Don't get me in the picture ...

I treat you today to the business card of the  taverna we liked the most on our holiday last week. Was there ever a picture designed to put you off going to a place?..

"Oh, God! Don't get me in the picture.." seems to be the attitude of the guy there on the left, with the old dear on the right ignoring the camera by gazing intently at the green rubbish bin on the beach! "Has he gone yet? That bloody bloke with the camera?..."

Fortunately the taverna was better at cooking than photography!..

I'm back at another of my favourite 'tavernas' tomorrow, with another Wedding at Willington Hall, near Chester. Slapped botty to anyone who hides their face with their hands ... 

 

Home, James ..

Just had a week in Greece! First week off in ten months and it was bloody fantastic! It was also the first time I've ever taken my 'reading material' on holiday on a Kindle, although I did get nervous when I was packing and shoved a 'real' book in the carry-on as a comfort blanket..

However, it was straight back into it yesterday and before I'd even unpacked - with Mythos beer breath and a nice Chicken Souvlaki stain on my T shirt - I headed off to a fantastic new Wedding venue in Manchester called Victoria Warehouse, where I met with Jennifer, their delightful Wedding Co-ordinator, who - I'm super-chuffed to say - has added me as their first ever recommended Wedding photographer! Now that was worth coming home for ..

On the 'phone ..

Most of us will remember the early 21st century as the period when we viewed life through other people's electronic devices. I went to the Southport Air Show on Saturday and spent most of my time peeping around iphones and tablets just to catch a view of the displays. People going to an event .. and not watching it! Just a little Monday moan for ya, though you know as well as I do that if I'd been shooting this event professionally this geezer wouldn't have stood a chance!..

Anyway, great weekend - the air show being followed up with a Sunday at the Mere Wedding Fayre, where I met a thoroughly smashing bunch of brides who all seemed suitably enthused by my ramblings when they came over to my stand. Well, none of them yawned, anyway! I'm going to spend Monday sitting by the phone to take all the calls for bookings .. 

PS: Here's a little addition now I've had time to go through my images. This was a commercial jet which seemed to slice through a sky-high rainbow during a lull in the displays. No 'phones in front of this one!...

 

Fayre enough ..

I'm busy getting my act together for Sunday's Wedding Fayre at Mere. I've been gathering together a selection of Wedding Albums, my laptop, my pull-up banner, two easels, framed prints, business cards and some tasty acrylic mounts. Then I look at the booking form. The bloomin' table's only four feet long! I've got way too much stuff for such a small space. Not to worry, it'll make it easier when I come to load the car ..

Excuse me, slight interruption! With the most amazing timing - and I kid you not, dear reader - a 'Save The Day' card has just plopped through the letter box to announce the forthcoming Wedding of a friend of ours who's going to be tying the knot next December! Wow! Wonder if he's got a photographer?...

Anyway, yes ...

I'll be at the Mere Golf Resort and Spa on Sunday for their Autumn Wedding Fayre. It's a cool venue to work at - the shot above is from a Wedding I shot there last year - and I have high hopes for bookings aplenty after Sunday's showcase..

Check out my zoom ..

Size matters - apparently - so I've bitten the bullet and upgraded my new camera to this mean MoFo! Oh boy, you're gonna see me coming next time I shoot a Wedding!..

I was chatting to someone the other day who was very complimentary about my photography until .. well, until that line came up! You know the one that photographers hate? "You must .. " said this person "Have a very good camera!..." Aaaaagh!!...

Yes, I'm so pleased my very good camera saw the composition, arranged the subjects, nailed the timing and sorted the light for me when it took the shot for me! Thank goodness for that good camera!..

You see, nowadays everyone's a photographer and 'real' snappers are getting swamped in a morass of mediocrity. What a pro can bring to a Wedding is getting lost to price! I know everyone's on a budget but quality has given way to cost. "How much?" is very often the first question I'll receive from a bride-to-be when she contacts me. Perhaps I should just show her the size of my zoom?...

The Few ..

Kind of appropriate that last night, on the 75th anniversary of The Battle of Britain, I turned left into Churchill Way and drove down to the Imperial War Museum North on Salford Quays. I wasn't there on any sentimental remembrance jaunt, though - I was working on a PR job. Among the things I photographed was an old Harrier Jump Jet that, high above people's heads, is used as a backdrop for corporate events. Companies' logos get rather spectacularly projected onto the underside of the fuselage as a scene-setter for their forthcoming swanky dinner..

On Saturday I'll be down at Southport's annual Air Show, oohing and aahing at the many and various jets and choppers and 'magnificent flying machines' whizzing around for our enjoyment - The Spitfire among them. As we commemorate the bravery of 'The Few' I hope I take a moment to remember what the 'real' job of all these aircraft was...

Threesomes ..

I seem to be making lots of triptychs lately. I just love matching sets of three images together - for my website or my blog or to attach to emails.
Well, they always say the best things come in threes..

Everyone loves a sunny Wedding day, and I've been so lucky that, after a very hit and miss summer, my last three Weddings have all been shot in glorious sunshine. Of course, that means in reality that as soon as a bride and groom waltz down the aisle as newly-weds, I whizz 'em off into the shade so I can control the light a little better!..

I had no Wedding this past weekend, but I did have three great portrait sessions at the studio. Funnily enough I can't mention too much about any of them, as they were all being shot as forthcoming gifts or - in one case - as a charity calendar! Details soon! Well, in about three weeks!...

Nice to be noticed ..

