January 2026 Update, moving home and welcome to the new year.

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Welcome back to my little piece of the web. Thanks for returning.

Yes we are moving, as of yet to where I don’t know, but our Landlady has given us our matching orders after eighteen plus years. In fairness to her she did let us know this was her plan several years ago, but now it seems all real. I am sure it will turn out alright in the end, but it might mean that I may not be in a position to update this blog for a short while

We had a model shoot this month as well with Mercybongo and Munira Model at the studio, but I haven't finished editing them all yet. So there will be a delay in sending them out and posting them on the website and blog.

Talking of posting things up I still have not made myself a new Instagram page. I haven't used it in months and to tell you the truth, I have not missed it. I do not feel the need for validation of my peers. As well as been staggered by how much time I wasted on the app. Time I will never get back again wasted scrolling through shit really. I fail to see the use in it as for me it was like an orchestra playing to an empty room. Why? That said I may go on it in the end just to keep in touch.

So that's it for now. I hope you enjoy this years January blog. I hope to be in a position to be able to update at the end of February, but we shall have to wait and see. I shall miss this house and our little studio where all the flower pictures were take. I shall not miss the Baxi boiler, that I am sure was a Nazi in a previous life reincarnated.

Take care of yourselves and see you again soon

x

Fine Art / Hush Abstractism update

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I screwed up last month as I did not allow the viewers to see later versions of the thumb nails. So I have corrected that and you can see it here.

Following on from that here are some fresh stuff created using coloured tissue paper all scrumpled up, rather than the normal chiffon scarfs.

*NEW*. Project – I.C.M.

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I have started a section of new stuff for the Projects tab, with some I.C.M. Pictures I took while away for the New Year. A few of them are of rides in Wickstead Park as well as other stuff. I like the results I.C.M. (Intentional Camera Movement) gives me. You have to take maybe twenty pictures of the subject to get the definitive shot, but it is worth the effort.

Projects Update – Abstract

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I haven't done much with this project in a while, but have saved up a few images for what I have done. Scenes from the Train Station ceiling. Stacked comic books. Picture frames and a Rolleiflex camera. I hope you like them.

Projects Update – Landscapes

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Just a few landscapes this time. We were a bit tired that day, yet still managed to find a few little gems to photograph.

Random Images

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Some random images this month. One including a picture of my father sitting on a park bench over looking the sea. Taken inspiration from the front cover of a Boz Scaggs LP, only thing is that the picture was taken in Wickstead Park and nowhere near the coast. The magic of Photoshop.

The Garden – Dads Winter Garden

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Whilst away for the New Year we were blessed with tranquil weather and so I took the opportunity to snap away at my parents winter garden. Here are the results. Not so much beauty, as more texture and form. Not everything has to be postcard pretty to make it interesting.

January Flower Updates

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Another year starts in great shape with a fresh batch of flowers from my favourite florist. This month we have a spray painted flower whose name I cannot remember, but it looks good.

Thanks as always to Chris and the ladies at he Bramblesrist and Flowers to yours and Amy for her arranging and help.

That is it for this month.

Be sure to come back next month.

Bye x

December updates and farewell my old friend

in

Geetings to you all for this time of the year, but apologies if I no longer feel the Christmas cheer this year.

On Wednesday December the 10th my friend Colin Greatorex slipped away from us due to complications with sepsis. His daughter Sonia called me that evening in a flood of tears to inform me of his passing. It is a strange thing that as you grow slowly into old age, you a doomed to see more of your friends and colleagues slip away from you like a thief in the night. It is both humbling, as well as saddening.

I have found myself thinking of Colin and how he always turned up for our meet ups in the bus station wearing his duffle coat, wool hat and brandishing a pile of papers under his arm in a plastic bag. Quietly spoken, we would visit the Capo Lounge and grab a bite and a cup. Chewing the fat, putting the world to right and once again saving the universe as we know it in the hours we spent chatting. They were fun times, good times and to be treasured. When I first heard of Collins illness I tried to contact him via the phone. But never got a response. Thankfully he called me on the third day and we agreed to meet up early in January. I would grab a taxi and go to see him. I guess that was not to be. It will join my growing list of regrets that I did not get to see him one last time and say a proper goodbye. So it is the smallest of things I have done to add his name on the landing page of this website in the dedications. Grief can be a selfish thing, as we think of what 'we' will miss rather than what others are going through. So for all my regrets I am aware that Colin leaves behind his daughter Sonia and granddaughter Queenie as well as a wider family unit. Their loss is the greater.

