Gone in twenty seconds ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The lady from the band smiled sweetly. "Hi," she said. "Quick question. Have you ever photographed any musicians?" My gulp was audible, the grimace on my face a picture to behold. "Er, hello .. " I gasped. "Joy Division, The Smiths, Siouxsie Sue?" (Etc., etc., etc ... ) "Why do you ask?" I enquired. "Well, we wanted some new shots of the group," she said, (still smiling sweetly) "but, judging from your Instagram posts, we thought you only photographed flowers!!" It was like having my entire career wiped out in one twenty-second conversation .. 

Anyway, here are some more flowers for you. (Oh, and a musician) ..

 

 

The power of the press ..

Well, that all took off rather quickly! I mentioned yesterday that I'd been called by a reporter from the Manchester Evening News. They wanted to do an article about the Joy Division gig I shot .. 35 years ago! They rang at 9.30 .. and the article was online by 3.30 (I think it's going in the 'paper today!) Well, my website went bananas! The home page received over 800 hits and is still ticking over nicely this morning, with the actual Joy Division page heading for the 800 mark as well. Anyway, you can read the article here! Funny, as much as I think everybody must have seen the shots by now it's great to still get emails coming in telling me how much new viewers like them. Thank you ..

Music is definitely in the air today, as I'm off to shoot a rather-renowned bass guitar player this afternoon. I recently had one of those 'Aren't you the guy off the telly?' moments - dribbling lightly from the corner of my mouth - when I saw this cool looking dude at a party I was at. Cut a long story short, turns out he was 'the guy off the telly', so I asked if we could get together for some portraits and .. well, now you're up to speed. No doubt an image will grace this blog on the morrow! ..

Rock on ..





 

Party on, dude ..

I've been a bit lax lately as far as The Blog is concerned. Sorry .. real life keeps getting in the way! Ok, Christmas keeps getting the way - what with festive parties and family portraits and the like - but, as my old Dad used to say, it's good to be busy, our Martin! There's been a bit of a flurry on the music photography scene too, including an email reminder today concerning one of my Morrissey shots from his days with The Smiths. It's gone up on the walls at the O2 arena in London and I'd completely forgotten about sending 'em an invoice!! Looks like a new range of clothing featuring the work is about to be launched in Tokyo, too! I'll keep you informed but, for now, I need to pop back to the studio. Get me some more of that real life, don't ya know...!

PS: Today's shot is from my 'Social Seen' collection. Shots from social functions! I fully expect to be adding a few new images over the coming two or three weeks!

Bored...

I'm sorry, I can't help it .. I'm bored! It's not my fault! I'm just not that into sport, and I am trying to get caught up in the excitement, spectacle and physical perfection of the event, but after an initial flutter I'm afraid it is, for me, turning back into the Olympiczzzz!.. The only glimmer of hope was watching the England footy match last night, when we got back to a proper bit of spitting, effin' and jeffin' and arguing with the ref! Normality restored! I'll leave it at that..

Hmmm... Just been asked if I can supply Wedding images for His 'n Hers' ipads. Hell, why not? Just don't lose 'em, guys!

You know how I was talking about my music photography the other day? About the fact that my pictures have been picked up by three different galleries and companies at the same time? Well now it's happened with my Flower Photography! Both the doctors' surgeries in the village have said they want to promote the work on their walls, and I'm having a meeting with one of the managers this month to discuss how we can sell the work on site!

Anyway, from Olympiczzz.. to Olympus, and today's photograph is another from my 'Don't Miss This' Olympus XA series. Mmmm! Photography! Now there's something I never get bored with....

She falls into frame with a professional pout...

No apologies for a blatant plug of a blog today, but I've just had a range of music T-shirts launched .. and I'm dead excited!! A 'Photographers Project' has picked up on my work and designed a range of shirts featuring everyone from Joy Division to Siouxsie Sue and even Devo, The Meteors and .. Martha and the Muffins! They look great too, and I'm just waiting for a tasty box of samples to land on my doorstep at any moment!

One of my favourite Siouxsie and the Banshees tracks is the 1980 song 'Red Light', appropriately named after the safe lights in darkrooms - God! Red lights! Darkrooms! The opening line of the song is 'She falls into frame with a professional pout', accompanied by the sound of a motordrive zipping film through a camera in time to the music - God! Motor Drives! Film! The song's a veritable history of analogue photography! Hey, it even mentions Polaroids and Kodak, and there's one line that I can use with 'Shoot 'n Tutor' when Siouxsie sings 'The aperture shuts, too much exposure!" I'll use that in my next workshop.
Just don't expect me to sing it...

Put your hands together....

Well, alriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight! Good evening, Manchester! It's great to be here, man!

          OMG! I've got some really exciting news! Pause, deep breath! ..

I've had my music photography accepted by a 'Fine-Art' Gallery in New York! Yeah! Rock on! Like, groovy baby! I sent them 101 shots for consideration, and they've taken the lot!! How good is that? I am so excited! I've got everything in there, from Joy Division and The Smiths to Devo, The Gun Club and Siouxsie and The Banshees (No Freshies, ironically, but they never did quite hit the Big Time! Sorry Chris!...) Anyway, I'll let you know when my pages are up and running on their website! Meantime, check 'em out here..

A gun to our heads..

Being thoroughly inspired, creative and cutting-edge, I was going to blog about the weather today (Zzzzz...) but then a message came through on Facebook and my rainy p*ss poor June stories went out the window! The note was from one of my snapper pals who has a long-standing connection with Manc funster band The Stone Roses. Seems they've reformed and have a gig coming up in the city soon (Bothered??) Thing is, they're issuing a two-page contract to any photographers covering the gig that gives the band the rights to their images "in perpetuity throughout the world so as to enable us to exploit the photographs as we deem fit without further reference or payment to you" Well, up yours, Stone Roses! Go take a flying leap, you jumped-up, arrogant grabbing farts! I hope no-one takes a single shot at your money-based seedy reunion and you go unnoticed throughout the world and have to disband and go on the dole and get scabies. I know, I know, it won't happen! Hard times mean that of course they'll get their shots, 'cos there are enough skint snappers out there that'll do it for the one-off dosh they'll get for covering the gig, but how sad is that? The band is holding a gun to the heads of any young - 'cos they're bound to be young - photogs who want to get their foot in the door of music photography, and it's yet another nail in the coffin of photographers' respectability. Sigh!

Oh, and it's still raining..

Who hell he...

Can you put me out of my misery? Does anyone know who this is?
It's just one of a few shots I have in my music archive that sadly means nothing to me anymore.
Basically, I haven't the foggiest idea who it is! Sorry, Mr Singer!
Answers on a postcard, or an email if you have the technology, Lol!

Manchester, Manchester...

Job done..and two trophies on their way to Manchester, after a great weekend of football for the city!
Here's a shot of my pals in the pub at the final whistle of the Man U game. Happy, eh?

Glad to say the Eurovision Song Contest didn't disappoint, either, with a winner that was suitably appalling!  Here's to Azerbaijan, with a song that put the Zzzz in Muzic! I'll have a much more interesting music story tomorrow which, you'll be pleased to hear,  gets us back onto the subject of photography!

Anyway,  I wouldn't be English if I didn't talk about the weather, would I? So let's have a good old moan about the wind and rain and cold.  I've even had to put the heat back on, for goodness sake.
I mean, have you seen the price of gas?