Hats off...

..to all you wonderful people who've racked up an amazing 1,472 reads of this Blog in the month of January! Like, wow, as they say (If you're 14!) .. and that's not to mention the 1,078 hits on my website in the same period. Well, it's nice to be popular, as they say (If you're popular!)

Seriously, it's amazing to know so many people have taken the time to have a little read of my ramblings. Since the beginning of the year my blog's been read by people as far afield as Mexico, Russia, New Zealand, India, Germany, Turkey, The Philippines and The States! It's bloody amazing, as they say (If you're amazed!)
I only hope you've found it worth reading!

I've noticed a rather reasuring trend. In the old days, as they say (If you're me!) brides-to-be used to call because they liked your work, your style, your personality .. but then it became all about the money! Brides began to simply ask "How much?"... Well, in the past two days I've had three brides in a row call me to say how much they liked my photography, and hoped I was available for their Big Day. It's so nice to have your work appreciated! Hats off to those ladies!..  
(As they say!) 

But I'm still fond of you...

Oh, you know you want it! I've put together a montage of photographs of Morrissey, shot as he twiddled his gladioli with The Smiths in 1984. Featuring nine images, it's printed on superb Fuji Pearl paper at 18x12 inches, and it's yours - yes, yours - for a mere £15 plus P+P...

(And you can buy the images individually, too!)

I've been looking at the pictures a lot lately. Firstly of course because two of them have just gone up as part of my exhibition at Corvino's Wine Bar in Culcheth, and secondly because the images will soon be on a new range of t-shirts launched at the Paris Fashion shows. Oooh, la la.. Can't wait to see 'em!

So, an exciting day coming up, as I've sourced a great new supplier of Wedding Story-Books, and I'm about to design my first one. 100 images, 30 pages, acrylic photographic front cover. What's not to be fond of?...

Thank you for your pictures...

Apologies for another shot of plop, but it fits with today's blog, so stick with it! (Ugh!)

I love Flickr and the fact that, as a photographer, I can get my photographs in front of a worldwide audience in seconds. I mean, as a photographer, that's the whole point, isn't it? To have your photographs seen by others? Anyway, imagine my delight when I received a message on Flickr yesterday..
"Thank you for your pictures" it said, signed ..  Bill.



Bill is Bill Dane, from over there in LA, CA., and he's one of my mostest ever hero photographers. I've liked his work since I discovered him in a magazine I stole from a night-school class in 1977 (Wow! Confession time!) So, imagine how excited I was to know that he is looking at my work. Looking at it .. and liking it! What a compliment! So, a couple of new additions to my collection 'Seen', and here's to Flickr and the fact that I can show you sh*t shots like this and get away with it! Hurrah...

Double Whammy!...

Grumpy Old Man time, I'm afraid! I put two new Glove shots on Flickr yesterday, shot in the short amount of time it took me to walk to the shop to get a pint of milk! Fair enough! Good work! Keep it up, O'Neill .. BUT .. here's another shot I took at the same time, just yards away from my house. Two of my pet hates - in one shot! If the driver of the car had been on his phone as he'd pulled up I'd have had a hat-trick. Aaaaagh! Why are people so inconsiderate? What would it have taken to pick up that plop? Or to have been more concerned with pedestrians than having the pretty likkle car scratched? Ugh! It drives me crazy!

Now, I know there are more important things in life - as I type, for instance, my girlfriend is at the funeral of one of her best buddies, still in his forties - so maybe I should just shut up and move on, but when the quality of life is spoilt for all of us, by a tiny minority, it makes me want to scream.

Jeez! TGI Friday.....

Tonight, Matthew...

 ...I'm going to be a teacher!

Seeing as I'm talking about being older than Brides' mothers, and having been a professional photographer for almost 34 years, I'm going to start passing on that experience in the form of affordable 2 hour hands-on teaching sessions. They'll take the form of a guided tour of all those knobs and twiddly bits on a camera, followed by a walkabout shoot, then a critique session to see if anything's sunk in! All that for seventy little squids! Not bad, eh? I'm actually getting quite excited about the idea! I was talking to a chap during badminton last night (Emphasis on the 'bad'!) and yet again the subject of 'learning the photographic ropes' came up, so I thought... why not?

So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you... Shoot 'n Tutor!

Brings tears to your eyes...

