Before..

I've been re-jigging the PR page on my website over the weekend. It's now miles better than before, but it's not half been bringing back some memories! Like the time I was doing a shoot with the Man U captain Bryan Robson. The plan was to liaise with him at Old Trafford after training, then follow him back to his home in Hale to take the photographs. Trouble was, he was in a Merc and I was in Metro! I must have crashed red lights, junctions and any number of pedestrian crossings to keep up with him. There was no way I could lose him. This was, of course, in the days before mobile phones!

Or the time I was doing a photo-shoot with Dame Edna Everage, when I had this great idea to get him/her/it with an A-Z of Manchester to show that he/she/it was in the city. This was, of course, in the days before SatNav! Thing was, I thought that a great twist would be to have him/her .. oh .. The Dame holding the book upside down, to make a point about Her being Australian. Trouble is, she just wouldn't do it. Nowadays, with digital, it would have been three seconds work to change that but this was, of course, in the days before photoshop!

Or the time I was photographing a snake-keeper at a zoo in the Midlands. I went behind the cages, set up my lights, got ready with a Mamiya 645 loaded with trannie film and put on a .. wide-angle lens!
The guy pulled the snake from its cage, turned it towards me and .. it went for me! Bit me right on the head, it did, but not before I'd fired the shutter and got the shot of it up there! This was, of course, in the days before I had any sense!!

On yer bike...

Check out the Apps on that! Yes, it was time for my annual booking at Birmingham's NEC yesterday, for the opening day of the Carole Nash Motorcycle show. This is where I have to spend the whole day in the company of a bunch of lycra-clad lovelies, shooting them for PR purposes on a variety of the latest motor bikes! (Well, someone's got to do it!) Oh, this shot was to show off a new app that the company has just launched, since you ask!

Joking aside, it's a full-on, hard working day, where I had to be at the show early to shoot the stand without punters swarming all over it, and then cover a whole list of photographic requirements that had to be uploaded to the company's website before I left. All in all a very tiring day and a very busy week, but all so satisfying from a photographic point of view. I've shot cheese, call-centres and a motor-bike show this week. Can I have the day off now, please?