was due for demolition. I can only assume this had been delayed due to logistical reasons or technical issues in relation to the demolition.

It was only a passing visit on my lunch hour to scope out the place for a potential revisit so I didn’t have long and the site was busy so no inside access this time. After seeing what I’ve seen I’d say that revisit best be within the next 1-2 weeks otherwise there will be nothing left to see.

Well that’s about it for this visit hopefully more snaps to come later

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The Grange Nursing Home, Stamford Bridge, North Yorkshire – September 2008

Ben Tucker Photography — Mon, 07 May 2012 20:24:55 +0000

The Grange Nursing Home

I thought I’d go through and reprocess some old Urbex Photos. First batch up is from the Grange Nursing Home in Stamford Bridge near York. Well I should say used to be as sources tell me the building has since been demolished, I wouldn’t find that at all surprising given the state of the site when I visited back in September 2008. Here is the old write up that I did along with the reprocessed photos:

Probably my first proper Urbex…

This place was amazing! the only downfall was the severity of the rain as it also made the floors extremely dodgy as half of them we’re caving in anyway BUT as always we were careful! and we did have a handy asset in the form of my mum! who worked in the grange before it was condemned to act as a tour guide lol she helpfully informed us which rooms patients died in, not sure if it was help or hindrance! This place wasn’t really that creepy, although the basement was horrid and it did have some awfully strange noises! doors shutting etc.

Took us a while to judge which parts of this building were safe and which areas where no go and I climbed the extremely un-sturdy , fire damaged stairs and the top flight which had no banister lol… the joys! I must admit climbing that second flight had me on edge as there was so much debris on the wall side of the stairs I was balancing on the edge and looking over with no banister to a 12ft drop isn’t the most pleasant thing!

Now this place was built in 1880 and restored after a fire 1898.

“Not sure what happened in the next 50 years but in 1952 it became a county council old people’s home. It seems the place was still being used as a nursing home up to about 4 years ago, maybe even less, the recent fire damage is pretty extensive and it’s been trashed by kids and weather. According to the estate agent’s sales details the fire damage has meant the building has become ‘de-listed’. This makes me suspicious about the cause of the fire – the home was originally for 30 or so residents, new plans have gone forward to re-use the footprint for a new nursing home, big enough for 60 people (obviously knocking down the once listed building)…”

The Grange Nursing Home

Associated posts:

Urbex

Thorpe Marsh Power Station

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Urbex… Time to get back on it…

Ben Tucker Photography — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:47:39 +0000

Pioneer House Dewsbury

Location: Pioneer House, Dewsbury, West Yorkshire

Camera: Canon 40D

Lens: Canon 50mm F1.4

Exposure details: 1/60 sec @ f/2.5 ISO 400

Processing: Black and white processing via Nik Silver Efex Pro

Other than a couple of trips to Thorpe Marsh Power Station I haven’t really done any decent Urbex’s recently. After flicking through old photographs in Lightroom I feel inspired to get back out there and explore again. I’ve spent the last 24 hours reading up on forums, getting back active posting again and scoping out a few potential revisits and new opportunities. I really need to start getting a crew of people back together though to explore with. If anyone’s interested please let me know experience preferred exploring but absolutely not required.

I have a new addiction on the web… pixoto.com its like hot or not for your photos! I heard about it listening to my favourite podcast TWIP (This week in photography) and after a single visit I was hooked! The main idea of the site is to rank images by placing them side to side without identifying the owner in an attempt to gain an unbiased ranking of the best images across various categories. The site is made even more accurate due to some super mathematical algorithm that further perfects the way images are both placed together and weighted on points based on the comparative pictures score. As far as I’m concerned it works really well and the quality of the best weekly and monthly images are just outstanding! Your have to earn credits by voting on images in order to upload your own to the site but trust me it wont be long before your racking up hundreds like me as you become engrossed in the ImageDuel part of the site! I love it when 2 next level images are pitched against each other really makes me take stock of them in detail! Anyways this is beginning to sound like a sales pitch but seriously check it out you’ll love it!