You've got to be a certain type of person to get on as a freelance. To work alone - with no colleagues or work-mates, no water-cooler moments, no slap on the back, no after-work drinks - can get to you if you let it, so the smallest thing can make all the difference to your day. My day started today with a cheque in the post. Not a big amount- just a few bob from a local business for a few PR shots I did for them recently, but written on the comp slip enclosed was the word "Fantastic.." And it was! It was bloody fantastic just to get that little nod of approval, that thumbs up, that little bit of feedback to send you on your way smiling...

Yesterday Lesley and I went for Sunday lunch to a place we've never been before. When we got to the bar the one girl that was serving was already busy. Instead of just carrying on as we arrived she looked up, smiled and said "I'll be with in one moment.." That one sentence meant we'll definitely be going back to that pub. Well that, and the fact that the roast beef was bloody delicious!..

Being noticed, getting noticed ... fantastic!

   

But ..

9/11 again - or 11/9 as we always said in England before the tragedy - and the world's an even worse place to be in today than it was fourteen years ago...

But ..

Despite everything, I can look at this photograph and get a big smile on my face! This shot brings back such happy memories of a time I took my Dad on a trip to America after, believe it or not, winning a trip for two to New York. We spent a week travelling round by Greyhound bus, and I have such fond memories of Dad at the top of the Twin Towers, The Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building; of him stopping firemen in the street so that I could take a picture of him with them; of police in Washington keeping us behind a cordon as - of all people - Imelda Marcos landed by helicopter next to The White House, and of him straddling the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls so that he could be in two countries at once! In fact, the only photographs I took - for the entire trip - were of my Dad. He was my project! Dad does America! Every single photograph had my Dad in it!..

Well, the towers are gone and so is my Dad.
But I still have my photographs ..

No age at all ..

I'm addicted to all these bloomin' Wedding programmes that seem to have appeared on telly lately. 'Don't tell the Bride' - 'I want that Wedding' - 'How the rich get hitched' and so on, but this week saw another one that had me squirming!..

'Baby-Faced Brides' was all about - well, you can guess! Kids getting married, basically! Teenagers, twenty-year-olds and so on! Ugh, it was awful! My whole body was screaming out "Too young, too young.." but none of them listened and all of 'em went ahead and tied the knot, their flabbergasted parents looking on with ... er, well, looking on, anyway!..

I've been trying hard to think of the youngest couple I've ever photographed but I think early twenties is about as low as I can get. This week, though, I was at the other end of the spectrum with the Wedding of Margaret and Barry. I'm not giving away ages but let's just say that I've never had to get a Wedding couple's grand-children on a photograph before! It was a fantastic day all round though - probably because this couple actually knew what they were doing in life ..

God Save 'er ..

Today's the day the Queen clocks on for overtime. She's now the longest serving UK monarch ever, ever, ever...

I was lucky enough to be chosen to be the 'Official Photographer' for a visit by the Queen once. She was opening a 'Festival of Food and Farming' in London's Hyde Park in, I think, 1994, and I got the PR 'gig' to go down and shoot it. I was the only photographer allowed into the sponsor's marquee to photograph her as she toured around the stands. Those, of course, were the dim, dark days of film - no looking at the camera back to check your shots in those days - but that was absolutely normal and although I was nervous I didn't think anything of it. I was a professional photographer and I knew what to do to make sure the shots were good ones..

That's more than can be said for the first time I photographed Her Maj! Then I was a spotty sixteen year old who sneaked out of work to grab this shot of her as she sped down the M63 in Eccles on her way to some posh party or something during her 1977 Silver Jubilee Year. This picture was probably taken on my old Zenith EM camera and all I can say is I was damned lucky that bloody lamp-post is where it is or I'd have failed miserably in my efforts!..

Keep on truckin', Liz ...

Images ..

Here's the next episode in the sorry saga of people who only have their family photographs on their mobile phones. A guy in Manchester is in the awful position of just having had his parents found dead at their home, although not under 'suspicious' circumstances. The poor fella's distraught because the police won't let him into their house to pick up any photographs of them, and he hasn't got any pictures of them on his new phone! I despair ..

Anyway, I'm not here to talk about that! I wanted to tell you about the two Wedding Fayres I have coming up in the next month. The first is at Mere Golf Resort and Spa - or Mere Golf Club as I used to know it - where I'm taking a stand for their September 20th event. The other is the second ever Culcheth Wedding Fayre - my very own fayre! - being staged once again at The Culcheth Arms pub in the village. I've got together an amazing list of at least 17 different Wedding specialties, with no duplication of a single 'expert'! This one's on October 12th - a Monday evening - and I can't wait!..

Check out today's montage! Cool, innit? I happened upon some software that throws a selection of images together specifically for blogs and I'll certainly be getting my money's worth out of it! Click on it for a larger image..

He's going on about the 'old days' again ...

"I know you! .." said the Best Man as I shook his hand on Saturday "You did my Wedding photographs!.." he laughed.. "In 2002!...

Well it's nice to be remembered, although I could only apologise for my puny memory and the failure to say I remembered him too. Anyway, he proved his point by pulling out his 'phone and there, in glorious technicolour, was a shot I took of him and his wife cutting their Wedding cake all those years ago..

