Paul Groom Art

Bird / Bath

Thanks to everybody who came to my exhibition last weekend, I’m very pleased to say that it was a big success with a preview night which included Bristol jazz singer Lady Nade performing, a chance to meet Zonda the black eagle from The International Centre for Birds of Prey and also a slightly unexpected disruption by actors Nik Howden and Nikki Warwick.

Short Film

Short film by Andy Sutton showing the Bird/Bath exhibition.

Video editor and friend of the company Andy Sutton came along to the hall when Paul was unboxing the prints and setting up as well as on the actual preview night itself, he has very kindly put this footage into this superb film.

Exhibition photos

Under The Edge Arts’ Chipping Hall in Wotton-under-Edge was set up with swimming pool images on the left (taken at Wotton Pool) and birds of prey on the right (all taken at The International Centre for Birds of Prey)

Here are a few photos from the preview night.

…and a few close ups of the exhibits before the doors opened:

I hope you like the video and pics, thanks to everybody who was involved in the creation of the exhibition.

Special thanks to….

The photo subjects for the exhibition: Jazz singer Lady Nade http://www.ladynade.co.uk – Make-up for this shoot by Helena Restall Actors Nik Howden and Nikki Warwick Professional dance artist Emma Dickson: https://www.facebook.com/Movein2Freedom/

The exhibition leaflet was beautifully designed by Lizzie de Pass, thanks: http://www.elledeepea.com/about/

Thanks to Under The Edge Arts for allowing me to use their fantastic venue: https://www.utea.org.uk

Thanks to Jason Titley for shooting the video footage of the actual photo shoots, which was made into a film: http://www.jasontitley.com

…and finally another thanks to Andy Sutton for the exhibition film and promo film. https://andysutton.tv

Here’s to the next exhibition!!

Paul

Wade in the Water

Here’s a little bonus video of Lady Nade singing Wade in the Water at the preview evening, filmed by Paul.

Perfect subject matter!

I hope you are all well! As some of you know, I have been very busy putting together a new exhibition of my photography and I would love it if you could come to the preview night.

The exhibition features large birds of prey portrait prints taken at The International Centre for Birds of Prey and several creative portrait shoots taken in the water at Wotton Pool.  (more…)

I was sent to the Mary Rose to carry out a Behind The Scenes set of photos for Candis Magazine. You might have seen my recent set of images for Candis from Trill Farm in Axminster, well this brief couldn’t have been much more different.

We spent the day visiting the various parts of the museum, here we see some of the items which were found on the ship, as well as the skeleton of the ship’s dog – named Hatch due to the location of where the skeleton was found.

It was a real pleasure to meet one of the original divers who brought the Mary Rose to the surface all those years ago, Chris Dobbs (seen below in the orange overalls) had just graduated from college when he started working with the ship. We also see David Pearson, the conservation manager, checking on the artefacts which his team restore, some of which are then used for general display.

It was exciting to see up close a cannonball from the ship, these were worked on whilst at sea and made smooth ready for battle. The stones shown below would have been from the kitchen’s stove area.

Collections Officer Simon Ware showed us the private collections which are too delicate for public display. Below we see longbows and arrows which were beautifully preserved as they were stored in chests on the ship. Mary and Charlie from the education department showed me the replica items which are used to allow people to get closer feel for what life might have been like.

Visitors to the museum may not realise what goes on behind the scenes, too. The museum needs to be kept at a constant temperature with the correct amount of moisture. Brian Robinson checks on these levels. Also below we see the gigantic task of cleaning slides and transferring to digital to be saved for future generations.

A wonderful day looking around a genuine wonder – I highly recommend visiting. Thanks to the Mary Rose for giving us such amazing access to all areas, and thanks also to Candis for sending me!

Candis is a monthly women’s magazine, for more information do visit their website.

I was asked to take photos of Trill Farm for a ‘Behind The Scenes’ story for popular monthly magazine Candis. Candis Magazine have sent me on many wonderful photo shoots (which I’m going to hopefully feature more of in future blogs) and this one was another colourful and interesting brief – I’m excited to share some of the photos with you.

