One careful owner...

The end of an era.....!
I'm thinking I've not shot any 120 film for a while..so my baby's gotta go!
Anybody want to buy a delicious Mamiya RZ 67 Pro 11..??
Lens, two magazines, including the rare 220 mag. £500  all in and I'll throw in a free polaroid back..(Ah, Polaroid!)

Down in the park...

Saturday's Wedding was at The Alicia Hotel, in Sefton Park, Liverpool... a massive area in which to shoot the bride and groom as long as you don't mind barbecues, footballs and skateboarders in your background! Made a little montage of the shots, and am dropping it off at the Hotel for them to use as promotional material (For them AND me!)

Also, I'm getting some interest in my Florescence Cards now, with two seperate card and gift shops interested in stocking them. Will keep you posted..(Cards..posted..geddit?!)

Best Foot Forward....

A quick Shoe-in about a new Wedding Promotion I'm involved with.
I've been invited to be the Sole Photographer in a local Wedding Suppliers Event in Culcheth.
Steps are being taken to Boot up some business from the Well-Heeled of Cheshire. 
A cake maker, a dress supplier and a stationery designer will join me in the display on the first floor of the CPS Mall in Culcheth from next Tuesday.  Hot-Foot it down there and check us out.

Hmm, Good Blog...Laced with humour!

It's on the cards..

I've started making a series of greetings cards from my Florescence Photographs.
There's a set of six different cards..blank on the inside..and with 'real' pearl paper photographs on the front. I'm going to sell them as singles and sets, with the idea being that you can send them to friends or actually use them to frame as 'wall art'.

Anyone interested in buying/selling 'em ? Get in touch..usual commission !!

In da House !

Off to see Crowded House at Manchester Apollo ce soir..so a timely nod to their former drummer, Paul Hester. My friends in the band When In Rome surprised me by mentioning on Facebook that it's FIVE years since poor old Paul hanged himself. I met and photographed the band when they played an acoustic session in HMV, Manchester. They were promoting Woodface, so that makes it 1991. I dug out this photo to show you the happy, cheerful face that hid his sadness and depression. The camera doesn't lie...it just records what you point it at!

Make Room.....

Busy, busy weekend....and here I am the other side of it feeling really happy and "creatively satisfied"!!
Steph and Paul's Wedding on a scorching Saturday in Liverpool...and a Brochure shoot for Room Restaurant in Manchester on a sizzling Sunday. (Big thank you to the lovely Lesley for assisting!)
Of course, the sunshine works wonders for Wedding guests and alfresco diners...but it's a bugger for photographers! Rose to the challenge, of course..and it was a great opportunity for me to play around with my off-camera flash. (That's not an arrestable offence, by the way!)
Looking forward to Room's new brochure being printed, when I'll be named as the restaurant's Nominated Photographer.
Now, where's me after-sun?

A View with a Room

Busy weekend ahead, and lots of variety for me....A couple of newspaper jobs today..a lovely Wedding in Liverpool tomorrow and then...photographing a Room! The Room in question is one of the swankiest restaurants in Manchester. I shot a wedding there recently. The Manager liked the way I worked  (naturally!)  and so very kindly invited me to come in and photograph the restaurant for their new brochure. I'll pop a picture on here once I've done it. So, Press work, Wedding Photography and a Commercial shoot ..all in the space of three days...God, I love being a Photographer!

Say Cheese!

I admit it..I've just shot some really cheesy photos..! Well, ok...photos of cheese!
JS Bailey Cheese Makers in Cheshire invited me to shoot the images for their new web-site, and it's just gone live. Five am start, a morning in a daft protective hat and shooting everything from huge cheese graters to still-lives to wagons. Then, I had the idea to use a kid eating cheese as the lead picture. Quick as you can say Wensleydale, they produce the boss's grandson..who was just perfect for the job, and polished off his cheese butty in double quick time! (Scoffed the lot..he'd just had his breakfast, too!)

I love Wedding Photography, but the bottom line is that I'm a Photographer, and love all kinds of challenges in the job. In Photography, variety's the spice of life..and life doesn't get much better than Bailey's Cheddar Herb and Garlic cheese..Mmmm!

Over the mooooon!

