Brining Photography Weblog

Casino Royale

The title refers, not the recent James Bond film (so sadly no stills from the movie set then), but to a loosely Bond-themed fund-raising evening held at the Dream Factory in Warwick. 

Guests were treated to a meal of Jambalaya cooked live in the centre of the room, a vodka luge in the form of 007's trusty Walther PPK, acrobatic entertainment, cocktails mixed by Mobile Mixology, a casino and dancing to music from Gary Grace.

The event was sponsored by the Listers Audi group who had a Q5 and Q7 on display at the front of the building. Sadly, these were not included as prizes in the raffle but guests were able to have a good peek, prod and poke about - albeit under the watchful eyes of the two Listers representatives.

A fun evening was had by all and hopefully a large amount of money was raised. A small selection of photos are shown below and more can be found on the main website. 

(all images open to a larger view)

The Last Women

I had to go to prison recently.

Not, as you may imagine, for committing some heinous crime (as if!) but to take a series of PR photos for Triangle Theatre Company's forthcoming production of "The Last Women" - a performance project and workshop programme devised and directed by Carran Waterfield inspired by the stories of seven of the last women to be executed in Britain.

The prison in question was in fact the old police cells in St. Mary's Street, Coventry which are now used as a storeroom - albeit a very secure one. Unlike modern cells, the one we used for the shoot had the archetypal "jail bars" commonly associated with a prison cell which was more in keeping with the style and period of the piece.

The timescale for the shoot was very limited and one of the biggest challenges was trying to make the brightly lit 'storeroom' look like the condemned cell. 

Thanks to Carran, Debbie (pictured), Esther and Carlton the caretaker. 

More information on the production, which opens in April, can be found at here and on Triangle Theatre Company generally here

(Click on photo for bigger image)

Oh, Whistle

I've been a bit lax at updating the blog recently with the intervention of the Christmas period, and thus forgot to mention an interesting PR job I did just before Christmas.

Robert Lloyd Parry from Nunkie Theatre Company is currently engaged in a small one-man theatre tour presenting two ghost stories from M R James, the most famous of which is perhaps "Oh, Whistle"

Whilst in residence at the Barons Court Theatre (housed in the Curtain's Up Pub in West Kensington) Robert was presented with the prestigious Hamilton Deane award (named after the man who first made Dracula famous on the stage) by the Dracula Society after his performance on December 13th.

I was booked to attend the performance (which was superb) and then photograph said award presentation by members of the Society who were anticipated to be in full vampire regalia, together with a couple of posed shots of Robert on stage afterwards.

Unfortunately, the members of the Society had obviously decided to blend in with the general public on the night as there was not a cloak or set of fangs in sight - just jeans and T-shirts. Or maybe that's the current fashion with the blood-sucking fraternity - Fang at C&A, perhaps. Either way, the spectacular, theatrical, news-worthy presentation was more a quick thrust into the hand by the Chairperson and a speech so quick that by the time I had manoeuvred into position, it was over.

A quick re-staging later got the required (although rather dull) shots and then everyone retired gracefully to the bar as I retired gracefully to the M40.

Robert is presenting "Oh, Whistle" at various venues throughout the UK during early 2009, and more information can be found at www.nunkie.co.uk. It is well worth seeing.

Happy New Year!

A rather belated Happy New Year wish to all clients, customers and casual browsers! I hope the Christmas period was a good one for you and that recent woes about the state of the economy and the country generally could be put aside for a few days.

Let's hope that 2009 can be a better year for us all.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Lewis Carrol's perennial favourite adventure "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" has been given a fresh makeover for Christmas by Emily Jane Quash and is playing at Warwick's Dream Factory venue until January 4th.

This lovely production will appeal to audiences of all ages and is well worth seeing.

More images can be viewed here