Brining Photography Weblog

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

The City of Coventry Male Voice Choir

On an appallingly wet and windy evening in July (typical British summer then) I met up with the City of Coventry Male Voice Choir at Coventry Cathedral with the intention of shooting some iconic new publicity photos for them.

When the appointed hour arrived, there was no way we could even attempt the proposed shots without looking as though the entire choir had been recently submerged. Options considered were either to abandon the shoot and retire to the pub, attempt to create something meaningful and artistic under the canopy (difficult when the rain was virtually horizontal under there anyway), or wait and see if the minuscule patch of bright sky visible in the distance would float overhead.

In the end option C prevailed and, miraculously, after a day of continuous rain, the clouds parted long enough for us to emerge from our huddle under the umbrella-village and do the shoot as planned.

A few examples are shown below and should you wish to find out more about the choir, please visit their website

Warwick Races Ladies Day

What better way to spend a summer's afternoon than going to the races and taking photos of ladies in their finest hats? Well, along with a 7ft Mascot ably operated - if that's the right word - by Owen, who certainly suffered for his art on a warm day (though thankfully the stiff breeze kept the temperatures below the boil-in-the-nag point for him)

Booked by Warwick Racecourse, the brief was to photograph as many people as possible posing with the Mascot, as well as taking some general shots of the races and punters in general.

Another visit is planned for August Bank Holiday when the Mascot will be officially named. For more information, please visit the Warwick Racecourse website

 I could do that!

 The 10 finalists of the Best Hat competition

 One of the horses, with rider

Two Castles Run 2009

The annual 10K dash between Warwick and Kenilworth Castles was held on Sunday 7th June in pouring rain, wind and unseasonally low temperatures. Standing in these conditions for 3 hours was nothing though compared with what the 3,000 or so hardy runners endured as they raced between the two historic monuments.

Unbelievably, having left Warwick at 9am, the first runner passed me at Castle Farm, with less that 2Km left to run, at 9.28am! I doubt if I could have driven the distance much quicker!

After the first runner, the rest came in thick and fast with, as far as I know, all runners finishing (at some point!)

Well done to all who entered.

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!