More Smoke Imagery

Just recently I have discovered smoke photography and have been experimenting with some of the images.  The images are created by taking photos of the patterns in the smoke from an incense stick against a black background.  The rest is then done on the computer using a variety of tools and skills.  Now some of these finished images are obvious as to what they are supposed to look like, but others you can sit and look at and see a completely different image to someone else.  This is the beauty of smoke imagery.  So take time to have a look at these and see what you think.  Also feel free to go to my website and see some other images that I have created.  Many of these images will be available to buy in the near future.

If you require high quality wedding photography in Lancashire or perhaps it is great lifestyle portraiture you are after.  Paul Brown Photography, Blackburn, would be a great choice for you.  Please get in touch and we can discuss what is required.

Images Copyright Paul Brown Photography

Wedding Photographer Manchester

Blackburn,

Preston

Bolton

Burnley

Pendle

Ribble Valley

Wigan

Colne

A Real Hero

On Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st March 2010, myself and fellow photographer Mark Pearson are organising a fund raising weekend for photographers with 100% of the profits going to Help For Heroes.  Full details of the event can be found by clicking here.  The reason for this post is that we are totally honoured to have a Guest Of Honour at the evening event who can be called a real hero.  Simon Brown is featured in the book by Photographer Gill Shaw called 'The Hero Inside'.  Go to Gill's website to order a copy of this inspirational book.  Alternatively the ISBN Number for the book is 978-1-84689-076-5.  Every copy of this book sold raises more funds for Help For Heroes and there are some amazing stories in there.

Anyway, the following is an interview of Simon's from the book and published on this blog with kind permission of Gill Shaw.

I joined the REME as a Mechanic in 1997.  I had ten years of active service and two further years of recovering, which involved  twelve operations and 100 hours of surgery.
     I was in Iraq on 6th December 2006.  We went on patrol with B Company Green Jackets - now The Rifles. We had a contact.  As we went to pull out of the area, a vehicle broke down and we went to collect it.  The enemy suspected it was a broken-down vehicle and put some fire down on it.  My crew and I attached it to my vehicle with the recovery equipment.  As we went to pull out of the area, I had to pop my head up to see through the dust for the driver.  At that point, a sniper shot me through the face. I dropped down into my one man turret and realised I was in a bad way.  I bandaged up my face and held my airway open by putting my thumb in my mouth and pushing my palate up a bit.  Then it was wacky races back to the hospital!  The Company Sergeant Major jumped on top of the vehicle and commanded it back to the hospital at Basra Palace. At the hospital, I climbed out of the vehicle on my own and then the medics put me on the stretcher.  I woke up three weeks later at Selly Oaks, Birmingham with my family at my side.
     I spoke to my Grandma on the phone.  She was dying of lung cancer and she inspired me, as she was more worried about me than herself.
     After Christmas, I was given news of a few friends who had died in combat and, at that point, I decided I could not sulk about being injured - at least I had come home.  The training and the life I had led before gave me the strength of heart and willpower to get on with it and survive.  I am eternally grateful for the support I received from so many people throughout my ordeal. 

If Simon's story has made you decide to support this Charity and donate.  This can be done by going to our Just giving page by clicking here.

Simon Brown - Guest of Honour at The Help For Heroes event on 20th March 2010

Four Gold Awards For January

In January I entered seven categories in the Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers (SWPP) monthly competition.  The results of the judging has now been published and I am delighted to announce that I received Four Gold awards.  I am really pleased because I set myself a personal target of beating last years four Gold awards and so far this year I have already equaled it.  I personally use these competitions to give a little bit of a guide as to how my camera and creative skills are developing.  Even when they fail, I never get disheartened.  At the end of the day one persons Bronze is another persons Gold.  I do however sit and look at my images and try and see what the negatives may be.  Taking images of subjects other than Weddings and Portraits is also what keeps the passion for photography inside me, especially the smoke images.  These give me the opportunity to get creative and pre-visualize an image. So now I will sit and look at the reasons why the other three images got two bronze and a silver award and hopefully tomorrow, I will be an even better photographer than today.

Here are the Gold Winners from January.

Digital Art Gold

A smoke image where I have created an image of two ladies.

Fine Art Gold

Another Smoke image mirrored twice to create an abstract look.

Landscape Gold

A winters view from Fishmoor Reservoir in Blackburn looking across Darwen to Darwen Tower.