 Well, there's a first! I had a young lady round last night to talk abut her Wedding Photography and, as sometimes happens, instead of arriving with her fiance she visited with her Mum. Now I'm not the type to go prying into lady's ages, and I promise you this information was volunteered without prompting, but it turns out I'm older than the Bride's Mum! Her Mum! How's about that for a landmark moment in one's career? For the first time, as far as I know, I'm actually older than the M.O.B! (Mother of the Bride!) Well, I think that'll silence all my mates, who think I spend every minute of a Wedding chatting up the bridesmaids and it's a sign that, now that I'm in my 34th year as a Photographer, it's not just digital that's changing things! Brings tears to your eyes...

Some good news! I'm organising my own Wedding Fayre! It's going to be at The Raven Inn, in Glazebury, near Warrington, on March 25th, and I'm planning to get 'one of everything' together in the one place on the day. Obviously, that won't take much doing, as my list of Wedding suppliers is long and varied so it's rather amusing, then, that another photographer has already asked how they can take part in the Fayre! You can't! It's mine! Go away! Jeez! Brings tears to your eyes.....

Feel the Benefit...

Ok folks, I'm outta here! I'm giving up photography and going on the dole! I'm gonna have me a heap o' babies and live off the State, and if 'they' decide to cap my benefits at TWENTY SIX THOUSAND POUNDS A YEAR then so be it .. I'll live with it! I'll cut my cloth to fit, as they say!

Ugh! I feel sick! I really can't believe I live in a country that gives so much money away, yet fines me £100 if my tax return's a single day late! Thank you, Great Britain. God Bless you! Where do I send the cheque?

Now, of course I realise there has to be a place for income support - I was on the dole myself for a few weeks when I got made redundant in 1982 - but for goodness sake, when 'they' class poverty as a kid not having his or her own bedroom! Oh, come on !!!!!!!!

Deep breath! Hey! Hi, dear reader! Thanks for checking in, and if you're reading this from outside the UK then this rant might not mean a lot, so I apologise, and let's get back to photography. Here's another shot of Eccles from my Olympus XA box. I felt it fitted with today's topic and, is it just me, or does that lady look like The Queen?

"Oh, Gawd, Phil! We've been rumbled!.."

Timeless...

There's not enough time in the world for the millions of things I've got to do, yet I still keep getting deliciously distracted by my Olympus XA project. I seem to be magically drawn to my scanner and my box of old negatives, and newly discovered 'old' photographs keep appearing from the archive. It's fantastic! What a wonderful little camera that was! I've already published 'Don't Miss This' as a collection of the work, but as I keep finding new images I can feel another volume coming on.. Watch this space, as they say!
Now, what was I doing? I seem to have run out of time...

Look at me, look at me!..

This is a bit long-winded, but stick with it! I shot a Wedding last summer, and the bride's dad owned the Roll-Royce that she arrived in. Turns out he's got a sweet little collection of sexy motors and was looking to get into the Wedding market, so he and I have kinda teamed up and now I link to his website from mine. Anyway, he asked me if I could make him an exhibition banner like the ones I use at Wedding Fayres and, to that end, he dropped off a memory stick and CD of images he'd taken of his wheels at Weddings. To cut a long story (finally) short, I found this shot in his collection - a picture he'd taken of me, up my ladder, taking pictures at his daughter's Wedding. Love it! How cool! Look at me! Not one, not two, but three cameras on the go! What a guy! What a champ! I'm not even holding on! (Hey, it's my blog, I can blow my own trumpet if I like!) Anyway, it made me wonder how many times I must appear in 'other' people's photographs. I know it'll be quite a number because I often spot people taking shots of the nutty snapper up a ladder! But they're shots I'll never see or even know about, because they'll never, ever be printed. There's the next casualty of the digital age .. Prints! So I'm lounging unbeknownst on who-knows-how-many memory cards and computers, along with shots of current buildings, car styles, fashions, hair do's, street scenes .. all important indicators of passing history that won't be available to future generations, because they're never, ever shown! Mind you, in this case that mind be a good thing! Check out the spooky twins at the bottom of the shot!
Oi! You two! Look at me!...

Kodak moment...

