Kate's Wedding...

Now, wasn't that fantastic? Good old England came up with the goods the only way it can, and put on a show to die for! Hope you all enjoyed it! Made me rush to my computer and dig out one of my shots of Kate's Wedding. No, not that Kate, though her Big Day was just as fantastic, all the same!
This was Kate and Tony, at Statham Lodge, in Lymm. Gorgeous!
So, now we wait for the 'official' group photographs, shot in the palace by Hugo Burnand.
Cool gig, Hugo!

Nice day for a White Wedding...

I thought a lot about the definitive photograph for today's blog - it being Royal Wedding Day and all that - when lo and behold, this appeared in my seed tray yesterday!

                               A little heart!

It says everything, really, so all I need to add is my best wishes for the happy couple, and let's crack open the bubbly!

Flying the flag...

Let's get this party started!
It's the eve of the Royal Wedding, but my local Post Office got the bunting-ball a'rolling a few days back, with a nice display of Union Jacks across its stationery shelves! Ruler Brittania? Anyway, I could hardly contain my excitement, and completely forgot whether I wanted first or second class stamps when I got to the counter!

Just think how many rolls of film would have been shot by all those people lining the Wedding route in 'the old days'! Now, I'll bet there'll be a Kertrillion megabytes of memory shot, and all just to go onto laptops to be never seen again! Mind you, I still can't believe Wills and Kate didn't pick me to do their Wedding Photography! I put it down to them not wanting the added expense of putting me up in a B+B the night before!

Write on time...

More on the passage of time!
Ryan Giggs was told after last night's Manchester United win that he was the oldest player ever to score in the Champions' League, a fact he received with a wry smile and a shy thank you! Reminded me of when I shot him as a pleasant young lad with George Best outside Old Trafford. Who'd have known back then he would turn out to be one of our most loyal players! Speaking of loyalty, I was sent an email from Sainsbury's yesterday, asking if I would complete a questionnaire about their clothing range..and it would only take 20 minutes!! Er, no... I'm busy!
Makes me wonder about the lives of the brides I photograph. Some present me with their chosen list of Wedding images within a couple of weeks of their Big Day, yet one couple still haven't chosen any shots for their album, and it's now three years since they married!
One last thing on time. Poor old Poly Styrene died yesterday. She sang with X-Ray Spex, one of the great punk bands of the seventies. She only got 53 years! Make the most of it, folks!
Ok, that's enough clock-watching!

Time flies...

Well, that went quickly, didn't it? And now normality has returned..for three days, at least! Enjoyed a very relaxing weekend though, very unusually for me, I didn't have an Easter Wedding this year. That didn't mean I put the camera down, of course, and here's my favourite shot of the Bank Holiday, with a dandelion seed just flying from the 'clock'!
The urgency of Spring always reminds me of shooting a Wedding! You wait and wait, then all hell lets loose for the 90 minutes you get to shoot the Big Day! No wonder I'm always watching the clock!
 

Do you take this woman...?

One week to go until a certain famous Wedding, and the excitement mounts.
Great programme about Weddings on TV last night, though, with the rather worrying statistic that we are now at the lowest level of Weddings since 1895!!
They used the great phrase 'Competitive Wedding Syndrome', too..the one-upmanship involved in having a 'better' Wedding than your friends.
Hey, chuck some Gerbera in a gold-painted jam-jar, profess your love, and the job's done!
Enjoy the break, everybody!

Another beautiful day...

6.40 this morning. The start of another gorgeous day, though sadly, not a day that Tim Hetherington will see. A photographer/film-maker, he was killed in Libya yesterday. Very sad news! Got to admire the balls of these guys, getting out there to tell us lot what's going on in the world.  I mean, I love my photography, but I'd never put myself in a position where the job could kill me!
Go and watch Restrepo, in his honour!

Meanwhile, back in my little world, the Wedding enquiries are coming in nicely for 2012, and I've been working on a visual re-vamp of my website. Check it out, tell me what you think...

Gizza job...