Yesterday I began the task of editing the 800 and odd photographs I'd taken on Saturday. I went to pop a couple of images on Facebook, only to find I'd been beaten to it with scores of images uploaded by numerous guests and family members. Every moment of the day was covered with snaps from their phones and tablets. It was as if they'd all watched the whole Wedding via their screens. A lot of the pictures - Grrr - were assorted copies of the groups I'd set up and which, in the old days, I'd have sold as reprints! My mind went back thirteen years to the Wedding of the Best Man - those dark, dank days of PD! Pre-digital! The thing is, although the image he showed me was on his 'phone, I could tell by the quality of it that the original photograph was shot on film. At his Wedding I was still shooting on a Mamiya RZ67 with a 220 magazine and .. oh, stop yawning at the back. Anyway, back in those days it was the photographer's job to take the photographs at the Wedding, and the guests got on with actually being part of the day rather than recorders of it!  I know, I know .. I'm going on about the 'old days' again and it's no good to moan about it now, 'cos times have changed and digital is God.
Like I say though, it was nice to be remembered ..

Getting on a bit ..

When I first set up my studio it was in one of the many and vast empty rooms at O'Neill Towers and, to give it a dry run, I asked some nearby neighbours if they'd come in for a family portrait. Yesterday I bumped into the daughter of the family - dairy aisle at Sainsbury's since you ask - and asked her what she was up to these days...

"I'm a teacher!" she said ..

Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather, and the look on my face must have said just that! "I'm twenty-five now, you know..." she laughed, as I threw my zimmer frame out of the shot, and it dawned on me that those test pictures - those sweet family photos - were now 14 years old! The woman in front of me was an eleven year old girl when I took them! I mean, come on, they were on film, for goodness sake!..

It kind of brought home the shock there must be on the part of all those Dads that walk their daughter down the aisle on their Wedding Day. Their Princess, their little girl, has turned into a woman in the time it's taken to change a vest and go for a pint with the darts team! Now I've never had kids, but when I shoot a Wedding I'm always very tuned in to catching any of that emotion on the faces of those Dads as they look down that aisle with their pride and joy on their arm. It's just dawned on me that part of that expression is the realisation that they've grown old ... 

I want it ..

There were two new programmes about Weddings on television last night. I've watched one and recorded the other. The one I watched was called 'I want that Wedding' and featured couples going about the planning of their Weddings. There were some absolutely fantastic ideas out there, from table plans to room decoration and dresses to menus, but what was also apparent - in a few of the Weddings - was the one-upmanship that can so easily creep into a couple's Wedding planning. One couple's budget, for example, doubled from £20K to £40K as the 'must-have' items started racking up, and don't get me started on the couple who built a replica Greek temple to hold their reception - replete with a 42 foot high statue of Athena - or the couple whose Wedding was only described as costing "Six Figures"!!...

It's not rocket-science but I always tell couples to let their Wedding reflect their personalities. Thinking about it, though, that's only what all these people have done, innit?..

Moving along nicely ..

I'm exhausted! Yesterday I went canoeing, bowling, and jet-skiing. I played basketball, frisbee and table-tennis .. and I even made a few free-fall parachute jumps .. and all before I had me tea! Of course, it was all on the Wii, but that's because the weather outside was so bleedin' awful. Well, it was supposed to be, wasn't it? It was a Bank Holiday - the last one for flippin' ages - so now, on the 1st of September, I think we can all bid good riddance to the worst summer we've had for a long time and get on with the steady old decline towards Christmas!..

I have a spattering of Autumn Weddings to come, but I think it's fair to say that the biggest part of my Wedding 'season' is now behind me, too. Still to come, though, are two Wedding Fayres - one at Mere Golf Resort near Knutsford and one I'm organising myself at The Culcheth Arms - the same venue I staged a Fayre in the Spring..

And today? Just the 1,200 images to edit from Tish and Simon's Wedding last Saturday! I think I'd better switch off the Wii..  

Marking Days, marking Di ..

Eighteen years! It's 18 years today since Lady Di died in a car crash. I can't believe it's been so long! I was lucky enough to photograph her twice, including this trip to Altrincham when she 'launched' a canal barge called Prince William. Boy, I'll bet she enjoyed that day...

It's a Bank Holiday so of course the weather is dismal, but I'm delighted that my old pal Tish got a gorgeous late summer's day for her Wedding to Simon on Saturday. Have a look at it here! I worked my socks off and was absolutely shattered by the time I left at 9.30 in the evening, so I don't feel any guilt at all for the fact that I've had a lie-in and am taking it easy today. In fact, what the heck am I doing writing a blog?...

All at sea ..

Off to the seaside today, but no paddling in the waves for me. Southport is the location for the Wedding of Tish and Simon, and I'll be packing up and heading off there in just over an hour. I'm not saying a word about the weather - not after last Saturday's unbelievable turnaround - but I'm just hoping it stays decent so that we can get some shots on the boating lake. Yes, the boating lake, but I won't be getting my feet wet there, either. There are some pedallo-type 'boats' - in the shape of swans! - that the bride and groom have said they want to be photographed in, and who am I to turn down a great photo-op like that?
Pix on Facebook later, if I haven't been carried out to sea ..

No, Thank YOU...

Thank you! Yes, a genuine thank you to all the lovely brides and grooms who book me to shoot their Wedding photography. Thank you for letting me be part of such an emotional and exciting day and thank you for setting me the fast-moving, ever-changing challenges on which I thrive during a Wedding shoot. "Proper giddy" is how tomorrow's bride described how she and her fiancé felt when I sent them an email last night. I mean, come on, how can you not be thrilled when you know you're part of something as big as that in someone's life? Actually, with Tish, tomorrow's bride, it won't be the first time I've shared all that, as she's the first bride for whom I'll be shooting a second Wedding! Her first was way back in the early 90s when she wore a fantastic black dress in a brilliant punk Wedding!
So, to her I say Thank you .. again!

The patience of a saint ..

