Variety's the spice ..

Children and animals! Oh, and a casino, a restaurant, a corporate team building event and, erm .. 12 semi-naked grandmothers! The diary this week certainly makes for interesting reading, and I've definitely got a diverse and exciting five days ahead of me!

The children and animals? I'm off to do a PR shoot at a Riding Centre this afternoon. The casino and restaurant? That's a brochure for a venue in the middle of Manchester which has just opened its own James Martin restaurant. The team-building event is a half-day shoot for a rather large organisation which, last time, involved percussion lessons and some rather large bongoes! Speaking of rather large bongoes, we come to the grannies! They're from a Community Group in Eccles who are dressing down and lining up for their very own 'Calendar Girls' shoot, and aim to produce a calendar which they hope will raise funds for The Christie Hospital in Manchester. I'm only doing the recce this week, with the actual shoot to follow next week, but I can't wait! Interestingly, I'm also shooting a portrait this week for a - let's say .. senior - chap who wants a cool shot for a profile on an internet dating site. Maybe I can save him some dosh and fix him up with one of my 'models'? That'd spice up his life..

The writing's on the .. floor!

I've been given the nod, so can now show you the PR shoot I did last week in Manchester. V2020 is the name of a new project being embarked upon by the staff at this company, every one of whom downed tools - and phones - to come outside for the photo. It was four months in the planning, involved 200 members of the workforce, and had to be shot within 15 minutes so that the phones could be re-manned! Talk about quick! I still managed to shoot a fun stop-motion film of the whole thing, though! Watch it here! I love the flailing arms. If only you could hear all the bawling and shouting I was doing at the same time!

Another large group shot to take at the weekend, albeit a family of 14 rather than a workforce of 200. And talk about easy-peasy, I don't even have to make 'em spell anything out against the backdrop!

Oh, yes .. it's the Bank Holiday, so get out there and enjoy yourselves.
I might write the odd blog or two before Tuesday!!...

#culchethstudio
www.studiofivefour.com

Clear sky thinking ..

Today's the day folks! I'm having my hair cut! No, seriously .. this morning, come what may, I'll be shooting 200 people standing in their staff car-park spelling out the name of a new company project! Pray to the Sun-Gods for me, people! Pray! We have 15 minutes - an exact 15 minute window during the morning - when we can take the picture, as the whole firm is shutting down - phone-lines/transport/warehouses -  so that the staff can pile out to take their places in 5 big numbers and letters we're going to map out across the park. Think Halifax advert if you're reading this in the UK! The idea was first mooted by the firm about four months ago and I've already had two visits to the site to check everything out. I'll be three floors up and the scene will - if the sun comes out - be backlit. I just hope I remember to put a film in! 

If you'll allow me one more GOMM (That's Grumpy Old Man Moment, in case you missed yesterday's blog) The Perseids! A veritable feast of shooting stars and meteors! I saw one! One in all that time, and that through the tiniest gap in the cloud that seems to have set in since .. well, since they said let's hope we get clear skies!

You spotting a theme here?
I thought my picture of Ayers Rock - Ooops, Uluru - would set the scene nicely.
Oh, and I am having my hair cut today, too!..

Stop Press: YES!!! 200 people, 15 minutes .. DONE! Thank you, thank you to everyone that prayed to the Sun-Gods this morning! The sun came out with a vengeance and really made the shot come to life! The shoot was a fantastic success and as soon as I get the nod from the company I'll be able to show it to you.
Phew ...

#culchethstudio
www.studiofivefour.com

A word in yer shell-like ..

I've started bloody scanning again! It was just too tempting! The shelves above me are groaning with prints and slides from years gone by, and I've finally succumbed to their brooding prescence and begun copying them to computer. I'll be about seven years! There are a lot of slides! Lots of Kodachrome, and a fair few old prints from my newspaper days - the negs long gone! Here's an example .. Ian Botham looks about 20 on this shot, an advertising poster going up somewhere in Manchester in the 80s. He's drinking low-alcohol lager, hence the suggestion of damage to his reputation, and when I googled it I came up with this! Bet he wishes he could grow a mullet now! Maybe not!..

I'm off to a local factory again this morning for the postponed recce on a pr shot that requires me to be up high. Only problem is the company's Health and Safety Nazis have decided it's too dangerous for me to go onto the roof! They now think - no tittering at the back - that it'll be fine for me to do a group shot of 200 of their staff .. from a window on the third floor! I'm honestly loath to even try it!
A poor shot like that in front of that many people could seriously damage my reputation! ..

