And this was us on the beach..

When I worked for The Press there used to be times when you'd be sent to the home of a doddery old dear for some story or other - usually related to gas bills or being left asleep on a bus at the depot - and she'd pull out a big pile of curled, tatty snaps and insist you looked at 400 photographs of her old dead cat! Well, I had a moment like that this week although, for fear of losing all of my mates, I obviously can't say where! Let's just say that we were all having a jolly good time when one of the group pulled out a scrawny old compact camera and commenced to scrolling through six million snaps of the holiday he'd just returned from! "And this was us on the beach, and that's us in the shopping mall..." and all that jazz! Trouble was, of course, that only displaying his piccies on a dusty, scratched 2 inch screen meant he had to go through that whole palaver for each and every one of us. It made dead cats seem suddenly really interesting!..

Today's lesson...

Good Friday, 1979. I was at home, doing my ironing when, suddenly, there was a knock on the door, and another lad that worked for The Messenger appeared at the door, flustered and annoyed. "What are you doing?" he barked. "My ironing!" I replied, accurate and concise as ever! (I should remind you that this was back in the dark and dingy days of the seventies, and I did not possess a phone) "But you're supposed to be at work.." he gasped. "Work?.." I wheezed "But it's a Bank Holiday!"...

And thus it came to pass that, at aged 19, Martin learnt that as a Press Photographer he would never, ever have a day off again!

Amen!

Happy Families....

I went to Ikea yesterday, completely forgetting it was half-term! Eeek, there were kids everywhere although thankfully Ikea, thinking of everything, had most of 'em corralled up in a play area by the front of the store! Anway, that's my way of introducing another shot from my archive! I must have shot this around 1980, and I seem to remember it was in a park in Irlam, near Manchester. It hits home on quite a few levels, the first one obviously being the fact that I could randomly photograph a Dad and his kids, without asking, in a public park. I'd be swinging from the nearest tree if I did that these days! And I love the fact that it portrays such simple pleasures. It's not a play-area, used to keep kids quiet whilst parents shop; it's not a commercial 'theme' park, designed to sell associated espensive products, it's just a normal park, with a normal family .. having fun! 

The reason I like it most, though, is because you can see it's been shot right at the begining of a roll of film. I'd seen the shot, but obviously needed to reload my camera, so I'd got the film just about on the spool when I took the picture! Ah! Simple pleasures!