RIP Skip Faulkner

I've just heard that one of the original fitness photographers, Skip Faulkner has passed away.  I don't have any details as to when/how but that's not really important.

I met Skip by chance while doing a photoshoot at the Mandalay Bay pool in Las Vegas (back when the Olympia Expo was held there).  My model, Fawnia Mondey (now Deitrich) introduced us.

Skip was a real character, impossible to forget, at the time a heavy smoker and drinker, and a real nice guy.

That Olympia weekend we went to a fitness bikini competition, from which I did shoots with Maddy Howard & Tonya Lynn.  The following day he invited me to watch him shooting fitness legend Sherry Goggin.  It was the first time I'd ever seen how another photographed worked.

He was a true gent, even introducing me to Robert Kennedy during the Olympia Expo.

We kept in touch for a few years, but with Skip doing less and less work within the fitness industry we eventually lost contact.

RIP Skip, you will never be forgotten.

Update: Not sure how long his website will stay online, but take a few moments to look at his work - www.skipfaulkner.com.

Update 2: If you have any memories of Skip that you'd like to share, please leave a comment below.

Update 3: Skip pictured above with Natural Muscle Magazine owner Debbie Baigrie.

Update 4: Adding a picture of Skip and Lisa Reed.

Happy Days with Pash

I've just been reminded that it's been a year since we lost Sarah 'Pash' Howells. I still think of her often, her energy, her smile, and sadly how quickly life can turn around.

Live the life you've got to the full....

This is how I'll always remember Pash.

 

UK Mail Fail

I don't really do Xmas, and neither does my family.  We don't normally exchange gifts or do anything other than eat stupid amounts of food on Xmas day.  So having no gifts to open on Xmas day is fairly normal, my choice, and I'm cool with that.

However a week or so before Xmas day, my Dad, who's been rather ill over the last couple of months tells me he wants to get me something this year and asks me what I'd like.  So I think for a while about something special that I'd like.  An old fashioned bankers table lamp if you're interested.  I couldn't find it in any local stores, so we had to order it online.  A bit of a risk with the dodgy weather the UK was having at the time, but no choice.

A few days later when UK Mail try to deliver there was no one home.  They put a card through the door.  Bugger.  Delivery re-arranged for Xmas Eve.

Xmas Eve comes and goes, someone was home all day, no knock on the door from UK Mail.

Fast forward 4 days and I phone them up to re-arrange for delivery today, New Years eve.  There was going to be someone home all day, so a safe time to deliver.  Come 3pm nothing, so I decide to call them to see if its worth staying in for.  They tell me my parcel wasn't even put on the van today and won't be delivered.

So we re-arrange for Tuesday.  The joke is that they tell me they can't even promise it'll be delivered then.

I ask if I can drive over to their local depot to collect, but the next day they're open is also Tuesday.

I've never had dealings with UK Mail before, but they seem like a bit of a joke of a company.

I don't like to use this blog for this kind of stuff, but this has annoyed me, so here it is....

Real Networking

Early in the year I decided to change the way I network.  I've never been much of a morning person, and breakfast networking meetings just weren't working for me any more.  Besides, I was bored with the format, with the mind numbing scripts, speakers you don't really want to listen to, and the awful around the table introduction round.  Awful mostly because I was bloody awful at it, often I'd just stand up and say "I shoot people" and sit back down again.

Shortly after I give up eating cook breakfasts, I discovered Business in Southampton.  Business in Southampton is aimed mostly at the bigger businesses in the city, but once a month they hold an evening networking event, normally at the Dock Gate 4 piano bar.

I'm sure Business in Southampton have a more politically correct name for it, but to me its real networking without the "dicking about" that's normally associated with business networking.  At other meetings I've been to up to 50% of the meeting time is "dicking about" with eating, the intro round, and the speaker.  Held one a month, this event there is no format, just good honest real networking in a room full of people for 2 hours.

The added bonus is that in almost a year of meetings I don't think I've met a single MLM (multi level marketing) person.

Result!

Oh, the picture is from The Southern Daily Echo (Wednesday 22nd December 2010) who had a photographer at the Xmas meeting last week.

Photography at funerals?

I was having a conversation recently with someone about photography at funerals.

After my good friend Sarah 'Pash" Howells passing away at a tragically young age last night it got me thinking again about whether photography at funerals is socially acceptable.

What got me thinking about it originally was shortly after my Grans funeral a few years ago.  Relatives that I've never seen before or since were all at the funeral yet there are no photos of it.  Although it was a sad day, I'd have quite liked some photos of it to help me remember the people there.

Obviously you're not about to line people up and do all the group shots you'd do at a wedding, but I think if it was done in a discrete documentary way then there is indeed a place for photography at funerals.

I'm not pitching for business, and I'm not even sure I'd want to do professional photography at a funeral.

What does everyone else think?  I'd be interested to hear some opinions.