A sorry business ..

Just back from a PR job, photographing Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. He was talking business, boosting business, supporting business ..

When I got home I received a phone call from a local school. No names, no pack drill but I'd emailed the head, asking if he'd be interested in a Facebook portrait offer for his pupils. They'd get a professional head shot done for their profile, and I'd donate a percentage of the fee to the school fund. "Sorry.." said the lady that called "We can't recommend any one business over another!" "But I'm the only portrait studio of this kind in the village.." I said. "Yes..." she replied "But we have members of staff who run their own photography businesses too!..."

Oh, what a sorry business it is ...

Past, future .. tense!

I was hearing yesterday that the A&E department at Trafford General Hospital is soon to close down and, by one of those strange coincidences, I was actually working on a 1977 image from my archive that mentioned it in the shot! Park Hospital, as it used to be called, was listed as a destination on this scruffy knackered pole at the old Eccles Bus Station, and the poor dear with the hankie looked like she'd have benefitted from a trip there too, bless! It's the hospital where I was born - as, indeed, was a certain Patrick Steven Morrissey just nine months earlier - but, I suppose, life moves on and it's had a good innings!

Hard to believe that I only have two 'overs' left (to keep the cricket analogy going) of my archive's Twelve for '13 project. I was working on November's additions when I came across today's particular shot, and it'll be added on November 1st as the penultimate upload. After that .. well, I'm hoping there's a chance I'll get the work shown in Manchester in the coming months. I've been working on a proposal for an exhibition in the City, and I'm off there today to drop it off.
My future - I hope - from the past!  It's tense ..

About time ..

The clocks have gone back and, right on time, the bad weather's coming in! I'm so pleased I have a studio to work from these days! I had a great week there last week, with a nice selection of portrait 'variations' .. including a business shot of a very polite young German chap, a picture of our local vicar and his family, a teenage brother and sister that actually didn't mind being in the same shot and .. a surprise birthday photograph for a seventy year old chap with his grandchildren, made all the more surprising as he'd just sat down to watch the Man U game against Stoke!

Having said that, I'm looking forward to Thursday, when I head over to Ellesmere Port for a PR shoot with Vince Cable, and I'm waiting to hear if a quote I've given will get me another restaurant shoot in Manchester later this week. Interestingly, that side of my work seems to be on the up and up, so much so that I've added a specific 'go to' page on my web-site for clients who want to see my venue work, as two of the last two shoots of this type have both come from Google searches! Google works? It's about time! ..

Press here .. while you can!

It amuses me greatly that, on what must be practically thirty-five years to the day, I once again have the front page of the Sale and Altrincham Messenger. They've used two of my photographs from last Sunday's Frank Sidebottom statue unveiling! Hey, hey! I even got a byeline - and a link to my website - something we'd never heard of in 1978 - and although that's all well and good, and a boost to the ego and all that, I can't help thinking .. if the statue unveiling was such big front-page news .. why the bleedin' hell didn't the Messenger send a photographer?? I shake my head in disbelief!!

That day brought up another aspect of Press Photography that I hadn't thought about for a long time and that was .. how much I loathed being part of the 'Press Pack'! Every single photographer having to go for the same shot, and heaven help you if you threw in your two-pen'orth and suggested a different pose .. because all the other snappers would wolf down on you to get that shot as well! Now, ok, the guys have got to get the newspaper shot - I can the hear the picture desk rollocking they'd get if they didn't come back with it - but it was lovely for me on Sunday to be able to take a different viewpoint. I actually even heard one of my erstwhile colleagues call me an idiot for walking off and shooting from a different angle!
Baaaaa.....

Anyway, here's an interesting Post-Script: The picture editor of the Manchester Evening News - who I've never even met! -  is leaving today and once she's gone .. the MEN is not replacing her. There will not be a picture desk at the Manchester Evening News! The 'paper's view of photographers has sunk that low! The times they are a'changing, and I'm glad I don't have to try to make a living from the press anymore!..

Snap!..