Well, it looks like there might be some hope for Kodak film users, after all. Not Kodachrome users obviously, that stuff's been well and truly killed off - but it's awful to hear of the damage that digital is causing these day. Don't get me wrong, I'm totally 'digi' myself now, even though I still complain about its plastic appearance but, along with the recession, it's been the demise of an awful lot of businesses (A lot of awful businesses, too, so it ain't all bad!) It batters at my door daily, though. My markets are disappearing, the number of 'amateur' Wedding photographers has gone through the roof, and photographers' rates have nose-dived. I'm regularly asked to shoot an entire Wedding, and provide an album and all images on CD for less than £400! (No, I don't do it!) Still, I must take some glimmer of hope from the fact that I'm still in business after 33 years, when even the giants like Kodak are crumbling around me. It's a real Kodak moment...

The end of an era...

Ooh, now that's what you call a birthday present! I've been booked to shoot a Wedding on my birthday this year, and just happened to be passing the venue yesterday. Check it out! Croxteth Hall, in Liverpool. My very own Dowton Abbey! Can't wait to get shooting!

Sad to hear about Kodak's continuing demise. I've seen all manner of magazine, newspaper and retailer go out of business in the digital age, but to know that it's 'got' Kodak too is really rather frightening. The Kodak moment is over and, like Croxteth Hall, the old way of photography has passed into a bygone era....

The Greatest...

Well, how remiss of me to miss the birthday of The Great Man Himself and, more importantly, the chance to get into my blog that fact that I once photographed him and got his autograph! (Oh, have I mentioned that before?) The poor guy was so stricken with Parkinson's that it took him an age to sign my book but, like the trooper he is, he stuck with it and even added the date at the bottom. Now, I'm not taking anything away from the guy (Jeez! I wouldn't dare!) but isn't it funny how we celebrate his 'skill', which was basically the ability to pound the living daylights out of any schmuck that got into a boxing ring with him? Funny old world....

Ah, technology!..

There you go .. I got through a whole blog about Blue Monday yesterday without mentioning New Order once! I mean, if I'd mentioned them I'd have had to talk about Joy Division, and that would have led to me telling you (again!) about my new exhibition at Corvino's Wine bar in Culcheth, where I'm showing some of the shots from their 1979 Bowdon Vale gig. But no, I avoided it completely and spared you from being bored out of your brains! 

No, what I wanted to show you today was this rather amusing little sequence from one of my December Weddings. This was at Willingon Hall, in Cheshire, where I'd set up a remotely-operated camera at the back of the room, then headed up to the front for some close-ups of the exchange of rings. However, for some reason, when I pressed the remote the camera at the back just went bananas! It started firing off, machine-gun like, at however many frames-per-second it does, pausing only to buffer its memory every few frames. Well, I looked at the registrar, and she looked at me, and everyone looked back at the camera! I had no choice but to interrupt the ceremony and hot-foot it back to turn the bloody thing off, being photographed running down the aisle as I did so! Having examined all the gear, I now think it was because there was a reflection of the camera in a mirror up by the front, and the signal kept bouncing between the two. (I think!) Still, no harm done! It broke the ice, gave everybody a laugh, and I only had to delete 53 images from the card!  

Blue Monday?..

Today is the day 'they' say is supposed to be the day when people feel the most depressed after Christmas. For good measure they throw into the news this morning the fact that the UK may already be back in recession! Can you give us all a break, please! There's enough 'real' bad news out there without the need for made-up crap and speculative scare-mongering. Can't we just get on with our lives without being led by the nose-ring through the trough of despondency that they seem to delight in serving from?! I mean, just look at the gorgeous sky this morning. How can you not feel cheerful after looking at that? It's a Blue Monday, indeed! And the frost, sparkling in the sunshine. Fantastic! Go outside tonight and look in awe at Venus and Jupiter circling above us. Listen to the song-thrush's delicious free musical performance from that tree over there, right now. Enjoy the simple things in life! Ignore the garbage! Smile! Relax! Chill.....

Bingo!..

