Rivington Hunt

I went to Rivington near Bolton to photograph the hunt on boxing day. It had been cancelled due to the weather being too dangerous for the horses but the paper still wanted it covering as the hounds and hunt supporters were expected to turn up anyway. Plus there was a the rarity of a female master of the hunt.

White Christmas

Walking through Macclesfield on Christmas day morning I nipped into South Park and wandered into a beautiful snowy and foggy world. I was so glad I had a camera with me!

Chorlton in the snow

Monkey Business

I photographed part simian rocker Ian Brown at the MEN arena. He really can't sing live!

Kid British

In my 3rd job at Manchester Airport in two days , I went to photograph the band Kid British who include James Meyer (front and centre in the pics) who used to work at the airport as a baggage handler. Would've been ace to photograph them on the luggage carousel but we couldn't get to that bit of the airport so had to make do with the baggage check in gate.

It's been freezing cold in Manchester over the last few days and there was a bit of snow on Friday so on my way to another job I nipped into Alexandra Park in Whalley Range to do a weather pic.

What's our vector victor?

The control room at Mancheseter Airport , which controls much of the air traffic in England , is moving to Scotland , meaning the loss of many jobs and the forced relocation of many others. I went along to photograph someone who has worked there since the control room opened 35 years ago. I was suprised at how antique the equipment was and much of it looked like the original 1970's technology. It felt like i was walking into a scene from the classsic Airplane movie. Do we have clearance Clarence?

Hello Kitty

Meet Olivia , the semi feral cat who has made Manchester Airport her home. She has been receiving loads of Christmas presents from travellers and staff and I went along to photograph her for the story. I had presumed she was a tame cat so turned up armed with boxes wrapped in Christmas paper with the idea of putting her in one of the boxes and surrounding her with the rest - get her peeping over out of her box , I thought, and it would make a good cute cheesey christmas pic for the paper. Best laid plans and all that - it soon transpired that even trying to stroke Olivia, let alone pick her up and put her in a box, was likely to result in her scratching your face off. So I had to make do with getting her as close as possible to a stack of presents and quickly grabbing a frame or two.

some pictures from a school in Gorton which has recently received a good Ofsted report

The Brooch That Rocked The Boat

A brooch made notorious by Hazel Blears MP with the words 'Rocking The Boat' on it has been on sale at a jewellery exhibition at Manchester Town Hall. She wore the brooch on the day she resigned from the cabinet and all the nationals ran pictures of her wearing it. Not a massive story I know but it made for a cool pic and the paper only ran a cut out of the brooch with an old pic of Blears so I thought I'd share my pic here.

the dark side of life

I've said before on this blog how I often turn to a silhouette to get an interesting picture from a mundane job. Sometimes ,however , it is necessary to make a silhouette picture for practical reasons rather than creative. This picture is of a young woman whose grandfather had just been convicted of sexually assualting her over a period of time. Obviously a truly horrendous story but the young woman bravely approached the newspaper to tell her story to help others who find themselves in a similar situation. She had waived her automatic right to anonimity put in place for these kind of cases but understandably didn't want to be identified in the picture as she tries to rebuild her life.

behave yourself on the trains - transport cops have now got tasers!

recent randoms

I've neglected the blog for a few weeks due to doing more work on the picture desk than on the road so here's a quick catch up of a few recent photos...

including kids checking energy efficiency at Manchester Cathedral and Alesha Dixon

Pictures of 'Guerilla Gardners' in Longsight who are improving their neighbourhood by working on unused land which the Council have said they should keep off.

pap attack

Every now and again I'm sent off to mix it with the paps and agencies... Sunday eve took me to Old Trafford to photograph Man Utd players arriving to a charity ball. Coleen Rooney was expected to turn up so I was sent along by the MEN to join the press pack waiting for her.