Baybutt RSS

...because it's probably urine

9-06-22T16:16:00+00:00

Long time no update. Been busy. 365 makes me not want to spend any more time in front of the computer than I have to - but I end up sitting here anyway. Another reason for the lack of updates is that we appear to be having a proper summer - dry and everything. Can't believe it. So i've been building up the callouses on my hands and riding bikes of one description or another as often as possible.

Fera and I escaped to Paris for a short break - mega good. We had a lovely hotel near the Sorbonne Uni and a 5 minute walk from the Cathedral. We did all the tourist stuff and a load more. Al (the Paris vet) lent us her guide book with unmarked X's dotted all over the place. One we followed (on a whim) brought us to a well stocked beauty shop. Can't say I was too impressed but Fera was made up! We went to some pretty trendy bits where the jeans were tight and the shopkeeps snobby but it's Paris so c'est la vie. I still snapped this great bike in Colette - an expensive, 'one stop hipster shop'. Very cool but made you not want to spend anything! Talking of which, the Euro rate meant we were tipping the wrong side of £8 per pint which hurt but we found some good deals.

Myself, Joe and Andy M spent an amazing weekend driving to Fort William for the DH World Cup. We stayed in Glen Coe and met up with Craig & Jack from Menuires. Super craic, good times and lots of riding. The 3 of us had a blast at Glentress near Peebles. Not ridden offroad properly for about 10 years but it was like, erm, riding a bike! It all came back pretty quickly, even on the vintage mongoose. We escaped after all the racing on the Sunday and made it back there for a second session where we rode till 11:00pm. To be honest, I was flycatching all weekend. Hardly a minute when I didn't have a grin on my face - except when I was swimming in a Scottish river in my pants. Cold.

I also made it over the second of the big 3 at BH. On a borrowed bike. No pedals. YES!

We headed up to Shropshire for a wedding the other week and I learned there was an awesome pump track built by Clark & Kent about 5 mins drive from Feras house. Treats. I just checked their website and realised that there are another 2 tracks in Shrewsbury so taking my bike next time we're up - without a doubt! Loads of fun. We picked up the Manta and it made it all the way back to London with no hiccoughs. Such a cool car. Photoshoot this week. 70's boy racer amazingness.

Paddy donated me his old Dialled frame which is an inch longer than the trusty old Pashley and really confidence inspiring. Fast too! Thanks so much pal.

In other news, we're moving house. The lady downstairs is too much for us and we've had enough. We love this flat and would stay in a heartbeat but she is too spiteful; what can you do? Except have a big leaving party... Invites out soon. Thanks to everyone who's popped by and made our 1st proper home feel like a proper home. Hopefully the next place will be just as nice but with neighbourly neighbours.

Better get back to work. Catch up soon. Will hopefully try to get another update done before we move out. Maybe..

Be excellent to each other.

RB

redeye

9-05-12T09:55:00+00:00

Yup - slipping. No new info (well, when is it really "info"?) for a month. It's kind of nice actually because it means I'm busy and have no time, even though I'm up to fun stuff. A friend said recently that young people today feel that their lives aren't validated unless it's on the internet. Are we all turning into the boneless blobs on Wall-e much faster than the film predicted? Maybe - tell you what though, I could do with a route 44 / big gulp style milkshake right now. I guess there's your answer.

Anyway - news. Why else would you be here? Paris - Roubaix was brill. Simpson got us lost a LOT of times and worked the car over a fair bit before we even left London but his 'fakie / switch euro driving' was fine and dandy. It was weird driving the exact same cobbles I rode almost a year to the day ago on my moto trip. We hammered around on the Saturday in the big red Ford and got the car throughly filthy. Driving those roads in a car is bad enough - I simply have no idea how they cope on road bikes. Evenings were spent drinking beer, eating pizza and watching "Flavor of love" starring Flavor Flav of Public Enemy, and "Americas best dance crew" on MTV. Heavy.
The race was brill - highlights include a run Le'Mans style back to the car and chasing team cars down French back roads, watching 'Spiderman the second' climb a railway bridge to get a better view and drop his camera. Drunk Belgian cycle fans are always good, as are motorway horn honking sessions as the race runs parallel, then over us, then onto cobbles next to us for a mile or 2. Helicopters, noise, the hard shoulder full of support vehicles, and by pure luck, being caught up in exactly what we were racing to see. Amazing. I sat in the sun at Roubaix whilst Simpson took some snaps and lost my lightmeter. Liability. Good old Pippo came second. Well done lad. Boonen (who won) got busted yesterday for, of all the performance enhancing drugs, cocaine. AGAIN! What a doofus.

I've actually driven the Manta now - about a meter backwards and forwards but still! It's great. Really good late Easter weekend at home with the rents. Been riding the 20" more after a session at the Monkey Bumps on Saturday with Alec, Andy, Ed and the crew. Unfortunately I only had the 26" mongoose to hand so my dodgy trail riding was even more dodgy. Stoppies down landings anyone? The Ecclesall woods singletrack was a treat and a half though. Bicycles are good. I think Paddy might have got through to Fera more than I ever have when he told her it's easier to "just roll with it" regarding all the bike nonsense. Wise words indeed. Of course he was a bit merry at the time but that doesn't matter. [Hope you had a good birthday pal.]

On the Friday we said goodbye to Andrew Savage, a makeup artist I worked with during my time assisting David O'Driscoll. He was also a very good friend of Sam Jones and a really decent guy. The funeral was sad but colourful with funny stories and good people. Was great to see so many people and appreciate just how well respected he was within the photography industry and out of it. Do check out his site HERE.

The following week I had a small exhibition in a cafe in Beckenham. It's still there if you're passing the Belleberry Deli next to Clock House station. Was good fun and always nice to see your work up somewhere other than your house. Thanks Bernard.

Pete & Hannah visited for another random night out (karaoke for Dom's birthday). The lass singing the Meatloaf duet was rubbish but the old man singing "The man comes around" was awesome. A cockney Johnny Cash. We had the best Sunday ever - so lazy, big breakfast, playstation session with Pete, ride on the BMX, read some magazines and hung out with Fera and then Yvette from the States visited and took us out for a burger. Perfect day.

The day after I left for Prague. A big Pilsner job with james. In 7 days, the LATEST we slept in was 5am. No really. Dawn and dusk shots every day. As awful as I felt for the first couple, routine kicked in and I actually liked getting up early and seeing parts of the city, which would later be thronged with tourists, deserted. Real treat. The beer was great (straight out of a huge cask at 8am in the cellars of the PU brewery). The company was awesome and Prague is just stunning. I remembered from GCSE geography that acid rain is killing the place - the west pollute the most and the east get the fallout. The famous Charles Bridge is limestone and I can only imagine how sharp the statues must have been before the industrial revolution. Saying that, it's still one of the most fantastic bridges I've been across. We hired Segways for an hour or so and I've never laughed so hard. You definitely can't be shy on one of those. They WILL be banned so get a ride on one soon before they're restricted by the man. Saturday night we shot at the Pilsen Brewery again and then headed back to Prague around midnight (after a beer of course) to a jazz bar called Blue Light. Rather than going back to the hotel for a few hours, we stayed there till 04:30 and went straight to the last shoot on the bridge. We had become the people we laughed at every morning. The whole trip was so much of everything it's going to take a while to come back down. A week felt like a very long time (due to fitting two separate shoots into each day with a snooze in the middle) but never boring or stale. Thank you to everyone who made it possible. You know who you are.

That's pretty much it. I went motorcycle protesting yesterday so if you were in the centre of town and got held up it was because motorcyclists are being forced to pay £1.50 to park in Wesminster when they are actually the solution to congestion, not the cause. It's a stealth tax and needs to be stopped. Tell your friends and visit the site. And come along next time.

Be in touch. Busy here but all good fun.

550k vroom

9-04-06T21:30:00+00:00

Yup, another month. Anyone would think I'm not taking the news section seriously! Busy again - what do you know.

Good old Shoot has been keeping me pretty busy which is always appreciated. Worked some more days in London with Ade - all good fun. Elton told me not to name drop (BUT) "celeb" liked my motorbike! haha. He turned up on a "crappy scooter" but is buying a new Bonneville soon. Think somewhere he wished he had the ability to neglect an old Honda and cover any rust with more matt back. Nowt says movie star like a rat bike. Just waiting for my Corpses From Hell patch! So that was a laugh.

We headed off to Gran Canaria with JD sports for a week of Wii Golf, big food and hot tubs with models. and some photos. Really fun trip with really great people but GC isn't anywhere I'd race back to for a scenic relax with the lady. We did fly over the tip of Portugal where Fera and I have been which was great. Other than that, £2.50 for a cup of tea is silly. Plus we saw men in thongs... un-ironically. Bad. And not bad meaning good.

A few days after I got back, Fera was the one who was jetting off to somewhere entirely more exotic than the Canaries; Botswana! Not just any trip (like there is a routine trip to Botswana) but a super dooper 5* safari experience on the back of an elephant or two. No really - ridiculous. She spent a week in the company of elephants, elephant wranglers and lions, stroking crocodiles, climbing trees, rowing boats, getting up at 5am, watching African sunrises and sunsets, flying in helicopters, avoiding malaria, spotting wildlife and basically living the life. She's now very brown and has a weird glazed look in her eyes which I hope London doesn't dull too much. Man she needs a blog! Way more interesting than what I've been up to - and I've been on a speedo shoot all week! Her photos are epic - I'll try to poach some for on here. Not that many of us will get the chance to experience such a trip, but it's been highly recommended and I'm sure she can swing a discount as she's the one who organized the whole thing. Proper proud of her as it's been a pretty major stress these last few weeks and it's come off with little to no hitches. All good.

Other exciting news is that I now own TWO motorbikes. Both rusty hondas but both very cool. The 'new' one is a 1978 cb550k in red. Turned up on the 'bay on the sunday. Eagle eyed Ben pointed it out and it was only round the corner in Forest Hill. I had the keys and the v5 by that time the next day! It is the perfect base for a cafe racer but I need to keep the seat as is so I can ride two up. It's a bike for her - my justification in any case. Saw a lovely old Guzzi cafe style bike today and am now on a clip-on mission.

The ourys are already in place by the way. Feels just like a big version of my old bike which I'm afraid to say is still under its cover since Saturday. That's just straight up neglect. Saying that, I rode it to a big moto protest in town the other night and randomly parked one bike away from another 200 Benley. Hello Bill - not going to make the Joint Rally I'm afraid but thanks for the invite. Lots of bikes and some daft costumes. A warm up for the g20 riot police but without the riots. Seemed a bit folly protesting about a parking charge when all the worlds leaders were less than 10 miles away deciding on issues a bit more important than ours. On the ride home I stopped at some lights near Vauxhall bridge and a police motorcyclist pulled up next to me. His partner, also on a bike, pulled up behind him and (on purpose) drove into him! The first coppper turned to me, sighed and said "you just can't get the quality of police these days". The lights went green, no2 bumped into him again and they both tore off into the evening. I could hardly see for tears I was laughing so hard.

Missed out a mention of another great Menuires trip... Four days of amazing company, hospitality, riding, snow and chat. I do like that place. The old guard loved the mags I took to show them. It snowed the first night the sun came out in the morning. I spent the next day in the esteemed company of Katie crow, Kev AND Sue. The planets were aligned and everything. In 5 months I think I rode with them both at the same time once - here I was 1st day of a holiday, blue skies, powder, and the head Grey's. Amazing. Absolutely fantastic, unbelievable day. If I'd have had to get back on another coach and headed straight home again I wouldn't have minded. Priceless day. Thank you to whoever organized that one. The next few days were spent well with kickers dug, night sessions sessioned and even a trip to the Yeti. Photos up very very soon. Enjoy closedown & thank you everyone again.

Unfortunately a rotten manifold thingymajig on the Manta is the main reason I'm not heading to the Derby National BMX champs. Gutted, but hoping that it all goes very well for Lauren who is turning things round for the BMX race scene. The car squirted petrol all over the post office van but only on the way BACK from its mot test. Dad is looking after it well and I cannot wait to go back to Sheff to pick it up. So, instead I'm off to help Simpson cover the Paris - Roubaix race this weekend. Will be a fun little road trip. Not patronizing the lad but he is (by his own admission) crap at map reading or any kind of directions, especially in French and especially after only holding a license for a month. Will pack the wet wipes, a coloring book and warm coat for him. The forecast is rain so it's going to be a legit spring classic. Can't wait.

Just finished a 7 day job in Old St which I've thoroughly enjoyed. The food was off the chart (Marina at Alimentari, Queens Park) and the company was grand. Almost best of all I've loved the cycle to work. It's been sunny, only taken 25 mins and I've passed some brill sights which I wouldn't see if I lived north of the river. That said, I'm off to meet Durka-Durka for a chinese and I'm taking the 250! Day off tomorrow catching up on boring stuff and photoshop. WOW.

Be in touch, try to catch the 30 years of Hip Hop on the IPlayer and download the Jaguar Skills hip hop history mixtape. Amazing.

Big love

RB

booze, sauce, deep heat

9-03-08T18:57:00+00:00

365 is still there, two months done. Looking good and good fun. Check it out.

Been pretty busy and nerly letting this slip into a month between posts!

In short; picked up the manta which looks way better in the sun that the garage. Will be an absolutely fantastic drive when it's finished up. Can't wait. Built a snowpark in 195 - used Alistair's work lamps and had a great ride late on a Friday night. Had a very relaxed and lovely Valentines walking round Chatsworth and eating steak. Witnessed huge moto protests (joining the next one), drove to Sunderland and checked out the cliche of hardy girls on an evening out, cycled to Brighton and fubard my ankle, limped round the science museum and watched an underwater adventure at the Imax on my birthday (thanks Fera!). I shot some rocking jewelry on some hearts and bones from the butchers for Corpses From Hell. I borrowed a Harley for a ride, sat in a lambo, gt40 and maserati and enjoyed some free beer. Went boarding for a week in Alpe du Huez with Mr Stu Mcgillivray; we spent a week eating pasta / pesto, dancing to Biggie, licking one-piece ski suits, digging and riding till 2am and generally having a blast and a half. Amazing time, great company and lots of snow. All you need really.

Met Kevin Spacey today on a shoot for Empire magazine and got a pannier rack for my bicycle. Dork ahoy. The big exciting news is that I've been published in Frequency, The Snowboard Journal with the moto piece. Basically the mag is super-dooper quality, 'coffee table' style snowboard rag. Looks so good. Check the 365 for the tearsheet. Pleased as punch. Need to get going on the next project...

Righto. Off to meet me lady from the station then out later for a celebratory pint with Simpson - he passed his driving test so beware out there.

Be in touch.

RB

52jr?

9-02-12T13:02:00+00:00

Morning - or afternoon now. Argh - been at this for ages. It's lunchtime. Anyway, as you may or may have not noticed, there's some new photos floating around... amazing. Should have updated this place long ago but then again I've been busy working. Check out the galleries.

My interesting news is that somehow I managed to pull together a heap of people who I'd never met before through the power of Facebook & Jockey Journal and get a funky photoshoot shot! King Lizard found me through FB and I found Maxwell Paternoster through the JJ. The moons aligned and with some invaluable help from Dr Pete, Dr Robin & James Purssell it got done relatively painlessly. Although my fingers still hurt the next day from the cold. Shots up in a gallery soon but thanks again to everyone - great way to spend an hour or two. The gig was ridiculous by the way - rock and more rock. Long hair, flying fists, massive solos, mics in the crowd, fights and blood. Legitimate. Loved it.

Sunday was cold again, hanging out at a Little Chef on the A1 with Simon from CW and Ian Cammish of Testing Times fame. 12 hour time trials? That's riding as fast as you can for 12 hours and seeing how far you get... CRAZY. Can't say I understand fully but to each their own. Nice guy - great old bike, hand built by Brian Rourke in 1981. First downwards sloping top tube used for road TT's; i believe I heard correctly...

Met the lad from Slumdog Millionaire on Monday. Well done on the Baftas! Really nice guy. He had to spray champagne in a provocative manner for Heat mag... At 09:30 in the morning, lots of cheap champagne is not something you want to smell of all day! The studio was soaked and reminded me of walking back into some crazy party the morning after and the place reeking of booze. Felt hungover even though I wasn't. Really good shots though - keep an eye out for Sam Jones's pics in the next Heat. PS: She has her new site up. Bonus points if you can find the shot of Al on there... clue, it's here.

On the bike thing - managed to ditch the old key switch and cut away more cables. Missed something out and the bike went a bit disco on the way home - lights flashing when I pressed the brake and all that. Fixed that this morning with some more tape and the diet continues... Would have loved some knobblies for la petite neige last week but was fun sliding around on the slicks in any case. Elephant run next...? Still undecided wether to strip it and clean / paint / polish or just leave it ratty... What to do?

Off north tonight to see a man about a Manta. Valentines with the lovely Pugh on sat (who's name IS actually Pugh, it's not just an endearing term!) DC is off to NYC this morning - best of luck. Have fun and we'll hopefully all catch up soon.

Be in touch - Feb already. Can't believe it. Birthday soon - mash up!

All the best.

