The Digital Decade ..

It seems it's fashionable to look back over the years as we reach the end of another decade, so here goes. (Don't worry, it won't take long ..)

I think I can sum up the past ten years in one word. Digital. And if you need a few more words to go with that then how's about 'Digital Photography ruined my career!' ..

Ten years ago I was riding high as a successful Wedding Photographer. I once topped over fifty bookings in a single year. I started shooting them in the year 2000 after Press and PR work started to die back and, bear in mind, back then (Cue: Old man's voice!) everything was shot on film. I would hoik a bloody big Mamiya RZ67 camera up a ladder to shoot my group shots and get a whole 12 frames before I had to change film. Then, along came digital and all of a sudden (Cue: Cliché) everyone was a bloody photographer ..

Now, put away that violin. I'm not writing this to elicit sympathy. I'm just stating the facts and the fact is that, during the past decade, my career - and the careers of many, many others - was shot out of the sky because of digital technology. Actually, if I was to add another word for my decade it would be 'France', and if you'd like some more words to go with that, then I'll throw in 'I'm such a lucky bastard. Thank God we moved here when we did.' I've even got a Wedding to photograph next month ..

Happy New Year. Happy New Decade. I wonder what I'll be writing in another ten years ..

   

Disastrous .. or not!

Twenty years ago we were hurtling towards the biggest man-made disaster .. ever!! As the end of the century approached we were all aghast at the complete and imminent ruination of mankind in the form of .. The Millenium Bug!

It was going to wipe our computers clean, destroy all possibility of life's continuation as we knew it and make all our aircraft fall from the skies. (Cue excuse to use my amusing news photo from the early 80s ..)

And what happened? Nothing! We all got het up into a hissy fit for faff all although, I have to admit, I was a little sorry at the arrival of the year 2000 because I'd made a good few bob working for a PR company tasked with the job of promoting IT care for Millenium Bug computer checks.

I'm kinda, sorta, semi-optimistically hoping that, at least for us in France, the approach of Brexit will fizzle out in a similar way. That, after all the scaremongering, abuse and sad pitting of Brit against Brit, it will all amount to .. well, nothing as bad as we all fear. For us ex-pats in Europe it's going to mean more paperwork for sure but, once we're all in the 'new' systems, I'm praying that life will just go on as normal, and you lot in the UK can have your life apart from Europe and leave us all alone ..

It's either that or I keep a sharp eye out for passing aircraft ..  

 

What Joy ..

I'm feeling rather special at the moment. A very nice French chap has just driven 330 miles to bring me a box of chocolates!..

Ok, perhaps I should give you a little more detail. I was contacted in the summer by a guy who asked if I'd be interested in a project of his concerning Joy Division. He's had a very intriguing idea and wants me to be on board. To that end he drove from his home .. 165 miles away .. to have a coffee and a chat with me, and very happy I was to sign up with his plans. This week he returned .. bearing the lovely box of goodies from his local artisan chocolatier .. to flesh out his project a little further. A lot more people are now involved, and it's starting to sound a proper 'goer' ..

So, we had our coffees, and another lovely chat, and off he went to drive the 165 miles back. He left me with the chocolates .. and a really good feeling about my work. I'll let you know how he gets on with his project. What joy .. 

Dis the Cis ..

Oh, to be 23 again! Actually, I'm quite happy at 59, thank you very much. I'm so glad I grew up in the era that I did. Best music, best time to be a photographer etc., etc ..  and, more to the point, I'd probably be accused of sexual harassment if I was photographed like this now ..

Yes, the bloody world's gone mad, hasn't it? Lesley and I were watching one of the election broadcasts the other day and the candidate kept going on about 'Cis' people. Cis, Cis, bloody Cis! "Lesley," I said. "What is a Cis person?" and Googled it after she'd given me a blank look. Reader, I'll come clean. I am a Cis person. Me! And I've been one all along, apparently. I just didn't know it. Nobody told me. I can only apologise for my actions ..

Folks, 'Cis' means ... er, how can I put this? Normal. A 'Cis' person is just a man or woman who believes they are a man or woman. That means, for me, that I'm a bloke and I fancy women. An ever-narrowing category of human being, it seems ..

What is going on when 'normal' has to be categorised by .. erm, other people. I'm reminded of a character in that fantastic film 'Things to do in Denver when you're dead'. "Hey, give it a name," he'd say. So I'm going to Dis the Cis and stick with the name I've always used. Normal ..

And I don't care what you think ..

