The other day I downloaded a nifty little program that my friend Emma alerted me too. It’s called Poladroid, and it allows you to take regular digital photos and create pretty realistic looking fake polaroids (or “Fauxlaroids” as I like to call them). There have been photos in my back catalog which I’ve thought would have looked really good as a Polaroid, and now I’ve got the ability to try out my theory. It’s a very fun and addictive little app, and although the produced images aren’t totally authentic, they are pretty close. They even include adjustable dust, scratches, vignettes and fingerprints as well as a randomly generated colour and sharpness adjustments to get that lovely, retro feel to the images. It’s certainly produced some interesting results and kept me out of trouble for a few hours! I’ve taken some of my favourite shots, give them the Poladroid treatments and added them to a new set in Flickr. Have a look and see what you think. Also, download the software and give it a whirl – I warn you though, for ‘roid fans out there, it can get very addictive…

Jetty, originally uploaded by Ben Grubb.

Last night I braved the drizzle and headed out, after dark, with the camera. The first time in a long time. Yikes! I’ve gone off the boil a bit with the night photography recently. I think it’s been because I’ve not really had anywhere new to go. It’s been fun going out with Phil (and I’m hopefully going to be doing that again next week), but revisiting old sites does start to lose it’s appeal after a while. No offense, Phil – It’s not you, it’s me…

So, to try and kick start myself back into gear, I did a search on Flickr of places I could go, and up popped the Thames Barrier. Great! I’ve not been there before. Plus, you can also see Canary Wharf and the O2 Arena next to each other. w00t! So off I went. A train to Charlton and a short walk to the river. Despite it being August, it was pretty miserable out and wandering the (rather spooky) Thames path through the heavy, industrial plants by yourself is a little unnerving. I did manage to find a few spots which made for good photos. I liked this one of the old jetty in front of Canary Wharf.

A little further down the river is the Thames Barrier. An odd, futuristic looking structure. It made for some good shots. As there was no one around, I thought I’d push my luck and hop the fence down to the beach, which gave me a better, lower angle of the Barrier. I did get my comeuppance for this outrageous flouting of the rules though. While wandering around in the dark, looking for a good angle, I stepped on what I thought was a rock. It wasn’t. It was some sort of sludgy, silty stuff. And it was pretty deep too. And now, it was all over my WHITE Nike Air’s. Gah! I did my best to scrape off what I could with pebbles and things, but by this time the drizzle was setting in hard so I decided to call it a night.

It wasn’t the most successful trip ever, but at least I did it, and I did feel the bug returning. If anyone has any suggestions of good places to go at night, please give me a shout!

A week or so ago, I was approached by a contact I’d made through Twitter called Col. Col runs a rather nice Mountain Biking based website called Mud and Gears, and he asked me if I’d design a web banner for his website. He said he really liked my work (a good start) and said that he wanted something with a torn paper look, similar to the banner currently sitting above this very post. He wanted something which he could work into a blog template, and a few days later he came back with some dimensions for me. Straight away we seemed to be reading of the same page (or blog, if you like) thinking along the lines of using bike parts, and fairly grungy (almost muddy you could say) look. I think you can see where I’m going with this. Anyway, I jumped at the chance, and get started straight away. I’d say it took me about a day (on and off) to complete the banner, which looks like this:

As usual, I had a rough idea in my mind of what I wanted, and I knew the first step was acquiring some images of bike parts. As luck would have it, chained up outside the Tube station later that afternoon was bike which had all the necessary parts, so I snapped a few close ups (whilst simultaneously getting strange looks from passers by). I liked the close ups from the rear mechs the best, as they seemed to be a bit clearer as to what they actually where, once taken out of context, so that formed the basis of the banner. I chose a few nice, muddy colours and then raided my ever growing texture library and get to work putting the rest of the image together. The cog shapes were a bit trickier, and I had to find a tutorial online to help me create them in Adobe Illustrator. After a few experiments, I finally got them looking how I wanted them. After that it came together pretty quickly, and once I’d found suitable, distressed fonts to go with it, it was sorted. Col seemed very happy with it, which is good! So, anyway, check out his site (where the banner is now live).

I’ve been pretty busy of late (I’m trying to do an image/project a week to keep myself creative), so I’ll have some other stuff to post soon.

Tortoise, originally uploaded by Ben Grubb.

There’s been a new addition to the Grubb family. It was my Dad’s birthday yesterday, and sisters, Auntie and I clubbed together and got him a Hermann’s Tortoise! He is (at time of press) unnamed, but he provided an huge amount of entertainment over the course of the weekend. He’s deceptively quick, and therefore, very tricky to photograph, but I still managed to rattle of a few decent shots which you can see on Flickr. I’m impressed at his climbing ability and his Harry Houdini-esque ability to escape from pretty much any enclosure we could construct for him. We left him tucked up in his hemp and soil filled box while we went off to Brighton on the Sunday. We returned home a few hours later to find him sitting pretty in the middle of the living room. Heaven knows what he’d been up to, but he’d certainly been having a good explore of the house. Bless him.

I’m looking forward to watching him grow up, and I dare say there’ll be many more photos of him featured here.

