Well spotted..

Is it a plane, is it a blog .. or is it a blatant plug for my new photo-restoration service? Correct! It's Number 3 .. go to the top of the class! Since I joined the Community Page of Eccles Born and Bred I've seen more old, ripped, faded, tatty, yellow photographs than I think I've ever seen, so I've decided to offer the members (And, indeed, anyone else!) a way to pop a bit of life back into their memories. I'm going to personally collect, scan, spot and correct any prints that members might have before hand-delivering them back with either a spanking new digital copy or a brand-new print. And from just £15 a photo! Copy that? Fifteen squids! Bargain...

Green shoots..

I'm delighted that a lady's just ordered some of my place mats featuring a Florescence shot I've never used in a set before - this Agapanthus! It looks fab and, I imagine, fits in really well with a lot of people's colour schemes. This photograph, and a whole lot more, are featured in the current exhibition at Eccles Community Art Gallery though, it's fair to say, it's not proving as popular as 'Salford - Down the line'. It was always going to be so, though. That set of pictures was far more relevant to the people of Eccles than a lot of pretty pictures of flowers and I'm already missing the banter and chat that the exhibition generated. I'm hoping the pictures will reappear at a larger gallery sometime in the future but it's rather worrying when you hear that places like Salford Art Gallery - one of the places at which I'd love to exhibit - is now facing more staff cuts as the council seeks to save (even) more money. Cripes, what tough times we're in! I hope we start to see those mystical green shoots soon...

Wood you look at that..

"I'll give you half a mill for it.." I jokingly said, as I left the house in which I'd been shooting on Friday! "Ho ho.." said the caretaker, patting the funny snapper on the head "That'd just about cover the furniture!.."

I can believe him, as well! It was absolutely stunning. You know you're talking money when you have trouble actually picking the chairs up! But lift 'em up I did, as I had to squish myself into all sorts of positions to shoot shots like these for the carpenters who made all the .. er, wooden stuff! I did it all in two hours too, so I was doubly pleased with myself and treated our kitchen to a new Ikea plate rack on the way home! Ah, how the other half lives though, personally, I think four bathroms is just one too many. I'm saving a fortune in Cif living the way I do...

Unmissable..

I was over in Leeds last night for the launch of two new exhibitions, and had my copy of one of the photographers' books signed whilst I was there. All the talk of books yesterday got me really excited again about mine, and I put a new page online to try to promote them. If you've not heard of them - really? - they're called Don't Miss This and Don't Miss That! THIS is a collection of shots taken in the early 1980s with an Olympus XA, a camera I fell in love with as soon as I saw it advertised in Amateur Photographer, and THAT is very much related to my recent exhibition 'Salford - Down the line' in that it's a set of images taken before I became a professional photographer, so some of the photographs go back to about 1975. THIS has a foreword by Gallery owner and curator Laura Noble, and was actually taken up by the Photographers Gallery and sold in their bookshop in London. I guess I'll never make a fortune from either book, but they've been a real labour of love and it would be great if more people added them to their collections.

Buzzin'..

Brrr! Just when we thought Spring was on the horizon ..
Never mind, here's a sunny summer picture to get you through another nippy day. It's good to know that the seeds from these lupins are all doing well in their shivery cold frame, and it won't seem two minutes before they're flowering around the garden like their parents. As for the bees .. stay warm dudes!

I'm off to Leeds tonight for the opening of another photography exhibition, and I'm looking forward to congratulating me old mucker Peter Dench, who's just been named as a finalist in the 'Best Photo Book' awards. Maybe I should put my book 'Don't Miss This' into the fray next year?

Oh, I've added a little bit of razzamatazz to my website - studiofivefour.com - Would you be good enough to check it out and give me your opinions, please?

And now, despite every effort to avoid a cliché, I must buzz off and get some work done ..

Sofa So Good...

Pull up a seat whilst I tell you what's been going on around here this morning. Well, there's been no sitting around doing nothing, I can tell you! I've just been offered a commission from a furniture company down south. A day long shoot for their new website and they're going to ship all the furniture up here for me to photograph. How's about that? Must have been divan intervention! Ouch! (I think it was the Chairman that rang! Groan!) It is funny, though, that that's the second furniture shoot I've been offered in a week. I'm actually photographing for a carpentry company on Friday. Perhaps my photography's hit a new benchmark?

Oh, and today's shot's from my studiofivefour.com archive!

500th, f8, M6...

Apologies if you've already seen this shot on Facebook, but I thought it was worth getting out to all (both) the people that read the blog! It's a shot from Thelwall Viaduct a few days ago - Fiddlers Ferry Power Station at sunset. It was taken through the window of a car doing 80mph - and no, I wasn't the driver! -  and I only got two frames off before Squishy Sue or one of them other soppily named Eddie Stobart wagons blocked the view! When you look closer, though, you can see an incredible flock of birds zooming across the image. You can click on the picture for a better view. I'm not sure that the 'blow-up' does the picture justice but, trust me, it looks fab! The quality is amazing. It just brought to mind that old photographers' saying  .. "Buy the best glass you can afford"

Glass? Someone mention glass? Ah, good, 'cos I'm off to Eccles Art Gallery again now to show off my delightful range of heat-resistant Florescence glass place mats! Buy one, get none free! End of commercial break..

Must fly!

Cancer sticks ..

