Plan B

Wind back the clock, I still need it to be January

2011-02-01T18:55:00.000Z

Due to some technical difficulties I wasn't able to post this yesterday so I'll have to ask you to bear with me and to pretend that it is still January the 31st

Blimey, where did January go, no sooner had I taken down the Christmas decorations (more of that later) than the month was at an end and it was the 31st

I hope you are all doing well with your New Year Resolutions, my main resolution was to continue to hone my craft by going out taking more pictures even when I don't have a commission by a client. I need to continue to find new ways of seeing the world in order to help my clients to present themselves and their products, staff and other goodies to their potential clients.

10 minutes before I took this image on Sunday I realised that a Christmas tree decoration company had certainly had a major impact on one their customers in that they still had a fully decorated Christmas tree proudly on display for all to see in their front window, that really is staying power

Maybe someone is toying with me ?

2011-01-30T18:27:00.000Z

Only just over a week ago I created a posting entitled I don't know much about art but I know what I like where I'd seen a framed painting of a couple of swans left next to a bench and a rubbish bin that I often walk past.

The plot seems to have thickened since then, the next time I walked down that same road I managed to get as far as the next bin before I saw the latest discarded item (or in fact items)

I wondered why someone would be out & about with a family sized jar of pickled goodness but then manage to leave them next to a roadside bin, a picnic gone wrong perhaps

But after much head scratching I decided that maybe this was all part of some bizarre ongoing installation art work either for the local population or just for me although I didn't spot any twitching curtains as I stopped to take the picture.

What will be the next item ? I hoping for a whale or perhaps a Learjet

What have you seen discarded by the side of the road ?

So Banksy doesn't do burglar alarms after all

2011-01-26T18:13:00.000Z

It's always nice when a fellow blogger notices something that you've posted and links to it as their interests overlap with your own

So it was a little bit of a surprise when a blog posting I made back in August 2010 entitled
The photographers eye and a Dog Full of Money had caught the eye of the author a new blog about burglar alarms, don't worry this isn't a blog for people who go up ladders installing alarms but is more about an interest in burglar alarms almost as a form of street (or front wall) art.

Burglar Alarm Britain belongs to Vici MacDonald, ex-editor of Art World magazine, she explains her interest in Burglar alarms here. She spotted a burglar alarm in Bristol which had a sticker of a dog on it, she hoped it would turn out to be a Banksy but her investigation led to the knowledge that it was in fact a Dog Full of Money

You can read the full story here

Thanks to Vici for the interest and for trapping me into looking above the ground floor on every building I pass looking for interesting burglar alarms

I don't know much about art but I know what I like

2011-01-22T11:00:00.000Z

Whether photography is art has always been a debate between photographers and artists.

My view is that some photography is art, and that some (if not most) is merely editorial or documentary and is therefore is ephemeral, here today and gone tomorrow (or maybe a chip wrapping)

Ultimately most photographic images won't last forever, there are others that will still be around in a hundred years of course but most are only around for the month that a magazine or advert is current or perhaps for the year that a website lasts before needing a revamp.

Businesses always need new images to reflect the changes in their market, to show their new products & staff, their brand new offices or factory or perhaps to just stay one step ahead of the competition with a new exciting advertising campaign so if change & progress are happening in your business please do get in touch

I'm not sure what the ex-owner of this lovely artwork is saying to the world by dumping it next to the bin, maybe they no know something about art after all

Paul Davis photography can be contacted on contact@pauldavisphotography.co.uk and 07866 719730

Doggy Weekend

2011-01-16T18:19:00.000Z

So this has turned out to be a doggy picture weekend, yesterday I suggested that it was often possible to tell what a doggy was thinking.

Most doggies are a small set of well developed instincts, a waggy tail and a cold wet nose all wrapped up in a very hair coat (10% of which seems to fall out on a given day).

One doggy in particular seems to be taken the doggy stereotype very much to heart and has made it his.

I give you Antonella's dog Robbie although I seem to call him Robster much more these days

He is ruled by 4 things

His nose and what it can help him to find to put into his tummy*

His hatred of the postman and his desire to put the postman into his tummy**

His love of walks especially if he can try to find a skip lorry to attack (single paw'edly as the humans won't help him corner one and share the spoils contained within)***

and his love of his family, especially his boss who gave him a loving home after rather too long in doggy prison

and yes you can read his mind too, I'm sure he's thinking "get that camera out out of my face and don't tell the boss I'm trying to sleep on the sofa"

* never leave any thing that this doggy might consider to be a comestible within about 8 feet of the floor even though said doggy is only 4 feet tall on his hind legs

** Luckily the post box is only 3 feet off the floor and so postie fingers are tempting food

*** He's on his own trying to explain that one

Sometimes you can just tell........................

2011-01-15T14:40:00.000Z

.......... what a dog is thinking

"hey master, let's go in here, I've just read they do tax free goods and I need a new bone"

Well it is the weekend so I didn't want to post anything to serious

What can I say

2011-01-02T18:03:00.000Z

As it's still the Christmas season and most people are still at home enjoying themselves (or at home not enjoying themselves) I thought I'd continue with some light hearted blog posts

There are often odd things to be seen in the snow, it brings out the best in people, it also brings out the worst in people (especially on the roads) but it also seems to bring out the eccentric in people or maybe it brings out eccentric people - this makes me wonder where the eccentric people are the rest of the year, maybe one of my blog readers knows the answer to that one

I spotted this chap happily walking through my very chilly home town just before Christmas, I did wonder if he was some sort of hardy northern person putting us softy southerners to shame but I hope he was really an interesting local eccentric walking back to his tricycle for the long journey home to his mansion & pet tiger

Christmas is a time of goodwill to all men, some people get close to a loved one (or a potential loved one) under the mistletoe whereas some people, despite the cold weather seem to have a more direct approach. This 2nd image did make me smile as I pondered just for a second the backstory behind this discarded packaging

Here's to a great 2011 for us all and may there be plenty of the interesting & bizarre for us to see on our daily travels

See anything unexpected this Yuletide season ? please let me know

Bridges, bridges and more bridges

2010-12-19T19:03:00.001Z

No one would be surprised to hear that Great Yarmouth in Norfolk is situated at the mouth of a river although the main river is the Yare rather than the Yar (I wonder where it picked up the letter e, maybe it is the rich Norfolk accent that lead to to its inclusion)

Not surprisingly for a large town with its historically important port at the mouth of a river there have always been issues with moving people and goods from one side of the river to the other.

Until 1427 the only way across was to use one of a number of ferries for people and cattle, but that year saw the building of the 1st bridge very close to where the current Haven bridge is sited, in fact the current bridge when it was opened by the Prince of Wales in 1930 was the 7th bridge across the Yare.