A brief history of Trill Farm, this is the description from their website:

Trill Farm is a 300 acre mixed organic farm set in the rolling hills and woodlands of east Devon. Romy Fraser bought the farm in 2008 with the aim of developing an education centre and community of small businesses that could work together to use the land’s resources.

It is interesting to note that Romy Fraser created the high street chain Neal’s Yard Remedies in 1981. You can read about this in the Trill Farm blog.

So, to pictures….

I had an extremely tasty lunch whilst I was at Trill Farm, chef Chris Onions and his team serve lovingly created home made food which include ingredients sourced on the farm as much as possible.

The Gotland Sheep which they keep at Trill Farm give a very distinctive grey wool, which you can see below.

Here you can see some of the soap making oils and petals… and then the finished product.

An excellent day, and great to see how things work on a busy organic farm. Thanks to Trill Farm for being so accommodating and giving me access to the whole farm, it was superb.

You can find this story and other Behind The Scenes photo stories in Candis Magazine.

The location has a few different feels so we did several different shots. My favourite is possibly the shot of her sitting on the branch shown above.

Izzy has an effortless cool which made taking these pictures a breeze… effortlessly going between a genuine smile to that enigmatic gaze which is so popular in countless magazines, brochures, advertising.

I mostly used my 85mm f1.2 lens with the 5Ds for these to get the background blur.. it’s a difficult lens to use but I love the results.

Hope you like them! If you know of anybody interested in a model session – let me know!

Paul

My photos of Liverpool architecture, stopping by the Central Library and the harbour area.

As part of my photographic tour of cities around the UK (slow moving tour, but definitely happening)… I visited the striking, impressive, alive and generally amazing city of Liverpool.

I stopped by Liverpool Central Libraryfirst, you walk a few metres inside and look up to be confronted by this abstract spiral design with walk-way criss-crosses going right up to the top. The angles allows it…

New model photo session: Paulina - the deserted warehouse session, Bristol.

Recently a client very kindly gave me the chance of using a deserted warehouse in Bristol for a model photo shoot…. not wanting to miss out on an opportunity, I immediately set about finding the right model and make-up artist and was very lucky to find a striking model called Paulina and very talented make-up artist Ivona.

Shoot details: Model: Paulina Bobrowska Make-up: Ivona Nowak

  Paulina h…

A selection of images from the model photo session with Ismay

Zoom back three quarters of a year and I’m photographing a young model called Ismay, being tickled by long grass and battling against stinging nettles.

We did this session just before my ten year anniversary OWL exhibition in Bristol, and the photos have been waiting to be shown ever since… well, it’s now time!

It was a superb session, with the sun going down so we had some strong side light.…

OWL : Photography by Paul Groom – Tobacco Factory Exhibition

Hooray! My OWL exhibition celebrating the company’s TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARYis finally up and ready for you to see! It’s at The Tobacco Factory, Bristol (details below). The pictures are HUGE (some A0. most A1). Below you’ll find the press release for the event with the pertinent details! I hope you can make it! If you do manage to come, please send a tweet / Facebook mention with me tagged in – I’d…

Although a good chunk of my photography work is in and around Bristol, I often travel around the country. I had a corporate portraiture job come up in central London a couple of weeks ago.. and I was pleased to realise that I had a few hours available to do some blog photography on the way…so I asked about on Twitter if anybody lived nearby and wanted to do a portrait session with me on my way.…

Pets and People Series: Helen and Snakey the Corn Snake. How do you photograph a mini snake face and a human?

Portrait Series: Pets & People

As promised in my last Pets & People post, I now have for you Helen and Snakey her Corn Snake (named by her son) who live near to Bristol, UK. (more…)

Portrait Series: Pets & People

Recently I was talking about owls on Twitter (as I do a fair bit) and the lovely @trendyredmac replied saying her friend looks after a barn owl… immediately my mind started thinking this was a perfect photo opportunity… skip forward a few weeks and I’m visiting Gwen and her beautiful barn owl Harriet at Gwen’s tweed clothing company ‘Harriet Hoot‘ (named after her…

Bristol Street Portrait Photography Session With Model Khie Biggs:

Model Portrait Series: Khie Biggs

I very much enjoyed photographing young Bristol model Khie Biggs in Bristol recently. We found a superb location for the portraits with amazingly complex graffiti and generally plenty of urban decay… which possibly couldn’t be better if you’d actually designed the set yourself. Sometimes being a photographer in Bristol really has many advantages, including such a…

Photo Session: Actor Nik Howden In A Stream!

