All show ..

Easy when you know how and, thanks to a photography workshop I've just held, a few more keen amateur snappers have got to grips with how to use the aperture on their cameras. This demonstration of depth-of-field  - achieved by the mere twiddle of a thumb - was just one of the exercises we worked through on my first ever 'Walk in the park' tuition event on Saturday afternoon. I'm delighted to say it went really well and I really enjoyed showing people the basics of camera operation. Messages that have come in such as "I think I've cracked it" have really spurred me on to do another event very soon, too. Thanks to all the 'students' who braved the chilly Spring breeze to come along ..

I've been meaning to tell you about a new exhibition I'm going to have in Eccles but, believe it or not, I've now had another show offered to me that'll take place before the first one even goes up! Strewth, dudes, it's non-stop! I have a meeting about it tomorrow and I'll tell you about everything then. In the meantime, just a quick reminder that this is - sob, sob - the final week of my show at The People's History Museum in Manchester. Get on down there ..

Bums on seats...

I'll be glad of a sit-down when I finally get to take a break this afternoon. What a week! I've shot motorcycle training, crisis management workshops, the interior of a building for a brochure and a family portrait with 21 people on it! Just a Shoot'nTutor to run this morning, and a bride and groom to meet to discuss their Wedding album, and then I can grab that beer and watch the footy with a satisfied smile on my face. Love this 'aerial' shot of the terraces at Coventry City's ground, which I shot during a coffee break at the Crisis Management job...

0800 Snap Me ..

I can still remember the day someone came up behind me at a Wedding and took a photograph .. on their phone! My God, I was still getting over the shock of being able to shoot without film, never mind without a camera! And now here I am, merrily aiming my Samsung at anyone and anything, and whizzing shots up to Facebook and Twitter as if I've always done it! Today's image, for example, was taken on my mobile at the Blackburne House Wedding Fayre last Saturday. Now I know that means we're now in the age of the 'Citizen Journalist', and the power of a mobile phone shot or video is becoming ever more obvious - the best camera, after all, is the one you have with you - but for me the old adage still stands. Simply owning a camera doesn't make you a photographer! As I get more and more into my Shoot 'n Tutor sessions it amazes me that I can stand right next to somebody and we'll shoot the same subject with completely differing results. Why, I think to myself, can't these people frame that shot the way I just did? Because they do not have The Photographer's Eye, that's why, so my teaching sessions
will always be about photography's mechanics, not its aesthetics. Now, where did I put my phone? ..

Nice things ..

I've had my PR head on all for work all week, but things are hotting up nicely in the Wedding World. I had this image ordered as a reprint this week, and it fair warmed the cockles of my heart, so it did! It's really nice when a 'different' photograph is chosen from a Wedding, as I so love to shoot the 'surroundings' of a Wedding Day .. the stuff the bride and groom don't see! The request came hot on the heels of an e-mail from a Poynton-based florist, who dressed a Christmas Wedding I shot last year. She's asked if she can use my images in a gallery on her website, so I'll add the link to my blog once the shots are up and running. I've just got my hands on a lovely new sample Wedding album, too, and I can't wait to show it off to 'my brides'! In other news, as they say, also kicking off this week is a series of magazine adverts for my newly-designed one-to-one photography lessons - just £50 for a two-hour 'Hands-On-Camera, Get-To-Grips-With-That-Exposure-Dial, Learn-Just-What-Those-Numbers-Mean' sessions! Just gotta work on the name now! I know .. Shoot 'n Tutor!  That's a bit more snappy!..

Window of opportunity...

Come on! Don't be afraid to show your age! It reminds you of Play School, doesn't it? Today, Kate's shoes will be coming through.. the round window!

This shot's a great lesson in spot-metering because, by taking a reading from the shoes, I've massively over-exposed the glamorous back-drop of .. Bradford Bus Station! Teaching people how to think about things like that is part of my new Shoot 'n Tutor photo-session. Try it for £50!!

So, throwing in the towel.... I now know of three photographers/studios who have sadly had to call it a day. As my pal, another snapper, said to me the other day .. "They didn't throw in the towel, they had the towel thrown at them!" .. Jeezo, times are hard!

Tonight, Matthew...

 ...I'm going to be a teacher!

Seeing as I'm talking about being older than Brides' mothers, and having been a professional photographer for almost 34 years, I'm going to start passing on that experience in the form of affordable 2 hour hands-on teaching sessions. They'll take the form of a guided tour of all those knobs and twiddly bits on a camera, followed by a walkabout shoot, then a critique session to see if anything's sunk in! All that for seventy little squids! Not bad, eh? I'm actually getting quite excited about the idea! I was talking to a chap during badminton last night (Emphasis on the 'bad'!) and yet again the subject of 'learning the photographic ropes' came up, so I thought... why not?

So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you... Shoot 'n Tutor!