RB

Bolehills forever and ever

9-02-04T21:20:00+00:00

I have to get all this down before I get stuck into too much work... What a few days! Headed up to Sheff on Thursday with the 20" and the epic-big camera bag. Not traveled with the BMX for WAY too long and forgot how easy it is. Even if I looked like a turtle on a bicycle. Caught up with Joe & Jim in the eve which is always fun. Friday was a busy day driving round Sheffield with Dave of biketrack.org and TGN construction shooting their many builds for their site. Drive like you stole it & work gets done! That eve was Nev's leaving do - she's off to Argentina with her friend Laura & then traveling up to Vancouver over the course of a year which sounds like the trip of ten lifetimes. Poppy Longstockings (I think) and the Banana somethings or other were brill - just good good music. Sorry I can't remember the names - i suck. I can't even blame drink as I was cruising the Saab with seats on full heat. Anyway, so good to catch up with everyone. Good luck.

How rubbish is 'Gossip Girl"!? Sat in't living room keeping Fera company but sheesh, rubbish TV!

Sat was just fantastic. Picked up joe and we headed out to some toxic dump near Chatsworth House. Amazing drive which (AGAIN) made me realise how much I miss the north. The trails were just amazing - like a ski slope for a bicycle - lines everywhere, jumps everywhere, toxic mud everywhere. So good. We rode, dug sessioned, dug some more and marveled at how 3 guys could play with a super noisy radio controlled car for 3 hours non stop and not get bored. They probably were thinking something very similar about us but anyway - we were quieter! We stopped by Bakewell for a pie and a tart (both were tasty) and then onto a fun pump track in Bamford. I'm way happier riding small tracks - always been a pansy on a bike. Doesn't matter that we weren't flying 20 feet above perfectly shaped doubles in the sunshine; muddy and wet and rolling along was just fine with me.

Saturday evening was hectic. One of the best nights ever. As you may or may not know, DC of blogspot fame is off to New York for a year to work. What a gig. Anyway, Lauren Smith managed to get most of the BMX scene from all over the UK in one room in Sheffield, on time without Dan knowing in the slightest. Everyone was paranoid they'd let the proverbial cats out of the bags but it all worked perfectly. Even his family was there, all the way from Romford. Unbelievable. Been looking forward to seeing everyone for ages but couldn't say anything. "social networking" egh. Well done Lauren. Such a good time. Alex from the Forum left a crate behind the bar as way of an apology (he broke the "Bah!" photo when putting up the christmas exhibition) which was super cool of him. Even though most of it was given away, we were pretty wobbly by the time DC got ejected for crowd surfing to Dizee Ras! Kebab, Predator and a cycle home to round off a very special evening. What a send off. Stoked just to be a part of it.

Sunday was a very cold session at BH and then a train back to LDN...where it was snowing. No thameslink services so cycled in a blizzard from Kings X to London Bridge. At any other time I'd have been mad but loved every second of the ride. Got onto one of the last trains to Peckham Rye and learnt that because I'd cycled, even though I was soaked through, I'd saved myself about 2 hours commute across the centre - busses were appalling apparently.

The snow carried on and have managed two days on the board. London ground to a halt and I've never chatted to so many people on the street before. Snow makes people happy. Kebabs, Kung Fu Panda, walks to Catford, riding home down Forest Hill Road, surfing the moto across the ice, friendly people and achy feet. Awesome.

Really didn't mean to go on so much but had such a fun filled few days. Managed to ignore the boring and the scary bits of life and just got on with enjoying it. The 365 hasn't dropped off so go have a look for all the day to day nonsense.

Going to get off now and do some proper work. Whilst you're here check out Stu and the new Arbcraft job here and listen to Bon Iver. Beautiful album which has pretty much been on repeat since Thursday. Serious - get in in your life.

Ramble over. Take it easy.

RB

tweed, emily, justice & jolly farmers

9-01-25T22:24:00+00:00

Happy Birthday Tel. Cracking party, great set, amazing decor. Good people, good times.

Quicky update. Bit worried that the 365 will make me forget about putting some proper news down (and when I say 'proper news' I really mean this rambling nonsense). It' still going - 25 days strong. Wow. All expectations exceeded. Got to be quick as I need to pack my camera bag for another day outside with Arbcraft treecare tomorrow. Should be fun.

Been good round these parts recently. Oh yeah - well done again USA. Super news on your new boss. Went to a Q&A session hosted by TCG on Tuesday about the inauguration. Was up at the Altitude 360 space at the top of the Millbank tower. Great views and free beer. The shots are all good - thanks Fera & co for getting me along.

In a nutshell, I've fixed up more of the moto, had it fail on me to the point of the RAC (actually it was my fail but took the man a good while to work it out), been to Brighton (not on a cycle) but didn't see the sea, shoehorned (up stairs and downstairs) the bike into a fashion test, met fellow W&W'ers in town (happy Australia day!), enjoyed the portrait gallery (a bit more than the last time), had a warm ale in the narrow pub Mattelie visited, saw Downing St for the 1st time, drank a ton of wine with Matt & Nic and tried to get Fera to ride the etape or its equivalent, cycled round london with Jimmy & hundreds of hipsters dressed in tweed (although I was neither in proper tweed or on a fixie, plus I was the only one with a helmet), ate the biggest piece of fish ever from Emilys, celebrated terrys 21st at Penge and ran round the park. Phew. Pooped. This week is set to be fun and good so can't wait.

For some reason I'm feeling a sense of cultural / social responsibility with this post but can't really think or anything cultural or sociable to say that is of any real importance to anybody. Actually I can - get out of the house as more interesting thing happen out there. You meet lots of new people, have adventures and it makes returning all the more good. Had a brill weekend with lots of nice new folks. What a blast. Hope everyone is well & happy & I hope to see you soon.

Big love

RB

Water not tasting how it oughta.

9-01-13T16:06:00+00:00

Hello. Believe it or not, the 365 project is still going. Shocking. Running a sweepstake on how long it'll last. Dr Pete has said May but I think that's very generous. Closest date will win a print! Answers on a postcard...

After a slow start to 09 it's all picked up again. Spent a good day at the garage in the cold last week. Thinking about then next project. This one is nearly done so have to get out and get some miles under the belt. Plans to visit Swansea and Scotland at some point. Also have to get some Etape miles in the legs too so basically there's going to be a fair bit of traveling in 09 whatever happens work wise. Oh yeah - if you do buy bib tights for cycling, don't tell your roadie friend on facebook where everyone can see... I got abuse from as far as Australia! (and rightly so to be honest. not a good look - although the journos at the Columbia launch would say Emilia Fahlin looked alright in lycra)

I escaped the cold on Thursday and headed to the rain of Mallorca. No really - hailstorms. Rubbish. Team Columbia was holding their training camp out there in their new kit (designed by Brad Sheehan - nice guy). The resort was ace - TONS of food and all pretty posh although Alasdair says he saw a cockroach in our bathroom and couldn't sleep. Shot Mark Cavendish again. Bit of a stress due to the weather and only having 5 mins to get the cover but went ok in the end. He realised I'd been short changed with photo chances so he gave me 20 mins the next day in between breakfast and the presentation. Lovely light and everything fell into place. Much better than rainy stress. Got a photo in the Daily Telegraph and one on their website too which is all good. The rest of Saturday was spent hanging out of team cars with the old lightbox and drinking beer in the sun working on the edit. Not a bad job at all. Met some great people too, thanks to Kristy for all the organising. Top job.

I'm sure there was something more important to say than "I went away on a job" but I can't remember it for the life of me. worked with Sam Jones yesterday. Al modeled which was funny - keep an eye out in the Observer mag for her favorite outfit. Lots of club kids and shiny shoes. Too much glitter for me but was a fun day at the new Guardian building. Never seen so many macs in my life. All very new and posh. Half good exhibition in the reception (just because photos are old doesn't make them good. Luckily only half were stock) and an old printing press in the hall.

So anyway - have a check in on the 365 work. Flickr-arama! It's lots of fun in any case - just like the black books I filled at Uni except in colour.

Have a great week. If you see me out cycling in tights, be nice and don't say hello.

All the best.

RB

PS: Don't know if I ever said - the Moto piece IS out in the current Document snowboard mag. Gosh - at last. Looks good. Got my Ted Simon writing style going on in full effect. One thing though - there are no photos of the bike with the board... They photoshopped a shadow on so it looks like I'm carrying it when I'm not but other than that it could have been two different holidays! haha Worth a look anyway. Glad all that adventure is finally out there to be laughed at.

Peace.

365

9-01-06T18:14:00+00:00

Happy New Year!

Did you have a good one? Our holls were cool beans but did involve a fair few miles. Before all that though, Fera & I went to see the mighty Kings of Leon at Wembley. Oh my days - what a gig. We were up in the nosebleeds but had a great view of the whole show. Amazing. All the hits, a fantastic encore and just straight up rock, no messing about. So so so good. Was our 3 year anniversary present to each other - good choice.

We hired a grubby ford and rumbled up to Shropshire for Christmas eve. Looooooong game of charades at Chez Hibberd. "Birth", "Bi" and "Sister act" were probably my highlights. Always good to see Lauren, James & Dave. The next day the pub ran out of cranberry sauce and there was nearly a revolt at christmas lunch but luckily enough Fera scraped the last of it from the jug and her day was saved. Really good food, chilly walk round Shrewsbury after and then a dark drive up to the Lakes after HP. Busy holls indeed.

Couple of days at Milnthorpe with lots of walks (what is this!? Conspiracy to turn me into a rambler?) and good food which to be honest is all you want at this time of year.

Sheffield next to see Joe & Lulu, The 51JR crew + Lauren, Mr Baxter, The McAll clan, Jim et al'. Packed so much in. TWO (!) trips to BH. Good photo session with DC and a kid from Dronny who is pretty lucky after missing his hand on the grip landing a toboggan on the 3rd; he caught the underside of the bar and rolled out (somehow). I honestly thought I'd be picking his teeth out of the dolomite and calling his mother but that cat is too quick. Thank goodness. Fera made a very pretty lightstand and it only cost me a pork and apple sandwich and a cup of tea. Cheap at twice the price.

Back to London for Nu Year. Surprisingly non veggie meal at 101 (thanks Al) and then a relaxed evening with my girl watching intellectual films and stealing a cat. Well, maybe not that intellectual and we gave the cat back so it was more 'cat borrowing'. It was cold, there were fireworks and he was miowing - when I opened the door he ran in. What could I do? Did look a bit like Garfield when chucking out time came.

Whilst you're here why not check out 365. Was aiming for a photo a day but have ended up with more than one so far. We'll see how long that lasts!

Oh yeah - whilst you're on the computer, look at THIS now. Robbie Madison is not right in the head at all.

That's about it so far. Off to Majorca on Thursday to shoot Mark Cavendish again so that will be fun. Fingers crossed it'll be warmer than here although I get the feeling that Iceland is warmer than here right now.

Be in touch.

All the best for '09

RB

Fera, the new Wu chessmaster?

8-12-22T15:12:00+00:00

...lovely board for christmas then she proceeds to beat me. It was my present! pah. Must play more.

All good? Feeling bit more christmassy here now. Got the tree up, had our 60b xmas last night, done the dreaded shop and even got a car outside for the driving biz tomorrow. Phew. ALSO... I worked on the moto for the first time in literally months last week. Got my new rear mudguard on (again), chrome this time. Lovely. Forgotten to chop the bolts down though - hope I don't hit any bumps too fast before I find a dremmel. Save for a 5 min pot noodle break I got my old headlight off, new one on, indicator brackets made, all wired up and tested in three and a half hours. Phew. Bar controls and battery box stuff, then some paint and it's pretty done - apart from a big clean if I go that far. Looking good.

Really happy with it so far - great fun learning all this stuff. Might even come in useful one day, although I don't know where.

Super excited about heading north tomorrow. Couple of days in Shropshire, couple in the Lakes with mum and dad and a couple in Sheff. Hopefully hit the SSV at some point too...
The reason we had xmas last night was that we're off to see The Kings of Leon tonight at Wembley! WOW. It's our anniversary present to each other from July. Can't wait.

I got up at 06:20 this morning and haven't stopped. Got some more present printing to do so going to wrap it up there and wish you all a fantastic christmas and new year. Personally, this year has been ridiculous... I've been away more this year than probably all the other years put together. So many cool trips and cool people. I've finally printed a pro portfolio and am searching for proper work. Moved into a lovely house with my lady. Just the two of us. Made some great friends and caught up with some very old ones. There have been down bits too but on the whole, 2008 has been an absolute blast. Thanks everyone.

See you in 2009.

RB

Venus

8-12-17T12:18:00+00:00

The last month or so has been very busy but not for all the right reasons. Hence the late update.

Yesterday was the funeral of Venus Pugh, Fera's nan. She was a fantastic lady who was a huge inspiration to her family and others. There was a great turn out at the service - she was very well loved by friends at the Red Cross, her church, her lunch groups, family and so on. She will be greatly missed and fondly remembered.

Work has been on hold a bit but did shoot Mark Cavendish playing chess, Alejandro Valverde in a fantastic gallery (espacio av) in Murcia, the British road cycling team at Jodrell Bank and a bunch of nice people from Fera's office. Fairly busy considering.

Not feeling the most christmassy I've ever felt to be honest but can't wait to see the family and Sheffield friends. If you do need something to get you in the festive mood, you can do a LOT worse than the DJ Yoda Christmas mini mix. Pretty awesome.

Will write a bit more enthusiastically soon but for now I hope all's well and good wherever you are.

All the best.

RB

24minutestowritethis

8-11-20T16:50:00+00:00

Hello! I'm off to town to rescue pugh from work so I have a short time to write an update.

What has been going on? Bits and bobs. Haven't been away for a while. It's actually a bit weird, been wondering what felt different about these last couple of months - worked it out - no air travel! Feel good as the environment has taken a battering from me this year but then again I love going away to places. Still - we have a bit left of this year to go. We'll see what happens. Someone joked that the answer to rising holiday costs is Scotland for the winter - maybe it'll be the year?

New bits arrived for the moto - switches, buttons, throttle and hopefully a new light soon and all. I promise I'll take some photos soon and stop going on about my bloody bike. Did you ever check out JVB-Moto? Aw man - so cool. Have a look at the scrambler and the flat red. Awesome.

Had a great night last sat with Tom, Stu and almost every london BMX related person ever. So nice putting faces to photos. Xav the man was in the house, as was Wadey and Kung. heavy. Sorry for spraying my beer over Craig Stevens - was trying to kick off a party but he looked like he was going to kick my head off. Took a loooonnggg while to get home from Camden. The kebab was a goody though. Sunday hurt.

Dunno if I mentioned... I shot some work for Arbcraft Tree care the other week. If you are in need of your bush trimming then give them a call. Safe, polite, tidy.

Worked for Richard Bradbury the other week on my first 'lady' shoot in 3 and a half years! haha Can't believe it's taken that long. Cover of Maxim in Feb I think. The real interesting bit was the gym we worked at is Repton ABC - the scene for the Lock Stock card game. Very cool indeed.

Met Danielle (less racist in the flesh) Lloyd too. Funny week. Plus I tried on a Ruby helmet - if anyone feels like splashing out £400 on a motorbike helmet, these are the ones to go for. Comfy comfy comfy - even though it was two sizes too small.

James Purssell had a great job on this week for Hi-Tec. Lots of water which was all new for me. Water plus electricity keeps you on your toes!

Thanks for the work - lots of fun. Oh and the Chinese on the Walworth road is amazing. The one with the big red doors near The Elephant.

Two mins to wrap this up. Come round to 60b and make lots of noise. Grumpy neighbors are dull. Who learns the clarinet at 22:30 and then moans at the noise a fan heater makes? Rowdyness please.

Speak soon y'all. Hope all is bonza.

RB

Richard Close to Richmond. fail

8-11-10T21:52:00+00:00

Would you believe Heiwa Motorcycles emailed me back and sent some photos of his cd250u. What a nice guy. Spent a rainy saturday at the garage where Ben welded my new support on the back and I tapped new threads for my indicators. After a week of sitting inside watching OCC it was exactly what I needed. Although rather than a plush, furnished, stocked, heated, light, spacious garage, the work is carried out in a couple of sheds in Grove Park. I wouldn’t change a thing though. Chrome mudguard I think to match the front. Matt says no but I think so.

Got a new computer and think I’ve finally set it up - replaced all the lost serial codes, email now works and two screens is way better than one. Geek geeeeeeek geeeeeeeeek!!!! The rest of the desk is a mess though so I’m going to have a big tidy up before I show it off. Almost as cool as this.

Went to the premier of ‘Dont stop Dreaming’ on Friday night in a Saffa bar in Fulham. Was definitely the smallest skinniest bloke there! Even Stu was dwarfed by DC and Warren who look like they’ve been photoshopped! Good work though lads. If only I could be bothered... The film was awesome and it was really cool to hang out with some of the Sheffield (massive) again. Lots of bodyboarding which I have to admit I don’t know a lot about. But I do admire them taking off on (massive) waves which they know they have no chance of making it out of. Some crazy guys out there.

We didn’t get to catch up on sat as I got back from the garage way too late and London proved itself bigger than the average city. So Fera and I did the next most rock and roll thing we could think of and stayed up till 2 playing monopoly! haha I won but she thinks she won. Good company. The vodka was a nice touch.

