So this is permanence?..

 Sticking with the theme of Memories in May, I dug out an old scrap-book that features this Eccles Journal cutting of my first ever published newspaper photograph. It was in this month in 1977 that, as a 16 year old, I got my 'big break' into press photography and the rest, as they say, is history ..

Also assigned to history is Hooky's 'So this is permanence' gig, which took place a year ago today in Macclesfield. He sang every single one of Joy Division's songs in a gig that will stay forever in my mind, and that in itself was to mark the day that the band's lead singer killed himself. Good to see then that, almost forty years on, both Hooky and I are still doing what we love.
Pretty permanent, eh?..

Me! It's me...

Now here's a Wedding gallery with a difference, and it's thanks (I think..) to Eddie, the father of Steve Williams, whose Wedding I shot at Nunsmere Hall a few weeks back. Steve just sent me this set of his images. Eddie seems to have spent the whole day documenting the hard-work, artistry, patience and skill that is the lot of a brilliant Wedding photographer like what I am! (Not to mention the 3-camera juggle, the off-camera flash, the 'Look, no hands' approach to climbing ladders - the Health & Safety people love me for that! - and the championship-winning face-gurning! My God, I've got it all. Click on the montage for a close-up!...) Anyway, many thanks, guys! Love 'em!...


Speaking of Wedding Photography, a lady popped her head around the door of the studio yesterday and asked if I'd ever worked for the Eccles Journal. I said I had, but it was a long time ago. She nodded, looked at me and said "You took my Wedding photographs in 1976!"



OMG, as we say! 1976? I told you I'd been doing this a while! She's going to pile into her loft and dig 'em out for me. Would love to see how I shot back then ..      
I wonder if I still pulled faces...

I've seen the light..

Never used film? Never printed your own photographs? Then this blog's for you! It's for you if you think a test-strip is a trial nudist session. It's for you if the mention of red lights and enlargers makes you smirk and titter, and you think developer is something to give you a bigger bust! In short, it's for you if you've never worked in a darkroom! And all because of this fab photograph I found in my archive the other day. It's the make-shift darkroom I used to set up in the kitchen when I moved into a flat with my dad in 1977. Black plastic sheets over the window and the enlarger and tray of dev on the worktop, squeezed between the cooker and the sink, just beside the ironing board, the kettle and my work flask! Now those were the days! But don't knock it! It's from this 'darkroom' that I printed all the photographs I sold to the Eccles Journal when I was 17, which led to me getting my first job on Messenger Group Newspapers in '78. This is where it all started, folks! Now switch the bloody light off, I'm working...

All out....

I'd be a busy boy today if I were still a Press Photographer, as public sector workers down tools and walk out over their pensions dispute. I could take my pick and photograph striking airport workers, teachers, Mersey Tunnel toll booth operatives .. you name it! At least I don't think the Fire Brigade is coming out today, as they did in 1977. I remember walking down to Eccles Fire Station that November and shooting a couple of frames on my Yashica Fr1 and, to my wannabe press photographer delight, the one I'm blogging today got into the Eccles Journal.

I never want this blog to get political, so I'll skip merrily along from the nitty gritty of today's actions. I mean, it's a worrying time for us all, so who needs another ranting blog going on about a double-dip recession and the rising cost of everything!?

EIGHTY POUNDS it cost me to fill up my car last night! Eighty!!

Oops!