Wake Up !!

Check out this incredible photograph!
What...this snap of a tramp asleep in a park? Yes..incredible isn't it?

Well it's incredible in the literal sense of the word, in that it's really hard to believe that this boring pile of plop has been named as the Single Image International Photography Award Winning Photograph from the esteemed British Journal of Photography.

No, it really has!! One of the judges (In his long-winded cultural clap-trap explanation) said that "good photography should challenge, otherwise it could so easily be ignored".

I say this photograph should so easily have been ignored so that good photography can challenge!

PS..Here's one of mine from my Olympus XA series 'Don't Miss This'
...and may I say it gives me great pleasure to accept this award tonight..I'd like to thank my Mother, my Father....zzzzzz .....Wake Up !!

Embrace Technology!

Well I sure put some graft in at the conference I covered on Saturday. Didn't finish working 'til 1 am, and have just spent nearly four hours editing down the shoot..to 671 shots!
Imagine doing that with film? No way!

Funnily enough I recently found a 1994 copy of the British Journal of Photography. It talks of 'digital photography' as being "on the horizon", and ponders the question of whether "digital imaging equipment" will ever completely replace film. For quite a while I've wondered the same, as I was always unhappy with digital colour and the fact that it looked...erm, digital! Now I think it's fair to say I've truly embraced the medium..love it !..and hardly feel a twinge of nostalgia for film. Jeez, the number of times you'd look at your film counter and think, Cripes..I've only got two shots left!
Speaking of numbers..this same issue of BJP has a Wedding Photography feature. There's an amusing story of a photographer shooting a "28 print" wedding, and another "shooting off" eight rolls of film at unlimited locations! However, it does begin its article with "The current wedding and portrait market in the UK is, unfortunately, far from bouyant"
Ring any bells!?

Cushy number...

The rain's hammering down this morning,
but I've not got a Wedding today so I don't care!
Instead I've got a nice, day-long conference to cover..indoors!
Did I say cushy number? Just me and Lord knows how many delegates...until 10pm!
I won't know which way to turn!

Time flies...

Wow, where's a year gone?
It's 12 months since I started my Blog, and I'm still here..ranting on! (But is anyone listening?)
October's obviously an important month for me event-wise, as it also exactly marks 32 years since I became a Professional Photographer. I was 18, and I was given a Honda 50 motorbike to get around on as I hadn't yet taken my driving test to get a company car! On my first day as a 'real' photographer I remember photographing Martin Buchan, a former captain of Manchester United.
This is it, I thought...I've hit the Big Time..I'm a cutting edge journalist on Day One....

He was opening a wallpaper shop in Altrincham !

Stop Press...Speaking of Man U...make your bloody mind up, Rooney!

Another one bites the dust...

Ari Up has died! The leader singer with fab girl-band The Slits..at just 48! What a shame....I still love and play their 1979 album Cut..on vinyl! Such energy, fun and originality..in a world now full of dirge, X factor and Taylor Swift..Typical Girl she was not!!

RIP Ari..and thank you!

Off ya go, then!

Today's the day we all get slammed by the spending cuts, just as we hear about ol' greedy guts at Man U.
Two hundred and fifty grand..A WEEK...! Please tell me how the hell anyone needs that much money in their life? Personally, the sooner he shoves his coveted red shirt on that hook and buggers off..the better!

Ah..that's better! And now, the photography news!
I spent yesterday helping to judge the O2 North-West Media awards at their offices near Frodsham. Enjoyable it was, too..if not a little difficult at times. 16 categories and yes, some entries by people I know. (I was unmoved by the bribery offers...joke!!) Interesting to be on the other side of things, though, and I must admit it wasn't as difficult as I'd imagined to pass judgement on my fellow press snappers. The standard was so varied that the winners just jumped out!

Just need Mr Rooney to jump out, now!

With a bump...!

