Spring has sprung ..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 My calendar tells me today is the first day of Spring, even though I've always thought of that as being March 21st. But hey ho, an extra day of the new season is always a good thing, eh?

Today's shot was taken on 6x6cm colour transparency film, from a series of landscape photographs I was working on in the 1980s. Hard to imagine now, isn't it? A mere twelve shots on a roll of film, a trip to the processing lab and a wait for the results to see if you'd 'got it right'. I was a really slow convert to digital photography, but now I can't imagine shooting any other way. Like the arrival of Spring, it really did bring in a whole new way of life .. 

Life goes on .. it has too!

The start of our fourth week of lock-down .. or is it the third? No, the fourth, definitely .. I think!

Trouble is, we can't tell the difference between lock-down and normal life, tucked away in our remote little bit of France. (Not for nothing did a neighbour describe our village as 'the arse-end of nowhere') ..

No, we really are lucky to be a long way from all the problems of the world and, aside from missing our meet-ups at the bar and our bike rides with friends, life goes on as normal here. (I'm not telling you this as a way to gloat or to show off, it's just a fact) ..

Now, I say normal but, of course, we're impacted as much as many. The gîte has had to close, so that's obviously affected us, and mask-wearing and limited shopping trips are also now the norm. It's a shame, but a couple of visits from UK-based family and friends have had to be postponed, and the lovely French habit of greeting friends with a kiss on each cheek has also had to be put on the back-burner, too. Mwah, mwah ..

Life goes on, though. It has too! There's no stopping Spring, in all its magnificent beauty, so I've decided to start shooting a series of 'Lock-down Landscapes', featuring pictures I can take either from, or within, our garden. So, here's number one, and I hope you enjoy it. If you have any questions about any of the shots, or photography in general, either technical or artistic, then drop me a line. In these days of teaching from home, sending you an answer is the least I can do .. 

 

  

Think warm thoughts ..

The first shy flakes of snow are falling as I write this - our first snow in France! All a far cry from yesterday, when I took this photograph during our afternoon walk. Still, it won't be long until the Spring is here (we tell ourselves!) and it's fantastic to be enjoying the start of our first 'full' year here, and to be in at the start of the changing seasons. The room I'm sitting in now was one of the first we converted, and it's hard at the moment to recall the 100˚ heat of last May as I chopped up plasterboard and scraped ancient mortar from between the stones in the wall. Still, it's lovely to know that that kind of weather is on its way again. Warming thoughts indeed .. 

Spring forward ..

Yippeeeeeeeee ... we've made it! January's done and we're heading into Spring at last. Ok, I know it's still cr*p out there at the mo but things are on the up, most definitely. The dreariest month of the year is over and it's already light by eight o'clock. Reasons to be cheerful, or what?..

I changed cars last week and had to swap all my accumulated garbage from the old car to the new. Reader, I had 53 CDs scattered around it. They were everywhere. In the glove box, in door pockets, under the front seats, stuck into my sun-visors, spread attractively around the boot - everywhere, in fact, but in the CD player. In amongst the discs was a small collection of cassettes. Yes, C90s! So, as other drivers are getting blue-tooth and built-in Sat Nav and combination tv/microwave/toasters in their cars, I've finally got rid of a car that still had a cassette player in it. Another reason to be cheerful? You betcha! Yippeeeee ...

Not quite Spring ..

I nipped out to put the rubbish in the recycling bin this morning - I have to do it in the dark because of the embarrassing number of empty gin bottles - and I tripped over a hedgehog! Hello, I thought, what you doing out so early? It ain't Spring yet, Mr Hog!..

I got the same vibe when I did a recce yesterday for this Saturday's Wedding. The Lymm Hotel is a venue I've shot at relatively often over the years, and it has a part of the Trans-Pennine Way just across the road - an ideal place for shots of the Bride and Groom together. At this time of year, however, the path is just a grey, grim muddy river and I only needed one look at it to know I won't be shooting Wedding photographs there any time soon! Hello, I thought, what am I doing here so early in the year? It ain't Spring yet, Mr Snapper ..

Hey, mister ..