Yes, folks .. it's another Then and Now from Eccles .. the 'now' being shot on Saturday evening as I left the gallery to go home, and the 'then' from about about '78! Well, some things never change, and I don't mean the blocks of flats or the old cinema building. I mean the smoking! Man, you could die of passive smoking in Eccles! EVERYBODY smokes! Ok, don't pick me up on the accuracy of that statement, but it bloody well feels like it, I can tell you! Kids smoke, grannies smoke .. even the guy selling the fresh farm eggs at Saturday's Farmer's Market smoked! And because I live in a world where no-one smokes - and, these days, don't have to endure pubs full of smokers - the stench and sight of the hunched, grey-faced huddles, ludicrously and desperately sucking on rolled-up, burning tobacco leaves is made all the worse. I bring this up because I've been approached by a (non-smoking) chap from some sort of a Salford NHS working party, who wants to use some of my archive 'Salford - Down the line' shots in a new 'Look after yourself' kinda health campaign - something along the lines of 'Look after yourself and you'll still be here in 30 years time!'

It doesn't stand a chance!..

Alright, petal..

Spring is in the air, and what better way to welcome the new season than with my lovely Florescence flower photography, on now at Eccles Community Art Gallery. God, I sound like the NW Tourist Board. Ah, come on down, anyway. The sun is out, the shops are full of Easter eggs and my photographs would make great presents for Mother's Day. Bloomin' fantastic...

At the double..

We had twins arrive in the family last night! 1.15am! Olivia and Ellie, the brand new daughters of Daniel and Nicky. All's well, everyone's delighted. Major congrats, guys! Go get some sleep! (Now I wonder if I've got a photo in my archive that'll go with that news.. Oh, yes, I have! Well, one can't miss out on a chance to plug one's work, can one!)

Yes, it's back to the gallery today to finish off hanging my work, then it's opening day on the morrow and a chance for you to get hold of some of my Florescence photography. Lovely to be invited back to display this stuff so soon after my Salford show and it's funny, isn't it - you wait for one thing to come along, then two arrive at the same time...

That's just a straight plug..

Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you're gettin' all loved up and squidgy! Oh, that reminds me, I shoot Weddings! Yeah, thought I'd better mention it, as all this exhibition mullarkey seems to have hogged my blog! It's actually four weeks until I shoot my next one, but I've just taken another fantastic booking for Peckforton Castle this Christmas, so things is rollin' along nicely...

Oh, I shoot Child Portraits, too! Might as well get a plug in for that whilst I'm at it! This Sunday I'm off back to Willington Hall because a couple whose Wedding I photographed there two Christmases ago have a new arrival, and she's about to make her debut in front of my lens! Have a look at my new 'Dimples' web page ..

Oh, and PR .. don't forget my PR photography! I'm quite good at that, too! Shoots this year have already included a brochure for a Management Consultany firm, and a feature on the state of the UK's high streets.

And flowers! Well, you know I shoot flowers, 'cos that's the theme of my next appearance at the Eccles Art Gallery, innit? Oh, I've mentioned that, have I?...

Signs are ..

So now I know who I'm sharing 'my' gallery with from Saturday. Mostly it's the Salford Artists' Workshop, or SAW, which sounds awfully similar to my Flickr project 'Seen', to which these two photographs have just been added. It's a sign! Actually, it was so cool that I saw these two flower photographs within yards of the gallery this week - just as my exhibition changed from my black and white reportage to my Florescence colour flower photography! It's a sign .. again! (Well, the one on the right is, definitely!) And it's great to see that there's been a fantastic take-up of viewers to Twelve for '13, my year-long 'Eccles' documentary project. The page has had over 1, 200 hits in the six weeks since it began. One of the shots that'll come up over the year is this one below.. It's a sign!..

Pretty flowers..

And so it's off to the gallery again, this time to hang images from my Florescence series of flowers and leaves. No time to be a diva for this one, though, as I'm just one part of a group showing. I'll be interested to see what other work will be gracing the walls around mine. Don't worry, darlings, I'm not going to get all precious on them and demand a five foot 'barrier' of white wall between my work and theirs, or insist that their pictures all face the back wall! Although, actually that sounds ..      no, maybe not!

I'll report back on my fellow exhibitors once I've seen the work, and then you'll get your chance when the exhibition opens on Saturday.

Catch ya later, flower...

And relax ..

Have a break? Are you kidding me? I've got an exhibition to organise! Yep, one down/one up, and no sooner do I finish 'Salford - Down the line' than I prepare for tomorrow, when I hang my section of a new exhibition at the Community Art Gallery in Eccles! After an absolutely amazing run - 1,141 people through the door in just nine actual days of opening - I'm delighted to say I've been invited to take part in the next group show at the venue. (Mega thanks to everyone who came down, by the way! You were all brilliant, with your memories, recollections and stories!) Anyway, this time I'm showing images from my Florescence series - a set, as I'm sure you know - of amazingly coloured flower and leaf photography, shown as framed photographic prints, greetings cards, table mats and coasters. I'm having a bet with myself to see how long it takes before someone asks me what I did to tweak the colours in Photoshop. NOTHING! It was shot on what we oldies call 'film' - in this case 645 transparency! That sharpness and saturation? That's what you got when you shot with good film! Gimme a break!...

It's only bloody Martin Buchan, innit!..

Martin - they ask - what was it like on your first day as a Press Photographer? And I tell them how, on my first ever day on the Sale and Altrincham Messenger, I got to photograph The Captain of Manchester United! Martin Buchan, in the flesh, posing for my camera! Oh boy, I said to myself, you have made the Big Time! You've arrived! You are, at last, a professional press photographer.

