Nice falsies...

Well, we've certainly had the flip side of the hot weather haven't we!
Golf ball sized hail, for goodness sake?
Actually, it was lashing down when I drove away from this shoot yesterday (See what I did, there?) when I photographed this young student manicurist as part of a College Open Day.
Couldn't resist her falsies, as we say in the trade!
Lots of PR and Commercial work this week, including a 750-cover dinner/awards evening for the building trade, the start of a sponsored run at an insurance conference, and the installation of a flood control system for, er, the people that make them!
It is vital that a professional photographer gets plenty of variety in his diet!

Do you take this woman...?

One week to go until a certain famous Wedding, and the excitement mounts.
Great programme about Weddings on TV last night, though, with the rather worrying statistic that we are now at the lowest level of Weddings since 1895!!
They used the great phrase 'Competitive Wedding Syndrome', too..the one-upmanship involved in having a 'better' Wedding than your friends.
Hey, chuck some Gerbera in a gold-painted jam-jar, profess your love, and the job's done!
Enjoy the break, everybody!

Gizza job...

I'm not giving away any trade secrets here when I say that times are hard in the wonderful world of PR Photography. The amount I do has certainly gone down a lot since 'the good old days!'
Digital photography, of course, has an awful lot to do with that, and I've had two great examples of that already this week.
A friend of mine runs his own PR company, but cannot convince his clients to spend money on photography these days. Why should they, when they own a digital camera? - is their view! They can simply 'snap' away until a useable image appears, and use that for their press purposes. The example he forwarded to me yesterday, though, brought tears to me eyes. It was awful! I won't go into detail, but let's just say that everything I wouldn't do as a Pro has been done on this shot, and now my friend has got to try to convince the local press to use it! If they don't, of course, that will reflect badly on his own PR skills. God, I wish I could show it to you!
The second example came from chatting with a keen amateur photographer friend of mine. He's somehow ended up shooting for a national organisation's website, and he's rightly chuffed to bits about that! He got two hours' work and the prospect of one of his images being seen across the country. Only problem is, he only charged them £40! Imagine a national company ripping off a guy for just £40.
It's no wonder the image of professional photography is nose-diving!

Anyway, it's spurred me to send out another mail-shot today, featuring a shot I had published as a magazine's double-page spread. Got paid more than forty quid, too! Rant over!