We will meet again one day, so until then … sleep well my friend.

On a lighter note there was supposed to have been a fashion shoot this month with Munira Model and Mercybongo, but it was moved to January. Reason for this is that Amy came home with a dose of the flu and gifted it to me as her generosity knows no bounds! So we were both feeling bad and I thought it better to postpone. Infact I still have the remnants of the flu with a rasping cough. This thing is holding on to me for dear life like its a home sick turd.

This years craft was not achieved by itself. It was a team effort. So I wish to thank all involved: Shadrine from Kavour Beauty. Phil Lynam at The Boardroom Studio. James at ACE ABC Taxis. And the following models Fern Thompson Munira Model, Mercybongo, Maryna Sedin, Ivory Flame, Lyra Rose, Sonia Greatorex and Emily Bajic

And finaly a shout out to my long sufering wife Amy. Love you xx

It is Christmas so I am mindful that this blog is not to gloomy. So here is wishing everyone who is reading this a merry Christmas and a great New Year.

Please enjoy this months scaled down update.

X

Fine Art / Hush Abstractism update

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Carrying on from last months offerings of these I.C.M. (Intentional Camera Movement)

here are a few more Amy and I knocked out this month. They are not hard to create, but you have to do more than a few of them to pick the best ones. We are going to try doing some with coloured tissue paper and coloured bin liners as well soon. So watch out for them.

Random Image

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My friend John pointed out a bridge over a train track that might be of interest to photograph earlier in the year. Well I finally got to visit it with John’s help. It was a foot bridge and a big one at that. I took a series of pictures but the one that stood out was the ones I took using the I.C.M. Method. With just a little tweaking in colour from Photoshop, here is the end result. I hope you like it. Thanks John.

December Flower Updates

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Here we are with the years end flower updates for December 2025 with thanks to Chris and the ladies at the Bramblesflowers and Flowers to yours . They have very generously provided me with flower subjects for me to capture all through the year and many years before that. I am gracious for their help as I could not do it without them. Thanks as always to Amy for her help in flower arrangements.

That is a wrap for 2025 .... So see you all again for 2026 and we shall see what that year holds for us all?

Bye

X

November updates and heal Colin, heal !

in

Welcome back to my little corner of the World wide web.

Sorry for it being a small one this month, I have been working on a book I am putting together for my other site. I should have and planned to, do it back in February. Still one thing and another came along including cancer scares and general tiredness got in the way. But I digress …. can I first pay mention to my friend Colin Greatorex, the father of one oo the most beautiful women I have ever snapped Sonia Greatorex. She recently informed me that Colin had been hospitalised and was starting the slow process of getting back into good (or reasonable health) in a care institute. I telephoned Colin a few times and could not get an answer, but left messages and on the third day he called me. Colin has got a rare condition where the body attacks its self, like red blood cells attack the white ones as it thinks they are alien to the body. The condition has a name, but I cant remember it I apologies for saying. Top and bottom of it is that my friend is having to learn how to use his arms and legs again, with walking being an issue. I have said I will go to see him early in January, after all the Christmas rush is over and until then wish him all the best. I also reminded him that he must get better as Sonia needs her Dad and Queenie (Sonias two year old daughter) needs her grandad.

The best to you Colin.

On a more trivial matter … I went again through my local McDonalds drive through and was so disappointed. This time they gave me a complete order. The sausage and egg McMuffin had both ingredient in it, therefore denying my the excuse to kick at them again ???. Still the head office in London sent me a nice letter and five pound voucher to buy my silence. Like someone said, I am a person of high moral standards, all of which waver at the five quid mark and completely vanish at ten pounds. I am sure I do not know what he means?

This months model shoot , all at least the ones shown here feature the amazing Fern Thompson. The pictures were actually taken at the end of October, as I had this month off. So I hope you enjoy the belated post. This December will be the years last featuring beauties Mercybongo and Munira Model. So do come back for that sometime close to Christmas.

Enjoy the show

x

*NEW* Still Life – Hush Abstractism

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Last months viewers may remember me posting a few images I took of some ladies chiffon scarves and slamming them into the Still Life / Fine Art folder. Well since then I have done some more and decided to give them therei wn folder called Hush Abstractism. And yes that is a real word, Google it !

