Bring back paper ..

There's a rolling news story on the Beeb today about a little printer being brought out by Polaroid which enables people to have 'hard copies' made of their 'phone photographs. Admittedly the shots are only about two inches wide but hey, it's a step in the right direction, which is back to the old days and the joy of prints!..

Last night Lesley came home from work and told me about one of her workmates, who'd just been on a three-week road trip around some of the national parks in America. She'd brought in some of the photographs from the holiday .. in an album! Yes, all printed out and everything! Lesley said it was lovely to be able to pass the book around and enjoy 'real' photographs once more..

I thought this shot from my archive was an amusing illustration of today's blog. Classified 'ads' in a 'paper-shop window, circa 1977. I'm always going on about the importance of printing out your work and, for the first time in a long time, I have almost as many brides this summer ordering Wedding albums as are asking for a CD of digital images. You don't think this paper thingy's catching on again, do you?..

News! Good! ..

Good news! I've had a personal visit to my  Joy Division exhibition in Macclesfield by none other than the band's drummer Steven Morris! How flattering is that? Actually, it's nothing of the sort, 'cos he was at Charles Roe House - the show's venue - for something completely different! Still, it was a great photo-opportunity and, as they say, never let the truth get in the way of a good story ..

But hang on a minute .. didn't that exhibition finish a month ago? Ah, well this is the good news bit, 'cos I've been invited by Incubation Arts to continue the show - in a different room - for the rest of the summer, and that's actually why I was there this morning .. changing the shots over into this other room. Steve was there to discuss ideas about .. well, it's not my place to tell you, but if those ideas take off, that will be very good news indeed ..

Get ahead, get a hat ..

Hats off to variety, and there was plenty of that at the studio yesterday as I photographed ten day old Noah in a cutesy caterpillar bonnet, and then moved on to feisty 'Tank-Girl' Eleisha and her funky 'steam-punk' army helmet! Click on the images for a closer look!..

Sadly not much sign of needing a sun-hat around these parts at the moment but I live in hope, as does the client for whom I'm working this afternoon. I'm shooting the opening of a new show-home for a building firm, and they've asked me to capture visitors enjoying champagne and a hog-roast and "hopefully" .. as they put it, sunshine! It's not the best summer we've ever had, and if we get a blazing August I'll eat my hat!..

(I had my fingers crossed when I wrote that!...)

Tats ..

Holy sh*t! I've only like, finally gone and done it, haven't I? ..

I've always wanted to stand out from the crowd, you see. To be different, to have that certain 'edge', to be the lone wolf .. and now I am! And why? 'Cos I've only gone and had NO TATTOOS done, innit! Like, I so look like no-one else in the UK! I'm unique! I'm one of a kind! I'm like, so expressing my inner individuality, man! I've got no kids' names scrawled up my forearms, no tribal markings around my manly biceps, no butterflies on my ankles, no dragons on my back, no illegible chinese symbols behind my lug 'oles .. how effin' different am I? I rock! ..
Oh, and I haven't got a beard, either...

(Although I have got a brother-in-law with a tattoo parlour. He'll bleedin' kill me if he reads this!..  )

Holy smoke ..

You'll go a long way to see a shot like this these days .. (Greece?) .. but I just thought I'd show it you as I found it in a box of archive prints the other day. Notice it's a print - I can't find the negative anywhere, but I'm really pleased with the scan I did of the old image. Click on the picture and get a better look at it. It shows a plate of chips and an overflowing ashtray full of cigarette ends.  in a pub. Yuck! Man, the things we put up with before the smoking ban! ..

My photography's on hold today. The crummy weather's put paid to a pr shoot I'm booked to do for a church's new website. This is about the third week we've failed to get it off the ground as either the vicar or I have always been busy when we've had a sunny day. We're both praying to the Weather Gods that we'll get the shoot done soon ..

Still, it means I'm in for the delivery of my new iPhone today. Yes, I'm fed up with my Android and I'm moving over to the converted! Perhaps I should photograph the church with it..

Being Friendly ..

I was taking Pr photographs of youngsters in a school last week and the head teacher said something very nice about me. She said "What a nice change .. a friendly photographer!" and went on to tell me that whenever the local press snappers turned up at the school they were always grumpy!..

Well, a smile costs nothing as they say though, quite frankly, why wouldn't I smile when I get paid to do what I love doing all day long? Especially photographing happy young children! I remember, before I had my studio, putting an ad in our local Post Office that said something like 'Give me a ring and I'll shoot your kids!'. I don't think people quite 'got' that little slogan but I'm pleased to say that, despite the ad, I will be shooting kids once the summer holidays are over. A local playgroup has approached me and invited me in for two photo-sessions in the early autumn. Can't wait ..

