Febuary 2021 calendar picture
Information on where the picture for February 2021 calendar was taken
Author Archives: brett365
Blogging
I was a very good amateur photographer, by that I mean I did what the stereotype would do, I joined and then ran a camera club, I did model nights, I knew all about the latest kit and would bore people with my photos of very boring things. As an amateur I would shoot or work on photos about a 100 days a year, and would only shoot what I liked.
Then along came the idea to do a daily photo blog. What happen next was not planned, but in a little over 2 years my hobby became my full time employment and blogging was the reason.
As soon as I had committed to doing a daily photo blog I had made the decision to do an extra 265 day more photography a year, but in reality I had increased my work load by a lot more than that.
The 100 days as an amateur, would result in a small number of good images maybe around 20 that were worth exhibiting a year, I was now aiming on doing 365 good images, and at my amateur work rate of 1 good picture every 5 days I was looking a cramming in 1825 days worth of work in to 1 year. Obviously things would have to change.
Firstly I have to admit one little thing, I had no idea what I had decided to do, I thought that as a photographer it would be easy to take a picture a day, not thinking that I would only want good photos, and in reality, photos as good as or better than the day before, there would be no point in posting just any old crap. The realisation came very quickly, in fact it came on day 2 when I realised I had posted one of my best pictures on day one, thus setting the bar nearly at the top of my skill range!
So as you can see I had set myself not only the task of 1825 days of work in one year, but also of improving my work nearly every day.
Another self inflicted problem was that after a few days my habit of taking only what I liked resulted in a set of very similar and by repetition very boring photos. So now, on top of all the other demands, I had to change my style and photograph loads of different things in loads of different conditions.
I completed the year, I set out to take a photo a day for 365 days (it was a leap year and I ended up with 366 photos, I told you I had not thought it through), and had achieved that, but also I had achieved so much more.
The main thing to note is that compared to my old self I had just done the equivalent of 18 years worth of photography, its no wonder that my photography improved so much in such a short space of time. Added to that I had also gained so much confidence, my work had been seen by 1000s of people in 167 countries, and had started to sell.
Would I have started the blog if I had thought it through, no I would not, I would not have thought I could do all that work and effort, but by not knowing and taking it a day at a time I did it and it still astounds me that one little decision could totally change my life.
Butted, Bittern, Chewed and Shoved
It was a straight forward brief by the lovely people over at Approach PR, go out and photograph a lady who was doing a testimonial for one of their clients.
Normally these types of jobs throw up all sorts of problems, bad weather, hard to find places, people not expecting you or even not wanting to do what you have turn up for.
So this one was winning hands down, found the house, the weather was great, the lady was lovely and happy to do what was needed. A quick sit down and a chat, get introduced to the 5 dogs and the parrot, and then outside to do the shoot.
We needed to do the shoot with the lady stood by her car, which she had parked in the paddock to give us more room. Also in the paddock were 2 donkeys, 2 goats and a number of geese, most of which were very friendly and wander over for a look.
I started to do what I do, when I felt a number of things all at once, a tugging at my knee, a prodding on my bum and to finish off a shove in the back. Looking down I could see one of the goats trying to eat my knee, while it mate was sticking it horn, where horns don’t go, behind me the donkey gave me another great shove in the shoulder blades.
At this point there was a loud shout from the lady, who point out that the second donkey had taken a fancy to my camera bag and was swinging it about with some force.
After rescuing my camera bag we continued the shoot, with only the occasional nibble, butt and shove.
Leek Blues 5th anniversary photography exhibition
The small market town of Leek in the Staffordshire Moorlands seems an unlikely place to be a hot bed of Blues music, but for the last 4 years during the first weekend in October, the town has become exactly that.
I have had the great honour to be the festival’s photographer right from the start and to celebrate the festivals 5th year we are planning an exhibition of the best of the pictures taken over those 4 years to be shown in some of the venues during this year’s festival.
To do this we have set up an Indiegogo page to fund the exhibition.
Using the pictures taken over the last 4 years, we aim to mount a free exhibition during the festival, using at least 2 of the venues, if not more, to display the pictures. The higher the sum of money raised the more pictures can go into the venues.
There are a number perks for supporting us but the main one is that you get one of the pictures from the exhibition, you get to choose the picture, it is then printed on canvas and displayed during the festival. Once the exhibition is finished your picture will be sent to you.
Work V’s Art
As a commercial photographer I can be asked to photograph anything, from a simple profile picture to a complex multi place multi day shoot. Each shoot has it’s own challenges and a large part of my job is working around these challenges and producing the pictures my clients wants.
While the work is very satisfying most of it is not very artistic and one of the reasons I became a photographer was to get an out let for my creative side. So trying to balance an image that fits a customers brief while also trying to be creative is a constant struggle, but when the two come together the result can be fantastic.
Seasoned
Just finished work on a great shoot at Seasoned Cookery School. Seasoned is one of the UK’s leading cookery schools, specialising in inspirational courses taught by friendly, passionate chefs.
My brief for the day was just to hang out and capture the feel of one of their excellent cookery courses.
This might sound simple, but trying to photograph in a room containing 14 chefs, 3 kitchen assistants, lots of hot pans and sharp knifes, while trying not to get in the way, or be stabbed, burned or scalded, meant a lot of quick foot work and always checking what was going on around me.
The hardest part for me was trying not to get distracted by what was going on, I love cooking and while picking up tips on a great creme patissiere might be fun, it’s not really the reason I’m there for.
Free photo competitions
Most people have a competitive streak and we all like praise and adoration, and who doesn’t love a bargain, so when we see “Free photo competition” splashed across a web site how can we resist.
