Blog Virgin Deflowered

Friday March 11
Here's my first blog and I have to say I winced as I typed that word 'blog'.  Surely the instigator of this worldwide realm could have created a more harmonious sounding word? It sounds so ugly. I have to admit I have started this whole blogging thing because I need to work on the SEO (search engine optimisation) for my website and a blog is what they call "text rich", very good for SEO.  This might make my motives sound a touch cold and clinical but behind it is a genuine feeling that I'm a good photographer who should have his website visited more often!
Also, I am a professional feature writer as well as photographer and, as I genuinely like to write, why not write about my photography?  Furthermore, in the last year I have photographed the Queen, Princess Anne and Charles & Camilla (it sounds like I'm collecting the set and, if William & Kate read this, I would be a cheaper wedding snapper than Mario Testino) so I have got some interesting aspects of my work to write about.
Today seemed a good day to launch into the blogosphere (no, that doesn't work as a word either, does it?) as I photographed the former England rugby star Jason Robinson.  He was a guest of investment bankers Brown Shipley in Manchester, a job I got through Bulletin, a financial services PR company.  Bulletin's rep couldn't be present so he asked me to do a short interview with Jason for their press release.  He was a very personable guy as he chatted about getting back into rugby (he came out of retirement two years ago to play for Fylde) and England's good form in the Six Nations.  When my questions were answered, he smiled when I told him the whole interview had been painful for me...  I'm Welsh.

Getting work at Brown Shipley is a classic example of the way one thing can lead to another in the uncertain world of freelancing.  I was photographing (for Derbyshire Life) 'Winster's Secret Gardens' - an Open Gardens scheme which the Peak village has embraced so richly - and met an old Radio Derby colleague Martin Stott.  I photographed him and his two daughters and was so pleased with the image, I emailed it to him.  Next thing I know, his company - Bulletin - hires me to do a shoot at an evening to celebrate the recent opening of Brown Shipley's offices in Manchester - with special guest Pattie Boyd, former wife of George Harrison and Eric Clapton, exhibiting her private photos.  Being a Beatleophile, it was all I could do to stop myself from plying her with questions about the Fab Four.  She was delightful.  It felt even more like an honour when I started thinking about the six main people you think of in the lives of The Beatles: Pete Best, Brian Epstein, George Martin, Yoko Ono, Linda McCartney and... Pattie.  

 Before I go on too long ("Good old Ashley, always a paragraph where a sentence will do," remarked an old boss of mine), I'll mention the other reason I wanted to start my blog today.  It seemed the fateful day, not just because of Jason Robinson following hot on the heels of Pattie Boyd and Charles & Camilla, but because of something I read in my national newspaper this morning.  I mentioned an old Radio Derby colleague, Martin.  Also, that "old boss of mine" is Bryan Harris, the best station manager I worked under at Radio Derby.  I felt a cold blast in my solar plexus when I read a quote on the front page from Mike Bettison, my last station manager at Radio Derby who is now manager at Radio Nottingham.  He was confirming that the whole of BBC Local Radio was under threat as a result of BBC cutbacks.  700 could lose their jobs.  I suddenly thought of nationally known broadcasters who started on local radio - Kate Adie, Simon Mayo and, both ex-Radio Derby, Mike Ingham and Duncan Kennedy.  How would they have got where they are without that grounding in local radio?  I worked at Radio Derby for 22 years until the year 2000 when I became a victim of the latest round of BBC budget cuts.  The manager - Bettison - axed my post of Arts & Entertainments Producer, effectively forcing me to leave and kicking in the teeth all those years of experience, expertise and enthusiasm.  I will never forgive or forget what he put me through, though in a perverse way he did me a favour because I might not have contemplated breaking out and working for myself.  Last summer I celebrated ten years of self-employment, eight years as a photographer and I have loved virtually every minute of it.  I said I would never go back to BBC Radio Derby but it seems like it won't be there anyway in a few year's time. It's terribly sad - and rather appalling, too.  
So, this has been quite a day: the start of my blog, the end (possibly) of my old way of life...