Messing about with my new super telephoto lens....Shooting the Moon and over the moon with it. Can't wait to use it at this Saturday's Wedding but I reckon the Bride and Groom will have to be about 3 miles away from me hahaha....!

Ego.....

Had this comment posted on Facebook today...."That is possibly the best photo I've ever seen and you've ever taken. It's a Mike Leigh film in one picture!"....How's that for an ego booster! (Oh, God, yes...I'm an artist!)

Come on in, the water's lovely!

Just watch out for those waves! The weather's getting warmer and my thoughts have turned to Abroad!
New Travel Shots uploaded...

Love tore him apart.....

So, here we are....30 years after the death of Ian Curtis. God Bless, man!

Amazing to me to think I actually stood on stage with this icon..snapping away, getting sworn at by Hooky, not knowing what I was in to. But,  no sadness today...which is why I added the fun graffiti...What Joy he brought into my life.
Thank you, Ian.

Poster PS.....

Here's newly-weds Judi and Chris who popped into my studio to pick up a 3 foot poster-print from their Wedding Day Photographs. Adding this option to my range for just £100..Picture yourself BIG !!
( Book me before June 30th to shoot your Wedding and you can get one of these posters for just £50 ! )

Head in the clouds...

At least..that's what a lot of people wish they had...so my sympathies to all would-be flyers out there, and here's my shot of a volcano in Sumatra to make the point. This is Mount Bromo, tourist site and home to my (Probably well-melted!) Olympus XA camera, which I managed to drop in whilst at the rim!
Ya can't beat nature!

More Travel shots here...

Poo !

Dear Orange....Get Real !!!!
My internet's been down for a week now..(I'm hangin' off a dongle as we speak!) and I've spent..Oooh, God knows how much trying to phone Karachi or somewhere to get it fixed.
I'm now fed up to the back teeth with Orange's system and protocol and, dare it say it...language difficulties...and a week on I'm still no nearer getting back online. By the same score, I've just phoned a company based in Bolton to order a cooker element. The lady there laughed, joked and called me "Love" all through the call. I've come away smiling, happy in the knowledge that my cooker problem is sorted and glad to have given them 36 quid!


So...read into it what you want...but a photo of a big pile of Poo to Orange!

Attention, Cool People...

Piccadilly Records, in Downtown Central, Sunny Manchester, are selling my new Joy Division sets at the bargain price of twenty squids...Online too....Buy 'em here!!!

The Fonz boys? From my set  'Don't Miss That' 

So What!

New Government? Big Deal ! I've got new Socks !!
Check 'em out!

Serious note: Sincere best wishes to good old Frank Sidebottom..Get well soon Chris!!

No, no....just....NO !

Spent yesterday at a "Seminar"..!! (Ie: Place where pillocks convince amateurs they could make a living from photography..!) Could not believe the keynote speaker.....Won't tell you his name but he described himself as.."Prostitute first..photographer second..ie..It's a business!!!!

Me?..It's a bloody PASSION.....I cannot wait to be at a couple's wedding, shooting and capturing those emotions and thrills....

I don't care if you don't buy THE EXPENSIVE ALBUM..or whether you order LOTS OF PRINTS....
I just want to be there to capture the stuff you wanna look at!

Hell yes, I gotta make a living...but I want to do it honestly...and not by ripping off "my couples"....!

Phew! Oh, the picture?  Just me getting back to Simple Pleasures.....bought a fabby lens yesterday for 99 squids...second hand..old...not compatible with modern cameras..not "On Trend"...BUT it can shoot stuff like this from FOUR feet away.....Ah...lovely !!!

Yes!!

New Day Dawns...

Day one of the Cameron era.....Hold on tight..the louder you scream the more Tory the Government gets!

The shot is Uluru (Ayres Rock in old money!)...from my travel series.
Oh, and New Dawn Fades...(Appropriate?) just happens to be a Joy Division song, which leads me back to...

Home Sweet Home..

Trawling t'internet and checking out other photographers' sites, I came across this lovely use of the English language..."Our studio is based in our personal residence"...

Yeah, I work from home, too!

Reasons to be cheerful..