I was in a church yesterday .. without a bride or groom in sight! I was, in fact, shooting the church itself for a new website and quite enjoyed the luxury of being able to move all over the place - indeed, was positively encouraged to do so - without coming under the disapproving eye of an officiating vicar. I've been waiting almost two months to do these photographs. The vicar's diary and mine just haven't matched up and, when they have, we've been thwarted by - you've guessed it - the flippin' weather. The frustrating thing was that, yesterday, the weather played ball and I headed out, only to find that the sun was in exactly the wrong place for an exterior shot of the building. I reckon 6.45pm is the best time for a good shot and so the waiting begins again! Blimey, you need the patience of a saint in this game ..
  

God bless America ..

Interestingly, I now get more readers of my blog from The States than I do from the UK! Hi, y'all.. and thanks for checking in! I wonder what you make of my typically English humour, and my good ol' British rants and moans! It'd be nice to hear from one or two of you, if you have the time..

How much difference is there between American and British Wedding Photography? I know that, on my travels, I've come across a couple of American photographers giving talks about Wedding photography, and it comes across as so much more based on 'set poses' rather than spontaneity or free-flow. One guy was even selling a small book of images of 'set-poses' which a snapper could clip to his or her key-ring so that they could work their way through a 'repertoire' of poses. This, I shuddered to hear, was so that the photographer didn't get sued by the couple if they missed off a shot from the collection! Yowzer! I don't think I'll be working in America anytime soon ..

Whether the weather ..

Do not ever - ever - let me blog about the British weather again! On Saturday - as you'll have read - it seemed as if all hell was about to break loose over the gorgeous plains of Cheshire, with tornado warnings and torrential rain promised as the day progressed. I was gritting my teeth and packing towels and a waterproof jacket as I set off for Saturday's Wedding.  What happened? It was the hottest, sunniest Wedding I've shot for bloomin' ages! Having said that, I'm not complaining, although shiny Wedding guests and dazzling sunshine did throw me the odd challenge or two on the day. It was great to be back at Willington Hall, too. Have a look at Emma and Dan's page here...

I was thinking, though. Surely it can't be a coincidence that - on a weekend when the Met Office got things so spectacularly wrong - they also lost the contract to supply weather forecasts to the BBC. Of course it can, but go with it, folks! I just think they're spelling it wrong. It should be called the whether!...

Nice day for a wet Wedding ..

Here I am, setting sail for today's Wedding at Willington Hall. Well, it might as well be, the amount of rain we've had over the past few hours! Depressing to think that's our lot for this pathetic summer and I'm afraid you can talk all you like about an Indian Summer, but it's not the same as knowing you have three or four months of - potentially - gorgeous weather stretching forward ahead of you!
No, I've written off this year's summer!..

Still, today's lovely couple have something stretching forward .. a whole new married life together! Sun, rain, hail or gale, I can't tell you how exciting it is to be the one to capture those first few hours of newly married life! Oh, I'm all cheered up again now! Anchors aweigh...

News update: Torrential rain warnings now in place!

News update #2 : Wet? Were you joking? It was the hottest, sunniest Wedding I've shot in ages. Hang your heads in shame, weathermen!!... 

When will I be famous? ..

Shirley Baker is getting a lot of attention for her photography at the moment, and quite rightly, too. It's a shame she died last year! However, she's posthumously packin' 'em in at The Photographers' Gallery in London, and has featured in The Guardian and Daily Mail in the last couple of days. Her photographs, though - of children playing in the road, women chatting on street corners, men 'loitering' as she calls it in her exhibition title  - remind me a lot of ..

Erm ...

Ah, yes! My photographs! Yes, I see lots of similarities between our work - the only difference being I was shooting all of my archive from the tender age of fifteen and sixteen years old and hadn't specifically set out to record a 'passing era'! I've made a little montage in tribute to Shirley, who I met once many moons ago and a lovely lady she was, too. You can click on it to see a larger set of images. My photographs are now represented in London by the same Picture Library that looks after Shirley's work and I hope I don't sound too churlish but I do hope my work gets a little recognition in the coming years, too. Ok, I'm jealous, and perhaps patience is a virtue, after all. Bear in mind another of my snapper heroes, André Kertesz, didn't gain recognition for his photography until he was well into his latter years..

I'll just have to wait and, yes, of course I'll remember you when I'm famous!...

The day after ..

Hard to believe that yesterday was the 30th anniversary of the Manchester Air Disaster. A Boeing 737 caught fire on the runway and killed 55 people, and I was dispatched to Salford's Hope Hospital by the Manchester Evening News to photograph any casualties arriving at Accident and Emergency. In my mind I can't actually remember photographing a single arrival and was, to be honest, rather disappointed - bearing in mind I was a keen and eager 25 year old press photographer - that I wasn't covering the 'main story'. The thing I remember most, though, happened the day after this horrible event. I went to Turner's 'chippy' in Eccles for my lunch and literally - literally - had my chips wrapped up in my colleague Mike Grimes' grim but great photographs of the burnt-out shell of the jet. Today's news - as they say - is tomorrow's chip-wrapper. I have never had a better illustration!..

At least Wedding photographs have a longer shelf-life, and as the Wedding Fayre at The Mere draws closer I've been featured in a little on-line 'booklet' that they've produced, offering new brides and grooms little snippets of advice for their 'Big Day'. My pearl of wisdom is this ..

"Don't stress too much about everything being "perfect" on your Wedding Day. You'll have already worked hard to make sure your Big Day reflects your personalities, so just let the day flow as it will and it'll be all the more enjoyable for being relaxed."