#culchethportraitstudio
www.studiofivefour.com

The waters have broken ..

Ah, this is more like it! The rain pounding on the roof, and the thunder rumbling off into the distance! I'll soon be back to shooting Weddings in a deluge, getting shots like these two guests arriving at a reception earlier in the 'summer'!
I just thank God this downpour didn't happen on St Swithin's day!!
Actually, I've loved the hot weather - although I'm not fat, wheezy or old so I can't complain - though, irony of ironies, I've not had a single Wedding to shoot in the heatwave. No chance to wear my shorts to a Wedding! (You should see some of the reactions I get from guests when I turn up to a Wedding in shorts! Disbelief followed by .. envy! It's great!) Anyway, next irony, I'm off to a factory this morning to do another recce for a PR shoot coming up next month. I've got to shoot about 200 people shaped up on a car park to spell out the name of some project that the company is about to work on; the irony being that we need to see where the sun shines so that we can line 'em up properly!
Ha bloody ha, weather Gods! ..

Stop press: The company has just called to say they can't allow me to go on the roof! Health and Safety! I'm not going to jump off the bloody thing!!...



#culchethportraitphotography
www.studiofivefour.com

Stamp your mark ..

I passed a derelict Post Office in Salford yesterday. God knows how long it's been closed but look at this .. a book of stamps for 50p! A book! Nowadays a single first class stamp costs 60p! Anyway, I was on my way to the Deli-Lama cafe on Chapel Street, who have said I can have their walls for a mini Music Photography exhibition when they next become available. Don't all rush out at once, though! We're talking this time next year! God knows how much stamps will cost then!..

I'm going to Bradford today to check out the Tom Wood exhibition at the Media Museum though be warned .. I may return an envy-ridden, spiteful twisted snapper! There's just something about his work that makes me think 'Well, if they're showing his, why don't show mine?' The green-eyed monster has risen!..

Great times for PR photography at the mo! This week I'm shooting everything from a plain old cheque presentation to a Teaching Academy event, from winners of a motorbike competition to a new brochure with Gordon Burns, and next week I've a whole day in a cheese-factory to look forward to! I'm really enjoying stamping my style on the work...

The Darling Buds of March..

I think the nicer weather's got the sap rising in my clients, and the PR work is suddenly popping out all over! This week alone my commissions are as varied as a shoot for a trade union and a portrait session for an insurance company, as well as a shoot for an actual PR company's website! I also have to come up with a front cover for a local magazine before Monday, and then I'm off to Cheltenham for a furniture shoot next week! In between that I need to prepare a talk I'm giving to a Camera Club on Monday, and then I've got the last day of my Florescence Photography exhibition on Saturday. Where will I get the time to write my blog?...

Wot? No?...

Bloody hell! It's gone five on Friday afternoon and I've not had chance to blog. What's the world coming to, eh? No blog on a Friday? Jeepers! How will the world survive?

I dug these negs out of my 'big box of negs' the other day, and if you're not into photography then this is gonna be boring as hell! Sorry! These shots were taken at Bradford's Media Museum, as it's now called, when one of my photographer heroes, Andre Kertesz, had an exhibition to mark his, erm, 90th, I think, birthday. I took some shots of him with a birthday cake that'd been made for him and then .. double whammy .. in comes Guardian photography legend Denis Thorpe, and the two of 'em set up a 'duel' with cameras at fifty paces (Ok, three!) for Denis's newspaper shots for the next day's paper. Click, snap, thank you very much, I said to myself, as I shot the two of them 'at play'.

So, no blog on a Friday? Never mind that! These days there's no Kertesz, and Denis has retired and, guess what, they're talking about closing the print version of the Guardian. Mummy, take me home!....

Do you copy? ..

So Moz has popped up on my radar twice today already, and it's still not half past ten! Firstly, the MEN is running a story about the precious little darling having blunt razor blades and.. oh, read it here, I can't be bothered .. (and no, it's not what you think!) The second reason he's appeared is because someone seems to have ripped off one of my images of him and is selling it as T shirts on ebay! The pesky varmints! How very dare they! I am investigating...

By the way, this image of mine is from a design being launched in Japan at the end of this month. It's a 'proper' T shirt! It is legitimate, legal and not in breach of copyright! (Are you reading this, dear image thieves?)

