Sorry, I'm really bad at blogging. I've almost given up on doing a monthly blog and it seems to have become quarterly. Work has gone through the roof and the blog was the last thing on my mind. Also, on 17th July Kristin and I got married. We had a great day after months of hard work (all Kristin's), the weather held out and it all went by far too quickly. I resisted the temptation to pick up a camera and my bride and I were the last two on the dancefloor when the power got turned off at 3am. No honeymoon as yet, just too busy at the moment.
Interesting jobs this quarter have been for Sunkist soft drinks, who have launched a new UK marketing push. Dewsall Court in Herefordshire which is an exciting new development being launched by some good friends of ours. It is a family home that is being turned into an events venue and luxury accommodation www.dewsall.com Sale Sharks had me in to shoot their new seasons kit and I'll be doing some more with them in a couple of weeks.
The pictures speak for themselves. Life at Toft is great and we're enjoying being surrounded by all creature great and small. The latest addition was a hedgehog that had been rescued by Lower Moss Wood animal rescue in Ollerton. www.lowermosswood.org.uk Kristin took a injured swallow and returned with a rehabilitated hedgehog……fair swap I suppose!
The bees are busy and I'll be looking to take my first crop of honey soon.
Summer is now coming to a close and we're looking forward to the treats that Autumn brings.
Well, doesn’t time seem to be flying by? A lot has happened since the last post.
We said our fairwells to Tommy Blake in April, what a tough month that was. Kristin starts her new job in June and will be working at Tatton Park with the events team, and we have finally moved to Toft on the edge of Knutsford. My back and knees are still coming to terms with the move.
We’ve been in the new house for about 6 weeks and still can’t believe what a great place it is. Waking up to views over rolling Cheshire dairy meadows with not a commuter in sight is not a bad way to start the day. Gladly, complacency has not set in yet, and long may that continue.
My bees have arrived and what an experience that was! I had to pick up two boxes of bees, for both my aunt and myself, that had been ordered from Slovenia. They came in plastic boxes and maintained a menacing buzz for the duration of the car journey on the day of collection. All went well, however, and they are currently enjoying the warm weather and are now going about the business of doing what bees do.
So what have I been doing workwise? I’ve been back to Butlins, shooting some lifestyle photography over in sunny Skegness. Manchester Rugby Sevens commissioned me to shoot a haka competition at Sale Sharks’s last game of the season. Neil Firth, of the Vocal Group asked me to cover another event for him at Catton Hall. Neil coaches some of the UK’s leading choral groups and applies his training to those in the business sector who present and speak in public. http://thevocalgroup.co.uk/ Of course, there was the annual touch rugby tournament at Edgeley Park with the Sale Sharks 500 club. I scored a brace of tries and managed to restrain from giving away any interceptions. A marked improvement from last year.
The weddings have picked up quite dramatically now and I’m shooting about one a week on average, with bookings coming in quickly for next year. To help with the workload, I am looking for someone to help me on a work experience basis, with the view to making the position more permanent at the end of the summer. I plan to offer some more creative packages for my wedding customers , so will be working on that over the next few months.
Our own wedding plans are coming together now and there is little else to organise. The guestlist has been the hardest part, not that I can take credit for doing much work at all. Kristin’s industry has been relentless and I know it’s all going to be well worthwhile come July. Think it’s time to start thinking about my speech.
Apologies for those of you, if any, who are wondering where my March update has been. It’s been a bit of a hectic month to say the least.
The wedding season has swiftly descended and the weekends are rapidly disappearing in a swirl of confetti.
March has been a month of ups and downs. Spring is in the air and things are changing. We are moving house, which is well overdue as our spare room is currently full of lights, stands, prints and all the other photographic paraphernalia required to keep a self employed photographer ticking over. So needless to say, we haven’t had many guests to stay overnight.
The new place has much more room and potential for a studio, so Kristin’s patience will have been well worthwhile.
The house has other very attractive qualities. There is a dairy farm on one side, a hall on the other and miles of lush Cheshire countryside as far as the eye can see.......perfect! What better place to live and work. So expect more landscape photography.