Saw Joff Summerfield return yesterday from his trip round the world on a penny farthing. Bit of a Greenwich legend - read his trip exploits here What a legend. Two and a half years and over 20,000 miles. Amazing. After that Simpson and I did some Ventoux training (training implies that you wear lycra and don’t enjoy the ride) I did both - although the lycra was hidden under some jeans. Need to get over myself. It was windy and wet and my heart wasn’t in it. fail. Big ride next time and I will enjoy it.

Get in touch if you’re in the market for a print. It’s approaching that time for buying stuff... (not going to say it out loud - it’s only November!)

Speak soon.

RB

PS: There is no Control button on Chuck Norris’ computer. Chuck Norris is always in control.

James Bond stole my bicycle

8-11-02T21:50:00+00:00

How good were Cypress Hill at Battersea!?!? That was a huge (smelly) tent at the power station last week. We headed down to see some awesome snowboard action and then were treated to sets by Sway, Trouble Andrew and the green legends Cypress Hill. So so good. It rained on saturday and the whole hill melted so that was a bummer but we were there for the best bit so it's all good.

Anyway, in the process of making my bike look something like this (HEIWA)

Thanks to the guys at Deptford Choppers we're getting somewhere. Yesterday was an awful day I don't want to talk about but today was a lot more productive. Managed to remove the side panels and relocate the battery under the seat. If it rains though my bike will very probably blow up. There's a lot of exposed wires going on... In any case, it's going to look mint.

Saw the new bond - he steals a lot of stuff throughout the film. One star review in the Times - deserves more than that. Also saw the new Forum Snowboard film (heavy) and the premier of a German film called Teenage Love Graffiti. also heavy. Got us so amped for the winter. Thanks to Henry & Jason at Revolutionz in Greenwich. Top night. And free Jagerbombs! Beat that.

Not really feeling the NEWS section tonight so gonna leave it there and say au revoire.

Well done Lewis - lucky bugger. If you didn't watch the F1 then check out Masser on the podium if you want to see a very emotional winner / loser... (The guy won the race, in his home country, thought he'd won the title as well but 30 seconds later, 2 corners from the line Lewis gets his all important 5th place and steals it back.) Owch.

Speak soon

RB

PS: I have a very exciting portfolio which is ready for viewing - call me up. It's a goody.

Cowling & Wilcox to the rescue

8-10-23T18:14:00+00:00

South london art gods. Thank you. Largest art supply shop south of the river, went there for cardboard and found sleeves. I don't mean to go on but when you phone about 5 different shops which should stock them (LGC, Silverprint, Wyvern etc) and then find tons about 5 mins cycle from your house, it's pretty funny. All that for one extra page! But least I have spares. BORING

Went up ITV tower yesterday - great views. It's right by the eye but we weren't as high. I like my job a lot.

Tuesday night was awesome as well! Stu and I went to Bromley ski centre for the LG bag tour. Yeahhh. Fully expected it to be a bit lame but it was so much fun. haven't been on my board since the moto trip and it felt so good. Pulled a flip on my first proper go and then set about learning the japan grab flips a'la Muller. As you can see from the (bad) photo, I'm looking the wrong way! no wonder I didn't land 100% Anyway - so much excitement. Had a slide around the main slope after that which was just as scary as it was the first time on a dry slope. That stuff is brutal. Loved every second though.

Today was the ski show which pretty much sucked. I don't have a spare £400 for a banana board and there was health and safety going on a bit much at the big air. no flashes in good places - no good photos. Ev. James from Sputnik was there though and it was cool hanging out with him. Plus I got After Lame, Endless Summer and one other DVD for £10. Yes.

That's about it but the real news is that Simpson has put us forward for the Etape du Tour next year. The mag can't resist "Tom Simpson conquers Ventoux" headline so we're riding the stage a few days before the pros. WTF. 172km with a (literally) killer climb at the end. Can't wait but it's going to be the hardest work of my life. Have a read of the old Simpson tale - very moving.

We might try lucozade rather than brandy though.

Watch this space.

Peace & grease.

RB

Talk about hooking a brother up!

8-10-19T20:17:00+00:00

Evening. How are you doing?

The neighbors opposite must think I'm a right saddo - sat in front of the screen all day long. Rubbish. Anyway - it's all good. Bought a new box of Hahnemuhle and desperately printing as fast as I can before I have to give the machine back. If you did want a print, now is the time! Oh yeah - big thumbs down to the London graphics Centre... After spending an exorbitant amount on a leather book and some plastic sleeves, they decide not to stock the sleeves any more. Actually it's less the fault of the LGC but rather than the company who make the sleeves who've decided to discontinue the line. So I'm stuck with a lovely leather book and no way of getting any inserts. I can mount with bare pages but they'll get trashed, or I can take it all back for a refund and re-do my entire folio. What a bummer. Anyway - that's my problem. Don't worry your head about it.

Had a fun couple of weeks. Travelled about to some pretty depressing offices on behalf of EDF Energy. I got told off for walking and talking on my mobile at the same time - health and safety gone absolutely crazy. All we wanted to do was break the rules - put that many in front of you and it changes how you see them. Wasn't all bad - I learnt a lot more about bicycle polo, where the hipsters drink on a wednesday nights and polished off a tasty steak and pint of ale up in Retford.

On Thursday I met Michael Sheen (who we all wanted to call Martin) on another epic Mark Harrison job. That afternoon though we shot a pretend Stig and all had a go at dressing up. Lots of fun. And no, I've no idea who he is. Or she is...

Friday was pretty epic also - worked with the music photo legend Dean Chalkley who is a super nice guy. He was shooting Robert Smith from The Cure down at their studio in Battle. Can't say I'd listened to a lot of their music but really getting into them a bit now. Liked pretty much everything so far so might be a trip to HMV for the greatest hits... Don't think I'll be growing my hair and wearing makeup though. Really nice guys and good fun shoot - even though we got back home at 9:30am after only a couple of hours kip. Sleepy!

Spent some more time at the garage on Sat - again. Did I say the bike is LOUD now. Well, it's as loud as a 250 can get but sounds good. The neighbours love it I'm sure. It really does make riding more fun. Thanks again Ben. The new seat is on too so just need to get myself to a powder coaters and get that tank greened up. Someone said it looked cafe yesterday but I was hoping more bobber flattrack mix. I need to get another bike! One is not enough.

So anyway - set for an evening pretending to watch Strictly and actually dreaming about snow and get a call from Peckham legend Terry who has two guestlist places to Hot Chip for me and Fera at the dome (still can't call it the O2)! Heavy. Talk about a hook up. The night was the Moshi Moshi lable party so we saw a raft of bands including Slow Club. Then I bumped into Lulu in the loos (they're mixed - we weren't in the wrong ones). What a small world. Fera and I had a good boogie (dancing with your girl is great) and a dodgy burger on the way home. The motorbike is the best way to get home at 4am. Hot Chip were amazing - you'd never guess they're a rock band though. Look like a bunch of accountants at an end of the tax year party. "Drums of Death" is possibly the coolest drummer I've ever seen too. Like a phantom.

That's about it. Had a great weekend hanging out with my friends. Not groundbreaking news but it's mine and I like it. Got myself a very good family. As DC said recently, "you don't have to be blood to be my family"

Big love

RB

PS

8-10-06T22:37:00+00:00

Oh and I'll get back to taking photos soon and all!

RB

Scrubbin' the taps

8-10-06T18:38:00+00:00

Uh oh - nearly a month 'tween updates... Getting slack again. Actually - we've been so so busy it doesn't even register on the busyness scale.

Since the 6th of Sept - we've moved house. I wrestled a bear, sorry an old transit, for the weekend and in 3 trips back and forth to 101 we finished up at 60b. Awesome. Thanks so much Stu - couldn't have done it without the red devil. Three point turn - feel the burn. Thanks too to ma and pa B for the heavy lifting. 101 was practice for 'house living' rather than 'box living' and within a week we were settled (with a military trip to Ikea - bar the 45 mins looking at curtains - we still don't have any. ) The house is amazing. I have an office with a window and everything. Big shelves for my books, tools, camera, bike bits, mags etc. Honestly - it's the best thing. We were donated a HUGE telly and found a cool chair up the road. My desk has space and the kitchen gets the evening sun. Fera has a walk in wardrobe (under the bed - not a 'short joke' she actually does) and our kettle whistles. Come over for tea anytime - no really. You'd be hard pressed to get us out of it at the mo.

Saying that, matt and Maanelie came over from the states (for the best two weeks of weather we've had all year) and we raced around and fitted so much in we we're hardly at home. We hit up Abbey Road then Sheffield for pizza, shepherds pie, scones and jam & chicken casserole. Mum is the best cook. Matt and I rode the legendary Bolehills (forever) with boy wonder DC in the blazing saturday morning sunshine. Joe lent me his 24" and I had literally one of my favorite sessions there for such a long time. Cleared the back three with no cheaty pedals - on a borrowed bike - and loved every lap of Jim & joes pump track modification. DC was on top form putting on a big show for the guests. So good. That afternoon we rode a penny farthing and a bmx with a shopping caster for a front wheel at the Dev green festival.
We also hitched a spin on a 7 seater bike with 3 of the roughest sheffield lads ever (shirts off, bulldog tat on one arm, 'sheffield' tat on the other, fag in mouth, can of stella) So glad Matt met some good Yorkshire folk. Anyway - we needed one more seat filled and one of the guys shouted to the closest person available who happened to be a young woman pushing a lady in a wheelchair - "aww luv, hop on, ain't like shez gonna run away!" Woah. Our driver hit the curb under my seat and somehow how no-one lost a toe in the mincer of cogs below us.

That eve we visited 51jr for a beer or three, headed to the Lescar for jokes and a stella (for the lady) then off to town for a dance to Toddla T; who we didn't know was going to be there! Amazing. Was like an extra flake in your 99. Couldn't believe it. Fera had been up cleaning (whilst drunk) till 2am the night before Mattelie arrived and when I said she had been scrubbing the taps, I meant literally. They thought I meant she was on the sauce and the phrase was an english euphamism for having a good knees up! haha It is now. Elifs and hangovers and a good walk over Stannage to round off the weekend. Always the best to see Joe, DC, Alec, Coops, Warren, Lulu, ma & pa, BH, the Peaks, the town, the neighbours - all of that.

We missioned the Nissan Note back to 60b via all the london at night sights. Dodged a bus and woke up Pugh. No bother, we were nearly home!

The following week was a blur of work and nursing a poorly Pugh. Went back to Sheffield on Tuesday to shoot Tony Christie with Michael Clement. Dad came along to say hello (weird but so cool) and Tony was not a disappointment in the slightest. We fitted in a trip on the Eye and a visit to Greenwich, a housewarming and more scrubbing of the taps. Dr Pete and Nurse Hanna came to visit which was ace. They witnessed the chaos of Camden on a Sunday. After they left we walked along Bond St and as Matt pointed out, we saw pretty much the highest and lowest of London shopping within one hour. That'll do for me. It was such a cool visit - pretty sure the yanks (and I mean that in a nice way) had as great a time as us. Daft stuff was a treat - like fish supper at the Cod Father. We're very lucky.

Talking of luck, landed in Nice on Monday. Shot Bradley McGee riding the new prologue course for next years TDF in Monte Carlo. He's such a good guy and we got some ace shots. Day 2 & 3 were spent digesting chewy steaks, 8 sausages, lots of coffee and some great hills. Ed and Lionel rode the last 50k of Milan - San Remo and I gave chase in a fiat 4x4. So much fun. Had the 1ds on the passenger seat and I felt like that dude from the beginning of Crocodile Dundee running from the Columbians! Nearly got into a scuffle up Lance Armstrongs training hill but the beard scared him off. If you're gonna swear at crazy french drivers, make sure to use the v sign as you'll not have say 'pardon' and correct yourself when he gets out of the car. I foolishly used one (american style) and that led to the 'pardon' followed by the two fingered salute. I'll tell you what, he wasn't impressed. (I wasn't impressed with his driving so I guess we're equal)

Sure I've missed out about a million things we've been up to as it's been such an important month but I'm sure you'll get over it. Thank you to everyone who has employed me, fed me, helped carry tvs and stacks of old Vogues, lent me bicycles, bought me a beer, laughed at bad jokes and made me laugh at theirs. I have some amazing friends, I'm living with one of the best and am very very happy for things carry on like this for a long time. It's all good.

Gotta go meet my girl - it's dark and she's walking home alone!

laters.

RB

OH Yeha - the MOTO piece is out in the new Document Snowboard mag (or so I'm led to believe)....

cigar tips

8-09-11T17:14:00+00:00

tinker tinker tinker. My fingernails haven't been clean for ages now. No amount of scrubbing will work. Sign on manlyness anyway - or Fred Dibnah 'ness. Either is cool.

Anyway. How are things? It's all a bit wet here. Moto news - My new mudguard (which is a front, modified for the back) doesn't keep spray off me as well as I'd hope. In fact it's crap. But it looks soooo good. Last Friday I managed to fit a rack, indicators, mudguard and almost finish off the new seat. Got fresh tyres on and all the lights work properly. Sent the seat to the upholsters and fitted the new speedo. It reads up to 140mph! hahahaha Honestly, the needle wont even make it past 10 o'clock! This is all so much more fun than buying a Ducati and having nothing to fettle with. Cheaper too. Got to fill the badge holes in the new tank and rub it down. Same with the mudguards and side panels then it's off to paint. British racing green. So excited. Need to get on the road cycle but the weather is so bad at the mo just leaving the house is a task. I read on some government cycling campaign that the average British commuter cyclist only gets wet (and I quote) "12 times a year". I'm not sure what tea the people who write this are drinking but I'd like some... Ride to work every day and you'd have got wet 12 times already this month - and it's only the 11th!

Don't tell Fera but I'm supposed to be packing rather than fettling the bike. We move on sat and we're unbelievably giddy. Box city at 101 but very worth it. Good opportunity for a clear out (I keep a lot of rubbish.)

This is a bit of a 'non' post, I just wanted to say how nicely the bike is coming along! Deptford choppers are so helpful it's ridiculous. If you are ever in need of a small cc bike (or any old bike for that matter), preferably a honda and want to chop it about then see these guys. They rule. What Matt doesn't know about valve spacings isn't worth knowing!

If you're in the Peckham area between now and saturday, head over to Area 10 for art and more art. Al has got this First Person Theatre thing on overdrive. collision & first person

Speak soon. New place sooner so you can come over for tea and everything.

RB

oh you my master now...?

8-09-05T10:51:00+00:00

new beefa panos. Thanks lads. I'm soooo slow.

Big news - Al is your master. Well done. Worth the stress. Just.

Other big news - we're leaving Team Catford HQ for the leafy groves of East Dulwich. Can't wait. New house - I get a whole office and we have a kitchen you can swing a kitten in. YES!

I wrote all this down and then my computer froze so I'll cut to the chase - went to Birmingham to see a Crystal Castles gig and so Tom Oxley (the young version) could shoot them for NME. Long story short, the guy decided to cut "CC" into his chest. Not with a some glass or even my stanly but some sterile blades from Boots. WTF? If it's weth doin it's weth doin reight. Cutting "4 REAL" with a broken bottle into your arm in front of Steve Lamaq is pretty heavy. Or punching yourself in the face and spitting blood all over the front row during a gig is pretty punk also. This was just crap self harming. "Is this shocking for you?"....."Not really mate. I've seen more blood falling off my bike. But you go right ahead" Didn't get it at all. I would say 'kids egh' in a grumpy old man stylee but he was way older than me! haha

More excitingly I spent all last Friday tinkering with my bike at Deptford Choppers. Bacon sarnies on the George Fornby grill, good advice and black hands. I haven't quite achieved Zen but the motorcycle maintenance is coming along nicely. And it passed its MOT yesterday. Boom!

Off there now so gonna love you and leave you. Hope everyone is well. Hope the weather picks up. And I hope my new seat is easy to fit!

Laters

RB

great and fine

8-08-27T22:18:00+00:00

my correction, British Cycling had a budget of over £20,000,000. Wow. Still doesn't stretch to elbow pads for the bmx'rs though....

Friday was fun. [name drop alert] Met Bradley 'two golds' Wiggins, which was nice. Celebrity brevity - 10 mins shoot (which to be honest is a fair amount of time 1-1) The medals are good and weighty. Had kind of prepared for an elbows out press situation but what a treat. Really good bloke and faster than you. And the person next to you. And everyone else for that matter.

The argy-bargy was on Monday at the press conference near Heathrow. Never been to anything like it. Sat about 3ft from Chris Hoy and Rebecca Adlington whilst being pushed about by press people and trying to remember how to use on-camera flash. You can see the top of my head on the BBC! haha

One off-record titbit I got from the day was that losing the gold was "the best thing that could happen to Shanaze"... Controversial but it kind of makes sense. She's so young and this keeps her hungry for another 4 years at least. Interesting.

On a completely different note - go and listen to Danny Byrd, especially "Weird Science". Right now. Immediately in fact. DC has been championing this guy for ages but finally sat down for a listen this week. I wasn't sat down for long. Awesome awesome awesomness. flash the lights on and off and everything. Love it.