A look back to 1 year ago. To my surprise, despite the occasional infrequency of my posting I found that I had actually posted an article exactly 1 year ago today (click the image to check it out):

Ladybird Macro

Associated posts:

Thorpe Marsh Power Station

Denbigh Asylum

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Flamborough Bay a Failed attempt to photography the Supermoon on May 5th 2012

Ben Tucker Photography — Mon, 07 May 2012 08:53:29 +0000

Flamborough Bay - Sunset

May 5th 2012 around 1pm I heard about the Supermoon which was due to rise that evening around 8:20pm according to my phone app. I racked my brain for places that might be good to shoot from in an easterly direction in order to catch the moon rising around due east when its at its fullest. I decided upon Flamborough Bay, Ive not been back there since I lost my 40D to the waves but not to be put off by that incident I set off around 5pm and headed up the A1. On route to the cliffs I drove past a little wood shed that seemed a little interesting so I parked up to grab a shot:

When I arrived at flamborough with plenty of time before the moon was supposed to rise it was obvious that the clouds were setting in. I turned around to grab a few shots of the orange sunset (featured above) and then headed down to the beach to snap a couple of pictures while the tide was really far out:

Flamborough Bay

Formby Beach Jellyfish – November 2010

Ben Tucker Photography — Sun, 06 May 2012 22:26:05 +0000

Giant Rhizostoma Octopus Barrel Jellyfish

Back in November 2010 I took a ride up to Formby Beach for a random photo walk, no real intentions I just wanted to check it out. To my astonishment when I got to the beach I found the shores lined with hundred probably thousands of dead Jellyfish. These things were big as well the photos don’t really show the scale of them but I’ve found out late that the species (Rhizostoma Octopus aka Barrel Jellyfish) grows up to 40KG. Apparently due to freak changes in weather conditions these monsters of the deep had been killed and washed up along shore while migrating. The full story can be found here: http://www.southportvisiter.co.uk/southport-news/southport-southport-news/2010/11/26/giant-jellyfish-invade-ainsdale-beach-over-weekend-101022-27718420/

More Photos:

Giant Rhizostoma Octopus Barrel Jellyfish

Giant Rhizostoma Octopus Barrel Jellyfish - Formby Beach

You Have an Imagination Barrier – Boisht Clothing Shoot

Ben Tucker Photography — Sun, 06 May 2012 19:38:31 +0000

You Have an Imagination Barrier Boisht Clothing

While out in Barcelona I was intending to snap a few shots for 2 clothing companies. First up Boisht Clothing (Boisht on Facebook) who kindly supplied us with a few T-shirts to photography. MickyF was wearing the You have an imagination barrier T-shirt while busting out some tricks on the Bank to Ledge in Barcelona.

MickyF- You Have an Imagination Barrier

All in all I’m not displeased with the result. Dont forget to check out the Boisht Store: http://boisht.bigcartel.com/ and like them on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/boisht and of course buy their sick clothing

Grec Theatre – Amphitheatre, Montjuïc – Barcelona

Ben Tucker Photography — Fri, 04 May 2012 22:04:30 +0000

Grec Theatre, Montjuic - Barcelona

Location: Grec Theatre – Amphitheatre, Montjuïc – Barcelona

Camera: Canon 7D

Lens: Canon EF-S 10-22mm F/3.5

Exposure details: 1/5 sec @f/22 ISO 100

Processing: Processed using Nik HDR Efex and Lightroom for slight clarity and white balance adjustments

I found this little gem of a place on a morning photowalk, something I did whilst everyone else slept off the night before and hard days skating. The Grec Theatre is located on Montjuïc near the gardens which were humming with about 20 or so gardeners at around 8am. I wondered through the neatly sewn flowerbeds and stumbled across the amphitheatre and instantly knew I’d be able to get a few good shots. The one above was my favourite and I’ll dropp a few more in the full Barcelona blog post that I’m working on.

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First mini video edit and some more skating photos from my 7D

Ben Tucker Photography — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 10:07:44 +0000

One afternoon in Nottingham…

All shot in a singles afternoon 1st April 2012 with Adrian Wallace, Ross Jones, MickyF and Jim Acres. Filmed on a Canon 7D with Sigma 8mm Fisheye and Canon 50mm F1.4 lenses.

Daz Cartledge - Misfit

Adrian Wallace - Sweat Stance

MickyF - Back Backslide

Ross Jones - Back Torque Slide

Adrian Wallace - Backside Unity

Daz Cartledge - AO Top Soyale

Not bad for a days work! I started to shoot video clips to have a look at the quality and to test how easy / hard it was to film on the 7D and I was quite surprised at the results. I cant imagine filming is going to replace my photography and its certainly very different in respect of positioning yourself, perspectives etc but I did enjoy it. The little mini edit took me about 2-3 hours to edit, but most of that was spent figuring my way around Premiere Pro again as its been well over 4 years since I’ve used that program.

