Brining Photography Weblog

Haven't Been to the Blog Recently!

I've been extremely, unforgivably, almost unaccountably lax with updating this blog recently for which I apologise to those who frequent these pages on anything more than a casual or accidental basis.

In part things have been busy over the past few months with a couple of other projects that are on the go, but also I have to confess to being a slightly reluctant blogger. There always seems to be a more pressing task or engagement which calls for my time over sitting at the computer searching for words to add some meaning to the accompanying photographs.

Thus, there are several posts featured below that all appear in one mad outpouring rather than as timely ditties published as close to when they actually happened as is humanly possible.

Perhaps I flatter myself that anyone actually notices (or indeed cares) but in these days of Facebook, Twitter, Flickr etc where it seems every moment of one's life needs to be immediately documented I feel guilty if several jobs go by without letting the World know about it.

So.... enjoy the following posts whilst I slip off to make some lunch. Who knows, I may even Tweet or Twat or whatever later to inform the information-hungry masses what that consisted of.

Laura & Lee's Engagement Party

A visit to the Hyatt Hotel in Birmingham was called for to photograph the engagement party of Laura and Lee recently. 

Although the actual job went well, the start of the evening was a nightmare simply getting into Birmingham city centre. Seven o'clock on a Saturday evening is apparently not a good time to be in any form of motorised transport and actually expect it to move. What made things worse was that, having finally arrived at the car park next to the Hippodrome, it seemed that everyone else driving that night had also decided to use this car park to abandon their vehicle in.

I'm not sure who was playing at Symphony Hall that night, or what theatrical extravaganza was being performed at the Hippodrome, suffice to say that the average age of the audience attempting to park their collective vehicles was about 103 - together with the sort of driving skills that are commensurate with drivers of that age.

Not only that, but the car park was a Mickey-Mouse Pay-and-Display affair rather than the, now rather more common, Pay-on-Exit type. All very well except I had no change and only a £20 note in my wallet. I will therefore be eternally grateful to the gentlemen who kindly donated my £2.50 parking charge (for which at the time I was willing to part with the £20 I had) and would accept nothing in return except a promise that I would offer a similar act of generosity in the future, should it be required. 'Pay it forward' I believe it's called.

Thus I arrived at the venue slightly past my appointed time and was amazed to walk into a virtually empty room. Thankfully, everyone else was running late too so it appeared that I'd been patiently waiting around for some time. Of course I didn't mention that I'd literally just walked in...

 

Crown Inn Refurbishment

Following on from the wedding of Helen and Mark (see below) Lucas, the proprietor of the Crown Inn at Pishill, requested some publicity photographs of the barn used for the reception.

Over the past few months the venue has been tastefully refurbished and redecorated to provide a wonderful venue for a wedding ceremony and / or reception. 

In addition to using three Bowens Gemini flash heads to balance the lighting in the room as usual, I thought I'd try a bit of HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography to see how that turned out. For those who are new to this concept, it involves taking multiple images at different exposures for the highlights and shadows in a scene and then combining them into one image in post-production.

With the barn, I took five separate images exposed for, in turn, the extreme highlights, highlights, mid-tones, dark tones and shadows and then combined them using the Photomatix plugin for Aperture.

The result? Not too bad actually. I think with a bit of time to really finesse the images this HDR lark could be a useful alternative to humping a shed-load of lighting kit around. For the moment though, I'll play safe and do both.

 Exterior of the barn and pub at the Crown Inn

 Image created using the Photomatix HDR plugin for Aperture

 Same view (nearly) but using additional fill-lighting


 Another go with the HDR plugin

Anna's Batmitzvah

The magnificent Singers Hill Synagogue in the heart of Birmingham was the venue for Anna's Batmitzvah held in June of this year. Family and friends gathered to witness and celebrate this most important occasion in a young person's life.

 

Helen & Mark's Wedding

Congratulations to Helen & Mark who tied the knot on the 8th August at the newly refurbished Crown Inn located in the unfortunately-titled village of Pishill near Henley-on-Thames.

We wish them every happiness for the future!

 

 

 

Knickers & Vests

This strangely-titled piece concerns Triangle Theatre Company's latest project is descibed as 'an “oral history of the PE kit” and archive memories of the compulsory PE experience particularly of fitness regimes in school since 1948' 

For Knickers & Vests the company assembled a team of actors in-role as “sports instructors” to document memories during or immediately after exercise. Knickers & Vests begins with the premise that sports phobia is linked to a dread of embarrassment and aims to re-member and re-enact sports histories via the tactics of both reluctant and zealous sports participants, of skivers and misfits, and to investigate “discipline” and the body as they are understood in both sport and theatre.

Thus, a motley crew of sports 'instructors' led the parade for the opening ceremony of the British Transplant Games held in various venues around Coventry.

The assembled crowd were initially unsure as to whether the team were for real or not, but doubts were quickly dispelled once the routine got underway, climaxing with the sudden activation of the fountains outside the Herbert Museum. 

More appearances of these top athletes are planned building, hopefully, to an appearance at the opening of the Olympics in 2012!

For more information on the "Knickers & Vests" and other Triangle projects, please visit their website