Sad to hear that the Harrier aircraft is being scrapped in the forthcoming defence budget cuts. It was my fave jet when I was growing up, and I must have built a dozen of 'em from Airfix kits in the 70's. I remember as a lad being absolutely deafened by one as it hovered over us during some kind of RAF display at Manchester's Heaton Park (None of yer elfensafety then!) and it was only in July that I watched one give its trademark 'bow' to the audience at RAF Fairford.
Having said that, I remember leaving an air-show in Lincoln early in the 'noughties, my mind still buzzing with the speed and power of the Tornadoes. As I got in the car the newsreader announced that a number of people in Iraq had been killed in a bombing raid by just that type of jet, and that's when I came back down to earth..with a bump. Thrilling as they are, these incredible, sexy machines aren't built to entertain a paying public..they're there to kill people. In the ideal world wouldn't it be wonderful if all they did was zoom round airshows and get photographed!

Excellent!

It's late and I'm knackered but I wanted to share today's Wedding with you...Louise and Robbie wed today at the Marriott Park Hotel, Worsley. 10 hours shooting for me, and just finishing an hour and a half dropping everything onto the comp....but great shots and fab memories of two young people in love and tying the knot!

Right, that's that off my chest...whiskey and a good night's kip now!

The Gloves are off..

Well, I thought I was cured, but with the first chills of Autumn come the first new additions to 'On the One Hand'!  I've started seein' gloves everywhere again! Here's a nice patriotic red, white and blue set to start off the new season...

...and here's something else you can't avoid seeing on our streets! Smoking causes fatal cancer...and smokers cause litter! What is it about smokers that they can't carry an empty packet or a cigarette end to a litter bin?  They managed to carry the packet when it was full, for God's sake! Mind you, if they can do that to their bodies, what do they care about what they do to our living environment!

Everything Everything..again!

Oh, by the way...Saw Everything Everything again the other night..and managed to get a little closer than I did last time! Practically on top of them, in fact! Great gig, guys!

Yeah!

Just added another Wedding Booking to my ever-growing list for next year. A lovely bride-to-be who's getting married at a venue I'm at this weekend. I've told her to check out next week's Recent Weddings page..where every couple I shoot get their own page on my web-site.
Meanwhile, Florescence grows in stature, and I've now been approached by a retail outlet that's looking to stock my work..Hurrah!

Go whistle...

Got my own parking spot right next to the church for the other day's Wedding, and the frame across the image put me in mind of something I think I saw last night...a compact camera with the two-thirds rule lines shown on the viewing screen! Did I see that? Please tell me there's not a camera out there that even tries to teach you photographic composition..!! It just goes to show that you've either got it or you haven't! Like an adage my friend told me the other day.."A person who buys a flute is a flute owner..a person who buys a camera is a photographer !"
Grrrrr......

The ad's done!

Alright, already! I've just shot and designed the new advert for Florescence!
This is going to run in the Christmas editions of two local magazines, and will hopefully get my range launched into a wider public field...(No pun intended..what with it being flowers and all!)
There are now placemats and coasters available, as well as a superb range of framed colour and sepia collections, all using genuine pearl photographic paper. More hot news tomorrow....

10.10.10

I know it's only the 9th, but if all goes to plan I'll be too hung-over to blog in the morning...the morning of TEN TEN TEN..so I thought I'd mark it now with a far-out picture of a globular cluster and we can all ponder the quirks of man-made calendars versus the timelessness of the universe, the mysteries of love and...oh, blimey, is that the time?

Three Little Words..

Ah, the power of words! Now, 'those' three little words are quite important to a Wedding Photographer. One kinda relies on them being said to actually make a living! But, as I blogged recently, it's generally true that hearing nothing from a client is the only way you know you're doing ok! So, I've had three 'three little word' moments this week that have steered my working mood. Shooting a house for an estate agent on Tuesday, I was busy moving furniture around and lighting dark corners. The lady in the house commented that she was getting the "Rolls-Royce treatment".. Excellent mood! Then, a client for whom I'd shot a business portrait got back to me. "Send more images"..Worried mood! The job was a rush affair and they'd asked me to send two upright and two landscape versions of the shoot. More images? Why? What was wrong with the ones I chose? Don't you like them? "We love them", came the reply "That's why we want more"..Excellent mood!
Finally, a couple came round to the studio to chat about their forthcoming Wedding. Early stages..still looking for a Photographer. I gave them my slide-show and the chat and they seemed pretty happy with what I was telling them. An hour passed, we laughed, chatted, planned their day...and then off they went. His parting words as they left?  "Well, thanks anyway!"
Bugger, bugger bugger!

