Show us yer conkers!..

Blimey! It's the last day of September! If I was a kid now I'd be thinking 'Wow! Only five weeks to Bonfire night!' My mates and I would be out collecting any bits of wood we could find, stockpiling it for November the fifth, trying to keep it dry and, more importantly, out of the hands of other kids! Our bonfire had to be the biggest and the best, and over the weeks it would grow and grow in the back garden! My Mum's rows of spuds had no chance, and God knows how we didn't set all our houses on fire when it was finally lit! I know it makes sense that those days have gone but you have to admit, it was great fun! This shot, from my 1970's series, just brings all those memories back!

Busy day today... Just two days until my next Wedding Fayre at Manchester's Victoria and Albert Hotel. Tomorrow I'll tell you a story about a famous Coronation Street Wedding I shot there once (For OK! Magazine! Swanky!) but now, if you'll excuse me, I just need to don my gloves, safety goggles and hard-hat. I'm off for a game of conkers!

Let's go outside...

Gorgeous, isn't it? What a spectacular setting for a Wedding. It's Soughton Hall, near Chester, and we were so lucky with the weather when we all arrived there last week. I'd just managed to finish the 'posed' shots when the heavens opened and everybody had to dash under cover. Unfortunately, that's the problem with the English weather! I've covered many a Wedding in a spectacular venue where I haven't been able to take advantage of a beautiful backdrop because of poor weather conditions, and it seems to be a law of Wedding Photography that the larger the 'pile' the smaller and darker the rooms inside!

Anyway, speaking of the unseasonal weather, I just love the fact that it's making a joke of the new Co-op TV advert! I'm sorry, but I cannot stand that guy's voice when he talks about the Co-op being "Gerd with Ferd" (Say it out loud!) and I'm enjoying a naughty tickle of pleasure to hear him describing things as "chilly outside" ! Ha!

Pay peanuts, get monkeys...

I've just picked up a lovely half-term portrait booking, as a lady I know has asked me to get a shot of herself and her grandkids. "I'll dress them up in their outfits again" she said. Outfits? Aha! Seems they'd all been to her daughter's Wedding and the photographer didn't get a shot of them all together. Well, I say photographer - the technical term is actually 'Friend of the family who owns a good camera'. See?  Pay peanuts, get monkeys!

The heat is on..

Jack Straw and Lord Falconer .. just two of the people who didn't turn up to the event I was covering last night at the Labour Party Conference! Hey ho, what can ya do? At least the good folk that did attend all seemed to have a great time, and the speeches were kept to a minimum (Hurrah!)

I'm getting 'stuff' ready for Sunday's Wedding Fayre today. I'm at the V and A hotel in Manchester, and I've designed a new leaflet to give out there. I'm going to show a new style 'Signing Board' too, which I'm offering as an incentive to early booking. Free engagement portrait too, now that you ask! I'm working at a fair old speed, too. If it's going to reach 28 degrees by the end of this week then I want to be out in it with my shorts on! I still have shorts, don't I ?

On yer bike...

PR head back on for a very interesting day today. Firstly, I'm off to one of my clients to shoot a press picture for their new product .. something (he said coyly) about DNA and motorbikes! Then, I'm off to the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool to cover one of their evening soirees. Talk about variety!

Anyway, next Easter's booking up nicely now for Weddings, and it's only a matter of days now, surely, before I see Easter Eggs in the shop to get me in the mood!

The photograph? Ah! That's good old Richard Thorp, who played Emmerdale landlord Alan Turner back in the day. I photographed him on his 'hog' for OK Magazine, and you'll be pleased to hear there was no DNA involved in the shoot, at all !

Phew!..

Put in a great 13 hour shift yesterday, covering Lucy and Pete's Soughton Hall Wedding from bridal preparations to first-dance .. and now just the small matter of 955 images to edit! Still, the weather held out for us all, and even when it did rain it made for some great shots, with many of the braver guests hunkering down under the parasols in the garden! Have a look at their page on my Web-site, and now, if you'll excuse me, I've got work to do!...

All the signs point to...

..a long day today! I'm off to Soughton Hall, on the Welsh/English border, to cover the Wedding of Lucy and Pete from Manchester. Had a trip down there last weekend for a quick look around, but didn't realise there was a Wedding Fayre on. I'd have whipped out my products if I'd known.. (Behave!) So, bridal preparations until first dance to shoot today, so I reckon I'll be finished by about midnight - that's after I've downloaded all my shots onto the computer and backed it all up .. twice! Can't wait to get cracking, though! Hey, I'm even being fed today! All the signs are good!

You have to laugh...