Worth bearing in mind when you realise just how quickly the 'Big Day' becomes .. the day after!

Pin it ..

Phew, I'm all pinned out! I've just spent the whole morning adding over 100 new images to my Pinterest Wedding board. I thought it was about time for an update and I'm really pleased with how it's all looking now. Click on the montage to see it larger ..

So, off we go into the second half of August and I still have another two Weddings to go before the month's out. Next week sees me back at Willington Hall - one of my favourite venues - and then the week after I'm off to Southport to shoot the Wedding of an old friend of mine. It's actually her second Wedding and yes, I did shoot the first one .. way back in the nineties! It'll be odd to be photographing a 'bride' for the second time but hey, despite my rose-tinted slushy old view of marriage, I have to accept that they do sometimes break down! Just don't try and pin this one on me ..

No flies on me ..

Well, that's 55 ticked off and I've got a whole year to get used to the idea now! Back to the coal-face today and the hard graft that is ... well .. photographing flowers for my Florescence series! I know! Tough life! Anyway, I was busy spotting one of my shots of a holyhock this morning when I 'spotted' a greenfly hiding underneath one of its leaves! Reminded me straight away of the flower-girl I photographed with a greenfly on her nose! Perhaps that should be my new project!
You can click on the pix to enlarge 'em! ..

Off for a meeting later with a company who want me to shoot their new website photography for them. Probably involve a whole day in a factory, so I doubt there'll be an aphid, greenfly or ant in sight. Still, when it comes to corporate photography, there are no flies on me ..

Happy Birthday to me ..

It's my birthday! No work will be done today! Rather, we're off to the beach and, although it won't quite be 'Surfin' USA', we're aiming to have a damned fine time amongst the dunes at Formby!..

Catch you on the morrow ..

Roll away the years ..

Go on! Ask me about The Tubes! Go on, 'cos I'm dying to tell you!..

I went to see them on their 40th anniversary tour on Saturday night and they were .. fantastic! Forty years on and - oh, boy - the lads have still got it! Admittedly it was, as Lesley said, a bit like a Saga Holiday coach outing - and that includes the audience! - but I don't think I've ever before seen such joy on the face of a performer! The lead singer Fee Waybill just couldn't stop smiling and laughing and joking with us all. It was superb! Forty years? Man, they just rolled away ..

Anyway, excitement over and back to normal again. As usual in August, work has dropped off a little so, as I mentioned the other day, I've finally had some time to start shooting new work for my Florescence collection. These are the first digital images I've shot for it, and it amazes me now to think I photographed every single image before this on film! Yep, colour trannie, Mamiya 645 with extension tubes and a lot of coloured paper! Up close and personal with plants again, though ..
man the years just rolled away ..  

Makes me spit ..

I've just realised it's the start of the football season today; nine months now of pansy-fannying around by over-paid grunts all competing for best actor awards in the 'Falling over in intense agony' category of next year's Oscars. But the thing is, what's with all the spitting? Why do footballers feel the need to spit all the time? Cricketers don't spit, rugby players don't spit and I can play two solid hours of badminton without feeling the need to spit once. Not once!..

It's common again these days to see young men - and the odd woman - feel it's ok to spit as they walk along a public footpath. Yeah, I'll just gozz right there, right where you're going to walk! By the way, did anyone else grow up calling it 'gozz' or was that just us oiks in Eccles?..

If footballers are role models then I think they need to stop and have a good look at themselves. I think their arrogance and smugness is what's carried across to a lot of young kids these days, and the idea of mutual respect and good manners is going down the drain. Exactly where they should spit, come to think of it ..  

The past! It's the future ..

Today is Day Two of the four-day Rebellion Punk Festival in Blackpool and I wouldn't have minded going but, bloody hell, as much as I love punk music I don't think even I could stand four solid days of it. That's ok though 'cos, tomorrow, I'm going to see The Tubes, on their .. wait for it .. Fortieth Anniversary Tour! Yes, I think it's definitely true to say my musical taste is well and truly rooted in the past. I think I've reached a point in my life where all the music I'll ever know and love is filed - alphabetically, of course - on the shelves in my music room. Don't get me wrong, I'd dearly love some new band or breakthrough sound to blow me away but, from the heady heights of 55 - my birthday's on Tuesday should you wish to send chocolate or Jack Daniel's - all I hear is derivations of the music I loved the first time around. Well, derivations and utter crap! I've written before how it depresses me that a 20 year old today would think Sam Smith or Ella Henderson are 'good' music and I want to slap 'em with a wet haddock and ram some UK Subs or Jeff Buckley down their earoles..

Still, each to their own and anyway, I can't hear your protestations with my speakers turned up this high. I'll just leave you with a shot from my old press photography cuttings. I saw this geezer at a gig back in the early 90s, when the sight of a mohican was almost as much of a shock as it was the first time around. I loved the needles of hair, spiked up with flour and God knows what, and imagined him tending to it with a comb like this! The chap - Lionel, by the way! - was only too happy to go along with my idea and I would like to think that, as with me and The Tubes tomorrow, he and his spikes will be pogoing like buggery at Rebellion..

The past! It's the future ..

Colour me bad ..

It's happening, it definitely is! I'm succumbing more and more to the world of 'unreal' colour - the photoshopped landscape where white is yellow and true skin tones have gone out the window! I can't help it! I'm surrounded! I haven't got a chance! I can't watch a film now, or an ad on the box, or look at another Wedding photographer's website without being wrapped in false colour, and it's starting to rub off!..

