Friday 14 November 2014

Profile Article in Iceland Magazine

Well, here's a bit of a nice surprise :-)

After posting one of my images onto the Iceland Magazine Facebook page I was contacted by them asking if they could do a little profile piece on me and my recent trip to Iceland!

Wow!!! Wow!!! Wow!!!

Do I call myself an Internationally Published Photographer now??? Ha ha ha :-)

Why not head over and have a little read of what they wrote. Here's the link:

http://icelandmag.com/article/love-stunning-landscapes-and-a-life-long-dream-seeing-northern-lights

What do you think? Please let me know.

Take care. Speak soon.

Kevin.

PS: I've got a couple more images to be uploaded to my website later today, so keep an eye on there as well.

Monday 10 November 2014

Iceland - The edited results

Hi everyone,
I've been back from Iceland now a few days, and am back at work today :-(
I have now uploaded some of the edited images to my website for you all to have a look at.

Here's the link to the slideshow:
http://www.kevinbrownephotography.com/#!iceland-2014/cf75

I would really love to know what you think of the images, so please feel free to leave a comment at the bottom of this post.

Don't forget these images are available to buy as prints or canvases, so just drop me a line if you'd like to see one of these hanging on your walls at home.

Speak soon :-)

Kevin.

Thursday 6 November 2014

Iceland Day 4

The first thing I noticed when I woke up this morning was the sound of rain on the hostel roof...heavy rain! 
Looking out the window confirmed we would not be shooting sunrise today, no matter how long it lasted. 
Our plan was to stop at the iceberg beach near Jokulsarlon and photograph the big lumps of ice which are washed up on the beach after breaking off the end of the glacier. Then we wanted to find the abandoned American Navy DC-3 airplane which crashed in 1973 (no one died thankfully). We were also thinking of making a few other stops while making our way back to Reykjavik. 

Finding the iceberg beach was easy. It was very surreal walking along a beach made of volcanic black sand in between big lumps of crystal clear ice which are just sitting there as if every beach should be like that. 

There were so many options for taking photos on that beach. 

Luckily I brought a cameradom with me because it was pouring with rain the whole time we were there. Freezing cold as well! I was wearing thermal longjohns, my lined hiking trousers and a pair of waterproof leggings, two micro-fleece base layers, a thermal mid-layer, a hoodie and my big coat along with neck gaiter, hat and two pairs of gloves. 

After a couple of hours shooting on the beach we headed off to find the DC-3   That meant another couple of hours in the car towards Reykjavik. 
When we found the turning off the main road we had to travel about 3 miles off-road across more black sand. That wasn't 3 miles along the beach parallel to the sea though. That was 3 miles down the beach towards the sea. Some of the open expanses here in Iceland are simy mind-blowing! 
More heavy rain (again) when we arrived at the plane. Those pilots must have thought they crash landed on Mars (except the sand was black not red). Apart from some mountains in the distance all we could see was black sand in every direction! 

Back in the car and onwards to Reykjavik. The scenery still absolutely astounds me. 


Reykjavik surprised me. I don't really know what I was expecting but it was much bigger than I thought it would be. The apartment we had was stunning as well, right in the 101 district which is where there are loads of bars, restaurants and galleries to keep people interested. It has a really young and vibrant feel to it. 
We were initially thinking we were going to go out for some celebratory drunkeness to round off a fantastic week, but we needed food first so found a chinese restaurant. The food was amazing. And reasonably priced as well. 

The obligatory photo of Reykjavik church. 

Iceland...I love you. I'll definitely be back!

