Double or nothing ..

There's been a roll of film sitting on my desk for well over a year now but yesterday, finally, curiosity got the better of me and I took it to a lab to have it processed. First surprise? This double-exposure at the start of the roll..

You just don't get these happy accidents any more, unless you specifically set a digital camera to 'multiple' but, by then, it ain't no accident 'cos you've told your darling device that a double-exposure is what you're aiming at!..

It just reminded me that, as much as I love digital, a lot of the 'magic' of photography has gone. The 'not-knowing' what you'd shot, the anticipation in the dark-room - behave! - and the sheer raw 'hands-on' satisfaction of knowing that, from shot to print, you made that photograph in front of you. Still, I'm saving a fortune in Polaroids!...

Girls on Film!..

Yes, it's another photograph of me .. and hey, why not? Here I am, posing like Vivian Maier, except ..er, in colour, with no shadow across my face .. and without a Rollieflex 6x6 camera. Otherwise .. perfect likeness! The film, Finding Vivian Maier, finally came to Manchester this week, and I made sure I was one of the first people to see it. I absolutely love her work! If you don't know the story she was a nanny in Chicago who used to take pictures in her spare time. Lots of pictures! Thousands and thousands of pictures, which she strangely kept hidden from the world and which were only discovered after her death. Go and see the film to find out more. Highly recommended...

Some of my future brides might also be 'girls on film', too! By a strange coincidence a young couple who came to see me about their Wedding photography on Saturday asked if I was able to shoot some pictures on film for them! This was just days after I'd ordered a pack of 120 film and some new batteries to 'fire up' my old Mamiya RZ67 - a camera that uses the same size film as Vivian's Rollieflex. It was the beast on which I used to shoot all the colour pictures when I photographed a Wedding in 'the old days', and I'd already decided to start offering 'real' photos at Weddings as a special part of my packages, so was delighted when these guys asked about the possibility!..

Now I just need to dig out my old Duran Duran album ..

Just a boy...

Portrait of the artist! A dip into the archive for a shot I've found of me, me me...  This was taken when I was staff at the Warrington Guardian, 30 years ago. I'm busy filing negatives and writing captions, with my trust Nikon FM on the desk in front of me! As you can see, the company spent a fortune on our luxuious office space!! I had to smile when I saw the photographs on the wall. They're of Wendy Wu, who was the lead singer in one of my favourite bands, the ever-so appropriately named Photos! Oh, Wendy, where are you now? It's hard to imagine now but I'll bet that, on that roll of 36 negatives on the table, there are probably 5 or 6 jobs, half-a-dozen frames shot at each event. Did you hear that? All you people who say the good thing about digital is you can just keep shooting until you get a good shot!!
Grrrr.....