A Kodak 110 in 1977. An iphone last Friday! Kids at Weddings! Nothing changes, eh? But it makes me think about the 'so-called' worry over the archiving of digital files. All that head-shaking over the fact that phone/digital camera shots are simply viewed a few times and then deleted. Yet nobody's asking that young girl from the Seventies where her prints are, are they? Nobody's checking that her negatives are properly filed in acid free packaging! So nobody will ever have any idea what her shots were like, what the bride's dress was like, what the car she arrived in looked like! Unless .. ah, relax .. there was a professional photographer there! Phew ..

©Martin O'Neill

And take your bagpipes, too ..

Watched a rather interesting programme about Iceland Frozen Foods last night. Interesting because, quite a few years back, I had a PR job where I photographed the MD and seem to remember him as a really nice guy. The only problem with the programme was .. the narrator! The Scottish narrator! I couldn't tell half the things she said! What was all that about "weaste" food and Iceland's "Each Q"? And the Co-op? "Gid with Fid"! What? Speak English, for Gawd's sake...!

Now, I've nothing against the Scots - Hi Hamish, Hi Suzanne - but, for goodness sake, why do we have to have so many things voiced in a Scottish accent? Sod that idea of sounding more trustworthy, it just makes me want all those narrators to vote for Independence and bugger off back over the border!! Get some English voices back on the telly and the radio! Even Brummy ones! I don't care!..

Oooh, I've not had a rant for ages! Felt good! Let's have more! Och, aye....

Being Frank ..

Oh, blimey! I had such a great day yesterday at the unveiling of a statue to the memory of Frank Sidebottom, the alter-ego of Timperley comedian/musician Chris Sievey. Hundreds of people turned out for the occasion, eventually blocking the entire crossroads at the centre of the village! Anarchy! The fun thing for me was that, unlike the press who were gathered around the statue, I didn't have to get the picture of the day for a newspaper. Rather, I was able to wander at will around the whole event and document it from all angles. Happily, that involved covering the music being played in the Stonemasons Arms, and the sight and sound of Chris' son Harry playing Freshies' songs with two of the original group - echoing a shot I did at Bowdon Vale Youth Club in 1979 - is a memory I'll cherish for a long time. Click on the pix to see 'em larger and here if you've the time to wade through all 445 shots of the day. Nice to see Steve Sullivan and his crew there too, filming more footage for their forthcoming documentary Being Frank, and it was nice to be able to show some of my old Freshies' pictures at a 'pop-up' exhibition in Timperley Library. Over 150 fans walked across to see it! Thank you for the interest, everybody!

So, back to portraits and I'm looking forward to shooting a couple of family sessions at the studio this week. Interestingly, I've also been booked to shoot a forthcoming Baby Shower. It's good to know this other work is coming in as, being frank, the Wedding season has more or less dried up for this year now, and it'll be a couple more months before I cover another one. Come and keep me busy at the studio .. 

Must dash ..

Just four hours until the unveiling of the Frank Sidebottom statue in Timperley, and just two hours until my pop-up Freshies exhibition 'pops up' to accompany the event! I'm having a small selection of photographs of Chris - aka Frank - on display - for one day only - at Timperley library. What an exciting day for fans of Mr Sidebottom, and I'm particularly looking forward to it as I've been asked if I'll photograph the occasion for posterity!
In fact, I'd better dash ..

Will work for food ..

Slurp! I worked my way through every starter and main at Rosso Restaurant in Manchester yesterday, accompanied by 140 bottles of their finest wine! Man, I was stuffed! Well, my memory cards were, with 1178 shots of grub and booze knocked off in one mega-session. So that's my bit done and now the web-site guys have got to sift their way through all the chablis and the lobster, the pinot and the truffles to set up the restaurant's new web pages. I'll send you the link when they're through!

So, it was hard work and a long day, but I love the .. well, the thrill of working so fast. Having to get the shot in just a few frames because there's so much to shoot in one day! Hey, I even managed to knock off some images of one of their rooms for them. So, very much like press work, and very much like Weddings although .. I did actually get fed yesterday!

Salt and vinegar?..

And so to Rosso, and it's going to be a long day! I believe I have something like 70 different dishes from the menu - and a hundred different wines to photograph today! Just got to resist the temptation to ask for ketchup...

Eat my shots ..

I'm turning into a full-time restaurant photographer! Having got Room under my belt I've now shot James Martin Manchester and am booked tomorrow to shoot every item on the menu at Rosso restaurant in Spring Gardens (I think I might be the only person on the planet who didn't know that was owned by Man U player Rio Ferdinand!) Funnily enough, even a Wedding I'm shooting on Friday is themed around a swanky Italian restaurant! I could be dining out for years on these stories!..

