Goodbye Europe, Hello France ..

It's so ironic that, on the day the UK says tatty-bye to Europe, Lesley and I are getting closer and closer to living in France. We've got the house, the gîte and near-as-damn-it a leaving date, and my God it's exciting! ..

Our first ever paying guests arrive at the gîte this weekend, and I'm off across the channel tomorrow to greet them. I'm thrilled and nervous all at the same time. It's the start of a whole new life for us both so we really hope our visitors kick us off with a most splendid visit. You can follow my progress by reading our 'gîte tweets' ..

Funnily enough, my car's been at the garage all this week and I've been given a courtesy car whilst it's being fixed. What kind? A Citroên. It's a sign! ..

Taking the plunge ..

I'm moving to France!..

How's that for the start of a blog? You may have already read that my partner and I bought a gite over there, and we now aim to move out full time later on this year. The gite's called La Galerie, and we already have six bookings for it - not bad from a standing start! In addition, I'm going to be running One-Day Photography Workshops for our guests, and I already have two people booked on that too, so I'm going to have to go to France just to do it. Any excuse, eh? .. 

Exciting, or what? It's a whole new change of direction for us both, and we cannot wait! In the meantime, I have a summer full of Weddings to shoot, and then my focus will be on getting bookings for Weddings and property in France ..

So, if you fancy a great holiday in France, with a day's professional photography tuition, then please get in touch. We'd be delighted to see you. Ooh la la ..

For you, Mum ..

It's summer! It's Mother's Day! It's .. my Lord, it all comes at once, doesn't it? Anyway, Happy Mother's Day, Mum! Here's to you and all you've done for me ..

This is a lovely memory for me. I once took my Mum on a pleasure trip on Concorde. We went from Manchester Airport to Heathrow and I think it took about 14 minutes! One of the best quarters of an hour I've ever had!
My Mum enjoyed it, too. Can you tell?..

That's it, I'm done ..

Lovely catch-up with an old mucker this morning, and we both felt truly at home amongst the old folk having coffee at a local garden centre! Man, how the years fly. He's been a photographer even longer than I have! We reminisced about the 'old days' - he shot The Ramones and Blondie - and we talked about the future of professional photography in the UK. We've both decided there isn't one! As excellent a photographer as he is - and, dare I say, I am - we both see our bookings declining, but I have a plan ..

So today, no PR job or Wedding editing (Wediting!) .. instead coffee and cake and a nice stroll amongst the camellia in my garden. My photographic future lies elsewhere and I can't wait to tell you about it ..

Mad for it ..

Down to The Photography Show at Birmingham's NEC yesterday for a talk by renowned photographer Albert Watson, who's still clicking away at the grand old age of 74. I take that as a good sign for my own future, as I found myself nodding vigorously when he described his love of photography not as a passion .. but an obsession. Me too! I'm mad for it! Like, totes baby, totes ..

Ps: As a follow-on from Friday's blog, I'm pleased to tell you that I did get Albert's autograph! 

Sign here ..

I've been in Photography heaven lately (Am I ever out of it?) ..

BBC Four has been running a 'Photography' series, with a particularly good night last night featuring a fantastic look back at some of the Beeb's programmes about famous photographers. (It's on catch-up if you fancy it). I've met quite a few famous snappers in my time, including Elliott Erwitt, David Bailey and Mary Ellen Mark, but one of my most enjoyable encounters was with the late, great André Kertesz, who I met on the occasion of his 90th birthday. He was an absolute delight, and I look back with warmth at the autograph he gave me after I'd taken his photograph. It's so fantastic to meet the people who actually took some of your favourite photographs. Tomorrow I'm off to hear a talk by Albert Watson. Hopefully he'll add his scribble to my ever-growing autograph book ..

Follow me .. I'm not lost!

I've just been asked if I'd mind being followed around by a 16 year old girl. Hey, it's been along time since that's happened. However, this youngster is an Austrian photography student, who'll be spending some time over here in the summer. One of my contacts has asked if she could shadow me for a while and of course I don't mind in the slightest, as long as it doesn't look like she's there to take care of her grandad ..

Teaching photography will be one of the things on which I'll be focusing (ha ha!) at our French gîte. I'm offering a one-day workshop, covering the basics of that magical being called photography, and am delighted to say I already have two bookings later this year.

It's going to mark a major change in my life ...........................!

Getting my fix ..

I've had a fantastic weekend, with a Wedding on Saturday and a Wedding Fayre on Sunday. I actually had to leave a photograph of myself on the sideboard so that Lesley would remember what I looked like ..

Saturday was fab, with the Wedding of Jane and Christian in Winsford and a reception at the delicious Willington Hall near Chester. I love this intimate little moment as the newly-weds emerged from the church. Many congrats, you two ..

Sunday was spent at Hollin Hall, where I had a stand at their Wedding Fayre. I spoke to lots of lovely new brides and have my fingers crossed I'll be shooting for at least a couple of them very soon ..

There's now a break in my bookings until next month, so it's just as well I got a good Wedding 'fix' when I could ..

It'll all come out in the wash ..

I don't know why, but this photograph of mine has always pleased me. It was shot in a launderette in my home town of Eccles in about 1977. Perhaps it's the repetition or the pattern, or the humour of the three trolleys queueing to be used but, for me, it just 'works' as a photograph. I'm in the process of designing a one-day photography workshop, which I will offer to clients staying at our gîte in France, and I'm trying to get to grips with teaching the concept of the 'photographer's eye' - that ability to just see/feel when a photograph is right. I think I might be wasting my time, as I feel it's a skill that is innate, and can't be taught. Still, if I can't teach it, perhaps I can awaken it in people who have never before given it any thought. It'll all come out in the wash ..