(Quick photo explanation. These ladies in .. yes, 1983 .. had just formed a kind of better class 'Kiss-o-gram' company and I'd gone along to take a shot for the Manchester Evening News. God, how times have changed ..)

Home is where the heart is ..

Following on from a recent 'Interiors' shoot at a rather grand house not far from here, I was delighted to be asked by an estate agent to photograph two properties for her yesterday. This is an area of work I've been trying to get into ever since I moved to France as it was, of course, something I did on a regular basis back in the UK. This photography is completely different to all the 'people-based' stuff I would normally shoot but I love this kind of work and thrive on its creative potential. Ironically - for something so static - it's still quite pressured work. Constantly changing light and anxious owners, hovering around and often eager to get you out of their house, are just two of the challenges I'd normally face. A seller won't realise that there's more to interior photography than just pointing and shooting and generally won't understand why I've taken fifteen shots from the same angle just beside their bedside table!

Still, I'm hoping this leads onto more work of this kind. The owner of the 'grand' house said my photography was "AMAZING!!!!!" (His capitals, and I counted the exclamation marks for accuracy) and the estate agent mailed me to say the shots were "great", so I guess I'm getting the hang of it!..  

A Lidl bit of lingo ..

                    







A car pulled up by our garden the other day and a young lady got out and asked - in French - for directions to an event that was taking place nearby. Happily I was able to help her out and she went on her way with a chirpy 'Bon weekend!' ..

And then it occurred to me. All the time I ever spent learning French at school I was only ever taught to ask for directions, not to give them: "Où est la gare?" and all that jazz. We've lived in France now for over two years and, little by little, my French is slowly improving so it made me feel really good to be on the other side of the question ..

And anyway, without French how would I ever converse with the two new lads at badminton? They're German, so French is our common language. Or the two guys who're currently staying at our gîte whilst they work on the construction of a new nearby Lidl store? They're Polish! Thank God for French! Ooh, and can't wait to go to the new Lidl ..

Today's photographs have - evidently - nothing to do with linguistics but they were taking during this morning's sunrise, the first after the end of British Summer Time. I figured they were as good as anything I could show you today! ..

Catching up ..

I've written three children's books and I'm hawking them around like mad. In the last half hour I've genuinely had three rejections (Just standard replies. The same one for each book!) from one literary agent but, earlier this week, I thought I'd had the nicest reply I've ever had ..

"Your submission caught my eye, so I read it straight away."

Brilliant!

Sadly, this was followed by "I didn't quite love it enough to take things further."

Ooooh, so close!

Still, I keep trying and, like a certain .. er, what's her name? .. JK something, I'll keep going and hope that one day my work will land on the desk of someone who's looking for exactly what I have to offer ..

Anyway, I'm writing this because I thought it was time for a catch up. I haven't blogged for ages. Of course, I'm not now living the life I did, where a Wedding blog, or a PR blog, would have tripped from my stuttering fingertips every other day. Truth is, a little bit of that was because "they" said that, as a pro snapper, it was important to blog to build up business. Never worked, of course, but I got/get the blast from simply doing the writing ..

I suppose a reason I don't blog as much now is because I'd just bombard you with a ton of 'Oh wow, it's amazing here' gush .. and so I hold back. But the truth is .. it's amazing here! And now I know that telling you that has a worth because an old pal of mine .. I'm talking childhood, I'm talking 1970 .. got in touch the other day and told me that he knew I'd moved to France because he followed my blog.
Blogging has a value, after all!..

The world is going mad beyond the bounds of our tiny bucolic idyll. I try to ignore it and concentrate on hummingbird moths and cycling .. but I know it's all there and it's bloody depressing. Do you want to know what caused a 'stir' in our village today? There was a duck on the church roof and it was suggested I get a shot for the monthly magazine. I missed it .. couldn't get there before the noon bell scared it off .. but it put a great big smile on my face. It was as far away as I could get from my former life .. and I loved it.

A sunrise shot over our beautiful farm fields is what I offer you today. Calm, peace, happiness. Now I just gotta get a publisher to like my books ..    

Two years ..

It's two years to the day since I shot a Wedding in the UK. Happy Anniversary to Emma and Chris! Two years ago August 28th was the Late Summer Bank Holiday in England and I spent the day in a funny old mood - enjoying the Wedding yet feeling sad that it would be my last in the UK. However time moves on and now I feel a world away from all of that. I miss photographing weddings - of course I do - but what I don't miss is all the stress of trying to get the bookings. That was the hard work .. especially in these days of budgets and uncles with 'a good camera'. The wedding photography market is saturated now with so-called photographers - amateurs making a few bob on the side, and supposedly 'pro' photographers who take £300 for a couple of hours' work on a Saturday and then go back to being a gas-fitter on Monday morning. I'll more than happily shoot another wedding if I'm asked but no, I don't miss that 'marketing' side of things one little bit ..

