Linedancers, ladies golf, a minibus ride, three rock bands and an iron.

Just a normal week then. I don't have a natural dislike to line dancing, it's just not my bag but the linedancers I had to photograph were just a joy.

One golf tournament award presentation later on. A quick sleep and the next day I was tootled around Limavady in a minibus for elderly shoppers. By Friday night it was a couple of July 4th celebrations (more line dancers) and a table quiz.

Come deadline day and the phone call arrives from PJ, "I need a photograph of an iron."

Who am I to let this man down? I was later told it was all in context. I haven't seen the copy yet but I will in the morning. The actual shot was very quick and easy, one of those cheapy light tents off ebay and a couple of homebase work lights (the 150w Tungsten jobs, very hot and will melt most items within a two foot radius). The iron was sitting in a cupboard (we are a two iron household) and the black tile kicked the iron back a bit so it wasn't floating on air.

Now I've told you all this there's now a good chance PJ will now take photographs of his own iron for publication use :)

The busy weekend....

Driving around in a ping-pong sort of way on Friday night. All the job times didn't work in my favour so it was a seven mile drive, followed by a fifteen mile drive, followed by another fifteen mile drive back and then finally back home.

Sunday night rocked at there were three Steve Martin films on TV. Time to kick back and leave it at that.

Monday I spent the morning on a minibus with the elderly, the Mayor of Limavady and a couple of project coordinators. Then a new addition to the Eyes/Window/Soul thing.

The doctor, the solicitor and the photographer (Part 2)

Okay, so Peter Jack's opinion piece went to press today, due to space they cropped the main picture so the final cut didn't really show what was going on. I suppose you had to be there.....

So here's the pic in it's whole glory.

Northern Constitution finally makes it online.

Perhaps all my wittering finally paid off, or it was something they've been planning for years and just not let on. The Northern Newspaper Group have put their titles online at http://www.ulsternet.co.uk/

Well done, I've just not see any of my pics on there yet :)

And to celebrate the face even more, two of my pics made front page of the Coleraine Chronicle. Happy days.

The doctor, the solicitor and the photographer....

Just a normal Monday then. So this solicitor phones up the paper, "I need a picture of a doctor, in a white coat, holding a stethescope". The request then comes to me, the easy route out would to declare defeat and just nab a pic of flickr, but I'm not like that. I already know that the solicitor in question is not sane, I just need to find a GP who's just as loopy.

First call is to my GP. He's up for the idea but busy. So the next call is to the health centre to see if any doctors have a sense of humour. One does. The bail out plan was to hire the white coat and scope and get the solicitor to examine himself on his office desk.

Three men in a room and the GP is so up for this gig that he starts getting out all sorts of heck knows what. The next thing I know is the defibrillator is out and switched on, the electronic voice starts commanding people who are not listening... "check airways.....". Well no one was listening apart from the solicitor who was now starting to look a little freaked. He was still happy that all this sillyness was happening around him.

"Give me a blank look...., no more blank than that.... blanker! Put the stethescope on his forehead doctor...". Shot is in the bag, then another close up shot with the GP making insanity gestures with his hands.

Who said press editorial work isn't fun?

"What is that thing on top of your camera?"

It's the single most asked question I get. For starters I don't keep my sandwiches in it.

I stumbled on the Fong Lightsphere a year or so ago. At the time it was expensive but to honest it was worth every penny. I got some severe stick from the press guys until they saw the shots. I've never been a great fan of direct flash but when you have less than five minutes to get the shot then you just get on with it.

Over the last few months I've got peeved with the amount of light it was chucking out, yeah it's diffused and yeah it's everywhere.... but for the music stuff I've resorted to a home made snoot out of black card.

Don't get me wrong, for 97% of all my flash shots the Lightsphere is on the camera.

Want an example? Just look below.....

The best shots happen by accident...

How long did this shot take to put together? About three minutes. Totally unrehearsed, no-booking-required-portrait. My good mate Ali Moore was in need of background material, all I had was a large sheet which I had not unwrapped since buying in the charity shop.

When I rolled it out it was four foot wide and twenty foot long.... no good to anyone but we gave it shot anyway. Ali held up a pole and I "A" clamped the material to the background. Quickly asked Laura to stand in front of said human standed background and there you are.

I find that the pre processing stuff in RAW is much better than hanging on what Photoshop will do to it. I've pretty much moved over to Lightroom for most things now, just PS for the odd clean up healing brush type malarky.