HP5 v Pixels ..

This photograph is one of my own personal favourites. I took it at an Air Show in Manchester around 1980. Last night I was scrolling through 'My Archive' - as it's grandly called on the Mac - and it occurred to me that, if I were to put one of the pictures from it online every day, it would still take over three years just to show you all of my favourite black and white shots! That fact I found amazing! And that's without all my colour shots - the travel stuff, the slide library! Man, when I had my little Olympus XA camera I just shot and shot and shot! And those were the days when you had to buy film, and spend money on darkroom materials (Not to mention the time to process and print everything!) I have nothing against digital photography - seeing as I use it all the time! - but it does make me feel good knowing I was a photographer when the art needed a certain amount of skill, knowledge and know-how! Smug gloating over...   

There is a light ..

I must be mellowing in my old age! I only got told off twice yesterday for getting too close to Princess Anne on her visit to Manchester. I got the PR booking to photograph her during a walkabout at a City Centre company and so - hey, you know - if I've been booked to take pictures then I'll get into the best positions I can to get 'em! I loved the fact that she had her own name badge printed out, though I think Special Branch should have had a word with her, too, 'cos she didn't wear it once and nobody could tell who she was!!

It really was busy yesterday, with the 'Royal' job sandwiched between trips to The Lowry in Salford to cover an international business conference! I then ended up at The Imperial War Museum North last night to photograph the start of their dinner, and now I'm dashing about producing 101 framed prints of all the delegates so they can take them home when the conference ends today!

Oh, and there were two Wedding enquiries and two portrait bookings at the studio..

Tunnel! Light at end of?....

Funny old day ..

Yeah, funny old day, today. Bad weather, nothing on the diary .. time to twiddle my thumbs and pick my nose! All change tomorrow, of course, with a full day's PR work and 100 mounted prints to get out for Thursday morning! Ah, just like the old days! Of course, the 'old days' was when I took this shot of Sir Robin Day, and I wish somebody had taken of picture of the entire set-up, 'cos Paddy Ashdown was holding my reflector for me! Couldn't have picked anyone better..

Hold onto your hats ..

The 'paper was full of doom and gloom on the Wedding front this weekend, and it was sad to hear of the closure of not only one of the area's biggest Wedding venues, but three bridal gown shops around the Cheshire area! My God! What's going on? I thought we were coming out of recession!! Hold onto your hats, folks! It looks like we're still on that bumpy road to recovery ..

Ironically, I have a busy week ahead but - gulp - none of it has anything to do with Weddings! I have a big PR conference to shoot at Media City, and then it's Princess Anne and Co. on Wednesday. The jobs'll give me chance to wear my new photographer's vest, which arrived from the lovely land of Ebay on Saturday morning! I'm going to look a right proper snapper! If only I could find what the hell I've put in half the bloomin' pockets! I'm sure I left a hat in one of 'em...

Up the wall ..

I've just finished my second time-lapse film - for a company based on a business park near my studio. I photographed two funky graffiti artists spray-painting a monochrome Union Jack onto the walls of a trendy IT firm. I spent all day breathing in aerosol fumes, then set about - in a really good mood!! - to put the film together. Er, to use the vernacular, it took me bloody ages! (I must remember to put more coal on the Apple Mac!) Anyway, I'm very pleased with it - as is the client - (more importantly!) so I can now put it out there and let you see if for yourselves. It's a little bit bigger than the first one I did, with almost 7 hours and 3900 frames squished down to less than 3 minutes! Ain't technology wunnerful!! Click here to have a decko...

Oh, my Lord ..

Well, I never! Now I'm no prude but I got the shock of my life yesterday when I happened to open a newspaper that someone had left in a staff canteen. I was killing time at the supermarket in which I was working and there, beside someone's half-eaten ham butty, was a copy of a UK tabloid. I think it was the Star - not sure - 'cos I haven't looked at one of those rags for a long time and - as I now know - for good reason! Thing is, I briefly scanned the front page story about the guy called Trotter who, apparently, knew he was going to win that disgusting amount of money on the lottery, and turned to the inner pages. There, pointing straight at me, was a pair of tits! Stopped me in me tracks! (Well, it would!) OMG! Do they still do that? Naked girls in the paper? You're kidding! How very 1979!...

Ah!1979! I knew there was a point to this story (Two points, if you'll allow me a pathetic joke!) Sorry, I was getting distracted by breasts! Yes, I was going to tell you about 1979 because, next week, I'm booked to photograph Princess Anne for the first time since I shot her (Oops!) that year. She was opening the new Greater Manchester Police headquarters in Stretford, and you know it's a long time ago 'cos the bloody building's been demolished a year already! I'm thinking it was the first time I'd ever been on a Royal Rota and here I am, the 18 year old version of me as a Press Photographer, all Vivitar flash and Yashica, doing my thing with Annie. Like the Joy Division blog earlier in the week, the realisation has dawned on me that this was 35 years ago! Oh, my Lord..