I'm not giving away any trade secrets here when I say that times are hard in the wonderful world of PR Photography. The amount I do has certainly gone down a lot since 'the good old days!'
Digital photography, of course, has an awful lot to do with that, and I've had two great examples of that already this week.
A friend of mine runs his own PR company, but cannot convince his clients to spend money on photography these days. Why should they, when they own a digital camera? - is their view! They can simply 'snap' away until a useable image appears, and use that for their press purposes. The example he forwarded to me yesterday, though, brought tears to me eyes. It was awful! I won't go into detail, but let's just say that everything I wouldn't do as a Pro has been done on this shot, and now my friend has got to try to convince the local press to use it! If they don't, of course, that will reflect badly on his own PR skills. God, I wish I could show it to you!
The second example came from chatting with a keen amateur photographer friend of mine. He's somehow ended up shooting for a national organisation's website, and he's rightly chuffed to bits about that! He got two hours' work and the prospect of one of his images being seen across the country. Only problem is, he only charged them £40! Imagine a national company ripping off a guy for just £40.
It's no wonder the image of professional photography is nose-diving!

Anyway, it's spurred me to send out another mail-shot today, featuring a shot I had published as a magazine's double-page spread. Got paid more than forty quid, too! Rant over!

I feel better already...

Well, it's all go with the flower photography, isn't it!
I'm shooting like a madman at the moment, just to capture the blossom whilst it's out.
You won't need to rush to see Florescence, though, as it's just gone on display in Culcheth.
The whole set of images, on three 4-foot long acrylic panels, has just gone up on the pristine blank walls of the newly built Culcheth Clinic. I'd like to think I'm doing my little bit to brighten up the day of anyone poorly enough to need the doctor!

Follow the colours...

Football? There was football on?...
Hmm, well I was too busy shooting flowers in my garden on a lovely, sunny spring afternoon.

Naah, was I heck!
I was in the pub, drinking beer and watching the semi-final derby, as the joys of the season unfolded around us. Shame about the score, but thank goodness you can support both the Reds and the Blues when it comes to gardening!

Grrr, nash....

Heard a new terrm yesterday..Bridesmaidzilla!  (Not these two little sweeties, obviously!)
A bride came to collect her Wedding Album, and was telling me how one of her bridesmaids was an absolute horror on the Big Day! Nothing was right..the dress was too tight, the make-up the wrong shade, her hair too floppy....
Gulp, I'm glad I didn't get on her bad side!

Singing from the same songsheet...

Went to a talk about music photography last night. Karen McBride, renowned Manchester snapper, was talking about her experiences in music photography - a life that has taken her on tours with Robbie Williams and the Scissor Sisters. Great to be in a room full of other photographers with a passion for their art. Money and fame - delightful though they no doubt are - played second fiddle to integrity and personal artistic satisfaction, and, as Karen said, if we're true to ourselves maybe one day heart will lead to wallet!
Jeepers, it's a long road!

That's what friends are for...

Missed the footy last night, but spent a great evening with my girlfriend and a couple of great mates.
A bit of nosh and a couple of pints were the only added ingredients to the banter and laughter, and a good time, as they say, was had by all. Sometimes, the simplest approach is best!

I often wonder where these three friends are now. I shot this image in Eccles in 1977, and it features in my book Don't Miss That! 
I worry about the fear we photographers have now when it comes to street photography. People are so suspicious of being photographed these days. It's an amazing thing, the passage of time, isn't it?  Think about it!  'Real' Teddy Boys had faded out about twenty years before I took this photograph, yet the shot itself is now another 35 years older than that!
Now where did I put my Zimmer frame?

Here's hoping...

Japan features in today's Blog, on the day I listen to the news that the nuclear reactors there are getting very dangerous. I contributed a couple of my photographs to a charity auction last week, aimed at raising money for the people there, and the organisers pulled in a very respectable £4,600. You can still pick up a couple of items if you check here...Loved this shot of a chap I walked past in Tokyo, and he was so cool about being photographed. Bit different to people in England, these days! Anyway, it was slightly difficult to explain to him that I was over there to attend the opening of an exhibition of Joy Division photographs, but we had fun anyway! Interestingly, I read last night that Anton Corbijn, the film's director, lost a ton of money on the making of the film Control, but more power to his elbow for getting it out there!

It's that time...

Time's they are a'changin'!
Interesting to see that most of the Wedding enquiries and bookings I'm getting at the moment are for 2012. Such a lot of necessary forward planning involved with a Wedding, and a couple who booked me yesterday are a good example of why this is so. Their planning is all done and dusted, with 17 months to go, partly because they want to be able to relax and enjoy the run-up to their Wedding without all the stress of last-minute changes, but also because they are aware, too, of an imminent redundancy, with all the financial repercussions that entails. Tough times, but it's great to see that people in Love will still tie the knot, come what may!

Time flies!
Hard to believe that I took this shot 31 years ago! It was one of the photographs used in a calendar used by my first newspaper employer, Messenger Group Newspapers.
Where do the years go?