But we all known nothing comes for free, so where is the catch in these seemingly harmless competitions. Well it will come as no surprise that it is normally buried in the small print, and by buried I do mean buried, this example was right at the bottom of 4 pages of terms and conditions.
So what is the catch, in most of these competitions the catch is you lose all the rights to your photo, just check out these T’s and C’s from one I’ve just found.
TRANSFER OF RIGHTS. By submitting an entry, participant hereby irrevocably grants and assigns to Sponsor the exclusive, irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide right, title and interest in and to the entry, including all rights to reproduce, publish, edit, market, store, adapt, assign, sell, dispose of, distribute, have distributed, publicly and privately display, communicate, publicly and privately perform, transmit, have transmitted, create derivative works based upon, and promote the entry or excerpts of the entry (as such may be edited and modified by the Sponsor in its discretion) in perpetuity, for editorial, commercial, promotional and all other purposes (including posting on Sponsor-affiliated websites, and/or other Sponsor-selected media). Participant hereby disclaims any rights, including any copyright or any other intellectual property right, in or to the entry following the assignment contemplated hereby.
There is more,
I hereby irrevocably assign to PTV MEDIA LTD. (“PTV”) its successors, assigns and legal representatives, all rights, title and interest, including all intellectual property rights, in and to the images, recordings or film of my pet which I have uploaded onto YouTube, the Facebook website or Facebook App or the PTV website (the “Property”), and I hereby irrevocably waive and agree never to asset any moral rights, including but not limited to, rights of attribution of authorship or limitation on subsequent modification that I may have in or with respect to the Property.
And more
I understand and agree that PTV: (i) shall have full, unrestricted, sole and exclusive ownership of all right, title and interest in and to the Property, (ii) shall have the exclusive right to make any use of the Property as it deems fit, including without limitation, to use, reproduce, copy, exhibit, display, broadcast, modify, create derivative works of, distribute, dispose, license or otherwise transfer the Property for any commercial and/or other purpose, (ii) may include the Property in the PTV archives, (iii) shall not be required to give me attribution when using the Property, (iv) shall be allowed to make any changes to the Property and I shall have no rights with respect thereto, and (v) may register any Property for copyright protection. If requested, I will take any action and sign any documents, which PTV deems necessary to effect the aforesaid. I hereby waive all inspection and/or approval rights to any products for which the Property may be used in connection therewith.
And just in case you are unsure there is this,
I hereby agree that I shall not be entitled, now or in the future, to any consideration or royalties in connection with the Property.
So how much could this free competition be costing you?
At the moment my largest print is sold for £160, so taking this as a base price and adding on all the rights to the picture world wide and forever it takes the price, using an industry calculator for these things, to £12,960. This competition prize was worth a few hundred pounds, if you won, but you give away your picture regardless of the result.
Bordering on the insane.
What do you do when your short of time and struggling to hit dead lines, easy, you set your self a project to photograph 100 Boarder Collies in a year. Now I know I won’t hit the magic 100, but it still gives me the excuse to stop strangers and ask to photograph their dog.
Why this breed of dog, if you are asking this you are either a Collie owner and know how hard they are to capture on film, or you are not a Collie owner and just don’t appreciate how wonderful this breed is.
They are hard to photograph, they move fast, don’t sit where and when you want them to and in their most common form, black and white, fool most camera meters into giving the wrong exposure. On the plus side they have bags of personality, a wide range of colours and types, and a certain style that photographs very well.
Having been owned by two Collies, after being a cat person all my life, I have fallen in love with the breed, each one is a person in their own right, mostly bright, intelligent and smart, oh and normally a little mad.
Photographing them is a challenge that when you get it right rewards you with a stunning portrait of a stunning dog. My project is not just to grab a shot of as many dogs as I can, but to try to capture a portrait the show the dogs personality, a picture that as an owner I would love to have.
So if you are approached on a mountain top, or canal side and asked, can I shoot your dog, don’t worry it might only be me.
Time to sing the blues.
Why is it at a time when the towns future seems so bright does it turn to singing the blues?
Leek over the past few years has undergone a renascence and the outward signs are there for all to see, lots of new sho
ps and very few empty ones. There are other signs of the success of Leek, lots of events and groups that are thriving and growing bigger each year, and the attention that Leek is attracting from outside the town, from major hotels to national awards, every thing points to a town on the up. So why do I say it’s singing the blues.
Well this thought process started last night while I was photographing an international blues legend playing a free gig in a town centre pub.
Now the name Kent Duchaine might not mean much to most people, but think of this, an artist with six albums under his belt, 44 plus tours overseas, honoured by the London Times naming him “one of the five best concerts in the UK.” , playing in a pub, for free, in Leek!
Now this is a sign of the deep routed change in Leek and shows that the old adage nothing breeds success better than success is really at work here in the town, because when I asked how come he is playing here I was told that he plays other place so why not Leek.
That is the change in the town, for so many years we have felt over shadowed by our neighbours, Buxton Macclesfield, and Ashbourne, they always seemed to have better shops and more going on. But now visiting those towns only high lights how much we have turn the tables on them, th
ey now look at us and think what Leek got that we haven’t.
What we have is a thriving town spirit, an attitude of ‘why not Leek’, from Blues festivals and Sunday markets to Food festivals and Country and Western Weekends, Leek is a good place to be, and better yet it is all down to the efforts of the people with very little help from outside.
So Leek singing the blues, with an international legend leading the way, why, because he has to be some where so why not Leek.