Monty 'Dalglish' Elbank... Legend..

 

 

 

 

 

In about 8 weeks we've had our Staffy Monty for 7 years...  Adopted from a dogs home, he has become a living legend, loved by most who meet him... Even if I constantly have to tell him off for jumping up people, when they arrive to the house.

I have shot many portraits of Monty over the years, he's even starred in a few print campaigns, for the price of a packet of Schmacko's.. He's like putty, just mold him into whatever position you want.. I was going to shoot a new portrait on the 26th April, when we got him, but squeezed him in between Jim and Martin on Monday's beard shots...

It's funny seeing how grey he has become round his mouth, he was only 18 months old when we got him.. He's sat up wearing his Liverpool shirts, watching the team with me for the past 7 seasons without any complaining, even though it's the middle of the night. He loves all he meets (as long as they're NOT cats), has been simply wonderful with all the kids he has come in contact with and protective when needs be...

Monty 'Dalglish' Elbank, we salute you Sir...


As always click on the image to enlarge...

Fellow Red Martin Kelleher's Monster of a Beard...

 

 

I'm not saying Martin's beard is bushy, but he was crossing the road with his dog and I had to drive round it... I stopped my car, gave him my card and he gave me the same confused look most of the other 152 bearded men have...

But two months later he popped round for me to shoot him and that beard.. After we had been chatting for a few minutes I asked if he was Blue or a Red, he gave me the right answer and I stuck on the F.A. Cup replay from the night before, to show him the six goals...

Martin is a fine chap, with a fine beard and supports a fine team...


As always click on the image to enlarge....

Neighbour Jim Key's very sweet beard..

Jim Key has literally lived up the street from me for the last 7 years and his fine beard has past me by and I never thought I'd get the opportunity of shooting it...

I'm sure Jim won't mind me letting you know that he is over 60 and a cool character to boot.. For years he has literally walked past me with his Jack Russell and as his beard got longer I felt the need to get him in front of the camera..

Jim says that when on the back on his partners moped the old beard takes on a whole new shape and back in the 70's when he was a hippie, his hair came down to his bottom and his beard down to his navel..

As always click on the image to enlarge...

Pigment... Joanna Braithwaite Portrait, oh and Josephine..

Finally I have got round to shooting Jo Braithwaite's portrait, for my Pigment series.. As I've mentioned before on the blog how pleasant Jo and her husband Frazer are and felt I could push her shot a little more, now I know them better.. Jo has done a series on birds and I wanted to incorporate one for our shot.. So she kindly asked her friend Erick Vals to supply one.

Josephine was a little reluctant to get out of her cage on the day and was rather vicious to say the least on attempting to entice her out of the thing.. I'd just about given up, when the bird decided to come out for her close up..

But poor Jo got the rough end of the deal, with two very scratched arms and a nibbled ear, but as you can see was game for the shots and managed to get a few at the end, that have a lovely quality to them between the two Jo's

Hopefully next up is Archibald winner Ben Quilty....

As always click on the image to enlarge...

Pigment.. Euan Macleod's Portrait.

I feel in many ways, there is a child like innocence to Euan... He's a really lovely person and very highly regarded artist. A former Archibald winner, he takes you at face value and is very easy to get on with.. After we first met and I shot his personal tools of the trade for my still life series, we talked about how we would approach his portrait.. I've not wanted to have any of the artists work featured in their portraits, I want to see them as a person, not an artist.

Euan studies Karate (Yoshukai) under Frazer and when I saw the head gear and mouth guard, I felt it might make a light humoured image, Euan being Euan was game.. Also we noticed Euan had alwys cut the right leg off jogging pants to use for wiping his brushes, so that was another image we wanted to try.. One thing a really noticed about Euan 's images were how diverse his facial expressions looked, from serious to laughing.. I love the serious direction, but felt I need to show his real side, with him laughing...

The next Pigment Portrait up, is next week with Jo Braithwaite...


As always click on the image to enlarge...