WLTM ..

Well, here I am, back on the old Internet Dating scene! Now, let me see. User Name? Ah, yes! ••••••• ! Password?  ••••••• ! (I'm glad I wrote it down!) And .. I'm in! Classic FM's Internet Dating site, Classic Romance. Hmm, now to add a picture. There's the profile! Upload and .. Oh yes, lookin' good, baby!

Ok, you've sussed me, so before you rush off and start telling tales to Lesley, let me explain! As you might have guessed, it's not actually me that's back on internet dating! No, I was adding a photograph for one of the people who came in to have a profile portrait done last week. Ironically, they don't have access to the internet (!) so I had to upload their photograph for them! They gave me their password and everything! (And no, I wasn't tempted!..)

I'm hoping this new service will prove invaluable to the ever-growing number of people who use the internet to find 'someone new'. Lord knows, I spent enough time in the past trawling through pages of fuzzy, dark head-shots on Match.com only to find the pictures were generally twenty years out of date anyway! Why waste time with inaccurate photography? Get the job done properly and stand out from the crowd, that's what I say!

(Oh, and .. Ps: Yes, it does work!)   

Dear Mr O'Neill ..

I may have shown you this before. In which case, my apologies! What repetition! What lack of inventiveness! What? You're showing it again? Hey, it's my blog!..
 I might even show it next year, so watch it!..

It's a letter from Eddy Shah, of (eventual) Today newspaper fame - dated 11th October 1978 - telling me I'd got my first ever job as a newspaper photographer, on the Sale and Altrincham Messenger! Dear Mr O'Neill! Man, I cannot tell you how good it felt to get that letter! At last I was a real photographer .. on forty five pounds a week! With a free motor-bike and driving lessons thrown in! (Ok, I could have done without the motor-bike!) But this was the letter that set me on my way! Two years out of school and I was finally getting my dream job! I've never looked back - as you know - and I've never forgotten my first day on the job, photographing the Captain of Manchester United!! God! Well, Martin Buchan, in the flesh! I'd have paid forty five quid for the privilege!!

See, that's the thing! How many people get their dream job .. at 18 years old? And how many people are still doing it .. 35 years on? I am one lucky buggalugs, I am but don't worry .. I never forget that! Happy 11th of October, everybody...

Can you dig it? ..

Whoo! Up for air after a manic three days at the PR 'coal-face' where I've photographed the new James Martin restaurant, a brochure for a casino, a dressage display and two portraits for use as internet-dating profiles! I've also held the inaugural meeting for The Culcheth Collection - my 'One-stop' shop for Wedding services in Cheshire - so I'm going to use today to eat, shower and drink beer! (Actually, I'm not! I have to be at the studio by 10.30!) Really happy with the work I've done though, although this 'arty' shot of a conference room converted to its use as a disco might have gone a little too crazy to show the client!! (Hey, you gotta try, innit!..)

So, The Culcheth Collection. Well, it's coming along nicely, since you ask. We now have a hairdresser, a nail technician and a bridal dress shop on board, so I think we're all set to sail forth and start plugging our wares to the discerning brides of Cheshire (.. and Manchester, Liverpool and Lancashire! Sorry to go on .. SEO keywords and all that!) All a new couple have to do is book just a minimum of two suppliers from The Collection and they'll receive either a discount or a little 'something extra' from each of the suppliers! It's win, win for newly engaged couples .. and hopefully it'll do us lot a bit of good, too!..

And now, back to the coal-face. I look so cool with a miner's helmet on...

Variety's the spice ..

Children and animals! Oh, and a casino, a restaurant, a corporate team building event and, erm .. 12 semi-naked grandmothers! The diary this week certainly makes for interesting reading, and I've definitely got a diverse and exciting five days ahead of me!