He was opening a paint and decorating shop in Altrincham!

Still, ya gotta start somewhere (Me, not him!) but, the thing is, I've only gone and found one of the shots from that day, haven't I? And how chuffed does he look, the skipper of Man U stuck amidst a pile of paint tins with a mop-top nipper and a plastic football in his lap! I met him years later and told him the story. He was then a rep for Puma trainers! I'm still a photographer! God, I'm so glad I can't kick a ball to save my life...

Mark what? ..

Forgive me basking in the glow of my exhibition, but it's been so successful and I've only got 'til Saturday to enjoy it and then it's over! Get this for a quote that came in yesterday .. "Shame it has to end. Nothing can rekindle the past like looking at old photographs. Something like Martin's collection should be on permanent exhibition at somewhere like Salford Art Gallery or the Lowry Centre" Wow! Have I stopped blushing? That's fantastic!..

Buying a Nikon doesn't make you a photographer, it makes you a Nikon owner! That was another of those Facebook quotes that came floating through the air the other day, just after I'd been chatting about some of my framed flower photographs (They're about to come down from the walls of a doctors' surgery near my home) A young lad overheard me talking. "I'm a photographer.." he informed me "I do lifestyle portraits and bands!.." "Nice.." I said but, before I could get another word in, he said "What camera did you use? I'm getting a Canon P Mark 6F" .. (Or something!) Ah! It's the camera that takes the photographs, is it? I do keep forgetting that! Silly me...

On yer bike..

Getty have picked another set of my images to add to their archive, and I'm delighted that they went for this one .. a chap holding a brolly as he cycled past the flats in Salford! Like a lot of the things in my shots, it's just not something you see anymore, is it? You don't see shops advertising 'Colour' televisions, or kids with holes in their trousers, or women in rollers getting on a bus! Trouble is, these days you'd be scared to shoot them if you saw 'em. There's such a scary, suspicious mood on the streets now, and it's sad! Ah, the modern world. It can get lost! I'm staying in the 70s .. I like it here!

Back a bit more...

And so we go into the last Tuesday of 'Salford - Down the line', and the mood's definitely getting frisky! I had two lovely moments yesterday .. Firstly, I was asked if I'd give a talk to a camera club in Salford. Me? Talk? About Photography? Just try and stop me! Ha!..

Secondly .. drum roll .. another gallery is interested in showing my work! Hurrah! And this is a proper photographic gallery, too! Hip hip! And they're not even in Manchester! Woo Hoo! They said "This looks like a great project and it is a really lovely series of images. We would definitely be interested in showing these at the gallery" Halle - bloody - lujah!!! What a break-through! I feel so happy! And it's only taken 36 years! Actually, it's even longer than that. I was working on a few 'new' old images yesterday when it dawned on me that some images, for example these from my days in the Army Cadets, are from even further back than '77. I left the cadets in '76, so this shot, and the others I took at the unit, are from when I was actually 15 years old - so from perhaps even 1975! Yoiks! That's almost back to the invention of photography!..

Time is of the essence..

Gobsmacked! Yep, that's about the best word for it! I'm gobsmacked! We had over another 150 people to the gallery on Saturday, including Joan and Mark, who feature in today's blog .. twice! See the little boy in that pram, being fed a chip by his Grandma? That's Mark, 36 this year, the strapping fella seen here in Saturday's photograph with Joan, now a sprightly - ahem, ahem - years old! It made my day that they turned up to see my work and, what's more exciting, as we go into the last week of the show it's looking like we'll hit 1, 000 visitors to the gallery! Now that's pretty good going considering we only open on a Saturday and a Tuesday and, to mark that momentuous occasion, I'm going to offer a half-price family portrait voucher to the lucky 1, 000th visitor. Will it be you?

The comments book is making pretty interesting reading. One couple added a note to a photograph to say that a bus shelter featured in one of my shots was where they had their first kiss .. and they're celebrating their 30th Wedding anniversary in May! And another entry in the book simply read "Oh! I've smiled all the way round .."

I can't wait to see how it goes on our last two opening days. If you've not seen the show then I urge you to get along. Tuesday and Saturday are the last days it'll be open and then ..

Actually, then I'll be taking part in the gallery's next exhibition! I've been invited to show a selection of my Florescence flower photography from February 16th.

Gobsmacked!

Shake yo ass...

One of the very few colour shots in my exhibition 'Salford - Down the line', and one of the very few days you have left to go and see the show! We're open today and next Tuesday and then the 9th will be the closing day of the whole shebang! The visitor numbers have been absolutely fantastic and, as soon as I've had a shower, I'm off there again for my Saturday shift. Let you know later how many we get through the door today.

Anyway yesterday, right on schedule, the second instalment of Twelve for '13 hit the inter-web-net-thing, and another 80-ish images are now on view for the discerning fan of photography. Me? I highly recommend it .. but then I would, wouldn't I?

Hey, bud...

Read into this what you want! Green shoots of recovery, spring on the way, growth, optimism, better days ahead .. or just a saddo shooting bushes! It was a delight to see, though, and I can't wait for the warmer days that are just around the corner. The Wedding season's kicking off good and proper now too, especially with Valentine's Day filling our cash registers - sorry, our hearts - with romance! There's a big Wedding Fayre this weekend - the season opener if you like - at Tatton Park and, although I missed out on a stand, I'll be there in spirit, or at least in 250gm card, as 2000 Goody Bags will all have my little studiofivefour.com business flyer in them, with the offer of a free engagement shoot for all visitors to the event.