The current bridge was constructed by Sir William Arrol & Co. Ltd whose portfolio also included the Forth Rail Bridge in 1890, Tower Bridge in 1894 and the Nile Bridge at Cairo in 1908. They also built the Middlesborough Transporter bridge 19911 (made famous in on TV by Auf Wiedersehen, Pet), The Forth Road Bridge 1964 , The Severn Bridge 1966 and the Humber Bridge 1981 (and was the longest suspension bridge in the world from 1981 to 1998 and is still the 5th largest suspension bridge in the world) so these guys seem to the ones to go to if you want a great bridge built

The 650 ton lifting arms are raised electrically, although can be operated manually in the event of a power failure - blimey that'd take a long time to raise 2 times 650 tons using muscle power alone.

The last ferry stopped working in the early 1990's

In 1845 the Yarmouth Suspension Bridge disaster took place when about 80 people were drowned, mainly children. They had crowded onto the suspension bridge over the river Bure (a tributary of the Ware) to see a circus clown go down the river in a barrel pulled by geese. The tombstone of George Beloe (aged nine) in St Nicholas' churchyard depicts the bridge collapsing.

The coming of the railways also meant that a swing railway bridge was built to take the direct line from London & Lowestoft over the river. The river traffic was given priority over the trains. The second span on the Cobholm side pivotted on its axis to allow large ships through. In strong winds it could take up to 10 minutes for the operation of the bridge. The bridge was closed to traffic in the 1950's and was demolished in 1962 so it didn't even make it as far as being axed by Dr Beeching

As road traffic around Great Yarmouth and Gorleston increased during the 1970s, the area began to suffer severe congestion problems with long queues of vehicles building up at peak periods. The construction of a new road bridge crossing Breydon Water began in 1984 as part of the Great Yarmouth A12 western bypass and the Gorleston inner relief road. The new bridge was supplied and erected by Cleveland Bridge Ltd. of County Durham and, although completed in 1985, it was not officially opened to road traffic until early in 1986 when the rest of the bypass had been finished. The bridge closely follows the line of the old rail viaduct and, during construction the original pilings were finally removed to make way for the new bridge. The lifting arm weighs around 500 tons and is raised by hydraulics, taking just 90 seconds to open fully. A standby generator was installed as a back up in case of power failure. I believe that it is still be biggest single lifting bascule bridge in the UK luckily without the need for manual backup

The bridge is operated by The Great Yarmouth Port Company

There are now proposed plans for a third river crossing in Great Yarmouth but in the current economic climate I can't really see these coming to fruition in the foreseeable future

Coming soon ?

2010-12-14T19:50:00.000Z

Sometimes you expect something to happen soon and then it all goes wrong

In the case of this building in Norwich which looks like it was scheduled for redevelopment into residential use it was probably the down turn in property values that caused it to be left in limbo for so long that half of the sign has fallen down (I wouldn't have been too keen to have been walking underneath when it came down)

For me it's been a broadband issue

What things have you hoped would happen ?

Paul Davis Photography

Is it Christmas yet ?

2010-12-12T17:21:00.000Z

I really do love Christmas, I love buying the tree and helping my son decorate it, I love buying presents and I love Christmas day itself. It's much of the other stuff that goes with it that I find goes on for so long it becomes tedious.

And anyway I don't think it can be Christmas yet especially as so far I've not bought a single present and I really must buy some mince pies

Perhaps I should fire up a few shopping sites this evening and get shopping meanwhile I can think of warmer summer days and the wide open skies of East Anglia

Sometimes your tongue is an important aid to concentration

2010-12-10T20:08:00.002Z

Photography is often used to capture an expression, usually that expression is either a smile of some sort of candid (subject didn't know the camera was there) shot.

There are other times when the image captures the huge mental effort that is required to be successful particularly in certain sports

These images were captured last year at Blaxhall in Suffolk during a Trials riding event run by the Woodbridge & DMCC & CC. In a trials competition the riders gain points for amongst other things for putting a foot down (or dabbing as it is known) with the rider with the lowest points score being the winner, so these competitors are trying their hardest to keep their balance and not dab

Out comes the tongue as an aid to concentration

There it is again

Face in neutral

Love that expression

Easy, done this before

ooooh, eeeek

I will not put a foot down, I will not put a foot down

Not sure what this expression is but it's not a happy one

I'm available to come along to any sort of motorsport or in fact for any sort of sport to capture the action. Please get in touch if you have an event coming up.

Via the webiste at www.pauldavisphotography.co.uk or on 07866 719730

What do you think, Tom, Dick & Harry perhaps ?

2010-12-09T19:00:00.000Z

I spotted this at an auto jumble back in the summer

For those that don't know an auto jumble is like a jumble sale for car bits. You can find people selling all sorts of stuff from piles of rusty rubbish through to precious parts that are just what someone needs to complete the restoration of their 4-wheeled pride & joy.

I started my photographic career as a media accredited motorsports photographer and cars still form a major subject for me and my work hence my love of events like auto jumbles and the strange sights you can sometimes find.

If you or your other-half love a piece of machinery that you would like photographed so it can be proudly displayed on the wall or on the desk at work please do get in touch with me via my website Paul Davis Photography or on 07866 719730

So what do people think, do spanners always have boys names ?

Do Smiley's People live here

2010-12-08T19:18:00.000Z

Every photograph can tell a story, it is the job of the photographer to see that story in their minds-eye and to set about capturing it. The story could be about a 1st day at school, it could be the start of a happy married life through to being a story about why the consumer should buy your product be it a tin of delicious baked beans through to a tower crane.

Sometimes the story in the picture isn't complete and leaves the viewer wondering what is just out of shot or perhaps what they would look like if they lived in that luxury home.

Just what goes into that bottom letter box ? Maybe it is a dead letter drop for a spy, letters containing the details of the next assassination victim on the other side of the world who will be bumped off using some ingenious weapon dreamed up by Q and his team or could be it be as simple as a brass letter G not being available and it's just the usual junk mail & gas bills ?

Will we ever know ? probably not

Photography can tell your story, it can help you sell your product or help to capture precious memories - the story is up to you

Memories la la la

2010-12-07T20:28:00.000Z

Memories,
Light the corners of my mind
Misty water-colored memories
Of the way we were

Scattered pictures,
Of the smiles we left behind
Smiles we gave to one another
For the way we were

Much of photography is about memories, we can look at dusty pictures of our great grandparents and spot how our children really have inherited the "family" nose. But we can often look at these pictures and wonder who the person in the background is or perhaps what the special occasion was that made them go out and spend their hard earned cash to get a photographer to capture the moment.