"How good to see a British company doing so well.." said the Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester, as I covered a visit he made to a local factory yesterday. I type this as the news is of stock market tumbles all over the globe. So, a moment of good cheer amidst the doom and gloom as he made the official presentation of the Queen's Award for exports to this company. Off he went, then, for a tour of the 'works', where he was shown how..  Oh, look! Look, everybody! It's me! It's me .. in the mirror!
Say cheese!

Far out!..

I just love this incredible new Deep-Space image from The Hubble Telescope. Somewhere out in the constellation of Taurus, it shows dust lanes, galaxies, nebulae and at least one supernova, and it all took a kerzillion years for the light to actually reach us!

Naaaaa! It's a pile of bird poo I saw on the way to the paper shop! Just my little dig at people who feel that Photoshop is more important than photography! Taurus? Bull !

I've turned into my Dad...

Tony Wilson and Derek Hatton - two of life's more 'colourful' characters, I'm sure you'd agree! God knows what function I shot this at, or where, but they certainly looked like they were having a good time at it, didn't they!
And doesn't life seem so bland these days with so few larger-than-life people to entertain us? (Sorry Del Boy, I know you're still around, but you've gone very quiet these days!) We seem to live in a world where everybody wants to be 'like' someone - where sounding like/looking like/acting like somebody is the height of a kid's ambition. (Yes, I have just been subjected to X Factor, now you ask!) I was having my hair cut last week and my barber Andy and I were chatting about the state of music these days. He'd just bought a Cabaret Voltaire compilation, and I was talking about looking forward to going to see Wire in November. His 21 year old assistant had no idea who we were talking about, but he mentioned he'd love to see Michael Buble in concert! The pair of us almost threw up! "We've reversed roles.." laughed Andy "I'm the one that's supposed to be saying that, not him!"
It's a shame that both Andy and I look backwards for our musical enjoyment, but there's hardly any new stuff out there any more that stirs my juices! Oh, God! Adele's on the radio again....

Ding, dong...

So, you get to the church nice and early, and you're all set up and waiting for 'the Wedding' to arrive. How to fill in the time? Well, a bit of landscape photography doesn't go amiss, and here's a nice autumnal scene from last Saturday's Wedding. Little did I know that I'd be cursing that flippin' bell-tower just two hours later! It's the bells, you know! (To be read in the style of Quasimodo!) They drove me crazy! Oh, it was lovely how they rang out as the bride and groom came out of the church! It was joyous as the guests congratulated the newly-weds, and then it was downright bloody irritating when the vicar forgot to switch off the tape and I had to yell like hell to be heard above the racket! (What? You thought it was real bell-ringers? Tsh!) Good job I've got a big gob!

And the forecast for Saturday is...

It's always a little joke between me and 'my brides' that they shouldn't pay too much attention to the weather forecast for their Big Day! There's a lot of studying of long-range forecasts goes on by brides as their Wedding Day approaches. "The five-day forecast says sunny.."  they'll tell me! "The CountryFile weekly forecast is for tornados.." they add! "My gran's tea-leaves say 'heatwave'.."  (Ok, maybe not)
I, however, don't listen to a word they say. "Whatever the weather is like.." I always tell them "..when you come down the aisle after your ceremony.. That's the weather forecast!"
So, look at last Saturday's 'forecast', summed up in one shot as I looked back whilst Sam and Steve came down the aisle. That'll be rain, then... Sigh!

The wider view...

Time to get the 10 'mil' out for this wide shot of yesterday's Wedding, up in the rafters and all the nearer to the rain, hammering on the roof! I've never seen such a changeable day, weather-wise! When it rained, it was a monsoon - when the sun shone it was blinding! Still, lots of opportunity for nice backlit group shots - it's incredible how low the sun is already! So, everybody had a blast at the lovely Mere Court Hotel, near Knutsford, and today I'm off for a recce at Soughton Hall, near Chester, the venue for next weekend's Wedding, with Aqua-lung, canoe and Factor 45 at the ready!

Bobbing along...

Abstract, eh? But I thought it would make an appropriate image for today's blog. It's the last look I got of Tripoli, as I left Libya on a boat after covering a story there for the Manchester Evening News. (You couldn't fly directly to Libya in those day!) Those streaks are the lights of the harbour as the boat bobbed out to sea towards Malta, shot on Kodachrome 64 at who knows what?..  A second? (They never did figure out a way to record shooting details on film did they?) Anyway, point being, of course, that we can only hope this is the last look Gaddafi gets of the country one day, as he's taken away somewhere nice and cosy for the rest of his life! All I can say now is that if we're all pally and mates again with Libya, can I have that bottle of whiskey back that you confiscated at the port? Ta very much!

Get the point?..