Keep an eye on this blog over the next few days for updates on the proper photos being uploaded to my website. 
www.kevinbrownephotography.com


Wednesday 5 November 2014

Iceland Day 3

Day 3 started with an urgent dash to the petrol station to fill up with fuel...for the car and for us. Because we got to our overnight stop after the shops closed (at 8pm) we had no dinner so we were hungry and grumpy (or Hangry as my girlfriend calls it 😊).
Once fed and feeling human again we set off for Seljalanfoss waterfall which was only about half an hour away. It was pouring with rain when we got there so initially we thought we'd just do the tourist thing and walk up to it without the cameras, but as soon as the scale of it was realised we knew we couldn't leave without at least trying so we got the heat out of the car and went behind the waterfall to try and get some decent shots. Sunrise was not possible because of the heavy clouds but we had to get something. 
The wind kept blowing the spray from the waterfall all over us so our lenses and filters kept getting soaked. After a couple of shots we gave up and headed back to the car. That was good timing, a coach load of Japanese tourists turned up in the car park just as we got in the car. 
iPhone shot of the Seljalanfoss waterfall. 

Another half hour down the road we stopped at Skogafoss waterfall, but we arrived in the same rainy conditions. I took my camera with me but left the tripod in the car so at least I got some shots and we did a group shot of ourselves and headed back to the car. The coach turned up just behind us again...we had to keep moving to avoid the swarm of bus passengers getting in all our shots. 

Next stop, the black sand beach at Vil. What an amazing place. Absolutely stunning to look at with its jet black volcanic sand, towered over by sheer cliffs and the dramatic stone stacks stood out in the sea like beacons. 
This is where I tested the waterproofing I had sprayed onto my walking boots before I left home. Stood at the edge of the waterline with waves coming up to my shins I pulled off my favourite shot of the trip so far. 

I'll be really looking forward to seeing that on the laptop screen. 
As for the wayerproofing, it worked to a point then I felt my left foot get cold. 
At least I didn't fall over in the water like Adam did. 

Onwards!
The main aim of today was to get to Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon, a two and a half hour drive from our last location. 
This lagoon is at the bottom of a vast glacier system and acts as the run-off point to the sea for the melt water. 
When we arrived the sky was clear with just some clouds way off in the distance, along the horizon. The sun was beginning to set and that just added to the magic of this place. 
These are all iPhone pictures, I will post a link to the website when I get the proper images from my camera edited and uploaded. 

All alerts were going mad for a good show of the Northern Lights so we were praying that the clouds would stay on the horizon as it got darker. We stayed at Jokulsarlon until well after dark, constantly having to de-ice our camera lenses and keep moving around to fight off the bitter cold. 
Some of the guys say they managed to capture some of the aurora while we were there but I don't think I did. I'll have to wait till I look at the images on the laptop. 
The clouds beat us again so we decided to move east to get ahead of the clouds again. We drove for over an hour and stopped a few times when we saw the lights putting on a show. 

I've seen the Northern Lights with my naked eyes!!!!

I got some great shots on my camera and managed to get this very dark and grainy image on my iPhone 

Believe me the ones on the camera are much much better. The whole experience of seeing the Northern Lights is something I will never forget. 

The clouds caught up with us again and wiped out the whole sky so we decided to find a bar and have a celebratory drink. Then headed back to our hostel for the night and crashed into bed totally exhausted. 

The weather forecast for Day 4 is total cloud and rain. Not sure what sort of pictures I'm going to be able to get but we'll try. 

Keep an eye on www.kevinbrownephotography.com for the full images of this trip.

Here is the link to Day 4.

Tuesday 4 November 2014

Iceland - Day 2

After waking up we headed 10 minutes up the road to Kirkjufell mountain, probably the most famous and most photographed mountain in Iceland.
The thing that has surprised me most here is the length of time it takes the sun to rise or set. In the UK we are used to rushing to get set up and start taking images as soon as we are ready for that 15 minute window. Over here we get 2 hours of colourful skies to work with. 
At Kirkjufell I was able to try about 3 different locations and took two 5-minute exposures with the Lee Big Stopper. 


Once we were done shouting at an annoying French guy who kept getting in our way and ruining our shots we started heading south towards our digs for the night at Hvolsvollur. 
On the way we stopped when we spotted some great light anywhere along the way. 

