GB Multimedia - Professional Music Photography and Portraiture by Gary Brown

Thursday, 19 May 2011

DREAMING BIG & Fun with Light!!

So I did a shoot a couple of weeks back, with clothing designer, loving philosopher, and all round bundle of joy, Zara Khalique. You have probably seen some of Manchester's finest rocking her cool and customised streetwear and striking designs. Check out her WEBSITE for designs and stuff.

While we're on this, I have to also point you towards her other site - KEEP IT BRIGHT - Joyous and uplifting don't even begin to describe how the mantras and messages can make you feel! Check it out and spread the word to your people.

Back to the shoot and the basic premise I was coming with was spending a lovely Sunday afternoon running around in a darkened room with lights of different colours while my good friend, Emma Dixon, modelled Zara's amazing designs. Emma's stunnning make-up was, again, applied by the very talented Bev Crawford- I have ran out of superlatives to describe just how good Bev is. Just hire her for any photo/bridal needs you have.

I thought the light painting theme of the shoot suited Zara's colourful designs really well- and we all got in on the fun, coming up with various silly ideas to try out, and in the end I even ended up modelling for a shot- though I'm not going to take over from Emma anytime soon. I'll stick to my side of the camera!

Wednesday, 18 May 2011

Me & Yu - Summer 2011 Shoot

Following on from my shoot for Me&Yu in February. We decided another collaboration was in order. This time we were shooting their Summer collection, and so we needed a suitable bright, outdoor location to suit the vibes of the collection. Luckily, theres a wonderful area of greenery near where I live called 'Fletcher Moss Gardens'. If you live in South Manchester and haven't been, go and catch a chill on the next free, sunny day.

So, with the location sorted we needed a team. Luckily for me, the makeup artist from our first shoot, Bev Crawford (http://www.facebook.com/beverleycrawfordmakeup) was free, willing and more than able. I can't recommend her enough to anyone after make up for photoshoots, weddings or special events. Not only is she extremely talented at her calling, she is also brilliant to get on with and full of enthusiasm and ideas on a shoot- which is the ideal type of person to have around.

Styling duties were taken up by the good friend of Me&Yu Roxanne, who turned up with a big bag of clothes for us to play with. Finally the two lucky models were Elora B (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Elora-B-Model/192234484147136), who's vibrant hair matched the plum and purple tones of some of the new garments perfectly, and Andrew, who some of you may recognise from my previous Me & Yu shoot.

So, onto the shoot, which mainly entailed running around a dry storm drain, playing with dandelions and the odd can of cider- not a bad way to spend a sunny afternoon! I was happy with the resulting shots and gave them all a warm, vintagey colour treatment, which I felt reflected the clothes and the summer theme of the shoot perfectly.

Monday, 25 April 2011

Beautiful Accidents

When I'm milling about in nightclubs, bothering punters and setting off incredibly bright flashes in the faces of the hard working DJs and MCs, I try and use a few different techniques of shooting. This inevitably leads to me taking the odd picture using the wrong settings on the camera (I know many of you thought of me as a photographic demigod who never makes a mistake, and I am sorry to shatter that image).

These pictures end up as indistiguishable trails of lights and colours, and there was a time where I would instantly delete such an image, disgusted by my own unprofessionalism. However I have now come to quite like these beautiful accidents- each one is unique and impossible to copy due to the way they were produced- and I've found a half decent use for them as desktop backgrounds.

I have now put these online on my website- free for anyone- feel free to download and use if you like any of them :) (links at the bottom, in the order they're displayed)

Saturday, 23 April 2011

New Drum & Bass Mix

I finally had the time to record a new mix! Decided to go daaaark for a change! Feel free to download & comment & share!

Schizophonic- Darkside Mix by GB Multimedia

Sunday, 17 April 2011

...and now for something completely different (2)

So following on from my previous post about trying something different with gig/music photography I thought I'd share some of the shots from the recent massive freeparty put on just outside of Manchester. This was an epic night, where an alleged 5000 people turned up to dance through the night.

I had a camera on me but it wasn't mine. Bearing in mind the sometimes dodgy goings on at events like these, and the value of my usual equipment, I borrowed my mate's Nikon D40- the same camera I started out with- as it was much cheaper to replace if anything unfortunate were to happen.

So with the fairly basic kit involved I decided to shoot the whole night in B&W. It lent itself better to the quality you can get from that camera in really low light. One I was going through the pics they were pretty grainy- this reminded me of bad CCTV stills. Combined with the attention the police ended up paying to the event, I decided to make up the pics as if they were taken from police surveillance. I stuck a time/date stamp in the corner and some branding in the others.

As a final touch I decided to 'anonymize' everybody in the pictures with the classic black-bars-over-the-eyes look. I was a bit unsure whether to do it & whether everyone would get it, but it went down pretty well in the end- and I think about half of the people that went are tagged in the big group shot now!

Tuesday, 12 April 2011

Annie Leibovitz- Genius, Legend

I'm currently reading Annie Leibovitz's 'At Work'. Its awesome.

She is an amazing photographer and has created an enormous amount of amazing photos and everyone who enjoys using a camera should read it.

This passage hits the nail on the head for me...

"As much as I love pictures that have been set up, and as important as those pictures are to me, I'd rather photograph something that occurs on its own. The tension between those two kind of photographs is at the heart of what I do. It's not a conflict, but sometimes it's useful to remember that things are happening right in front of you and that you don't have to complicate the situation. You can take what's given to you. You just need your mind and your eye."

Perfection

Wednesday, 6 April 2011

Cool Tee!

I'm really digging this new T-shirt from the great guys at Me & Yu. Neitzsche had some great quotes about music- this is very to-the-point, but my favourite is, "We hear music with our whole body, and we are within the music when we enjoy a great performance".

Either way- buy one of these- or something else from their store. Its all good stuff!

http://www.meandyu.com/

GB Multimedia - Professional Music & Fashion Photography by Gary Brown