As for today .. well, I'm off to shoot a brochure at an Old Folks' Home. Not so much green shoots .. just another branch of my PR photography!

You weren't there, man...

I was minded last night of that old Vietnam war saying "If you can remember the sixties you weren't there!" The reason? I was reading the Q magazine '10 Greatest Gigs' list last night, and they've included a gig by The Smiths, which they called 'The Homecoming'. It was at Salford University's Maxwell Hall, on the 20th of July, 1986. "It all came together that night" sayeth John of The Marr. Apparently, when The Smiths came on the mosh-pit transformed instantly into a 'heaving human vortex' and the event was 'so tumultuous' that the floor below the gig suffered serious structural damage. They even had to tie the speakers down with rope to stop them falling on the audience! Man, I'd love to have been at that one! Oh, I was! I went! I saw it all .. except, I can't remember a bloody thing about it! I can remember their gig at the Free Trade Hall, 'cos that's where I shot my iconic - he said, modestly - images of Moz and his gladioli, and I can remember their gig at The Palace Theatre in Manchester, 'cos they came on to that tune from Romeo and Juliet and I was yacking to Kevin Cummins at the front of the stage, but can I remember this Salford gig? Can I buggery! Yet, I was there .. I have my ticket stub! I kept it! (Well, it does say To Be Retained!) Damn, I just wish my memories had been!..

Hand out ..

Here we are, folks! This is one of the earliest of my photographs - as early as any I can find in my archive, anyway. It was taken in Foxhill Road, in about 1974, on a Kodak Instamatic 126. I think you can see a certain nascent creativity there, ho ho! Certainly this was my first encounter with parallax error, as you can see that what was seen through the lens is slightly different to what I saw through the viewfinder! It's ok, though, I got the hang of that over the next 34 years!

Well, the exhibition is going swimmingly, even getting over 100 visitors on the cold, rainy, snowy Saturday we've just had. It's such fun to be there, listening to the tales and memories the images evoke. What I need now, though, is for the archive to be seen as a 'photographic' project rather than a collection of 'old photographs'. I certainly think that will become more evident once the gallery show finishes and Twelve for '13 gets going over the next year. I've picked the worst time to be trying to get a book published from it, though. There isn't a budget to be had from anyone, and the books are far too expensive (unfortunately) to self-publish .. unless anyone's got a spare thousand quid they can lend me?

Watch for the signs..

Twelve for '13 is growing! I'm having another trawl through all the scans I made of my negatives. The reason? Well, it's starting to dawn on me just how many subtle memories are locked away in those little slithers of gelatine! Take this shot, for example. It's the pub in which I started my erstwhile drinking career, the Bridgewater Hotel, on the corner of Green Lane, in Patricroft. Thing is, check out the road sign. Bridgewater Hospital. Now I'm guessing I took the shot because it seems to be pointing at the pub (God knows, I was sick enough in there!) but the fact is the hospital got knocked down years ago, and that sign is just about the only memory I have of it ever existing! I've joined a Facebook group called 'Eccles born and bred' you see, and all these little signs (ho ho) matter a lot to the people in the group. For example, I put a shot up of the shop that used to be my favourite record shop in Eccles, and the amount of chat it generated was just fantastic, so I feel it's my duty, Your honour (Oops!) to bring all those memories to the fore. It just means I've gotta spend another kerzillion hours going through my scans again.
Oh, bugger...

Time machine..

Oh, my God, Doctor, what is it? A kind of Tardis? Have aliens finally landed? Who is that giant woman? And what does Kodak mean?

Keep calm, son! That's not a space-ship, it's an enlarger! A what, Doctor? An enlarger, dear boy! A Vivitar colour enlarger. Believe it or not in the old days, if you wanted prints, you had to lock yourself away for hours in a dark room with one of these bad boys and bucketloads of smelly chemicals! Oh, wow Doctor, so it is a Tardis - it's a time-machine from photography long ago! Ha, yes, my son, I suppose it is. That and the Kodak sign. Kodak were one of the companies that produced the paper to make the prints, you see. Ah, yes, they're all signs of an era long ago and far away and, do you know, that enlarger's gone from having a price tag of £393 in this photograph to being sold on ebay last week for £19.99. Old technology, see. Wow Doctor, that's amazing! But, doctor, one last question. Yes, my son? What's a print?

Up my street!..

One of those slightly clichéd 'then and now' shots for you today, but I think it works quite well .. so you're getting it! This is a statue in Manchester's St Anne's Square, which was moved to one end from its original place in the centre. I loved the fact that, in the 80s, it was full-square outside a shop called High & Might, and now it's slap-bang in front of a massive - high and mighty - poster for Virgin holidays! I shot it on the XA way back then, and on the D300 during a PR shoot for a client last Thursday. Click on the image for a better effect! Speaking of clients, I went for a meeting with a potential new one yesterday. They showed me the old brochures they'd had shot in the past, featuring shots from their interests in Amsterdam, Munich and - hey, hey, Florida - and then they gave me a commision for a shoot in .. Hyde! Still, it's work, and they want it as 'arty' as possible.
Just up my street!

She's behind you...