It was a bit cold though!!!

We headed to Gullfoss (yep another waterfall), but due to weather conditions the walkway to the best place to shoot from was shut. Because Gullfoss is fed from a nearby glacier, and the wind was coming from that direction it really was freezing. The spray coming off the waterfall was causing havoc with taking shots as well. 

Back in the car then for a two hour drive along gravel roads to our hostel for the evening. 
One thing that REALLY grates on me about Iceland though is the fact that all the shops shit by 7-8pm...after we got to the hostel. That meant no food and go to bed hungry and grumpy. 

The northern lights failed to show up again! Beginning to think we are going to miss out completely on this trip. 

Day 3 is further south again towards Vik stop offs at Seljalanfoss and Skegafoss along the way.

Here is the link to Day 3

Monday 3 November 2014

Iceland - Day 1

The day started early, very early. My alarm was set for 1:30am! There wasn't really much point going to bed because I didn't feel rested when I got up.

I drove over to Waterlooville and picked up Adam, Marc, Mark and Matt and we headed of to Luton Airport. Apart from me nearly missing the turn for the M1 it was a very uneventful journey thank goodness. 

The whole experience at Luton was much the same. Checked-in, got a coffee, had breakfast, got on the plane and took off. 
The flight was only 2hrs 25 minutes which was good because it was quite cramped and I hate not being able to stretch my legs out. 

When we'd collected our bags and went outside to wait for the car hire company to come and collect us that's when we got our first real Icelandic welcome...by the wind. It must have been gusting up to 50mph and was bitterly cold. 

Once in the car our first port of call was the Blue Lagoon, the famous geothermal pool. I'll say it was the most expensive swimming pool I've ever been in at £34, but it was well worth it. Sitting in an outdoor pool while a 50mph wind whistles over your head was definitely a fantastic experience. 


Our plan was to get to Kirkjufell mountain for sunset, but we underestimated the distance and the time it takes to get places here in Iceland. 

As we were driving along we realised we weren't going to make it but we're still keeping positive that we'd be able to get some night shots and hopefully the Northern Lights. 
The iPod was on loud and the banter in the car was brilliant when we spotted a great waterfall by the side of the road. We stopped and jumped out and got all our gear out to set up for sunset. 



Once we left that waterfall the weather turned really really vicious. Matt was driving and had to cut the speed down to about 40mph because of the wind. At one point we could see the car was heading left but Matt was pointing the steering wheel to the right 😁
We had to go through a mountain pass and there was ice everywhere. The in-car banter suddenly went quiet! 

After a total of 6 hours we finally reached the town of Grundarfjordur where we stayed in a really warm and comfortable hostel. 

As for the Northern Lights...all the websites were going crazy saying the lights were really active right above us...but the 100% cloud cover and rain made sure we didn't get to see any of them. We even checked at 3am, 4am and 5am but there was no chance it was going to happen for us on our first night. 

The weather forecast for night 2 is looking like a better chance of clear skies so hopefully we'll be able to catch them then.

Want to read more? Here's the link to Day 2

Thursday 30 October 2014

Iceland - T-minus 3 days

So, the countdown has well and truly begun!
In 3 days time myself and four friends will be flying out to Iceland for a photographic tour.

5 grown men and all their luggage and photographic gear in one car.
4 nights in different accommodation each night.
Approximately 950 miles to cover in unpredictable weather!
Loads of photo locations along the way, and every sunrise and sunset in between.
And, of course, hopefully we'll be able to capture the Northern Lights...fingers crossed for clear skies!

Our wish list of locations:
Blue Lagoon
Kirkjufell
Thingvellor
Geysir
Gullfoss waterfall
Faxafoss waterfall
Mt Hekla
Hvolsvollur
Seljalandfoss waterfall
Skogafoss waterfall
Solheimajokull glacier
The town of Vik
Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon
The Iceberg beach
The abandoned DC-3 airplane on the black beach

Thats a lot of locations and not a lot of time to squeeze them in!
I think we will all be very very tired by the time we get back.