I do like the results from the slow shutter photographer with a process I now know is termed I.C.M. which stands for Intentional Camera Movement. So why is it called 'Hush?'

Well I like the sound of it as well as it is the title of a very good Batman graphic novel I read recently. Nothing more than that.

Fern Thompson second shoot

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Fern Thompson who I briefly worked with a couple of years back at a location shoot in a train station, has been pushing her plate up for another shoot ever since. She has waited a long time, but finally we got together again at the studio in Derby. Fern came all the way from the outskirts of Manchester and she was brilliant. We completed three sets including some breakfast munchies and a heavy pink hair dryer. I really enjoyed the shoot and we have plans for next years Summer to do a location shoot near Salford, Manchester.

So thanks then as usual to Fern for modelling Shadrine at Kavour for her makeup magic and to Phil at The Boardroom, in Derby for all his help.

November Flower Updates

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Novembers catch of lovely flowers from the Bramblesflowers and Flowers to yours are a treat for the eyes coming this month with the oil painted look and studies in a white box pictures. So thank you to Chris and the ladies at the shop as well as Amy for her input. That is it for this month, see you all again in a few weeks at just around Christmas time.

Bye x

October updates, get well Mum and the Saga of the missing McDonalds sausage meat ?

in

Welcome back to my little corner of the World wide web.

My Mum has not been very well of recent and spent a night in Hospital. I cannot remember the name of her medical problem, but it sounded bad and gave her a great deal of pain. She is out now and taking life easy, as she should. Its just not nice to hear about these things. Have a speedy mend Mum.

It has been a busy month this month. We have got to do some Still life images and new look galeries stuff for the flowers. I am running a month behind with publishing the model pictures as this October we shot Manchester's finest, Fern Thompson. All of the pictures have been edited, but I will wait until the end of this November coming to show you all as I still have not shown the Septembers Munira Model work. Also I have no shoots at all in November, so it will be a catch up. You can see Muniras pictures and slide show below.

So I have picked a fight with a local branch of McDonalds. So the story goes that once a month, when I go out to collect the flowers to photograph, I treat myself to a McDonalds Sausage and egg McMuffin meal. For the last three months that has not been a straight forward task. On the first occasion I discovered when I got home that they had forgotten the sausage meat and was a bit disappointed. Never the less I had already got home and figured it was a one off and shit happens as they say. To my shock and horror the same happened again the next month and this time they also forgot the hash brown. I was livid. I telephoned the branch of McDonalds and complained, to which the manager made a note of it and said next time I was in the restaurant I could have a free McMuffin meal. This brings us up to date. When I claimed my free McMuffin meal from them, only to find when I got home that they had once again forgot the sausage filling. Now is it just me? Or am I just the worlds biggest bad luck bastard? Maybe they have a vendetta against me? Who Knows? One accident … okay that can happen. A second accident looks suspitious but a third time in a row must mean they have serious issues and I cannot help but wonder how many more customers have had this experience with McDonalds? I did call the restaurant again, but was met with a belligerent, attitude by the management. This only served piss me off more, So I called the head office in London. They did not take it to serious either, but promised to send me a complaints form via email. That was last Friday. Its now Tuesday and I am still waiting. Now in the big scheme of the universe its a petty matter, but the principal is not that its a piece of missing sausage – So what, who gives a shit ! Its the fact that it keeps happening to me, And I am not getting what I have paid for. I don't go out often these days, so I look forward to the visit to my local MacDonalds only to find they keep short changing me every time and do not seem to give a toss.

So I shall have to call the head office again and take it all the way up to Ronald McDonald the smiling clown himself (never much cared for clowns, because behind every clown lurks a serial killer !). Watch this space.

Please enjoy this months blog and always check your order when you visit your local McDonalds.

Still Life – Chiffon and cling film

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New additions to the Still Life / Fine Art gallery are some images not centred on an object like a flower or a vase. Here Amy and I have created two different style using everyday items to give an abstract look to them. First is the orange coloured pictures of what was simply cling film covering my drink I have for breakfast that Amy makes me. The colouring is from the tungsten lighting in the room and not Photoshopped. That just as it was in the camera. The lines and patterns of of the cling film being stretched across the cup.

The second set of Still Life pictures were easily created by slowing down the shutter speed on the camera and Amy waving a few chiffon scarfs from Amazon in front of the lens. It was no more complicated than that, but I think quite effective, giving them an etherial aesthetic. Please enjoy.