I was full of the joys of Spring as I left the studio last night, and stopped by the car park to shoot some beautiful pink blossom that was looking stunning by the side. Just one frame in, a foul, disgusting oik - the type of teenager that gets the rest of 'em a bad name - walked straight into my shot and shouted "Oi! F*ck off! Don't take f*cking pictures of me!" and then pulled his hood up and carried on walking. Talk about spoiling a mood! Man, what is happening with society? How do farts like him get away with all this terrible behaviour? Because they know they'll get away with it, that's why! This guy's dad isn't at home to belt him one when he gets reported! Oh, come back 1975! I want to be troubled by my old problem! Like this shot 'down our street' .. my difficulty was trying to keep kids off the shot! "Hey, mister! Take a picture of me..." I haven't heard that on the streets for a long time!

Fab Feb ..

You can smell it, can't you? Spring is just around the corner. January is over and it feels fab to be in Feb! Daffs, snowdrops and the songs of Great tits and Song-thrushes! As I write this it's just gone eight minutes past eight, and the morning sun is already shining through my window. I love it..

It feels like the sap is rising in the photographic world, too. This is now month eight of my studio, and things are really starting to move. Already this year I have several portrait sessions under my belt, and the enquiries are really starting to flow. The PR has picked up too, and I have some exciting news to (nearly) announce on that front! I'm going to be signing a contract soon to start shooting PR photography for a major national supermarket! Alright!! The seeds of success have been planted, it's the start of a budding new career, it's, er... Oh, I've run out of Spring-related clichés! Here's to a great month, everybody...

It may be winter outside..

Despite everything, there are signs of Spring out there, folks! We have frogspawn in the pond .. and bird-plop all over my windscreen! Better weather's on its way, folks. Just be patient!..

Now, I have to admit I've been somewhat knocked off my theme this morning. I'd just sat down to write today's blog when an email popped through from Thailand. It was a fantastic 'Thank you' from last weekend's bride and groom, who've taken the time - on their honeymoon - to send me some kind words about their Wedding Photography. I'll share a sentence or two with you .. if you insist! Firstly, they wrote "We've just sat down and looked at our on-line gallery and all we can say is WOW! The moments you captured were amazing, it's such a nice feeling looking back through the pictures and thinking, we didn't see that!! They will be our memories to treasure of the best day of our lives, and thats all thanks to you" and then they wrote "We cannot thank you enough for your hard work on that freezing cold day, you definitely helped make the most of a snowy situation!!"

How does that song go? Ah, yes! "It may be winter outside, but in my heart it's Spring..."

A new leaf ..

Just a quickie before I head off to North Wales to cover another Schools' Science Challenge, so I thought of 'budding' scientists and 'green shoots of recovery' and all that, and decided to show you a picture I took yesterday. No, not really .. I'd just seen my clematis coming back to life, with the flower heads of last year still sticking their little pom-pom heads into the wind, and decided to dig out my old 50mm 1.2 lens for a play. I found it whilst I was searching for one of my old cameras, the Nikon FM2, 'cos there's something in me that's turning back to film! I was chatting to a young lad in the photo department of my local Asda store, and he was telling me they've realised their processing machine can develop 120 film. I immediately rushed home, grabbed my old Yashicamat, ordered 5 rolls of Provia off the 'net, and hit the streets to start shooting in that new 'old' way I've not done for ages. Now I'm dusting down that Nikon and a fixed 24mm lens, and cannot wait to start working on new projects. Maybe the sap is rising, after all!

Stop press! About an hour after I wrote this morning's blog, I went over to Asda with a roll of 120 for them to develop. Er, guess what .. they don't dev medium format film! Seems the chap I was talking to had taken it upon himself to put some 120 through the machine, and just thought he'd offer me the service! Damn! That would have been soooo convenient!

The signs are there...

Frogs in the pond, new leaves on the hawthorn, the sun in the sky and snowdrops in the fields! IT'S SPRING!! Well, ok, early signs of it ..  but what with a new Mac, cracking new software and a raft of new Wedding bookings it finally feels like the year is starting at last! Hey, you want more? Abba's "I do, I do, I do" has just come on the iplayer! It's a sign!!

So, I'm just gearing up for a busy two-day Wedding Fayre at Debenham's store in Liverpool this weekend, and let's hope the change in the weather will bring out all those lovely brides! I've signed up a fab florist for my own show, too - the One-Off Wedding Fayre - which I'm staging on March 25th.There's more prosaic work to be done before that, though .. as I'm shooting anti-theft invisible paint for a motor-cycle insurance company this afernoon. Hang on! Invisible? Oh, I'm sure I'll find a way to shoot it! Apparently you shine UV light on your hidden markings and all is revealed. Now that's a sign! ..