I shall be updating this blog and my Facebook page each day while we are out there, so please keep your eyes open for the latest upload.

www.facebook.com/kevinbrownephotography


Tuesday 28 October 2014

Iceland - it's all packed!!!!

That was far too easy!
I must have forgotten something!
What have I forgotten?!?

Managed to find a bag that all my clothes AND my tripod would fit in. And it's still within SleazyJet weight limits!

I've even got the roofbox on the car so myself and the four others can travel to Luton Airport without being squashed in like sardines!

I'm hating that feeling that I've forgotten something :-/

Iceland - packing begins

Today is when I try and pack everything I need for my trip to Iceland into the smallest bag possible. 
There are 5 of us going and we are staying in different hostels and digs every night. Because of that we need to think of comfort for all of us in the car, so if I get everything into a small bag then there'll be more room for us passengers. 

My dilemma? My tripod. 
I have a carbon fibre Manfrotto tripod and although it doesn't weigh much I need to fit it in the bag as well as I'm already taking my camera gear on the flight as hand luggage...and I'm sure EasyJet wouldn't really fancy letting me on the plane with it in case they think it's an offensive weapon or something. 

Could be time for some imaginative packing :-/


Really blummin excited though :-)

Wednesday 22 October 2014

It's been a while!

I've been neglecting this blog for a while! Oops! Really sorry about that! Must try harder. 
The reason...I haven't been out with my camera in a while. Plain and simple. 

However, there's going to be a few posts with new photos coming in the next few weeks as I'm off to Iceland on 2nd November for a week with 4 photography friends. So expect photos of the Blue Lagoon, Kirkjufell mountain, Skogafoss waterfall, glaciers and more. 

Friday 1 August 2014

It's been a while!

Apologies! It's been a while since I posted anything here. 
I especially have to apologise to one person in particular - you know who you are! 

2014 so far has been a year that won't be forgotten. 
At the start of the year I had to say goodbye to my little furry friend of 14 years. My dog Charlie reached the end and the bet thing for him was to send him of peacefully. 
Some of you may remember that I had been struging with damaged nerves in my shoulder for a while. Well it turned out that was because of severely prolapsed discs in my neck causing damage to the nerves...and threatening to pull my spinal cord apart. Once the problem was diagnosed I went in for urgent surgery to stop me from being paralysed from the neck down. 
On top of that I was informed by my wife that she was leaving me. Breaking that news to my two sons was one of the hardest things I've ever done!
My house is now sold and I am hoping to hear good news on offers I have made on a couple of houses nearby, which will mean I can stay close to the area and have my kids stay half the time. 

So, it's been a weird year. Yes it certainly has! But...something amazing has happened as well. 

I've met someone who has shown me the true meaning to happiness, that there is always a bright light shining, that some things were meant to happen. 
Looking back on past years I have realised that my marriage should've ended years ago, that it was just a matter of routine and that there was no joy or happiness in life anymore. 

I have met the most amazing person imaginable, who has shown me what my life should have been for many many years. There is now a real reason to be happy, to look forward to finishing workfor  the day, to look forward to weekends. 

It may take a little while for my two boys to get into a new routine of living in two different houses, and when they are with either parent they will be treasured and looked after as much a they have always been, but they will be happy. Many many people have told me recently that kids are extremely resilient and they actually orivide a lot of support to parents when going through a break-up...I really do believe that to be true now. My two boys have been absolutely amazing. 

And when I introduce them, over time, to this amazing person I've met, I hope they see that I am happy as well. 

Melissa, I'm sorry to have put you through so much crap over the last few months. You are amazing. You are everything that anyone could wish for xxx

Monday 17 March 2014

Landscape Photography Perseverance (aka Corfe Castle beat me again)

Those that love landscape photography know that it really is a game of hit and miss. That you really have to persevere to get that killer shot you've been after for a while. It can take many attempts to get the right circumstances to come together.

