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My, the world of professional photography has changed in recent times, it's less about using your skill and taking real photos, it seems, and more about imagining your photo and letting a machine decipher it for you. Am I being mean? Let me recount a story for you, and let you decide. It was at a recent photographers conference and I was with my...

You know when there's a huge gap between jobs? Like you've been hanging around forever for the next work to come in? No? Great! Good ain't it? The past few years have been manic and I put this down to the breadth of the work we do. My very first boss, Frank, back in the 1980's said to this daft little 16 year old, NEVER specialise. EVER. That...

I have a bromance. There, I've said it. First time ever, a proper bromance. Not your usual 'I wish I was the ever handsome David Beckham' bromance. Or the 'If only Hugh Jackman was my bestie' one. No, this is for the incredible Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Dr Ashley Hickson-Lovence, Poet, Novelist and thoroughly good egg. He brought the Bournemouth W...

It's 6am and I'm up and about, I ruffle dog number one's ears and realise there is a tick dangling from one, I remove it deftly, she yelps slightly, dog number two laughs (probably). I try everything to stifle a yawn and fail. Flat-footed, duck padding to the kettle like a zombie. I'm ready thirty minutes later. Today the shit gets real. Forty-f...

Well, here we are again, a year older and another fabulous Bournemouth Writing Festival is well underway. We’ve been a supporter of the festival since its inception three years ago. We love the vibe, we love the community for this community. We love the enthusiasm and we love the love. Writers are a solitary bunch, so to get this many local write...

I know, I know, it's super indulgent writing your memoir. As if anyone is interested in MY LIFE? But I went and bloomin' did it. Now I get asked this all the time, with 1519 weddings successfully photographed, I bet you've got some stories to tell? Well yes I have actually.So why the hell not jot it all down? And this, Ladies and Gents is the res...

I love this writing lark, it frees your soul from the drudgery of every day life, and Lord knows we need it right now. I love the research element in particular, real life is...well let's just say, you couldn't make it up. With the historical novels I write, historical in terms of being within living memory, research is key to making your writing...

Be careful, it looks easy, but it's not. Heritage digitisation is a risky business, think of the artefact you are handling, even the smallest most common thing, a thing you've seen a million of, a cigarette card for example, do you know what that has been through? Who has handled it? Whether part of it's history has turned it into a real gem? No y...

There are time in the life of a pro-photographer where you do not charge. Yeah, I know right? I can't believe I wrote that either. But there are, and this is one of those times. Our friend Jo has been battling illness for a time now, we wouldn't expect anything less from our Jo, she is one of life's good guys and she is a battler. But sometimes...

There were old, there were young, there was fit and there was the infirm, there were those who have never seen trouble in their lives and there were those who looked out for it, there was good, that is in no doubt, and lots of it, and there were those who were there because they just could. They were us, and this was the Million Mask March in Lond...

Rome, one of the most fascinating cities in the world, along with New York in my opinion, but certainly the most historically important and beautiful. 2000 plus years of history on every street corner, architecture to envy and admire, did you know for example that the obilisk in the centre of the Piazza De Pollo was brought back from Egypt by Marc...

Now listen here all you he/him, she/her, they/them people. Let's get this pronoun argument sorted once and for all. It is, afterall, very, very simple when you come at it from a different, a human, angle. Now I have not one shred of problem with whatever gender people wish to be, not one shred. I don't even think about it, it's as natural to me to...

Wow, what a great year. That's what I'd be saying if it were a great year but, of course, how do we judge a good year? How about survival? Yeah that's about right, with a little bit of growth, that's our barometer. In previous years, growth, growth and more growth. In fact, a record year in 2019, with 2020 looking tons better still. C'est la vie...

A GHOST STORY Let me tell you about the time when I had a tussle with a ghost. Yup that’s right, a real life ghost. I have an ongoing project which, let’s be honest here, doesn’t have a cat in hell’s chance of being completed, but as an optimist, well, you know…? The project is what I call ‘Pier Beneath’, mainly because it involves photographing...

Who’d have thought it? The magic third book, the one that is supposed to launch a writing career, is a children’s book. Well certainly not me, you see, I hate the little blighters (actually I don’t, that bit was for comedic effect). The third book was supposed to be The Cross on the Skyline, Patrick Teller’s supernatural thriller, book 2, (only t...