The Fallen ..

Very sad to hear of the death of Mark E. Smith, lead singer/dictator of Manchester band The Fall. I can still remember the excitement I felt as an 18 year old, hearing the unbelievably different 'Bingo - Master's - Break- Out!' on John Peel in 1978, a single I still own and play to this day. I even have on my wall a poster for a Fall gig at Manchester Students' Union. I took it down when I moved to France and put it straight back up as soon as I got here. He's definitely one of my musical Marmites - some of his stuff is totally unlistenable to - but yes, it's safe to say Mr Smith has had quite a defining part in my musical tastes. God bless ya, Mark E ... 

What a square ..

I've set my Fuji X10 to 'Square' again in an effort to emulate the 120 film in my old Yashica 124 camera. I love the challenge I get from fitting the world into a square, with no advantage being gained from shooting either portrait or landscape. The thing is, I find it very easy to have my subjects 'look right' when they're put into that format so I know it's going to be a great new project. However, the privacy laws in France mean it's not legal to take photographs of people in the street without permission, so I have a feeling that this series will generally be landscapes. No problem. There's nothing square about that ..

(Click the shots to see them larger) 

Flyin' ..

It's four months to the day since we moved to France. Time flies! Yet, funnily enough, it seems a long time since I shot my last Wedding .. on the August Bank Holiday. I was reminded of it this morning when I received a lovely e-mail from Emma, the bride. "Thank you so much .." she said "for making our day so special. You made everyone laugh and feel so at ease, you’re an amazing photographer, your work speaks for itself, we have a beautiful album and set of photos we will treasure forever. You're a star xxxx". Thanks so much, guys..

As you can tell, this Wedding was turned around really quickly. The couple were keen to chose their images and I've already designed and delivered their Wedding album. Job done! Contrast that with another couple who have just got in touch to ask about choosing the shots from their Wedding .. two years ago!!
Yep, time flies alright ..

Poo ..

I love France and the French and everything about them. They have such a pride in their appearance, their food and their 'Frenchness' .. so why on earth don't they pick up their dog poo? It spoils the streets of every big town I've visited so far. It's so odd. I mean, they love their dogs and will happily allow them into bars and restaurants, but they just can't be bothered to clean up after them. After living here for almost four months now, it's just about the only sh*t thing I've come across ..

Turning over a new leaf ..

New Year trips to the nearby towns of Angoulême and La Rochelle gave me an opportunity to take out the camera - as if it's ever away! - and get some fresh photography under my belt. But instead of shooting 'tourist' shots and happy snaps, I found myself drawn to numerous trees around the towns. I'm not sure why. Perhaps the fact that most of them had no leaves on them made them more sculptural. Maybe it was a photographic acknowledgement that I, like them, have put roots down in France. Or perhaps it was just the plain and simple fact that a photographer never stops 'seeing' photographs and the satisfaction of the composition is enough. Time to turn over a new leaf and stop over-analyzing photography, folks ..

2017 ..

France! There, that's my review of 2017 done and dusted! We started the year here, painting the gîte last New Year's Day, and everything else we've done in the last 365 days has been to do with the country. We've planned our move, survived the whole process of moving, and enjoyed the last three and a half months of actually living here. So yes, as it's the done thing to review one's past year, I really can sum it all up in that one word. So here's to France and our new life of chickens, eggs and brilliant off-road mountain-biking ..

Oh, and a Happy New Year to you and yours, too ..

The best for Christmas ..

So here it is, Merry Christmas ..

I was delighted to know that some of my new French friends have actually heard of Slade, although the group's famous festive cornerstone never quite made it over here. There's a lot about Christmas that's different for Lesley and I this year - our first in France - but we're really loving it and enjoying the fact that we're a million miles from the rush, hustle and commercialism of our 'normal' Christmases past. In fact, the French are back to normal by Boxing Day and we ourselves have guests in the gîte on the 26th. On that note I'm putting up a shot from my archive - glum looking shoppers outside the window of Boots on Market Street in Manchester, circa 1981 - and just want to say Thank you for reading my blog over the past year, and have a great Christmas .. with or without Slade! ..

(Ps: Just how do you spell Christmases?)

A bit of a buzz ..

The excitement in the gîte continued yesterday, with the installation of a gorgeous new wood-burner .. just in time for our Christmas guests. Talk about cutting it fine! And now, after the thrill over our selection for the Brittany Ferries brochure, it's time to come back down to earth .. and quite literally too as I saw my first 'dropped glove' of the season. It was a good one as well, featuring as it did this symbol for a recharging point for electric cars. All very modern, don't ya know? Anyway, despite my best efforts to resist, I just had to take a photograph and add it to my 'On the one hand' collection of 462 other shots of dropped gloves! So I'm now at 463! Man, I need help! Trouble is, just like this charge point, it gives me such a buzz ..

