A slightly enforced layoff whilst I’ve been putting together a new office but all is now up and running.

West Kirby’s biggest claim to fame is the Marine Lake and it’s always good fun every year to see and hear the Wilson Trophy taking place over three days. Two hundred Olympic-class sailors compete from all over the world and whilst I couldn’t really understand what was going on it all seemed like good fun (and a serious competition for those involved).

West Kirby Sailing Club is less than 200 yards from where I live so it was great to just stroll down the road and snap away, if only everything could be so easy to get to!

It’s been ages and ages since I last did a music gig so it was good to back at The Olympia shooting Placebo tonight. Two songs and go but the band sounded great and the venue was packed out.

People had come from all over the world for this gig in Liverpool (one of three they were doing in the UK) and fans from Australia and Brazil also headed to this show too. Apparently some fans slept outside the Olympia last night and there was certainly a healthy crowd there mid morning when I drove past (and the place was shut).

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A particularly nice sunset drew me out to West Kirby Sailing Club last night to catch the tail end of a sail session on the Marine Lake. Despite the cold weather it was lovely to be out and wander around watching the guys come in and moor up.

I’ve not done landscape shots for eons so it was a nice change of scene for me to be out there and hope you like the shots too.  Something else I’ve not done for a while is coming along tomorrow night with a music gig at The Olympia.

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Last week I covered the last of the Spring season of Young Everyman Playhouse performances in the Studio at The Playhouse. Illyria is a fictional play which concentrated on a journalist reporting from a war torn country and ending up with the madam of the country’s dictator (who has a major shoe obsession).

There were many great performances from the young actors and it’s been wonderful to cover them over the last few weeks. What a great city of culture Liverpool is.

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A very, very small contribution from myself amongst all of the many images of the Sea Odyssey which has hit Liverpool in a big way over the last couple of days. The run up has been for several months so it’s great to see the story being acted out onto the streets and the massive crowds to match.

I was down at Mann Island this afternoon so got to see Xolo (the dog) and the Little (30 foot) Girl up close and they are mega.  Really fun to see the dog getting a wash and brush and the Little Girl got onto her scooter as she headed to the Pier Head for a rest.  To see the reaction of the crowd was fantastic and great for the city to have such an occassion too.

For more information on the event itself go here and also have a look at the blogs of Mark and Pete who are doing extensive coverage of the three days.

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I’ve been holding off upgrading my website for some time as I’ve been waiting on a long promised update from my web host. However, a spring clean was well overdue so here it is. A whole new range of images have been added to the portfolio and some new sections created too of the people and groups I have worked with.

Hope you enjoy looking at the pictures as much as I have with the taking of them.  Here are a selection but please pop by to have a look at my site here.

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Saturday night marked the return of the Amateur Fight Championships (the series below the pro level OMMAC) at The Olympia. It was a great night of action with six title fights amongst the fifteen bouts on the fight card.

Here’s a selection of the night but many more are available HERE for you to view or buy as prints/downloads without the watermark on.

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This week also saw the latest copy of Fighting Fit magazine coming out and it was lovely to catch up with Michael Grundy again. I first photographed Michael just over a year ago when he was making the transition from wrestler to the MMA world.

Thanks to Michael’s hard work this move to the cage fighting scene has been a successful one and I see him regularly punding his opponents at The Olympia. Speaking of which, there’s cage fighting to cover there tonight too.

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I’ve recently been asked to work on a new publication, AlphaFit, the first free men’s health and fitness magazine to be published in this country and distributed across a range of upmarket gyms and health clubs.

The shots here are of rugby league star Ashley Gibson who is wing for Salford City Reds nd the first shot formed the front cover for the magazine. The next few shots show some of the techniques for a fitness section in the magazine.

Check the magazine out here.

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An interesting bit of photo work last Tuesday shooting the West Kirby Light Operatic Society who were involved in an event for the forthcoming Sea Odyssey at St George’s Hall.

Being from West Kirby it gave a bit more of a local spur and great to see the members in the splendour of St George’s followed by a rousing bit of operatic singing at the end of their set.

The Society will be performing at gala dinners next week at the Adelphi Hotel (in a replica of the Titanic’s smoking lounge) and will also be performing Titanic – The Musical at the Empire Theatre in June.

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And what a delight it was on Thursday evening to see this event at the Trinity Vaults in Vauxhall. The large scale art piece presented the work of young technicians to the public using live streaming and images projected onto the side of the building and created a giant interactive cube. The technicians were guided by mentors Illuminos (who won the 2010 Northern Art Prize and a large crowd really appreciated the work (despite the cold weather).

It was great to see the building transform from its original state to have clocks, people and a wide range of different colours and shapes (especially the Rubik’s cube) whizz across.

The project was funded by Liverpool Primary Health Care Trust as part of their Decade Of Health And Wellbeing programme along with Riverside Housing and John Lewis.  A truly great spectacle and great to see the techs get a chance to shine (sorry) in the limelight and take centre stage.

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A lovely afternoon of sunshine and street theatre ensued at the Albert Dock yesterday with the Young Everyman Playhouse, 20 Stories High and Halewood Youth Theatre.

There were a series of short performances which focussed on the idea of what it is like to be a refugee with a suitcase being your only possesion as you arrive in a foreign country.

There’s another performance this afternoon (3pm start time) and is well worth seeing running between the Museum Of Liverpool, the Maritime Museum and the Billy Fury statue (near the Tate Liverpool).

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