Sylvine Muraro – Peintre

Sylvine Muraro is an artist who creates images of imagined landscapes from locations she has seen. Her contact with the canvas is bold, often carried out directly with her hands. She allowed me to catch her image during her vernissage for her exhibition at the Gallery of the Union de Producteurs de Saint-Emilion.

Sylvine Muraro est une artiste qui crée des images de paysages imaginés à partir de lieux qu’elle a vus. Son contact avec la toile est audacieux, souvent effectué directement avec ses mains. Elle m’a permis de prendre son image lors de son vernissage pour son exposition à la Galerie de l’Union des Producteurs de Saint-Emilion.

Detail from the image above

Saint-Emilion on a winter evening

City images in and around Saint-Emilion, Gironde. The beautiful sandstone that forms the bulk of the city glows with the setting sun and, as winter evenings close in, people vanish from the streets.

Images de la ville de Saint-Emilion et de Gironde. Le beau grès qui forme la majeure partie de la ville brille avec le soleil couchant et, à l’approche des soirées d’hiver, les gens disparaissent des rues.

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Elisabeth Hoffmann – Artiste/Artist

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Images de l’artiste Elisabeth Hoffmann, avec deux de ses tableaux grand format, exposés jusqu’à fin janvier à la galerie de l’Union des Producteurs de Saint-Emilion.

Images of the artist Elisabeth Hoffmann, with two of her large format paintings, exhibiting at the Union des Producteurs de Saint-Emilion gallery until the end of January.

Elisabeth Hoffmann – facebook – @elisabethhoffmannartwork

UDPSE – http://www.udpse.com/

Spark in Time 21 December 2019

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Prog: Rock band ‘Spark in Time’ performing at Le Kayak, Saint Aigulin, Charente-Maritime – 21^st December 2019

Prog: groupe de rock ‘Spark in Time’ se produisant au Kayak, Saint Aigulin, Charente-Maritime – 21 décembre 2019

Spark In Time – facebook – Spark In Time

Imaginary landscapes – Paysages imaginaires

Autumn landscapes from an alternative perspective.

Paysages d’automne dans une perspective alternative.

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Station Inn Annual Rock-Jam 2017 – Live Music Photography

Mark Holden – Less is More

I came across this in the drafts folder and thought that it was about time that I published it – only one year late.  The 2017 Station Inn, Andover, annual Rock-Jam took place on the 7th January.

It was organised by Mark Holden of Band ‘Less is More’ and the staff of the Station Inn.  It is a great opportunity for the members of local bands to get together for an evening of live ‘covers’ performances and to socialise with members of bands that they may seldom, if ever, see or get to meet.

Mark organises a set-list and then identifies performers to put together a workable band.  He has a rule that no more than 3 members of a single band can perform together at any one time (although this tends to get broken as the evening leads to more and more performers joining each set with everyone on stage at the end).

The rule ensures an edge to the performance that would not normally be there and also that no single band features unduly.

As the evening wears on and the drinks flow the atmosphere is, as always, electric, exciting and full of meetings with new people and new bands.  For me the event had always been unmissable and set the New Year off to a positive start.

More images from this event can be found here, images from previous events from my collection are here.

Bands this year included ‘One in the Chamber’, ‘Nailed’, ‘Less is More’, ‘Reload’, ‘Black Dog’, ‘Sketches of Sound’, ‘Reluctant Sons’, ‘Stonepig’ and ‘Common Ground’ among others.

Business head-shot – Natural light

This simple, but effective, portrait was shot with minimum preparation and the absolute minimum of equipment. I used natural light and a camera in a most surprising location. During a business fair I was ‘Networking’ (chatting) with a Freelance Business owner about web-presence and the need for good, up to date head-shots. It transpired that Carol had not updated her on-line image for a while. Grabbing the opportunity with both hands we decided to get a shot immediately.

The Business Fair was held in the ground-floor room of a beautiful Georgian Guildhall. The building has high ceilings, light walls and a sweeping staircase to the first floor. The stairwell has a huge, bright, north-facing window that gathers the soft light reflected from the exterior walls of a modern, concrete and glass shopping centre.

We took up positions on the stairs with the light flooding in from behind and to my right. Carol was seated on the steps above where I crouched. A couple of position changes and it was done.

Wedding Preparations – Dordogne

French Wedding

I have driven through the village of Montagnac-la-Crempse on a number of occasions, up through the narrow, steep, streets and past the church which has been carved into the crest of the slope.  The church being the highest point of the village has sweeping views over the village and the wooded Crempsie valley.

