Let the Good Times..rock!

Better days ahead..I'm up with The Greats!
My Joy Division photographs are going to be shown alongside those of fab snappers Anton Corbijn and Kevin Cummins! Our images are all planned to be projected in a continuous slide-show at the forthcoming commemoration exhibition of their iconic lead singer Ian Curtis.
UNKNOWN PLEASURES runs from July 29th 'til August 7th at Macclesfield Silk Museum.

Let the Good Times...stop !

Honestly, you turn your back for a minute! I've only been gone a week and what happens?...My main client goes bust and England get dumped from the World Cup! Good grief!

Well, as my Blog is football free (supposedly!) I'll skip on from that pathetic on-field performance and look at a much sadder story. Crain's Manchester Business has closed! The fab city newspaper that commissioned me for its photography just couldn't keep its head above water in these straitened times, and bit the dust with a bomb-shell announcement last Monday. It lasted just under three years and seemed to be ticking along nicely. Indeed, only a few days before I went away I shot a fab lunch they held at the Piccadilly Ramada Hotel, with photographs used on their website to announce its award winners. 

Sad news...I used to love shooting quirky business portraits for the paper. They used them well and one was short-listed in a national photography competition just this January.

Goodbye Crain's.....

Gotta Fly!

No Blogs for a week now as I'm off on me Jollies, but a quick dip into the archive for a flight-connected shot brings up me shooting Buzby way back in the 80's...Remember Buzby? Well, the guy in the flying helmet is wearing a T-shirt plugging the Post Office, so I'm guessing this was a PR shoot, though funnily enough, I've absolutely no idea who took this shot!
Catch you in a week!

One Less Ray of Sunshine......

Damn it! Chris Sievey just died....how sad !!

Chris Sievey? Frank Sidebottom! Timperley, papier mache head and all that!
I knew him more from his days in The Freshies..and shot him here with the band pretending to be thrown out of the Embassy Rooms in Sale in 1979.
RIP Chris...and thanks for the sunshine you brought into everyone's lives!
Jeepers..enjoy it whilst you can, guys!

Mid-Summer...!

The Longest Day of the Year...and a picture of the sunshine coming through my kitchen window!!
No, I'm not on drugs...the shot is from a series I started entitled '93 million miles!'...I just love the fact that the sun is that far away..blazin' its little heart out..and we still get lovely little moments like this one, with a single drop of water lit by all that energy. Wow, far out!  Cool! Hey, maybe I've turned into a Druid! Oh, bugger it, just get the washing-up done, Martin!

And the winner is....

Had my Corporate Photography Head on yesterday! Covered a great lunch to announce the Crain's Manchester Business "Best Places to Work" Awards at the newly refurbished Piccadilly Ramada Hotel in Manchester. Champers, silly hats and an amusing speaker added to a really fun event and I shot almost 400 images that'll have to be edited and sorted before publication in Monday's newspaper....Phew, now what's for lunch?

Our Shop Window

Our Wedding Window is looking good in Culcheth.
A number of suppliers have joined forces to produce the Wedding Stand within the CPS Centre near Warrington. Everything from stationery to dresses and erm, oh yes..Wedding Photography, is on display throughout the month of June. Check it out.....

Stop me if you think you've heard this one before...

...but I've got another new range of T-Shirts coming out!

The Smiths are joining Joy Division on the front of a new set of shirts from Japan.
My Morrissey shots, from The Free Trade Hall in 1984, will feature on the clothes designed by Japanese designer Enhance Elements. They're going to a Paris Fashion show later this month, and a show in Tokyo in August. Meanwhile my Joy Division shirts are still selling well at Japanese store 'Lad Musician'...check 'em out here!
It's all great news, and Heaven knows I'm certainly not miserable now!

Tamara & Julia get hitched!

Shot a great Civil Ceremony today!
Tamara from South Carolina, and Julia from Lithuania tied the knot at Manchester Registry Office, then walked thru town to the swanky Living Room bar, on Deansgate. An intimtae little gathering, it was great fun and everyone had a blast. Tamara sent me this on Facebook later..

Tamara A Bolding thank you for being a part of our special day! everyone loved you and enjoyed how you made them all feel special while feeling like you were another member of the family!!! Julia and I are looking forward to your photographs of our wedding!

Way to go, girlfriends!

A Life in the Week of....

Happy Monday everybody, and the week's off to a flying start with one of my shots of Aumbry Restaurant used on the front page of Crain's Manchester Business. That's my 'Press Photographer' ego satisfied...

