Brining Photography Weblog

A Weekend in Wales

As a departure from commercial photography, it was a pleasure to just use the camera to take some personal (and stock!) photos whilst away for a weekend in Wales. 

We stayed at the wonderful Penpont estate which is in the heart of the Brecon Beacons National Park and adjacent to the River Usk. The estate comprises a sixteenth-century Grade I listed building and self-catering courtyard wing which can sleep up to 14 people. The magnificent and extensive grounds incorporate tennis courts, a maze, a walled garden, a rose garden, the river and sweeping lawns large enough to swing several cats. Congenial hosts Gavin and Davina (Vina) Hogg, the present owners, were hugely welcoming and relaxed about their beautiful home being invaded by a motley crew of 12 adults, 2 children and a dog.

During our stay we walked, climbed, drank, ate (enormously!) and generally relaxed and just enjoyed the surroundings. Highly recommended!

 

No, the band at the top of the image isn't a badly placed graduated filter - the cloud really was like that!

CRB Checked!

I am pleased to announce that I have just recently passed an Enhanced CRB check which is becoming an increasing necessity for working in any capacity with children. Although it was good to receive the certificate, I would have been VERY surprised and indeed somewhat alarmed if I hadn't passed!

Hasselblad Week and Calumet Focus Magazine

After attending the recent Hasselblad Day at Calumet Birmingham, I was invited to submit some comments on both the event and the products. These have subsequently been featured in the latest Focus Magazine together with a handy bit of free advertising!

The day itself was part of a week long series of in-store demonstrations by Hasselblad to highlight the ease and functionality of its latest cameras by literally putting them in the hands of professional photographers and allowing them to shoot a (lovely) model and still-life set-up. This is certainly the best way to determine if such a system will really work for you, and a real bonus was being able to use our own Compact Flash cards and take the images away with a copy of the latest Phocus software to play around with later.

As a lifelong Nikon user, and with the advent of the excellent D3X, I was very interested to compare the Hasselblad files with those from the Nikon. It soon became apparent that, as excellent (truly, excellent) as the D3X images are, the Hasselblad still has a tangible edge in overall picture quality. 

This should be the case as the D3X has a 24.6 megapixel, 36x23.9mm sensor (which is within a whisker of the 35mm film dimensions of 36x24mm) whereas the Hasselblad has a 39 megapixel, 48x36mm sensor - which is TWICE as large as the Nikon! As with most things, size matters and this, coupled with 16-bit capture, equates to better resolution, colour fidelity, dynamic range and an intangible '3-D like' quality that just isn't possible with a DSLR.

So will I buy one? As soon as my clients realise the benefit of shooting medium-format and are prepared to pay for it, yes. Until then, it's back to Nikon!

Last Women

Triangle Theatre Company's production of Carran Waterfield's 'Last Women' play took to the stage at the Belgrade Theatre for a week's run and was well received by critics and audiences alike.

Having previously photographed the rehearsal and produced police-style 'mugshot' prints for the front-of-house display, I returned to photograph the dress rehearsal just prior to the opening.

Although the production has now finished playing at the Belgrade, it is available for touring. Contact Carran Waterfield for more details. The Last Women website can be found here and more photos from the production are in this gallery