Friday the 13th? Lucky for me, that was for sure! I did a shoot with a local MP in the morning, which went pretty smoothly if rather uneventfully, but then things kicked up a gear when I got an email from a magazine, saying they were "considering" one of my shots for a place in the final of their International Photography Competition! Very nice, and I've got my fingers, toes and eyes crossed for that one, but I hit the bullseye when I finally got to shoot a picture I'd been planning since before Christmas. I'd been asked by a client to do some shots of their new exterior signage, and so straight away you know I was always going to have problems with the recent bad weather that we've had. But, with the deadline for the shot's publication looming, the cold weather returned and I finally got my 'window' last night to get the picture taken. I'd timed the shot for just after sunset, so that the sky wasn't completely dark, but then had to wait until all the staff clocked off and poured out of the front door after their hard day's work! Next, I realised I'd have to squeeze right up against the car park wall to get both sides of the sign into the shot, so ended up dragging camera, tripod and rucksack through the carefully tended shrubs to get to tht viewpoint! And then, the company's poor old marketing lady - who's off on Maternity leave next week! - had to keep running up and down the stairs to set off the motion-sensitive lighting on the landings. But.. it all came together in the end, even down to the security light on the side of the building, which I initially thought would be a nuisance! I shut the lens right down and, hey presto, I had a fantastic star shape to break up the less-interesting dark side of the shoot. After that, a little loving perspective-correction on the computer, and there you have it... my lucky Friday 13th shot! Bingo!

Media Darling...

I was on television on Wednesday night! On a programme with Freddie Flintoff, Ricky Hatton and Piers Morgan. Oh, yes, I was! Ok, truth is ..  Freddie presented it, Piers and Ricky were interviewees .. and I was seen for about 0.0007 of a second in a shot from a cricket match with Freddie last August. Remember this? Amazing, though, the number of people who told me they'd seen me "in action", and rather fortunate that I'd set a timer for the programme as it looked rather interesting.
It was all about depression in sportsmen!

Anyway, my TV appearance came hot on the heels of an interview I gave to the Warrington Guardian, who are hopefully going to run a piece about my Mish Mash show in next week's paper. I'm just waiting for BBC News, Sky and CNN to contact me now and I'll have done the lot.
I might be waiting a while!

In the meantime, I'll get to my side of the camera as I'm shooting a local MP's visit to one of my clients today. I wonder if he'll recognise me off the telly?....

PS: Hope you like my shot of 'Bet Lynch' and 'Annie Walker' .. past stars of Coronation Street seen at a party in Waterstone's in Manchester (Believe it or not..)

I Heart Blogging...

Had a go at changing my home page picture today, and finished up with this montage of 172 Wedding photographs made into a heart. Took me hours! No, it didn't - it was compiled by a wonderful piece of free software off t'internet and I just stuck the wordy bits over the image in Photoshop! Good, eh? I Heart it!
I Heart Blogging too, which is why I'm never stuck for words when it comes to popping something online. My old chief photographer rang me yesterday and suggested that my almost daily scribbling required a great deal of disipline. Flattered though I was, I replied 'Not really! I just can't stop thinking of things to tell people!' Now I know why my girlfriend's always telling me to shut up!
Good job I heart her!

Mish Mash...

Hey, hey, we're up and running, and it's all looking good for Mish Mash, my new exhibition at Corvino's, the Culcheth deli! Even before I'd got the pictures on the walls a lady came up to me and told me she wanted to buy a print of Morrissey as a birthday present for her son. Excellent! (Ok, one other young lady didn't know who Morrissey was, and hadn't even heard of New Order, never mind Joy Division! Oh, and one chap asked if it was an exhibition by the new Sunderland manager! His name's Martin O'Neill, in case you didn't know! Hey ho!) Anyway, the show's called Mish Mash because that's exactly what it is .. a mish-mash of my 'hobby' photography, pulled together in just a couple of weeks after the owner of the Deli offered me the fresh white walls of her newly renovated room. I decided to show some of my 'other work', as opposed to my PR and Wedding photography, so there are images from my books Don't Miss That and Don't Miss This, as well as travel shots, Florescence shots, and a selection of images from gigs. You've got three months to catch it!

Maggie, Morrissey, Muhammad....

..Meryl?

No, it's Maggie! 'Course it is, and I shall hang this blog shamelessly on the coat-tails of the new Margaret Thatcher film and show you one of my pictures of The Iron Lady, photographed when she launched her autobiography in '93. I was covering a private function for the event and, after getting my shots, asked her for her autograph. Well, guess what? She gave it to me! It's in my little autograph book in a rather unplanned 'M' section, next to Morrissey and Muhammad Ali ! It's got Martin Chambers in it, too! The drummer out of the Pretenders? ( Didn't think that would impress so much but hey, I like him!) Anyway, I doubt this Martin will be getting asked for his autograph any time soon, but I just wanted to remind you that my new exhibition of photographs, which I have rather ingeniously entitled Mish Mash, is going up today at Corvino's wine bar in Culcheth. Form an orderly queue, please!