Monochrome Gold

A mirrored smoke image, made to look like a mask on a stick perhaps?

Help For Heroes Fund Raising 16th Jan 2010 Success

As you may have read previously in this blog, I have just recently spent a few days in London meeting up with friends who all have a common passion - Photography.  During the build up, I have been supporting Martin Grahame-Dunn with the organisation of a charity event in aid of Help For Heroes.  This event was borne from a discussion we had several months ago over a coffee with Martin, Mark Pearson of Mark Pearson Photography and myself and it was clear we all had a common bond with the military in one way or another.  Little did we know at the time about how successful it would end up, despite many stressful moments on the way, especially for Martin who really had the most difficult tasks. However, the people that benefit from this fund raising are suffering immense stress on  a daily basis, so it was worth it.

The Event

So a bit about the day.  The day was split into two parts.  The first part was the training.  We had Martin and also Kevin Wilson, who are both highly experienced in the photographic industry and have won numerous awards during their careers, they did morning and afternoon, practical training sessions.  These were inside the Brook Green Hotel, which is a venue of style we are likely to encounter at a wedding or portrait shoot.  They taught us how to 'find the light' which in no way is as easy as it sounds and it served as a great reminder to us all, that we must, as photographers, be prepared to continually learn and develop our skills.  We were also very lucky to have a team from Hasselblad come along and bring a selection of their very expensive, but beautiful quality cameras along for us to 'play' with.  The result of the training was we all came away with many things to think about which will enhance our abilities as professionals.  But I really must thank Nedine O'Brien of Fera Photography for stepping in as a model for the afternoon session and finding out what it's like the other side of the lens.

From this we progressed into the evening party, a time to meet up with fellow professionals, some who we had met before, some who would normally be seen inside the monitor on Facebook.  Again we had amazing support from not just the guests who paid to come along and also donated extra on the night, but also from others who gave their time to help make this event a success.

First of all, we had Photographer, Gill Shaw come along and promote and sign her book 'The Hero Inside'.  This book is an inspiring and also hard hitting look into the lives of those affected by the conflicts our military servicemen are involved in.  This comes from personal knowledge of how her son, who is currently Serviceman, has close friends in need of support. Profits from the book go to the charity and I highly recommend getting a copy which can be ordered here.  We also had Mike Weeks bring his Event Photography Team up from Dorset and show a little insight into the world of event photography, but most gratefully all money that was spent on images on the night was put into the charity fund.  A generous gesture that we all appreciate.  That brings me on to our acoustic musicians/singers on the night who again donated time to support us.  Three separate musicians, they each did their own style of entertainment which was followed at the end by a superb jamming session by them all.  So a massive thank you to all three who were, James D. Ingram, Komla  and Oliver Hipkins.  Please click on their links and take a look at these performers whose passion for their work is just like us photographers.  Finally a big thank you to Mark, Michelle and John for going around with the collection bucket and gaining proceeds from the wrist bands.

The final figure for fund raising has not been confirmed yet, but it has passed our initial aim of £1000 so thank you all that donated.

From Left to Right, Mark Pearson, Martin Grahame-Dunn and Myself.

Image reproduced with kind permission of Dorset Photo Event.

Finally, to finish the weekend off, the Society of Wedding of Portrait Photographers had their Annual Awards Dinner and to see how I came to finish the weekend on a high click here.

Thi Big Freeze

So Christmas and New Year have passed and I would like to wish everyone a very Happy 2010.  Well, I spent Christmas and New Year back home in Ipswich, Suffolk and unfortunately spent much of it suffering with Chicken Pox.  Since being back home, it is not hard to miss the fact we have been suffering with a lot of cold and snowy weather.  So I have been out a couple of times within walking distance of home to capture a few scenes around Blackburn.  A few of these can be seen at the end of this post.  So what else has been happening?  Well, before Christmas I had a shoot with Executive Cars for a double magazine page in the Ribble Live Magazine. A preview of it can be seen here .  Also I am now preparing for a few days in London where I will be visiting the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP) Annual Conference & Awards Dinner, where I have four images eligible to be up for award.  While I am down there I am also helping to organise a training event and Party for Photographers to raise money for Help For Heroes, this I am really looking forward to.

So take a look at some of my latest images from Blackburn and hope you enjoy them.