When digital photography came into my world I used to fret for hours about skin tones and true whites - still do - but now, hey .. no sweat, I can just just throw a Lightroom preset over a shot and .. Ta Daaaa.... instant fix! I guess false colours have just become so ubiquitous that we all now accept them. Certainly the younger generation does, what with Instagram and filters on their phones. A young girl of about eight years old, in the studio for a passport, asked me the other day if I could do 'Pop Art'! She wanted a 'Hockney' type presentation of her images, along the lines of the kind of things she can do simply on her own mobile! What a modern world we live in ..

Anyway, presets are in for me now and I just bought a whole raft of them from Ebay yesterday. Not sure about some of the names of the filters though. Bad Romance? Killer Love? Emotional Blue? I might like the effect but I think I'd better keep the names away from the brides when I give 'em their images ..    

Bloomin' lovely ..

After yesterday's doom and gloom a little brightness has cheered me up, in the form of a few gorgeous flowers from my garden. Yes folks, I've finally got round to shooting some new additions to my Florescence series, and about time, too .. half the flowers have already gone over!..

On that point, and to hark back to yesterday - Oh, if you have to, Martin! - I am starting to panic a little about our great British summer. Or, should I say, the lack of it! Another few weeks and that'll be it done! To be honest, in my mind I'm practically already in 2016, talking to brides about their Wedding plans for next year! Hey, maybe I could grow their bouquets for them? Bloomin' great idea!..

No it isn't, Martin! Just stick to your photography ..

Sad ..

I swear to God I'm coming down with SAD, the Seasonal Affective Disorder! Just where is our English bloody Summer?..

I'm sitting in my office with a fleece on, as more rain clouds gather and a cold blustery wind threatens to snap the top-heavy dahlias in the garden. It's horrible! In desperation I've turned to looking at old holiday photographs, and thought I'd share a travel shot from a flight to Greece I took a couple of years back...

Of course, I'm NOT suffering from SAD and don't mean to make light of it. What with all the crap that's going on in the world right now I know damn well I'm doing just fine. The sum total of my 'gripes' this morning is a pimple on my forehead and an achy shoulder from overdoing the press-ups yesterday! Puts it in perspective, doesn't it? Maybe I'm just sad for how the world is right now .. 

Good things come in threes ..

Three things happened during my Wedding on Saturday that meant it really stood out from the norm! (Editor's note: There's a norm with Wedding photography??) ..

The venue was our local church in Culcheth, and it was the first time I'd worked with the new vicar. I'll be honest and tell you he laid down the law 'good and proper' as soon as we met, basing - as is so often the case - his entire working relationship with photographers on one bad experience of an idiot with a finger stuck to his motordrive. Well, I'm pleased to report we got on famously, and I know we're going to get on well together from now on ..

The second thing that was different was that the bride lived practically right next-door to the church, and I was able to zip between shooting the bridal preparations at the house to the pub across the road where the groom was er, chilling .. and back to the church to shoot the arrival of guests and so on. It was really convenient! As the bride came out of the house I ran across to photograph her getting into the car - something I'm never normally able to do - and then I jogged back to the church .. photographed her ten second journey .. and then photographed her getting out of the car at the other 'end'. Most amusing ..

The third thing that happened was that I was 'mentioned in dispatches', something that has never happened in all the years I've been shooting Weddings! I was photographing the speeches at the reception and, as usual, that involved a lot of giving out of gifts. Flowers for the Mums, whiskey for the ushers .. that sort of thing. Suddenly, the bride picked up a little bag and said "This is for Martin, our photographer who, I'm sure you'll agree, was really amazing, fantastic and brilliant today" (It was something like that! I can't remember exactly as I was in shock!). But how lovely! A little box of delicious chococlates just for me! So thoughtful. Well, like these young snappers at Saturday's Wedding, they always say good things come in threes..

Healthy, safe! ..

Hard hat? Check! Hi-Viz vest? Check! Safety goggles? Gloves!!? Check! ..

Good grief, anyone would think I was going down a 300 metre mine-shaft yesterday, rather than standing on the edge of a building site, fenced off in a 'safe' area away from the diggers, just to take a PR photograph of a councillor holding a garden spade! Health and Safety is going nuts! I just thank my lucky stars they decided that, after taking all our shoe sizes, we didn't need to wear steel toe-capped boots after all!..

There'll be none of that nonsense for this afternoon's Wedding. In fact, if it wasn't for all the gear I carry to a Wedding, I wouldn't even need my car today! Everything that's going to happen is so close to my house that I could walk between the bride's house, the church and the reception venue. All very safe, and all very healthy! Just don't tell anyone that I'll be climbing up a ladder to shoot the group shot..

PS: Check out the event here... Look, it's me!!

Bring back paper ..

There's a rolling news story on the Beeb today about a little printer being brought out by Polaroid which enables people to have 'hard copies' made of their 'phone photographs. Admittedly the shots are only about two inches wide but hey, it's a step in the right direction, which is back to the old days and the joy of prints!..

Last night Lesley came home from work and told me about one of her workmates, who'd just been on a three-week road trip around some of the national parks in America. She'd brought in some of the photographs from the holiday .. in an album! Yes, all printed out and everything! Lesley said it was lovely to be able to pass the book around and enjoy 'real' photographs once more..

I thought this shot from my archive was an amusing illustration of today's blog. Classified 'ads' in a 'paper-shop window, circa 1977. I'm always going on about the importance of printing out your work and, for the first time in a long time, I have almost as many brides this summer ordering Wedding albums as are asking for a CD of digital images. You don't think this paper thingy's catching on again, do you?..

News! Good! ..