The current score is Corfe Castle: 3 Me:0.

If you're wondering what I'm talking about, it is the running total in the number of times I have tried to photograph the world famous Corfe Castle at sunrise with some mist surrounding it. Ok, so I have failed to capture the mist in the three attempts I have made to get there. It's only three attempts. I know guys who've been trying for years to get that iconic shot of this location, so I know I'll be back there a lot more times before I get on the scoreboard. Keep going, keep going, keep going.

Myself and my friend Mark, from Twiglet Images, left my house in Southampton at 3:45am to get to Corfe Castle in plenty of time for sunrise. We arrived there just after 5am, which meant we had over an hour before the sun would break over the horizon. When we arrived we were greeted with the usual scenario...no mist, so we were toying with the idea of setting up our gear to capture some star trails instead, but there were only small gaps in the clouds where stars could be seen. Then we decided to head to Kimmeridge Bay to see what we could capture there. Although the sky was cloudy it wasn't a total blanket, there were pockets of light beginning to seep through, so we thought that would produce some nice colour when the sun rose.

Hmmm, that was the thought process anyway. One incy wincy flaw in our plan was that we hadn't checked the tide timetable. It was high tide at Kimmeridge Bay. Kimmeridge is basically a rock ledge that slopes very gently out to sea, so when it is high tide the water comes all the way up to the cliffs at the back of the beach, there is no way to walk along the beach when it's like this. And I wasn't going to risk losing my camera gear to the sea.

So, back-up plan C came into force. We agreed to head to Old Harry Rocks near Studland Bay instead. The time was now about 5:40am, and it was a 6 or 7 mile drive there from Kimmeridge, plus we would need to walk about a mile from where the car would be parked to get to the rocks. That was cutting it far too fine to be able to get there in time, and set up our gear for sunrise. So, what do you think we did? Yep, we went back to Corfe Castle.

We were hoping that those gaps in the clouds would be kind to us and allow some lovely colours to shine through when the sun finally rose. It didn't quite work out that way. Some heavier cloud banks drifted across very slowly so we didn't see anything apart from a small area of colour off to the right. However, as we were already there, and I'm always of the belief that you make the most of any situation I changed my composition and set up to try and get a moody atmosphere coming across in my shots. I think that worked. Have a look at the image below, or on my Facebook page.


I have an idea to convert this to black and white and can see it in my mind as a dark and foreboding image, with the clouds really looking menacing. I'll work on that and post it here soon.

As usual don't forget to have a look at my website: www.kevinbrownephotography.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/KevinBrownePhotography

And I always welcome comments.

Kev.

Tuesday 11 March 2014

Test Valley Hampshire - a great place for landscape photography

The Test Valley in Hampshire is a great place for landscape photography. My normal route to and from work takes me through the Test Valley and I always carry my camera equipment in my car, just in case the light is right and I can grab a good photograph. The area is perfect for landscape photography, as there are so many open spaces, with interesting twists and turns.

I was driving home from work this evening and noticed a slight mist in the air. It was so faint you could almost not notice it. There were no clouds in the sky, and the sun was falling fast towards his bed. This combination made for some beautiful light, so I knew exactly where I should pull my car over and capture the light.

Just as I was setting up my gear, I could hear a dog barking and noticed a couple walking towards me with two dogs. The dogs were Beagles, and one of them sounded like it wanted to rip my head off. Now, I'm not afraid of dogs and when they came closer I simply smiled and said hello. When the barky dog got closer she came up to inspect me and have a sniff. She then put one paw on my camera bag and one on my knee and wanted a cuddle. She was gorgeous :-)

As usual this image is available as a print from my website: www.kevinbrownephotography.com


I hope you like it. I'd love to hear your comments.

Speak to you soon.