(And here I am, hogging the camera in my last ever group shot)

Happy Birthday, Elliott ..

Happy 91st birthday to one of my heroes .. the great photographer Elliott Erwitt, definitely one of my earliest photographic influences, particularly for his use of humour in his work. I hadn't realised as a kid that photography could be amusing!! The shot I'm showing you today highlights that beautifully. Photographing these army cadets circa 1975 I asked one of the boys to stick out his tongue as he marched past - a straight copy of Elliott's shot of marching soldiers that features in one of his books ..

Now, please don't tell anybody, but I stole that book from our school library when I was about 15. (The guilt haunts me still!) Years later I was lucky enough to meet Elliott and I got him to sign it. "Man," he said, "I've not seen one of these for a long time" .. 

Dad ..

I love this picture of my Dad. There he is, third from left in oily overalls, fag in hand, his hair - his pride and joy - carefully combed, and a cool smile on his face. More or less his 'go to' look until redundancy robbed him of direction in his early 50s and shot down his life ..

He'd be about 28 in this shot, and he'd have been 86 today if he was still around.
July the 9th. My Dad's birthday.
Love you, Dad. Miss you ..

Feelin' hot, hot, hot ..

We're heading for a rather worrying 'canicule' - or heatwave - here in France today. On the weather forecast, parts of the country have a bright red 42˚ over the top of them (Not us .. we're only due 40˚!!) ..

My thoughts drift back to the legendary 'Summer of '76' in England, when it was absolutely scorchio for weeks on end. At the time, having just left school, I was working part-time in a bakery and, believe it or not, it was so hot in there that we used to go outside to cool down. Speaking of which, here's an appropriate shot from my archive - little Lisa have an ice-lolly and a cool down in a kiddy's bath on her front doorstep. Can you imagine the outcry if I'd taken this photograph today?
We live in sad, sad times ..

Paris ..

Some shots from my weekend trip to Paris .. including tourists, traffic, touts, tat and my €11 beer at Notre Dame. Good God ..

The Paris Air No-Show

Regular readers of this blog - hello, both of you - will know I always try to make the annual pilgrimage to RIAT, the big RAF Air Show in Gloucestershire. This year - seeing as I now live in France - I decided I'd go to the Paris Air Show instead.
Big mistake! It was rubbish ..

I feel such a sense of anti-climax this morning, having returned home yesterday utterly disappointed with what would normally be a highlight of my year. The show, at Le Bourget airfield, is not a patch on RIAT and I can only console myself with the knowledge that I now never need bother with Paris ever again. I know it's mainly a trade show but I didn't realise just how much of it is actually given over to the business of selling aircraft and parts. Any actually flying displays are almost just chucked in as an after-thought. And that's if you can find a space to actually see the flying. It was a bit of a Paris Air No-Show, really. The crowds were horrendous and the space given over to viewing the displays was pathetically small. I think this shot sums it up. Having made their way to the outskirts of Paris, all these people could do was watch the aerobatics on a big screen. A bit pointless, really ..

Oh RIAT, I'm sorry. I'll be back next year, I promise ..        

Gardening ..

 At the corner of our street in the UK was the home of an elderly man and woman and I'd see them in front of it, practically every day, working hard on a garden that must have been about six feet square. It was tiny yet there they were, weeding and trimming and tidying. Don't get me wrong, I was a very keen gardener in the UK but even I thought 'God, how boring' .. and now I am that couple. I'm retired and I spend every waking moment in our garden, weeding and trimming and tidying .. and digging and planting and transplanting and sowing and dividing and .. photographing.

You'll be aware of my Florescence flower photography series of course, but this is 'real life' photography - in situ - with the ever-changing light that our wide open garden offers up to my lens. It's beautiful and constantly evolving and I realise now that the elderly couple in Warrington weren't gardening, they were pouring their love into something that gives so much in return. I'm sorry I ever thought you might be boring ..  

All hail, Bowdon Vale

Two packages have arrived in the post this week - a DVD in one and a magazine in the other - and I'm pleased to say they both feature some of my music photographs from Bowdon Vale Youth Club in Manchester. It was there in 1979 - aged just 18 - that I photographed Joy Division and The Freshies - two 'up and coming' local bands. The rise and sustained popularity of Joy Division is known to all - the 'oh-so-near' failure of The Freshies not so well documented ..

