Happy Leap Year!..

Hey, Feb 29th .. .and time for all you young ladies to propose to your man! Do it now or wait another four years! Like, oh yeah, I can't see today's modern woman sticking to that rigorous anacronism! Anyway, I've taken a leap with my thinking about the One-Off Wedding Fayre, and changed the concept from a busy, confusing Wedding Fayre to a laid-back, relaxed get-together with a select set of experienced Wedding suppliers! Instead of traipsing around a cluttered, crowded hall, visitors can come and have a Sunday pint and a cup-cake with me and my friends in the Wedding trade .. everyone from Rolls-Royce owners to florists, cake designers and cutting Wedding film makers. Sounds nice, doesn't it!

Today's photograph is one I took about 30 years ago - pre health and safety, I would guess - to illustrate a story about a guy who was going to make a parachute jump with his dog! Leap year, parachute jump .. see what I did there? Anyway, we togged the poor pooch up in goggles and a bandana and I had the owner throw him up in the air one or nineteen times. Then, as luck would have a it, a jet flew past, right in shot, so we launched Lassie skywards just in time to get the plane in the background. How they got on is anyone's guess. I hope it wasn't a leap too far...

Give me a break?..

Yeah, gimme a break! Turns out one of the four photographers at the Wedding Fayre this weekend was actually .. a fireman .. and I'm not going to say another word about that! Not one! Not a dicky bird! Schtum! ...

All in all it it turned out to be not a very good fayre, and very few actual Wedding couples came through the store the whole weekend. I ended up giving out a mere five business cards on Sunday! Pretty bad, huh? Still, every cloud has a silver lining, and I had a nice chat with a photography student who told me all about how she shows her Wedding photographs (No comment here, either!) on Flickr. Lightbulb moment! I'll hold my hands up and say that I've never thought of putting my Wedding photographs on Flickr. Everything else, yes .. flowers, documentary work, travel, gloves and poo .. but never my Weddings .. So, guess what I spent last evening doing? They look good, too!..

Have a break?..

Are you kidding? There's no rest for the wicked this weekend, as I'm in the middle of a two-day Wedding event taking place at Debenhams in Liverpool. In all honesty it started slowly yesterday, and not least because, out of fourteen stands at the event, four of 'em were photographers!! Aaaagh! Anyway - whilst I'm having a moan - the first conversation of any length I had with anyone turned out to be with - yet again - another Father of the Bride who has decided he'll be the one who is going to take his daughter's photographs! Now, that is just crackers! He's the father of the bride! He's already got a job to do on the Big Day! Please tell me where he's going to find time to carry out his duties and enjoy the emotion of the day and stand back to photographically capture it all....! The most aggravating thing about this guy was that he'd only come to the Wedding Fayre to "get a few ideas" ...!! Give me a break!

Foreigner?...

I know, another shot of a band on my blog, but stick with it! I was searching for an insurance policy in a box of old documents this morning, and came across an old diary from 1981 - the year I was 21 and working for the Warrington Guardian. It was a timely find because, yesterday, I was talking with a pal about going to gigs 'in the old days'. His son, it seems, was going to his second gig of the week last night. Second gig of the week! I only managed three in the whole of last year .. and one of them was an eighties' tribute night! Anyway, I started reading through this old diary, and in particular, the February of 1981. You would not believe the listings in there! In just that one month I went to 12 gigs and saw acts as varied as John Cooper Clarke, The Rezillos, Bad Manners, Discharge, OMD and the UK Subs. There was even U2 at Manchester Poly, and Duran Duran although, tellingly, I can't remember anything from that gig! I once photographed Devo - that's them in the picture! - in 1980, and remember the ticket cost me £4. When I went to see 'em more recently the same band cost me 40 quid! Anyway, the thing that shocked me most whilst looking through my history was a listing for Foreigner! Foreigner? I don't even like Foreigner, so why would I go and see 'em? Then it dawned on me! It wasn't a listing for the band, it was a booking to shoot for somebody other than the Warrington Guardian. It was a foreigner, not the Foreigner! Phew!...

The signs are there...

Frogs in the pond, new leaves on the hawthorn, the sun in the sky and snowdrops in the fields! IT'S SPRING!! Well, ok, early signs of it ..  but what with a new Mac, cracking new software and a raft of new Wedding bookings it finally feels like the year is starting at last! Hey, you want more? Abba's "I do, I do, I do" has just come on the iplayer! It's a sign!!