Yes photography can bring the past to life but it can also leave questions unanswered, questions that would have been answered if more photographs were available to complete the story.

The image above was taken this year in Great Yarmouth and is a relic of the days 20 years ago when Yarmouth harbour provided a car ferry service to Europe , the sign remains, unloved but still a living museum piece.

A new outer harbour was completed at Yarmouth this year and was furnished with 2 £7 million container cranes and some hinted promise of a new Ro-Ro (roll on, roll off) car ferry service to the Netherlands. But now less than a year later the cranes are going and the ferry service idea has been put on hold as the Great Yarmouth outer harbour concentrates on servicing the renewable energy sectors with the older parts of Yarmouth harbour providing extensive support for the southern North Sea oil & gas industry.

Photography can be used to capture the story but of course the story changes especially in business as the economic climate changes. If you are in business you should always ensure that you are recording your history and also presenting your future to your customers & stakeholders

If you would like to discuss your photography requirements with Paul Davis Photography please call me on 07866 719730 or email on contact@pauldavisphotography.co.uk

Song Credits: Bergman, Alan (Songwriter); Bergman, Marilyn (Songwriter); Hamlisch, Marvin (Songwriter); COLGEMS-EMI MUSIC INC (Publisher)

So photography is like loitering & sketching ?

2010-12-06T19:07:00.000Z

There have been plenty of news reports over the last couple of years of photographers being hassled by security guards or even being arrested by the police just for attempting to take pictures in a public place

Generally it is perfectly legal to take pictures of anyone or anything in a public place and recently the police in many areas have had additional guidance issued to them about how they should operate when they come across a photographer at work out on the streets. Several photography trade bodies & publications also issued copies of the guidelines for journalistic photographers to carry with them

But there are some places where photography is banned these include locations that are subject to the Official Secrets Acts 1911-1939 as Ministry of Defence Prohibited Places, they have signs on them with the rather quaint wording

"Prohibited place within the meaning of the Official Secrets Act. Loitering, photography, sketching forbidden."

and in fact Google Streetview fell foul of these restrictions and had to remove images of many MOD and MI5 locations from its service but I'm not aware of anyone being pounced on for getting out a sketch pad

I do hope I don't get a knock on the door (or worse) for publishing this image from a now defunct military establishment somewhere in England

Christmas WiRE

2010-12-03T13:50:00.002Z

My partner Antonella is a member of the WiRE (Women in Rural Enterprise) networking organisation. WiRE is the only organisation offering support to businesswomen in rural areas although the term rural does seem to include towns

On Tuesday this week the West Suffolk WiRE network held its Christmas Bazaar at the lovely The Grange Hotel in Thurston near Bury St Edmunds and Antonella was exhibiting to showcase her boudoir and portraiture services. As the weather wasn't looking too promising we left loads of time to travel to the hotel but it turned out to be an easy journey and we arrived rather early. This did offer us the time for a nice relaxed lunch, the menu was one of those that made it very difficult to make a choice as it all sounded so wonderful, in the end we both went for a club sandwich which was a great choice as it turned out to be the best club sandwich either of us had ever had.

After lunch we set up Antonella's stand and had a good look around at the stands of the other exhibitors which included every variety of craft from jewellery to handbags & from painting to artisan soft drinks. Everything you could want to get your Christmas shopping off to a flying start including a boudoir photo shoot for your loved one by Antonella

Antonella together with another local business woman, Maureen Chadwick of Painted Tree bespoke furniture has set-up an East of Norfolk WiRE network which will be holding its 1st meeting in February 2010 in the Great Yarmouth area. So I'm sure you'll be reading more about that over at Antonella's blog in the coming weeks

Warmth in the winter

2010-12-02T19:52:00.001Z

Well finally my heating is working properly again (after 3 visits from the heating engineer and many cups of tea)

So finally I can start my photo a day blogging

The 1st image I bring to you is of the Platform Supply Vessel MV Sophie Siem at work in Great Yarmouth harbour in Norfolk UK

The vessel belongs to the Norwegian company, Siem Offshore and was built in 2006. Interestingly Siem Offshore is based in Kristiansand in Norway which is twinned with Letchworth which is the town next to my home town of Hitchin in Herts UK

The vessel is a Platform Supply Vessel designed to carry out regular supply functions and cargo transport for
the oil industry as well as Standby functions. The vessel is designed with a well deck for maximum protection
for cargo and crew.

If your business needs images to promote its activities especially in the marine sector please do get in touch to discuss your requirements

The best laid plans of mice

2010-11-30T17:48:00.000Z

Well I really had planned to blog about an image every week day but ......

Then the weather dropped below 0 and then my central heating broke down so rather than spending too much time shivering next to my little fan heater I decided to spend a few days warming up at Antonella's place. I was already due to be helping her at a WiRE (women in rural enterprise) networking Christmas bizarre where she is showcasing her boudoir and portrait photography.

More blogging tomorrow and this time there will be pictures and I will be waiting in for the heating engineer - burr

A new track for my blog

2010-11-26T15:41:00.000Z

As I have mentioned in previous blog postings I quite like some graffiti and this rat recently caught my eye on a "I don't know much about art but I know what I like" basis. So I have decided to make it the 1st image as part of a new track that my blog is taking (excuse the track pun as this rat adorns a railway footbridge quite near to where I live in North Hertfordshire).

My plan is to post a picture every day but as this is almost the weekend I thought I would start with a personal image rather than starting to showcase my commercial & client work

Please check back every weekday to see more of my work as well as more textual blog postings.

It would also be great to hear about any graffiti in your part of the world that interests you

Thanks

Paul

Where does the time go ?

2010-11-22T13:55:00.000Z

I had an interesting time on Friday with Antonella, one of her images was used by Alfa Romeo as part of some artwork used to celebrate their centenary in 2010 and we had to drop into her local Alfa Romeo dealer (Desira) in Norwich to collect her personalised copy of the artwork. Then it was off to have a professional sensor clean on some of our camera bodies which gave just enough time for a most agreeable lunch to be taken in. We also spent some time in the city buying some items for the forthcoming show season which will no doubt form part of a future blog posting.

Where does the time go ? Well Friday seems to have flown by as have the several months since I last posted on my blog

The photographers eye and a Dog Full of Money

2010-08-24T20:12:00.000+01:00

Good photographers are often said to have better eyes than those who are not blessed with the capability to do more than take snaps.

A good photographer sees things differently and can often "see" things that are not yet there by pre-visualising a shot in their head. They then turn it into reality by positioning the subject in the environment, choosing the right camera angles and settings and sometimes adding props and lighting.

I think I am lucky that I also can see things that others don't see - I'm often the one in a group who says "ooh look at that" when the rest of the group had missed it. My son is lucky that I seem to have passed on this ability to him.