Mellow Yellow....

Kerria Japonica! That's this lovely flower, just coming into its own in my garden.
Couple of shots of it for you. The shot on the red is part of my Florescence series, of which more in a mo..and the shot on the left was taken yesterday afternoon as the sun streamed through the branches in my garden. Isn't that beautiful?

Anyway, looks like there's going to be plenty more sunshine today, which is great news as I'm off to Leeds again to try, once more, the Artsmix outdoor market. I'll be selling prints, table mats and coasters from my Florescence series. Come down and see me...

Well I wonder...

It's the title of a Smiths song, from Meat is Murder, 'cos I've got some great news about one of my pictures of them. I've had a print chosen to be put up in a very swanky venue in that there London!
Can't tell you the full story yet, but it's all going to happen by mid-May, so you won't have to wait too long to know!
Anyway, delving through my music archive, I came across one of my shots of this band. Any ideas? They were the wonderful and so appropriately named Photos, from the Midlands. There's good old lead singer Wendy Wu giving it her all in one of her trademark black and white outfits. I used to love this band, but I'll bet I haven't played a single track of theirs for a good ten years. Wonder why not?

Don't Be Shy...

Incredible to see how far away this Blog gets read! Just this week it's had hits from...
The UK, The States, Slovenia, Argentina, Australia, Germany, Russia, Iran, Japan and The Netherlands! God knows what my ramblings sound like to someone in Slovenia, and I doubt anyone in Argentina would know who Sean Hughes is! Never mind, it's great to know there's an interest out there. Why not say 'Hello'?   
Email me here....

Time for new growth....

The first flush of Spring is well and truly in the air and the buds of new growth are all around. It's also the start of the new tax year - Woeful Wednesday or some such name! - when all our changes come into effect. At least I won't have to worry about suddenly being in the 40% tax bracket!  Hey, I'm a Photographer, and you know how to make a Million as a Photographer, don't you? Start off with Two Million!! Bum, bum!
Talking of planning, I was chatting to a young lady who's getting married next year. Her fiance is a keen footballer and she's told him he can play footie only up to eight weeks before the Wedding. After that the pitch is a no-go area. The reason for the cut-off point? She reckons he'd have to wear a cast for six weeks, and would need two week's recuperation, which would put him just about right for the Big Day! Now that's organised!

Sister Act!

It's my sister's birthday today, and it was my other sister's last week, and now that I've found out that they both read my blog I'm going to mention them today! Happy Birthdays, Sisters!!
A quick trip down their own memory lane here, with a shot of their bedroom wall circa 1975. There was a definite divide in the room, with The Osmonds and David Cassidy battling it out with Starsky and Hutch and the Bay City Rollers! (Not sure who fancied who, though - I was too busy with posters of cameras and jet fighters on my wall!) This shot is from my book Don't Miss That, a collection of photographs of Eccles, our home town, in the '70's.

Just did a quick Google search for petrol prices in that year. It looks like it was about 55p per GALLON! Compare that with 136.9p per litre at a BP station I passed this morning. I also passed an Asda petrol station, and their price was 7p a litre cheaper! Now how does that work?

Staying in the '70's...many thanks to everyone who went to see my Joy Division photographs at Duke's, Lancaster, last night. Very flattered to have been selected!

Don't Miss This...

Time for you all to head up to Lancaster tonight, where my Joy Division photographs are being set to music by Richard Davis as part of Wired In, at Duke's.... Sadly, I can't get there, but hope it goes well for you guys! I thought the title shot from my book, Don't Miss This, would be an appropriate image for today...even though I will miss it!

Heads up...

Just heard about another pal of mine being made redundant, this time from his job as a journalist with the BBC. My word, it's getting tougher out there! So, yet again, I can only offer the words "Keep your head held high and keep looking, because something will come along!" Seems to be advice that a mouse has taken in my greenhouse, because I woke this morning to find all my lovely new seedlings nibbled to shreds. Talk about making the most of every opportunity! Grrr....

And the winner is...

Late night last night, covering an Awards Dinner at The Point, at Lancashire Cricket Ground. Speakers Lembit Opik and Gerald Ratner were on fine form, and a good time was had by all, but it was good to hear that the old debates are still raging. Amongst the talk of Flotations, MBOs and Acquisitions, I heard three dinner-suited dudes discussing the important matter of who should be named Manchester's best-ever front man. It was a close call, but the winner was named as...
..Morrissey!