Flaming June...

My monthly photographic diary....

Flaming June….

June started as May left off .. with a squelch. Not stop rain.

Sunday I was photographing a football match in memory of an old school friend/ work colleague.. who sadly died of cancer a couple of years ago, the match between his sons’ pub team and the company Paddy and I worked for… the rain lashed down soaking players and spectators alike.

Off to Basingstoke in the afternoon, to do a photo shoot with Scarlett Gold, in the Glebe fields park, a vampire gothic shoot in amongst the trees and then on to the church yard, complete with fake blood dripping from her mouth we walked back through the shopping centre , one or two funny looks but not one person asked if she was OK ?

The Queens jubilee splashed ahead, I toasted her majesty from the comfort and warmth of my sofa .

The sun made a brief appearance on the holiday Monday , and shone on the Newbury council open air gig, supported by SLM in the market place, there were some very good singers and youth groups playing, but a young lady named Kate Izzard who stunned the crowd with her songs from Andrew Lloyd Webber musicals, she received a deserved round of applause from the crowd. Next up was Alex Ferguson, who played and sang very well, but Kate was a tough act to follow.

Andy a photographer friend of mine was also there photographing the performers, and it was good to have a chat and a beer after the gig.

Another local model came over to my studio for a test shoot; we did a few “portfolio” shots and then headed into Newbury. I did some “street” photography to put up on the face book page, was quite pleased with some of the shots.

Facebar, reloaded, A new venture for Fridays, kicked off with a performance from the Cyanide girls, Rexx ( Katherine SG) was co organiser so I decided to leave my car at home, get the train and have a few beers…. Which I did the girls did there, fire breathing and angle grinding…. Spectacular show, and just as they were getting ready for there second performance I had to leave to get the last train home… the usual pissed up-want to fight-be your best mate-throw up on you late night travellers were in abundance. Once home I started editing the nights images, got some excellent shots of the fire brands and sparks from the angle grinder. Its 3am and time for bed, tum te tum te tum….

Saturday morning I had a family shoot in the studio, they were a nice family and the shoot went well.

Another week of night shifts meant I was free on Friday… My daughter and took advantage of a break in the monsoon conditions and drove over to Wilton windmill the Sailsbury side of Hungerford, we were lucky that one of the volunteers was doing some routine maintenance and showed us around the internal workings of the mill.

Armed with a specific shopping list we (I) decided to shop at a different supermarket and buy

Sunday, Hannah ( Scarlett Gold ) was back in the studio for some more zombie pin-up shots with the operating table, bandages and more fake blood.

Another new model Sarah J from TFP models was in the studio on Monday with her Dad/minder keeping an eye on proceedings, the shoot went very and look forward to more in the future.

Local band the Fire Antz called in for some publicity shots in the studio en route to a gig on Saturday night, Sunday should have seen me doing my bit foe rte community photographing the Family fun day at Henwick park, sadly due to water logged field the event was cancelled.

Sammi and her friend Becky were in the studio, with an assortment of edged weapons and hisss the snake for a shoot on Monday.

Friday my wife and I met up with my brother and sis in law and group of other mates at the Sub89 club in Reading to see “Dressed to kill” an excellent Kiss tribute band, there was a small but noisy crowd, this made getting to the front to shoot the band much easier, got some great shots of fire breathing and blood dribbling as the band played, a very enjoyable evening.

Later found out that a teenager had been stabbed and had died at the Facebar, this has been closed, in respect of this tragic loss. This also meant that tonight’s Re loaded with the cyanide girls is not happening..

So a few hours sleep (nights this week) and I’m off to Windsor to do some stock/tourist shots with Kitty !