By the standards of most churches in this Region this church is quite small.  It has been slotted into the slope giving the steps up to the arched front door a disorientating asymmetry that is both disturbing and beautiful.

French Wedding

On this particular, golden, Saturday the church had been prepared for a wedding.  From inside came the sounds of the choir rehearsing. A few family and guests flitted in and out of the cool interior.  Outside there were cut fir trees on either side of the door, decorated with family photos.

French Wedding

French Wedding

A flowing carpet of evergreen leaves cascaded down the steps. I looked in detail at the photographs hanging in the trees.  These consisted of individuals, groups and portraits taken during wedding celebrations, of what appeared to be, a single family over a very, very long period of time.  Some even showed this church decorated as it now was.

French Wedding

It was delightful to see traditions like this being so unselfconsciously continued.

French Wedding

Lexi Meads – Musician/songwriter – birthday shoot – repost

Lexi is a north Hampshire based musician and songwriter who was offered a photo-shoot for a ‘significant’ birthday. We decided to shoot in the woods close to Andover (The beautiful and historic Harewood forest). They are deep and dark, reasonably accessible and have a history of their own.

As access was on foot and would be in deep shade I took minimum kit along with my cameras, one flash, light-stand, shoot-through umbrella and reflector.

I had already made a reconnaissance trip and so we were able to move directly from location to location. However I kept my eyes open for possibilities and we made a couple of additional stops as ideas were brewed up between Lexi and me.

While I did my bit Lexi played; mostly her own music but she also played the battle of the banjos theme a couple of times.

The combination of great playing, pure notes and the oppressive heat, stillness and dark of the woods made for a really memorable shoot (even if I did look over my shoulder once or twice).

Destination weddings in France

As a photographer my involvement in wedding planning has been seriously limited. However I have often wondered what the legal issues and regulations are regarding Civil, religious and humanist/personal choice weddings in France. This blog post has been put together to present a concise summary of how I believe this works in here in general and in the Dordogne specifically.

Despite the European Union and her gradual standardisation of systems and the relaxed rules that surround weddings in the UK here in France a legally binding wedding can only take place in a Mairie (as the representative of mother France). To be legally married the state, in the form of the local Mairie, must preside over the official ceremony and will declare you man and wife. Any religious or humanist/personal choice celebration of your commitment to each other can then take place.

Arranging for an official ceremony is not as simple as it seems. At least one of the couple must have an address in France and the Mairie where the ceremony is to take place should be local to that. The wedding banns must be posted at least 10 days prior to the ceremony and to do that you must live continuously in the local area for at least 30 days before posting. Given the enormous power that a local Mayor has there is a small amount of flexibility in this but it is purely discretionary.

It is not all bad news however and large numbers of couples opt for a quiet or even ‘secret’ wedding ceremony at home (UK, USA etc) and then have the wedding celebration of their choice here in France. The range of options open to a couple seem almost limitless with a very good chance of sunshine, wonderful locations, stunning backdrops in the form of landscape and architectural structures and the opportunity to fine-tune your celebration as you want it.

You can get advice from a number of sources with a lot of people willing to help you put your vision into practice. I would suggest that there are three very important outsiders that you should invite along. Firstly time spent with a humanist wedding celebrant can help you focus your plans and will ensure that the ceremony and especially your personal vows will be complete, coherent and will carry the right amount of gravitas to leave you feeling that you are ‘properly’ married. Secondly, or perhaps firstly, a good, experienced wedding planner (just one of many) who listens to what you have to say and responds helpfully to that. After all its your wedding.  Finally invite along a photographer. Everyone has a camera or camera enabled phone but you need an outsider to ensure that a coherent and complete record of the day is recorded. An outside professional will ensure that the formal images as well as the relaxed, informal, images are recorded. Their gallery of pictures or album will be complete with timely delivery. There will be no worrying that shots you wanted are missed out or that a friend was missing from a group shot because they were taking the photograph.  Do not take the cheapest, the most local, the one that sounds best; make a point of meeting them, of talking to and if possible spending time with them.  On the wedding day they will be with you in more intimate circumstances than almost anyone else.  You need someone you like the company of and you can trust.

There are other professionals that can make all the difference to your wedding but that is up to you.The opinions and statements made in this blog post are those of the author and are, as best as I can ascertain, correct. Should you know that any of my statements are incorrect then please let me know so that I can amend the post.