Another exciting development this week is my Summer Wedding offer. I'm taking 5% off any Wedding booking received before August 31st. Now how's that for being a friendly photographer?..

Jets, dreams and steam ..

Another great day out yesterday at RIAT, the RAF's Fairford Air Show and, as promised, another amusing snoozing selection from the event .. oh, and some planes! As mentioned in Saturday's Blog, I just don't get how people can pay all that money, travel all that way and .. fall asleep! Anyway, great event, and quite probably the last time I'll ever see the Vulcan flying. I do hope some of these people woke up in time to watch that momentous event!..

So, beetroot-headed and sore-legged, it's time to get my feet back on the ground and concentrate on work! It's a really good PR week this week with various clients including an insurance company and a building firm. I'm also doing a 'Steam-Punk' fashion portrait session which, from a quick scour through Google, seems to involve the wearing of clothes inspired by 19th Century steam-powered machinery. Ok? I'm definitely not going to sleep through that..

   

Sssshhhh.......

It was lovely that my blog got such a good response yesterday, with almost twice my average number of readers checking out the piece about David. Thank you ..

Mid July means it's time for my annual trip to the Snooze-athon that we called the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but I never cease to be amazed at how many people travel all the way down there, pay damn-near fifty quid for a ticket .. and then fall asleep! What's the bloody point of that? I mean, it's not as if it's exactly quiet at an air show, is it?! I shall endeavour to capture more snoozers for you tomorrow! Have a nice weekend..

A nice man! ..

I wanted to say a word about the sad passing of a neighbour of mine. David Wilmot died suddenly last month after a short illness, and it makes me glum to think I'll never be able to have a chat with him again. He was always friendly, warm and interested in what I was up to, and even came into my studio once for a new set of portraits..

Yes, this is David - the former Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police. When I was a young snapper starting out in the press and nervous about photographing somebody 'famous', my dad would always reassure me that they were 'still just people' at the end of the day, and that helped me drive on through any shoot that came my way. I photographed Sir David every now and again when I worked for the Manchester Evening News. One day, having moved out of Salford after buying the house I live in now, I was walking down my street when I passed a man on his knees, busy weeding in his front garden. He was wearing scruffy dungarees, his backside being the angle he presented to the road! Then he turned round. It was David - The Chief Constable - weeding his garden! Talk about a double-take!..

Still just people! I've met 'celebs' whose fame or power or new-found importance has gone to their heads, and they're horrible when you photograph them .. but not David. He was so much nicer for being 'just a person'. I imagine he's already sorted out all the weeds around the pearly gates..

Just take the f•cking picture ..

I did so enjoy The Duke of Edinburgh's little nasty snap during a recent photo-shoot. I'm sure you saw it but you can always have a look at it here! "Just take the f•cking picture.." he says..

As a photographer I hear that quite often, especially with group photographs. It's as if the subjects of the picture don't realise they're not the only person being photographed. Sort of .. 'I'm ready, so taking the f•cking picture!' kind of attitude! (©DOE 2015). It's hard to count but I'll bet the photographer in this case didn't get off more than ten frames before he called Thank You, and the group dispersed..

"You're just the photographer.." is something I've heard more than once at a Wedding, along with "All you do is press a button..". The thing is, for me and many an established photographer, it's this seeming 'casual' approach that is the very essence of our experience and professionalism - the thing that actually enables us to take so few frames! Imagine the 'Philip' scenario at a Wedding with a grumpy Grandad, 150 guests and 'Uncle Fred with a good camera' doing the photography ..

I just hope that chap photoshopped a moustache and cross-eyes on the grumpy old git ..   

Read the instructions ..

Well, how smug am I this fine summer's morning? You'll never guess what I did yesterday. I fixed a part on my car! Yes, me, the most un-mechanic-y bloke on the planet! I changed a part on the O'Neill-Mobile and, bugger me, it works! Ok, it was only a replacement door mirror, but that's a pretty big job for me. So big, in fact, that I had to go onto the internet and search for instructions! I told you I was useless at 'that kind of thing'!..

Instructions are handy though, aren't they? I can't tell you the number of people who come on my Shoot 'n Tutor workshop that haven't read their camera's instruction book. Yesterday I received a new screen protector for the back of one of my cameras. A simple piece of clear plastic but, flippin' 'eck, even that came with instructions, too! But what fun instructions they were, ending with the delightful sentence 'Now you're done, and a cuppa and muffin are very much in order'! Love it! Oh, and I told the company I'd mention them in today's blog too, so well done Expert Shield!..

