Ola nice attitude!

Religious Procession. from Brendan MacNeill on Vimeo.
It's not often that I get grabbed by the police. In fact it hasn't happened since the late 70's when I used to shoot demos in London. Those were turbulent days. But recently it happened again. This time in Spain. I was on holidays but taking time off from our R&R to photograph a religious procession with my crappy point and shoot. Stretching and attempting to photograph from the sidelines I was grabbed and dragged into the (now static) procession itself by a policeman. "Do it properly" or some such was uttered in Spanish and I was left to roam and shoot.
And then there was an unfamiliar reaction from all involved. I was actually made to feel welcome. Welcome despite the fact that I was shooting teenagers and even very young children. In fact parents encouraged their children to turn to my camera. What I wouldn't have imagined doing in the UK I was free to do unhindered in Spain.
Ola nice attitude!

PackShotUK

My friends at Bohemia occasionally get me to shoot some of their products for their online retail business. After one such recent session I was left looking at my studio space wondering when I'd next get to use the still life table. So instead of packing it away I thought I'd leave it up and create a website specifically for this type of work. After all they say diversification is the name of the game.
And today I've launched PackShotUK offering online retailers a competitive, if simple, service that will enhance their websites. But it's not a no frills service as I still provide great level of service and years of experience.
And the projects land on clients desks on time every time.

It never rains but it shines.

Here's a sneak preview of my latest emailer to clients and would be clients due out on Monday... are you on my mailing list?
The rainbow shot came from a 'right place right time' moment. Actually I'd passed by here a day previously to a Turneresque scene of a clearing storm. A good enough image came from that stop but this one capped it by a mile.
But what to place with it? More landscapes or some food? Scallops or venison? None of that was doing it for me until I remembered this portrait of a far north crofter. Yes it's a couple of years old but now works perfectly with the castle and rainbow.
And where is the castle? What am I ... a location service?

Pulling the Shutters down......

....on an Edinburgh landmark. Well many, me included, feel it's more an eye-sore than landmark and are happy that it'll be rubble soon. Luckily I got 2 hours in there recently and some of the resulting images are now on my website.

Photoshoot at the Chancellor's Highland Retreat.

Coming soon to a magazine near you is my photoshoot at Chancellor Alistair Darling's Highland retreat. Please email me if you'd like to see an extended preview.

Blog Feed.

Those who have visited PushPixels before will already know that I have a sidebar with a small list of blogs that I follow. With two or three exceptions they are photography related.
But I've never known if any of my visitors ever go there and click through to any of them. So in an effort to push you that way I thought I'd start an irregular summery of the past week's content in some of them.
This was all prompted bescause Conscientious covered Joel Sternfeld's new landscape book Oxbow Archive (pictured). Also mentioned is Adam Bartos on his Yard Sale photographs, Lisa Wiseman who was selected for 'PDN's 30 for 2009' and who has a great page on the iPhone as the New Polaroid, there's a pointer to an article in Frieze on the Art World in the Credit Crunch and another to the work of Finnish photographer Ismo Holtto. And there's also reference to a building collapse in Cologne where there's a subway tunnel being built by the very same people building out tram line here in Edinburgh. Which explains a lot.

Glyn Davies at Musings from the Anglesey Photo Artist tells of his interview for a Welsh Language Arts tv programme, individual prints selling and news of a print sale with lots of great photography including this shot.

Mrs Deane has a review of the work of Prix HSBC pour la Photographie winner Matthieu Guafso, muses on change, moving on and ruins and a piece on 2 found postcards one of which has very sinister overtones. Or does it?

Meanwhile LensCulture has a review of Look Me in the Eyes:Russian Photographic Portraits happening in Paris, the World Press Photo 2009 awards and a story on how the residents of a Kenyan slum are mounting photographs on their roofs big enough for Google Earth to see. And this site has a vast archive of photography to view and buy too.
And The Strobist has.... well tutorials and kit stories and .... well go there if you're after a How To? or 2.
And what of the non photographic blogs? Well my friends at Bohemia Life have kids clothes from Phister and Philine (which is a slightly odd name to choose if I may say so), The Little Experience Craft kits for Kids and lots and lots more for body and home including my nudes. Tom Morton at Beetcroft moans about ITV's Red Riding. I agreed with some of what he says about set design but I've sympathy with the designers who can't find all the necessary 60's tat as its all been chucked save for the really high end stuff. And that wasn't required in that film was it? But I thoroughly enjoyed the episode with the exception of the sound quality. Or is it my tv set? Or even my hearing? And finally my friend Mike Coulter at DigitalAgency relates a story on crap iPhone customer service from O2. How much longer will Apple allow this monopoly to exist? Great device. Pity about O2's grasp of our nuts.

Ahoy there! New Website!

ALL or At Long Last I've finished my promised re-building of my website. I've expanded it into a simplified format with 4 "Books" and "Info" and "T&Cs" pages. And rather than talk too much about it here I'd like you to go visit it HERE.

Hope you like it (and do please report any errors).

It's 2009!

Happy New Year. Enlarge image.

Christmas Ba Hum Bug

According to yesterday's Observer we are very much in 'thrift' mode. And how appropriate that Douglas at z360.com sent me this little ditty by Paddy Roberts from 1962. More 'post rationing' than Ba HumBug perhaps it never the less hits a spot.
(Opens in a new window. And if any one can tell me how Blogspot accepts .mp3 and .mov files I'd be very appreciative).