Beyond the obvious

I've finally got round to making a slide show of a photo story I shot in August 2010 in Belgium. Every year a group of Belgian people from a closely knit neighbourhood, and their friends, get together to have a street party. The street is closed off and a marquee erected. The neighbourhood raise funds and celebrate together eating Belgium's favourite meal, mussels with fries, and of course the best beer in the world. As you will see above everyone lets their hair down. I was invited to the feast and had the opportunity to document it. The event's ceremony master welcomed my wife and I to the event, "all the way from England". If you'd like to see the still images they're on my website in the photo story section . There are a few of my other photo stories there too. Till soon, Paul www.indigo2photography.co.uk

The happy brewer As promised in my previous post, Appreciating Photographs , I am going to try to offer an insight into why I think an image 'works'. The photograph above is from my latest photo story on the Mad Brewers of Belgium (De Dolle Brouwers). You can read the actual story on my website and see a large slide show with the rest of the images. The brewer, Kris Herteleer, looks happily on at the latest batch of beer cooling in the large copper basin. Steam rises from the hot beer creating atmosphere. The brewery machinery is visible in the background. For me the way he is holding the edge of the basin, leaning forward and especially that happy smile says it all. The image stands on its own but when seen in the context of the full photo-story it gets an added dimension. It is also a very important image to the story as it show's Kris' sense of accomplishment.  De Dolle Brouwers have to work hard to make a success of their small traditional brewery in a very c...