One person that obviously doesn't do instructions is the motorbike rider who smashed into my wing-mirror and broke it in the first place! Hey, moron, why wait in line for the traffic to go through the lights when you can pull out onto my side of the road and try to race through the gap between my car and the next one? Highway Code, anyone? I can only hope he had to instruct the A & E department to fix a broken finger..

Ps: That's my cousin, fixing my knackered old Fiat 127 in an archive shot circa 1981 and yes, he is in his socks! My cousin makes his own instructions ..  

File under G ..

I don't have Spell Check on this computer, so it's just as well I proof-read before I press 'Publish' ! There've been quite a few times when you could have been reading about Welding photography, or even Weeding photography if I didn't! Anyway, talking about spelling, I was looking through my archive for an old shot of a band called Gun Club yesterday, and got distracted by 'Girls in night-club'. Close by were 'Graffiti', 'Guitar' and 'Guides Parade' but I was drawn to this one because A) I'd never noticed it before (It was all scratched and covered in dust) and B) It's got me in it, and that always works for Yours Truly. Ok, I'm sporting Deirdre Barlow glasses and a centre-parting but hey, it was the 70s..

Finding that negative was great. What a wonderful thing to have this shot as a physical reality, one that still exists as an actual photograph after, I reckon, 36 years! (I'm thinking it was shot at Sale's 'Blue Rooms' disco, when I worked on my first ever newspaper.) Now, of course, it exists as a digital image too, and not only that but one that is also backed-up on a seperate hard drive. I mention this because there was a story in the press last week about a woman who'd had her 'phone stolen, and on it were all 300 of her photographs of her son, a Cystic Fibrosis sufferer .. who had just died! What a sad story, from every point of view. I hope she gets the 'phone back but honestly - in a few years time - how are we ever going to view the past when it 'ain't there? Back up, Print, Copy, File under G, or anything! Just File!!....  

Gizza hug ..

These are literally the first and last shots from last week's Wedding. I thought it was so great that the whole day was wrapped with hugs! To me the shots are so honest yet capture the all-important minutiae of the day - the toast and jam of the 'first' Wedding breakfast of the day, the bride with the orange juice for the Bucks Fizz and - at the other end of the day - the groom and a pal proving they might have sampled quite a lot of those drinks during the day! This is what Wedding photography's about. Forget all that posed crap that seems to pass as the 'right way' to shoot Weddings these days - silhouettes, smoke bombs, blurry shots through trees and railings! It's all art for art's sake! A lot of Wedding photographers seemed to have crawled up their own proverbials, and they're staying there. Well great, 'cos I'm happy to say there are still plenty of brides and grooms that can't be bothered with all that fakery. They're the ones that book me, and get the nitty-gritty of it all. Captured moments that actually happened on their Wedding Day. Now, of course I'll shoot a great set of 'posed' shots too. One just doesn't need to go over the top, that's all! Real Life! Just saying ... 

A Kodak moment ..

I've just read that today's the birthday of George Eastman. Mr Kodak to you and I! He invented basically 'Photography for the masses' and it's him I have to thank for the Kodachrome I took with me when I travelled around the world a few centuries back! Here's an appropriate shot of a taxi in Brazil - a tribute to one of the great Gods of photography! Happy Birthday, George! A definite Kodak moment...

To have and to hold, maybe ..

There was a programme on TV last night called 'Married at first sight'. I didn't watch it, so this blog is only based on what I heard on Breakfast telly this morning, but it seems the concept of the programme is that two people are 'scientifically' matched to suit each other and the programme makers then proceed to marry them off - the couple only ever meeting each other at the moment they marry. Now, as I say, I haven't watched it, so will reserve judgement until I see it on 'Catch-up' but, excuse me, isn't that just taking the p*ss out of the whole concept of marriage? Ok, I can accept that in some cases this might work but, in general, this to me seems almost disgusting. One of the joys of Wedding photography is seeing that moment when two people - IN LOVE - are actually, actually, actually married! It's a joy to behold! To be continued ..

  

Write on time ..

Yesterday I was talking about the years flying by, and it occurred to me later that I'd just booked tickets to see The Tubes .. on their fortieth anniversary tour! Yes, those funky San Francisco rockers are still going strong after all these years, and I can't wait to see them again next month..

Anyway, this shot popped up whilst I was editing a Wedding yesterday. One of 'my brides' being fashionably late for her Wedding in May. Seven minutes is fine. The record so far this year is forty-five minutes late, caused by a broken-down VW camper that was meant to take the poor bride to the chapel! My, how she laughed .. later!