Fanfare!! Botany Bay is Open! My new unit is up and running and looking mighty fine, with its collections of place-mats and coasters, framed flowers and, yes, Morrissey pictures! Jeez, I'd buy them myself if I didn't already own the complete set! Get down there before everything sells out, but please don't rip them off!

A PR friend of mine has emailed to ask for some images from a shoot I did for him in ... 2001. He can't find the disc anywhere. Do you know why? It was shot on film! Ah, the good old days, when your images were yours and not out there for every Tom, Dick and Harry to steal and use as they liked.
Copy that?..

Oh, ok then ...

The customer is always right! Well, you and I know that's not always true but, in this current economic climate, I guess the person with cash in their hands does have a certain amount of sway when it comes to saying what they want. So....  I've jazzed up a few of my Wedding photographs in Photoshop! This shot here, for example, is from Salmesbury Hall, near Preston. I've listened to what people have been saying, especially about one or two of my recent blogs, and am starting to drip some 'tweaked' shots onto Facebook and my website to try to look more 'contemporary' and current! I won't go bananas here, I'm just going to titivate the odd shot or two from each Wedding, and see how that goes with all the brides out there.

However, at the moment I'm shooting everything but Weddings! It's 'Spice of Life' time again, with a fantastic range of subjects to photograph over the next two days. I have a business portrait first thing tomorrow morning, a commercial shoot on a science park, a PR shoot involving motorbikes in Manchester .. and some cover shots for a new band's CD! Oooh, I hope they get famous! (Remind me to tell you about the first time I photographed Take That! I still cringe ..!)

Jeez, I love my job, I just love it ....

Idle moments...

Phew! Late blog today as I was out early to get into Manchester. I was covering a Management Presentation at the Palace Hotel, and I was just browsing through all the shots I took when I came across this nice juxtaposition. The 'nose' photograph was obviously taken during the presentations, but the shot of the lone girl on the Oxford Road station roundabout came about whilst I was idly staring through the window during the changeover of speakers! Just thought they looked good together .. that's all. No such thing as an idle moment in photography, eh? Not when you're always seeing things! Oh, and by the way, I did do some 'proper' photographs, too!..

Clean slate..

So there you have it! My friend closes his pet shop today after umpteen years in business, and walks away with only his sanity intact. So that's at least another four people out of work as from 5pm today and means I'll have to join the masses and start shopping at Pets at Home! Sorry to begin a Friday so negatively, but you can imagine it's pretty upsetting!

Anyway, speaking of starting over, I really need to speed up my Mac. The poor thing's got steam coming out of it and I'm running out of coal to keep it going. Short of a spare £1500, I decided I'd drop all my Weddings and PR work onto the back-up of my back-up system (If you see what I mean) and then I could securely delete all the files and regain some memory. Cripes! What have I started? The flippin' thing has now been deleting for over 24 hours, and still hasn't got rid of all my files! I'm gonna have so much memory I won't know what to do with it! Oh, I know.. I'll be a Photographer, and fill it full of photographs!

Guys, I don't want to sound too twee here, but after 33 years I really do thank God I'm still managing to make a living out of what I love...

Turn on, tune in, drop out....

What's the best thing on the radio these days? The OFF switch! Hahahahaha.....
Honestly, I've had enough! I can't stand it anymore! I've had it up to here with Adele and Lady Antebellum, and DJs that just have to tell us they "Really like that song.." and Davina Bleedin' McCall buying shampoo that's been tested on "British hair".. (What??!!) ... and Scottish people telling me that the Co-op is "Gerd with Ferd" and, and....Aaaaagh!!!!  So yeah, the off-switch is on as far as the radio is concerned, and I'm back to playing cassettes of old John Peel shows from the 80's... Ah, that's better!

Sorry, folks! This has all come about because I emailed one of my PR shots of Johnny Mathis to great old Manchester DJ Phil Wood the other day (That's him on the right!) Now HE was good! (Phil, not Johnny! Sorry Johnny!) He was funny, informative, entertaining and, more to the point, he worked in an era when the bloody music was worth listening to! Like wise James H Reeve, Phil Sayer et al.....

These days the DJs, the ads, the music.. it all just plops off the end of the corporate drip pipe and washes down the gutter of "modern" entertainment! Well, they've lost a listener here, folks, and erm.. I actually do like Johnny Mathis! Now where did I put my pipe and slippers?

Who?..