I recently had the great pleasure of photographing talented actor Nik Howden in a stream in the Cotswolds. Nik is a versatile actor who has appeared in such TV shows as Ashes to Ashes, Doctor Who, Grandpa In My Pocket as well as a being the lead in the stage show of Julia Donaldson’s Stick Man.

If you’d like to find out more about Nik Howden, please see his Spotlight page or Casting Call Pro page.

As you may know, next year is the ten year anniversary of my business Paul Groom Photography Ltd, so I’m planning a photography exhibition at a rather superb gallery in central Bristol called Centrespace. It’s just off Corn Street.

The versatile gallery space available at Centrespace, Bristol (not my work shown).

I’m planning on making the exhibition all about one of my long-time obsessions: OWLS. I’ve chosen owls because in my day to day life I almost never get asked to photograph owls (although would love it!), so they’re a perfect subject for a personal project, and have a great deal of interest with just about everybody I speak to.

I don’t want to give away too much about the main photography exhibition, this is all being planned now and will be the surprise element of the show, but I’d love to incorporate a collaborative element to the event in which Twitter and Facebook get involved.

So, I’m asking: In what way could Twitter and Facebook get involved in the exhibition and have work displayed. I would love for an area of the exhibition to be taken up with collaborative work.

Some of you may know/follow an account I run on Twitter called @artcollabs in which I ask people to post artwork on a theme, so this is a larger version of this. I’m looking for suggestions as to what could happen.

Here are some ideas:

People on Facebook and Twitter post (in the actual post) any imagery to me which they feel is owl related and these images take up a space at the exhibition.

Actual visitors to the exhibition can contribute a drawing then and there. Space to draw within the exhibition with pens provided.

People post an interpretation of what they think it may feel like to be an owl.

Please reply below with any other ideas, I think this could be great and look forward to hearing your ideas.

Thanks

Paul

p.s. earlier this year I asked people to draw owls for a collaboration which I held, these drawings could be used.

p.p.s. here’s a picture of an owl landing for inspiration….

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I covered the event for Comic Relief as they were involved in the day, and I got to go to The Eden Project to photograph the superb concert held there, which featured many amazing artists like Youssou N-Dour, Peter Gabriel, Geoffrey Oryema, Mariza and lots more.

I was fortunate to be there for the whole day, including being in the press area when Peter Gabriel was explaining about the event and I photographed him being interviewed by TV and radio stations from around the world… Tim Smit (the creator of The Eden Project) was also a very big presence, a proud moment in its history.

Two noticeable moments… at one point in the day Nelson Mandela spoke to the concert through a television link up, this pic is the fifth pic in the gallery, everybody was very emotional. Also, Angelina Jolie popped up for one reason or another, I’d entirely forgotten about this, but the pic is below, so it must’ve happened!

I hope you enjoy looking through these pictures, the event was special for me because it was at the beginning of my career as a photographer. I was about to go full time freelance and covering this event gave me a good deal of confidence to be brave and leave my job in a publishing company in Bristol… which as I’m sure as you can imagine, is a very big step.

Thanks

Paul

All images © Paul Groom Photography. Please contact me for usage. Please feel free to share on social media but credit with a link to http://www.paulgroomphotography.co.uk if possible. 

The OWLS have landed – lovely BIG pictures

Enough talk, let’s just enjoy some lovely big pictures of owls (and one hawk) which I took recently….

The first eight are from the International Centre for Birds of Prey which is based in Newent, near Gloucester & Bristol. Click on the images to view the larger versions.

The last two images are taken on my own personal OWL SAFARIin which I found the local Eagle Owl happily sitting on top of a…