When I were a lad...

Ok, ok .. time for a bit of jolly flag waving after my blog the other day. A pal of mine described me as the Victor Meldrew of photography so it's time to stick up for Blighty and let's hear it for the Jubilee! I've put this montage of Florescence shots up as my home-page picture for the duration, and then I'll be right back at the Wedding Photography with a vengence!

Running a Shoot'nTutor session this morning, which I'm looking forward to, and then I'm off for a quick 'dress rehearsal' of the route between the church and the reception venue of Saturday's Wedding. I always have a dry run if I'm not sure of the best way to get between locations. Wouldn't want to get lost now, would I? I've decided to make my Shoot'nTutor sessions One to One, offering individual tuition to anyone that wants to know how to get to grips with their cameras. Nothing too deep, just a run-through of those scary Exposure settings!

I wonder how this Jubilee weekend will be recorded. Will people actually ease up and allow their children to be photographed in public? Back in '77 there was absolutely no problem. Actually, there was ..  you couldn't get the kids off your photos! They did everything they could to get in front of your lens.
Ah, I miss the old days! Oh, there's Mr Meldrew again...

Johnny Foreigner..

Good to be back in England after my holiday, back in the bosom of my countrymen and away from all those bloody foreigners! Let's hear it for the jubilee and hip, hip hurray for my fellow Englishman! Or not! Jeez, I only needed to get as far as the arrivals hall at Manchester Airport to be reminded of all the bloody oiks in this country. Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be British - English! - and I do love my country but it's just a shame I can't stand half the people in it! That majority 'underclass' that's proud to show its ignorance! You know the types! Ugh, I shudder when I think that the Sun is the biggest selling newspaper in the UK. So, out in Greece we may have shaken our heads at the occcasional loud American and elbowed back at one or two surly, rude French, but we could only grimace in despair at the utter ignorance of some of the British there. No wonder we get a bad name abroad! At least there's one good thing about the UK - you can't smoke in a bar anymore, which was the one thing we hated more than anything whilst we were away.

Anyway, ranting aside .. have a look at my holiday snaps!      :-)

Alright, my sun? ..

What a weekend! Two fantastic Weddings, temperatures in the high eighties, The Hump going down in flames and England beating the entire Rest of the World 3-1 at football !! Ok, the footy was only the Robbie Williams charity match at Old Trafford, but it bodes well for Euro 2012 when I hope we can get revenge for the Europeans giving such dismal votes to poor old Englebert Humperdinck, who got trounced in the Eurovision Song Contest and came second to last!

My Weddings were both amazing at the weekend, and gave me a real challenge with the unbelievable amounts of light bouncing off the lovely white brides' dresses! However, speaking of bouncing light .. I'd planned to do a shot at the front of the Belle Epoque brasserie during Saturday's Wedding, but when I checked out the view before the ceremony it was absolutely drowned in dazzling light with the sun shining straight into my fish-eye lens. One hour later though and the great Greek God of Photography, Correctius Aperturius, smiled sweetly on me and got me the shot I'm showing you today. Not only had the sun moved behind the building, but it was reflecting off a shop front across the road and lighting the exact spot I wanted to place the Bride and Groom! Now what are the chances of that happening?

Feelin' hot, hot, hot...

Phew, what a scorcher! I know the tabloids usually wait until June to bring out that old headline, but I'm a rush, 'cos I've just shot one of my hottest Weddings of the year so far! Holly looked hot, James looked hotter (Well, he was wearing a three-piece suit!) and Willington Hall blazed yesterday under the most sweltering sunshine of the summer. Man, I've never used so much fill-in flash in all my life! I came away with a face like a beetroot and 850 fantastic shots of a really laid-back afternoon - oh, and a lovely new image for the front page of my web-site. You can check out the newly-weds page here, too!


So, off to the swanky Belle Epoque Brasserie in Knutsford for today's Wedding. Different location, new challenges. Ironically there are at least twice as many guests this afternoon as there were yesterday, in a venue about a quarter of the size. I think I'd better shovel on the anti-perspirant! I remember once shooting a Wedding there out on the busy main road that the venue's situated on. Ex Man U player  Ole Gunnar Solskjær casually walked between my camera and the couple, and I had to ask him to buzz off out the way while I got my shot. Nowadays I don't think I'd know a United player if he came up and kicked me in the tripods!

Toodles....  

You just wouldn't, would you? ..

No time to blog today - he wrote, whilst blogging - and no time to go through my Greek 'holiday' shots properly either, but here's one that caught my eye that I thought I'd share with you. The owner of this little boat has either got a death-wish, a really weird sense of humour or a very poor grasp of English! No sinking feelings for me today though. I'm on a high as I head off to today's Willington Hall Wedding in the glorious Cheshire countryside. It's an early one - twelve noon - and as I was last there in December I think it might be a little warmer there today!