252!!! That's how many people we had through the door of the gallery on Saturday! Two hundred and fifty bloody two! In six hours! I'm absolutely amazed! That means that almost 500 visitors have seen my photographs already, and we've only opened to the public three times! How good, as they say, is that? I spent the whole day chatting and listening to fantastic stories about 'the old days'. People really are engaging in the project and it's so exciting!

A couple of visitors were trying to identify where today's photograph was taken. It's actually in front of the Co-op funeral parlour on Liverpool Road. Glamorous, eh? Anyway, speaking of glamorous, I was telling them that the shot is actually labelled in my negative file as 'Fit Birds'! Hey, I was only 17! "Be careful.." I heard a voice say "You never know who might hear that!" I turned around and there was .. the 'fit bird' on the right! "Good job you didn't call it anything else!" she laughed!
Phew! Good job...

Glamorous cameras, clickety click!..

This photograph brought a little amusement to a chilly week when I posted it on Facebook and asked people if they could identify the cameras. (Hey, why don't you click the link and join my group whilst you're at it!) These are the actual bodies I used to shoot a lot of my Twelve for '13 archive and they all still work, apart from the Olympus XA at the front (Oops, gave that one away there!) Well, it's still chilly but I don't think that's going to put people off from coming down for the second of my Saturdays at Eccles Community Art Gallery. So many people have expressed an interest, and I know they're going to love it when they visit. The Gallery are saying on their website that it's the most popular exhibition they've ever had, and it's only been on a week! Wow! Anyway, just before I head down there, the other cameras are a Zentih EM and a Yashica 124G. So now you know, but let's see if anyone knows where today's Blog title comes from...

Unsure...

Well, they say every cloud has a silver lining, and I'm afraid that the troubles of Jessops and HMV have earnt me a few bob, as I got booked to shoot the 'state of the high street' for a client yesterday. Managed to line up the two 'dinosaurs' in one shot with this angle in Manchester. What a shame, though! I used to love a 'yack' with the Jessops lads in days gone by, and I have a nephew who's waiting with baited breath to hear if his job's safe at HMV. He'll be alright.. won't he?

Now I'm not superstitious, but I was having a chat with a hotel owner during a Wedding last year, and he said he feared his bookings for 2013 would be down. The reason? The year has the number 13 in it! I laughed .. but now I'm not so sure. All my enquiries seem to be for 2014! Surely my whole Wedding career isn't set to skip a year.. is it?

Oh, by the way, an internet whizz-kid saddo told me that I need to be adding specific words to my blogs so that I can link them to my web-site. So, at the risk of being incredibly boring (Hey, there has to be a first time!) I'm going to mention studiofivefour.com - the home of Martin O'Neill photography.
Yeah, that's boring.. isn't it!

Back to Eccles tomorrow for another stint at my exhibition. Really looking forward to meeting more new people and watching their reactions when they find themselves in my photographs. That first pause, the squinty close-up peer, then the laugh and the gasp and the shake of the head. That's not me.. is it?

Something old, something new..

Yep, they're all dead! That's what a chap called Dave said when he saw a picture of himself and his old colleagues on the wall of my new exhibition! Yes, it's finally opened and wow, what a brilliant day it was! I broke the record for the number of visitors to the gallery on a single day, and it was incredible to eavesdrop on a few of the conversations going on around the room. People were catching sight of a long-lost grandad, or an old flame, or a neighbour they used to play with in the street and Dave, as I said, saw a photograph of work-mates he last saw 36 years ago. He's pictured as a curly-haired, flare-wearing youngster standing by an old Commer van outside the Dispatch Department of Gardner's Diesels in Eccles. One young lady even managed to identify her old school hall .. by the curtains .. and, although it's inevitable, it was sad to hear of those who aren''t around any more. Me poor old dad included! Still, I couldn't have been more happy with the way the exhibition was received, and I really enjoyed kicking off the side-project of re-photographing people who were in original shots. Dave and Arthur here were two of my first 'models'! We even had the first of our 'live' theatrical performances, with actors Elaine and Dave (Another one!) giving us a really funny rendition of how a conversation about the seventies might go! So, we're off! We're up and running and you've got a month to come down and see what it's all about!

It's called Salford, down the line! and it's at Eccles Community Art Gallery every Tuesday and Saturday until February 9th. I've also started a Facebook Group for people who want to see more of the shots! My project Twelve for '13 will showcase about 80 shots a month on Flickr, and the page will help me get the word out to anyone who's keen on documentary photography.

On the line..

Funny old world, innit? Planning the hanging of the exhibition, it became apparent that we'd have trouble attaching my photographs to the wall, so we devised a way to 'peg' the prints to washing line strung across the gallery. Then came a cry from Karen, the Gallery founder. "You haven't got a photo of washing on a line?.." she asked. Er yes, actually, I have .. and here it is, the shot that is now suddenly the opening image of the whole show. Our back garden in Foxhill Road, on Brookhouse Estate. There was a family - who we didn't know as we'd just moved in - that lived in that house at the back of our garden, and the funny thing is that I was once saved from drowning in the sea in Morecambe .. by the lad that came from that family! As I was telling this story to the chap from the gallery who was helping me he told me he'd also lived in the same street as us, and his surname was .. Eccles!

Tunnel vision..

