Stuart Homer Photography

Awesome to support the Beatles4Food event this afternoon - here's a quick taster... The event's on until 7pm tonight, and it's a fantastic cause. All the artists giving their time and talents for free - if you're nearby, get yourself here!

Wow, I survived International Beatleweek. Actually, not only survived but came out of it feeling fresh and fit.

Possibly that was down to a slightly different way of working - more targeted and focused on exactly what Cavern Club Liverpool needed (rather than the 4-5k images I've taken in previous years.

Probably it was down to YOU and the love everyone shared. A big part the friendship of friends I see every year, of musicians I've photographed previously (I've decided I love Brazilian man-hugs!)

Of course all those at CCT, my hosts. If I start to name people I'll fail, but I work directly with Victoria, Jay & Ellie and then closely with Nick, Jon, Bill, Paul, Beth, Neil, Clark That includes those you never see like Connor, Robbie the Hat & John. Also my teammates Tóia Oliveira, Vic & Ian.

Lots of people asking where they can see my images - and the straight answer is that during each day they're edited and passed to CCT. So you'll have seen some already on the official social media and others yet to come.

But you deserve to see some sneaky previews, right? So here's a little sample from my International Beatleweek 2023. Here's to next year!!!

I'll let the Preston, Longridge, Bamber Bridge & Hesketh Bank RAF Air Cadet Squadrons share the photos themselves - but a privilege to support them all at today's City of Preston Remembrance Parade.
A credit to their parents and their Squadrons - well done all.

Ok, the moment you’ve been waiting for - when I finally stop posting 35mm film photos from my ‘69 Nikon F of International Beatleweek.
I like to think you’ve been waiting to see this final set (don’t spoil my fantasy by telling me otherwise).
I have saved two of the best gigs of Beatleweek until last - The Cavern Club Liverpool Beatles Adelphi Ballroom and the The Shankly Hotel Pure McCartney set with Howie Casey. All photographed on ILFORD PHOTO (Official Page) film.
As always, hope you like them…

Carrying on the old school film photographs taken at this year’s International Beatleweek. These were taken in the Adelphi Hotel Liverpool Ballroom - McDonald’s Farm, Just Beatles and as a bonus the young Beatles Complete on the Cavern Club Liverpool stage.

As always, view on the biggest screen you can - these are scanned images from film negatives, photographed just as The Beatles were back in the 1960’s. Manual focussing, experience (or guesswork) for exposure and just good timing.
As always, hope you like them!

Yesterday I posted the first few pictures photographed during International Beatleweek on my vintage Nikon F film camera.

Your response has been amazing, I’m glad you love them as much as I do. I promised to share some more and I think this will be the second of four posts overall.

Today’s images were taken at Alma de Cuba from the Led Zeppelin set at Saturday’s show there - subject matter that really lends itself to black & white.

Don’t forget though, no fancy image conversions to monochrome going on - just simple film and a 52 year old camera.

Hope you like them even more than yesterday’s (and as much as tomorrow’s pictures).

Let me know what you think…

On my other social media I’ve been buzzing over the last couple of days and now’s a good time to reveal it. This year, photographing for Cavern Club Liverpool I captured just over 1000 images, with 400+ of them being the delivered images you’ve hopefully seen.
In a way, I’m even more excited about the 36 ‘other’ images I’m revealing now.

You see - digital photography is easy. I have cameras which measure the light, I can adjust all sorts of settings. I pick a spot on the camera will focus on it, I can shoot a burst of images and pick the best. Most of all I can instantly see the image and reshoot if needed.

But there is another way - did anybody catch me working with my 1969 Nikon F? Not just for show - I was shooting a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 film, and those are the images I’m revealing now.

It’s a very different way of working - it does have a light meter, but not in a useful sense in these conditions. I do have a bit of experience having caught some 22,000+ International Beatleweek images to date. More significantly the camera is manual focus and of course only 36 exposures on a roll of film. That and no ability to check the results until the negatives are processed.