Speaking of threesomes (Eh?)...this triptych is from my Florescence series!

Here comes the Judge!

Just added this funky foot-fetish Wedding shoe picture to my home page! Great picture..or is it? You be the judge! No, hang on...I'm the judge, or at least I will be. I've just been invited to join the judging panel of the 2010 North West Media Awards. Ironically, the one and only time I ever entered it (A long time ago) I won Picture of the Year! Looking forward to seeing the finest from our hard-worked northern press photographers, especially as this invitation came on the same day I heard about the snappers on one regional paper being told they were getting a three thousand pound pay....cut !

Thank you, Norman!

Goodbye, Norman Wisdom! Listening to all the lovely obits about this brilliant man has prompted me to tell you about the time I met him. He was at Manchester Airport, about to catch a flight to the Isle of Man, when I bumped into him in Departures. I asked if I could take a photograph of him, assuming he'd simply stand and smile for me. Oh no, not Norman..he waltzed over to a busker standing by the door, borrowed his guitar and case and gave me this great 'poor me!' expression. Everyone says he was always performing..and he performed just for me. What a laugh, what a guy!

Sorted!

Well would you Adam and Eve it....God bless the British weather! It hammered down all of yesterday morning right up until...the bride and groom came out of the church.! Then.. the rain stopped, the clouds parted and by the time we all got to the reception it was too sunny!
So, a good time was had by all, as they say, and Katie and Anthony are now married.
Nice to have an unstuffy priest as well...His way of announcing they were man and wife was "That's it dudes..you're sorted!"

Touchdown!

Got a real kick out of yesterday's Wedding. Widnes Rugby Ground was the venue for Liz & Pete's bash, and what a blast it was! Liz is just 'my kind of bride'! She was all too happy to get stuck in on the pitch, kicking a rugby ball with her lovely Wedding shoes and grabbing hubby in a headlock for that corny photographer's pictures! The guests enjoyed their outing too..one guy getting so excited at being on the field that he booted the rugby ball...straight into my camera! No harm done..I hope..as I'm out again today for what's looking like a bit of a wet one!

Man Flu !

Yep, that's how I'm feeling this morning...full of snot! I've had this bloody cold all week. Two Weddings this weekend and the bugger's still here! Hey, ever the pro..the show goes on. Touch wood I've never been too ill to shoot a Wedding, although it's an obvious concern for Brides-to-be. Happily, I'm in an organisation that can supply a 'stand-in' photographer should I be too poorly to shoot..and it does help that 99% of my pals are snappers, too!
I'll toast today's bride with Lemsip!

Everything, Everything..

The boys (Everything Everything, that is!) kicked off their new tour with a gig at The Academy in Liverpool last night. Sounded great but we saw er, Nothing nothing! And why is it that young gig-goers these days seem to love nothing more than talking all through a performance? 'Scuse me..I've spent good money and time to get to this gig..shut up !! (Note to self..get a bit closer to the stage when you see them in Manchester later this month..and send off that audition tape for Grumpy Old Men!)

Two great Weddings coming up this weekend...Saturday sees me at Widnes Rugby Ground! I've never done a Wedding there before and am really looking forward to having some fun on the pitch! Corny, I know, but apparently a rugby ball is produced for the photographs! I shall use it tastefully! Sunday is a Wedding for another sister from a family for whom I've shot before. Always flattering when you're booked in those situations, and you really feel a big part of the Day. Mind you, I've got an eye on the weather again. It's not looking too promising, but I'll give it my everything, everything...groan!