Pyramid Theatre Company

Today saw me go along and see a play at Audley Community Centre on the theme of bowel cancer. You probably were not expecting that but let me finish. This was held in the local community centre as part of the Health Communities Partnership. The Pyramid Theatre Company acted out a play by Pete Lawson which highlighted the seriousness of bowel cancer and the affect it has on peoples lives. It was extremely well acted and most thought provoking.

Pyramid Theatre Company (taken from www.pyramidtheatrecompany.co.uk ) was founded in 1993 as a specialist Theatre-in-Heath Education company, covering health issues in the broadest sense. The Company became a charity in 1996.

From its inception, Pyramid worked nationally, providing a unique service throughout the UK and Ireland, reaching all sections of society and all ages. Pyramid has gained an enviable reputation for the quality of its work and holds the distinction of being the only company, of its kind, to receive European funding, not once, but twice. Reports of these extensive tours have been disseminated throughout Europe and Pyramid personnel have taken an active role in European conferences on health issues. I then went along to the Darwen Library Theatre to get some shots of them in action. So thank you to them and of course the lighting man.

To view their website click here.

Some Monkey Business and more.

So what's been happening since my first post. last week saw me head off to Mark Cleghorn Monkey Business Seminar at Stockport. With the theme being the use of off camera flash, it was an inspirational day and will be definately trying to get on further training with Mark. It was also good to meet up with fellow professionals and of course other members of the newly formed North West Group of the SWPP. This was followed by a long weekend in Moray, Scotland which was camera free for me. It was like being naked without it close by so will at least take one in the future. Today involved a local business course followed by a little picture taking in Blackburn in attempt to get it to look nice. A selection is shown. I also found some time to get some press releases off for the Photographers For Charity Event, which incidentally will be my next post with all the details and more ofe what is involved for me as the Liaison Officer for Lancashire. Tomorrow, however, sees a 570 mile round trip to a nearby military hospital to be told, I can't hear very well. Should be fun.

We have heating

Woo Hoo......the heating in the house is finally fixed albeit one radiator. Having spent two weeks on an airbed in the living room whilst all the bedroom flooring was up, I am looking forward to finally getting a good nights sleep. Anyway, yesterday I thought I would go out and get a few photos fairly local. So out came the OS map and decided to go about 3 miles up the road to Belthorn and find a waterfall that was marked nearby. Some of the shots are shown below. The downside is, I have slight arthritis in my ankle because of too many years of football and the obligatory bone break, so now I am in agony from climbing down very steep muddy banks desperately protecting the camera. It doesn't matter if I fall as long as the camera is ok. But I did survive the twitchy bum moments and I'm sure I will do it again.

Voluntary work

The day started today with myself heading off to meet the Blackburn Circle of Friends and take some photographs of the activities they do. They are a local group of volunteers, whose main idea is to support getting involved in volunteering by people who may not be able to take part because of their disability or other support needs. They meet weekly to socialise & discuss voluntary work. Today they were learning the use of Microsoft Publisher to be able to produce their own community newsletter. The group is supported by the Blackburn With Darwen Community Volunteer Service.

To finish off the day I was hopeful of getting some good pictures down the local canal. It was promising on the way there but alas the cloud and fog blocked the sun rays coming through the mist. However, I did get one or two I did like so here they are.

Well here goes for the first of many posts. The last couple of weeks have seen me spend many hours researching the business of photography and gaining inspiration from the many fantastic photographers around. Many would be daunted by the superb high standard on view. I take confidence from the fact that my first nine entries in the SWPP & BPPA (Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers & British Professional Photographers Association) monthly competitions gained 1 Gold award, 6 Silver and 2 Bronze awards. The gold award coming in the Bridal Portrait category. But it's not all research this week, I have also had my camera out to get a creative shot. Using a rose as my subject and a plain black background, I turned the living room lights off and lit the rose from differing angles with a Maglite and created the spiral by twirling the light around the flower. Photoshop was then used to layer and blend the pictures together to create the end product.
That's all for now folks.