(Copyright : Christmas cracker joke 2007!)

Pushing the boat out ..

I have a bit of spiffing news! Our gîte has been chosen to be included in the Brittany Ferries brochure, for people looking to book an all-in ferry journey and holiday in France. An inspector came to check out our property yesterday and gave us the nod there and then. She was going to take some photographs but realised I was a photographer and went away with a memory stick of my images instead. We'll start to appear on their website by the middle of next month and will be included in the  next brochure which comes out in the middle of next year. We are so delighted. We'd already planned to open a bottle of champers last night to mark our third month of life in France, so you can imagine how much we celebrated this extra bit of fantastic news. (Clue: sore head this morning!)
What a lovely end to an amazing year ..

Moving on ..

It's exactly three months to the day since Lesley and I formed a little convoy and drove down to start living in France 'for good' .. and man, how time has flown. We've done so much in that short space of time, too. All our stuff is unpacked and has a place in our new house, and we've already made so many new friends here that we're having a meal for some of them this evening to thank them for their welcome ..

One lovely thing about our new house is that it has a clear view of the western sky, enabling us to see every sunset throughout the year (Unless it's cloudy, of course!!) As we near the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, it's great to see the sun setting at its farthest position to the left. Another couple of days and it'll start moving back to the right. An Emirates A380 jet flew over at sunset yesterday, headed from Milan to New York and, thinking about our 750 mile journey, I couldn't help but wonder if people on the plane were heading off to start new lives of their own.

Lord, I don't half get sentimental at Christmas! ..

For good ..

There are a few things that have made me realise I've definitely left England. Taking my UK house keys off my key-ring was the first one. Having to kiss every woman I meet on the cheeks (twice!) is another. Driving on the right, of course. Unpacking my radio and having spoken French come out of it (That was funky!) Getting forms in triplicate (The French are very bureaucratic) and having to search for fresh milk (The French don't do it .. they love UHT!) .. but two things smacked the point home good and proper. I got an email from the members section of Badminton England, telling me I'd been removed from their records .. and then a pal in the UK asked me when I'd be back over for a drink. I'm sorry? Back over? "But Mike .." I said "I live in France. I'm not coming 'back over'.."

It felt bloody fantastic ..

(And no, I don't mean because of you, Mike ..)  

Earning my stripes ..

My first by-line in France! You can just about make it out in the bottom right-hand corner of the page. It's the back cover shot of our local village monthly magazine and if you ever needed proof that we now live in the depths of the French countryside then here it is. We all got excited about the installation of a new zebra crossing! How amusing ..

The photograph's also one of the first shots on my new - old - Fuji X10 camera. I wore out the first one I bought just under 6 years ago so, as the camera's now discontinued, I've had to source a nice second-hand model to replace it. The funny that was that, despite the fact that I thought I knew the camera so well, I glanced through the instruction book that came with it and discovered that it's able to take panoramic 360˚ shots. Guess what I'll be shooting a lot of soon ..

More Christmas shots coming up this weekend, too. I've been asked to photograph the village's childrens' Christmas party on Sunday. Memo to self. Do not shoot them on the panoramic setting ..

Johnny who? ..

The biggest rock star you've never heard of! That's how The Independent newspaper described Johnny Hallyday, who died on Wednesday and set off a wave of wall-to-wall TV coverage and national mourning. Yes, poor old Johnny. You know? Johnny Hallyday? The Rock God? Good old Johnny? You know?..

The thing is, we English don't know. Most of us have never heard of him, but Johnny Hallyday has been, well "An Icon", as it says here, in France since about 1922! He is (was!) the Bees Knees when it comes to music in France. Adored, loved, held on high. And now he's dead. It's like saying Cliff Richard, Vera Lynn and Posh Spice had all popped their clogs on the same day. Ok, maybe not Posh Spice, but you get the idea. And it brings into sharp focus the musical differences between England and France. We don't know any of their music, and they know none of ours. Only last weekend, during a loud and drinky Karaoke night, I was trying to explain just how big Gladys Knight and The Pips were. The French in the room had never heard of them. Neil Diamond? Nope! Cliff? Not a chance. The music scene is so insular here that none of our "icons" have made a dent in their charts. Likewise (apart from Vanessa Paradis!!) none of their big names mean a thing in the UK. And they say music is the international language. That'll be the day ..   

Here's to the next one ..

I know she gets wheeled out every year, but I just love this photograph of a nun in a party hat tucking into Christmas lunch! The shot is now well over 30 years old, taken when I was covering a Christmas lunch for OAPs in, of all places, a casino in Salford. It's one of the pictures in my B/w Archive, something I plan to build on now I have more time here in France. There are still loads of negatives yet to be scanned, and I can't wait to get cracking on them in the new year. I also have a new exhibition in mind, which I'll start to shoot by the Spring, and I've arranged with a couple of companies over here to shoot some property photography for them once the weather improves ..