Monday 10 March 2014

Indoor photography to the rescue

This weekend just gone I was supposed to head down to Durdle Door in Dorset for a sunrise shoot with a friend. However, late on Friday afternoon he messaged me to tell me he was having car trouble so wouldn't be able to make it. Although I was really looking forward to being out and about with my camera again, as it has been weeks, I also thought it would be good to stay at home and get a few things sorted in the house.


The flowers in the bouquet are red roses and pink lillies. The roses are already open of course, but the lillies are still closed, so I'll have to wait for some nice shots of the lillies.

This shot (see it on my website here) was taken with a Canon 70D, a Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro and a reflector to make the most of the natural light.


I'm looking forward to being able to get some shots of the lilles, as I love their intricate structures.

If you have any comments about this, I'd love to hear them.

Kevin.

Tuesday 18 February 2014

Sometimes, when my kids are asleep...

A bit of a playful one this time. 
Sometimes, when my kids are asleep, I sneak into their rooms and steal some of their toys so I can play with them myself. 
My eldest son loves playing Skylanders Giants and Swap Force on his Nintendo Wii, so last night I grabbed all the Skylanders figurines he's got and put together a picture for him that I'm going to get printed into a poster for him, for his birthday.


This is made up of 8 individual images aligned beside each other. The finished image dimensions are 6ft wide by 1ft tall, and the low-res version is 22MB! The finished Photoshop file is 240MB!!! Just a bit too big for Facebook.

On these miserable wet days its always good to crack on with an indoor project.

Speak soon]]Kevin.

Sunday 16 February 2014

At last, a break in the storms

Most people will know we here in the UK have suffered some pretty horrible weather lately. Not the extreme snow that the US have had, or the hurricanes that can decimate some parts of Asia, but for the UK these storms have been something very much out of the ordinary. Weeks and weeks of torrential rain and damaging high winds have both brought severe flooding that have ruined peoples homes and businesses, have caused chaos on the roads and rails, and will take many months to completely recede.

I am lucky that my house has not been hit by the floods, I feel so sorry for the many families that have had their homes ruined, I can't think of anything worse. Yes, my house has been affected by leaks and fences have been blown down, but that is minor compared to what others have to put up with.

Today was a very welcome respite from the horrible weather though. It was sunny with only very light breezes and was actually quite mild for February. I didn't think twice. I packed the kids in the car and headed off to Calshot for a walk along the beach to get some fresh air in our lungs. The clouds even played ball and gave me some nice light to take some pictures. One of them is below, and I'll be uploading a few more over the next few days.



I'm starting a new job in my existing company over the next few weeks, while trying to maintain progress on my current job until someone is found to take over my role. I'm going to be moving onto managing the construction of over 800 wireless network sites for a new Smart Metering network my company is building in Scotland and the North of England. I think that'll keep me busy for a while, but hopefully I'll still be able to get out with my camera regularly.

Have a great week everyone.

www.kevinbrownephotography.com

Saturday 25 January 2014

Kimmeridge Bay, Dorset - A very rewarding photographic experience

After my last photo trip to Dorset a couple of weeks ago, I was struck with the bug to capture a photograph of Corfe Castle peaking out of the mist. After checking the forecasts on about three different weather apps last night myself and my friend Mark were pretty certain we would be rewarded with something good. So, it was agreed that Mark would get to my house in Southampton by 6am and I would drive us down to Corfe Castle.

Well, as many photographers who have tried the same thing at Corfe Castle on many occassions, and failed, we were to face the same result. Not a hint of mist, and very few clouds in the sky. So, having photographed there only two weeks before and the conditions looking very similar to that last trip we decided to head to Kimmeridge Bay for something different.

This was my first time at Kimmeridge, and I must admit to being slightly excited as I had seen so many wonderful images of the place on sites like Flickr, Facebook and 500px. I had looked it up on Google Maps yesterday, but what you don't realise from the satellite images is the sheer vertical cliffs that surround the beach, with only a couple of pathways leading down to the rocky beach. Once down on the beach it was very easy to see how shallow it actually is, as the flat rock formations very slowly slope downwards on their way out to sea. The tide was on its way out, but one good wave would bring it all the way back up to the high-tide line and we would have to move out of the way.