Over the years my son and I often spot things when we are around town and set out to document them photographically and are often surprised how many of these hidden items pop up over time when you seek them out.

Following on from my blog posting a few weeks ago on local graffiti around my home town of Hitchin in Hertfordshire (You can't find a decent bit of graffiti when you need it - but is it art ?)

I thought I would post about some other "found art" - this type of image started off in a very low key way but we soon found that actually they were breeding like rabbits which is ironic given that they are dogs, a very special sort of dogs

To begin with I though that Dog Full of Money (DFM) would turn out to be a local band and these were promo stickers but it turned out they are a celebration of those collection boxes you used to see on the High Street to raise money for Guide Dogs for the Blind. The producer of the stickers seem to have a Bristol connection and also a strong foothold in Hitchin.

In the years since these images were take many of these stickers are now faded remnants proving that art is only temporary

Not all of them featured the Dogs themselves there were others with the letters D, F and M and often shared their space with graffiti

And they came in a number of designs, some with cut outs like the one at the top

Sometimes they shared a post with some band stickers

These 2 were placed on a the mounting for a CCTV camera, I don't suppose the camera can look straight down

Virgin Media cable TV boxes were a favourite target, here with the 3 headed dog

and I am amused by the fact that this post box is right outside another photographers studio

I will miss them when they are all gone but I'm always on the look out for the next thing to say "ooh look at that"

What is there in your environment that others overlook ?

Well it made me smile

2010-08-14T17:34:00.000+01:00

Do you think these two will have a long and happy marriage or will he turn out to be a little wooden or maybe she could turn out to be just like her mother ? and anyway shouldn't they be inside the venue enjoying their reception not outside directing their guests

What funny things have you seen at a wedding, I'd love to hear, please add a comment below

What goes on behind the scenes at my photo shoots or maybe not - reality comes to advertising

2010-08-01T14:17:00.000+01:00

I recently came across this behind the scenes video that shows what has to happen in order for a large corporation such as Domino's Pizza to shoot a few seconds of a "cheese pull".

It shows some of the 150 people including a hand model (wearing gloves until the last minute before the shoot in order to protect her hands), lighting crew, grips and the dozens of food stylists who adjust the pizza after it is cooked using spatulas, knives, cotton buds and tweezers to make the food looks as perfect as it does when it arrives at your door ;-)

You'll have to watch the video to see the use of power tools and other hardware but please do continue to read the blog after you have watched it

In reality it was shot for a Domino's campaign called Show Us Your Pizza, where they promise to bring reality in to their advertising photography and film making and also offer up to $500 to their customers who send in their own winning pizza pictures

Russell Weiner, Chief Marketing Officer of Domino's makes the following promise

Our Photo Promise

Here at Domino's, we don't think our inspired Domino's pizza needs the "extra" things typically done to food at photo shoots to look mouth watering. Our pizza is good enough to stand on its own. That's why we're making the following promises about how we photograph our pizzas from this day forward. Did we just buck the food photography trend? Oh yes we did.

We will only photograph real, honest-to-goodness pizzas.

That means fresh from our own ovens, with exactly the same ingredients we deliver to your doorstep. Nothing else added.

Our employees will make the pizza we shoot.

Not an art director or model maker or food stylist. A Domino's employee trained to make pizzas the only way they know how: by hand.

We will not artificially manipulate the food we shoot.

No tweezers, no steam guns, no model knives cutting perfect perforations in the cheese. The only thing that will touch the pizzas we shoot is the pizza-maker's hands and a standard Domino's pizza cutter.

I think it will be interesting to see other food suppliers coming clean and making a promise about the reality of their images

Next it could be Anchor butter folk telling us these were pantomime cows in their recent advert and not real cows

What do people think ?

Please post your comments below

You can't find a decent bit of graffiti when you need it - but is it art ?

2010-07-27T14:54:00.000+01:00

One of the advantages of being a photographer without the millstone of a studio with four walls is the ability to find interesting places to shoot people

Grungy town & city centre locations are often popular as backdrops, this is particularly so of walls plastered with colourful graffiti. Some people see graffiti as art (or at least sometimes as art) and there are many people who see it as undecorative vandalism that creates eyesores across the landscape.

I fit into the "sometimes" category

I've been out on one of my regular location scouting expeditions to check on the status of my local graffiti hotspots and it has all been a little disappointing so I though I'd share some images from my local area and also some across Europe where I have been shooting.

There is plenty of graffiti around my home town of Hitchin in North Hertfordshire

Some of it is rather dull tagging and I suspect this was done by someone other that Fuse who I believe is a big time London artist

and some of it just seems to spraying over the top of other artists work

You can come across something that has the makings of a photography location

But they never seem to go far enough

And some that look like they might be good if the next stage of colouring was completed

and some of it is a dead loss

and will possibly never go anywhere

There are some very popular locations with the local artists, unfortunately these locations are also popular with the clean-up teams from the local council or Network Rail

This is another popular location that shows a little promise sometimes

But then a walk down another popular backstreet location showed some new promise

and some recently completed work that if it managed to remain intact may well be appearing in one of my photoshoots very soon

It is also interesting to see graffiti with some sort of political message although in this case I'm not at all sure what the message is

and in some cases I don't agree with the message, copyright is definitely something I am in favour of to protect my work

Looking further afield, I saw some great graffiti when I was in Vienna Austria working. These images were all seen along the banks of the Danube in the city centre

This one must have been 10 feet tall so must have taken quite a lot of planning and perhaps a step ladder

Most of the Vienna work seems to contain a message

Some of the messages were quite clear

and some were a little too clear. I certainly looked out for what I was treading on after reading this (and wondering why it was in English rather than German)

and then back to England and my home town of Hitchin

This guinea pig stencilled image in the centre of Hitchin has always amused my son and I'm sure there is a message behind it too but from my experience with guinea pigs the message may well be Squeeek

If you'd like to talk to me about a photoshoot for yourself, your company or band please call me on 07866 719730 or email me on caterham@gmail.com

Also if you know any good graffiti locations please do leave a comment below

New website for Davis & Co Photographers - Hertfordshire & Norfolk Wedding Photography

2010-07-24T08:24:00.002+01:00

As well as my own commercial photography business Paul Davis Photography and Antonella Muscat's business Antonella Muscat Photography we are also partners in a wedding photography business called Davis & Co Photographers we aim to shoot beautiful weddings anywhere in the UK but especially in Hertfordshire and Norfolk

We have recently launched a new website for Davis & Co and have several weekends this wedding season when we are not booked. We are offering a number of special offers too including either a free engagement shoot or trash/cherish the dress session so if you are looking for a pair of wonderful photographers for your summer 2010 wedding please stop by at our website or get in touch so we can tailor a package just for you

New webiste - Davis & Co Photographers

Antonella 07748 197522 or Paul 07866 719730

Email us at contact@davisandcophotographers.co.uk

The Skyline in Lowestoft has changed

2010-07-22T18:44:00.000+01:00

Those of you that are connected with me on Facebook will probably recognise this picture of me taken by Antonella last year in Lowestoft as I often use it as my profile picture. I was taking a picture of the thing on the right with the many legs when Antonella grabbed a rare picture of me rather than a picture by me.

