Pick me ..

Enjoyed a great weekend 'darn sarf', including a trip to Wembley to watch Man U beat Everton to earn a place in the FA Cup Final .. and now I'm gearing up for tonight, when I'm giving a talk to a local camera club ..

My slideshow contains just over 200 images from 'my life as a photographer' and ranges from the days 'before I was a Press Photographer' to current work including Weddings and PR. I know 'slideshow' is a rather outdated name but it seems appropriate as all the images are from 'that era' and, indeed, a good deal of the pictures were shot on transparency film ..

I've blogged this shot before but here's one from the talk - good old Robin Day picking his nose during a visit to Manchester for an edition of Question Time. The funny thing about this shot is that Paddy Ashdown was holding my reflector just out of shot. I couldn't have picked a better assistant ..

Funny old day ..

Yeah, funny old day, today. Bad weather, nothing on the diary .. time to twiddle my thumbs and pick my nose! All change tomorrow, of course, with a full day's PR work and 100 mounted prints to get out for Thursday morning! Ah, just like the old days! Of course, the 'old days' was when I took this shot of Sir Robin Day, and I wish somebody had taken of picture of the entire set-up, 'cos Paddy Ashdown was holding my reflector for me! Couldn't have picked anyone better..

Scary...

I love the way this pumpkin's been carved into the image of the late, great Robin Day and the.. oh, it is the late, great Robin Day, picking his nose during our photoshoot! The funny thing about this session was that my lastolite reflector was actually being held by Paddy Ashdown, who was appearing on the same episode of Question Time when it was being broadcast from Manchester.

Speaking of portraits, I was busy photographing that dinner with John Sergeant as speaker the other evening, when a chap came up to me in the foyer of the hotel. "Take a portrait of me and the wife.." he ordered "Come and see us later, we're on table such and such.." I looked at him blankly. "Do us a canvas.." he continued "We can put it up in the dining room for Christmas!"

Yeah, right! 500 guests in a dark and crowded function room, with waiters whizzing everywhere, 13 award presentations to get through, all the sponsors to photograph, dry ice fogging everywhere up nicely .. and this guy wants a professional portrait shooting there and then! "Here's my card, sir.." I said "I charge £100 for portraits and you can call me any time you like to make an appointment!"