Good news! I've had a personal visit to my  Joy Division exhibition in Macclesfield by none other than the band's drummer Steven Morris! How flattering is that? Actually, it's nothing of the sort, 'cos he was at Charles Roe House - the show's venue - for something completely different! Still, it was a great photo-opportunity and, as they say, never let the truth get in the way of a good story ..

But hang on a minute .. didn't that exhibition finish a month ago? Ah, well this is the good news bit, 'cos I've been invited by Incubation Arts to continue the show - in a different room - for the rest of the summer, and that's actually why I was there this morning .. changing the shots over into this other room. Steve was there to discuss ideas about .. well, it's not my place to tell you, but if those ideas take off, that will be very good news indeed ..

Get ahead, get a hat ..

Hats off to variety, and there was plenty of that at the studio yesterday as I photographed ten day old Noah in a cutesy caterpillar bonnet, and then moved on to feisty 'Tank-Girl' Eleisha and her funky 'steam-punk' army helmet! Click on the images for a closer look!..

Sadly not much sign of needing a sun-hat around these parts at the moment but I live in hope, as does the client for whom I'm working this afternoon. I'm shooting the opening of a new show-home for a building firm, and they've asked me to capture visitors enjoying champagne and a hog-roast and "hopefully" .. as they put it, sunshine! It's not the best summer we've ever had, and if we get a blazing August I'll eat my hat!..

(I had my fingers crossed when I wrote that!...)

Tats ..

Holy sh*t! I've only like, finally gone and done it, haven't I? ..

I've always wanted to stand out from the crowd, you see. To be different, to have that certain 'edge', to be the lone wolf .. and now I am! And why? 'Cos I've only gone and had NO TATTOOS done, innit! Like, I so look like no-one else in the UK! I'm unique! I'm one of a kind! I'm like, so expressing my inner individuality, man! I've got no kids' names scrawled up my forearms, no tribal markings around my manly biceps, no butterflies on my ankles, no dragons on my back, no illegible chinese symbols behind my lug 'oles .. how effin' different am I? I rock! ..
Oh, and I haven't got a beard, either...

(Although I have got a brother-in-law with a tattoo parlour. He'll bleedin' kill me if he reads this!..  )

Holy smoke ..

You'll go a long way to see a shot like this these days .. (Greece?) .. but I just thought I'd show it you as I found it in a box of archive prints the other day. Notice it's a print - I can't find the negative anywhere, but I'm really pleased with the scan I did of the old image. Click on the picture and get a better look at it. It shows a plate of chips and an overflowing ashtray full of cigarette ends.  in a pub. Yuck! Man, the things we put up with before the smoking ban! ..

My photography's on hold today. The crummy weather's put paid to a pr shoot I'm booked to do for a church's new website. This is about the third week we've failed to get it off the ground as either the vicar or I have always been busy when we've had a sunny day. We're both praying to the Weather Gods that we'll get the shoot done soon ..

Still, it means I'm in for the delivery of my new iPhone today. Yes, I'm fed up with my Android and I'm moving over to the converted! Perhaps I should photograph the church with it..

Being Friendly ..

I was taking Pr photographs of youngsters in a school last week and the head teacher said something very nice about me. She said "What a nice change .. a friendly photographer!" and went on to tell me that whenever the local press snappers turned up at the school they were always grumpy!..

Well, a smile costs nothing as they say though, quite frankly, why wouldn't I smile when I get paid to do what I love doing all day long? Especially photographing happy young children! I remember, before I had my studio, putting an ad in our local Post Office that said something like 'Give me a ring and I'll shoot your kids!'. I don't think people quite 'got' that little slogan but I'm pleased to say that, despite the ad, I will be shooting kids once the summer holidays are over. A local playgroup has approached me and invited me in for two photo-sessions in the early autumn. Can't wait ..

Another exciting development this week is my Summer Wedding offer. I'm taking 5% off any Wedding booking received before August 31st. Now how's that for being a friendly photographer?..

Jets, dreams and steam ..

Another great day out yesterday at RIAT, the RAF's Fairford Air Show and, as promised, another amusing snoozing selection from the event .. oh, and some planes! As mentioned in Saturday's Blog, I just don't get how people can pay all that money, travel all that way and .. fall asleep! Anyway, great event, and quite probably the last time I'll ever see the Vulcan flying. I do hope some of these people woke up in time to watch that momentous event!..

So, beetroot-headed and sore-legged, it's time to get my feet back on the ground and concentrate on work! It's a really good PR week this week with various clients including an insurance company and a building firm. I'm also doing a 'Steam-Punk' fashion portrait session which, from a quick scour through Google, seems to involve the wearing of clothes inspired by 19th Century steam-powered machinery. Ok? I'm definitely not going to sleep through that..

   

Sssshhhh.......

It was lovely that my blog got such a good response yesterday, with almost twice my average number of readers checking out the piece about David. Thank you ..

Mid July means it's time for my annual trip to the Snooze-athon that we called the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but I never cease to be amazed at how many people travel all the way down there, pay damn-near fifty quid for a ticket .. and then fall asleep! What's the bloody point of that? I mean, it's not as if it's exactly quiet at an air show, is it?! I shall endeavour to capture more snoozers for you tomorrow! Have a nice weekend..

A nice man! ..

I wanted to say a word about the sad passing of a neighbour of mine. David Wilmot died suddenly last month after a short illness, and it makes me glum to think I'll never be able to have a chat with him again. He was always friendly, warm and interested in what I was up to, and even came into my studio once for a new set of portraits..