So, I'm just gearing up for a busy two-day Wedding Fayre at Debenham's store in Liverpool this weekend, and let's hope the change in the weather will bring out all those lovely brides! I've signed up a fab florist for my own show, too - the One-Off Wedding Fayre - which I'm staging on March 25th.There's more prosaic work to be done before that, though .. as I'm shooting anti-theft invisible paint for a motor-cycle insurance company this afernoon. Hang on! Invisible? Oh, I'm sure I'll find a way to shoot it! Apparently you shine UV light on your hidden markings and all is revealed. Now that's a sign! ..

That's not music...

Don't you think it's time Bruce Springsteen called it a day? That new single of his is the pits, and sounds to me just like the Lightning Seeds' 'Life of Riley'...

My friend laughs at me all the time, saying my musical tastes are stuck in the 1980s but, do you know what? .. I don't care! Bring it on! As I heard that bloody whining Adele on the radio again this morning it just made me feel so glad I grew up when I did! Yes, I know .. I've turned into my Dad .. but apparently The Brits was on (were on?)  last night and I now have so little interest in 'modern' music that I forgot it was even being held! The Butthole Surfers! Now they were exciting! (That's them in my picture, by the way!) Music that made you move, music that made the hairs on your arms stand up! If punk was the break-out from the garbage that was around in the mid-seventies -musically and socially - then I can't wait to see what's going to smash us out of the musical doldrums we're in at the moment!

Now, where did I put my Val Doonican CD?...

Cold Turkey!...

Ten days!!! That's how long I've been without Photoshop, and I'm going bananas! Ever since my Mac went to iHeaven I've not been able to do any work on any of my images, short of a little bit of tweaking in my newly acquired Lightroom software.

I need a red-eye fix! I need a line of lasso! A Gaussian mask to unsharpen my brain! I need to dodge! I need to burn! Gimme some hue, baby! Gimme some saturation! I gotta fix my levels, man! Aaaagh! Ahem, sorry! Oh, but please hurry up, Mr Postman. Lay some CS on me, dude! I'm gonna go crazy!

Oh, you are NOT going to believe this! He's just knocked on the door and handed me a lovely new CS5.
Kindly mother, father disregard this letter......

(PS! That backside? Belongs to Brian Connolly, the late, great lead-singer with The Sweet! Let's just say I think he'd been enjoying some tasty sampling, too, when I went to his house for this shoot....!)

©Martin O'Neill 2012

Wacky..

.. that's what I was called yesterday! And that from a young couple who'd just decided to book me for their Wedding Photography! (Hi, Sam 'n Steve!) It made my day! Wacky, quirky, off-beat .. you can call me that all day long! Hey, who wants boring? I love being recognised for having a slightly off-kilter way of looking at things, and it really gives me a buzz when I get to shoot a Wedding for people on the same wavelength as I am. I guess that's the only thing I can't get across to a couple when they come to see me about their Big Day .. the fun I have when I shoot their Wedding! My laid-back attitude really helps to unlock the nerves of a Wedding Day and that, over the years, has translated into thousands of relaxed, happy photographs and hundreds of delighted newly-weds! Now, why wouldn't you want that?

Treated myself to a second pint of the black stuff yesterday afternoon, as Sam 'n Steve's Wedding was just one of two bookings I picked up in about ten minutes flat! Both for next year, too, so things are looking good for the big Thirteen! Crazy!...

Furry cup-cakes...

No, not a sexual fetish - as far as I know!! - more a photographic challenge .. as they were the preferred choice of Saturday's bride over a more traditional Wedding cake. Thing was, how to get across their fluffiness? A nice of bit of back-lighting with an off-camera flash fired by remote .. that got the job done .. and despite not having yet received my new version of Photoshop I can get a fantastic image straight out of the camera in Lightroom! Just reminds me how modern photographers see themselves more and more as computer technicians, rescuing/rejigging their images after the event. Me? I like to get it right when I shoot it, so stick that in your cup-cake and eat it!...

Window of opportunity...

Come on! Don't be afraid to show your age! It reminds you of Play School, doesn't it? Today, Kate's shoes will be coming through.. the round window!

This shot's a great lesson in spot-metering because, by taking a reading from the shoes, I've massively over-exposed the glamorous back-drop of .. Bradford Bus Station! Teaching people how to think about things like that is part of my new Shoot 'n Tutor photo-session. Try it for £50!!

So, throwing in the towel.... I now know of three photographers/studios who have sadly had to call it a day. As my pal, another snapper, said to me the other day .. "They didn't throw in the towel, they had the towel thrown at them!" .. Jeezo, times are hard!