Down to the wire ..

Here he is, the bass player I was telling you about yesterday! His name's Ding and he first appeared in my life whilst I was watching a PJ Harvey DVD a couple of years back. He was the bass player on her tour of the UK and America and one day, suddenly, he was standing in front of me at a party and modestly proceeded to tell me that yes, that was him, and since then he's played bass on an album and gone on tour with The Pixies! When I'd stopped drooling and fawning I asked if he'd let me take some photographs sometime, which brings us to the session yesterday. His playing is all about power and strength, so I had this idea of him looking tough and biting through his bass strings. I'm pleased to say it worked as a shot, even if Ding did get a mouthful of old sweat from the wires! Cheers, Ding ..

Back to the bread-and-butter photography today! I'm off to a supermarket in town later to shoot some PR photographs for a Trade Union! See? Rock Gods, Shop Stewards .. they're all the same to me, 'cos as long as they're posing in front of my camera it means I'm still working as a photographer.
Tune...

The power of the press ..

Well, that all took off rather quickly! I mentioned yesterday that I'd been called by a reporter from the Manchester Evening News. They wanted to do an article about the Joy Division gig I shot .. 35 years ago! They rang at 9.30 .. and the article was online by 3.30 (I think it's going in the 'paper today!) Well, my website went bananas! The home page received over 800 hits and is still ticking over nicely this morning, with the actual Joy Division page heading for the 800 mark as well. Anyway, you can read the article here! Funny, as much as I think everybody must have seen the shots by now it's great to still get emails coming in telling me how much new viewers like them. Thank you ..

Music is definitely in the air today, as I'm off to shoot a rather-renowned bass guitar player this afternoon. I recently had one of those 'Aren't you the guy off the telly?' moments - dribbling lightly from the corner of my mouth - when I saw this cool looking dude at a party I was at. Cut a long story short, turns out he was 'the guy off the telly', so I asked if we could get together for some portraits and .. well, now you're up to speed. No doubt an image will grace this blog on the morrow! ..

Rock on ..





 

Well, well ..

Some weeks just start well! Already this morning I'd edited the whole of yesterday's Wedding - some 600 images - by 9.30 am, I'd had a fantastic text from a couple who've just booked me to shoot their wedding, I took this fabbo glove shot to add to my 'On the one hand' collection on the walk down to the studio and I had a phone-call from the Manchester Evening News who want to do a piece on my Joy Division photographs! Phew! I think I'll take the rest of the day off!..

So, yesterday's Wedding went well - 65 guests and gale force 5 by my reckoning - and that followed on from Saturday when I took the booking of a lovely couple who are getting married next May at Kilhey Court. It was the groom's lovely message I received just after breakfast. "Sue is so pleased.." he said "Thanks for putting her at ease. It was always going to be you, as long as you were available on our date!"..

Speaking of dates, it was brought to my attention that last Friday was thirty-five years to the day that I shot my Joy Division photographs! Thirty five!! Where the hell did that go? Anyway, I happened to mention it on Facebook and that was picked up by the 'paper, who are now planning to run an article about the shots. Ironic, really, as the only reason the negatives got shoved in a draw in the first place was because I couldn't get a newspaper to use 'em! Well, well..

Stop Press: MEN article written and published! Man, I remember when I used to work at that pace!!
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/whats-on/music-nightlife-news/joy-division-bowdon-vale-youth-6842264

Name-dropper ..

So there I was, merrily shooting 80s pop-maestro Pete Waterman yesterday, when in walks .. Terry O'Neill !! I know! Incredible .. the leader of Warrington Borough Council! Seems I'm - ho, ho - not the only O'Neill with a famous alter-ego and my, how we laughed as the football manager photographed the famous photographer - in name, at least!

So, so far this year I've shot celebs, I've shot cheese for websites, I've photographed dogs, passports, LinkedIn portraits, warehouses, apprentices .. so it's about time I shot a Wedding! I'll be honest and say it's been a bit of a quiet start to the year as far as Weddings are concerned but .. that all changes on Sunday when I head off to shoot my first of the year in sunny old Warrington town! I cannot wait!

Mothers' Day looms and I've tied in with a couple of local businesses to offer a fantastic deal on portraits as a gift idea for Mum. The Raven Inn and Spa Beautiful, as well as myself, are each offering 20% off our respective meals, massages and erm, mug shots as a sure-fire way of keeping your Mum happy come the end of the month. The offer lasts 'til the end of next month, too, so come on down and get yerselves a voucher. Don't be shy about name-dropping. Just tell the others that Martin O'Neill sent you ..

Opening the doors ..

