GOLDEN CASH RETRIEVERS

I was commissioned back in January to provide some PR images for Canine Partners - a worthy charity training dogs to assist people with a disability (predominantly wheelchair users) - from taking washing out of the machine to.. yes.. drawing money from a cash point.. ok.. they can't actually punch the pin number in, but amazingly they can put the card in the slot, take the money and get the receipt!

After hours getting the standard PR stuff of the "team" raising money at Canary Wharf, I got the opportunity to shoot inside HSBC after they had made a presentation to the marketing bods there. As soon as I had set the shot up I knew it would be an image that would capture the imagination.. despite the strength of the image unfortunately HSBC themselves weren't interested in purchasing the image.. but not surprisingly were very keen for me to submit it wherever I could..

A couple of weeks later I submitted the image to various national publications.. amazingly enough the first to respond was METRO (London) and the following day it got a half page on Page 3. The day after that it was picked up by The Daily Mail, by the end of the week it was posted on over 300 sites and blogs on the internet from Turkey to Peru.. was being discussed on Radio 2 and Radio 4 amongst others, appeared in various local papers, it was even picked up by gossip magazine REVEAL, and it has since appeared on the BBC's "Have I Got News for You".

First Post

It was suggested to me.. by more than just one person.. that setting up a blog would be of benefit to me.. both in raising awareness of my existence as a photographer to the greater world out there, and.. I was authoritatively told.. it would improve my writing skills. I hope it does both.

In fact no sooner had I set up the page last night when I received a call this morning from my Uncle in Australia asking if I had thought about setting one up!

Et voila..

So here I am.. April Fool’s Day 2007 and I’m writing my first ever post.

The difficulty is that as I write this.. I am very consciously aware that the only person who knows of the existence of this site is myself. I have no –one in particular to whom to direct this to. I am, in effect, talking to myself. First sign of madness? But here’s hoping that it may not always be that way and that someone will happen across this “blog” and in some way engage.

So here’s a first photo.. just to get the ball rolling.. no caption..



welcome to my "blog" and I hope you will engage with me - give me your feedback, comments and insights. I look forward to hearing from you..

G