Brining Photography Weblog

Kenilworth Chamber of Trade AGM

On Monday night (16th June) we attended our first Kenilworth Chamber of Trade AGM which this year was hosted by the newly opened (and photographed - see below) She Bar & Brasserie.

After the usual businessy bits you tend to find at AGMs we settled back to enjoy another wonderful meal and talk more with the other members of the Chamber - most of whom we were meeting for the first time.

As well as attending the event as a guest, I also photographed various parts of the evening for PR coverage and did some additional shots for Mahmut (owner of the She Bar) showing his restaurant full of happy diners.

Pictured below are some of the committee with outgoing Chairman Sue Powell who retires after 4 years at the helm.

Gentlemen's Night Out Cheque Presentation

I recently photographed the Gentlemen's Night Out cheque presentation ceremony where funds raised during the year are actually donated to the various organisations.

It's always a humbling event to see how some people very much less fortunate than most cope with their daily lives, and always manage to remain cheerful. It certainly puts things into perspective. Praise too to the individuals and organisations who give so much care and support.

The Gentlemen’ s Night Out organisation raises funds through their annual major Christmas Dinner held in Birmingham, their London Marathon Teams and appeals and donations.

The organisation, which was established over 40 years ago, distributes these funds regardless of race, colour, creed or age to individuals and organisations and to those that do not have the ability to raise funds themselves. They also raise funds for other beneficiaries to whom a relatively small donation has produced a profound and lasting effect.

In June every year, the Cheque Presentation event is held where the various charities helped by the GNO actually receive their donations, and last Friday (6th) was the date for this year's event held at the Birmingham Metropole Hotel.

For more information visit www.thegentlemensnightout.co.uk

More images can be found here

She Bar & Brasserie

Kenilworth's newly opened Turkish restaurant 'She Bar and Brasserie' was the subject of our latest commission to provide a series of interior photographs to be used for publicity and on the forthcoming website.

In addition to the general and detail views of the restaurant, a panoramic image stitched together from five separate frames was also required to give a more realistic impression of the space (see image below)

The restaurant opens it's doors for breakfast at 8.30am and continues serving until last orders (for food) at 11.30pm - and that's seven days a week!

Having sampled the food I can well recommend a visit. To book, or more for information, telephone 01926 850597

Monkey

Playbox Theatre Company's latest production is a fast and furious adaptation of the old Chinese tale 'Monkey' which tells the tale of the Monkey King's journey to the West.

For Playbox, Emily Jane Quash directs a multi-skilled company of young actors (15-19 years) in the all-new version of Monkey. It retains an anime style of fast and furious physical storytelling, dance, acrobatics and sheer eccentricity! The show, which opened in Warwick at Playbox’s own theatre The Dream Factory on 28th May, will also appear in various guises at carnivals and special events until the US tour in October.

Photographing the production was a challenge (as always!) as I had no idea what to expect beforehand other than to expect lots of movement, colour and spectacular dance routines. All great fun!

All of the photographs from the show can be found at http://www.amazingphotostore.co.uk/briningphoto/ along with photos of previous productions.

Carpet Right Sales Conference

Now the largest carpet seller in the world, Carpet Right drew all of their UK store managers together at the Birmingham Metropole Hotel for an exhibition and Sales Conference.

The set - which I was commissioned to photograph by production company Acclaim - ran almost the whole width of the room (30 metres) and depicted Carpet Right's new office complex printed as a giant photograph on a canvas backdrop.

One of the main images the client required was a panorama showing the full width of the set. This was achieved by stitching together three separate images using the superb new (or at least vastly improved) photo merge function in Adobe Photoshop CS3. The result was seamless, as can be seen in the image below

PR Shoot

Later the same day as the Morris Dancers shoot, I had to produce a couple of PR photographs for Ginny Davis' new one-woman show "Ten Days... That Shook the Kitchen" due to play to packed houses (hopefully) at this year's Edinburgh Festival.

The comedy, written and performed by Ginny, focusses on Ruth Rich, a middle-aged, middle class mother. The show describes ten days in Ruth’s life and the various (typical) trials and tribulations that fill it. More details can be found here

I'd already done the production photographs and the flyer image, but these images were specifically for press and publicity use.

Several poses and shots later, Ginny chose the following two images. I wish her the best of luck with the show.

Mayday Morris Dancers

They say that (only) mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun, but there were a few of each up at Chesterton Windmill at dawn on Thursday morning to watch a group of local Morris Dancers greet the sunrise.

Having been persuaded to get up at 4.45am (!!!!! does that time actually exist??!!) to be collected by my good friend Matthew to take some photographs for a local paper, I was glad to see that after all the awful weather we've had recently, it looked as if we would at least see the sun actually rise, rather that it just 'get light'

When we arrived at the site, the Morris Dancers were in full swing - or dance - and a crowd of nearly several were there to watch - including a couple of local police officers who bravely elected to view the activities from the heated comfort of their patrol car. (Not sure why they were there - they surely couldn't have expected any trouble?)

Anyway, slowly and inevitably the sun crept over the treetops and everyone joined in for a last skip around and wave of hankies. (I would have been there too but it's difficult to dance with a tripod)

An hour after arriving it was all over and we were off home for a a cup of tea and bacon sandwhich, but it really was a magical, worthwhile experience and provided some lovely images too. Mayday has never looked so good. (Mental note, dawn is worth getting out of bed for in future!)

Some example pictures are posted here, and I'm looking forward to next year already.

A Weekend In Wales

One of my favourite ways to spend a weekend is by going away with friends, and last weekend a group of us (12 adults, 3 kids and a dog) headed off to a cottage in Wales about 6 miles away from Hay-on-Wye.

The countryside was fantastic - as you'd expect - and being a photographer I obviously took a camera along. Sadly the weather was not terribly photogenic so it was difficult to capture the true beauty of the landscape when it was just blandly lit by unbroken cloud cover.

On one of our treks across the moors though I came across a lone tractor on the hillside which just begged to be photographed, and the picture below has become my favourite of the (few) I took that day. Oh - and if you're wondering, the image has been cropped to the panoramic format.

Welcome!

Well, after weeks of research, hours of web surfing and gallons of coffee (not to mention the odd bottle of wine or two) in my search as to what 'blogging' is all about, and why everyone seems to be doing it, here is the first post from (to?) the new Brining Photography Weblog.

My name is Andy Brining and, as you may have guessed, I run Brining Photography - a Midlands based photographic company covering commercial, wedding, corporate event and theatre photography. I am also a Licentiate of the British Institute of Professional Photography (BIPP) - the premier qualifying body for professional image makers in the UK.

More information about my bio (if you're really that interested) can be found on my main website - together with several galleries of images at www.brining-photography.co.uk. I also have a dedicated website for my wedding photography at www.briningweddings.co.uk

Obviously, as this is the first post, the Weblog looks pretty lean at the moment, but more content will be posted over the coming weeks covering recent work, techniques, equipment etc. I'll also respond to comments or emails as often as I can.

Thanks for getting this far and please check back regularly for updated content. I look forward to blogging with you in the future!