This patch of ground is where my Dad's old factory stood. Where that puddle is now was where two huge doors used to open into the big shed at Dunlop tyres in Eccles. Dad must have walked across this actual space a million times. And now it's all gone. My Dad's gone, the jobs are gone, and the factory's gone!..

Today I'm photographing the board of directors of an Enterprise Partnership - people specifically tasked with the job of getting people into jobs! I hope they're upbeat and optimistic now that - we're told - the recession is over! (Ironically, one of the first jobs they've created is this PR shoot for me, taking the photographs for their new website, so I think the guys are doing a great job, ha ha!) But, surely, it can't be long now before I'm photographing them as they launch new Apprenticeship schemes, or visit employment hubs that have grown by 30% in two years, or .. well, you get the idea! Being unemployed is hell. I was only ever on the dole once, when I was 18, and for only about three months, but I can still remember how demoralised it made me feel. Let's hope the people I meet this afternoon can start opening the doors to better times..

Jammy!..

Commuting! Jeez, I don't know how you lot do it! I had to be at a PR job for 9.15 this morning, and ended up crawling in traffic for 45 bloomin' minutes. The job was SEVEN miles from my house! Seven miles in 45 minutes and, I can only guess, it'll be the same for all those poor buggers in the - ha, ha - rush hour tonight. Now I know freelancing has its ups and downs but I wouldn't swap it for all the tea in China if it means I don't have to do that every day!..

I'm giving a talk tonight on, of all things, mobile phone photography! It's for one of our local Ladies' Groups and I'm very much looking forward to it. I am, of course, using it as a way to inform more people about my studio - a job that takes up half my flippin' life at the moment! Do you know, I recently wrote to 32 local schools to tell them about my funky, modern kids' portraiture and I haven't even had an acknowledgement .. from any of them! I can only assume they're all stuck in traffic! Ha..

Put t'kettle on ..

The world's in a right old state at the moment, isn't it? I was watching a thing on telly the other night about tensions in Europe - troops moving across borders, rulers sticking the 'Vs' up at other governments - and I couldn't tell whether I was watching the news or that new drama about the start of the First World War. Gulp! Then we've got that awful Malaysian plane disappearance and all the religious connotations that's bringing up, plus the bad blood between China and Japan, and the never-ending Northern Ireland 'troubles', and Syria, and Israel and, well, pick any bloody country you want in Africa, and ...

It's just as well my blog sticks to more mundane items! So, put the kettle on! Have a cup of tea, breathe deeply of the beautiful early spring and take a moment to enjoy those simpler pleasures.

Life, as the sticker on my fridge says, is too important to be taken seriously!

 •

Hope you like the 'tea-pot'! It was the cake at a Wedding I photographed last summer. I just realised that if I don't put those bloomin' key-words in then the blog doesn't get out there and do its job! This is a serious business! (Oh, damn!)
Do your job, blog! Do it! ..

 #Wedding #prphotography #bride #worldgonemad ..... 

The tide is high, and so are the stats ..

Bloody Nora! I hadn't realised you could actually monitor your 'stats' on Flickr, but I happened to fall upon the page yesterday afternoon and was absolutely gobsmacked! I'd just uploaded over 700 of my Wedding photographs to the site - I figure they might as well be visible on there as just stuck on my computer - and I was twiddling with the pages when I found this 'stats' page. As I say, it absolutely blew me away! On Thursday alone - before I'd even put the Wedding shots up - I'd had a staggering 1, 932 views of my photographs, and that shot up to 5, 745 after the new work was added. Now that, it goes without saying, is rather pleasing! So now, hopefully, a lot more brides, grooms and 'Franks' .. (You have to watch Father of the bride if you want to get that joke!) will be able to see my work. Form an orderly queue, ladies and gentlemen. Bookings taken on a first come, first served basis...

Oh, this shot is one of those images that's available to view. Not a bride in sight but, as it says on my website, I shoot Weddings, portraits, pr and ... other stuff!..

Have a great weekend ..

Jump ..

We don't do 'jumping in the air'! Phew! Music to my ears! Last night was unusual in that, for the first time in ages, I went along to the home of a prospective Bride and Groom to show them my Wedding photography. As a policeman and a busy working mum they were just finding it impossible to get down to my studio. Anyway, lovely couple, and I hope they decide to book me! The thing that made us 'click' was the fact they said they hated all the 'posy, set up' Wedding Photography that's around these days. Well, Amen to that, brother! My heart sinks when a groom and his ushers put on sunglasses and pretend they're acting out "Reservoir Dogs', or when a bride and her bridesmaids all stand back to back and pose as Charlie's Angels! Each to their own, I suppose, but for me, let's just shoot what's actually happening on The Big Day!..

