One last thing ..

My whole American trip seems a distant memory already and I promise I'll stop going on about it after this blog. My feet are firmly on the ground again .. it's time to think about tomorrow's Wedding in Alderley Edge now .. but I'll leave you with this small montage from New York (Click to see it larger) and a couple of thoughts. Why can't Americans grasp the name 'Martin' and why, when I was told I was getting a meal with chips on the side did it arrive with .. a bag of crisps? Oh, those Yanks ..

Done it! ..

It's the morning after the day before. I've finished my first Wedding shoot in America, and what a fantastic day it was. Thank God the Yanks do things the 'wrong way round' because, with the ceremony starting at 5pm, I'd have had no chance of getting any daylight pictures of the bride and groom. Fortunately for me the Americans shoot their photography before the Wedding ceremony so we had plenty of time to get out and about on the common adjacent to the hotel ..

The whole experience has been amazing and now it's time to head home and edit the work. Obviously I'll be sharing pictures as soon as I can but, in the meantime, have a nice day, y'all ..

Cheers! ..

Apparently it's been rather cold at home, but I wouldn't know as I'm finally over in America to shoot my long-awaited Wedding. I've had a few days in New York and a couple in Boston, and today it's a short trip to Salem and the Wedding before heading home at the weekend ..

I'm feeling quite the jet-set snapper, too. Whilst I've been over here I've had an enquiry to photograph a Wedding in France. How exciting! Tres bon, mes amis ..

So, it's all eyes to the weather gods now. It's been hammering down all the time I've been in New England though, as I write this at 7am, there are slivers of blue sky reappearing after two days absence. The only other disappointment? I went to Cheers Bar last night and nobody knew my name .. though apparently that's the Norm. Oh ha ha ha ...

Thanksgiving ..

Thanksgiving Day in America, and I'm giving thanks that I'll soon be over there shooting a Wedding. It's time to start thinking about what gear I'll need to take over. I think I'll be able to take most of the stuff I normally use, bar studio lights and brolleys, and I've already arranged to borrow a tripod, so that's half my luggage allowance recovered ..

The Wedding is at 5pm - not good for light in December - but I've been told the American 'way' is for the photographs to be taken before the ceremony and for that, America, I give thanks ..

Ps: This shot was taken on Kodachrome in the 80s, during a Greyhound Bus trip I took around the USA .. 

To America ..

Well, I know where I'll be next December. I'll be in Boston, USA ..

I was delighted yesterday to be invited to shoot a Wedding there next Winter. A chap who was the Best Man at a Wedding I photographed here moved over there last year, and has just got engaged to his lovely American girlfriend. He emailed to ask if I'd consider shooting their Big Day and - after 0.2 milliseconds consideration - I said Yes! How exciting!..

It's been a while since I've been to The States, although I used to visit frequently when .. well, when I had more money! I once flew to Detroit on an airline's inaugural flight just because the tickets were so cheap .. but when it dawned on me that that flight would only be about two weeks after returning from New York I had to come up with a reason for going back to America. I came up with the idea of a fund-raising challenge, whereby I'd spend an entire week travelling on Greyhound Buses and see how many cities I could visit. Folks, I got to 27 .. and it took my backside another four weeks to get over the numbness! I think I'll be in for an easier ride next year ...

But ..

9/11 again - or 11/9 as we always said in England before the tragedy - and the world's an even worse place to be in today than it was fourteen years ago...

But ..

Despite everything, I can look at this photograph and get a big smile on my face! This shot brings back such happy memories of a time I took my Dad on a trip to America after, believe it or not, winning a trip for two to New York. We spent a week travelling round by Greyhound bus, and I have such fond memories of Dad at the top of the Twin Towers, The Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building; of him stopping firemen in the street so that I could take a picture of him with them; of police in Washington keeping us behind a cordon as - of all people - Imelda Marcos landed by helicopter next to The White House, and of him straddling the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls so that he could be in two countries at once! In fact, the only photographs I took - for the entire trip - were of my Dad. He was my project! Dad does America! Every single photograph had my Dad in it!..

Well, the towers are gone and so is my Dad.
But I still have my photographs ..

God bless America ..

Interestingly, I now get more readers of my blog from The States than I do from the UK! Hi, y'all.. and thanks for checking in! I wonder what you make of my typically English humour, and my good ol' British rants and moans! It'd be nice to hear from one or two of you, if you have the time..

How much difference is there between American and British Wedding Photography? I know that, on my travels, I've come across a couple of American photographers giving talks about Wedding photography, and it comes across as so much more based on 'set poses' rather than spontaneity or free-flow. One guy was even selling a small book of images of 'set-poses' which a snapper could clip to his or her key-ring so that they could work their way through a 'repertoire' of poses. This, I shuddered to hear, was so that the photographer didn't get sued by the couple if they missed off a shot from the collection! Yowzer! I don't think I'll be working in America anytime soon ..

Cash for Squits ..

I took this shot on an early trip to America, and I remember seeing and hearing, for the first time, adverts there for 'Compensation' claims. Get money for this, get money for that, get money for old bleedin' rope! "Thank God we don't have such a compensation culture at home" I would say .. "We don't blame other people for our misfortunes over in England!"..

Except now, of course .. we do! And I bloody hate it! I mean, I can see the point with the PPI 'scandal' - though even that's been rammed down our throats for far too long now - but I've heard radio ads recently promoting compensation for everything from dodgy dentistry to solar panels that aren't earning you an income. I've totally had enough of 'Had an accident that wasn't your fault?' ads but the best popped up on my Facebook page over the weekend. You can now claim compensation if you got the sh*ts on holiday! I kid you not! 'Holiday spoiled by the squits? No sweat, we'll get you some compensation.' Jeez, I give up! Mind you, thinking about it, with the amount of twiddly bums I've had on my travels over the years, I reckon I'm owed about thirty million quid!
Pay up, you bounders, pay up ...