So, another big name on the 'high street' bites the dust! Jessops went into administration yesterday and all I can say is that, from personal experience, I'm not surprised in the slightest! They're the people who told me not to bother buying from their shop, but to go home and make my purchase online! I went there in the early summer to check out the Fuji X10 camera - I liked the look of it and the specs sounded fab, but I needed to literally 'get to grips' with one to see what it felt like in my hands. The Warrington store had just one in stock, so I shot down there pronto to have a nosey. Well, as you know, I fell in love with the little beauty, and I've been using it since that first Wedding try-out in May. The thing is, the model in the shop was much dearer than anywhere I'd seen it online, so the chap in the shop went onto his computer, logged onto Jessops online, and told me I could buy it there for £50 less than the shop price. Fifty pounds less! From the same company! Jeez! Shoot yourselves in the foot, why don't ya! That's a case of tunnel-vision if ever I saw one!..

(And yes, that was another naff link to my exhibition, and this picture is yet another from my archive. The show opens on Saturday at Eccles Community Art Gallery!)

A walk in the park..

Just walked the 'scenic' route home from the post office, and flipped my gorgeous Fuji X10 to square format for a change. Knocked these off in the 15 minutes it took to get home! Click on the pic to see it larger. Anyway, enough of the arty farty stuff .. let's get back to business!

Ah! Hmmmm... business! Well, news not just in .. business is tough! I've had four Wedding enquiries in a week, and not one of the couples has decided to book me. The reason? The cost! Even though I offer a great package at just £599. I'm going to be honest with you .. that hurts! It hurts so much that I've decided to bite the bullet and put forward a new concept in Wedding Photography billing. I'm inviting couples to 'make me an offer' for their photography, and if the figure works for me then that's the price they'll pay for coverage of their Big Day. Radical and, I hope, successful! And I don't mean just from a financial point of view. I'm a photographer. I need to be taking photographs! I have to be shooting stuff for people! It's what I've done for nearly 35 years and, although I can see now it won't be any old walk in the park, I want to be doing it for the next 35, too!

Pegged out!..

Late blog today as I've been far too busy putting up my new exhibition. Looks bloody great too, with almost 100 photographs pegged out on washing lines, ready to receive visitors' comments about who the people in the pictures actually are! Ironically, one of the first shots you see in the McCullin film (that I spoke of yesterday) is of a line with pegs clipped to it, strung out across his darkroom to dry his prints! How's that for a good omen? Anyway, check out Twelve for '13 if you fancy seeing more from this archive. Meantime, I'm off to wash me smalls .. all this washing line's got me going!

War! What is it good for?...

Go and see 'McCullin', the film about renowned war photographer Don McCullin. Bravery, modesty, artistry, humanity and sheer, utter professionalism are what you'll see when you go. That and some of the most powerful proof you'll ever need of how awful mankind is to its brothers and sisters. We went yesterday. One of the 'wars' in Don's life was the conflict in Northern Ireland - he went there for The Observer in 1971 - and guess what was on the front page of yesterday's Observer. An image from the 'war' in Belfast! Police being shot at on the streets of The UK this weekend - forty two years after Don's first images. The sad thing is that he admits that his war photography doesn't change a thing. On a lighter note, he came to Waterstone's in Manchester in 1992 to launch his amazing autobiography, and I dutifully queued to have my copy signed by 'the master'. After a brief chat when it was 'my turn', he looked at me and said "Do you know, you're the first person I've spoken to tonight that's got a Northern accent!"

A kid 'shooting' over a pew in church. That's as close as I ever want to get to war, and it's yet another of the images from my archive. If it's of any interest, I've started a Facebook group to try to promote the Twelve for '13 project.
I'd love it if you joined...

Through the round window..

A few self-portraits inevitably turned up whilst I was going through my box of 'archive' negatives, and I thought it was rather amusing that I seemed to be drawn to circles when I did 'em! So - looking though the round window - I can't tell what camera I'm using for the shot on the left but I can see my old Yashica FR1 in the centre shot, and my tried and trusted Zenith E in the shot on the right. That and a really dodgy hair-do! You can click on the image to get a really good look!! Hey, speaking of dodgy, the creatives at Eccles Community Art Gallery have decided to surround my exhibition photographs with 70s memorabilia, and have put a shout out for help in finding naff old clothes, games and other items from the decade. Think Space-hoppers, Choppers, tank-tops, clackers, platforms, David Cassidy posters and the like. Can you help? Far out, man...

Oooh...

Oooh, things are beginning to happen! My new exhibition is getting closer, and the wheels on the mighty publicity juggernaut have begun to roll. Eccles Community Art Gallery has begun a twelve day 'teaser', adding a new photograph from my show to their website every day until the opening on January 12th. There's a practical point to the exercise. We're hoping that people might recognise themselves, or people they know, in the shots so that I can shoot a 'then and now' to compliment the 1970s photos.

And it gets better! A writer called Elaine McCann is putting together a few 3-5 minute long plays, based on some of her favourites from my photographs, and these will be 'acted out' each Saturday by two professional actors. I'm dying to see what Elaine comes up with as, apparently, one of her faves is my shot of a box of cornflakes! Oooh...

Lucky for some...

The dawn of a New Year, and I want to wish everyone the very best for 2013. Let's hope 13 is a lucky number for us all! I won't do the traditional 'look back at the year', as I think it's safe to say it wasn't the best that most of us have ever had, so let's skip into the future with heads held high! For me, January 1st means there are only 11 days left until you can come and see my new exhibition in Eccles. Lucky you!...

Thunderbirds are gone...