So what else? Nelson, one of our dogs, has passed his test to become a therapy pet. I have begun my beekeeping course and am expecting to pick up my first swarm towards the end of May. So expect some bee photos.
I am playing possibly my last game of rugby on Thursday the 15th April. Back at my old club, Wilmslow RUFC, they are organising a charity game in aid of the brother in law of one of my old playing chums who suffers from Motor Neurone Disease. The game is against the Greater Manchester Police and there has been a great deal of support so far, with as much effort being put into raising money for this extremely worthwhile cause. Families are welcome and there will be a raffle and the police panda mascot for the kids at the game, which is an evening kick off, probably around 7.00pm.
On a sadder note, and the reason for my delayed post, I lost a good friend of mine in March. Tommy Blake was tragically killed in a car accident on Sunday 28th March. To add to his family’s heartache, Tommy was only 20 years old and had unbelievably lost his brother and also very close friend of mine, Scott, in a car accident in 2003. Tommy had completed the Wilmslow half marathon that day and had been running for another worthy cause. He was raising money in aid of Friends of PICU, who helped Ella Jayne Murray through the short and testing few months she had with us before she sadly passed in January 2009.
We are all dealt cruel blows by life and what makes us who we are is how we deal with these events. Every loss is met with stories of perseverance and courage and spurs those surrounding to ensure that the memories live on and that others may not have to endure the same anguish.
In memory of Tommy, Scott and little EJ, a few of us will be running the Wilmslow half marathon next year to raise money for the Southampton Paediatric Care Unit. I’m not built for distance running by any stretch of the imagination, but what better excuse to shake off those unwanted pounds? Agreed, it’s hardly mount Everest, but we can’t think of a better or more fitting way to remember Tommy and his endeavours to raise money for a few poorly young children and their families?
So this month’s post shows a little of what I’ve been up to, plus a couple of pictures of Tommy.
Friday, February 5, 2010
One month in and the year is already flying by.
So what have I been working on in the last few weeks?
Well, the wedding season is not yet upon us, but I've had a few interesting commercial shoots. Sale Sharks had me down to shoot some 'atmosphere' photography at one of their Heineken cup games and have some work with the players in mind at some point before the end of the season. It seems my involvement with their 500 club is proving useful and I would highly recommend any business with or without rugby ties to have a look at membership.
My friends at Adam needed some corporate portraits doing, to liven up their LinkedIn pages, and I was only too happy to oblige.
Finally, JCB commissioned me for some more photography down at their site in Staffordshire. Another lovely brief, that was a pleasure to work on. It's a fairly new client for me and, so far, all of the shoots have been a great combination of technical challenges and well thought out design.
So what photography to post at the moment? Well the JCB work is still under wraps, so why not showcase an image of the late, great Tony Wilson, that has been used by the author David Nolan on his latest book 'Your Entitled to an Opinion'? I was delighted when David said that he'd like to use the image for the front cover. The photograph was one in a series taken on the last programme that Tony worked on.
Well, what better way to start my new blog than with a few snowscapes from the recent Alpine conditions that we've just had. If ever there was a time to take the dogs for a walk with the cameras, it was this last week. Which brings me onto one of the subjects of some of the photos, Ernie. He is our latest addition, is a 7 month old cocker spaniel and is almost totally blind. However, what he lacks in vision, he more than makes up for in determination and despite getting regularly blindsided by our other dog, Nelson, (pardon the pun) the only thing that hampers him is the accumulation of snowballs to his undercarriage in the current winter conditions. Nothing a hairdryer and towel can't sort out though. I'm not sure how regularly I will be submitting posts, but will endeavour to beat my current record of a three year gap, which was the last time I contributed to a blog (Lenztrip, from Southeast Asia).
I feel the blog to be a better way of putting some of the photos that I do for personnal pleasure, online. It certainly beats the likes of facebook and gives me my own little forum to vent and upload, without the constant barrage of people 'poking' me and inviting me to join every whimsical group that comes along.
No, on my blog I shall be just putting up some pictures of the stuff I don't get paid to photograph......so expect lots of dog photographs.
I am a UK photographer, based in Cheshire. I work mainly in advertising and wedding photography, although my work takes me to many different places on varying assignments.