When we arrived there was barely a breeze and it felt very mild, considering it is meant to be January. The sky was clear, apart from a thin line of faint cloud on the horizon. We set up the tripods to capture one of the lines of rock acting as a leading line in the images. 

The small building you can see on top of the hill near the top of both of these images is Clavell Tower, which would make a great foreground subject for a star-trail image I think :-)


There are so many photographic possibilities at Kimmeridge that I am really looking forward to getting down there again. In the panoramic image above you can make out the tilting remains of a World War II Pill Box, which appears to be slowly making its way down the beach. This in itself could be a very interesting subject, as well as the chances for some close-up work on the interesting rocks and pebbles to be found on the beach. 

So, on my first trip to Kimmeridge I am really impressed. It is a location which could produce stunning photographs at any time of day, not just sunrise or sunset. I will definitely be back.

Oh, and on a different subject, I'm looking forward to getting a printed copy of Hampshire Life magazine so I can see what my photograph looks like on the front cover. I'm in print. I'm published. Ha ha :-)

Until next time, have fun.

Kevin.

Friday 17 January 2014

Magazine front cover photo

Just a bit of an update to my last post.
Those of you who read my last blog post (here) would know that I got an email from the editior of Hampshire Life magazine asking if they could use one of my images in their February issue. You will also know that I of course said yes.

Well, the update on that is that the editor emailed me again a few days later and said the image would work really well on the front cover! After a few back-and-forward emails and a quick phonr call I sorted out the correct sizing of the image for the front cover and away it went. I'm really looking forward to seeing what it looks like on the cover. I might just be buying more than one copy :-)

As if that wasn't enough, the lovely editor asked for another image for the inside of the magazine. TWO images in one magazine...I'd better stop, my head is going to get too big ;-)

When I get a sample of the front cover I'll post it here. In the meantime here are links to the two images being used.

Front Cover: Sunset at Brately View in the New Forest
Inside Image: Long exposure at Milford-On-Sea

Until next time, with HUGE smiles

Don't forget to sign up to my blog for automatic updates, and share with your friends.

Kev.

Monday 6 January 2014

2014 is turning out to be quite good so far :-)

Good evening everyone,
I'm in a happy mood today. You know one of those days when good things just come along all at once and even if you're having a rubbish day at work it doesn't matter? yep, one of those days :-)

Why? Because of a couple of things.

Firstly, some excessive Tweeting over the last couple of weeks may just well be starting to pay back. I have been busy on my Twitter account testing out reaction from some local businesses to see if they would be interested in displaying some of my photos. Ok, so I tweeted a LOT of them, and it was getting to feel like I was some sort of stalker, but I've had some really nice responses and encouragement...and some genuine interest. I've had a couple of cool venues reply to me saying that they want to talk further to me. It's early days, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed we can come to some sort of mutually beneficial agreement. If/when it comes off I will certainly be posting some details about it.

Secondly, I received an email today from Hampshire Life magazine saying they wanted to print one of my images, and could I do a write-up on why I photograph Hampshire and what this particular image means to me. Ok, so I don't get paid, but they've asked me to include my website details "in case any readers would like to purchase a print of it". The exposure and possible interest is what I'm after at the moment, the chance for extra interest in my website. Hampshire Life magazine is seen by a LOT of people. This image is going to be printed in the February issue. I'm a happy boy.

http://www.kevinbrownephotography.com/#!Bratley-View-New-Forest-Hampshire/zoom/galleryPage/image12aa


Oh, I almost forgot. Another reason to be happy...I've just sold another canvas print of this image as well :-)

Happy 2014 everyone. Onwards and upwards chaps, don't forget to share this post with your friends.

Kev.

www.kevinbrownephotography.com