And just like that, all my Space Heroes are gone! In 2012 we've already lost Neil Armstrong and Patrick Moore and now - just yesterday - Gerry Anderson. If you're one of my overseas readers I think this blog might not mean much and I apologise but, if you grew up in England in the 60s, there was no doubt that you got your first introduction to space and adventure through his work. I never got to meet the first man on the moon - although I did photograph one of his suits once - and I never got to meet the 'mad professor' Moore who made it such fun to learn about space - although I have got his autograph in the front of a book about the universe - but I did photograph Gerry Anderson - and the real 12 inch Captain Scarlet - when they visited a Manchester Sci-fi convention back in the early 90s. It's because of Gerry Anderson that we all grew up wanting to be astronauts - although, for me, poor eyesight and being sh*t scared of sitting in a capsule on top of a 356 foot bomb put paid to that - and it's because of Gerry Anderson that I got two of my earliest nicknames - viz: Joe 90 and Brains!
Erm, I think you can see why....
FAB Gerry Anderson, FAB.....

T'was the night before Christmas...

Christmas Eve and I can hear spuds being peeled across the country, so here's a rather appropriate shot for everyone who's going to be stuck in the kitchen over Christmas! It's also - surprise surprise - one of the 981 shots from my new archive, and I've chosen it as the introductory shot in a new section of my StudioFiveFour website. It's called Twelve for '13 and it's how I'm going to display my work over the forthcoming year. As my gift to the photographic world I'm going to put up around 80 of the photographs on the first of each month, displaying them for just that month until the whole series has been viewed. (Twelve for 2013, see? Aha!!...) Anyway, I hope you might pass on the link to your mates, and when I'm famous I'll bless you, one and all.

Ah, sod it! It's Christmas! God bless us now.... (Heaven knows, we need it!)

Have a cracker, everybody! Merry Christmas.....

When I were a lad...

I've done it! I've bloody done it! After months of searching through thousands of negatives, scanning hundreds of strips of film and cleaning up the scratches and dust of 35 years in a box .. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you .. MY ARCHIVE!

At last! It's finished! Over 900 photographs from my early photographic years! Man, I can't tell you how good that feels! And it looks amazing! I can't believe (he said modestly) that I was taking photographs like these when I was just 17 and 18 years old. They're fantastic! And they work on two levels (I think!) They work as pure and simple 'documents' of the 1970s and early 80s, recording the styles, fashions and environments of the time, but they also work (I like to think!) as interesting, amusing, eye-catching photographs in their own right. And they're so descriptive of my small-town upbringing as a teenager. (Never went to restaurants! Never travelled abroad! Aw...) They show Eccles market (a lot), they show the estate on which I grew up - and the people I grew up with - they show Barton Air Show, they show the bus rides I took as a lad, the shop-fronts, the power station, the old Morisson's supermarket, the chip shops, the Army Cadets, the clubs I began to go to, the cars, the flares .. and the all-prevalent smoking, and it's sad to think that so many, many of the people and places in the pictures are now all long gone! It's been a real trip back for me, and I have such a sense of pride that I've finally managed to finish the project. Of course, the important thing now is getting it seen, so it's over to Flickr and the hope that you all might let your pals know about my body of work. I've decided to release 80 images on the first day of each month of the coming year and all, of course, will be available for licensing or for purchase as prints. There'll be a small exhibition in Eccles in January, too - finalised details to come!

Man, I am so pleased I joined St Pat's camera club when I was thirteen...

Call me...

This is a blog that I'm going to Tweet and put on Facebook about an email I sent to a chap on Linked- In because, for the first time ever, networking on the 'Social Meeja' has worked! After days, weeks, months and probably a couple of years now, I've finally got a PR job directly from t'internet! My name has been sent round an office after I 'linked' with the MD of a PR company and, at last, an account handler has picked up on it and booked me to shoot a job this morning. The irony is, the job's for a company I worked for for years but, as with all these things, contact was lost as staff moved on. All it would have taken, in 'the old days', was a quick phone call and a trip into their Manchester office with a great big smile and a little book of cuttings. You know the sort of thing ... this is me, that's my work, what do you think?

Of course, you can't beat 'word of mouth', and that's how I got a Wedding enquiry from a bride who's getting married next August. A snapper pal of mine put her on to me after she rang his studio. That man he don't do Weddings, you see! Thing is, a full week after her initial email, I still hadn't heard back from this girl, so I thanked my friend but sadly had to tell him that his recommendation had come to naught. "But you're already booked on that date, aren't you?" he asked. No, I said, I wasn't. Apparently she'd told him she thought I was booked, as she hadn't heard anything from me since her initial email. Turns out all my emails to her had gone straight into her Junk folder, and she hadn't bothered to follow up her enquiry and has now booked a different photographer.
 Oh, for the days of phone calls....

Livin' off the wall...

Oh, I do love a good project, and there's plenty to keep me busy over the coming winter months! First of all I am so, so close to finishing off my archive! Man, it's taken months, but it's looking fantastic and I'm managing to get it all done just in time for my next undertaking - a solo exhibition in Eccles in January. Alongside that, and very excitingly, I've been invited to be one of the 'core participants' in a new creative undertaking at a gallery in Altrincham!

So, the details...

