Brian Harte the photographer

In March, The Photographer magazine ran a 6 page profile on me and my photography style. I had a great chat with the journalist and was open and candid throughout the interview. As a result I think they capture me on that day well.

Here is the article reproduced with kind permission.

Brian Harte profile - The Photographer magazine March 2008 edition [PDF]

The 27 most expensive weddings are quite some list.

http://www.beau-coup.com/blog/2008/03/17/the-most-expensive-weddings

I love Peter Andre and Katie Price but don’t you think they look like Ken & Barbie in that photo?

Photobox asked me if they could feature me on their site and I gladly agreed.

If anyone doesn’t know who Photobox are they started in 2001 offering photographs printed and delivered over the web and now have 2 million UK members.

Not only do they print the photos but they serve as a storage space for your photos and your friends and family can log in and order their own copies should they want to.

It was really nice to be asked if they could feature me and a screenshot of the webpage can be seen below.

Sunday saw the glamorous Wrapit Wedding Party hosted at Rudding Park, Harrogate, where cakes and champagne was served to would be brides. Along with guest speakers from London the packed Radcliffe room was entertained with a fashion show by wedding dress designer Anita Masssarella from Leeds.

I was there taking photographs of the models wearing Anita’s dresses as they strutted their stuff and Ogden’s Jewellers of Harrogate, added some bling (according to a speaker bling is in) with some beautiful pieces.

Here is a photograph of model Emma. There are more of her to follow as I managed to get a couple of minutes before the show to shoot off a few photographs around Rudding Park Hotel.

Some of you may already know that near the end of last year I won a photography competition at the national British Professional Photography Awards, held in Newcastle. The prize was a trip to Las Vegas to enter the “world championships” for portrait and wedding photography at the WPPI.

I had taken a break from blogging at the time and hence I didn’t write about it but I’ll write about it shortly.

Unfortunately I have to leave Las Vegas on the morning of the Awards a I have a wedding I can’t afford to miss. I wont find out the results until I get back to England and I’ll let you know if I win an award.

There are 3 things to do in Vegas (4 if you’d like an Elvis Wedding).

1. Eat, and I mean eat! I will be hitting the cross trainer when I get back.

2. Shop, which I have done a lot of….especially Abercrombie & Fitch which has become my new favourite shop. I also bought some Raybans because they are cool, but mainly for the 10 year old in me that wants to be Tom Cruise in TopGun (I am showing my age now).

3. Gamble. I didn’t have time to take the free lessons in gambling and not wanting to hitch my ride home to the Yorkshire so I decided to keep my gambling to a minimum by entering a photograph in to the Wedding category…my little gamble in Vegas.

A photo of me having fun in the M&M store.

Recently I was wedding photographer for Helen & Peter Massey’s wedding at Nostell Priory in Wakefield. Helen had mentioned to me that they had something special planned for the first dance but I wasn’t privy to exactly what it was. So, to much excitement I had my camera ready when the music started.

Here is one page of their wedding album showing the first dance…

And here is the video posted on Youtube…

You may remember Helen and Peter from their engagement shoot photographs. Nostell Priory is a fabulous 18th century National Trust property available for weddings in Wakefield, West Yorkshire. You can either book a wedding as a civil ceremony and have access to the rooms or get married at Nostell Priory’s church and have your reception in The Riding School. Dine Services arrange weddings at Nostell Priory and their website can be visited here.

There will be more photos to follow when the retouching has been finished.

This has to be the funniest thing I have seen this week.

I love adverts like this one as they are short and sweet but make me laugh hard and loud. I hope you enjoy it too…

…and no they are not like stripper-grams!

Some of you may know I once planned to become an optician…well I decided it wasn’t for me but thats not to say I am not still interested in perception, vision and optical illusions.

One of these perception tricks is 3D. Here are a few photos that show a funky type of stereoscopic vision.

Traditionally stereograms are photographs taken slightly apart from one another at exactly the same time, as our eyes would do. Then the left photograph would be presented to the left eye and the right photograph presented to the right image with each eye occluded from seeing the other eyes image. Our brains see the two images and merge them together to see a three dimensional image using different visual clues within the images and differences between the two.

One of the ways our brains do it is that objects viewed far away in each eye don’t appear to have much movement when you swap between them however objects close to you move a lot more. You can see what I mean if you hold your finger up in front of your nose and focus in to the distance now close one eye at a time your finger will jump a lot when you change eyes. Extend your arm and repeat still focusing in the distance…it will jump around a lot less.

The stereograms above are examples of a different type of stereogram called Wiggle-grams which flips between the two images rapidly. What interests me is that the stereo images are not separated in space as normally would be but in these type of stereograms are separated in time. The brain still reads three dimensional information from this.

Even if you don’t appreciate the science behind it you have to agree they look pretty cool.

Here is a website that tell you how to make them yourself and here is a website with more examples.

There are a few old stereogram cameras and examples to see at The National Media Museum (formally the National Museum of Photography Film and Television) in Bradford, Yorkshire.

For all you couples out there who want to be a bit different, or just think you are super cool, take inspiration from these guys.

Getting on down to Thriller by Michael Jackson with the whole bridal party involved is the most original first dance I have seen. If any of you are planning to do something like this remember to tell me so I can make sure I am ready with the camera!

It looks like one or two of them had a little less practice (or more alcohol) than the rest.

I found a funny video on the internet today which shows destiny at work. Its about 2 streakers who are destined to meet and fall in love. The video is censored (no bits showing) so don’t be shy have a look for yourself. I’m pretty sure its a viral advert but even so it almost brought a tear to my eye. It’s only 2 days before valentines day!

www.lovestory07.com