Hard copies ..

I'll say this about Press photography! You certainly got to meet some famous people! I was rootling around my many boxes of archive negs and trannies yesterday when I came across a box marked 'Celebs'. Like, wow, dudes! Kaboom! Check out who I found in there! Joan Collins, Cliff Richard, Cilla Black, Norman Wisdom and flippin' Peter Ustinov, of all people! (I'll always remember Joan telling me off for 'getting too close') There are also shots of Eartha Kitt, David Bellamy, Rod Stewart, George Best, David Hockney and, er ... Jimmy Saville and Rolf Harris! Oops! God knows who else I met over my years on newspapers, but a lot of those shots will have gone down the pan when the Manchester Evening News dumped all its negatives when it moved offices. (No comment!!) But that's film for you, isn't it? Those tiny slips of gelatine are all you've got! I was once the only photographer allowed to cover an event with the Queen in London's Hyde Park but, unfortunately, the client got the film. Same with Take That, so I have no copies of any of that work, and it's very unlikely I'll ever get any, now. Shame they hadn't invented the digital era, when I could have backed up my own set of images on a secondary memory card!..

Having said that, it's good to see that 'hard copies' are still proving popular in some areas. A young lady who lives some distance away came up for a family reunion during the summer, and organised a big family portrait during her visit. She's just emailed to say she'll be back in the area soon, and could I meet her at StudioFiveFour Photography on December 23rd, where she'd like to order one of my canvas prints. "But .." she adds "Don't worry! I won't need it in time for Christmas!"..