Sandwiched in-between Olympic hype was the McAlls England party. Loads of fun. We stuffed ourselves and then tried to dance - bit risky but no disasters. Eleanor's song with Kate was arguably funnier the second time. So good. Was great seeing everyone again. Felt like the wedding was a week ago but it's almost been a month. Crazy fast (again). The happy couple, Fera, Ben and myself raced off to the Peaks for a quick shoot in their posh get-ups before the party. Full shoot on the G9 baby! Love it even more, such a cool camera. Ben made a fantastic lightstand. Was pretty sure my brolly wouldn't blow over with the 6'5" 'Machine' holding it up. Where did little ben go? watch out 2012... Pics are in the same place - HERE (and thanks also 'stylist Pugh' - you rock)

So that's about it. Spent the last two days non stop in front of this lightbox scanning and removing dust (anybody) but the results are worth it... Check out USA for the novel and portfolio 3 for the York notes. Love the grandangalo. Again. (Moto is out in mags soon. Watch this space)

Happy birthday to little Al tomorrow. You're getting the first print of the SF Golden Gate shots. Because you haven't had enough prints off me as presents in the past!

Take it easy everyone. And go listen to Danny Byrd!

RB

NW8 9AY

8-08-21T23:51:00+00:00

Just a quick note - the McAll pics are HERE - go see.

Two days ago when I wrote that tome below I thought my week was winding down and I could get on with the mountain of crap on my desk. Hate desk jobs so actually I'm glad for distractions. Anywaaaay - in a nutshell, I ended up at Abbey Road studios yesterday evening to document the recording of some radio identities and have a tinkle on the ivories of probably one of the most famous pianos in the world. Fantastic experience - what a privilege (even if my tinkling doesn't even stretch to 'chopsticks'. Would love to play an instrument but like most people, I don't want to put in the time to learn!) We all had a beer, listened to Beatles stories and marveled at what those walls must have heard over the years. Elgar conducted the Royal Symphony Orchestra playing 'Land of Hope and Glory' in 1931 in studio 1. I got goosebumps watching a video of it, whilst sat in studio 1. Radiohead, Oasis, The Beatles, Star Wars and on and on and on. Amazing place full of history. Very cool gig. (Still prefer the Stones but sshhhhhhhhhh.....)

(Outside the cafe!)

And today I met the Bionic Woman. So there you go - hopefully this non stop week won't stop.

Catch up soon. Send me a hello if you're around - or even if you're not.

RB

Bony chest and all the rest

8-08-19T10:30:00+00:00

Don't want to make you green eyed or owt, but our holiday just gone was amazing. Proper amazing.

First things first though - McAll wedding photos are HERE.

Fera & I went to America for Lewis & Vanessa's wedding. Which was ace. We arrived in Dallas and were met by Vanessa and her brother Jeremy. Straight to Freebirds burrito house - the girl behind the counter exclaimed in Feras direction "Gee I wish I had an accent" in the strongest Texan drawl we'd heard so far. "You do love, you're just in the wrong place to use it". She smiled. The next week was spent at the Batts house in Longview. So much fun - we played horseshoes, ate a ton of BBQ and tex/mex food, marveled at the MASSIVE trucks people use just to nip to the shops, looked at guns in a supermarket, drove Jeremy's harley round the block and whooped the whole way round! He, Lewis and I hired more harleys and with the girls Fera, Vanessa & Yvette, on the backs, we drove for two and a half hours, swam in a lake for 10 mins and drove then two and a half hours back to the shop. All in 43 degree heat. (Heritage soft tail please, I loved it) We went to a big water park and rode a static wave - or at least tried to. We drank 'route 44's' at Sonic, ate at Schlotzskys, played croquet, swam in an alligator infested lake (I figured croquet balances out the alligator swimming), and played more horseshoes. The wedding was great. Very honored to be there. The photos are great - as was arriving by Harley (thanks again Jeremy), the ceremony, speeches, the swing band, the vintage Ford wedding car & the BBQ meal. And the after party was ace too. Thanks to everyone we met there - the nicest group of people you could ever want.

The day after we saw where JFK was shot from (and where he wasn't...) and had another burrito. Chipotle is the place for sure - go there. Said goodbye to the Lonestar crew and headed to San Francisco for part 2 of our holls. Il Padroni Dan looked after us so well. We had proper orange juice from the garden every day and lots of sunshine. We borrowed the merc and flew down Santa Cruz, 17 mile drive, Carmel, Big Sur, Pizmo and into Santa Barbara in a day. After about 20 miles on Big Sur we ran out of exclamations and sat silent staring at the view for the rest of the ride. Such a great thing to see. The next day we burnt through LA and met up with Matt who I haven't been in touch with for 10 years. We all met up on the beach and went straight to San Onofre for a surf. Was super trippy sitting out back in the Pacific with an old friend from before almost everything. 10 years ago when I last went to stay I had dads old pentax 50mm and was just starting out on this path with photos. I'd never surfed before and couldn't drive. Along with about a million other things, it's been a pretty major decade for me, and I'm sure for Matt too. So we sat in the sun (hot enough for just boardies - another first), caught a few waves (I caught a few, Matt caught a LOT - and when I say 'I caught' I really mean ' I got worked over') and got up to speed. Fera chilled on the beach - felt a bit bad for leaving her alone but as Matt said, there are worse places to leave a girlfriend for a couple of hours on her own. I think she'll tell you, she enjoyed the peace. After we met up with Maaneli and the Ela family and went to a crazy Japanese restaurant where they cook the food in front of you and make you catch egg fried rice with your mouth. Good beers and great banter.

We made our way back up the coast, hung out in Santa Barbara, had my first ever French toast, saw Kelly Slaters World Champ winning boards and ribbed Maaneli for winding him up on the phone one time. Dan drove us round San Fran and witnessed first hand Feras shopping frenzy. She could get more done the less time you gave her and if you could plug her into some kind of generator, she could power a small city for a week. Mad busy. Lombard St was driven, as were the bridges and chinatown. There are lots of old motorbikes in SF by the way - not ancient, but at least as old as mine. Beach Blanket Babylon was experienced as a supremely last minute treat. Have a look at the link - very funny and just a tiny bit camp...

A couple more fun filled days and we were back In Catford HQ feeling like the world was still spinning. Could have been the jet-lag though. I didn't mean to go on but it was one of those holidays which was that bit bigger. Was also the longest holiday we've ever taken so that probably helps. In Texas and in California we met the most generous people - generous with their time, space, company and everything else. We saw and did loads and really made the most of every minute. Thanks again to everyone there. The photos (and there are a LOT - beware -) are HERE

So London is on it. Been really busy since Thursday! Got my man skillz' up, decorating Richard Bradburys new house. This guy took one of the few photos I saw whilst at Uni that I really remember and now I finally got to meet him. Another weird moment. (Pink lady on a static cycle... have a look. You'll laugh too). On monday I chatted bikes and tried to be a lot more 'Shoreditch' than I am with James 'Polo' Purssell. What a sport.

You have to admit, it's a good look. (Exhibition sport at the 1908 olympics I think) Throw in some flesh tunnels, some ink, a real mustache, a cardigan and a chain lock and I'm there.

Met Plastic Little today with Tom Oxley. They're great fun and the tunes are brill - if a little blue. Go listen.

Well done to those olympic people. £4,000,000 goes a long way in British cycling. So fast. Oh and sprinting was described today as human drag racing. haha. We're up in Sheff at the weekend so be in touch if you're around for a boogie and a bike ride.

Big love 'all y'all'. Been a brill August.

RB

Don't spit on Rog

8-07-22T17:48:00+00:00

Hello hello how do?

Earlier this year I said something about how fast it was going and if the rest of the year was as much fun as the first few months then it'd be pretty epic.... Well it's still very epic. What a lot of fun stuff has happened...

Had a cruisey week with Chris Holland and a shoot for cancer drugs. Samurai code quotes apparently... but i got to dress up as some kendo / samurai dudes but to be honest - the truth was scarier - I wouldn't mess with me...

Saturday was the big Taylor wedding. Lots of fun and LOADS of photos (here) The guys arrived on bicycles and we all left on a big red routemaster. Was a bit of a pepperami session at times in the day but what can you do - apart from sharpen your elbows and get your shot. You'll see me on a scooter next chasing Peter Andre! Was a nice change to be at a reception about 20 mins walk from my house so I could get as merry as everyone else and relax some. Real good party - always a pleasure to see Jordan, Jim, his bro, DC, Lauren, OC and co. The stag crew were on perfect form and the b-boy battle between Ant & DC was a highlight. Great pictures and memories. Plus....

...I made it to the big Bolehills on Sunday too. YES! Such a good day. How DC and Lauren made it up so early I have no idea but they did and sorted the place a treat. Tunes, parking, burgers, etc. A rave masquerading as a regional. Like it. Lauren lent me a lid and DC his bicycle and I hit up the back three for the first time in literally years. Felt so good. Nearly spewed but it was probably due to my helmet being a bit tight rather than spending all night dancing to Dizzee Ras! Dan was kind enough to guest me a moto so I even had a race... Even though I was under strict instructions to not get less than 4th, i worked hard and gained an 8th for him. I usually pull a manual along the first straight; lost two or three places in the process cos I forgot I was in a race. Was having too much fun. That made me laugh.

Good times.

Back to London to see the Pugh, looking hot as ever.

Anyway - can't pass up work. Taxied Mr Sargent, James & Dan around along with Red Light Company. Didn't see much of the shoot as I was Mr Vanguard but all was good as far as I know. The way back though had to be the highlight of my week... We'd dropped off the band and the crew and the four of us, plus three of the Hugs (another band Roger manages)were in the van back up to Muswell hill... We're cruising along at 30 and this cyclist comes flying out of a junction on the left waaaaaay too fast. He'd seen me but was playing chicken - what a wally. I'm not gonna be responsible for his daftness so I slammed on the anchors and reminded myself not to act as dumb when I'm on a bicycle. Rog called him a rude word as we passed for good measure. This guy caught us at the lights, pulled up on the inside and said to Rog through the passenger window "You know what 'rude word (rhymes with hat)'s do... They spit in your face". That kind of behavior gets your thrown off Big Brother. Anyway, my finger was on his window winder but I was far too slow. He'd already done it (dirty little bleeder). Roger (who's a big guy) got (understandably) mad and kicked the door into the cyclist so hard it broke his chain. The entire van full of us were in hysterics as we passed him. I was kind of hoping there was a chainring shaped dent in the panel but alas. Probably the funniest thing all week.

Great to see that lot again. Good lads.

Waved dad off on his jaunt to Millau to see the big bridge. He'll probably get a bit bored after crossing it twice and head off into Italy for some of those nice roads. Two more get ups and then we're off to the states (cannot wait) and have so much nonsense to sort out. Phew. We're going to hire Harleys, cruise around, shoot another wedding and then head off to San Francisco for another fun filled week. Going to be a blast and a half.

Oh yeah - tomorrow is live coverage of Alpe D'Huez in the Tour. If you're not there then I hope you'll find a couple of minutes to scream at the TV for Frank Schleck and the CSC team. Will be amazing if he holds onto the yellow.

On another bike related final bit - did anyone see the moto GP at Laguna on Sunday? I nearly passed out - was some of the most exciting racing I've ever seen ever - in any sport. Rossi and Stoner are just not right in the head. check this link for 3 mins of 200mph awesomeness.

Catch up soon & thank you for making this year so much fun so far. (bleugh!)

RB

Workie

8-07-14T09:54:00+00:00

I have my very own work experience student! Ben (the littlest Pugh) is hanging out this week learning from the best (I mean the people we've been working with - not me!). Had a job with Lawrence Llwellen Bowen on Tuesday for Eve. He's now half as tall as you may imagine. These people never are. Anyway - apart from the silly cuffs and suit in general he was very nice and Ben got some London celeb spotting in. Fridays job was good though - the location house we were shooting in (The Roost) belonged to Alex McCullin.... Don McCullins son! Wow. Sam (and I) felt pretty uncomfortable shooting in the house of such a legend. If you don't know who he is the go look him up - right now. First photojournalist to get a CBE. And his Nikon stopped a bullet once.

Last Saturday was Warren & Hannas wedding. Great day. Lots of rain, lovely ceremony (and thankfully no Corinthians), my old driving instructor drove the car, big group shots, hog roast and disco dancing. Some good speeches and nice champagne. The photos are HERE so go have a look. The happy couple like them so it's all good.

Oh yeah - Beefa shots from the stag are looking lovely. Thanks chaps.

Met a new London pop electro crazyness type group on Sat. Their mixtape is here so go have a look. Micachu and the Shapes. Tiny flat, big tunes.

Road ride and a bbq indoors yesterday. Now I'm catching up on all the super exciting desk jockey stuff before I start work tomorrow and am off to Sheffield on Friday for the Taylors wedding. Can't wait to see the BH crew again. Miss that place a lot.

Only a week and a half before AMERICA!!! So excited. If you know of fun stuff to do in Dallas for a weekend (or indeed where to stay & how to get around) then let us know. Gonna be ace. Weekend in Dallas, week in Longview, week in CA then home. YEAH!

Anyway - better get on. Hope everyone is well & happy. Be in touch.

RB

PS: Fred gig at 93ft East on Tuesday (15th July). Come along. Fun music.

Charlie-boy? Genuine copy?

8-06-27T17:59:00+00:00

Honestly, my carbon footprint is probably so ridiculous it's going to be mistaken for that crater in Arizona! Bigfoot ahoy. So, two days in London and then another plane to Ibiza for Warrens stag do. Blow your lasers and reach for your whistles! So much fun. We were staying in San Antonio and I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous... Turned out our £6 / night hotel was a lot less scary than it sounds and actually pretty comfortable. Thanks DC. So we hired chav scooters and had a blast on Friday. Mason skidded his down the road and snapped off a brake lever - somehow he managed to get his deposit back and then make a hasty escape on the back of Wadeys 50cc before they saw. Cooper made it so far up a hill off road near schlong beach. Almost everyone who went for a swim got a jellyfish sting and then Warren dropped his hot exhaust right on the sting a bit later. Owch. Cannot believe we didn't have to use our EIHC cards once. Saturday night was Hed Kandi at El Divino. Glam ahoy. So so good. 7 hours of boogie-ing which felt like 30 mins. High on life. Forgot how much I liked a dance. Also was pretty cool watching the sun come up behind the stage. So straight from the club to the beach with a couple of girls from New Orleans. Wade was giving it his best - I've never seen anyone talk for so long without coming up for air. No one male anyway. The second Nandos of the weekend couldn't come soon enough. It's also a small world - Hannah Holland was playing at Judgement Sunday in Eden. She's the daughter of Chris Holland who I work for and the sister of Suzi Holland who Fera used to live with! crazy. Anyway - bottle of wine and then a flight back. What a blur. Not that I didn't have the most amazing time but the real stand out bits of my trip up north were riding the hills with Joe and then with the ibiza crew on the monday. Thanks for the bike loans lads; meant more to me than you'll ever realise. Panoramic photos up soon....

Worked with Mr Rider yesterday and a pretty spooky David Walliams. He's got a book out for Christmas about boys in dresses... so there you go. Completely forgot he swam the channel. Haven't met too many people who've done that.

Back in LDN for just under a month now (unless sommat comes up) which I'm really looking forward to. Have felt pretty unsettled recently which is fun and all but yeah, nice to know I'm back at home and can get on with home stuff like seeing friends and printing. Which I'm doing right now.

Speak soon friends. Get in touch and we'll get a beer. Plan.

RB

OH YEAH - print sales section is up and running! Paypal and everything - believe that. Click me!