The many legged thing is a 3000 tonne Jack-up-platform called Excalibur and is the largest owned by Fugro-Seacore

The now finished (and now much much bigger) structure on the left by my elbow has been in the news this week as it is finally out at sea being towed to the oil field on the Norwegian side of the North Sea - amusingly for a pedant like me the Norwich Evening News had the headline "Massive construction sales out to sea at Lowestoft" maybe from the Lowestoft branch of DFS ?

The Structure is an LQ or Living Quarters module and is in effect a floating hotel for oil workers in the Valhall oilfield and is the product of over 3 million man hours by workers from Lowestoft based SLP.

The LQ provides offshore accommodation for 180 people and includes an atrium, gym, 'town hall', saunas and heli-deck. The Atrium is required to ensure that all of the bedrooms have natural light as that is a Norwegian legal requirement, seems they treat their oil workers than we treat ours

Unfortunately SLP went into administration in November 2009 and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) are looking for a buyer for the business. For the sake of the 1400 people who worked on the LQ lets hope that they find a buyer soon. And of course it would be nice to have some new interesting clients with interesting products to work with too

New Business page on Facebook for Paul Davis Photography

2010-07-13T16:29:00.000+01:00

A very brief posting to let you know that Paul Davis Photography now has a business page on Facebook

I will be using this page to showcase my commercial work particularly automotive & motorsports

Please feel free to drop by and press the Like Button :-) and if you'd like to discuss commissioning me for any commercial photography work please email me on caterham at gmail dot com or call me on 07866 719730

Paul Davis Photography on Facebook

Beaten to it

2010-07-08T19:01:00.002+01:00

For some time I have been thinking about writing a blog posting around the importance of the images used in marketing campaigns or on a website.

I had it all planned out, I was going to discuss all of the issues like a picture speaking a thousand words and how a website needs to promote the Unique Selling Points (USP's) of a business rather than trot out the ways it is the same as the competitor up the road and the 5 other competitors down the road. It is very tempting for a business to just buy pictures from a stock image library rather than employ a professional photographer but by buying from a library for a few £££ they run the risk that one of their competitors has also bought the same image - whoops there goes the marketing campaign

That is what I was going to blog about but then I realised someone in the shape of Callum Winton had already blogged on the same subject so rather than re-hashing the words I thought I would pass you over to his blog and then ask you to consider me for your next marketing campaign or update to your website Why you should hire a photographer for your marketing material

Agile and Sexy - the new Alfa Romeo Giulietta

2010-06-17T14:30:00.001+01:00

Those 3 boys at Top Gear have very strong views on Alfa Romeo ownership saying that "you cannot be a true petrolhead until you've owned one" and as an owner I know this to be very true, they are quirky, they have lines that only Italian cars have and sometimes, just sometimes they are frustrating.

Alfa Romeo is celebrating it's 100th birthday this June and is one of the featured brands at The Goodwood Festival of Speed this year. Also happening later this summer is the UK launch of the new Alfa Romeo Giulietta which is the replacement for the 147.

I was lucky enough to get an invite to the preview of the new car and so hot-footed it off to Alfa last week

The car on show was a left hand drive, Ghiaccio White, pre-production example of the top of the range model the 1750 TBI 235BHP Cloverleaf, to keep with the Italian-ness of the car I prefer the word Quadrifoglio

It just wouldn't be an Alfa Romeo without that grille

The DNA switch just in front of the gear lever that offers two different regimes that vary steering effort, accelerator response, electronic stability intervention and settings for the Q2 electronic differential. This really is a drivers car and I can't to get a test drive in one

Quadrifoglio Verde

Gotta love those brake callipers especially with those heavenly large aperture wheels

So it's not just the Top Gear Presenters that like Alfa's, even Autocar Magazine had many good things to say about the new Giulietta - Autocar had a first test drive back in April Autocar First Drive - 1.4 TB Multiair

I'm looking forward to my local dealer getting their 1st demonstrator cars in July so that I can get behind the wheel and also get some shots of the car out on the open road - watch this space

Automotive photography is one of my specialist areas so please do contact me on 07866 719730 if you have any sort of vehicle that you'd like to have up on your wall at home or maybe on your desk at work, anything from a supercar, an Italian legend to a classic, motorcycle or just your pride & joy

You can see more of my automotive photography here

At last, the 1st of my new websites is born with a side order of SEO

2010-05-28T14:21:00.001+01:00

A good looking website is vital to the success of a photography business as it is one of the main ways that my clients get a first look at my work and then make their decision about whether to pick up the phone, pen an email or move on to another photographer's website.

I've spent lots of time on & off over the last several months tinkering with the old website but I just couldn't get it how I wanted it so in the end I started from scratch and finally after a lot of head scratching and reading of poorly written documentation it is ready to be thrust, blinking into the world

A large part of the effort I have put in has been in the area of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) to ensure that over time my site will work its way up the search page position it achieves on Google, Yahoo and Bing.

It doesn't matter how wonderful a website is, nor how fantastic the words and pictures on it are, if prospective clients can't find it because it is on page 15 of their web search. So I have my fingers crossed that the cleverness contained within the Google search algorithm will do its magic over the coming days, weeks and months

This first website covers the commercial and automotive photography side of my business, very soon I should be able to publish the updated website for the Wedding photography services that I provide together with Antonella Muscat

It's been difficult typing this with my fingers crossed so I will finish not with a song but with a link

The new website for Paul Davis Photography

Bank Holiday Weather

2010-05-03T18:39:00.001+01:00

Well we certainly had typical Bank Holiday weather today

My windows were lashed with raindrops the size of golf balls mid morning and then as quickly as it started it seemed to stop and the sun came out.

