Spot the teenager ..

A study! O'Neill as an 18 year old, with trusty EM and favourite badge! (It's a picture of a bare backside with the legend "I C U R A BUM 2". I think that was thought of as funny in 1978!) Just think, I've been a photographer since I looked like that! Where have the years gone? I was shooting a family portrait at the studio yesterday and one of the teenage lads in the group was - well, let's say his skin has plenty of opportunity to clear up - and it brought to mind this photograph of me as a spotty yoof way back in the day. Hey, it's an age thing! Age was on our minds over the festivities too, as we celebrated the Twins' first Christmas. The little girls that came into our family in February were swamped with gifts, love and - more importantly - shiny wrapping paper as we marked their first Christmas. " I wonder what they'll look like when they grow up.." mused Lesley. "Well.." I said, thinking how quickly the years pass "We'll soon find out..."

Comfort and Joy ..

Phew! Made it! I've come through the other side unscathed! Actually, I've had a fantastic Christmas, and I hope you have, too! Now, for me, it's time to take off the party hat and put on the Photographer's hat, as I have a family shoot at the studio this afternoon! Hope I don't have to photoshop too many bloodshot eyes, ho ho ho!

Talking about making it through, one of the nice things to happen over the holiday came about because of a TV programme last night. It was about two 'famous' people crossing the Empty Quarter of the desert in Oman. I dropped a line onto Facebook about a chap who became my 'hero' - a guy from my home town of Eccles called Ted Edwards - who crossed the Empty Quarter of the Sahara desert alone back in the early 80s. No TV crew, no SatNav, no mobile phones - just him and two camels! He got barely an ounce of recognition and, sadly, a few years later, had a stroke that really debilitated him. Anyway, I've had a message to say he's alive and well, and I've been given his phone number so I'm hoping I'll be able to photograph him again after a gap of 30 years! Christmas! Bringing people together! Nice ..

    
 

Home, James ..

1000 ISO at f1.4! That's what it took to dig this photograph out of the 'atmospheric' light at my Peckforton Castle Wedding yesterday! It was bloody dark! The horrendous storm outside and the fact that it was December the 23rd meant that I really was almost shooting by candlelight, and I'm so glad I decided to take along one of my studio lights to shoot the groups I needed to get. I think that might be the first ever Wedding I've done where I didn't get any shots of the bride and groom outside! (I've got a great story to tell you about that, but I'll save it for another day!) Still, it was a 'brill' Wedding to end on and Emma and James were fantastic! And that's it! My last Wedding of 2013! Bring on all the clever couples who've had the wisdom to book me for their Weddings next year! I probably won't blog tomorrow, so I'll say Merry Christmas to all my lovely readers and say what I said as I left after shooting last night's First Dance! Home, James ..

Wedding, weather, wonderful ..

Monday morning! The wind is howling and the rain is starting to come down in sheets as I prepare to leave for today's Wedding, so I thought I'd remind myself of a lovely warm summer shoot before I set off. Of course, I can tell from the position of this bride and groom that the sun was too bright to work in, as I've plopped them down in the shade and lit them with a bit of off-camera flash! See? Every season has its challenges, and I'm more than ready to deal with today's! Aw, a Christmas Wedding at Peckforton Castle. It's going to be fantastic and what I like is that, whatever is going on outside those castle walls - gales, Christmas traffic chaos, plague - we'll be wrapped up in a warm, snuggly Wedding bubble and having the time of our lives! Now that's my idea of a working Monday ..

Now is the solstice of the year ..

Ok, flute out and Jethro Tull on the turntable. Here we go two, three, four ...   "Now is the solstice of the year...." This song has been my 'go to' winter tune since I saw an animated version of it being introduced by Dave Lee Travis on Top of the Pops in 1976! (You can click the link to watch it!) Yay! It's the shortest day of the year so roll on summer and, even though we've got the worst of the winter to come, you can't help but get a lift from the thought that from today the nights will be getting shorter and good times are just over the horizon once again. I'm amazed a religion hasn't usurped the event and turned it to their own interests. What's that? They have? Oh, Christmas...

The Generation Game ..

Great portrait shoot at Studiofivefour last week and two days later the model became a .. Great-Grandma! Amazing, eh? I asked if she'd mind me showing you some of the photographs and she said "Only the good ones, lol..." The good ones? I was spoilt for choice! Congratulations on the new arrival, Ms Daniels, and I look forward to shooting all four generations very soon!...

It's a date ..