I’m shooting my first wedding next month. My friends Lee and Chloe are getting hitched at the RSA in London, and I have agreed to do the photography for it! Needless to say, I’m a little nervous. It’s not something I’ve done before, and it’s a pretty big deal, and really not something you want to get wrong. However, luckily for me the bride and groom are both pretty relaxed about the whole thing – photography wise, at least. My brief so far consists of “No cheese!”. I don’t (or at least try not to) “do cheese” so I should be ok. Actually, I’m not too concerned about getting decent shots. I’m not too bad at candid stuff, have a fairly good eye and know my way round my camera. The real big problem was this: They are getting married in the vaults in the RSA. It’s a beautiful space, with a nice mix of modern and rustic decor. But, being a vault it’s naturally underground. Underground means no natural light. Which means I am suddenly thrust out of my comfort zone and into the scary world of flash photography. Gulp. I’ve had a lot of good fortune in my journey to the dark (or should that be ‘light’) side. First off, while talking about the upcoming shoot and my need to get a flash, my Dad produced (from his extensive collection of gear) an amazing hammer head flash! This thing is HUGE! I tell ya, with that mounted to the side of your camera, or more accurately, with your camera mounted onto the flash you certainly look and feel the part. I also got a crash course in how to use it, and I can now, pretty much, get it to do what I want it to. My second piece of good fortune is that I got to, not only see, but shoot the space before hand. Lee, Chloe and Chloe’s parents (who are very nice, and even said I was very “professional”(!!)) spent yesterday afternoon at the venue with a lovely, helpful girl called Toni, planning, tasting and arranging every tiny detail for the day. They invited me along, and while they umm’d and ahh’d about wine, food, flowers and pretty much everything else, I was flitting around testing out the flash and getting a feel for the place. With a bit of experimentation, I got some nice results – My favourite being the bottles at the top of this post. Here’s a few others as well:

Lee preparing for the big day…

And some general detail shots:

The mirror from the dining room, which is upstairs, and naturally lit for a bit of a change:

I feel infinitely better for having been there, and having taken some shots. I’ve got more of a game plan in my head now about what/when/how to do things. Toni has the day planned with military precision, which makes my life easier as I know where to be and when. It’s nice to have someone who’s done a fair few of these giving me tips of good locations and angles etc as well.

Lee and Chloe are a great couple, and a lot of fun, so I reckon it’ll all be fine. I’m still terrified, naturally, but I think it’s a good wedding to start with, and to ease myself in. Hopefully, I’ll really enjoy it – I’m certainly excited to see what results I get! Wish me luck…

Over the last couple of weeks, while I’ve been out and about, I’ve taken my Holga out with me. It’s been a while since I’ve used it, but while in San Francisco, I found a pack of Black & White 120 film so I thought I’d give it a go. I forgot how much fun it can be. The film was 100 ISO, so I was a bit limited as to when I could use it – especially as the “summer” hasn’t really been up to much over the last couple of weeks. Sigh. Anyway, I did managed to get a few shots that I was pleased with. I really like experimenting with multiple exposures, as you do seem to get effects which you really can’t seem to replicate as well with Photoshop etc. Also, as in this shot, I love all the dust and scratch marks you get from time to time. It really is the ultimate “happy accident” machine. Having said that, I didn’t really help matters by not having the mask and counter settings – Whoops. Ah well, I still got some prints so I was happy.

I’m hoping that there’s going to be some sunshine when we go to the Peak District in a couple of weeks, as I’m in the mood for some Holga landscapes! Oh yeah! You can see some of the other shots I’ve taken with it on Flickr. I’m really kicking myself that I didn’t take it back to the States this year. The American west seems to be made for that sort of photography. Ah well. I’ll just have to go back there again, eh?…

Barbed Wire, originally uploaded by Ben Grubb.

I haven’t posted anything for while, so I thought I’d share this. It was taken at Bowles Outdoor Centre in Eridge. We’ve spent a lot of time down there climbing recently. Since getting back from the States, climbing indoors hasn’t really “done it” for me. It’s been nice to be back at The Castle again, obviously, and it’s been good to see everyone again as well as getting on the new problems etc. But, the whole time, I’ve had it in the back of my mind that I want to get outside.

We went down to Bowles the first weekend we were home, as we still had the big from climbing all over the US. It was a nice, sunny Saturday, and far too hot to be cooped up inside. So, Snoo and I got the train down to Eridge, and we hit the rocks with Ben. And it was superb! We’d previously written the place off as being boring and full of “crappy Southern Sandstone”, but now it seems to have taken on a whole new life. We found that we could actually climb stuff there, instead of ineffectually slapping around and falling off the whole time. And not only that, the stuff we climb there (or at least attempt) are really nice routes. Crimpy, ground up, clean faces. Pocketed areté’s. Marginal, balancey slabs – It’s got the lot.

We’ve got a little tick list going now, and some long term projects. I have it in my head that I’d like to climb every route there. I’ve managed a few 5c’s, 6a’s and even a real test piece of a 6b so far, so I’m not all that close, but that’s the beauty of climbing outside. I could be working these routes for years, and that prospect really excites me!

I’ve been trying to get some nice shots while I’ve been there as well. It’s a beautiful place, with some fantastic views. The routes on the whole are very aesthetic as well, and I’ve been pushing myself to try and get some different shots, and be creative with angles and positions. Also, I’m trying to avoid the “butt shots” by getting up on top, and risking life and limb hanging over the edge! One does suffer ones art! Have a look at some of the best ones on Flickr…