Reasons to smile ..

Two pictures for the price of one today, and two reasons to smile at work yesterday..

I was shooting some corporate portraits in Liverpool, and the marketing chap I was speaking to was telling me about his friend who had become a 'famous' model - appearing over him as a 50 foot high poster when he went down to London one time. "He gets paid thousands, and travels all over the world.." the chap was saying "He hates it. He wants to be a photographer!" "Hold on there, my friend.." I spluttered "Give your pal a good talking to! I think he'd soon realise which side of the camera the money is on .."

Then, last night, I was shooting a publicity event in Manchester when a man in a snazzy suit came up and said "Silly question, but do you live in Culcheth?.." "Yes.." I said "Do you?.." He said he did and told me he recognised me as I'd done a family portrait shoot for them once. "Great.." I said "So what brings you here tonight?.." "I'm the MD of this company.." he said "The picture you did for us is still framed in our toilet!"..

Anyway, why two pictures? Well, the bottom one is the shot of my cousin I did when he was fixing my car in his socks. The second shot is from the strip of negs I found when my entire shelving system fell down in the office recently. Good news from bad! Another reason to smile ..

Up in smoke ..

"I hate smoking" ..
"I know you do.." said the guy I was talking to "I read your blog!"..

Well that was a nice surprise though, sadly, the reason the subject had cropped up was because I was telling him that my aunt had just died - yet another of 'the clan' who's succumbed to smoking-related illnesses (Note the plural!) ..

It's such a disgusting habit and, despite the indoor smoking ban, there's still no getting away from it. There are empty fag packets all over the place, and you can't walk more than a couple of feet before you come across a discarded cigarette end. Even the doorways to the shopping centre where I have my studio is 'guarded' by two bloody great big ash-trays at the entrances. Very classy!..

So, to the three schoolgirls from Culcheth High School I saw smoking the other day ..
Please, for your sakes - and mine - stop!..

Nepal ..

I wanted to show you another of my travel shots from Nepal. One day when I was trekking near Pokhara I heard the cutest chorus of voices singing the most charming little song, and couldn't resist going to find them to take a photograph. With me I had a top-end Sony Walkman - remember them? - which was special in that it had a recording facility on it, so I asked them if they'd sing their song for me again, this time into my microphone. By sheer coincidence I was listening to that recording last week - I do wish I could find a way to let you hear it - and I said to Lesley "I wonder what became of those kids!"

My God, I'm certainly wondering that now .. 

The flip of a coin ..

What awful news has been the earthquake in Nepal. My heart goes out to all the lovely people of the country. I was lucky enough to spend time in Kathmandu and Pokhara - both severely affected by the disaster - and I really hope that all the people I met and photographed there are safe..

Hearing of the boat disasters in the Mediterranean also brings a shudder. I once covered a story in Libya and, to get there, I made a God-awful 14 hour ferry crossing from Malta to Tripoli - and back again! Shocking to think these are the very waters that are taking people to their deaths. By the same reasoning, I suppose, I've been to the top of the World Trade Centre at least three times and, like everyone else, have trusted my life to pilots I've never met or will ever know.. 

Life is just a flip of a coin, isn't it? Pure luck decrees where you live, how healthy you are, what abilities you are given and what will happen to you on any given day. Today, with my thoughts going out to all those poor people, I'm just appreciating how lucky I am. I hope you do the same..

Bogies ..

I'm really lucky in that I don't generally have to 'do' rush hour. I can normally time my work so that I don't have to throw myself at the mercy of the roads whilst everyone else is on them. Yesterday, though, I had no choice. I was shooting a PR job that finished at 5.30 so had no option but to join the 19 mile car park that was the M6 northbound. Ironically, I'd been photographing a replica DeLorean 'Back to the future' car at a corporate function. Oh, for a Mr Fusion Reactor now, I thought to myself, as I wedged into the throng. But oh, what fun it was! What a great opportunity to 'people watch'. My favourites were the lady having a really lively conversation on her hands-free, using both hands to gesticulate wildly .. whether or not her car was actually moving; the lady who sat so close to her steering wheel that I can't believe her horn wasn't blaring constantly, and the fat man in the white 64 reg Mercedes who spent about 3 miles in the jam picking his nose .. and eating it! I think he'd gone back in time to being a three year old ... 

Oh, the memories ..

Suddenly, it's all happening! The blossom's out, leaves are unravelling at a pace and the Wedding season is kicking off good and proper! It's time to make some memories!..

Actually, I'm back to my old tricks! This morning I drove 36 miles to check out a venue at which I'm shooting a Wedding in July, only to arrive at the gates and shout 'Damn! I've been here before!'
Doh, me and my memory! ..

Not so much a Wedding as a Vow Renewal to photograph this week, though I'll treat it exactly like a Wedding, of course. It's only the second one I've ever shot .. as far as I can remember!