I had already agreed to shoot a few clips for Craig Spaven, a good friend and fellow skater / videographer from Scarborough for the follow up to his last feature DVD ‘Stay True’ and since the did the mini edit above and after a few more conversations I’ve agreed to contribute a decent amount of footage to the new film Tight-Knit. Please check out the page on facebook and stay tuned for teasers and the final edit . Really looking forward to Barcelona now, only 6 days before we fly!!!

Comments criticisms and corrections please post below! Thanks for reading!

Click the images for a larger view!

A few More Skating photos from March 2012

Ben Tucker Photography — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 17:26:34 +0000

Ross Jones - Backslide

March has been a pretty busy month for me photography wise, in particular skating photography. Starting with the picture above (Ross Jones – Backslide, Sheffield black rails) taken only last weekend, is one of my favourite captures from the last month. A great session with the Sheffield and Nottingham crew which we’re hoping to repeat tomorrow (weather permitting). I have a few more shots from this rail with arguably better tricks from the skaters but this one just hit the spot photographically with Ross styled out mid flow down the rail. Shot with my new Canon 7D and 50mm F1.4 lens with the 580ex remotely fired from the ST-E2 transmitter.

Mark Firth - Mute grab

2nd Stop this month after my previous post with shots from Rotherham was Hebdon Bridge outdoor concrete skatepark. I cant say I’m a huge fan of shooting at outdoor parks as they are usually pretty busy and I dont like getting in the way of peoples lines setting up the external flash on a tripod and such but this was a night shoot, just before lights out on the flood lights and I was able to bag a few decent shots of Mark Firth and MickyF (see above and below shots):

Mark Firth - Sweat Stance

MickyF - Back Farv

MickyF Top Soul

Next up was Hairy Bobs skatepark in Scarborough where the best captured shots were of MickyF, Mark Binge and Gareth Thistleton (see photos below). Again another night session so the park was a little quieter, there were a few other good skaters about but with the limited light, time and the freezing weather conditions the results were quite limited and after shooting for no more than 30 minutes or so here’s the best of what I got:

MickyF - Backside Unity

Mark Binge - Ao top soul

MickyF - Mute Grab

Gareth Thistleton - Back Farv

MickyF - Backside Unity

And last but not least, a far from lazy Sunday afternoon with the Sheffield and Nottingham Crew in Sheffield. We all met at the little black warm up rails before heading up to the new ledges and rails near Asda. The ledges have been capped since that visit (although some of the bolt have been removed). I wasn’t focused much on the ledges however as the 3 black rails were where the action was going on. Again there were a lot of other great skaters doing all sorts of tricks but the best photos ended up being of Darren Cartledge, Ross Jones and Adrian Wallace. To the rest of you don’t worry I’ll be getting through the rest of the shots soon and I’ll post them either on here or facebook, in the mean time I’ll be happy to fill any request if there’s a shot / trick or something you want processing. After the black rails and Ross’s & Adrian’s nice little rail to rail transfers we hit the road and went to the red ‘potato’ rails near the flats. A few more good shots and then Tim Darker landed badly and managed to dislocate his arm really badly. The ambulance was called and skating paused while we all watch him roll around in pain until the morphine was administered. We all wished Tim a speedy recovery and headed on the the ledges opposite the train station for a another hour or so of skating. It was at this point I had to bail home as everyone else headed on to Rawmarsh school rails and Clifton park to hit up the ledges! Fingers crossed I’ll get some more shots from those 2 spots I missed during tomorrows session but here are the ones from last weekend to keep you going :

Darren Cartledge - Ao soul

Darren Cartledge - Soyale

Darren Cartledge - Mistral

Ross Jones - Unity

Ross Jones - Ao Pornstar

Ross Jones - Royale Rail to Rail

Adrian Wallace - Backside Unity

Adrian Wallace - Ao Fishbrain

Adrain Wallace - True Ao Fishbrain

I still have a few shots left to process but had to get the first ones up I’ll either do a small html gallery or another blog post once the rest have been processed.

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A few skating shots with MickyF and my new 7D

Ben Tucker Photography — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:58:11 +0000

MickyF - Alleyoop Fishbrain

I’m keeping this one brief! I’ve broken my middle finger on my right hand. Shoot with MickyF Canon 7D 50mm F1.4 lens

MickyF Mute Grab