Bolehills forever

8-06-16T17:57:00+00:00

Golly gosh. Just got back from one of the best stag weekends ever. Wow. Went to Warsaw with Mr Taylor and the big sheffield riding crew. There was a race on just outside the city so we headed to that. First night was a couple of bars and a close call with the champagne bill. Hangovers kicked in so most of us chilled at the race the next day leaving Steve and Jordan to take care of racing duties. And they did with aplomb! After a killer set of motos and quarters Steve was very unlucky in the semis getting taken out by a loosy goosey who was in 1st. Such good riding all day, crap way to go out but that's what happens sometimes - on the plus he could get on the drinks a bit earlier! Jordan Gordan breezed his semi and lined up for the final with the best 4x riders in poland. No really - national race. Just to set the scene a bit.... Hot hot hot and sunny. Kebab flavoured crisps, ginger beer and a day screaming for your friends to cycle fast. New friends, bq hot dogs, amazing drum and bass on the pa, biggest dirt jumps I've ever seen with flips and whips ahoy. Great banter and some more Zwyiecs. Basically relaxed, fun, perfect day. So then the final was on... JG was in the zone deciding to stay there on the walk up the hill. On the other side we were going off in support but he kept his head down and took to the gate. Slow gate (when I say slow I mean compared to the other three in front, nothing was slow in this race), no panic, hung back to give the step up a proper go. Caught no 3 in first corner. Bit of a kerfuffle in turn two and old Gould gets on the inside and right into 1st. Holds off no2 in the last corner (just) and seals the win. Amazing. So that epic day just got even better with a No1 podium and general good feeling. Such a shame ST wasn't in't final cos he deserved it in a big way but there you go. You have to love races where the prize (amongst lots and lots of other things) is a bottle of vodka and a bag of gherkins!
Rest of evening was just as epic. More vodka and herring (the vodka neutralises some bad oils in the fish so you feel less bad the next day. Truth. Heard it from an actual microbiologist), ST in a dress, Punk'd nightclub which was like MTV in a sweatbox. So much fun you wouldn't believe, Bolehills rocks everywhere, Dialled Mike breakdancing, £10 rounds for 10 people, dancy dancy dancy. More clubs and excitement and a welcome taxi back at 05:30. I don't know if you can tell but I had a lot of fun.
Sunday was that mild headache you earned and masochistically, enjoy a little. Got a bit of exploring done on my 20" on my own. Manuals ahoy. Met some locals who showed me the park. Nailed my first EVER curved wallride (after it nailed me a lot of times). Everyone was so friendly it was like BMX was about a decade ago here when no one was even the littlest bit salty. Hopefully it'll never ever be like that as I rediscovered how much fun riding with no hassle is. Just riding. And smiling. Hit up some more trails and a track in the avo with the crew. More friendly locals. Urban cross country riding. Hooked up with Nick, Ewa and Mareck later for chats and pasta. We don't see family enough. Caught back up with the others and had some more of those beers. Off to a club (with my bike). "Can I just put this inside the door?", "nah - we'll put it in the cloakroom. Much safer! Here's a ticket". Brill. More dancing and laughing and a video game ride home early doors. Super good.
That's about it. What a ramble egh. So nice hanging out with people I haven't seen properly for about 3 years and meeting loads of new fun people, Polish and English. Photos are HERE and videos are HERE. Especially number 5 which is probably the most incredible escape on a jump you will ever see. Ever. Really. 'A la Coogan, ask "how, and why..." Oh yeah - we saw Jimmy White at the airport with a Louis V bag stuffed full of Jimmy White DVDs! hah.

Thanks all. Thank you bike.

Big love.

RB

Denied my PJ moment

8-06-09T09:31:00+00:00

Mornin. Done the old chestnut of trying to update the site, writing some news and then not actually getting round to uploading it for a few days. In which time I went to a Sealed Knot event so Paul could shoot English 'eccentrics' for his personal work. These guys live for this. Can't quite get it myself but I guess it's a fun way to play with guns egh. Although they should be full of paint so you can actually see who got shot. Maybe I just want loads of paint everywhere cos Stus birthday paintballing was cancelled. Gutted. We headed off to the Smithfields nocturne instead which was great. Lots and lots of silly bikes... which I love
Fun evening, nice chinese, my first ever jagerbomb which wasn't the Tia Maria with lucozade and some sparklers I asked for but hey ho.

Anyway - the print sales section is so nearly done it's not funny. Free tomorrow so will sort it for sure. Promise. I'm off to work now and off to Manchester with Adrian so he can shoot a Welsh footballer on tuesday, catch up soon. If you're riding about in this nice weather, wear a helmet - heard of some scary accidents recently. Take it (very) easy.

Big love,

RB

Getting the meat sweats

8-06-06T15:35:00+00:00

Happy Friday everyone. How's are y'all. I'm really tired. Worked just off Abbey Road (and no, I'm not a fan of the Beatles - get over it) - that's a fair cycle from Lewisham. For me anyway. Anyway, job was fun and I got to share a sofa with Danni Minogue. Just another hot Aussie really (whos sister happens to be Kylie!). Look out for the next (or maybe the one after that) issue of Good Housekeeping. Rock on.
Cannot believe it's been a week since I got back from Italy. Went out with James Pursell and Steve from BBH where we met our guide Leo and pretty much planned the whole shoot around where and when to eat. Munched on so much parma ham I very nearly got tired of it - imagine that!? Sick of prosciutto crudo? Must have been a lot. Among lots of other food over the 4 days there was Pici which is a pasta (sort of) which looks and moves just like worms but is super tasty, bruschetta, duck, panna cotta, ragout, nougat mousse, limoncello, lots of wine, parmesan, espresso, more wine, and a kilo steak. Man, I ate a kilo of meat AFTER a plate of pasta. Pow! The shoot was good. Look out for a floating olive in food mags soon... Brill job. Amazing countryside, good company and very little fuss. I feel very lucky / privileged. Bear in mind that the wine glass is one of those big ones to fit your nose into - makes the bistecca look smaller than it was!

Worked on Sunday with Tom Oxley again at his amazing house in Dalston shooting a crazy yank band called Iglu & Hartley. Have a look and witness the bro' love! Funny funny guys who we'll hopefully see in CA this summer. Met up with the JD / Ibiza crew on Thursday - completely forgot to take a hip flask full of yessboss though. Rubbish. Actually I don't have a hip flask after my unfortunate bicycle + jager = squashed flask + (bruised ass X 1000000) incident. Turns out they were all drinking red wine and being all hip hop at a Kiss FM 'jump off' the night before anyway. Crazy kids.
So tired right now I think this Friday will be a very quiet one. Tomorrow is a job with Mr Rider and the Sealed Knot which will be fun fo-sho. Then I'm going to shoot Simpson with paint-balls till he looks like Johnny Knoxville on the cover of Rolling Stone. Happy birthday for next week Stu!

RB

Listen to Ray Mears

8-05-21T17:24:00+00:00

Ah - back in front of the mac again with no more photos printed but a fair few more in print - if ya get me. The new cyclesport is out with the Potzato photos from Monaco and some ace work from Simpson in Flanders. Arty documentary nonsense - very impressed.
Last week was pretty badass. Met the 97th sexiest woman in the world on a shoot with Adrian. That's a bit of a backhanded compliment but anyway, she was deserving of her title. Amazing Toaster stencil on the side of Wimborne house - "an excercise in promoting something which in essence promotes nothing but itself."

By the way - music corner - download the Toddla T's Ghettoblaster mixtape and the Dead Prez Hip Hop remix by Flufftronix. Heavy heavy heavy. "Hip hop means throw up your rag, soldier flag, if you riding the bus or you stole a jag"
So anyway - Were spoilt all week by Ma Baybutt cleaning and cooking and making tea for Big D and Keith who are refitting the bathroom. Thank you lots. Doesn't sound very exciting but you don't live here - has needed doing for a very long time. On tuesday I blitzed up to Sheffield in a big blue Vectra and bought a new bicycle - at last! It's fast let me tell thee! Planet x Kaffenback with 105, Toshi bar tape (again) and my lovely lovely Charge saddle which arrived the day after my Pompino got stolen. It's really comfy too. Love it, but more than that, I love riding to work again. Have really missed the commute - the moto has been amazing but the cycle is the way to go for sure. This one has those crazy gear things though so I can now ride a long long way - which is exciting..
(Can you tell I've worked out how to put photos on here...!?)
Sheffield had another purpose too - to shoot the new goals for Quickplay Sports as part of their world domination. Good luck lads; you're half way there with a great product (which makes me want to play football) and some killer shots. Had a kickabout in the middle of Bolton Stadium which was cool and drove back from there to home in 3.5 hours. Swifto. Thursday was with Adrian again and the Ting Tings in the K West hotel which was a bit of a disorganisation. BUT it all got done and looks great. As ever. (yes - she's fit.) Well done on the No1. Optimus Prime? Zangief? Yoshi? That's not my name either. Friday was Sir David Frost & co at Aljazeera network with Paul Rider. Yep, that Aljazeera network. A different side to things which is good. I've bought Anchorman today for £3 as it was pretty much a running theme all day. Sat at the news desk and read some scripts. Sweet Lincolns mullet!! I'd like an entry on here not to say "we had an Indian" but we did - I ain't gonna lie. Pete was here and it'd been a busy week. Treats. Pete came down so we could cash in my birthday present from (the amazing) Fera.... Pendulum tickets Oh gosh. What a gig. No really - wow. The Brixton Acadamy is amazing - massive and venetian (random) and full of ravers. Shoes laced on tight, pocket closed, elbows out and we thrashed about with 5000 others for a couple of hours. You could pretty much ring out my t shirt after. So so so loud. (Forgot my plugs - schoolboy error) One of my favourite nights out in London ever - that's a bold claim. Surprisingly nice chicken after, scary Brick City drivers and some tops survival tips from Pete via Ray. Happy birthday to Tom too - wine bar indeed. Old = poncy? Such a good weekend. And I completed Tony Hawk 3. Perfecto.

Worked with Mark Harrison for the first time in ages on Monday with Davros and some Daleks - pretty cool stuff. A-wooooo-e-oooooo-ba da da dum ba da da da dum... (Dr Who innit) And now we're caught up to speed. Last thing - well done to Al for passing her CBT today - not easy, especially when you've not had the good fortune to crash a couple of crossers as practice with gears.

Ooh very last thing - check out the new print sale section.... It's a bit crude at the moment but I'll be hooking up that paypal soon and get this biz rolling. Affordable art - till I get mega famous! haha

Peace,

RB

1%er necktan

8-05-07T10:17:00+00:00

It's so nice outside I have to ask myself what the hairy hell I'm doing indoors but there seems to be so much work on at the moment! Last night I shot a couple of flatlanders in West Norwood (it's been soooo long since I shot BMX - rubbish). Anyway - it still messes with my head how they manage half the stuff they do. Unfortunately I find it tricky to capture the endless months and years spent practicing the same thing over and over and over and over - you get the idea. Thanks to Marie, Jason and the crew for hooking up some great shots. Click here for the biz niz.

Had a great weekend which started off in Pisa shooting Frank Schleck for Cyclesport. He's a really nice guy, very chilled and down to earth. He also rides a bicycle faster than you and weighs less than a bag of feathers. He did prove a bit more rock and roll than I'd first thought as I asked him to sit on this bridge over the pool for a GQ stylee' shot and he fell in - with his phone and passport in his pocket. So funny. ANOTHER job which didn't feel like one - was sat half way up a big hill in Tuscany, eating roast pork sarnies (full big pig - none of this little suckling pig stuff from St Johns Bread & Wine), drinking red wine and watching some racing with a heap of noisy Italians. Then I got burnt in the sun outside the airport. Oh yeah - there was nearly a fight between a massive guy who'd broken his big motorbike and had to leave it & fly home and the saga tours oldies who didn't like his tattoos. Was so funny watching them fuss about one place in the queue whilst he was looking like he was going to cry or punch someone. Hope he gets it fixed. Fussy people isn't what anyone needs at that point I'm sure.

Saturday was an experience - Pugh and me took the hog to the isle of Sheppy in deepest darkest Kent. Nice. The bridge over was fun - not much else to report so we skipped the fish and chips and went back to Greenwich for a fantastic curry at Moguls. The Nepalese Khutta is amazing.

It's nearly 11 - have to get this dona and sit outside!

Sunday was the May day run to Hastings. Another motorbike adventure. The BBC said something like 20,000 bikers were there. It seemed a lot anyway - so noisy. Only saw 3 Ducati monsters though... interesting. Saw a man with a real life barn owl on his shoulder and some frankly ridiculous bikes. So good. We lay on the beach, had our fish and chips, chatted and hung out and generally had a brill bank holiday. Thanks for coming Fera, so much fun.

I really have to go - this is getting silly. Right - catch up soon. Get in touch & speak soon.

RB

Oh yeah -

When do the A-team eat?

At Mr-T time!

hahahahahahahaha - we need more jokes here.

I told Jay I did a song with Coldplay

8-04-29T19:08:00+00:00

hahahaha - just remembered something funny... Don't play slaps with Fera. Ever. She'll kick your ass - reactions like a cat! Playground games rule.

Anyway - I made it to Lauras for a good old shoot. Check out the new shots in portfolio One. Not Filippo, he's the guy with questionable hair. The project is looking great, Laura's happy and off to print today so that's a relief. What else... On sat I helped out with Jim, J & Ians music video shoot in town. The band is called Broadcast 2000 - you might recognise their music from the new "I can see the energy I use" adverts on TV. Very nice stuff - go check it out. Straight after that (mercifully without my huge camera bag) I went to Peckham to see DJ Derek who is probably one of my favorite DJs ever. No really. He's a very old bloke who's very young at heart and plays old time music, reggae, ska, dancehall & generally happy happy music. Get to know. He's amazing. There was some dutty skanking (whatever the hell that is) done by all but Simpson who incredulously didn't even tap a toe! WTF?

Sunday it rained. Again. Boo.

Worked with Sam again on Monday and she asked if I was working later in the week. "not yet - you know how it is. Last on the list to call - might get a job for tomorrow at 10pm. You never know" And I did. Boom. Working for another Shoot fella Tom Oxley who's a good guy with some very cool subjects in his book. Shoot was fun - grabbed a cheeky polaroid with the band. I'm such a geek.

That's about it. Off to peel 'tatoes for fish pie. Gonna be hot. New bicycle soon so we'll have to go for a cycle. Just for fun like - according to the snob that's what makes you a cyclist, not just a person on a bike. That and owning a floor pump. Which I do. Pow!

Big love.

RB

Switch trucker tans

8-04-23T16:35:00+00:00

Agh - in a rush - again - will have to be super succinct. We're in April already - that's a third of the year. WTF!? That box of Hahnemuhle photo rag is still unopened. Sort it out!! Anyway. Apart from rubbish rains which have kept me from Sheffield for almost a month, things are going pretty well. Pierre came to visit last weekend - except it was two weeks ago and this last week has gone so fast I'm forgetting dates again. So we had a fun night out in Old St. Company was fun but the music was far from it. Someone needs to tell the DJs to get better (in a big way) or maybe we should just get younger. Not a fan - dull dull dull. The kebab (corner of Gt eastern st and Shoreditch high st) was, again, the best I've ever had! So so good. Pete & Pugh were mighty impressed also. Go visit. Just listening to The Bang Gang DJs - "Light, sound, dance" for about the millionth time since yesterday. Unless the music makers in East london are this good, they should just put this album on and we can boogie away happily.

Rant over - I'm really not in one of those moods I promise, just something which needed noting. SO, moving swiftly on, shot some more for Lauras makeup project (that's where I'm currently late for right now), shared a sofa at lunch with Jamie 'Kiddulthood' Winstone who is better looking in the flesh than in photos and not half as scary as I imagine her dad is. Alfie has quite a handful there but there'd never be a dull moment with her around. Lots of fun. The shoot was with Adrian and will be in the next Empire - the film is called Donkeypunch. I'll leave that one up to you to google. The day after I missioned a 17 hour day with Roger Sargent, Dan skinny jeans, James North and the Dirty Pretty Things. We had these huge 16ft foamboard cut outs of the 4 band members to carry around all day and hold up in iconic London spots. They kind of got in the way on millennium bridge at rush hour but what did we mind - it wasn't us in a rush. The guys were holding these up by the seaside the week before and a group of scallies came up to talk. "Who's dis den?" - 'a band called the Dirty Pretty Things' - "Dirty Pretty? That's an oxymoron." hahaha - who knew you could be educated and not lose street cred! Really cool day - thanks to Shoot for getting me along.

Worked with Sam Jones again on Friday, met Joan as a policewoman and went to some questionable modern art on Saturday night. It's brave to do all that stuff but not really my taste. All seemed a bit like art for arts sake. On the plus side I did get in a huge 6ft balloon-filled condom (participatory art, darling) and jump around a bit. The artist who made it asked what I thought and I said it was great fun. She looked heartbroken as if I'd completely missed the point. If that was the case then I had. Completely. Stu took some great shots though!

On monday I went to Monte Carlo to shoot Fillipo Pozzatto for Cyclesport. Again, not a proper job - driving round the Cote D'Azure in the sun taking some photos of a cyclist. Tough. You'll be sorry to hear that Uncle Phil has bagged the 1st assistant position as soon as there's the budget for it. Along with some amazing shots by Simpson from the Tour of Flanders and portraits of David Millar, the next issue of Cyclesport will look more like Esquire than Esquire does! I think we're both just waiting for that call from Rouler... It was a great trip and 'Pippo's a really cool guy. Some questionable fashion sense but then again he's Italian & therefore all's good. Took a detour on the way back to the airport as I was horribly early. Beautiful drive in the soft top until Nice, then Nice rush hour is the same as rush hour anywhere else - best avoided. Great day and some really fun shots in the can / memory card. What a geek.

I'm so late now - sorry laura! REALLY trying to get up to Sheffield soon so if you're around I'll hopefully see you. Miss the place.

Speak soon & be in touch, even if it's just for a 'hello.

Big love

RB

Yes Boss!

8-04-10T15:46:00+00:00

Afternoon. I've looked forward to getting all this down for a while. Had so much fun recently I've had to look in my diary to remind myself exactly what went down in the last fortnight or so... After the moto adventure I spent a lot of time sleeping over bank holiday weekend. Deservedly. It peed it down here so it was a perfect excuse to stay in and watch a film or three. Just a great relax and catch up with Pugh. Just what I needed. Filled in for Niall at the mighty Horton-Stephens office. Not crazy crazy but I caught up on a lot of tea and biscuits, walked to a good amount of ad agencies on a flyer drop mission and got very inspired by all the photographers there. Risked a night at the Bedroom Bar in Shoreditch (twat) for Mr Baxters birthday; having to be up at 05:30 on a Sunday when the clocks go forward and you've spent all week in an office and really fancy a beer...! Danger. Luckily Al had my back and dragged me back before day 1 of my 10 day week was ruined. Thanks. So sat in Brockwell Park all Sunday corralling crazy kids for a fashion shoot for Stardust clothing with James Purssell - who is a really cool guy. When I've mentioned the bike trip I've never been showing off or expecting a fanfare - in fact I've been surprised when people seem to understand the motivation behind it. James however was very impressed and one of those people who given half a chance would do exactly the same thing, rather than say in a naive way "pourquoi pas en l'avion?". Good chat.