Had my PR head on this morning for a cool photo-shoot with a big firm of solicitors, but the office was a little lacking in props, to say the least! So, what did I do? I used the shadow from the window-frame to make an interesting picture, that's what! (It was about the one shot when I wasn't actually complaining about the gorgeous bright sunshine!) Oh, and by the way, this is full-frame, too.. not a crop in sight .. and for me that's what keeps photography so interesting and exciting - the never-ending search for the next good shot and, if you'll forgive my arty arrogance, the ability to see it/create it/shoot it properly. So, stick that in your pipe and smoke it, you £300 Weekend Wedding Wallies.....  Get the point?

Happy Christmas, everybody...

Ah! 'Tis the season to be jolly, or to dress as a witch, or to..   
Oh, God, I'm confused!
There are Christmas selection boxes side-by-side with whole shelves of Hallowe'en CRAP in Sainsbury's this afternoon. Whoa! Hang on! I've not even worn my shorts yet this summer! Give knees a chance, dudes! I mean, it's obvious a Wedding takes a bit of pre-planning, but do we really have to be bombarded with all this commercial rubbish months before the event?
I know it's nothing new, but it's depressing, and I wish it would all go away!
PS: Dear Father Christmas, I have been a very good boy this year....

Aw, fair go...

I did have a good look around when I saw this sign, though I didn't really expect to see one that said "Please keep off the ordinary working man!"  This sign's at Tatton Park, pointing people away from the lovely grassy slopes at the rear of the Mansion House. I saw it when I was shooting a Wedding there last week.

On the same subject - not! - I found an old diary from 1981 the other day. Guess what I've got written on the inside front cover..  Phone numbers of my nearest and dearest? Names of picture editors on national newspapers? Nope! The development times for Ilford HP5 film, that's what! Since you ask, it was 7 minutes in ID-11 for 400 ASA, up to 25 minutes in Microphen for 6400! God, how I love that ISO dial on digital cameras!!

Don't tell me the score...

Staying on the subject of the USA .. I must, must, must start watching the American Football again. Now that I've finally got one of those whizz-bang digital recorders I've got no excuse for missing any of the games that will be shown this season on Channel 4 (And before I go any further, I recorded The Jets versus The Cowboys last night, so nobody tell me the score!) Now, did you ever see a more incongruous shot than this picture of 'American' footballers mashing it up in front of a row of Salford 'back to back' terraced houses? Not exactly the MetLife stadium is it? In fact, it's The Willows, the home - up to last week - of the Salford Reds Rugby League team. This was back in the late 80's, when the marketing men were trying to get 'Gridiron' established in the UK (You may have noticed that they failed!) The Willows was one of the grounds where the game was played in England, and I went down there a few times to try my hand at photographing the sport (You may have noticed that I failed, too, ho ho! I'm rubbish at sports photography! I think I'll stick to Weddings! ) Anyway, just to add that  even The Willows closed last week, and the team will soon move to Barton, in Eccles.  Gotta keep moving, eh? Now what's the American term for an 'Up and under'?...

Ten years on...

No need for words today, just my Kodachrome shot from the Staten Island ferry, and a moment to think back to the events of ten years ago. I went up the twin towers a couple of times, including once with my dear old Dad who has, himself, now died.

All I can say is, don't ever take anything for granted!

Gizza kiss....

A sweet little montage from last Sunday's Wedding at Tatton Park, and I'm sure I'll get some equally good shots at today's Civil Partnership ceremony, too. I'm off to Manchester to see Matt and Andy tie the knot, and really keen to get some cool reportage as they amble between their three different venues around Albert Square.. Manchester Registry Office, the bar they're visiting for some refreshing sparkly stuff, and then the town hall itself for their reception.
Bring it on!

Rain, rain, go away...

A lovely moment from yesterday's Wedding, when Hannah married Mike at Mitton Hall, near Clitheroe. Unfortunately, the rain and drizzle hung around all day, so I couldn't take advantage of the lovely scenery - well, I coudn't see most of it! - but we all made the best of it with lots of shots in the hotel's sumptious rooms and the odd venture out to the front door! So, batteries charging as we speak, 'cos I'm off again tomorrow, this time to cover the Civil partnership of Matt and Andy at Manchester Town Hall.

Now somehow, in between all this Wedding mullarkey, I've managed to find the time to change my whole website, as I mentioned yesterday. (I'm so behind on my Coronation Street!) Amazingly, I've now uploaded 90, yes ninety, images to my gallery page, so you'll need a good brew and a steady supply of biscuits to get through it all. I think it's worth it, though, and it was a lovely trip down memory lane for me to compile the collection. There were just so many that I had to leave out, though!

Stop Press... this just in from Hannah's step-mum, and I quote..."Martin you are a STAR xxxxx"

The signs are good...