You read it here ..

The fantastic news yesterday was that I've been booked to give a reading of my book to a children's Book Club. Crikey, that's three 'books' in one sentence. Am I really cut out for this authoring mullarkey? I'm really excited. It'll be the first chance I'll have had to run my story past real kids, and I'm dying to know what they think of it. I obviously have a lot of faith in it but it just needs that one lucky break to get it moving ..

To put my photography head back on for a minute .. I also got a call yesterday from the PR company for whom I shot the food that I featured in yesterday's blog. They've got a new job for me. This time I'll be photographing .. Industrial Pressure Washers. You can't say there's no variety in this job. You read it here ..

Food for thought ..

Apparently it's now the done thing to show 'behind-the-scenes' shots from one's PR work. "They" say it helps er .. something or other .. so who am I to argue? A few weeks back I was booked to shoot all the food on the menu of a new outside catering company, but the space we got to do it was .. well, the gap behind the boss's desk! Each dish was brought in from the design kitchen and plonked in front of my camera, and I was then left to work my magic as best I could. I shot mains, starters and a selection of pies, all on a little table in the corner of an office. It ain't glamorous, but it just shows you what a good photographer can do when he has to. Food for thought, eh? ..

I am in hell ..

"I am in hell .." yelled Fletcher Christian, as he debated whether or not to set Captain Bligh adrift from his ship, The Bounty, during the famous mutiny in 1789. I'll have a bit of a quandary myself this evening, so thank God for TV catch-up. There are two programmes on at 9 o'clock tonight that I'm dying to watch. BBC Four is showing the first in a series of Photography programmes, introduced by ex-picture editor Eamonn McCabe but - dare I say, even more exciting - Channel Four is beginning a series based on The Mutiny on the Bounty - recreating the epic open boat voyage by Bligh and some of his crew across thousands of miles of empty Pacific ocean ..

It's a subject that absolutely fascinates me! I mean, to the extent that I went all the way to Tahiti just to see the 'tropical paradise' that caused half of Bligh's crew to mutiny. (Turns out it's now just a crowded busy island full of French people and crazy motorways. It wouldn't lure me back, let's put it that way!) Anyway, Bligh's skill and bravery at navigating all the way back to Timor - by memory - is something that amazes me, and I hate the Hollywood image of him being a bully and a tyrant. He wasn't. He was just a perfectionist who felt let down when, eventually, his crew couldn't match his high standards. The thing that impresses me most is that, contrary to the common view of a salty old sea-dog, Bligh was actually only 34 years old when he led his men to safety. Incredible!..

Now, being a photography blog, I suppose I need to get back to pictures. Er, well here's a Kodachrome shot from my own epic voyage, when I went round the world for 6 months. Hell? My God, it was Heaven.. 

 

Read all about it ..

Venezuela and Slovakia. They're two of the countries from whence I've had reads of my blog this week. The spread of the web goes far, which is just as well as I'm now at the beginning of trying to promote the second part of the book 'wot I wrote'.
I was encouraged this morning by a news article about a young UK author who has suddenly become massive in China. Her book is right up there in the country's Top Ten big reads. There's hope for me yet, I thought, as I waved my heroes out into the Big Wide World. Of course, as soon as I'd tweeted it this morning I was contacted immediately by .. people wanting to promote my book. Well guys, I'm sorry to disappoint you but my promotions budget of zero pounds and zero pence isn't going to get me far with you at all. A far cry from the 'successful' authors I read about who spend thousands every month pushing their works. It's going to have to be 'organic' for my book. Word of mouth, and all that. So the three people that bought Part One of the book - I know, three .. little acorns eh? .. will have to do their utmost to get the news out. Come on Venezuela, come on Slovakia!
We can do this!..

Taking the p*ss ..

I was watching something on television the other night - can't even remember what it was - and I suddenly noticed there were all these childrens' face blurred out, and yesterday I was at an infant school to do a shot of the kids and some new play equipment when one of the teachers reached in and yanked out one of the little girls. "She can be in the newspaper .." she said "But not on Facebook" ..

Folks, I despair. What the bloody hell is going on in the world these days? Until that moment it was if I was suddenly back in the 1980s, when kids innocently revelled in the fun of having their photographs taken by 'the man from the 'paper'; when children would run up to you in the street, desperate to be in your shots. "Take a picture, mister" used to be the cry. Now it's more likely to be "Oi, Paedo!"..

I hate it. I hate the fact that I can't photograph a bunch of kids on the street without the fear of facing instant opprobrium, and I hate the fact that all those carefree days have gone. Isn't it ironic, though, that we live in a world where people are taking more shots of children than ever -  parents even using them as their social media profile pictures - yet as soon as a professional photographer goes near them they're a paedophile. People, you are taking the p*ss ..

Book me now ..

Apparently today is World Book Day, which seems to be another of these commercially driven ideas that'll cost the nation's parents a fortune in character costume purchases. However, it reminded me I've not said anything about my new book for a while. New book, Martin? Oh yes, didn't you know I'd written a book? It's called 'The Boy who missed Next Year' and is available from all good retailers for ..

Actually, it's not available from any shops. I mean, it would be if it had been taken up by a publisher but, for some bizarre reason, of the 30 odd I sent it to, not one could see the amazing potential in the story! Still, in true JK styley, I am persevering and have made it available on Amazon Kindle for all you discerning readers to buy ..

Actually, I'll be testing it out soon when I give a reading at a local kids' book club. As it's basically a children's adventure story I'm really keen to see how it goes down with youngsters and who knows? Next year you could be splashing out on fancy-dress that makes your child look like one of my characters ..