I quickly headed out camera in hand to see what there was to see

My 1st stop was an image I have been meaning to capture for sometime but have either been in a hurry or have been without a camera (naughty me), I liked it so much I have decided to make it a new profile picture on my Facebook profile

I continued until I reached the top of the big hill in the middle of Hitchin which is called Windmill Hill and what do you know it used to have a windmill at the top now it has Hitchin Girls School and a large water tower instead. I sat down at the top of the hill on a rather breezy bench but my rest didn't last too long as I was soon assaulted by very heavy hail, the blast effects of which soon had me speeding down the hill to shelter in a shop door way

Once the hail turned into rain and started to ease I decided it was time to head away from the town and look for some proper signs of spring

And I think I managed it, yes folk spring is hear despite the look of those clouds

The Scarborough Flyer gets me into print again

2010-05-02T16:17:00.003+01:00

It's always nice to get one of my pictures into the papers

This time it was an image of the A4 locomotive Bittern as she hauled The Scarborough Flyer from London Kings Cross to a day at the seaside in Scarborough

Bittern was in use from 1937 until 1966 when she passed from British Rail ownership into the hands of the Drury family who own her to this day.

After a long period of restoration she started hauling steam specials in 2007, the one on Thursday last week was run by UK Railtours. I took my shots from near to Cadwell crossing just outside Ickleford near Hitchin in Hertfordshire

The trouble with taking pictures of steam trains is that they pass by in about 20 seconds so it does take careful setting up before hand and good choice of location.

Next time I will have to treat it more like photography from my days as an accredited motorsports photographer - hmmm that gives me ideas for some forthcoming blogs

The very brief article from the online edition of Comet - the print edition is out on Thursday next week

Green Steam Machine Powers through Comet Country

New toys and some street photography

2010-04-21T15:51:00.005+01:00

My Partner Antonella Muscat has recently been making a lot of investment in her photography. She is a great fan of prime lenses (a prime lens is one that doesn't zoom), prime lenses usually offer better image quality and often have a bigger aperture (they can let in more light when necessary which is good in dark Churches and the like)

Although they can be more of a challenge to use as you have to plan your shots more carefully

One of her most recent purchases from Warehouse Express in Norwich was a Nikon 20mm f2.8, after we left Warehouse Express and all the lovely tempting goodies they have in their huge showroom we decided to head out into Norwich for a bit of street photography and lunch

I thought I'd share just of a few of the images from our walk around Norwich with the new lens

The Sweetie stall in the amusingly named Gentlemans Walk was a very colourful start, I particularly find it difficult to start pointing a camera at complete strangers in the street especially with such a short focal length lens and always take a few minutes to "warm up" and allow the feelings of self conciousness fade

Just round the corner from John Lewis there is a very photogenic piece of metal sculpture which you may recognise from some Antonella's previous photoshoots

One of the characteristics of a lens like the 20mm f2.8 is it's ability to produce bokeh which is a Japanese word which means something like blur. In the image above the subject is the line of black flints with the background being nicely blured or bokeh'd

As we stood looking at the building with the Panasonic signs on it we noticed a stream of people coming up the a Big Issue seller. It appeared they were on some sort of treasure hunt type event as they all seemed to ask him a question and his answer gave them their next clue. They didn't know whether to look at us or their friend with her point & shoot so it made a change to be on the other side of the "uncle bob" situation we find at weddings where one of the guests tries to gatecrash our professional shots

We finished off in Norwich market which is the largest and one of the oldest in the country

Then we headed for home to get the batteries of her other purchase on charge - looks like I owe you another blog posting very soon

On assignment to photograph Gordon Brown as he opens extension to Great Yarmouth College in Norfolk

2010-03-17T12:38:00.002Z

As well as the wedding photography side of my business that I do with Antonella Muscat as part of Davis & Co Photographers I also take on more journalistic photography assignments

It was this side of my business that led me to be in Great Yarmouth on Monday 14th February to photograph Gordon Brown as he opened an extension to Great Yarmouth College

The £8 million pound extension was officially opened at the end of a 45 minute tour of the college where Mr Brown met students and college staff.

He also met people working in start-up businesses in the new Alchemy 2 which alongside the Alchemy Centre encourages innovation and new businesses to help stimulate the local economy by providing office space and business support for fledgling enterprises. Alchemy 2 was funded by the East of England Development Agency (EEDA)

Mr Brown was accompanied by the local MP Tony Wright, College principle Robin Parkinson, chair of governors Mike Field, Deborah Cadman Chief Executive of the EEDA. He also met with with Councillor Tony Smith the Mayor of Great Yarmouth.

Cut off, it was like going back to the dark ages of the early 1990's

2010-03-12T14:28:00.000Z

I was planning to continue posting about my time at the SWPP conference back in January but due to some idiot using his digger to break a whole lot of high capacity fibre near to J6 of the M1 on Tuesday I have been without broadband for nearly 3 days. You might have thought that there would have been resiliency in the network that linked many of the residents of Letchworth, Hitchin, Harpenden, Luton, Leagrave and Houghton Regis to the internet but there wasnt i.e. 10 seconds work in a JCB and we were all cut off.

I'm going to do some research now to see if other internet service providers (ISP's) have the same single points of failure in their networks and will be posting my findings here

Starbucks, coppers and the SWPP Conference

2010-03-03T15:09:00.000Z

Picture the scene, there I was sat in Starbucks on one of the arm chairs trying to write this blog posting. A couple of men join me near the window and sit on the sofa next to my chair

I mostly ignored them but as soon as I glanced up from my note book & magazine I could tell that they were plain clothed cops - I dont know why really, maybe it was their size 12 feet. Then a few minutes later they were joined by 2 other groups of rather cold looking cops from a local operation. I was totally surrounded (but didnt feel the need to put my hands up), it felt like I was on the set of The Bill, I reckon the banter was very similar.

Good luck with the shoplifting gang folks

Back on Plan B, I mentioned in my last posting that I had attended the annual SWPP (Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers) conference back in January. I came away after 6 days with a head & notebook full of information and have spent the last 6 weeks making sense of it all and trying to put some of it into practice within the business.

I'd signed up for the Business School sessions which formed the first 2 days of the conference which was held at the Novatel in a rather cold, wet & snowy Hammersmith

The 1st session I went to was by Michael Turner - Networking: It's good to talk. Michael covered all of the basic of using networking as a means of growing a business including the importance of developing a networking strategy as a part of the overall marketing plan. This is certainly a area I need to work on more as most of my networking seems to be happening online using social networking such as Facebook (both with Davis & Co Photographers and my own personal page) and twitter

I've been exploring face to face networking "clubs" such as BNI, does anyone have any experience of them and their usefulness ?

Oh dear

2010-02-23T11:34:00.000Z

It would almost look like I had fallen into that trap that so many bloggers & blogists succumb to - I seem to have stopped blogging, I was shocked when I realised it was only a couple of days short of 3 months since I last blogged which is dreadful, that's almost a quarter of a year.