Wow! I've just revamped my entire web-site! My eyes are boggled! It looks great though, and I'm really excited. Please check it out and tell me what you think! Quick blog today as I'm leaving soon for Mitton Hall, up near Preston, to shoot the Wedding of Hannah and Mike! Can't wait!
Please don't raiiiiinnnn.......

Anyway, here's a 'word for word' text from Suzanne, whose Wedding I shot on Sunday at Tatton Park.
"Just to say the pics are absolutely amazing. I had tears in my eyes going through them, you captured every little detail, it was brilliant" 
Nice, eh? 'Cos so often these days it's a case of "Silence is Golden" .. If I never hear from a client or a bride after their event I can only assume it's because they were happy with my work and didn't need to contact me to have a moan!!

My ego is suitably massaged...

Sheena is...

 ..a punk rocker!



I was working with a lady called Sheena the other day. You don't meet many girls called Sheena, do you? Trouble is, ever since then I can't get the flippin' Ramones out of my head! ('Sheena is a punk rocker' was one of the American band's early tracks, just in case you're completely lost at this point! 1977! Good grief!) Anyway, it tied in nicely with an old Kodachrome slide I found in my files recently. This was taken at one of the old 'Futurama' punk festivals in either Leeds or Stafford at the beginning of the Eighties. It reminded of a gig I went to in Houston, in 1982. (The Minutemen, if you're interested!) I saw the drummer of the band, sitting out amongst the crowd, chillin' with the chicks, and excitedly asked if he had any badges I could buy. He just gave me a really dirty look and turned back to chatting with his admirers. It was only when I got home and played one of their albums I realised they actually had a track called 'Badges'. It's 31 seconds long, and the entire lyrics of the song are "We have no badges! We don't need no badges! We don't need no stinkin' badges!"
Whoops!

What a day!...

Phew! Tatton Park! Bring it on...

I shot what was probably the most amazing Wedding of my year so far yesterday! It was the Big Day for Suzanne and Paresh - a fantastic mixture of Scottish and Indian, sari and kilt, at the amazing Tatton Park, in Cheshire. I was exhausted by the time I'd finished it! With coverage from bridal preparations to first dance it was a long day, and now I'm currently working my way through 1, 366 shots from the whole event. I received two of the best compliments I've ever had, too! The bride's step-dad Mike said I was "brilliant", and when we got into a conversation about advertising and promotion he said he'd describe my USP, my unique selling point, as being a crackpot! Love it! I love it, but how do I get that across when nobody phones my studio anymore? It's all done by email, these days, and we all know how sterile that can be. I bring this up because only this weekend I had an email (Ironically, they didn't phone!) from my 'Freephone number' supplier. They said I might want to cancel my Freephone number, as I'd gone below my minimum usage amount. In other words, as I said, people are e-mailing rather than phoning! The minimum usage amount? Three minutes per month! Jeepers! Thank you for (not) calling! Have a nice day!

PS.. I think he meant crackpot in a nice way !!   ;-)

When ya gotta go....

Well, what to Blog about today?... Libya? The Economy?  Weddings? Naa..it's Friday! Time to chill and let it all hang out whilst I can! There's a big Wedding Weekend coming up, after all! I can't wait to get cracking at Tatton Park on Sunday but, before that, I'm off to Peckforton Castle in my new role as Wedding Photography Advisor! (I just made that up!) The couple whose Wedding I'm actually going to want me to walk them around the venue and show them the best locations for their photography. Just gotta keep telling myself that I'm not actually shooting it!
Oh, I did end up talking about Weddings, after all! What are the chances?...

'Owzat?...

Vaughan, Flintoff, Fairbrother...not to mention DeFreitas, Muralitharan and Wasim Akram! Cricket's finest came out to play the other day, and I was the official PR photographer, covering the event for the De Vere Hotel group. The 'England Legends' event was a fantastic fund-raiser for research into a rare syndrome which sadly caused the death of a young member of staff at Grappenhall Cricket Club, the venue for the function. Full marks to 'Freddie',  I must say, as he patiently signed autographs, programmes and miniature cricket bats until every one of his adoring fans was happy they had a piece of their hero!
I was then up bright and early next morning to shoot a presentation to a very surprised and happy chap at Manchester Airport, who was named as the 3 millionth EasyJet passenger to pass through the airport,  and was given a year's free flying on the airline as a prize. Back to the office then, and a mere 857 frames to edit!

Now then, back to the subject of Weddings, and I mentioned I was being fitted for a suit! Yes, folks, I'm going to be a guest at a Wedding! How weird is that going to feel? I nipped down to the swanky Groom suit outfitters in Wilmslow, and had my manly chest measured up for a cool .. oops, musn't say, just in case the bride's reading this! Anyway, I must remember to behave myself at the Wedding, and not try to interfere/help/annoy the official photographer! It's not until next May, so I have plenty of time to practice! Eeek!