Life's simple pleasures ..

Bubbles! A squirt of washing-up liquid and a hoop to blow it through and a kid can play for hours! Amazing what little it takes to make you feel good. It was a 14 foot roll of white paper that put the smile on my face yesterday, when I nipped over to Leeds to pick up the new backdrop I won in an auction on ebay. It'll run down the side of the studio and it makes me feel so excited to know that I'll now be able to shoot much larger groups than I could before.

Commercial Break: Come on down to StudioFiveFour for your fun family group photograph!

Oh, and talk about simple pleasures .. I spent this morning watching my Bronze Corydoras spawn! If you don't know what that means, then you don't know what you're missing!..

Merry Christmas!..

Well, in these days of forward marketing it seems only natural, on Bonfire Night, to show you a photograph from a Christmas 'promo' shoot I did yesterday! Had a lovely family into the studio and, after we'd shot a set of 'normal' photographs I asked them if they'd 'ham it up' and pose for my Christmas 'advert'. I didn't expect young Jack to ham it up as much as he did, of course, but it makes for a great photograph and that's what I've gone for on my new Christmas website page.

It reminded me of the time I did a magazine shoot for, I think it was Woman's Own, of one of the first ever lottery winners - so we're talking probably 25 years ago at least! The angle of the story was that they could now have the best Christmas they'd ever had. Trouble was, they won the lottery in September, and I had to dress their house to make it look like Christmas. Lord knows how I winged that one! Their tree was pathetic, the shops - unlike these days - weren't already stocking crackers or decorations or the like, and we had a devil of a job to source a turkey from Liverpudlian shops that were still stocking summer foods. I'll always remember asking the winner what he'd do with 1.5 million pounds. "Well.." he said "We're going to spend the million .. and put the point five in the bank!"

 Merry Christmas!!...

©Martin O'Neill 2013

Times are 'ard ..

Well, lor lummy, me old cock sparrer .. the bleedin' recession's only gorn an affected their Right Royal  'ighnesses, aint it!? Seems they're as 'ard up as you an' me, arfter all !

See, I thought it was only the budget concious couple who'd be so stupid as to trust their bestest memories to a family member! Well, seems not! Will and Kate are now the latest loonies to go down the 'photographer-bypass' route. "I say, Kate.." says Wills "How's about we book one of them there right royal snappers to get some new piccies of the baby?.." "Oh, Wills, you daftie.." she simpers "We don't need to book a professional .. My dad's got a good camera!.."

The results are here for all to see ...

What a load of rubbish!

Hmmmppphhh....

PS: Thanks to a pal of mine who's reminded me that some of the most sycophantic drooling over these pictures was done by my namesake Terry O'Neill! Oh, Terry, you wazzock!...


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