Well, it's nearly here! It's next week! It's .. my last Wedding of the year! Oh, you didn't think I meant .. oh, never mind! Yes, my last Wedding of the year and, unusually, it's on a Monday. I'll be at Peckforton Castle in Cheshire for the Wedding of James and Emma and I can not wait! It'll have everything! Location, beautiful people and the challenging vagaries of light and weather that can only mean it's a late December Wedding! Get yer batteries charged, Martin! Actually, if we're talking dates, it's exactly a month today until my next Wedding Fayre - at Statham Lodge, in Lymm. I'm looking forward to a good set of bookings next year, once we'll have got that pesky number 13 out of the way. Yes, I really do think that couples have held off getting married because it's been 2013. Well, it's almost gone so come on down to Statham .. and let's make a date!

Rule Number Six ..

I've been sitting in my Reading Room, perusing an article entitled 'Ten Tips To Blog Success'! (I thought I might as well see if I can do this photography-blog stuff properly!) Anyway, the piece goes on about Marketing, Consistency, Originality and all of that gaffuff, but Rule Six is my favourite. Rule Six is 'Keep it simple' and it - simply - says that "some days a picture and a caption is all you'll need" ..

And so, ladies and gentlemen: A picture! You can supply the caption!..

Christmas crackers ..

I somehow managed to drink solidly for 9 hours straight yesterday! I must be Christmas crackers! The occasion was the works' 'Office do' which, as a self-employed freelance photographer, involved hitching up with, in this case, four other freelance snappers for a meal and severalteen gallons of mulled wine. Big 'up' to the Deli-Lama cafe in Salford for a delicious Christmas meal (Turkey and all the trimmings in a plate-sized Yorkshire Pud! Oooh, I could just eat it all over again!) and well done to Manchester Christmas Market, which was as glittery, giddy and exciting as ever. The highlight of the day must have been the sight of five professional photographers fumbling with each others' compact cameras and trying to get the flashes to work as we all took photographs of each other taking photographs of each other .. if you see what I mean! Good news of the day was that we're all still managing to make a living as said professionals .. and the shock of the day was when one of the guys came out as gay and told me he'd fancied me for years! How's that for a Christmas surprise!...

Boring Old Fart Blog ..

It pains me to say it but, as of last Saturday, I am an ex gig-goer! I quit! I've had enough! I mean, look at this. This was my view of Saturday's gig at Manchester Academy 2. Somewhere out there was Kurt Vile! I know he was there 'cos I could hear him, even above the sounds of everyone talking to their mates all around me and, to be honest, I did catch the odd glimpse of him as I was continually shoved physically sideways by one trog after another trying to get to the bar. There was just no enjoyment whatsoever in any part of the experience. Man, even the music was boring! So that's it! No more gigs for me - well, until May, but that's a different story! Jeez! Is it my age, or the fact that it was so much more fun 'in the old days'? Ah, the old days! Yes, that brings me to that gig next May. I've got my ticket and I'm all fired up to go! It's for Charlie Harper's Seventieth birthday! The lead singer of one of my favourite bands, the UK Subs, is 70! I think we can safely say that he ain't no boring old fart ... 

Lucky 13 ..

If I've blogged this before then I apologise but the other day I was looking at a magazine called Camera Life, which I brought back from Tokyo a while back. I just love its 'Mission Statement' - Camera Life proposes happiness to your camera and photograph life! You couldn't ask for more, could you? Happiness in your camera and photograph life! Well, it makes me happy to say I'm still getting happiness from my photograph life and, on Friday the 13th, it makes me feel all the luckier to be able to say that!

Moshi moshi ..

We don't know we're born ..

Tudor Monastery Farm! That's the surprise TV hit of the household this season! Lesley and I are gripped by the sheer labour-intensive aspect of .. well, everything that went on on a farm 500 years ago. It just took so long to do anything! And we're absolutely fascinated by how all their processes actually evolved. I mean, who'd have thought to add sour milk to fired lime to make concrete, for goodness sake? It made me think of photographic methods back in 'the old days'. Those heady days of film and paper and chemicals! Ok, my methods weren't taken right back to the bare bones of production - I didn't first have to kill a cow to start the production of gelatine, or mine for my own silver - but the processes of photography were a lot more involved than they are today. Just to get one photograph I did have to load my own 36 exposure cassettes from 100 foot rolls of black and white film; I did have to mix 5 litre buckets of ID-11 (Developer) from powder kits before I could develop that film, and I did have to stand in a darkened room waving my hands around twixt a focussed lightbulb and a piece of 'magic' paper to enable me to see an image. God, it almost sounds medieval!...  

A nation of shopkeepers .. and then there's me!