Monday evening I flew to Jersey and had a very disappointing curry. That's not the reason I went by the way - was just something I remembered. Oh and the great views of the Isle of White at sunset. Anyway - the real reason was to cover Bernard Hinault who was over courtesy of Jersey tourism to promote the island to the French for cycling. This man won the tour 5 times (Armstrong, Indurain, Merckx and Anquetil are the only others to have done as well in the whole history of the race). He broke his nose in a crash in the 1985 Tour and won with two huge black eyes - his nickname was "the Badger"... We all went on a ride (well they went on a ride and Matt and I tried to keep up) round the island and took a load of photos. Imagine sharing a helicopter in Alaska with Terje or a vert ramp with Matt Hoffman.... it was that level of privilege. I didn't get dropped - even on the chunky steel bike I was lent and with a huge camera bag on my back so i was happy - if a bit sweaty. The steak and red wine afterwards at their hotel was a perfect post ride meal. The sun was out and shots look great - keep an eye out for Cyclesport next month. Such a fun day.

Thursday was just as fun but different. I went to Ibiza. No really. Wow. JD sports catalogue shoot with Adrian and the crew. As I'd been so busy I hadn't had a chance to look at the hotel we were going to - even though Adele and Adrian had both gone on about how ace it was. Won't go into details as you might never speak to me again but have a look at Atzaro hotel. Adrian bagged the room Gisele stayed in the week before. The orange juice was amazing. I'm going to stop now - amazing place. Nuff said. The job went smoothly with no hiccoughs and we all developed a taste for Hierbas. I brought a bottle back so if anyone visits 101 just shout "Yes Boss". You'll sleep well that's for sure. Thanks to JD and Shoot for having me along. My geekyness was tested (I passed) and I still promoted the Wu to anyone who was near my new phone. That and Mickey Avelon. "Mine - M16, yours - broken vending machine" Happy ringtones ahoy. No really - such a cool trip. I'm really lucky to have found a job which introduces me to fantastic company and takes me to some super fun places. Might have said that before.

SO, had a good sleep in my own bed with my good lady and feel pretty recharged. Lots of my own catch up work to do so glad for a few days off. The moto trip photos are looking ridiculous - so pleased with them. Love film - hate scanning. Keep an eye here for those when they're done. Looking forward to a relax again with Pugh and hopefully Pete. It's the marathon this weekend. It honestly feels like it was only a month ago or so - this year has gone by so fast I've got whiplash. Best way to go.

Be in touch and catch up soon.

RB

Wu Bangers

8-03-23T16:26:00+00:00

Non stop Wu Bangers! Wow. What a crazy month again - forgive the break but I've been silly busy. Since last I was last here... Where to begin? Worked with Clive Barda - very nice chap. Very good beard and a very good knowledge of classical music and opera. Felt a bit out of my depth on that front but was a great way to spend my birthday. After work I went to the pub with tom, stu, pugh, al, polly, dom, jamin and assorted friends of friends. Saw the real life version of Peter Griffen - was amazing. There was a band on and very good craic. Was so cool to see lots of people I haven't seen for ages. Had a great night - lovely way to see in my 26th year. Delivered the Bloms wedding album and bought a new camera! Geek speak - it's a Canon G9 and is amazing. Really proper amazing. Raw files, 12mp, a hotshoe and full manual control! Boom. "I love technology - but not as much as you, you see, but I still love technology" So anyway that was fun. The following week was a ton of bike prep for my trip. Never stressed so much about it before. The list of to do was as long as my arm - plugs, bulbs, fuses, seat, box, tyres, tools, rack, board, gear lever, oil, cables, chain, pack, route, insurance, fuel, etc etc etc. Slotted in to the middle of that was work on a shoot at West Ham training ground - lots of big cars and bigger egos. Made me chuckle - what a hard life egh. Anyway - Adrian was using a lot of lights and we managed to blow more fuses but it's all good - the photos looked ace. Oh yeah - met Mike Leigh the following week as he's promoting his new film and Adrian was shooting him for Empire. Really good bloke - very quick shoot - days work in 2 hours, plus full english breakfast in there too. Unfortunately not with Mike. The next day I did my own shoot for Cycling Weekly in a Hypoxic training centre in Covent Garden. Was pretty much a glass box but some blue light made it all pretty. It simulates altitude so you can train as if you were up Everest. Except without the views. Really interesting stuff. Had shot a fashion piece for Lauras makeup project on monday too - two shoots in one week! Good stuff.

SO, that was pretty much that and on Thursday morning at a silly hour I left on my very overladen motorbike for France for two weeks. The emotional goodbye was made more poignant with the binmen watching I tell you. So basically I drove my bike (with my snowboard strapped to the side) to the Alps for my big holiday. Whenever I met confused French people who asked me questions about the trip, the reply "ce'st mes grandes vacances" usually clarified things as best I could. Saw some scary war cemeteries and dropped my bike twice on day one. Visited the Paris - Roubaix cobbles, spent a fair amount on lift passes, drank Red Erik, took a ton of photos, got engine oil on the base of my board (doesn't help it go faster), rode Val, Tignes, La Plagne, Coches, Menuires and VT in 2 weeks, saw Dan pull 7s first hit on black kickers (young knees), rode more off piste than on, fought 50mpg headwinds and torrential hailstorms on the way back, was filmed on the A39 south of Dijon on a mobile phone, rode off-piste-on-piste all the way down masse 1 (first) and had the biggest hugs off Tim and Tom at the bottom, hit Itineries and watched Dan (again) ride about 40m down pure rocks / grass / cow pats (one of the single best things I've ever seen on a snowboard), got trench foot - lots, built kickers in heavy snowstorms with a drunk french skiier, rode kickers at 02:30 with Wu Tang on the mini ipod speakers, drank two cups of chocolat chaud each stop as it was that cold, got ill again - risky riding with dodgy guts, planned on a bike tow through a puddle but the snow was cleared too quickly, dodged looming piste bullys in zero visibility after last lifts, built and hit a great on-off terrace jib, saw a ton of friends and made a few more. I don't know if you can tell but I had an amazing time. The story will be in Document next season (fingers crossed) and will be great.

Having a lovely easter weekend. Two years ago today I broke my arm. How exciting. Fera is in the kitchen (where she's been most of the day) cooking a (ph)fat roast and an apple and blueberry crumble. I love her MASSIVE amounts. She's actually whooping so I'd better go in.

Speak soon. Hope all is good for you.

RB

Snowboarding Delhi

8-02-18T18:20:00+00:00

Hello. How are you? Wonderful I hope. I actually have an excuse for not updating this bit - I've been away. Which was nice. Two weeks ago I jetted off to Sweden for Jimmy and Annas wedding. It were right grand - nothing too huge, just friends old and new in a bunch of cabins in the middle of a huge forest. LOTS of snow, the possibility of seeing an Elk and the Northern lights, low percent Tuborg beer (whos brother is Mr Carlsberg - interesting egh), tree runs, floodlit boarding, 70mph coach drivers on snow tyres and narrow roads, £5 pints, dog sled wedding transport, beautiful blonde Swedish girls, reindeer sausage and naked saunas followed by snow rolling. Oh and Ikea. A land of amazing clichés. The ceremony was great - small church, all wood, didn't understand a word of it but it was great. Group photo outside then off to the hotel next door for pheasant, reindeer, fish eggs and dancing. The party on Sat was great. Spent a lot of it dancing with Mrs Sue Horton-Stephens. Shame we were leaving the next day and couldn't ride with the rest of the clan but cest la vie. Thanks to Kathy for the stress free taxi to Oslo - and right back to my front door. Jim, Anna & family for amazing organisation and hospitality, Ian & Emma for the best taxi service in Saalen and everyone else for cooking, riding and general funtimes. Amazing. You rock. The photos will be on a link here soon.

12 hours back with Pugh which was very well spent. She's ace. Then back on a bus straight back to Stanstead to fly to Pisa. Bobs tours were out in Abetone and I caught up with them on Monday evening. Tuscany is brill - reminded me a lot of the job last year driving that Alfa but with a lot more snow. The resort was good - small but perfectly formed. Lots of tree lined runs, steep and fun and really weird snow which was so light even though it hadn't fallen recently. Covered myself the first day making some heavy turns where I expected it to be a bit mushy - was amazing. Snow sticks in the beard and makes me look like Bonnington! Also got dad a treat with a couple of well timed turns. I'm sure it makes him love me more...

Anyway - wasn't all fun. I got a bit sick and had some very delicate rides down the mountain but still didn't miss a day on the slopes. Even though it was a bit risky at times... If you get the chance and want a cheap (very cheap) trip somewhere with 3 board parks, £33 ski hire for the week, amazing off piste potential, bad food and good snow, head to Abetone. 1hr 45mins from Pisa in the northern Apennines. Was a brill Bobs tours destination (thank you) and we'll probably be there again next year.

Back in L-D-N now for work and bike prep before the big France trip. Will be an adventure for sure... If you're around on Friday and fancy a pint at the Jolly Farmer in Ladywell, pop along as it's my birthday. Can't think of much else to say except that the first 2 months of 2008 have been proper bo and I hope the rest of it is just as good - for everyone. Met some brilliant people (hello Gary, Gokay & Kutlu) and been to some great places and it's not even March yet. Wow.

Be in touch - always ace to hear from you.

RB

PS: Link bit - check out Als theatre piece which you take part in... follow this link and all will be clear - ish. Was going to try it today but it's about minus eleventeen outside and I might have not given it my full attention. Go see.

Send me a postcard darling

8-01-29T20:57:00+00:00

Thanks to everyone who participated in the whole 'look at my re-done site malarky'. Had some brill feedback and some lovely messages. Ta muchley.

Not much to say except check out the new Paris portfolio in 'Other Work' and the hidden photo has been found. Now there's only the booby prize.

Al is movement director of a performance of A Midsummer NIghts Dream at 295 Regent Street from tonight till March 2nd. Go see, it'll be awesome. Info at http://www.theatredelicatessen.co.uk/msnd/tickets.html

Speak soon

RB

PS: Print sales section coming soon... Get planning for Christmas '08. Hah - might be the first person to mention it this year. Boo yaa!

Spring clean

8-01-26T11:47:00+00:00

Hello there. How's it going? Yep - two posts in one month. How about that. Well this one is slightly more than a simple post... I've been beavering away like a madman on this thing. The whole site needed a very good clear out and clean up. I have put up new work, thrown some old stuff out, dusted and polished and here it is. What do you think?

Had a crazy busy week and what with trying to ween myself off Tony Hawks 3, I'm pretty zonked. There's a fair bit coming up in Feb so I was keen to sort the site out before I go away. It's been a month since Christmas - feels like a couple of days. Crazy fast. Plus, the beard is a month old today! haha.

One more thing... In a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory style game, I've hidden a link somewhere on the site and the first person to tell me what the photo is of, wins an exclusive print out of any photo here. Might be worth something one day, you never know. Happy hunting.

So anyway, I'll keep this one short as it's saturday morning, it's sunny outside and there's a motorbike which needs fettling. Have a good look around. If it's your first time here then stay a while, grab a cup of tea and browse through some photos you probably wont have seen before. Then let me know what you think - good or bad.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me out in one way or another. This place wouldn't exist without you. Well, it might exist, but it'd look a lot more crap.

Speak soon.

RB

Happy zoo-year!

8-01-14T18:31:00+00:00

Happy new year y'all. Was it all good and exciting? Started well here by not updating the site for a good month and a bit. glad to see the punctuality has improved. Actually - it hasn't in a big way... I've just bought an old playstation and Tony Hawks skateboarding 3. Whoops. It's a little like heroin so I'm told. We'll see how deep the addiction runs soon enough. Fingers crossed I can beat it.

Anyway. December was fun fun fun. I wrestled the bike to camber sands which was ace - beautiful beach house and dry roads. All fun till I fell off on the way home and scared myself a little. Which is good I think. The gear lever needed a bit of roadside reshaping and my girly tool bag (one of Feras old makeup cases which has a good zip but lots of flowers on it) fell out of the top box and was nearly seen by the guy helping my up! Was glad to get back.

A day later I was similarly freaked out at Karen Bishkos house on a shoot for Sugar magazine. I'm sure she's lovely and she's a very good artist but her house is SO pink! It's like falling into a bag of marshmallows. The most girly place you've ever seen. Unbelievable. Plus the photographer and I were the only 2 blokes on a shoot full of girls so it was pretty giggly. Wanted to watch some football, drink beer and fart. Loudly.

I went to Liverpool for the morning (which is weird) to assist on a job with Beth Tweddle the Olympic gymnast hope. Sorry - just read her site, "britains most succesful gymnast - ever". Not just a hope. The gym was amazing though - a whole massive hall full of everything you'd ever want in a gym. Bars, rings, trampolines, foam pits, springboards, mats, vaults etc.. So good. Like birthday parties at Steel City Gym when you were 9. And as Stewie says "may i remid you that this is totally not gay!"

The mighty blue Honda made it up to Sheffield for the holls. Fantastic. 5 hours and it was brilliant. 6ft 3" 14st Joe had a ride on the back, on wet roads the next day. Pretty scary stuff but think there's another potential biker there. Miss Pugh came over on boxing day and we headed to the Lakes for New year. Very relaxing time even though it rained non stop for 3 days. Visited Lucys on a Plate again for an awesome burger and duck fat fries. Nice.

Oh yeah - what am I thinking!!?? Check this out right now...

Probably the best thing I've ever seen on a motorbike. Apart from this.

No news of the stolen bicycle so if you happen to have an old road bike rusting away in the garage let me know. And if you see my old Pompino in the clutches of the Brick lane scallys then also let me know!

Another quick note, St John Bread and Wine is amazing if you're 100% not a veggie. lots of meat from all over the animal. you'd be surprised how tasty pigs cheek and crackling is.
On the flip side, Sunset Strip wasn't running their "A team" on early saturday evening at Jimmys stag do...

And finally I've bought a box of paper! Proper photo paper for folios. If you're an art director / buyer / editor, beware. A box of pictures might just be on their way to you soon.

Catch up soon my friends. I hope 2008 will be super smashing for you all.

RB

Stay away, I have the plague

7-12-08T18:01:00+00:00

Pugh gave it me. Or maybe Bikram yoga gave it me. Either way, I feel rubbish. But that's no excuse for not updating the site for yonks. terribly sorry.
How are you? What a lot has happened in a month egh. I have a motorbike all of my own. Honda cd250u. Awesome power! (I might be exaggerating a little there but it is awesome) Only clocked a couple of hundred miles so far on little jaunts round these parts but lots of fun. Miss Pugh has been on it and loved it. Super.
I got away to the snow before the season officially kicked in. Courtesy of First magazine we headed off to Tarantaise and stayed with Gav and Connor of Green Rides chalet. (All very eco friendly and perfectly situated 10 mins drive from the slopes.) They were enjoying a pre season warm up and I was loving the snow. And the Jager. Mr Green and the crew got some super shots and no-one wanted to come back to london where it's rained non stop since. boo.
But I met Laura Marling (who's lovely and about 10 years younger than I thought) and Billy Bragg in one day and got all my christmas shopping done (on a different day!)
The christmas card photo is done and dusted. Bah humbug and all that. I've also listened to the new kanye west album about a million times. One of those annoying ones which I hated at first and now it's just so easy to stick on whilst I'm working.
"If you admire someone whey don't you go ahead and tell them. People never get the roses while they can still smell them."
And "Stronger" is still very very good. Anyway. We went for a little ride last night on the kids bikes to Euston banks. McGillivray took a fair few slams but got up every time smiling which was both a relief and funny. His hops are off the chain - there's some wu-tang there I tell thee.
Talking of bikes, I've had mine stolen. My on-one pompino in sky blue (yes - they do make them in black too) was taken from outside the Bikram Yoga centre on Vestry Street (nr Old St). Boo hiss. Luckily the brakes weren't on so the tea leaf might find himself in 'opital. We can only hope. SO, if you see someone riding a pompino with white vinyl over the down and top tubes, bullhorn chopped bars with brown toshi bar tape, black lx cantis, black specialized cross levers, silver spds, black leather saddle, on-one cranks, anodized blue cable guides, black HOPE ti-glide front hub and white screw in bar plugs, please put a stick in their spokes and give me a call - 07745904601. Ta.
On a much sadder note, the great Evel Knievel went to the great Snake River Canyon in the sky last Friday. Who hasn't jumped a ramp made of bricks and planks and wished there were 14 greyhound busses under them? He did the pelvis breaking jump at Wembley stadium knowing he didn't have the right gear to get up enough speed, all so he didn't let the crowd down. Legend. A big loss. Dig the bike out and go for a cruise in his memory then have a beer.

That's that for now. Hope everyone's well and happy and free from the lurgy.

Speak soon.

RB

dolcelatte + a night shred

7-11-10T19:43:00+00:00

Hello. I love snowboarding.