Well, my archive is looking like it'll be at least 875 pictures strong, including this one of the frozen shadow of an old Ford Cortina in about 1980. Topical, eh? I'm gearing up to hopefully make a new book, or get an exhibition together of some of the best of the shots, though I've been working on it so long that I almost feel sad I'm nearing the end of this part of the project! However, the next assignment calls, and that will be a month-long exhibition at Eccles Community Art Gallery from mid-January. The gallery's based in an old shop in the precinct and I'm being given the whole place to myself. I'm going to show a large number of shots of 'old' Eccles, similar to the exhibition I had for the library's 100th anniversary a few years back, and I'm hoping to run workshops on Saturday mornings, too, so watch this space! There'll be a local writer getting involved, too, and maybe even a couple of actors! Ooooh....

Thirdly, as I said, I'm going to be taking part in a forthcoming shoot and exhibition at a gallery called Local Creation, in Altrincham. We're all getting together next week to mash out the plans over a glass or two of mulled wine, and I'll let you know how that goes once it's all sorted.

Wow! Exciting! Life ain't so bad at all, if you live it off the wall...

Over the moon...

Caught some sport over the weekend. Took me right back to the time we used to huddle round the 'box' at four o'clock of a Saturday afternoon. You know that sport where grown men drop to the floor, writhing in pain? The one go where they go flying through the air, the more artistically the better? The one where shouting at the ref's as much a part of the game as tackling one another?

No, not tag-team wrestling .. football!

I caught some of the Manchester derby on Saturday although, as Withnail and I might say, it was by accident! I didn't mean to start watching Match of the Day and although at first I thought I'd gone back on my vow not to deliberately watch a game this season, I was actually glad I saw some of the match, as it made me realise I am not missing a thing! These days a football game to me seems like 90 minutes of cheating, fakery and fawning, pathetic idol-worship.
Oh, and coin-throwing!
Nice!

Fancy a brew?..

Slogging through the compilation of not one, but three Wedding CDs today, so I reckon I've earned a nice cuppa and a couple of minutes' breather! Appropriately enough, here's one of the photographs I've just added from a Wedding last September. Gosh, that seems so long ago! Remarkably, though, most of this year's brides have been pretty much 'on-the-ball' when it comes to deciding on their selections of images from their Big Days. I actually only have two couples who haven't yet got their choices finalised, which reminds me of a chat I had recently with the parent of a child I'd just photographed. I'd joked that some parents have been known to take two years to choose which photographs they wanted from a shoot. "You're joking.." she said "How can it take them so long?" That was 18 months ago and she's only just sent me her choice!
Two sugars, please!

Standards!

I swear the country's going to the dogs! The hotel we stayed at in London the other day was .. what's the word I'm looking for? Awful! Yes, it was awful. The smallest room on the planet, with a freezing wind howling through windows that didn't shut, and a mattress that looked like it had been a prop in 'It's a Knockout' in 1977! When we checked out my girlfriend asked to see the manager to make a complaint. 'Oh.." said the receptionist "Just put it on Trip Advisor!"

Huh? Let everyone know your hotel stinks? Oh, ok, we will! So, folks, on the instruction of the receptionist, I can officially say that the Eden Plaza Hotel in Kensington is the pits! Now, where was I going with this? Ah, yes! Standards! A bride sent me an e-mail the other day. She wanted me to quote for photography "at the ceramony and at the after do" .. and this hot on the heels of a Linked-In message from someone who described her job as being a "Wedding Coordinater." I mean, hey, nobody's perfect, but I'm afraid I must put a winner's medal for 'Crap Standards' straight round the neck of a GWAC in Somerset. (GWAC? Girl/Guy with a camera, as opposed to photographer!) She starts off by saying she hopes you "like what I have advertise", lets you know that "personlised memory boxes come's with the wedding" and offers, amongst many things, photographs as "Cnvuas Frames" ...  I couldn't resist emailing her to ask what a cnvuas frame was and, gawd bless 'er, she replied saying she wasn't quite sure how to describe it, but she had a page on her website that would explain! 

Is it just me? Am I being too pedantic, or is the younger generation really as ignorant as it seems? Ah, fcuk it, hoo caers?..

There is hope...

I'll drink to that! A smile has been spotted at the National Portrait Gallery! Yes, folks! They're showing a photograph of a smiley person in their heavy, heavy Annual Portrait Photography exhibition! You see, every year I go down to London to put myself through the torture of viewing wall after wall of dour, serious, "important" portraiture, and every year I come away depressed. They just don't like smiles in their pictures! No smiling in our show! But .. what's this? They've let one slip through! And not only that, they've thought it so unusual and striking that .. they've put it on the front cover of their catalogue! I got so excited that I gave 'em fifteen quid of my hard-earned dosh just to own it! Hurrah! There is hope, after all. I'll drink to that! Glühwein! Get me a hot toddy, pronto!..

The next part of this blog was supposed to be about the Hyde Park Christmas market but, er .. I can't remember anything about that!...

Oh, and the photograph's another from my ever-expanding archive! Just loving what I'm finding..

Ye Gods!...

 Jeez, I know times are hard, but f*cking hell! I had a stall in my local shopping centre on Saturday, selling a range of items from my Florescence range of Flower Photography. I took £5! A fiver! A paltry, pathetic fiver and  .. I won't mince my words .. it was an absolute soul-destroying pisser! And I get to do it all again next week! Brilliant!

Off to London today. It's time for my annual moan at the Taylor Wessing Portrait Photography exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery. Something tells me that, after Saturday, I might not be in quite the right mood to view the images fairly! I'd love to think my shot of this poor little fella would stand a chance in the contest but I'd be wrong. He's actually showing some emotion, and we can't have that in public...