It's time for a re-think! I'm giving up on trying to use my unit in Culcheth as both a studio and as a shop. It seemed like a good idea at the time but it just hasn't worked! (Hi! Welcome to True Confessions!) You see, in the five months I've run the place I've sold .. wait for this .. ONE set of place mats and FIVE greetings cards! Twenty eight quid! In five months! Five months of sitting in the unit, day after bloody day, force-fed crap commercial 'yoof' radio, waiting for those elusive sales and well, wasting my life!! So, it's time for plan B! Out go all the prints, the Florescence table-ware, the Joy Division posters and the Smiths T shirts that I was so damned sure would sell like hot cakes, and let's get back to using the space as a pure and simple studio! Route One! Lights, camera and hopefully a little more action! From now on StudioFiveFour is ONLY a studio, and I'm only going to be on site when I have a shoot. Phone for an appointment, and all that jazz!

Hey, you live and learn ..  

Party on, dude ..

I've been a bit lax lately as far as The Blog is concerned. Sorry .. real life keeps getting in the way! Ok, Christmas keeps getting the way - what with festive parties and family portraits and the like - but, as my old Dad used to say, it's good to be busy, our Martin! There's been a bit of a flurry on the music photography scene too, including an email reminder today concerning one of my Morrissey shots from his days with The Smiths. It's gone up on the walls at the O2 arena in London and I'd completely forgotten about sending 'em an invoice!! Looks like a new range of clothing featuring the work is about to be launched in Tokyo, too! I'll keep you informed but, for now, I need to pop back to the studio. Get me some more of that real life, don't ya know...!

PS: Today's shot is from my 'Social Seen' collection. Shots from social functions! I fully expect to be adding a few new images over the coming two or three weeks!

Santa Claus and all that ..

Yep, he's coming to town today .. or at least to our little Mall in Culcheth, where I will be the snapper in residence to anyone who wants a photograph with the jovial old chap, and I'm sure it's not going to be the easiest job I'll have had this week! I dug this shot out of my Twelve for '13 archive from way back in the 70s, and what I particularly like about this photograph is the parental arm reaching in from the right. Reassuring .. or forcing the little bugger to sit tight? You can bet I'll be seeing a lot of that this afternoon!...

Don't miss these ..

Not that you'd want to - of course! - but if you did want to get me annoyed here's how to do it. Take a good long look at my archive photography - stuff from Twelve for '13, for example - and then say "Why don't you do a book, Martin?"

Aaaaaagh!! See? I've annoyed myself, just by writing that! The thing is .. I have done a book! In fact, I've done two and, flattering though it is to be asked .. no bugger bought 'em! And they cost a lot to make, too! So, if you're ever going to ask me "Why don't you do a book?" could you please follow it up with a swift hand-movement to your wallet and the production of twenty-five of your English pounds!

I thank you!..

Chest out ..

Being a hoary old pro, with a 35 year career in the bag, I'm not one these days for 'setting myself a project' to gain experience/practice my skills/keep up to speed with my equipment. But I was! Once! Back in the dim dark seventies .. when I was still a wannabe photographer .. I used to come up with little feature ideas and force myself onto the streets to shoot 'em. I say 'force' because I was so shy back then, but a chap named Victor Blackman came to my rescue! Remember him? He was a Daily Express Press photographer who had a weekly column in Amateur Photographer magazine and, as that timid 16 and 17 year old, his words taught me all I needed to know about gaining the confidence to get out onto those mean streets of Eccles! The only reason I mention this is because one of the projects I set myself was to photograph the shop-keepers along a little section of Liverpool Road, in Eccles, and one of the photographs I took has popped up in the last installment of Twelve for '13. I can very vaguely remember setting this up, getting a chap to surreptitiously check out the topless shots in a magazine as the female shop assistants carried on a chat, unawares. The irony is that the magazine isn't some top-shelf porn offering .. it's Amateur Photographer .. but setting up shots like this soon had me walking with my chest out, too!

A lot in store ..

December, and it's time for the final installment of my Twelve for '13 project. Blimey, I've finished it .. and now there are over 1, 000 of my archive photographs online for all to see. I've really enjoyed the work, and I hope it's brought a little pleasure and some great memories to anyone that's seen it. One of the photographs for December is this one - shot in front of the Virgin store in Manchester. Today, by sheer coincidence, sees the release of a sneaky preview of the Being Frank film - about Timperley 'character' Frank Sidebottom. It's a coincidence because when he was with The Freshies he sang about being "in love with the girl on the Virgin Megastore check out desk!" (Ok, this shop wasn't the megastore but I did take a PR photograph of Richard Branson opening it a couple of years later!) Another poignant thing about this shot is that you can see, in the window reflection, the wavy roof of the old Marks and Sparks store - the store that was destroyed in the IRA bombing. One snap .. such a lot in store!