SNAP!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I passed rather a pleasant hour or two yesterday, amusing myself after I'd read an article in The Times ..

There's a well-known photographer called Tom Wood - affectionately known in his adopted home town of Liverpool as 'Photie Man' - who's being honoured with a big exhibition at the city's Walker Art Gallery. The newspaper article featured over twenty of Tom's pictures, taken back in the late 70s to early 80s, the same period of time I was working on my own 'street photography'. What a nice shot, I thought, as I admired his picture of a group of Scouse scallies leaning against a metal railing. It reminded me of a photograph of my own, the shot you see here of three 'Teddy boys' in my own home town of Eccles. Snap! I chuckled. How interesting ..

And then .. what a nice shot, I thought, as his picture of two girls on a bus brought a smile to my face. That reminded me of another shot from my archive, a worried-looking mother smoking on a bus as one of her children slept and the other tried to evade boredom.

And then .. what a nice shot, I thought, as an image of two Passport-photo machines put me immediately in mind of a remarkably-similar picture of my own.

And then .. 

Well then, folks, I worked my way through the entire set of his photographs and realised I had a similar-looking photograph to every one of his. I felt rather pleased to have (in my opinion) comparable work to one of documentary photography's masters, and I've put them onto a web page, if you fancy taking a look. 

I'd love to hear your opinion ..  

SNAP!

All smiles ..

My studio used to be in a shopping mall above our local Sainsbury's supermarket. Today, exactly one year and three days since I closed it, I got a phone-call from a lady who wanted me to photograph her dog ..

"I'm afraid I've closed the studio down .." I said.
"Oh, have you?", she said "I don't go up there very often" ..
Folks, I almost cracked a smile ..

Anyway, none of this moping about the past .. it's all about the future now, with tomorrow's Wedding in Liverpool being at the forefront of my mind. It's the first Wedding I'll have shot in Liverpool for .. well, I can't even remember, it's been so long. It's a nice challenging one as well, with only an hour to shoot the photographs after the ceremony .. just the sort of adrenalin rush I thrive on.

Folks, I definitely will be smiling ..

Back to Liverpool ..

It was back to Liverpool last night for the second PR shoot in a week. After photographing the opening of a new Dunkin' Donuts store on Tuesday it was time to cover the Liverpool City Region Tourism Awards at the amazing St George's Hall. Had a great night, and can't believe I've never been to such a fantastic venue before now. All that, and a set by The Christians thrown in ..

Back down to earth today with a booking to shoot a series of corporate portraits on an industrial estate in Salford and then it's a Saturday with my feet up to watch Man U in the FA Cup Final. Not to rub it in but I hope we do better than Liverpool did ..

On the horizon..

I can't ever remember using the digital zoom on my little Nikon Coolpix compact - it's normally set to wide and macro - but I love the shot I got on that setting yesterday. Ok, it's not perfect, but this Liverpool skyline will forever remind me of a fantastic day on Formby beach with my girlfriend Lesley and the two dogs. We walked for two hours yesterday, watching young families taking photos in the sunshine, and in all of that time I saw .. two cameras! Everyone else was using their phone to capture their memories. Just holding up their iphone or android and capturing a digital memory that will .. well, will what? Be printed? Shoved on Facebook? Used as a screensaver? Who knows, but just don't ask Kodak! With everybody shooting digitally they've shut down their film division, and the end of the little yellow box is nigh. Scary times!

I had a conversation on Friday that was rather chilling, too, and it actually made me wonder if there'll be such a job title as Stills Photographer in a few years time. A couple of PR executives both said, in seperate conversations at a Networking Event, that they just had no need/demand/budget for Professional Stills Photography any more. (My bank balance can vouch for that, by the way!) However, photography is the only thing I know and, with my 34th anniversary as a photographer coming up this week, I'm starting to think (Hope!) that it'll stay the only thing I know. Jeepers! Who knows what's on the horizon?...