Rather flattered yesterday when I happened to bump into one of 'my brides'! I shot her Wedding at Portmeirion a couple of years ago. "Would you mind if my daughter interviewed you?" she asked. "Hell, no.." I said (There's that ego again!) "But why?.." Seems she's doing a GCSE in photography and has to write up a project on a photographer. Guess who she's chosen! Me! Ha! I almost jumped in the air...

In the living years ..

I blog for many reasons. I blog because I'm excited about photography, because I enjoy telling you my stories, because I hope my descriptions of technique are sometimes of worth if you're actually out there photographing for yourself. I blog because I like writing - it offers me another creative outlet. I blog to promote my work, because you've got to these days if you want to get anywhere with Search Engine Optimization, and I blog because it gives my arty, self-deluded ego a lovely big massage! I don't - Thank God - blog to tell you about my impending death. About my rapid decline from healthy young man to paralysed body in a chair, unable to breathe and just waiting for .. well, the end. But one guy did! Neil Platt was a 34 year old guy from Yorkshire who succumbed to Motor Neurone Disease and basically knew he was on the way out. So he started a blog to document his illness, and a film was made called 'I am breathing' to record his last few months of life. I watched it the other night. It's incredible! He was incredible and, by jeepers, it'll put things into context next time I think I need to use my blog to complain ..  

A womb with a view ..

Now I'm all for a nice, cutesy picture of a new-born baby, but what I saw yesterday made me fell quite, quite queasy! I'd gone down to the big Photo Show at Birmingham's NEC - a lens-fest of all things photographic, featuring stand after stand of 'all the things a photographer needs'! There were cameras, printers, tripods, workshops on how to be a Wedding Photographer (Depressing!) and .. wait for it .. a delightful selection of Wee Wombs! Yes, wee wombs! Fake, lookalike wombs! They were on a stand selling 'everything you need to take photographs of new-born babies! (Depressing, part two!) It seems that, just as Wedding photography has become utterly 'teachable' and formulaic, so indeed has baby photography, and there are certain 'must-haves' if you're going to do the job 'properly'! You must bend the baby in half - as if it's trying to force out a fart - then dangle it from a hammock (£59!) wearing a flowery tiara, and you must cover it in stupid fluffy hats and smother it with feathers as if it's in a bird's nest. However - and here's the one I've never heard of before - it seems you must put the poor little nipper into a Wee Womb and .. apparently .. pretend it's not been born yet! I mean, what's the point in that? The little bugger's just spent nine months trying to get out! Give it a break! But hey, if you've gone that far, why not go the whole hog and splurt it with fake after-birth, or wrap it in half a pound of placenta-like pork sausages? Why not shoot it on blood-covered scales set to 7lb 3? .. or shoot its arse being slapped by a rubber-clad hand? And why not ...

I'll think I'll stick to shooting them the way I always have, thank you very much ...

The only way is Willington ..

Done it! For the first time ever I've managed to book myself a stand at the Willington Hall Wedding Fayre in Cheshire! Doesn't take a lot to get me excited, does it? But seriously, I've been trying for absolutely ages to get into this Fayre and, every time I've tried, it's been fully booked. Even so, I've still managed to shoot a lot of Weddings at Willington - including the owners' - and it remains one of my favourite venues. So roll on September 21st, when I can fly the flag for StudioFiveFour and hopefully ensure I get back there many more times in the future!..

A quick word about today's picture. One of the first shots I ever took at Willington - and it's on film, to prove it -  it was one of those gorgeous summer days when everything was just right! When we arrived at the hall I noticed the field at the side had just been mown into these lovely stripes, so I asked the bride and groom to grab their champagne and take a little walk. The Best Man acted as my Communications Officer, chatting to the couple on his mobile. "Left a bit, photographer says stop there, give her a hug!.."
Fab!...

Quick, March ..

March! Quick, it's March again! Get in the garden! Do Spring stuff! Quick!..
(Before the snow comes!!)..

I get such a mental boost to know that Winter has - officially, at least -  finished! Ok, now they're forecasting snow and cold stuff, but it doesn't seem half as bad when the birds are tweeting, the daffs are daffing and the evenings are already light. I'm definitely a warm weather man!

Dare I mention cheese again? Just once more? Because I was down at The Cheese Factory again yesterday to finish off the website photography, and so that's the end of warm fleeces and thick coats as I shot my pictures in their chilly refrigerated work areas! Man, I'll bet those guys are glad of warm Spring weather when they emerge from their Cheddar caves. Anyway, I've already added a shot to my PR web-page. See if you can spot it!

Finally, today's image. Taken from my archive, it shows Army Cadets in Eccles - circa 1976. I remember the Spring of that year very well, as I went with these guys to an Easter camp in Leek! The food they gave us that weekend? I'd have killed for a hunk of cheese!..