PS: A big hello to Helen at Emirates! Hope you're getting your blog 'fix' again!!...

PS..

Just had to share this with you! Pigs might fly? Well, elephants certainly do! Shot whilst cloud-watching on the beach in Santorini!

Normality returns..

So what's all this about a crisis in Greece? I've just come back from a week's holiday there and can assure you the Mythos lager is flowing like a river, and not once was there ever a shortage of Chicken Souvlaki, Gyros or Moussaka! I think it's just the British tourist industry, trying to make us all stay at home for the London Olympics and this crappy Jubilee mullarkey!

Anyway, I have survived! Yes, dear reader, I have been a guest at a Wedding and come out of it with a smile on my face. Ok, I needed a week's break to get over the shock, but I'm back now and hard at work editing the 1,150 photographs I took on the day! Bloody hell, that's more than I shoot when I'm actually working at a Wedding! Do you think I was over-compensating? And I wouldn't mind, but I took over 600 pictures in Greece .. and I was supposed to be off work! Nah, once a photographer always a photographer! Anyway, I think I've started a trend, 'cos a pal of mine has asked if I would nip down to get a few shots at his Wedding next month and er, .."Oh, could you be a witness, too?" At this rate I'll be conducting the flippin' ceremonies!..

A quick thank you to the people who contacted me to say they were missing my blog whilst I was away! I checked the statistics for the last week and noticed I even had two readers from Burkina Faso! Blimey, that's like, miles away!

Wedding head on again now .. I have Weddings on Friday and Saturday this week, at a couple of my favourite venues - Willington Hall and the Belle Epoque restaurant in Knutsford. Isn't it nice when normality returns?..

Well folks, this is it! I've been to the barbers, my shoes are a'gleaming and my nasal hair's plucked! I'm off to be a guest at a Wedding !! WooHoo! Fortunately, my preparations also include charging my cameras and formatting my memory cards because I will get to shoot some of the Wedding for the couple .. officially anyway .. because unofficially I'll be blasting away all day with my new toy, the Fuji X10. So, it's archery, swimming and jacuzzi this afternoon, a champagne reception around 5ish, a family dinner this evening, then loading up the car to help transfer everything across to the 'real' hotel for the Wedding tomorrow morning. Jeez! It's hard work, this socialising mullarkey!
Catch you on the other side....

Fame at last! ..

Recognition, at last! See, I knew it was only a matter of time! Well, I'd like to thank my mother, my father, my .. oh, you mean Terry O'Neill? Damn it! One, day, one day....

I'll tell you what, though, I'm gonna grab my trumpet and give it a good old toot (Behave!) because I have had some fantastic compliments this week, both from Wedding couples and the big bad world of PR. Check these out .. "Some great pix here.." (That was for a brochure shoot I did last week) and "We had the most amazing day and not only did you make it more fun on the day but you have given us the most amazing memories. We really can't thank you enough. You are an absolute star and worth every penny." (That was for last week's Wedding)

So, if this magazine article was about me I'd like it to say "What inspires him" instead of "Who" and the answer would be making people happy with my work .. simple as that!

Now, off for that hair cut...

If the suit fits...

... and it does - with no alteration needed - so I've treated myself to a new wing-collar shirt to go with it! Yes folks, the Wedding Guest wheels are rolling and I'm slowly coming round to the idea that I am just going to be able to chill and enjoy Saturday's Wedding from a new perspective! The good news is that the bride and groom have asked me to shoot their speeches and first dance, so I'll have to take my Nikons with me after all - Hurrah!

It's funny what you get used to at a Wedding. On Sunday, for example, Nadine and Paul decided to dispense with the 'ritual' of staying in seperate locations on their Wedding Day, so shooting Nadine's Bridal Preparations with Paul hovering in the background had all my alarm buttons flashing as I kept wanting to shout "Don't let him see her!!"....

I had a lovely email from Nadine last night. "Hi Martin.." she said "Just wanted to say thanks so much for Sunday. You were amazing and we can't thank you enough. You looked completely knackered when you left so hope the journey home was not too bad? Not sure about you but my legs have been killing me with all of those bloody stairs and slopes lol."

Told you it was hilly!...

I guest as much...

This Wedding Guest mullarkey is getting a bit nerve-wracking! My suit's being collected today, and I've had to dig out my one decent pair of black leather shoes to give them the full Cherry Blossom work-out. I daren't breathe in case I catch a cold, I daren't look in the mirror for fear a pimple pops out on my chin .. and what about my hair? Is it alright for the photographs or should I have a trim before Saturday? Lesley, God bless her, has even suggested I go have something severe done to my cuticles, though I'm more worried about what my hands will do at a Wedding without three Nikon D300s in their sweaty grip (Stop giggling at the back!) Then there's the family meal the night before to think about, and the pub-lunch on the way home on the Sunday and ... oh, sh*t! I can't remember how to tie a cravat!! And they say Wedding Photography's stressful...