You know...the simple things in life are often the most rewarding.
Today's reason to be cheerful? The mere fact that 'one of my brides' has ordered this image to go in her album. As a photographer I work really hard to capture everything I see - you simply can't let a good shot go by! - but it's very rare that an off-the-cuff shot gets chosen to see the light of day.
So, here we are, bride's Mum arriving and swapping her 'comfy' shoes for her sexy wedding 'heels'...complete with photographer's shadow (Shows how quickly I had to grab the shot!)

Happy? You bet!

Can't Be Sure...

Ok..another nudge towards the election..(Slightly!)

Had to laugh listening to music earlier...The Sundays..from 1989.  Boy, they had this hung parliament nailed.  Their song Can't be sure has it all! The title, obviously...and the lyrics "England, my country, the home of the free...such miserable weather!" Ooh I luv you Harriet xxx

The shot's from my series, appropriately titled "On the One Hand!"......

It's written in the stars.....

Wow! A Big Love Heart in the Sky....My one and only nudge to the fact that there's actually been an election...and the Big Question...Will it be two parties together after all that??
Stay tuned..

( Doesn't sound as romantic if I say it's actually NGC 4038 and NGC 4039 ...two colliding galaxies..but we can all let our imaginations run wild and enjoy this cosmic coming together...Aw! )

Form an orderly queue....

..and head to Wilmslow for my next exhibition.
Just been given the nod to display my Flower Photography 'Florescence'
at Wilmslow Garden Centre from the end of this month.
(Just for the few million people who can't make it to High Legh, where it's still on.)

My shot above (tenuous link...) shows Gurkha soldiers parading in Kathmandu, Nepal.
Part of the series I shot when I travelled around the world with a model...!!!

(Is that how you spell tenuous??)

I'll blog it for ya.....

So, you're out having a meal with mates..and the subject gets on to the fear of animals...(As it does!)
I mention the time I'm bitten on the head by a snake whilst taking its picture.
"But I still took the picture anyway!".... I boast...and before ya know it I'm promising to chuck it on me blog as proof.
So here it is, Craig! Happily, this highly venomous snake only bit me with its front fangs...and as we all know, the bad stuff's in the back teeth !!!
Oh, the important stuff? Mamiya 645, 45mm, with colour tranny..one brolly to the side..the usual way I shoot my snakes, ha ha!

Ah, job done!

Lovely when you get feed-back from a Wedding.
Here's Judi, from Saturday...

" Hi Martin, the photos are fantastic! Thanks for everything, you made it great fun...
And how the hell are we going to choose 75 from 745!!!  Best regards  Judi x "

See what she means....

Speaking of cool....

Check this out...my Joy Division T-Shirt range is up and running in Japan!!

Brrr....

It may be May, and the blossom's on the trees..but boy, is it cold!
Sunday's brave bride Francesca whipped off a shawl to pose for a few quick shots at the family restaurant, Bella Vista, near Oldham. Great day, guys!
Have a look at some of their other shots...

Brilliant!

Great Wedding yesterday...Great couple, great venues ( Manchester Town Hall/Midland Hotel/Room restaurant !) and great opportunities for photography!! Judi and Chris were all for it when I saw this sign as we walked through town...Doesn't that just sum up Marriage ?

Now..time to do it all again today!

Petrol !!

So it's finally May and I'm shooting a Wedding today at Manchester Town Hall, whilst a whole heap of Bikers are heading over the M62 to protest about the disgusting fuel prices we're all paying.
Their finishing point? Manchester Town Hall..!!
Now, half of me thinks..this is gonna make great pictures...the other half's thinking.."Oh, bugger!"

But..I log onto the "May-Hem" site to read this..

"Also we originally intended on getting to the town hall however there are two weddings on this saturday and we couldn't intrude it wouldn't be fair to the lucky couples ;-) "

Thanks peoples...and good luck with your (our) protest! 

(The picture? It's from my Olympus XA series...)

Social Eyes

Happy May, y'all...and time for YET ANOTHER set of my pictures uploaded to Flickr...

A 50 shot series called Social Eyes...taken at events that I've covered but from a more observational viewpoint (As we snappers like to say). I know it's a bit Martin Parr-y but a lot of the shots are very amusing and there are some funny moments/happenings captured. And yes, it does go back to when people could smoke in bars...imagine that!