Tomorrow sees me in Manchester for the fantastic civil ceremony of two young ladies, one of whom has flown in from South Carolina. That's my 'Wedding  Photographer' juices flowing...

And Thursday sees me at a City Centre hotel to cover a big Award Ceremony Lunch. That kicks in my 'Corporate Photographer' creativity....

Good being a photographer, innit!?

Top Stuff...

Hats off to the funky kids at Katie and Tudor's Wedding on The Wirral.
A good time, as they say, was had by all...although I did rip my trousers and the vicar forgot to unlock the church's back door, so I was unable to get onto the altar to photograph the exchange of rings! All in a day's work!

Quick weekend in front of the football now, though I must tell you about the DJ on Rock Radio who was talking about the weather. "It's looking like quite good for the weekend," he said "Especially Saturday and Sunday!" Ta, dude!

Posh Nosh

Off to Aumbry, a Manchester restaurant receiving great reviews.
Hester Bumenthal trained chefs Marie-Ellen and Laurence took time out from a lunch-time wine-tasting to pose outside their 'gaff' for a Business Newspaper.

Talking of Posh Nosh, I'm off now to the Wirrall for a nice Wedding at the swanky Thornton Manor.
What a coincidence that this week, the start of the World Cup, my Weddings are on Thursday and Tuesday...!!

Exit, The Master...

John Hedgecoe has died. If you're not a photographer that probably means nothing, but if you've ever wanted to learn photography he's probably the man you turned to.
I grew up in the 70's devouring his book, The Photographer's Handbook. 350 pages of technique, inspiration and fantastic drawings of all the equipment I could never afford at 17 years old!
(Oh, and did I mention the nudes..?)

Read about the man who taught the world to photograph...

Mind you, he'd have laughed if he heard what I was told yesterday....

I shot an accountant (Behave!) earlier this week, and asked the PR company what they thought of the picture. The darling young PR thing said the shot was fine, but....his suit reflected in his teeth ??!

Oh, John, where did I go wrong !?

Summer Sale...

Time to splash the colour on a grey and rainy day...I'm offering a 16x12 inch photograph from my Florescence series for just £25 ! It is a montage of 141 flower and foliage photographs, taken by me on colour transparency film and scanned to digital. The photograph will be card-mounted and signed, and printed on stunning Fuji Pearl Paper.
Drop in here to purchase.....

Mustn't Titter...!

Great Wedding yesterday...Lovely couple, cool venue...and a really funny Best Man's Speech!
Sorry Gary, but I'm going to nick your line about Sara and Mike's honeymoon.
He wished them well in North Wales..adding "I think that's where they're going..he said he was going to Bangor for a week!"

I love being kept on my photographic toes for moments like that!

Give it a name...

Ok, I'd had a can of Carlsberg, but I was watching this spider spin a web in my garden yesterday, and I swear it signed its work with an elegant 'S' for Spider! That's the thing with a good photographer (Me!)...you can't stop seeing pictures, even when you're not looking for them. I just hope the spider wasn't called Sebastian!

Anyway, batteries are a-chargin' all around me as I prepare for tomorrow's Wedding. Looks like it's going to be another hot one, which means I'll be wearing shorts and sandals again. I always ask the bride's permission, of course, but it pays to stay cool. When David Bailey was asked what he thought was the most important part of a photographer's equipment, he replied "Comfy shoes!"....

What a poser!

Poignant blog today, as it's the first anniversary of my Dad's funeral.
No maudlin sentiment, though...but a loving look back at the life of my best ever model.
Dad would happily pose for me every time I bought a new piece of kit or tried out a new photographic technique. I've got tons of shots of him as I practiced bounce flash, or played with a new wide angle. Any skills I have with a camera now are down to his patience..and the fact that he was such a poser! God bless you, Joe O'Neill x

Ok, Mall Rats....

I'm up the wall at The Mall !
My photographs have gone up as the first element of a new Wedding Unit at CPS Shopping Mall in Culcheth. Whilst I was putting them up a lady booked me for a portrait session with her grandkids....! A good afternoon's work!

You're my friend....

Social Networking as a way of attracting business...discuss!
Well...I have a new friend..She lives in South Carolina, we've never met...and I'm shooting her civil partnership soon. Facebook....! She checked me out on Facebook...moved on to this Blog..liked what she saw..and booked me! I've seen the future! Now, just need to draw a beard on Rooney!

June = Football !

It's June and the World Cup is imminent.
I have to say that I'm useless at photographing football matches...everyone keeps running about!
Much happier with my Weddings..though I've managed to combine the two disciplines in this shot from Steph and Paul's Liverpool Wedding !...(And yes, I did take it on purpose!)