'Louder Than War' magazine features one of my shots on its cover and two other images of Joy Division in a celebration of the 40th anniversary of one of their albums, and I have several of my pictures of The Freshies used in a brilliant new documentary film about their lead singer. 'Being Frank' is a fascinating look at the life of Chris Sievey, the man inside the head of the comedy character 'Frank Sidebottom'. He turned to 'being Frank' after getting nowhere with The Freshies but it was whilst he was still trying to make it with the band that I set up a morning's photography with them on the sunny streets of Manchester. One of the stills is featured here - the lads running down the spiral car-park entrance to Tesco's in Sale. Gosh, what memories ..

The magazine article is really good and the DVD is incredible. I highly recommend them. Sad to think that Ian Curtis and Chris Sievey are now both dead but lovely to think my work is playing a part in keeping their memories alive. Thank God I went to that little club all those years back.
All hail, Bowdon Vale ..
  

Ten years gone ..

It's the tenth anniversary of the death of my Dad. Funny, mad, daft, sentimental old Joe O'Neill. Miss him to bits. Now give me my camera back, you old bugger ... x

The Woolworth's Fire ..

Hot on the heels of my blog about Maggie Thatcher, I was reminded of something else that happened forty years ago this month. In the light of the Notre Dame fire, it's a rather poignant memory, too. Does anyone remember the horrendous fire that killed ten people in the Woolworth's store in Manchester's Piccadilly Gardens?..

I was a newby 18 year old on Messenger Group Newspapers when I heard the news on the radio. Myself and another photographer shot into 'town' and began to take pictures, self-importantly walking in and amongst the firemen as they went about their difficult work. What I didn't know was that, around the side of the building, those ten poor victims were trapped and facing the last few minutes of their lives. I still shudder when I think of the horror ..

 

Mrs Margaret Thatcher ..

Barely six months into my first ever job as a press photographer, I can still remember the day a lady called Margaret Thatcher hit the campaign trail in our little town, and we all know how successful she was with that! Now I read that next month will be the 40th anniversary of her coming to power.
Oh, my bloody God. Where did those 40 years go?..

As it happens, I was to photograph Maggie one more time, and this time it was in a much more intimate setting as she prepared to launch her autobiography. As she was in book-signing mood, I asked if she would add her name to my little autograph book, which she happily did and which I still possess to this day ..

I don't care what you think about her politics, but you have to admit she was a hell of a figure during the late 20th century and I for one am really proud to say I actually met her in the flesh ..

Wow!..

Following on from my night of star-shooting, I sent some of the pictures to an old pal in the UK. John Fox is a former photographer at the Manchester Evening News and now gives talks on Astro-Photography. He very kindly emailed me back with the word "Wow!" and then proceeded to identify and caption everything in what, to me, was just a pretty picture of the night sky. I was amazed, I am in awe and, on the day that a Black Hole was photographed for the first ever time, I am absolutely gob-smacked by what my camera has captured. And the distances and sizes of everything out there! These star-clouds and nebulae are 5, 6 and 7,000 light years away, yet still within our own Milky Way Galaxy. Imagine that. So far away and yet light travelling for up to 7,000 years landed on my camera sensor for a mere five seconds and recorded an image like this!

John, I think "Wow!" sums it up nicely ..

 

Stars in your eyes ..

I find it very exciting that today we might be on the verge of seeing the first ever photograph of a Black Hole. Scientists have teasingly announced that they "may" be revealing an image later this afternoon ..

By sheer coincidence I was up at 4 this morning to take some 'sky' pictures of my own. We get some really clear skies in our part of France and I'm trying to interest astronomers in coming to stay at our gîte for some tip-top night-time viewing. I'm being helped in that by an old snapper pal of mine, who  is head-honcho of an astronomical society back in the UK. He gives talks on astro-photography and has actually already used some of my photographs in his talks ..

Now might also be a good time to tell you that I've written and illustrated a children's adventure story about a Black Hole. It went off yesterday into that dark unknown world of literary agents and I'm hoping that all these coincidences mean it's 'in the stars' that it'll find a publisher.
Watch this space (Ho ho ..)

One more coincidence .. and I swear this is true. As I finished writing this blog a track by Alan Parsons came on the radio.  Which track? Eye in the Sky. I kid you not!..

Anyway, for anyone interested, my shots show Acturus, with three shooting stars (Top left); Jupiter and a section of The Milky Way (Top right); Polaris (Bottom left) and the constellation of Lyra (Bottom right).