Sorry-I couldn't resist after my last post. The original Apple Mackintosh 128K personal computer which I photographed this week.

I just bought a new MacBook after my old one died at nearly four years old. I'm pleased with the new machine, but that may change after tomorrow when Apple bring out this new tablet. Nobody is sure of the name yet.....i-slate,i-tablet,i-reader, whatever. The idea is that the tablet will replace paper print and that newspapers, books etc. may do a deal with Apple to produce content which can then be paid for online and downloaded to the tablet reader.
It should be very interesting to watch what happens and whether or not this device gallops to the rescue of falling newspaper and magazine sales.

An interesting job for The Daily Telegraph last week at the site of Britain's first commercial oil well. Back in 1939, at the outbreak of WWII, 50 'roughnecks' arrived from america to secretly drill for oil at Dukes Wood in Nottinghamshire.
Their efforts were crucial to the war effort and oil supplied by the well and shipped via 'Pluto' helped supply the tanks used in the D-Day landings.

Now Egdon Resources has erected a derrick on the site and is conducting tests to see if drilling for oil again would be a viable commercial enterprise. Unfortunately I didn't have permission to get closer to the current drilling platform where work is going on 24-7, but it can be seen from the road.

Further into the wood the old 'nodding donkeys' can still be seen and there is the Dukes Wood Oil Museum where I met two of the former oil drillers. The one in my photo is Kevin Topham who worked there for British Petroleum in the 1950's and who is now curator at the museum. The Dukes Wood drilling ended up as a test for the UK's first foray into North Sea oil and gas.
Kevin himself worked there, on the ill fated 'Sea Gem' which collapsed two days after Christmas in 1965. 13 men from the rig died, 13 survived including Kevin who jumped into the sea and was lucky to make it to a life raft in the freezing cold water.

Yahoo's flickr comes in for a lot of stick from some quarters. Only this week a controversy arose over The Independent newspaper allegedly using a Flickr member's photo without his permission. The 'misunderstanding' was sorted out and money changed hands rather than lining the pockets of lawyers.

I've had my fair share of people attempting to rip off my photos from flickr, but on balance I'd say it's another marketing tool and perhaps something a little bit more too sometimes. I'd been thinking how I could set up a fundraising print sale when I noticed somebody else had the exact same idea on flickr. Charity Print Auctions was started up by Andrew Newson and I was pleased to sign up and auction my 'Nutcracker' print in aid of the Haiti appeal. Thanks to James Galpin for his winning bid on my print and his donation to the British Red Cross Haiti Earthquake Appeal.

Back on The Independent theme, ex-Indie photographer Brian Harris is also selling prints in aid of the appeal-in his case at a bargain £25 for a 14x11 inch hand printed image. brian@brianharrisphotographer.co.uk for more details.

The big freeze continues here in the UK and at one of my local golf courses, the enterprising owner has switched to providing ski and snowboarding facilities. The Cold Ashby Golf Club is ideally situated on rolling hills near the Northamptonshire village.
Together with my friend Bob we visited the slopes for a spot of photography. Fifteen pounds for a session and a temporary ski lift to save the slug back up the hill-except for me and Bob of course!
The snowboarders had built a ramp for take offs and attacked it with gusto-resulting in a few less than soft landings.

Apparently at one point before our arrival a hare had run across in front of the skiers. Wish we'd seen that, but a buzzard did give an impromptu flypast whilst out looking for lunch. Newspapers are getting a bit sick of the constant deluge of snow photos coming their way now-the novelty has worn off. So fingers crossed some of our work will get published, but if not it was an interesting experience to photograph a ski 'resort' in the 'Northamptonshire Alps'.

My latest two jobs have been no shows where for one reason or another the subject never showed up.
Seeing as I get paid any way you'd expect I would consider it easy money and not think any more of it.
But I have to admit to a certain dissatisfaction when that happens-I'd much rather be shooting the portrait I'd been sent to get.

This is nearly always a quiet time of year when accounting and scanning old stock photos are foremost on my mind.
The accounting is the really boring bit, but looking at old negs from jobs I covered years ago is always a bit like rummaging in a lucky dip.
Here are two from the 90's which show the Castle Lodge at Ludlow.Its a sixteenth century Elizabethan Mansion House with fantastic oak carvings. Once the home of Catherine of Aragon, it has been privately owned throughout its history and after a spell as a hotel was finally re-opened to the public in 1999 when I took these photos. The ghost of Catherine, (famously one of Henry VIII's six wives who did survive complete with her head), is said to haunt the building to this day-although she was a no-show during my visit.

Happy New Year to all readers of my blog. I'm thinking we are all hoping that 2010 will be different from that clunker of a year that was 2009. Things have started off in a different way for me already. The usual spam e-mails in my junk inbox contained one enterprising one that actually wished me a happy new year before going on to try and sell me something I don't want !

Unfortunately my own New Year's day plan has just gone belly up. We were supposed to be going out with my friend and assistant Bob Caddick and his wife Maggie to visit the wildfowl reserve at Welney in the fens where thousands of Bewick and Whooper swans overwinter after a long journey from Siberia. Unfortunately Suzy seems to have picked up a bug so that isn't going to happen today now. The best laid plans and all that.....

Suzy and Bob remind me that health, friends and family are the most important priorities in any year.
He had a close brush with death after contracting lymphoma but has pulled through it, thank goodness. The way he has got on with his life since then is a source of inspiration to me and as Robert Schuller the evangelist, pastor and author once said "Be hopeful, for tomorrow has never happened before."

Happy Christmas. Welcome to Britain. A country that fights terrorism and upholds freedom, liberty and the rule of law.
It makes me proud to live here..

Noooooooo-it's that time of year again when Britain grinds to a halt after two flakes of snow, the rest of the world laughs at us and the same old crappy headlines get trotted out again.
Despite only a few inches of snow, the roads around here quickly became gridlocked as usual and true to form all the kids got sent home instead of spending their last day at school before the Christmas holidays.

I'm not sure if the frozen stuff will linger long enough to make it a white Christmas this year. It brings out the best in some people and the worst in others. We've had the usual snow-balling cretins causing hassle for the police in our little town.
But in exchange for photographing their holly tree in the snow, I helped somebody to get their car up the steep driveway outside their home. So thats my good deed for the day and now it's time for a minced pie reward :-)

Here's a great Christmas card I just received which was shot at Sywell today-it's a Fokker Triplane scale replica in the snow.
Probably the best way to travel at the moment!