Yes, this is David - the former Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police. When I was a young snapper starting out in the press and nervous about photographing somebody 'famous', my dad would always reassure me that they were 'still just people' at the end of the day, and that helped me drive on through any shoot that came my way. I photographed Sir David every now and again when I worked for the Manchester Evening News. One day, having moved out of Salford after buying the house I live in now, I was walking down my street when I passed a man on his knees, busy weeding in his front garden. He was wearing scruffy dungarees, his backside being the angle he presented to the road! Then he turned round. It was David - The Chief Constable - weeding his garden! Talk about a double-take!..

Still just people! I've met 'celebs' whose fame or power or new-found importance has gone to their heads, and they're horrible when you photograph them .. but not David. He was so much nicer for being 'just a person'. I imagine he's already sorted out all the weeds around the pearly gates..

Just take the f•cking picture ..

I did so enjoy The Duke of Edinburgh's little nasty snap during a recent photo-shoot. I'm sure you saw it but you can always have a look at it here! "Just take the f•cking picture.." he says..

As a photographer I hear that quite often, especially with group photographs. It's as if the subjects of the picture don't realise they're not the only person being photographed. Sort of .. 'I'm ready, so taking the f•cking picture!' kind of attitude! (©DOE 2015). It's hard to count but I'll bet the photographer in this case didn't get off more than ten frames before he called Thank You, and the group dispersed..

"You're just the photographer.." is something I've heard more than once at a Wedding, along with "All you do is press a button..". The thing is, for me and many an established photographer, it's this seeming 'casual' approach that is the very essence of our experience and professionalism - the thing that actually enables us to take so few frames! Imagine the 'Philip' scenario at a Wedding with a grumpy Grandad, 150 guests and 'Uncle Fred with a good camera' doing the photography ..

I just hope that chap photoshopped a moustache and cross-eyes on the grumpy old git ..   

Read the instructions ..

Well, how smug am I this fine summer's morning? You'll never guess what I did yesterday. I fixed a part on my car! Yes, me, the most un-mechanic-y bloke on the planet! I changed a part on the O'Neill-Mobile and, bugger me, it works! Ok, it was only a replacement door mirror, but that's a pretty big job for me. So big, in fact, that I had to go onto the internet and search for instructions! I told you I was useless at 'that kind of thing'!..

Instructions are handy though, aren't they? I can't tell you the number of people who come on my Shoot 'n Tutor workshop that haven't read their camera's instruction book. Yesterday I received a new screen protector for the back of one of my cameras. A simple piece of clear plastic but, flippin' 'eck, even that came with instructions, too! But what fun instructions they were, ending with the delightful sentence 'Now you're done, and a cuppa and muffin are very much in order'! Love it! Oh, and I told the company I'd mention them in today's blog too, so well done Expert Shield!..

One person that obviously doesn't do instructions is the motorbike rider who smashed into my wing-mirror and broke it in the first place! Hey, moron, why wait in line for the traffic to go through the lights when you can pull out onto my side of the road and try to race through the gap between my car and the next one? Highway Code, anyone? I can only hope he had to instruct the A & E department to fix a broken finger..

Ps: That's my cousin, fixing my knackered old Fiat 127 in an archive shot circa 1981 and yes, he is in his socks! My cousin makes his own instructions ..  

File under G ..

I don't have Spell Check on this computer, so it's just as well I proof-read before I press 'Publish' ! There've been quite a few times when you could have been reading about Welding photography, or even Weeding photography if I didn't! Anyway, talking about spelling, I was looking through my archive for an old shot of a band called Gun Club yesterday, and got distracted by 'Girls in night-club'. Close by were 'Graffiti', 'Guitar' and 'Guides Parade' but I was drawn to this one because A) I'd never noticed it before (It was all scratched and covered in dust) and B) It's got me in it, and that always works for Yours Truly. Ok, I'm sporting Deirdre Barlow glasses and a centre-parting but hey, it was the 70s..

Finding that negative was great. What a wonderful thing to have this shot as a physical reality, one that still exists as an actual photograph after, I reckon, 36 years! (I'm thinking it was shot at Sale's 'Blue Rooms' disco, when I worked on my first ever newspaper.) Now, of course, it exists as a digital image too, and not only that but one that is also backed-up on a seperate hard drive. I mention this because there was a story in the press last week about a woman who'd had her 'phone stolen, and on it were all 300 of her photographs of her son, a Cystic Fibrosis sufferer .. who had just died! What a sad story, from every point of view. I hope she gets the 'phone back but honestly - in a few years time - how are we ever going to view the past when it 'ain't there? Back up, Print, Copy, File under G, or anything! Just File!!....  

Gizza hug ..

These are literally the first and last shots from last week's Wedding. I thought it was so great that the whole day was wrapped with hugs! To me the shots are so honest yet capture the all-important minutiae of the day - the toast and jam of the 'first' Wedding breakfast of the day, the bride with the orange juice for the Bucks Fizz and - at the other end of the day - the groom and a pal proving they might have sampled quite a lot of those drinks during the day! This is what Wedding photography's about. Forget all that posed crap that seems to pass as the 'right way' to shoot Weddings these days - silhouettes, smoke bombs, blurry shots through trees and railings! It's all art for art's sake! A lot of Wedding photographers seemed to have crawled up their own proverbials, and they're staying there. Well great, 'cos I'm happy to say there are still plenty of brides and grooms that can't be bothered with all that fakery. They're the ones that book me, and get the nitty-gritty of it all. Captured moments that actually happened on their Wedding Day. Now, of course I'll shoot a great set of 'posed' shots too. One just doesn't need to go over the top, that's all! Real Life! Just saying ...