This is one of my favourite festive traditions. Christmas is a time to reflect on the year just gone, but it doesn't half get me looking forward to the next one ..

If you can't beat 'em ..

It was bitterly cold here yesterday .. but gorgeous .. so with the thermometer at -5˚ we ventured out for a stroll and a morning of 'capturing clichés' in the frost. Hey, if you can't beat 'em ..

It all looked very festive though and, dare I say it, it is nice to see that Christmas is making itself known here now, with the switching on of lights and the opening of markets happening all around us. Lesley is off to sing with a choir at a Christmas Carol concert this afternoon, whilst I take a stand at a Christmas market with items from my Florescence range and gift vouchers for Camera Tuition and Family Portraits. Yes, I know I'm being commercial about it all but hey, if you can't beat 'em ..

Long ago and far away ..

This time last year I was at the North Pole, working on an ice-berg with Santa and a Polar Bear. Actually, this time last year I was shooting the launch of the Christmas Grotto at Manchester's Trafford Centre, and it's fair to say it was a bit more hi-tech and virtual reality than ever one of my childhood visits to Santa ever was (And I'll hold my hands up - this shot does look a bit rude!) ..

The funny thing is that, just as my childhood was a long time ago, my work as a PR photographer already seems as if it's from another lifetime. My last PR shoot in the UK was in August - getting on for four months ago - but I've settled so easily into my new life in France that's it's already becoming a dim and distant memory..
So long ago, so far away .. 

On a different plane ..

I had a quick flit back to the UK this weekend - always an opportunity to bring out the plane-spotter in me - but, my word, what a shock it was to be back in the 'old country' so soon after moving away. All those people! All those cars! All that noise! All that rain! All those delayed trains! All those disgustingly ignorant teenagers!..

I'm now happily ensconced again in rural France. Please don't make me go back to the UK any time soon. Even if it does mean I don't get to photograph aeroplanes!..

On the horizon ..

They do Christmas differently here. None of the UK's smaltzy tv ads or pubs displaying Christmas trees in August; no shops covered in decorations or playing carols 24/7. In fact, our little bit of rural France has only just about started to let the festive season make itself known. The supermarket allowed itself an aisle full of chocolates at the beginning of November, which has now grown to include a cardboard mock-up of a steam-train to mark the entrance to an expanded toy section, and our neighbour has put up some Christmas lights for his four year old. I went to my first Christmas Fayre of the season last Saturday and have another one lined up - when I'll be having a stall -  next week. It is so refreshing to see, and makes you realise just what a commercial enterprise the whole Chrimbo thing is in the UK. Of course, all of that could go out the window come December.
I'll keep you posted ..   

I'm booked in ..

It's as if it was meant to be ..

I was invited to a breakfast networking meeting the other day, down at a chateau near our gîte. As I turned into the drive my car began to make the most horrendous screeching noise, and a cloud of grey smoke rose from under the bonnet. I crawled into the car-park and pulled up, with a rather red face, next to a guy and lady who had driven in before me. Folks, they were car mechanics! A couple who moved to France a year ago and were, like me, at the meeting for the first time. Even better, their workshop is less than 2 miles from our house. I'm booked in for Monday ..

Into the meeting and we all start to press the flesh. "A photographer? .." asked one nice chap who turned out to be an estate agent "You don't do property photography do you? .." I'm booked in for the first week of December ..

Coffee and bacon butties were served. The lady handing out the goodies just happened to be the owner of the chateau. "We're having our Christmas Fayre this Saturday .." she said "You couldn't take some pictures, could you? .." I'm booked in for 11 am ..

It's as if it was meant to be ..

Ps: This isn't the garage I'll be going to, but a lovely quirky old building in the next village down from ours that seems to have been turned into some kind of impromptu museum. Très cute ..

    

Man of the land ..

There's an old photographic adage - and if there isn't there should be - that says you should always photograph what you're given so, yesterday, in the absence of a Wedding or a PR shoot, I shot what was in front of me, namely the stunning French countryside. The funny thing is that landscape photography has never really 'done it' for me before. I've looked at shots of hills and lakes and mountains and, I'm afraid, shrugged and said 'So what?' .. but yesterday something started to click. I was only out for an hour on my bike but photographs started to jump out at me all over the place. The setting sun, a returning flock of lapwings, autumn leaves dropping from the trees as new crops nudged their heads out from the delicious chocolate coloured soil .. it was incredible. And it was the exact opposite to the way I've always worked, with newspaper deadlines and hungry brides dictating the speed at which I've needed to work. More than that, I actually enjoyed myself and I'm really happy with the results. Expect more of the same, folks. I'm hooked ..

(Click on the shots to them 'em larger!)