PS: Now that the feel-good factor is back I've chosen a suitably vibrant shot from my Florescence range to go with the mood!..

Good gear ..

Well, there it is! The entire 'Made in Eccles' exhibition - clothes pegs, washing lines and all! (You'll know what I mean if you saw it!) Doesn't look much, does it? I took it down from the People's History Museum this morning after two months on show. I've yet to have a good look at the Comments Book but brief glances reveal notes like "Thanks for the great memories" - "As good as Martin Parr" and, one of my favourites from a 13 year old "Great pictures that made me laugh"
Cheers for that, Molly!..

So, on to the next one, and that's going to be a Joy Division 'celebration' at Charles Rowe House in Macclesfield in May. No laughs here, but great memories of a fantastic band. Opens May 17th!..

I've decided I want to become a Nikon Ambassador! I occasionally see photographers who describe themselves thus on their websites, and I think I ought to be up there as well. After all, I've been using Nikon gear since at least about 1979 so I reckon 99% of all my professional shots have been on Nikon gear, and look how well they all turned out. So yes, folks! That's NIKON gear, wonderful equipment..

Stop press: No word from them  .. yet!

Late ..

Too late! You missed it! My 'Eccles' exhibition at The People's History Museum in Manchester ended yesterday. That was quick! By all accounts it's gone down very well and I can't wait to pop back there tomorrow and pick up the Comments Book..

Sadly, something else ended yesterday. My Auntie died. Born in Northern Ireland but a resident of Eccles for the best part of her life, she was the mother of the lads in today's shot - my cousins, obviously - although poor Ricky, on the right, died many years ago.

Thank God for photographs .. 

Just for the record ..

I suppose I should be really pleased that today is 'Record Store Day' but I can't help feeling that a title like that is hung around the neck of 'things that need a bit of a boost.' You know the kind of thing - National Verruca Day, Support your local Catholic Priest, Let's hear it for Herpes ..  that kind of thing! So I should be really happy that 'they' are plugging local record shops today..

I guess they mean vinyl when they talk about records. Well, of course they do Martin, that's what records are! Well, yip yip, let's hear it for vinyl but, holy moley, have you seen the price of vinyl these days? Jeez! Download me a file, any day! Mind you, that's easy for me to say that as I sit on my pile of lovely, sexy, shiny, dusty, scratchy, sleeves-bent-at-the-edgy, memories-by-the-million, so-much-part-of-me-you-can't-believe-it .. records and, if you follow me on Facebook you'll know I'm partial to taking the odd snap as I spin my discs - as Tony Blackburn might say - on my ageing Technics turntable. Just for the record, you understand!..

Click out the screen grabs above! Happy plastic ..

I know that bum ..

I've been contacted by someone who recognised their bum on my blog! Just as I concentrate on my Travel photography, I get a message out of the blue from an old pen-pal in The States! Yet another amazing coincidence!..

I stayed with Vallerie in Concord, New Hampshire, after she and I began writing to each other about 1980. I'd written to the Tourist Board in Manchester, NH, saying that I lived in Manchester UK and ..  would anyone like a pen-pal? Val's Mum worked in the office and took my letter home, telling Val to 'write to this English guy!' ..

Well, we corresponded - long before email and Skype, of course - then finally got to meet in '82, when I spent two months travelling around America on a £200 Continental Airlines pass. Man, what a trip that was. I was so broke that I used to sleep in airports then fly somewhere just so's I'd get fed on the 'plane! Sounds like I was the bum, actually! ..

Great to hear from you, Vallerie ..

It's a sign ..

Not so much a blog today as a screaming great advert for my latest exhibition! A new set of work called 'It's a Sign' has gone up at the Eccles Community Art Gallery after they were let down by an artist and sent out a 'Mayday' for somebody to fill the space! The work is a collection of travel photographs rendered to look abstract in Photoshop - the very software I normally vow to use only to 'tidy up' an image - Oops! It's looking good, though, and will be on display every Saturday and Tuesday until the middle of May..

Actually, now that I think about it, I'm going to design a page on my website for the images..

Laters..

Everything happens for a reason ..

Everything happens for a reason - so they say - and, after the day I've just had, I can only nod my sad, tired head in agreement!..

What happened? I found a negative I've been looking for for ages! Hurrah! It's this one, the shot of my cousin fixing my old car .. without his shoes on! It's so funny! Been looking for it for ages ..

The reason I found it? The entire shelving system in my office fell down!

I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was terrible (©Morrissey 1984 .. ish!) ..

Yes, all the shelves in my office fell down and I don't know why. Well, apart from the fact that they were stacked chock full of negatives, prints, magazines, picture frames, empty beer bottles - or important souvenirs from travels around the world, as I call them -  sample wedding albums, Florescence table mats (Heavy!) Joy Division prints.. etc, etc., etc ...