Throwing in the towel...

No, not me.. my old Mac! It called it a day at the weekend after seven years' dedicated hard work, so this is the first blog on my lovely new Mac, and an obituary for the old one, now enjoying its just desserts in iHeaven! Thank you, dear imac, and goodbye!! But the new one? Wow! It's incredible! It's bigger than my house, faster than Lesley's TT .. and can't open a bloody thing off my old computer!!!

I've spent the morning trying to source/buy/cadge/steal/re-boot any old software that can get my photographs back on-screen. Oh, dear! So it turns out the £1,400 purchase price for the new Mac was just the start.. and now I need new Photoshop/Lightroom/Word etc., etc., etc....

One day soon I'll laugh at all this expense! Oh, yes, I will.....

This is the modern world...

Whoa..look at the boy go! A big thank you to my girlfriend Lesley, who snapped 'the artist at work' during Saturday's Bradford Wedding. I just knew you'd want to see it!!...

Ho hum! Ok, today is a big day... oh, and Valentine's day, too! Actually, on that note, if someone proposes to you today, my advice is to say "YES" immediately, then rush to my website to get me booked for your Photography. I know, I'm just too romantic!

The other big thing? Why, it's officially 'Martin gets his new Mac' day, celebrated far and wide across the land - well, at least as far as John Lewis, who have relieved me of £1,399 for the privilege of owning the beast! Can't wait to pick it up this afternoon, and here's hoping that its super-duper speed will actually give me some of my life back! It's about time my cutting-edge cameras were paired with something other than a computer that still eats coal....

Not so bad...

Oh, well...things ain't so bad now I've found that I can still actually write my blog from this pesky machine, so.....

Had a great Wedding on Saturday.. Kate and Andy at the Great Victoria Hotel in Bradford. Lovely interior, which is just as well,'cos it was bloody freezing outside! I'd started the day on a high anyway, as one of my Wedding photographs has just been published in Professional Photographer magazine  - you know me and my little ego-boosts! - but the whole day just got better and better. It was challenging, rushed, emotional, happy, fun.. and my shots capture it all. Now I just have to wait to get a working Mac, and I can actually edit the 852 shots...!

Got to tell you about a rather amusing Freudian slip my mate made on Friday night. He asked me how things were in the world of "PhotographRy.." Free? The way the fees are falling it's starting to feel like it, ho ho.....

Helllppp....!

Oh, dear! I've got that 'Monday Morning' feeling! My dear old Mac .. emphasis on the word 'old', has decided to give up the ghost, and I've been abandoned to the wilds of a PC laptop.. feeling my way across a flat keyboard, trying to bend to an angle where I can actually see an image on the tidgy screen! .... Until Tuesday!... when I take delivery of my super-duper AB FAB 27 inch MAC.. oh, my baby,come to Daddy!!!!

Good times on the horizon...

I pride myself in offering a really good selection of photographs when I shoot a Wedding, but must admit to getting a lovely, warm feeling when a new bride-to-be told me she was booking me for her Wedding because she was going for "quality over quantity"! And that on the same day another couple said they loved my "unique" style and could they come and see me, rapido!!

After what, by normal standards, has been quite a slow start to the year, there are real glimmers of better days ahead. My Wedding bookings are really picking up the pace, with lots coming in for next year now, and I've just been put forward as the photographer on a potential long-term construction project. I have my own exhibition running at the moment, of course, and the planning for my very own Wedding Fayre is coming along nicely, with yet another new addition to the exhibitors yesterday. On top of that, my Shoot 'n Tutor sessions are now up and running, with a new price of just £65 for an in-depth two-hour session with your's truly! All that, and my first Wedding of the year tomorrow! Ain't that grand?...

We have the technology...

Greetings from Santorini, everybody! Ok, not exactly, but the folks across the road appear to have bought themselves a rooster, and its constant cock-a-doodling makes me feel like I'm writing this from some secluded sun-soaked villa in the Greek countryside. Dream on, Martin!

The 110 format ..  remember that? The little flat camera whose negatives were so small you actually needed a microscope to view 'em? The young girl in my old Olympus XA shot is using one, as she nicks the wedding photographer's shot!! (Don't get me started!) Well, once upon a time we thought those cameras were cutting edge, yet it doesn't feel it'll be so long before we'll sit back, sigh and say .. "Jeez! Only twelve million pixels? How on earth did we manage?" .... I write this from under the mass-bombardment of the latest camera-launch news from Nikon. Just like bloody buses, you wait for one then three come along at once .. the newest two swaggering in with thirty-six million pixels each! (Doesn't seem two minutes since you only got 36 shots before your capture capability .. FILM!! .. was full!)