How's it going? Another busy week. Worked on a saturday and missed out on a session at Milton Keynes. But the payoff was getting to meet Ridley Scott. Wowzers. Went to his Soho office and saw the original space suit from Alien. It's smaller than you'd think as there were budget issues so he built the whole set smaller and got his two boys to pretend to be John Hurt that summer. That'll win you a pub quiz one day.
Chucked some hi fi gear around with Adrian Lyon on mon/tue. 5 grand speakers. You'd hope they sound good at that price.
I caught man-flu off Fera (it developed into the killer man flu. Pugh only had lady-flu which we all know is less deadly) Stu and I caught the Revolutionz snowboard shop video premier night and therefore had an excuse to drink the cold out of me. All good. The films were great. Tadashi Fuse is the luckiest guy alive after popping up out of an avalanche about 10 seconds after going under. The whole cinema cheered. Triple backflips over-rotated? Bizarro. Abi popped along to the after-party at the Admiral Hardy but missed out on the free tequila.
SO, after psyching ourselves up so much, Stu and I finally managed to get up to MK on Friday night. Haven't been on a board since April so was super excited. Bit busy / expensive but first time in a fridge for about 10 years. met up with Ian 5-0 who coincidentally was with me the first and only time I rode on fake snow in the UK. Had so much fun. Was told to put helmets on (we were the only 2) so found a really ropey kids skiing helmet on the hire shelf. Superstar. Was brill just cruising round and finding little bits and bobs to hit. The snow was really weird and changed massively with every run so it was always a surprise what happened. Loved it.
That's about that. Forgot to mention (name drop ahoy) that I went to Liverpool with Mark Harrison the other week to assist on a shoot with Ken Dodd and Pete Postlethwaite! Ken can't ever turn it off - he's non stop Ken Dodd. If you happened to get a copy of the Times newspaper today it's in the colour supplement.
Anyway - enough rambling. rah rah rah. More photos soon. I promise.

Speak soon. All the Best.

RB

Why does Mclaren need 9 photo tripods?

7-10-29T23:17:00+00:00

Evening. I reckon I have about 5 mins until whatever Fera is watching on Youtube ends and she rips the power lead from my computer thus signaling bedtime. So I'll be brief. Well since I last wrote I have succesfully passed my motorbike test - full test - big bikes and all. 2 minor faults. BOO YAAAA! If only there were a couple more zeros at the end of my bank statement, that shiny Ducati would be mine.
Last week was pretty much cloud nine. Wednesday I went to Maidstone with Adrian Green to work on a fashion shoot for First magazine. The location was a proper junkyard of a house. Way out in the country, big fields but all full of rubbish. Broken lawnmowers (about 5), bicycles, weight lifting equipment, a tree house, 4 sheds, an old ford pickup, a red-oxide hot rod, bed frames, sofas, a mini-moto, lots of dogs, two horses, a gypsy caravan and trailer.... and on and on and on. But the absolute big highlight was being picked up in the morning by taxi. From my door. First time ever I had heard the words "we've ordered you a car" just for me. A-ma-zing. I've arrived. hahahaha
Thursday was off to Manchester to see Lauren and Dave. Oh and Jose Gonzales. Who was very good. A little too good in fact - the sound was so superb it was like listening to his cd, very loud. He got more into it as the set built up and finished with Crosses. Very nice. Friday was Feras 2 years anniversary present to me - tickets to see Mark Ronson at Shepherds Bush. Amazing again. Lots of people on stage including a zillion hip hoppers who ran on and off, Daniel Merriweather and Estelle. Top show, one row back from the front. Thanks Pugh - you rock.
Metro ski and snowboard show this weekend. I won a comp! Best retro shot - the one of Pete with the Meribel lady in THE suit. Pretty chuffed. Got some groovy shots of the riders and unwittingly spoke to my contact at Document about pocket wizard channels without even knowing. Hello James. That was about that. Stu missed out on the freebies at the fashion show and we both missed out on the "Ibiza Angels"... Bit blue for a ski show I tell thee.
Today was super exciting - got up this morning thinking I'd be spending the day pimping my ski show shots around and ended up at Mclaren with Lewis Hamilton. No really. Thanks to Paul Rider for the invite and thanks to the Children in Need cameraman for the coffee and biscuits. It is the most ridiculous place. (Lewis was nice but I didn't really chat so can't tell you much except that he has a firm handshake and a good posture) The 'factory' is so clean you could honestly eat your tea off the floors. Big glass windows so you can see the cars being worked on / built. Tons of trophies. Old F1s, the mclaren F1, some art and a huge lake. I only saw all this because I got so lost on the way to the loo mind.
That's about it. Youtube is still going and I will be the one to pull the plug this time! Happy Halloween for Wednesday.

Speak soon and be in touch.RB

esmerelda

7-10-12T22:59:00+00:00

Hello. In on the mac on a friday evening. Rock isn't dead. Actually I have my first motorbike lesson in't morning. I passed my theory two weeks ago - top marks thank you. Just need to convince Baybutt sr he needs a new GS1200...

Work has been fun. Met Patrick Kielty - he likes his hip hop believe it or not. Funny guy.

Not much to say 'cept went to Portugal with the lady and caught some rad waves! 3 to be precise. Got very brown, took loads of photos and generally had an amazing amazing time. And ate lots of fish - probably caught in Cleethorpes.

Right. Since I'm lacking in word power tonight I'll leave you be. Have a great weekend and speak soon.

All the best.

RB

PS: If you have 5 mins head over to Sway's myspace. New LP on't way - sounds good.
PPS: Also if you need a new bicycle head to On-One. They are very good people.

rough and tumble

7-09-16T21:24:00+00:00

slack slack slack busy busy busy. Excuses over - just glad it didn't creep into over a month between updates. How would you have coped?

SO. In the last month... Lauren and Dave came down for the bank holiday weekend. I worked for Giles Jenkyn who is a very cool guy. Lots and lots of shots but all good fun. Had a great Vietnamese street meal in Smithfields then on the Sunday Pete came down and we had a 'aerobie frisbee terror ball' kickabout and then a (ph)fat bbq in the garden with some great tunes and lots of meat. Al managed to join us in-between furious thesis writing. Pete and I rode to East Dulwich (after a few pear ciders) and very briefly met Rajini Vaidyanathan. Were a bit starstruck to be honest but then again we were a bit tipsy. Carley and Katherine were very patient with us and I fell off my bike all the way to the Licorice club. On the way home I fell off again and split open my hip flask on my bum, covering it in Jager. I can't describe how much it hurt but it did. Don't cycle drunk cos you'll get stopped by the 5-0 for trying to take a copy of the Guardian from a news agents and you'll also get lost and fall off. Least you'll lose em.

Talking of the pigs, (sorry, police officers) I got stopped in Parliament square for looking like a terrorist and having a backpack. Granted Nelson Mandela was about 100m away and they had their operation on lock down but still. Anyway, saw the great man in the end. Not too sure about the likeness but it is the first statue of a black man to stand in the square so that's all good. Afterwards I saw 'How we are' at the tate. Ace photo exhibition charting our development photographically since the birth of the camera. Very inspiring stuff.

Joel and Sue became Mr & Mrs Kesterton on September 1st. Congratulations both. I hope you like the photos. Was great to see everyone & was glad the red shoes / aviator combo was generally accepted as good!

I went to Budapest the following week with Mark Harrison to shoot Robin Hood the TV series. Buda was nice' the first night and then it rained non stop till we left. The shoot was lots of fun, even though it was working on a mamiya and in a cold polystyrene castle. The steaks were very good (thank you radio times) and I didn't drop anything which was nice.

Last week was hella busy after a nice relax in Sheffield. Worked at the amazingly pro, Sola studios with Adrian Green. Oh yeah - met a lovely Italian model called Laura Esposto. Worth a Google... Obviously not a patch on Pugh but still easy on the eyes.
Went to Claridges kitchens with Ben Anders and Absolute Taste. Felt pretty privileged. Although we missed Mick Jagger outside. Too slow.
On the subject of studios, Holborn was a bit on the shit side on Wednesday. Too many clients and not enough common sense. Sam Jones and 'Brian from Big Brother' were really nice though! Gave him a bottle of 'SOY-DAAA' as we'd laughed in a nice way at him a lot of the summer. Of course I won't admit that I watched any but yeah. He loved it. He also loved the Staffordshire bull terrier the stylist had brought in as well... Scary. Last mentionable job of the week was in the bowls of the BBC television centre with Paul Rider and some TV types, Blue Peter presenters, ladies cricketers, Ada the wheelchair basketball guy, Konnie Huq and Kelly Holmes. Wow. what a day. Look out for my legs on a sport relief poster soon(ish!) Unless they realise they're just TOO hairy and decide no.

FINALLY finished Feras bike on sat with some good help from Bob at the Bike Shop (288-290 Lee High Road). It looks great and rides really well. She feels confident and that's the main thing. Did I say it looks so cool and is a single speed! Awesome. Had a great weekend and am going away soon for some sun and surf. Can't wait.

What a ridiculous blog. Not a lot of jokes in there either. Sorry.

Why do elephants drink?

To forget!

hahaha - I'm done.

Hope everyone's well. Get in touch, it's been too long.

Big love

RB

Cherry Picking

7-08-19T22:24:00+00:00

bloody 'ell. Clean forgot what I've been up to. The other day someone said "what day is it?", like you do when you're doing something. I heard them and tried to think what day it was and I honestly couldn't. Worked a lot of days recently with no break and wasn't sure if it was Friday or monday. Turned out to be Thursday and I still had more work to do. Not complaining though 'cos I love it. My back doesn't but hey.

Munched some very posh canapes at one of Gordon Ramsays caterers on the thursday in question. Oh what a tough job it must be to be a taster. I wouldn't know as we were in the kitchen shooting the food!

Friday was hanging around 45m up shooting views from the soon to be built flats at Chelsea Barracks. The sign inside the gate said "Terror threat - Substantial" which is worrying. Judging by the cars in the place, a lot of the lads there like nothing better than a few pints of wife beater and a good fight down the local Wetherspoons. Who better to wave guns at people in foreign lands? Haven't seen a mint Nova for ages!

Feras bike is nearly fixed. Will be swiftly uploaded to Fixed gear gallery as soon as.

That's about it.

Send me a hello if you like the photo on the home-page and drink lots of water. It's good for you.

All the best.

RB

eggs benedict

7-08-14T22:12:00+00:00

Oh gosh - very sorry. How could I forget!?

Check out Fred (The Band) and The Beautiful Word. Two acts we saw at the Troubadour on saturday night. Very very cool. Almost as cool as (get this) meeting John Lithgow on the tube! Oh yeah - the real John Lithgow. Told him Cliffhanger was the best film ever and shook his hand. Then we saw him on the escalator and I said, actually, it wasn't the best film ever but I still enjoyed it. He's over doing 12th Night for the RSC and is very tall. WOW. I've lived. Cant say family Baybutt were too impressed at being woken up at midnight to be told the story but there you go - can't please all the people all the time.

Goodnight and sleep tight.

RB

Stacker!

7-08-14T21:31:00+00:00

New section in the old portfolio for new work. Keeping things current and f-f-fresh. How's you? All fine here. Taking my saturday on tuesday. What? 7 day weeks are in. Wondered today why I didn't have as much new stuff to show you as I though and then realised it was because I've been so busy. BUT it means I can afford to go away in September and come back with a G4 full of portfolio worthy biz. Or maybe just some super tan marks!

Props to Lewis McAll who managed over 200 miles on his bicycle trying to keeping up with his superhuman brother. Ben is blazing a 7 day trail to Lands end so if he comes flying through your town wave to him.

I (hand on heart) PROMISE to shoot some more stuff this week so beware Fera if you're reading this.

Speak soon y'all. Hope all's good.

RB

Has he gone?

7-08-09T23:29:00+00:00

Long weekends rock. Had a great time up in Shrewsbury with family Pugh and a gutless 207 (just say no to revvy euro cars unless they're Italian). Saw the old farm Venus grew up on and had a yummy gammon steak. Nice day out. Danced a ceilidh and ate tons of meat.
Sunday was the BBQ pool party at Hibberd HQ. (Just say no to tags!) The box brownie was put through it's paces by a Jager induced operator and we made some funny looking shots...
Met Frank Skinner on Tuesday - he's very funny and if you're up at the Edinburgh fringe go check him out as he's getting back into stand up. Next time you see me ask about the blind heckler he told us about. made me laugh lots. Also, he has the same red G-Shock watch as me (of course he doesn't wear it, he just told me) but his has "Euro '98" printed on it. Haha
Am about half way through an 8 day week so am going to love you and leave you.
Keep checking back in, I promise to shoot lots more and stick it up ere as often as poss.
Big love.

RB

Pinch Punch

7-08-01T10:20:00+00:00

Bloomin eck - August already. Honestly, where does the time go? This is my first day off with not too much to do for over a month. After Italy I went on shoots with eco warriors in the woods, visited Kedleston hall in Derbyshire, learnt that Elizabeth Zeschin won't tolerate Hip Hop at all, saw the 4th largest textile archive in the world, worked in a office all week and then nailed myself with two and a half pints on the friday pub visit. I've suffered Reading shopping centre at school holiday time, lifted stereo equipment till my back disintegrated, laughed at £10,000 per meter speaker cable (seriously), met Brian Eno at his Notting Hill studio and had a horribly eventful cycle home after a shoot near Seamus' gallery. Blimey.

Oh yeah, I got ripped off on ebay, saw the BP Portrait awards (not so good as years past but some really great stuff non the less - go see), came 2nd at the Joelstag go-kart race (first loser baby!), didn't get nail bombed at Tiger Tiger which is a relief and bought Fera a bicycle of her own. Just this morning painted it blue and now I'm trying to find bits for it without spending a small fortune. Love building bikes I do.

Went out with Andy Day (great parkour photographer) for a photo session. Photos up here later today. Thanks to everyone who helped me out.

Can't think of much else so I'm going to leave you and get to the bike shop then read Harry Potter. Hard life egh.

Hope everyone who was flooded is now dry and everyone who has been knocked off their bicycles or motorbikes is feeling better.

Speak soon

RB

Kenny G unit

7-07-09T22:21:00+00:00

Wow. Epic week carried on into the weekend and it all rocked the casbah.

On wednesday I flew to Pisa and then drove an alfa romeo (a bit quick) through gorgeous tuscany. We (photographer Simon Fowler & art man Matt) saw Andrea Bocelli sing some songs, walked round Sienna, took lots of photos and chatted geek speak for three days. Oh and Kenny G was there too. Amazing.

Watched the Tour on sat. Was great - sure you'll have heard all about it by now. Well done Bradley. Fell asleep in Hyde Park in the sun. Just really chilled and really wholesome. It was also Fera and I's 2 year anniversary so we spent a lot of time reminiscing this weekend. Sunday we hooked up with Matt and Nicola and saw the Tour pass through Greenwich. Again great and well done Pugh for the big cycle.

That's about it. Been printing lots today - don't want to jinx it but fingers crossed.....

Lots more work this week. Love it.

Speak soon - more pics up here a'sap!

RB

rabbit poo

7-07-04T01:06:00+00:00

gotta be super quick. Given myself 5 mins as I have to sleep. Day 2 of super week exceeded expectations with a trip to the RAC (Royal Automobile Club) in St James. Tres posh and really interesting. Sweated a lot in my suit though - can see why roadies wear shorts and a t shirt. Then a quick stop at Chelsea arts club on the way back to base and then ran around Elizabeths studio mopping up massive hailstones from inside her flat as her old windows are rubbish. Absolutely biblical storm - 20 mins of non stop hail which covered the roads in south london in an inch of ice. No joke. In july. Turn off those lights. Again.

That's about it. Didn't spend enough time with Pugh this evening and now she's sleeping. Boo. I'm running around sorting out tomorrow... will keep you up to date as to what's going on. It's very exciting.

Hope all's well.

RB

Barfing in a Bentley...

7-07-02T22:12:00+00:00

Wow - day one of a hopefully great week is done. Sat here in my fancypants with a glass of 'Jager after working all day at Crossness Sewage treatment plant. With Katie Melua. Super. She's very pretty and very smart and but not too sassy. Her new album is very nice if you like that kind of thing. I do. Also met the creator of the Wombles (Mike Batt) and very nearly saw my golden crunch bar again in the back of his G-ride... Never been carsick before. Interesting. If you get a chance and are (somehow) in deepest darkest southeast London, check out Crossness. It smells a bit funky but it's also the reason the whole of the south of Engurland doesn't have cholera. (thanks JB) Nice.

Also (unrelated), listen to Jack Penate. He's really good.

Gotta go hug my girl. Hope the weather is treating you as well as it can. What a British topic of conversation most of us are having at the mo. Anyway.

Night. Sleep well. Speak soon.

RB

PS: Oh yeah - do you like the new header bars? Exciting egh?

fixed?

7-06-29T11:22:00+00:00

Firstly - sending all my drying thoughts to Sheffield. Hope the clean up goes well. Glad everyone is safe and well - especially those who had to dump their cars and walk 5 miles home, knee deep in the Don. And those who dug in the rain to protect the Bolehills only to lose all their work the next day. Big Love.

