Brian Harte the photographer

I had great fun a few weeks ago on a portrait shoot and wanted to share some of the photos.

It all started when mum phoned up to book with me after buying a voucher at a school christmas fayre. From the outset I was excited as mum (Jenny) was excited at the possibility of having a fun day out while getting some beautiful memories of their children playing.

When I arrived I thought I might be in for a tough time when I was informed the shoot would be starting a little late as the eldest daughter wasn’t quite ready yet. I thought maybe she was worrying about makeup or her hair but was told that she could well be sitting on the roof outside of her bedroom window contemplating the world and that nothing apart from Doctor Who could cause her to move any faster.

When she came downstairs I knew that colour was going to form a major part of the photographs and I went in to overtime thinking of all the possibilities. We started off near some yellow gauze in a pocket of trees around the corner from where they lived….

I then found some blue garage doors with a great texture nearby…

…where the VERY chatty youngest started drawing for me a pig in her diary. I don’t think she went anywhere without her diary all day! While we were travelling between places she read me a few lines which turned out to be quite profound (it could have been influenced by the lyrics of her older sisters songs).

We then went on to the blue bell woods…

…where more fun was had.

The sun was out and it was starting to get a little warm so they cooled off by having a water fight with dad…

Next it was off to the stables to exercise their horse. They offered to drop me back but I was having too much of a good time and opted to come along instead.

I wanted to take some original photographs of the girls and their horse so I started off with this fun shot of the horse eating grated carrot off the young girls hat!

I took the next photograph as it appealed to me as the alternative photograph of the day. I wasn’t sure if the family would buy the photograph but I wanted it in the slideshow I’d present to them. I am happy to say they loved it and bought it!

I fell over myself to get the following shot as she was actually riding out of the stables when I saw the possibility.

I’d like to thank the family for their warm welcome and their enthusiasm on the day. I felt total at home with them and hope to keep in touch.

One of the most colourful weddings I have photographed is that of Nikki & Tony.

Both as mad as hatters and down to earth I had great fun taking their photos at the very colourful Devonshire Fell, Burnsall in Skipton (Near Bolton Abbey).

I was concentrating on taking photographs of the wedding ceremony when out of the corner of my eye I saw this beautiful moment.

I love to take photographs of all the details and attention to detail that make up a wedding and when I saw the downlighter in the wardrobe when Nikki was getting ready I grabbed her shoes and went for this snazzy shot.

The Devonshire Fell is one of the Luxury Devonshire Hotels owned by the Trustees of the Chatsworth Settlement which includes the Bolton Abbey Estate in Yorkshire and the Chatsworth Estate in Derbyshire. Also in the collection of venues for weddings is the Devonshire Arms and The Cavendish Pavilion.

Nikki & Tony exclusively booked the whole hotel so that their friends and family truly let their hair down and I carried on taking photos well in to the night.

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.

It seems my gamble paid off

Today I was awarded an Accolade of Excellence at the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International competition in Las Vegas.

I couldn’t stay for the awards ceremony as I had to be back in Yorkshire to shoot a snowy wedding so I’ll have to wait for my Certificate to arrive. It won’t be quite the same receiving it in the post…so maybe I’ll throw a party as I also turned 30 while in Vegas!

It was a big shock coming back from 28c vegas to -3c snowy and windy Yorkshire but I had a great wedding of a young couple to shoot so it made the transition a little easier.

Spread the word….I’m now an International Award Winning Wedding Photographer.

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.

The Yorkshire British Institute of Professional Photographers held their annual competition this week and I was awarded Environmental (i.e not studio) portrait photographer of the year.

Here is the winning image…

I was also awarded a merit for Avant-Garde Wedding and Fashion and here are those two winning images…

I would like to thank all of you who have given me support over the last year and helped make this happen.

Roll on next year!!

…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.