I went to see Colin Newman last night! Who? Wire, you know.. the band! Who?..
Sigh! I first bought a single by Wire when I was 17, and finally got to see them play live at Academy 3 in Manchester last night. The three original members of the band were either bald or getting there, the bass player had glasses like bottle bottoms hanging round his neck, and our Colin had to have the lyrics lined up on an ipad.. but what a noise! Absolutely fantastic, and my ears are whistling this morning in testament, but we came downstairs after the gig and the foyer was full of kids pouring out of a gig in the larger room there. Now they'd all been to see Madina Lake.       WHO?...

Had a great Thank You card in the post yesterday. It was from Chris and Fred, whose Wedding I shot last month. They said their guests thought I was the "best wedding photographer they had experienced"..   Nice!

Work, work, work...

Nice to be busy with the "day-job" this month, and the PR work's picked up as the Weddings quieten down until December. Last week I was sloshing around the mud of a building site, shooting apprentices for a Construction company, and this week I've been up to my eyes in Cheddar as I shot the new images for a cheese manufacturer's website! Talk about variety! Later this week I'm shooting images for a new call centre in Manchester, then I'm off to Birmingham as the official photographer for the Carole Nash Motorbike show at the NEC! It's great to be thrown so many photographic challenges but, at the end of the day, all the jobs boil down to being able to deal with people.. a skill that so many amateur Wedding snappers lack! Say Cheese!

Somewhere...

A glorious rainbow soars across the sky, nature's paintbrush at its most beautiful, and arches down towards the golden pot that is .. Risley Prison! It's another Seen photograph - just uploaded to Flickr - and now I await the knock on the door from the authorities for photographing the outside of the jail!

I'm keeping a close eye on the sky today. Tomorrow's PR shoot is on a building site in Oldham, but it's actually all portrait photography and rather dependent on a bit of decent good weather!
Maybe I should wish upon a rainbow?

Gordon Bennett!....

Well, you can't keep a good man down, and no sooner does Gordon Burns retire from the Beeb than he pops up as head of a new PR Consultancy! 
I did the publicity shots of Gordon and his new partners, including my old editor at the Manchester Evening News, on Tuesday morning, and the news of the launch has just been announced today. I'll have my PR head on again tonight, too, as I'm the photographer at the North-West Entrepreneur of the Year awards, staged at the Mere Golf and Country Club, near Knutsford.

Ah, I can hear my old Dad now.. "Put a tie on, Martin!"....

You have to laugh...

"How good to see a British company doing so well.." said the Lord Lieutenant of Greater Manchester, as I covered a visit he made to a local factory yesterday. I type this as the news is of stock market tumbles all over the globe. So, a moment of good cheer amidst the doom and gloom as he made the official presentation of the Queen's Award for exports to this company. Off he went, then, for a tour of the 'works', where he was shown how..  Oh, look! Look, everybody! It's me! It's me .. in the mirror!
Say cheese!

I've turned into my Dad...

Tony Wilson and Derek Hatton - two of life's more 'colourful' characters, I'm sure you'd agree! God knows what function I shot this at, or where, but they certainly looked like they were having a good time at it, didn't they!
And doesn't life seem so bland these days with so few larger-than-life people to entertain us? (Sorry Del Boy, I know you're still around, but you've gone very quiet these days!) We seem to live in a world where everybody wants to be 'like' someone - where sounding like/looking like/acting like somebody is the height of a kid's ambition. (Yes, I have just been subjected to X Factor, now you ask!) I was having my hair cut last week and my barber Andy and I were chatting about the state of music these days. He'd just bought a Cabaret Voltaire compilation, and I was talking about looking forward to going to see Wire in November. His 21 year old assistant had no idea who we were talking about, but he mentioned he'd love to see Michael Buble in concert! The pair of us almost threw up! "We've reversed roles.." laughed Andy "I'm the one that's supposed to be saying that, not him!"
It's a shame that both Andy and I look backwards for our musical enjoyment, but there's hardly any new stuff out there any more that stirs my juices! Oh, God! Adele's on the radio again....

Get the point?..

Had my PR head on this morning for a cool photo-shoot with a big firm of solicitors, but the office was a little lacking in props, to say the least! So, what did I do? I used the shadow from the window-frame to make an interesting picture, that's what! (It was about the one shot when I wasn't actually complaining about the gorgeous bright sunshine!) Oh, and by the way, this is full-frame, too.. not a crop in sight .. and for me that's what keeps photography so interesting and exciting - the never-ending search for the next good shot and, if you'll forgive my arty arrogance, the ability to see it/create it/shoot it properly. So, stick that in your pipe and smoke it, you £300 Weekend Wedding Wallies.....  Get the point?