Go check out the new Cycling Weekly. Went to the Smithfields Nocturne on sat with Fera. Missed most of the Elite race as we were hiding from the rain and stuffing our faces with Chinese but the folding bike race (complete in bankers suits) made me laugh so hard. Epic.

Very busy week coming up - won't go into details as don't want to jinx 'owt but should be lots of fun...

Anyway - main reason for this ramble, the links page is up and running again. As is the past projects page. Sorry for the lack of working pages, only just noticed. Go check out The Mad Frenchman - Xavs work portfolio. Something for everyone, especially the dads!

OH YEAH - I'm finally contactable at hello@richardbaybutt.com It's taken long enough egh. Bloomin' technology.

That's about it. Hope everyone's well, safe, dry & healthy.

Speak soon.

RB

Free beer tastes best

7-06-22T13:02:00+00:00

Howdy. Still busy and all that. Love it. How are you?

Shot some work for Pamelas makeup course. Perfect prior preparation prevents piss poor performance. We were very sorted and got a few smart shots for her book. (first two photos in the Stop section) Have a look.

Holidays with the Pugh were brilliant. Congratulations to Andrea & Antonella Vallebona whos wedding was amazing. A meat buffet (Parma ham cut from the leg, melon, slalmi, figs etc), a fish buffet (Oysters, mussles, salmon, calamari etc) and a free bar in the sunshine BEFORE the main meal which was just as epic. Great stuff. Thanks to the Robottis as well for everything. You guys rock the casbah.

Poland was also great with family B and miss Pugh. Mareck Filips baptism was good but the big highlight was burning around Warsaw in a very funky Fiat 126 with the Professors sons. Thank you. I'll be over soon with my Zlotys.

What else, erm... Oh yeah, saw a heap of work last night at Brick Lane galleries with the girl. Can't recommend the curry houses on that strip highly enough. Even though the one down our road still has my vote. Anyway, I don't know if my standards are much higher or the work is just getting worse but I was really underwhelmed by the whole thing. There were a few very stand out pieces which are worth seeing but the best bit was the free beer. Shame. Anyway - the date was fun and we bought an old fire bell on the walk home which makes a huge noise and Fera can ring when my tea is ready! (hahaha - you do know I'm joking right? Spag-bol by me tonight; I'll ring it!)

Last thing - if you have or know of an old soft top beetle for sale then let me know. On the hunt for a surf trip / holiday vehicle. plan...

Speak soon - be in touch.

RB

aaR, Jaguars, C Stands, gold and more

7-06-04T23:57:00+00:00

Been so busy I do apologize for the lack of owt interesting and new here. So anyway, VW job in the grim areas of West London. Not much to write about asides from nice people, a great producer and LOTS and LOTS of food. I was helping produce and could get away with running to the food truck more than normal. Don't tell Paula though.
Had some great jobs this month...Went to Stannah with David O'Driscoll and then the next day I assisted on a shoot with The View. Rock stars and stairlifts in one week. Groovy. The week after I drove the biggest van EVER to Devon (whilst listening to Happy Feet - rubbish) to work on a shoot with Simon Fowler. He was shooting Nicola Benedetti who is a very pretty violinist with an £8,000,000 stradivarius.
I worked on TV advert for delhi wraps (my first 18 hour day) and Boeing Boeing at the Comedy theatre. Saw The Pigeon Detectives racing trolleys, met Robbie Coltrain (who took the piss out of my shorts and told a bloke with his son we were shooting for Gay times - funny guy), told John Simm that my sister is his biggest fan, and realised how massively crap I am at taking photos after seeing Tim Flachs work at his studio. Seriously, it's amazing. Check out the Equus project.
On a less work related note, Ginger Pete and I went to the Star Wars exhibition and were very very geeky all day. Fera has suffered. But then again it was her birthday yesterday and we had an ace party, a nice walk and all's good. So she can't complain.
Finally, had a fantastic BBQ in't rain the other weekend. Thanks to everyone who came. So much fun and so much meat! Ace.

There's lots going on at the mo so will keep this thing a bit more updated. Be in touch and I'll let you know when we have our summer BBQ.

Biggups.

RB

Rah! & Rgh!

7-05-02T08:12:00+00:00

There are more to come in the Rgh and Rah series - I just have to find time to shoot them first...
Went to Bolehills on Sat to shoot DC for TGN construction who are rebuilding part of the track and NEED YOUR SUPPORT. Contact Dan (partyboybmx@googlemail.com) if you have $$$ you can spare for diggers and surface or want to go along and throw a shovel about.
Sunday was a road bike race near Melton Mowbray. There was a pretty horrible off road section which is weird to watch as they should have been on mountainbikes. Even the tv motorbikes weren't allowed over it... Anyway - the shots are good and should be in Cycling Weekly on thursday.
What else...? Erm, backed up my computer yesterday. But that's not news, that's just boring! Oh yeah - May 13th we're cycling to Brighton for Simpsons birthday. No lycra - unless it's well hidden. Come along - should be fun. Hope Hetchins will make it.

Catch up soon. There will be more photos on here soon. Oh yes.

RB

brush

7-04-24T11:04:00+00:00

Hello. Not too much new stuff but I did mess around with the old photo box last night. art for arts sake.
Had a pretty interesting week with some rather cool people. A chef, a comedienne and an actor. All good.
Have a read of Londonstani if you get a chance. It's pretty ace. Also American Shaolin is really really good too. This site is turning into a bloomin book club. But really - go read.
Saw the marathon set off on Sunday - well done to everyone. Was pretty warm I tell thee.
Also got me a facebook and a myspace page in the same week. What a geek. "Add me as a friend you guyz!!!" I ain't gonna lie, I want friends! haha
Enough rubbish talking. More gardening. There's a bbq planned... I'll get the invites out as soon as we sort it.

Take it easy.

RB

New news

7-04-13T12:59:00+00:00

Problems updating the site at the moment. Do apologize if you've been looking for portfolios which aren't there. Hopefully it'll be sorted soon.

Anyway. If you're in London on may 24th, come along to 93 feet east on Brick Lane to see The Law. Good Dundee band and friends of Craig. He's like soooooo cool man, he knows the band!

So, that's about it. Will check back with much more interesting info soon.

All the best.

RB

Best Indian = 02086900202

7-04-11T09:50:00+00:00

Morning. New stuff on here is a wedding portfolio. It's tucked away under past projects / exhibitions. Go have a look if you're getting married or you are Annabell Williams and have run out of ideas.

Had brilliant weekend up in Sheffield. Euro party at Junction51 on Friday, Sara & Hugh and the Bolehills on sat. Saw Slow Club at Bungalows and Bears. Pete and Borat in't evening. Kite stuck in a tree on sunday. Pub with Abi, Pete, Joe & Lulu. Hip jumps in Hangingwater monday and then back in time for tea with beautiful Fera. It's all gravy.

Got to get on - it's just turned 10:00 and my portfolio won't print itself...

Speak soon y'all.

RB

First class run

7-04-06T15:10:00+00:00

Good afternoon. How hi tech - I'm sat on a train to Sheffield in First class (was cheap but we got a lindt bunny chocolate) sorting out images from Les Menuires last week. Thank you to everyone there again. Had an ace time. Get this; three lots of snow out of three trips. What did the Alchemist say? If it happens once it'll never happen again. And if it happens a second time then it definitely will happen a third time.
Anyway. Miss Pugh did an awesome job at skiing. No brakes at all. Took some super tumbles. Proper ones, non of this slipping over lark. Very proud.
Not much been going on since I got back EXCEPT I passed my CBT yesterday so now I can ride a 125cc motorbike on the road with L plates. Danger.
That's about it. Loving having a laptop battery which doesn't run out in five seconds flat. Thank you ebay. Righto - I'm filling space. Last thing, go and get the View's album. They are very very good.
Happy Easter. All the best.

RB

chips

7-03-20T22:28:00+00:00

Evening. Been pretty busy recently which is very nice. Went to Bath and met some of the rugby stars for a gillette advert shoot thing with a guy called Paul Rider who shot the cover of Smash Hits with Jason Donovan on it which was the biggest seller ever, back in the 80s. He had a lot of cool stories and you have to respect anyone who's met Kylie more than twice...
Spent the whole of last week assisting Florian Geiss who's absolutely top notch in the picture making department. Very good experience and thanks to everyone involved - even those who didn't make it out on Friday night.
The shot on the homepage is part of a much bigger project... watch this space.
FINALLY saw Xavier Robleda ride his bicycle on Saturday. I have known him for over four years and last saturday confirmed that he is really, really good. Not that I doubted it for a second!
Lots of other little things are going on but going away with me-julie on Monday to the mountains so it's all good.
One final thing - don't, whatever you do play this game. I lost a good couple of weeks to it and am only just getting over it. You'll see.

All the best.

RB

PS: Feel free, by the way, to let me know what you think of any photos. Good or bad comments are all welcome - although I will only read the good ones!

Swellbow

7-03-02T22:29:00+00:00

Hello. It has been a week since I was supposed to upload the site so most news was written ages ago and now I can't remember what happened in between! Must be old age setting in. You all missed a good drink and dance at Bar Rhumba - unless of course you're tom, stu, fera, al or dom. Anyway. Was ace.

Random point - go see Hot Fuzz. It's a very funny film.

Saw Ange Perinj play some fab jazz in Greenwich on Wednesday. Bumped into another "action sports" photographer in this tiny tiny club, thus proving that London is almost as small as Sheffield. Fun.

That's about it at the moment - will think of more stuff the second I go to bed. Hope all's well with you.

Take care.

RB

That's about it.

7-02-19T20:01:00+00:00

Evening. Does anyone actually read this by the way? I know my dad does so I'm going to insert (more) pretentious rubbish randomly so he's justified in his ridicule. Or maybe it's because he isn't on Myspace? Anyway - he's alright really.

Just got back from boarding with him and my sis and the crew. Was ace. Dug myself a pretty hefty jump and employed Luke to shoot me over it for a bottle of coke. Dad helped earlier but I was rubbish and just fell over lots in front of him. Sure he's very proud of me. Trip was brill. Visit the Dolomites - they're beautiful.

Talking of beautiful. I won a photo competition in the Guardian Weekend with a shot of Fera. Not a bad valentines present. Glad I'm not called John Smith as I might get some work out of it...

Pretentious rubbish over. My peas are done and the fish cakes are going cold. Speak soon. and if anyone does read this before thursday (22nd) then come to bar rhumba for a drink and a dance. Will be fun.

Ta ra.

RB

Bonus!

7-01-29T15:40:00+00:00

Afternoon. How do? Firstly I need to get off Flickr & Wheels and wax. Spending far too much times on the messageboards but it's getting my tech skills a bit more on point - if turning me into the biggest geek this side of the atlantic in the process. "Add another flash to make him pop". Piss.

Anyway - the exciting news is that I've been boarding and had one of the best weeks ever. Portfolio is a little heavier now. Thanks a million to all the guys who put me up, cooked for me, bought drinks, drove me about, dug for hours, waited in the cold and flung themselves off sketchy kicks all in the name of art. Darling. Fingers crossed will be back out in March sometime with more kit and ideas for more snappy snaps. Hope to see you all again very soon. (CD is in't post very soon)

Back to work for me. Well, for the next two weeks until Alta Badia beckons with my dad and the crew. More hand held riding shots as long as it snows lots...

Big Love. RB

Exceedingly good times

7-01-08T21:20:00+00:00

Happy new year! Hope all's going grand so far. Had great break - Italy and the Lakes with the girl. Lovely. Working hard from the off now. 07 is looking exciting.
New years day saw a very fun session at the indoor track. Only 4 of us but we made up for it with our riding prowess. Oh yeah.
Had awful dream last night where I had to wake up at 04:40 and go on two trains to work in a cold house. Then I woke up at 04:40 and it was all real. So... I'm a bit tired and am going to bed, erm, right now.
Catch up soon with more photos and news. Big Love in 07.

RB

Halt! Hammerzeit.

6-12-25T23:53:00+00:00

Happy Christmas! Trampolining with the McAlls the other day - thank you very much. Banner last night with the crew which was ace. That's about it. Italy tomorrow. Tout va bien.

Gotta rush. Goodnight & speak soon.

RB

Tension. Go for it.

6-12-17T21:38:00+00:00

Evening. It's late, I'm ill, I'll keep it brief. Busy busy bumble bee recently. Fun campaign for Motorola with brilliant Hungarian photographer called Adrian Samson and new photo opportunities are presenting themselves. Missing the snow - my boys and girls from the Piolet are back there but I have heard they're missing the snow too... Turn off those lights.
Oh yeah - I've been discharged from Hospital so all's good with the arm. Pumping Iron is on daily repeat and Mr Olympia title is in my sights.
Christmas eve at the ski village if you're around for a ride.

Gotta run chaps but catch up soon. Happy Christmas wherever you are.RB

Noob?

6-11-13T16:05:00+00:00

Where are we? Oh yeah - only a week or so since the last update. Shot some snaps of team Catford on Saturday with hairdryer action - surprised you didn't hear the shouts of "Don't dry my face out!!!" from wherever you are. Should be called Team Moisturize. You'll have seen the one of Al on the homepage already. I'm rocking Blue Steel so I'll keep that off the site for now. You're not ready. Trust.
On the subject of soap - worked on an ace Dove piece for the sun which is out tomorrow. The photographer took shots at every stage of make-up and lights from beginning to end of shoot. Like the Dove viral advert on YouTube. Anyway, go buy the Sun, it's a nice excuse.
Other than that I promise to be more busy with my new flashes and get more stuff on here... stat.

Peace. RB

Lights bruv

6-11-02T16:45:00+00:00

Busy busy again. In between assisting lots of nice people and hob-nobbing at the Canadian Embassy I've actually taken some photos and finally got new work to show! Shock. Went to Eastways cycle circuit in Stratfors the other week for their final race before it gets ploughed for the olympics (yeah I know - makes no sense). Was great fun. Getting more into this road bike lark. Well, I was until yesterday when a high speed commute home ended in knocking a pedestrian to the kerb - she stepped out from in front of a bus, click, down we went. Pringled my wheel but think she pringled her head - was unfortunate accident but will make both of us more wary of the road I'm sure.
Been in Sheffield last weekend for the Etnies Backyard jam and the Supercross. Both were ace - look out for photos in Cream and hopefully Moto magazine.
Also good wishes to Tom who's narrowly avoiding death and the squits in Delhi. That's him on the homepage by the way.
Better go - new studio to build. Actually I lie, just going to repaint one wall here so I can take some photos against it now the bikes are finally out of the way. Phew.
Stay in touch you lot. Speak soon. Big Love RB

Business mojo.

6-09-28T22:47:00+00:00

Hello there. I've been hiding my head in shame recently - I worked for Cycling Weekly mag at the National Critique finals in Warwick (a road race) taking photos. Lycra. I know - don't tell the guys at the skatepark. They're bloomin quick though. Long lens all day but I gave into the fisheye on the inside of a corner for a few shots and obviously they were the ones which were used!
On another note, Cream has the DFTU jam now and are making it look very pretty as we speak.
There will be more photos on here soon from that as soon as I can work out how not to make them fuzzy on the thumbnails - I do apologize for that.
Arm is getting better by the way and I heard back from Richard Baybutt, doctor of human nutrition in Kansas State uni who wishes all the Baybutts in the UK well. Random but interesting.
It's late and I have work to do. Cheerio.

broches, plats et une petite mort

6-09-13T11:41:00+00:00

It's been a very long time now - sorry about that. Super busy with the DFTU jam in London and racing up to Sheffield for arm consultations. The jam is hopefully going in the next issue of Cream along with the photos of Chris on the tarmac hip. My arm isn't so well though. Spent last week having surgery to fix anterior supination (twisting of the wrist - but it sounds better!) and taking my french pins out. At last. Managed to grab some new photos of Jim Needham riding his little bike. Whilst I was down & out my computer died. So I'm trying to fix that up along with my arm. Backup your photos! Could have been much worse. Anyway - keep em peeled for more updates as soon as I can hold a camera again. Cheerio.

By ducking under eaves you still get the same soaking

6-08-16T20:57:00+00:00

Thank you for checking in. The site is being upgraded / loaded one image at a time at the mo. I'm still pretty busy assisting and looking on ebay for a motorbike but all is good and I'm headed out more and more on photo missions. As Banksy said "get out there before you get too comfortable inside". Or something like that. It was howling on Sunday but Stu and I made it to Greenwich and Dartford to dodge broken glass in underpasses. Thanks Stu. Hope you like the shots.

Paint and tarmac

6-08-02T16:34:00+00:00

Been very busy lately down in London assisting. Headed up to Glasgow last thursday to help on a shoot for Sony Bravia. Big explosions of paint on a tower block. Crazy. It's a follow up to the bouncy balls so no doubt you'll see it. Also took some shots of a guy called Chris yesterday on a very hastily built jump over a pile or tarmac. Thanks to Chris, Ellie and especially producer Tom. It was hella windy and about a second from rain but it got done with only minor injuries. More new photos soon.

Website up again

6-07-19T13:40:00+00:00

It's been a while but RB.com is back. Sorry for lack of updates for so long - I'm going to blame it on snowboarding. Back now and working hard so keep checking on here for news and more photos. Hope all's well.