The children and animals? I'm off to do a PR shoot at a Riding Centre this afternoon. The casino and restaurant? That's a brochure for a venue in the middle of Manchester which has just opened its own James Martin restaurant. The team-building event is a half-day shoot for a rather large organisation which, last time, involved percussion lessons and some rather large bongoes! Speaking of rather large bongoes, we come to the grannies! They're from a Community Group in Eccles who are dressing down and lining up for their very own 'Calendar Girls' shoot, and aim to produce a calendar which they hope will raise funds for The Christie Hospital in Manchester. I'm only doing the recce this week, with the actual shoot to follow next week, but I can't wait! Interestingly, I'm also shooting a portrait this week for a - let's say .. senior - chap who wants a cool shot for a profile on an internet dating site. Maybe I can save him some dosh and fix him up with one of my 'models'? That'd spice up his life..

Witch Magazine ..

Great shoot with little superstar Amy yesterday, and it was lovely to see her parents bring her back again for some new photographs after a session we did just over a year ago."Well, they change so fast.." said Mum as Amy changed, as if by magic, into .. erm, a witch! She popped into a cute little witch's outfit to pose for my Hallowe'en ad, and that went out 'live' today as a special £15 pose and picture offer! Book now or I'll have her turn you into a toad ..

Timperley, here we come ..

All the signs are suddenly pointing to Timperley, where I'm to have a 'Pop-up' One-Day exhibition at the library to coincide with the unveiling of the Frank Sidebottom statue! I was contacted yesterday by Timperley library who've offered, because the event happens on a Sunday (20th!), to open up just to show my work. Now I've blogged enough about Chris Sievey/Frank Sidebottom for you to know who I'm talking about, so if you still don't know then go and find out! What a great opportunity to get my work shown, and I'm sure his fans will love the pictures. Although I shot the band on stage at Bowdon Vale Youth Club most of the images are from the afternoon I spent with Chris and his mates wandering around Sale on a bright spring afternoon. They bring back some fantastic memories of my earliest days as a spotty-faced 18 year old press photographer! They really do ..

A gentler pace ..

Child and animal studies taken at a reasonable price! Sounds so quaint, but I think I might market myself like that from now on! The line's from this fantastic 1980 classified newspaper column I found in my archive. Portraits, canvas or standard; magnificent album from £39.99; samples in your home, without obligation! It all sounds so civilized and gentlemanly, not like the rip tear of modern marketing and I for one would gladly go back to putting a nice 'ad' in the paper to get my work.
There's just so much info out there now and, sadly, getting work's very often not about the quality of your photography but your skills with SEO and getting your name up the Goggle ranking! (Not a spelling mistake!) ..

Sit down, Martin! Have a cup of tea!
Ah, now there's an idea for your new Home page picture ..

Girls on Chip ..

More on the subject of rock, and .. oh, let me put on my anorak before I begin! Guess what .. I've picked up an SL-D2 - minus counter-weight - for just £25! I know! How exciting! And the good thing is, I had the balance from my old one to fit onto it, so the one I've now got worked straight away. Does it get any better?

Sorry, let's start again! Actually, let's not! All I was going to say is that I bought a new 'old' record player off Ebay - for the bargain price of twenty-five quid - and now I can get stuck into all my vinyl again! (The picture today's an arty shot of said vinyl) One of the first records I played on my new turntable was Red Light, by Siouxsie and the Banshees. The rhythm is driven by the sound of a camera's motor-drive being fired, similar to Girls on Film by Duran Duran. I couldn't help wondering what those songs would sound like if they'd been made in the era of digital cameras! Girls on Chip? Click ....

Rocktober ..

Ok, wind instruments aren't exactly 'rock' but, seeing as everyone says I use this blog to blow my own trumpet, I thought this picture would be appropriate as the first image this new month. It's from the October installment of Twelve for '13, my documentary photography archive from Eccles and Manchester and, boy, you're in for a treat this month as I've not only uploaded eight more images than normal .. but two of 'em are in colour! Spoiling you!..

So, October, Rocktober, Stoptober .. call it what you will and, if you're doing something selfless for charidee this month then I hope you succeed, but the only thing I'm going to stop is my sporadic forays into the National Lottery. I'm sure Gilbert O'Sullivan's delighted that his old song's seeing the light of day on their advert, but I notice no-one mentions on it that the ticket price is going up a quid!
Hey, who knows  .. they might change their minds and start charging a pound again. Then they could use 'Get Down' as the soundtrack! Now that's rock!!...

(No it isn't, Martin! Get a grip....)