All I can say is that my office floor looked rather tragic on Monday evening. Broken glass, torn magazines, scattered prints and ... whoa, hang on! I've been looking for that neg for ages!..

So, guess what? What happened happened and now, with hindsight and a negative filed in its rightful place, I can breath again and smile. The irony is that the car my cousin is trying to fix lead eventually to me being 'laid off' from Cheshire County Newspapers. As the junior photographer on the 'paper in '82 I was expected to supply my own car. Everyone else had a staff car. However, I was never in a position to afford a good enough car to do the job. Out you go, O'Neill! Being made redundant was one of the worst things that had ever happened to me, but it resulted in me going freelance and, er .. the rest is history.

Everything happens for a reason, eh?...  

All show ..

Easy when you know how and, thanks to a photography workshop I've just held, a few more keen amateur snappers have got to grips with how to use the aperture on their cameras. This demonstration of depth-of-field  - achieved by the mere twiddle of a thumb - was just one of the exercises we worked through on my first ever 'Walk in the park' tuition event on Saturday afternoon. I'm delighted to say it went really well and I really enjoyed showing people the basics of camera operation. Messages that have come in such as "I think I've cracked it" have really spurred me on to do another event very soon, too. Thanks to all the 'students' who braved the chilly Spring breeze to come along ..

I've been meaning to tell you about a new exhibition I'm going to have in Eccles but, believe it or not, I've now had another show offered to me that'll take place before the first one even goes up! Strewth, dudes, it's non-stop! I have a meeting about it tomorrow and I'll tell you about everything then. In the meantime, just a quick reminder that this is - sob, sob - the final week of my show at The People's History Museum in Manchester. Get on down there ..

Bloody hell, it's Ted Edwards ..

Blimey! You wait for one reason to write about the Sahara, then another one turns up on the very same day! Yes, folks, as coincidences go, yesterday's was one of the best I've had in a long time!..

You might recall I mentioned the Sahara in yesterday's blog, which was on the theme of travel. I was telling you that I'd been sifting through lots of my old travel photographs to make a new webpage on my site, and mentioned that a cloud of sand and dust was blowing up to the UK from the desert. Anyway, after writing the piece I headed off to sunny old Eccles where some of my archive photographs are going to go on display - more on that soon - and then I nipped into Morrison's to get me tea and some lagers. Well, guess who I bumped into! Only Ted Edwards, that's who! After all these years! Ted bloody Edwards, in the flippin' flesh..

Ted Edwards? Ted Edwards is a long-time resident of Eccles - a former folk singer and peripatetic teacher - who, in 1983, took it upon himself to walk - alone - through what's called the Empty Quarter of the Sahara Desert! The BBC did a great programme about it, with a wonderful opening shot of Ted in a cowboy hat getting on the 166 bus at Eccles bus station - next stop Timbuktu! I did some pix for the MEN at the time. Anyway, the trip nearly bloomin' killed him! One of his camels stood on one of his canteens of water and meant he ran out of good old H2O long before he was meant to! It was only a chance meeting with some Bedouins who took him to a well that saved his life. Anyway, I've always rated Ted for doing that and he's been high on my list of 'top blokes' ever since. Thing is, not so many years after his adventure, poor old Ted had a stroke and the last time I saw him - maybe sometime in the early 90s - he was hobbling about on a walking stick and having one hell of a time even trying to talk to anyone. Imagine that for an explorer who used to sing for a living! Now Ted's in a mobility scooter, still wearing a stetson and sporting badges on his jacket from his travels..

Well, of course I pounced on him, told him of my admiration and - hey, you gotta do it - booked him in for a portrait shoot next week! Ted Edwards, I salute you!..
 

Hit the road, Jack ..

There's a cloud of dust and sand blowing up into the UK from the Sahara today, and its timing couldn't be more appropriate as I'm suffering a severe bout of wanderlust this morning! I decided I'd add a Travel Photography page to my website and so, yesterday, set off trawling through files and files of colour slides of trips I've taken in the past. Big mistake! I'm now absolutely pining for journeys I've made and places I've been and seen. Tahiti! Brazil! Australia! Noo Yoik!!
Oh, I wanna go back..

Still, it's a good job I took photographs, eh? And all on good old Kodachrome, too! Kodachrome 64, pushed to 80 ASA, if you're interested! I got through boxes and boxes of the stuff over the years and ok, the slides take up space but, call me old-fashioned, I really love having folder after folder of physical, tangible images to pick up and look at. You won't be saying that when you can't find your iphone holiday shots of Greece, will ya?..

Anyway, here's me, pointing out where I was during a trip around Australia. On the Nullarbor Highway, since you ask! And where am I hitting the road to today?
Eccles! I'll tell you about that trip tomorrow ..