OMG! I'm getting so left behind! How dare I show my face at a Wedding with a mere 12m pixel camera .. the nerve! The cheek! The .. oh, I've just remembered! It's what you can do with a camera that counts! Phew.....

Word up...

Oh, the gales, the snowdrifts, the plunging temperatures ... I'm so pleased they passed us by! Ok, it did go a bit nippy, and there was a bit of snow over the weekend, but in general the good old north-west of England was spared the ravages of the Siberian weather-front .. so much so that we could get out walking yesterday, and I got this photograph that kind of sums things up! Phew!

So, I've got my first Wedding of the year coming up on Saturday, although I won't be ordering my new Ferrari on the back of it as I'm doing it for nothing as a Wedding present to my girlfriend's best mate! (I know .. I'm just too nice!) Can't wait to get cracking, though! It's been six weeks since my last shoot and my shutter finger's itching to go! Hey, speaking of which, check out this shop sign I also shot at the weekend. It's the jeweller's shop next to Corvino's, the wine-bar where I've got .. My Smiths shots! What are the chances?..

Put out to grass...

This picture's so funny! I found it on that CD of images I was given when I was designing a banner for Decadence Cars. It shows the lovely bride Julia walking down the path of the church with the best man - I'm not starting any rumours here, by the way! - but lo.. what is that strange sight in the background?

Why, 'tis I, up my ladder, apparently taking a picture of the lawn!

I've been captured setting up for my trademark 'Big Group' shot, the result of which you can see below...  That lawn's much better with a bunch of people on it, eh?

Going swimmingly...

Sorry, I've had the phrase 'plain sailing' in my head since I wrote yesterday's blog, so I just had to pile into my travel photography folders to get you a suitable image to look at! It's ironic it's a mast-head, as the front page of the Daily Mirror has just popped up onto my Facebook page with the news that 75 jobs are to go in the newspaper group. My friend's a staff photographer on the Mirror .. I hope his job's alright! (I noticed, too, another photographer's studio has shut down near to where I live! Help!!!)

Anyway, let's not dwell on negatives (Hey, is that a photographers' joke?)  Things are going swimmingly (See what I did, there?) for my Wedding Fayre, which I've decided to call the One-Off Wedding Fayre, as it'll feature just one example of each of a range of Wedding suppliers. (With it so far?) So often brides go to Wedding Fayres and they're swamped and confused by five photographers, four nail-technicians etc., etc., so this way they'll simply get the best of each discipline. (And I don't need to add anything in brackets!)
Simples!

Life's a Gas!..

.. but hey, it's not always plain sailing, so I thought I'd talk to you about the 'other' side of Wedding Photography for a change - the 'it's getting tougher every day' side - that I don't often mention. By the way, I'm not looking for violins here. I know we're all finding things hard, but this recession jobby is hitting photographers particularly badly. So here are three things that, I swear to God, have happened to me this week .. and it's still only Wednesday!

Firstly, a hotel near to me had asked if I would link to their website in return for a link to mine from theirs. Groovy! Yes, please! So, yesterday, they got in touch again. Their link, they said, would take the form of a photographers' blog, so could I please .. get this.. could I please give a piece of advice to all aspiring new Wedding Photographers! Now, if you follow my tweets then I apologise, because I'm repeating myself here, but here goes. My advice was for them to F*ck off! Why on earth would I want to encourage even more Wedding Photographers onto the scene? Fair point, said the hotel.. and I haven't heard from them since! (Their link on my site is now history, too!)

Now, you'll have noticed that I'm organising my own, my very own, Wedding Fayre, to feature one of each of a number of different suppliers. One florist, one dress shop, one photographer, etc... (I'm the photographer! Oh, you guessed!) Well, before I'd even got things moving, my man with the Rolls-Royce was approached by another photographer, who wanted to get a stand at my Fayre. Er, no! It's my Fayre! I'm the photographer! So, as my second point, he revealed to me yesterday that this 'photographer' was actually a hairdresser, who fancied a 'go' at photography!!! Great!

Thirdly, I had an enquiry from a bride over the weekend, who has now emailed me back to say that she won't be needing my services now, as her Wedding venue was "throwing in a photographer for free"...!!!

Life's a Gas? I need Oxygen!....