I'm still standing..

Feeling a bit off kilter today, what with the double pneumonia and all that - bad cold! - and I was beginning to think Man U were playing the same way in the second half of yesterday's 3rd round match! So here, then, is another approriate image from my old black and white series, part of which will be shown at Corvino's wine bar in Culcheth from tomorrow. This was taken way back when the re-development of Salford Quays was just beginning, and if you look closely on the left you can see the old floodlights of Old Trafford in the background.

So, despite the Man Flu I still managed to deal with five new Wedding enquiries this weekend, meeting three of the couples on a round-trip flit around Stockport, and taking one booking from a young lady in Liverpool who likes my work so much she didn't even need to meet me before she booked!

Now how's that for a pick-me-up?

Send me no flowers...

I've got double pneumonia! Ok, just pneumonia! Ok, man-flu! Oh, alright.. I've got a cold! That's all, just a cold, but I feel yucky today and I only hope I have the strength to get through the FA Cup Manchester Derby this lunchtime! A Hot Toddy might help! Two hot toddies would definitely help!

So anyway, being the hero that I am, I am bravely struggling through the preparations for my new show at Corvino's, and the last few images are being framed this afternoon. Morrissey's Gladdies and a lovely lily are two of the shots that will go up this Tuesday, and then you have three months to come and see the rest!

Atishoooooo!

You never know what's around the corner...

Today's image is a picture I've decided to enter into a 'Social Reportage' photography contest. I thought it was appropriate because I found out this morning that the engagement of a good friend of mine has come to an end, and he's alone again after a couple of years in a relationship. Thing is, he didn't call to tell me and I certainly wasn't told by a friend. No, I heard it on the modern grapevine that is Facebook! His relationship changed from 'Engaged' to 'Single' on his page, and with the click of a mouse we all now know. It reminded me of that day, back in the mists of time, when an ex took off from me, and I was straight on the blower to my mates for a bit of sympathy. Trouble was, one had just been sent to Afghanistan to cover the war, and another had just been whisked into hospital after a heart attack. Kinda put it all into context! Enjoy yourselves, folks! You never know what's around the corner!

Vicar in a tutu...

..and, hopefully, lots of Japanese Smiths fans in my T shirts! Yes, I'm Reeling Round The Fountain with some great news! Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before, but I got the call yesterday from my pal in Tokyo to say my new range of Smiths designs had been given the nod, and they'll be launched in February (in Paris!) in time for the 2012 summer season. Can't wait to see 'em, 'cos the company did such a good job on my Joy Division T shirts that I know this new set will be just fantastic. All sizes will be available too 'cos, let's face it, Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others! By pure coincidence, I'm just printing up a new set of the same photographs to put up in the exhibition I've told you about and, even though I'm Still Ill, this great news has made me completely forget about my snotty Man-Flu! I just hope the Shoplifters of The World don't Unite!...

A Spring in my step...

Ok, I'm being slightly deluded, but I'm grasping at every sign I can find that the Spring is on the way .. the whistle of a song-thrush at three-thirty in the morning, the welcome nudge of a crocus through the decaying leaves of last year, the Easter Eggs in the supermarkets .. and the two-for-one deals on Hot Cross buns!

It does help, of course, that all 'my' brides are talking about June and August, so I can focus ahead on the warmer days to come and forget the fact that my garden fence just blew down in the 70 mile an hour winds! I've been busy organising my forthcoming photographic exhibition, to be held at Corvino's Deli in Culcheth, and am surrounded by my pictures of bright flowers - Florescence, great bands -  Joy Division and The Smiths (to name but two) and humourous moments caught on camera - Don't Miss This.

It's photography's ability to capture memories forever that really puts a Spring in my step!

And Action!..

It didn't take me long to choose my first blog shot of the year. Well, it is a Leap Year, after all! I want my image of a stage-dive to symbolize my approach to 2012 .. head on, hopeful, full of life and fearless! (I know other interpretations are available, but let's not go there today, eh?) No, I'm thinking optimism, ambition, excitement and joie de vivre! Less reminiscing, more forward thinking and a fresh new stance on my work. Better choices for my Wedding couples, pricing that reflects the economy, and a more open mind to other peoples' requirements. That, and some bloody good music in the next twelve months!
Happy New Year, everybody!