It would have been my Dad's 82nd birthday today. Now there's a time I'd like to get back ..

Punk forever ..

Last Friday evening I was in the bizarre position of being entirely alone! All on my own! Poor Billy No Mates! It was fantastic..

Lesley was working late and three sets of neighbours - on both sides - were away on holiday. There was no-one within .. what? 120 feet of me. So, what did I do? I did what any right-minded 54 year old punk would do in that situation. I opened a beer, hit the record player and cranked the volume up to 11 !..

I started with a bit of The Exploited, and then turned straight to the UK Subs. It was at that moment I remembered I had a DVD of the Subs, so switched the telly on to watch that instead. There's a great moment in the film where Charlie Harper, the band's lead singer, replies to someone in the audience. I couldn't hear what the punter said but Harper's reply was "I don't do that anymore, I'm 40 next year!.."

He's 71 this year, and still gigging! There's hope for me, yet! Punk forever! Yeah ....

 

Four seasons in one day ..

Kicking back after a fantastic weekend of Wedding photography and an air-show! Saturday's shoot was a blast and I think she'd agree if I described Alaina, the bride, as quite a character! I'm sure it's the first time the MOB - Mother of the bride - has taken pity on me and bought me a pint of lager after I've finished shooting! You can check out the shots here! Great to be part of your Big Day, guys..

Then it was on to Sunday and the first Air Show at Barton Airport in 21 years. All was going well until 3pm, when a weather front hit us and that was that! It absolutely poured down! End of show and thousands of soggy, cold people dashing for the exit! What a shame, and to think I'd been complaining about the sunshine on Saturday!..

Air we go again ..

A trip back in time today as I head off to the Manchester Air Show at what used to be known as Barton Airport. It's the first one in years and years but when I was growing up it was an annual fixture that was as regular as clockwork. The aerodrome is at the back of the housing estate on which I grew up and, every May, we'd hike across the fields to watch everything from Concorde to The Red Arrows .. and all for free! Our position meant we were on the other side of the airfield to all the paying customers, so we were right under the flight path of everything that displayed on the day. It was probably very dangerous .. but it was great! Here's a shot of the 1977 poster on my bedroom wall. It was a pound to get in! I'm happily splashing out a whole tenner to go on the 'paying' side this afternoon ..

The Property Market ..

This week I photographed a property for a chap who wants to put it on the market, and it's prompted me to tell you a story that I've been sitting on for a while. Earlier this year I was taken on by a local estate agent to photograph their properties. The pay wasn't great, but I figured on quantity so gave it a shot. All went well for a month or so until the work suddenly dried up. It seems the estate agent didn't really want to pay for great shots of their properties so, instead, decided to offer the option of professional photography to their clients. So guess how many have gone for it....

Go on, guess! Correct! None ...

There are half a million pound houses around here and no-one will pay a few quid to get them shot properly! Yet another area where the man-in-the-street's perception of the value of photography has gone down the pan! There's no market in property for me ..

I sat on the story because you'd only think I'm moaning. Actually, I am! Moaning old sod .. 

Shocking ..

We had a superb thunderstorm round our way last night. The heatwave - all 8 hours of it - came to an abrupt end and the garden got the watering it so badly needed. I couldn't resist grabbing a few shots - hand-held and very much seat of pants stuff (lightning reactions?) - and shoved one on the Book of Face, only to be asked what camera I used! Doh ...

Anyway, that's not the shocking bit! The shocking bit is that yet another newspaper has decided that photographs don't need to be paid for any more. Last month the Manchester Evening News ran six of my Joy Division photographs without so much as a by-your-leave, and now The Guardian wants to play the same game with a selection of shots from my archive. They got in touch with my picture agency to ask if they could use a few and do a little article. So far so good, except there was no fee involved and the water-mark would be minimal on the shots. Bloody hell, it's no wonder the man in the street doesn't think anything of nicking a photograph when 'so-called' esteemed publications like these don't consider a payment to be in order. What bit of 'professional' photographer do you not understand, dear newspapers? Shocking ..

Two today! ..

Two today! Culcheth Photo Studio has been open for two years exactly!..

Well, what can I say? The honest answer is .. I'm amazed I'm still here! I'll hold my hands up and say it hasn't been quite as busy as I'd have liked, and I've been on the verge of closing down quite a few times. However, it's lovely to have 'a place of my own' and I intend to keep it on as long as is economically viable. I thought two pictures of other 'struggling' brothers - taken on my travels - would be appropriate images for today! Here's to the next two years...