A lot has happened since my last blog including the Yuletide season and more importantly the SWPP (Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers) conference in London - I spent 6 days at the conference and came away with more ideas & inspiration than my mind could cope with quickly

So I must sit down now and start writing some new posts and also select some images to go with the posts

Watch this space

Christmas Special Offer

2009-11-25T14:08:00.005Z

We are running a special offer in the run-up to Christmas

We are offering a family lifestyle portrait photoshoot in the location of your choice* such as your local park, woodland or maybe a gritty urban location for up to 45 minutes and will give you a 6" x 8" print all for £30 with additional prints and products such as canvas wall portraits also being available

Lifestyle photography dispenses with the 4 walls of a studio and heads outdoors with all the fantastic natural backdrops that are available. It also allows younger children to be themselves with their fun-filled characters showing in every image.

This is a limit time offer and we expect the available timeslots to fill up fast

Please can Paul on 07866 719730 to book an appointment or email on caterham@gmail.com

* within 25 miles of Hitchin

Barkston Heath 'The same but different'

2009-10-20T21:14:00.000+01:00

Back at the begining of August Antonella and I went to RAF Barkston Heath to photograph a round of the Toyota Sprint Series for Andrew Cliffe as he'd found himself double booked.

Earlier this month I blogged about the images from the day that had been published by Banzai magazine and yesterday I heard that MR2 Only Magazine (subtitled No Scoobies, Evo's GTO's or FTO's... MR2s only) had published 5 of our images

The title Same But Different comes from the fact that the track is normally used clockwise but occasionally they spice things up a little by running the otherway around

For those of you that don't know of this hidden away venue it has an interesting history as it was home to part of the Bloodhound missile defence system after it was reployed from Germany in the early 1980's. The missiles remained at Barkston Heath until 1991 leaving only some rather odd concrete structures that formed the bases for the launch platforms.

They would certainly have given these MR2's a run for their money as apparently it was a rather rapid piece of kit

"By the time the missile has just cleared the launcher it is doing 400 mph. By the time the missile is 25 feet from the launcher it has reached the speed of sound (around 720 mph). Three seconds after launch, as the four boost rockets fall away, it has reached Mach 2.5 which is roughly 1800 mph"

I heard on the radio that Gordon Brown said that there was no Plan B

2009-10-19T12:36:00.000+01:00

Just as well that I have made my Plan B into my Plan A I thought to myself if this shower have decided to ban everyone's Plan B

Oh wait a minute, he was talking about climate change (Telegraph Website) - it's all part of trying to hold onto his place on the world stage by his finger tips

2009-10-15T10:08:00.000+01:00

When I blogged the story of the 13'6" truck and the 13' bridge in Hitchin last week I thought that the story would have missed the copy deadline for the print edition of the paper

Happily I was wrong and a short version of the story together with one of my pictures was published last Thursday.

It's kinda nice having a picture credit

A recent portrait shoot of 3 brothers

2009-10-14T13:49:00.000+01:00

The time is flying by and it has been over a week since I last blogged - oops

I recently did a quick portrait shoot of Tom, Guy & Harry in Letchworth (those of you who know me will no doubt recognise them)

We started off in Granny's garden and then moved to the fountain in Broadway Gardens in the centre of Letchworth. This fountain was created for the millenium and is about half a mile from the world's 1st roundabout

Calumet and why A 13'6" truck will not fit under a 13' bridge

2009-10-06T17:12:00.000+01:00

I went down to London this morning to the 70th birthday Open Day at Calumet, lots of very tempting things to play with including a rather spendy Hasselblad and some covetable Bowens portable strobe units

I comforted myself by buying a small stash of replacement modelling light bulbs for my current studio lights - I'd not noticed before that they do some ordinary ones at less at £2 each or some special long lasting ones for over £20 - will they really last 10 times longer ? I dont expect so in real use so I went for the cheap ones.

One the train on the way home just before Hitchin station I noticed that an express train on the adjacent fast line had slowed right down and was crawling along at the same speed as my train to the extent that I could pick up their wifi (thanks National Express trains).

The reason for this slow time became apparent when I walked out of Hitchin station to see that a container truck that was too tall had tried to go under the Cambridge Road bridge which carried the East Coast Mainline and had no doubt stopped very rapidly when the container hit the huge steel girder placed a few feet in front of the bridge to protect it in this very eventuality. This sudden stop also resulted in an innocent van driver having a rather stoved in vehicle that would need a great deal of work with T-cut to restore

I took a couple of iPhone pics but decided to rush home and back to get a proper camera

Back on the scene tt took about an hour for the breakdown truck to arrive to take the van away and then the truck was reversed away from the bridge and went on its merry way to find a bridge of its own size to pick on.

When I got home again I quickly selected a handful of images, converted them to jpgs and then into newspaper sized images and fired them off to my local Archant paper The Comet

A few hours later and 3 (inc the story link on the front page) had been publisged on the Comet Newspaper online edition. I think this has missed the deadline for the print edition and by next week this will have been old news but it is nice to get a picture credit

A few images below

To do lists and teaser image of Drop Dead Dorothy

2009-10-05T19:19:00.000+01:00

I started the day with a very long to-do list and I have ended the working day with the an even longer list that contained everything that it did at 08:00

A quick trip down to the supermarket has ticked off one item in that I now have some folders so I can do some more filing (questionable how quickly I will actually do the filing) and so I must tick off something else before I am overcome with the guilt of being busy all day but not being any further forward, hence this posting

So here is a first teaser image from the gig shoot that Antonella and I were the photographers at last week

Here is Ashley Barber of Drop Dead Dorothy performing at the B2 Venue in Norwich - see I told you before the light was "challenging" - I hope you had a good birthday Ashley

I will post some further images of Drop Dead Dorothy and the other 2 bands Thick Trick Chloe and Dying Breed very soon

All around the twisty bits

2009-10-02T11:39:00.000+01:00

A very brief posting, Antonella and I were very pleased to recently hear that some of our images from the Barkston Heath Toyota Sprint Series meeting had been published (albeit without photo credits) in Banzai magazine. Our images are the 5 at the bottom of this double page spread. This is the first time that we've had images published in a fully commercial magazine

It also reminds me that I have got to find a better blog edit system as the photo handling in blogger stinks

Still busy busy

2009-10-01T15:56:00.000+01:00

I'm having such a busy time, I dont know how I found the time to go to work ;-)

Last Thursday I attended a workshop on running a photographic business - The worshop was useful as it did serve to reinforce the fact that I am way ahead of others starting out as a photographer so the last 12 months of research & preparation may be paying off

Then it was off to Norfolk, first photographic stop was the hotel & golf course where we are shooting a wedding in October (more of this later), it is a lovely venue with plenty of locations for ad-hoc formals.

