Limavady Jazz & Blues Festival 2008

Good to see the festival doing well this year, last year wasn't that bluesy or jazz for my tastes (with the exception of Kent Duchane who was just plain amazing).

Two acts from Yorkshire which was nice as I got to hear what was going on. The King Bz turned out into some long lost reunion since our first meeting in 2006. Paddy McGuire gave me the low down and that Gary Barrett himself said to say hello to me. Bless.

Friday night was subdued, in and out in an hour. It would have been shorter but the firework display at the Radisson Roe Park Hotel meant I couldn't get parked. Samantha Payne had just taken a break and then went back on.

Saturday night was just heaving all night. It took me twenty minutes to get from one end of Frank Owens Marquee to the other only to realise that I could have walked up the outside and through the "stage door". I got some great shots of Rab McCullough Blues Band so the trek (and three thousand hellos) was worth it.

On events like this you always see the usual gang of photographers. David Larmour, festival photographer Andy Cameron and Norman Thorpe were all out. Twenty four pics later for the paper and my job was done. That didn't stop me getting in Andy's path a few times.... (see below)

Fathers Day Listening

Three little surprises for me this morning. Even though the stack of Level 42 I have
(for which I'm pretty well known for liking) there's a version of "Return of the Handsome Rugged Man" on the CD which is one of my fave instrumentals. Whooohoo double CD of Peter Gabriel too.

Now what can we do with these shoes?

A very quick shoot with shoe designer Anita Flavin. She was speaking at the Women In Enterprise evening in Coleraine, my editor was there and wanted to know more. My first meeting with Anita was at Belfast Fashion Week. I pelted it from Limavady to Belfast, got lost, got followed by the police (the English plates, oh they love the English plates), I couldn't find a parking space, I was desperate for the toilet and the catwalk was starting in two minutes. Plenty of time.

There's a good few different ideas in the shoot, can't post them all up just yet but there's a nice one to get you started.

The eyes are the window to the soul?

I kick started a little personal project while I was at the gallery. The Limavady Jazz & Blues Art Exhibition seems to be doing well, in terms of interest. In between times I've been wanting to do portraits with their eyes closed. It doesn't work with everyone. Getting people not to look into the camera but close their eyes takes a little doing, but once they get into it they go in to a world of their own, that's when the good pictures finally start to happen. So the initial idea of the exhibition is there, I'd love to know what they were thinking so I can write a long random list down.

The shots were both natural light, the gallery was acting as one big studio lovely, white and diffused. Panel boards were basically reflecting light all over the place.



Both Joni and Stevie got into it real quick, the white wall helped a lot. Now once I've got 100 of these then I'll exhibit. Only 98 to go.

Shackleton Charity Festival launch.

Finally the night arrived of the press launch for the Shackleton Charity Festival. A weekend of motorsport in Ballykelly on the 18th,19th and 20th of July. The festival committee, sponsors and charities were all out, as was the Mayor and Lady Mayor of Limavady.

The first shot was of everyone, and I mean everyone, but between four photographers we got the whole thing together and everyone smiled at the same time.