A nice pair ..

I've been busy getting together another selection of archive images to send to The Mary Evans Picture Library in London, the new representatives of the 'Martin O'Neill Collection' (Ooh, I love saying that!)  ..

Anyway, I started to spot images that work really well together, and spent half my time pairing up shots that I thought might make a good exhibition. You can also read this as getting distracted, not concentrating and/or wasting my morning. Nevertheless it's been a fun exercise, and I've started a folder of pictures which I shall treat you to sporadically. Probably when I can't think of anything to write which .. er, hasn't happened yet, so don't hold yer breath! ..

Anyway, there I go again, writing a blog when I'm supposed to be sorting images! Oh, hang on, there's another nice pair ..

Handy ..

Meet my new assistant! Ellie has just turned two and already fancies herself as a photographer! Blimey, and I thought I started young! I loved the fact she began to copy me with her toy as I was taking pictures over Easter, and it was beautiful to watch how everything is of interest to their growing, ever-curious brains..

On the subject of learning, this Saturday I'm running my first ever group Shoot'nTutor session, with a handful of keen snappers gathering in Culcheth for a two-hour hands-on workshop. It's a handy run-through of the basic controls of the camera. (Wow, that's a lot of hands!) I just hope no-one brings along one of them there SnailPix 25 digital .. er, cameras!..

Ps: Two places still available! 2pm Saturday -  £25 each

Time flies ..

There's a pub at the end of the runway at Manchester Airport and it's one of my favourite places to go! I've been drinking there for years and years. A good pint of Guinness and the kerosene waft of a Boeing Triple Seven as it taxis towards the threshold. Heaven!..

Well, heaven just got better. The Airport Pub's been 'done up', and a visit there yesterday was my first time back since the refurbishment. Like, wow! It's absolutely changed beyond all recognition - well, apart from the fact that jet planes still keep whizzing in front you every few minutes! It's got an amazing aviation theme to it now - surprise, surprise - with great food and a really good buzz to it. Add to that the gorgeous sunshine yesterday - and a get-together with one of my oldest journo pals - and it made for the most perfect of Easter Sundays. This is my mate, by the way, snapping the pub's star draw - the Emirates A380 - as it trundled down towards us before take-off..

Of course, despite all the aviation excitement, our conversation inevitably drifted back to 'the old days' when we both began working on newspapers together, and he reminded me of the time a Boeing 737 caught fire on the runway. He worked for BBC Radio Manchester by this time, and was the first reporter on the scene of that horrible accident. That, folks, was 30 years ago this year! I then told him my story of the time I'd brought a girl to the pub, one warm Sunday afternoon exactly - as the newspapers reminded us this week - 25 years ago. Half way through a pint, my bleeper went off and I dropped everything - including, I blush to say, the girl! - and headed off back to work. It seems a riot had started at Strangeways Prison..

Call the Fire Brigade ..

I was shooting an Awards Ceremony last night for The Greater Manchester Fire Service when a young lady came up to me and said "I know you!" I reached into my pocket, assuming I owed her money but, for once, that wasn't the reason.
"You photographed my sister's Wedding at Portmeirion" she said..

Well, we narrowed it down and it turns out I did photograph her sister's Wedding at Portmeirion and, by coincidence, have just published a few of those photographs as a venue page on my website. Anyway - guess what - her sister was at the ceremony 'cos her husband - the groom! - was there to receive a Long Service Medal from the Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester. What a lovely coincidence, and I couldn't wait to get home and post a picture on Facebook for them. In return I got this lovely message "Thanks Martin. Lovely surprise to c u there, lots of lovely comments about your work tonight"

This morning, they've also returned the photo favour by posting a picture of their own from the ceremony. There's Paul, receiving his medal from the gaffer and lo .. check out the serial killer lurking in the corner! It's me, it's me! Someone call the fire brigade ..

Done! Done well ..

Phew! That's that done! It's the morning after the night before and all I can say is .. it was bloody brilliant! My Wedding Fayre has been a great success and everyone is saying how very well it all went. A massive thank-you to all the exhibitors and visitors who braved Arctic weather conditions to get out to The Culcheth Arms. I'm so pleased and - yes, let's be honest - relieved that it all worked out so well. In fact, do you know what? I'm going to do it all over again! Not 'til Autumn, mind .. but the early feedback is so good that I think the Wedding suppliers of Culcheth would be daft if we ignored the local interest that we all got last night..

So, PR head back on today and back into Manchester for the second day's coverage of a Corporate workshop. I couldn't avoid listening in on the speakers yesterday and I'm already an expert on global positioning, market share and commercial propositioning! I'm just happy that all I'm there for is to take photographs! Later on I'm photographing an Awards ceremony at The Imperial War Museum North. I shall certainly enjoy the fact that someone else has had to do all the organising..