Come in Number Six..

Wow! What a fantastic day! I got back from my foreign assignment last night - my Wedding in Wales! - with such a great feeling of  'a job well done'. It was a blast, and great exercise, too! You're either going uphill or down steps in Portmeirion but even with the high heels she was wearing Nadine was game for anything, and took the orders of her demanding photographer in her stride - clomping up towers and tiptoeing down steep steps with a big beaming smile on her face! I was exhausted by the end of the day, with a two hour drive still to go, but it was one of those days when you just know you've done a great job, and I couldn't wait to start working on my images. Have a look at them here...

So, the next Wedding I go to is on Saturday, where I'll be a guest! Help! I don't know how to be a guest at a Wedding! How will I be able to keep my hands off the bride and groom? How will I feel about another photographer having control of someone's Big Day? Oh, Lord!.. Good job I've got my Fuji X10 to keep me snap-happy! Phew...

Simple pleasures..

Dew collected in the leaf of a lupin! A simple shot on this Bank Holiday Sunday but it sums up how  fresh and new and excited I feel about Wedding Photography this morning! I'm off to Portmeirion now to shoot the Wedding of Nadine and Paul. The sun's shining, the venue is brilliant and with an intimate Wedding party of only 24 people it's going to be an amazing day! Catch you tomorrow! Enjoy the break!..

The clock is ticking..

A tulip, already going over in my garden, and because we're freezing our doo-dahs off it's difficult to remember that it's already May and summer is fast approaching! It's a shame for today's brides that the weather is so unreliable these days, and I'm just hoping Portmeirion has a lovely little 25 degree micro-climate going on when I go there for Sunday's Wedding! Mind you .. 'Cast ne're a clout' as they say, ''til May is out!' The shot, by the way, was on my X10, at f2. (Fast shutter speed to stop my shivering, ha ha!)

Nice to get caught up in the 'other' side of a Wedding! What I mean is that if I ever go to a Wedding it's because I'm the photographer, of course, whereas next week I'm going to be a guest. I just emailed Nicky, the bride, and dropped in the fact that it was only nine days until her Wedding.
"9 Days 4 Hours and 24 Minutes :-)" came back the reply !
God, even I'm getting excited!
Roll on the heat-wave!..

All on yer lonesome..

I was reading a magazine article the other day - yes folks, I actually found time to sit down and read one of my many photographic subscriptions - and in it an 'expert' Wedding Photographer was going on about how hard it is being a self-employed professional. The long hours spent alone, the isolation, the lack of 'interaction with other people' and the fact that he felt he was in a rut with the 'grind' of it all. His solution? Shoot your own personal project to freshen up your passion again! Brilliant! Only thing is, my passion never goes away! I can't stop taking photographs and yes, whilst there is a truth to his article in that it is a rather solitary life (Aw, poor us!) it just makes me realise how lucky I am to have been doing my 'hobby' for the last 34 years! Personally, I love working alone, and daily I bow in thanks before Tripodius, the great God of Photography!

The picture I'm showing today is from one of my earlier photographic projects - the 'Don't Miss This' series shot on an Olympus XA. To my mind I can see echoes of Robert Frank here - now there's a photographer I'd love to meet! - but hey, we can't escape influence, and Robert Frank's as good a starting point as any! Some of this work -mine, not Mr Frank's! - is still up at Corvino's Wine Bar in Culcheth, by the way. The show's been extended by popular demand! (Ok, the owner said I might as well keep 'em up there as she had nothing else to cover the walls!) and in the same way I fell in love with the XA, my new 'camera of choice' - the Fuji X10 - is now hard at work, and the foundations of yet another photographic project have been laid down. The camera's given me a whole new way of shooting and, ironically, there's no way I'd be getting the shots I am if I wasn't working alone.
Intriguing!...

...and then squash the b*stard! ..

Another lickle rant about the selfishness that exists in this country, although I have to admit this one's quite amusing! Think Bike! Think Biker .. then promptly block the cycle lane on a busy road. Yeah, right! Nice one, numpty!

All roads point to Mid-Wales this weekend, as I'm off to Portmeirion to shoot another Wedding. If you've never been there, then go! It's fab! Nooks, crannies, weird buildings, wild colours.. it's an absolute Christmas present for a Wedding Photographer. To be honest, there's so much to shoot that I've actually had to say to Nadine, the bride, that we'll just stick to one area of the site for our photographs, or we'll never get finished for her 6.30 Wedding breakfast deadline. Can't get in the way of their nosh now, can I?

Now then, yellow 'vintage' photographs? Not my scene man, as I'm sure you're well aware, but I just thought I'd let everybody know with a new page on my website..

I feel much better now, thank you! ..