Then I was able to assist Antonella with another photoshoot for a model portfolio, again we were shooting the lovely Justine and despite the gale force winds Antonella captured some absolutely fantastic images.

Then we were back in Norwich on Tuesday to meet the bride & groom for the October wedding, from their description it is certainly going to be a theatrical wedding (they are both in the music industry) with some very novel forms of entertainment but ..................

.....they then dropped something of a bombshell on the table. At this stage we cant give any more details for reasons that will become apparent but the streets of Norwich were resounding with a few "whoo hoooos" as we walked back to the carpark

Not too much to think about it as we had another engagement shooting a gig at a local music venue. I really should have used some ear plugs but we both managed to get some great images despite the "interesting" light (or lack of it)

I have quite back log of images to blog too including the ones I took when I was a second shooter for tpphotography down in the New Forest so there should be another blog posting shortly

So much to do, do I have the time to find some paying clients ?

2009-09-22T13:19:00.000+01:00

I'm now a member of several photo industry trade bodies so I can now start to climb the slippery pole to becoming something like a Licentiate for a starter following that up with a Associateship as a main course leaving just a Fellowship for pudding. Not sure what I will do with the port

For the time being I will have to be content with my Fellowship of the Zoological Society of London ;-)

We have also booked ourselves into the big wedding photography conference in the new year and I'm off on a day long seminar on Thursday. The inbetween time is full of lots of little things which I sincerely hope are adding up to something but at the moment it all still looks like an odd jigsaw

Time for a walk and an excuse to open the curtains - oh dear it's 1pm and the curtains are still closed

More soon

2009-09-21T09:33:00.000+01:00

Well here I am, out of the corporate world, just a one man band (and half of a 2 person band)

I should have written my daily to do list on a larger piece of paper or maybe not as A3 would be a little unwieldy about the house. The list contains a real mixture of things from joining a number of additional tradebodies to blogging some more about the Street performance & Circus event on Saturday and the model portfolio shoot I assisted at on Saturday evening.

I'd better get on, I cant spend all day blogging to all you lot and this tea wont drink itself now will it ?

Monday Mornings, don't you just love 'em

2009-09-14T07:02:00.000+01:00

Well here it is my last Monday morning in the corporate world

No more will the alarm go off at exactly the same time every Monday for a day at the coalface of adding value for shareholders & generating hot air

What will the shareholders do with a teeny tiny little bit less value ?

and will the property department have to turn up the termostats to compensate for my waffle contribution ?

These questions will have to go unanswered I'm afraid

2009-09-11T12:21:00.000+01:00

Well I've only got just over a week sitting here and then the cold light of day will suddenly be shining on my life but hey ambient light is always good right ? Maybe I will need to supplement it with some flash

At the moment I feel like there are a whole lot of strands to Plan B that need to come together but currently are still floating around as ideas in my head, maybe it will all feel a bit more real on Monday 21st or alternatively it will feel like I have just jumped firmly out of the sausage cooking utensil into the flames

Time will tell, until then I will continue to write lists, lots of lists

I've gone and done it (but in the wrong order)

2009-09-07T20:13:00.000+01:00

Things had been getting worse in the corporate world, time and time again I found I was responsible for something (especially when something had gone wrong) but without the authority or power to control it or to fix it. At other times I was asked "why didnt you fill in form xyz, the sky is going to fall in" when the answer was that no one had told me about the form and the need to complete it in order to maintain the normal position of the fermanent. Things were becoming unworkable.

Three weeks ago I was on holiday for the week and I decided that I'd had enough and that seeking another similar (or possibly just as bad) role was not going to solve things in the long term so I decided almost of the spur of the moment to give my agency the required one months notice that I was going to terminate the contract.

Ah that felt so good

And so here I am with my last day in the corporate world being Friday 18th and from then on I will be able to devote all of my time to plan B and turning that from a dream into a reality and from there into a success.

Eeeekkkk what have I done ?

Gary & Laura

2009-09-01T22:22:00.000+01:00

On Saturday 15th of August Gary & Laura got married in Stopsley just outside Luton and I was lucky enough to be invited along to act as Second shooter for Steve Gardner

I'm getting so far behind with my blogging, I shall say "without further ado" here are a selection of images I captured on the day

Going to stop at this point as this image uploading system is dreadful

More tomorrow when I have found a better way to show images in blogspot

Progress

2009-08-06T19:38:00.000+01:00

Oops, as has been pointed out I introduced a sort of Spoonerism in my last post - it should have read Jeff Ascough and George Weir - oops

Well the day up in Manchester was very good with an audience of around 35. Quite a mixture of folk from those who have been earning their livings from wedding photography for years through to the likes of me standing on the outside looking in. There was even a chap who had flown in from Germany for the workshop.

So I learnt a lot of very useful stuff about the process and art of wedding photography but I'm still in the wrong place in terms of taking some sort of leap - and as the saying goes you cant cross a 20 foot chasm in a series of little steps.

We've also been on the lookout for 2nd shooting opportunities and I have one lined up in Luton on the 22nd (thanks to Steve Gardner) - anyone else out there looking for a free 2nd shooter ?

Education Education Education

2009-07-17T15:47:00.000+01:00

One of the first tangible things I am doing to make Plan B spring into life is to get some education under my belt

So on Sunday I'm off to the frozen wastes of the North to attend a wedding photography workshop hosted by George Ascough and Jeff Weir who are both at the top of the pyramid that I am hoping to climb. In the meantime I will just wander around on the desert sands and look at the Sphinx

2009-07-17T13:45:00.000+01:00

Well quite a few people have asked me what our Plan B is so here goes

It started out with the simple idea that I didnt know what I wanted to do but I did know that after cough cough years in the corporate world driving spreadsheets, siting through rather too much powerpoint and being subject to the best efforts of idiots to grind every last little bit of morale out of me that I wanted to do something else

Over the last few months this has evolved into wanting to do something more creative before it is too late and most recently this has been distilled into wanting to make a living out of photography.

Now the hard part, how do I get from here ----> to over there ---------------->

Well we are still working on that but slowly we are getting there

The start of plan B

2009-07-14T12:16:00.000+01:00

Well here it is, my 1st proper blog posting

Here I plan to post about the development of our plans to leave the rat race and move towards our plan B. We've been working on the new plan for quite a few months but never seem to be getting any nearer to it as the list of things we need to tick off seems to get longer rather than shorter

Well it seems the answer will either be ticking things off more quickly or turning a bit more of a blind eye to some of the obstacles and just leaping in the deep end

This is where I shut my eyes and then look for a deep end - hey wait a minute how will I find a pool (let alone a deep end) with my eyes shut. Ok I will find the pool 1st and then jump in