Back to school ..

I'm going to talk about the gîte again. Oh no, I hear you cry, this blog's supposed to be about photography. Ah well, it is, because today I want to tell you that the latest people to book our place have also booked .. my photography workshop! Yes! Can't wait! It's (probably) the first time I'll give it in France ..

My workshop is a simple day's photographic fun. A couple of hours on mechanics: aperture/shutter/ISO etc .. and then we move onto the good stuff .. composition and framing and seeing photographs. More importantly, it's an afternoon concentrating on what the 'students' actually want to shoot. It might be portraits or ladybirds or sausages but the main thing is they'll get the chance to photograph their subjects alongside a professional photographer. A debriefing follows, when we download and compare our photography and then, well .. it's France .. wine and cheese .. bien sûr!.. 

Un-Fayre ..

I had a great day yesterday at the Willington Hall Wedding Fayre -  and I still don't know why it's always spelt like that - meeting lots of 'new' brides and hopefully paving the way for bookings well into 2019. It prompted me to design a new page on my website, showing a full day's Wedding Photography at the venue. You can check it out here ..

Our neighbour dropped dead the other day, aged 72. That follows on from the death last year of my friend at just 65. I know life's a bitch but why are other people of that era like .. ooh, say .. Donald Trump .. just allowed to go on and on.
Life's so unfayre sometimes ..

He's moaning again ..

We're all photographers now (Part 466) ..

A lady called to ask if she could have a portrait on a canvas. "Of course you can .." I said "When would you like to come in to the studio?" "Oh .." she replied "I've already got the photograph, I just need it putting on a canvas!" She sent me the picture, which was taken on a phone and looked like it had been shot through used toilet paper, and I had to tell her it wasn't up to the job of being blown up for a canvas. "Oh well .." she sighed "I'll just have to take it on my 'proper' camera next time .."

Perhaps she should use the new iPhone. It's being advertised at the moment as now having the capacity to shoot portraits with out-of-focus backgrounds. "Practically magic .." croons the ad.
Folks, I've been practically a magician since 1978 ..

C'est bon ..

I don't want to turn into a 'gîte' bore but I just wanted to let you know that our place in France has had its first review on Trip Advisor .. and it's a cracker! It's really made us feel good after all the work we've done on the place. You can have a read of it here and don't forget that, as it's our first season, we're still offering a week's rental from only £250 ..

Mixed bag of a week ahead - a couple of PR jobs, at least five studio portrait sessions (Number 6 is trying to juggle his diary) and a Wedding Fayre at Willington Hall. A week at the gîte would probably be very tempting after that lot ..

Bye-bye Britain ..

Off to see Al Murray tonight, and really looking forward to his take on Brexit. If you don't know him, he's a comedian whose character is the uber-British 'Pub Landlord', constantly having a go at the Europeans and yearning for the days when Britain was 'great'. Is he going to be delighted that his desires have apparently been put into action? I'll let you know tomorrow ..

For those of you reading this from outside the UK, Brexit is causing a hell of a lot of turmoil in this country. Nobody has a bloody idea what's going on, but it's starting to dawn on the 'Leavers' that perhaps waving bye-bye to the EU isn't such a good idea after all. Yesterday I was talking to a guy who's had enough of all the uncertainty, price rises and so on, and has decided to move to Spain.
Oh, and he voted to leave the EU..

#idiot #despair #tunnelwithnolightattheendofit ....

Be my Valentine ..

More lust than love in this photograph but, as it's Valentine's Day, I thought I'd get some serious snoggin' on the blog. This shot from my archive was taken at one of the infamous 'Grab a Granny' nights, held every Thursday at The Ritz in Manchester. It was a haunt of me and the boys in the early eighties and no, before you ask, I never did 'grab' one!..

On a more serious note, I can't let today pass without mentioning how sad I am to hear of the death of Harry Sievey, the 24 year son of 'Frank Sidebottom' creator Chris Sievey who, himself, died tragically young at the age of 54. Peace and love, man. How sad ..

Flyin' high ..

 

We were in France this week, putting the finishing touches to our gîte. We rose each day to temperatures of minus two degrees, and it took a big leap of the imagination to picture paying guests sitting out in our garden on a scorching French summer's afternoon. Fortunately we have plenty of that, and it gave us a real buzz as we painted and mopped and polished. Our enthusiasm was rewarded when, on our last day, we received a request for a week in August, our third booking in less than a month ..

Back to reality for the time being and, on Monday, instead of working on a property I'll be photographing one on an Industrial Estate in Warrington. Not quite as glamorous, but it'll help get me back to Loubillé again soon ..

Don't take it lying down ..

Off to a good start this morning. A PR job yesterday involved shooting, of all things, a presentation of some mattresses to a charity. I sent the shots across to the PR company this morning and they've already come back with the message "Amazing!"..

Man, it's so creatively satisfying when you can get a good photograph from what seems such a mundane subject ..

Spring forward ..

Yippeeeeeeeee ... we've made it! January's done and we're heading into Spring at last. Ok, I know it's still cr*p out there at the mo but things are on the up, most definitely. The dreariest month of the year is over and it's already light by eight o'clock. Reasons to be cheerful, or what?..

I changed cars last week and had to swap all my accumulated garbage from the old car to the new. Reader, I had 53 CDs scattered around it. They were everywhere. In the glove box, in door pockets, under the front seats, stuck into my sun-visors, spread attractively around the boot - everywhere, in fact, but in the CD player. In amongst the discs was a small collection of cassettes. Yes, C90s! So, as other drivers are getting blue-tooth and built-in Sat Nav and combination tv/microwave/toasters in their cars, I've finally got rid of a car that still had a cassette player in it. Another reason to be cheerful? You betcha! Yippeeeee ...