So why do I do it - mainly for fun, a personal challenge? Well why not? I’m listening to ‘60s music, played authentically on vintage instruments through valve amplifiers - so why not?

And the results - Personally I adore them and hope you do too. If you’re viewing on a phone, they’ll just look like any digital snap that’s been turned to black & white - but please view on the largest screen you can find. Then zoom in a bit.

See that grain? Completely different from digital sensor noise. Those are individual particles of chemical in the film emulsion. Those are the scratches on the LP surface, those are what gives the image character. Digital images are captured using an electronic brain, these few images are captured with a human heart.

Let me know what you think - and keep watching for more over the next few days.

Quick follow up to my photography, and was just glancing back through my timeline - an image from 2015 from a studio shoot. Tough life photographing guitar p**n…
Actually incredibly tough to get consistent even lighting without hotspots or shadows, and minimal photoshop too.
Zoom and enjoy.

Here's a quick upload from one of my favourite product studio sessions earlier this year.... A little bit of 'guitar p**n', dedicated to any and all of my musician friends gigging this weekend.
Hope you like it - many thanks to my good friend Gareth for bringing a few awesome guitars to be catalogued.
©2015 Stuart Homer Photography Ltd.

What an amazing week - the annual International Beatleweek festival 2021 in Liverpool.

It was ten years ago the first time I set foot in The Cavern Club Liverpool to photograph just one band during a single day of the event.

Since then my involvement has grown year upon year and was amazing to be declared main photographer for this year’s festival.

I was doing some checking up and it seems that from 2011 to 2019 I’ve captured over 21,300 images of International Beatleweek and its bands. This year the emphasis was upon catching and supplying key images for the Cavern Club Liverpool Instagram and pages, plus the technical challenge of making that happen in near real time, with over 400 images supplied in a four day period.

That wouldn’t have been possible without team working and it’s a huge privilege to be requested into that team.

All of my images have been provided directly into the Cavern Club PR team and you can see them posted here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10159472897770502&type=3

Very sad news today, the passing of Merseybeat legend Gerry Marsden.

Gerry was my first celebrity gig photo session back in August 2012 as he headlined and closed International Beatleweek at The Cavern Club.

As always the club was packed and the only vantage point I found myself was on the Live Lounge stage itself, hiding in a corner but just a few feet away. Gerry had just turned a videographer away for being too up-close so I was a little nervous, but Gerry didn’t seem to mind my presence.

In fact Gerry couldn’t have been more gracious. As always, the packed Cavern was like a furnace yet Gerry still had time for everyone. After his first set The Rockits were supposed to play, but couldn’t actually get into the dressing room - Gerry signed autographs for the whole time. Then he repeated the event for the second audience of the day.

A month or so later I had cause to speak to Gerry’s agent about these photos, and learned that he’d had open heart surgery only a matter of weeks earlier - pretty much the operation I’d had as a much younger man.

You can’t keep a legend down. RIP Gerry

Happy New Year!!! A New Year and big changes from today affecting Drone flying in the UK - all in all much easier and more flexible, lots more potential.
Now just need some decent light...
http://publicapps.caa.co.uk/docs/33/CAP2008_EU_Drone_Rules_Factsheet_V7%206.pdf?fbclid=IwAR2rq6FItF2bTJhQVrzoUCE4PGxikLuo3O1Y4cwOHuSp0Dg4A6c_f_yRWUc

Ok - So the snow wasn't super deep... and the sun wasn't shining like the Alps... but still snow is snow, right?

https://youtu.be/g3O5i1kV8zQ

Longridge Fell Snow 29th December 2020 and Longridge Fell has a little snow. It also has a few gusts of wind, so a slightly more sheltered spot.

Great to catch a few minutes of winter sunshine 'air time' this morning... Making the most of the chances when they arise.

Is it valid to say 'welcome back' to myself? It must be about a year now since my last post and a lot has changed...

Late in 2019 after ten years in business I decided it was time to rethink on how I offer my professional services. Then of course Covid-19 changed everyone's lives. It seems for once I may have been ahead of the curve.

So, back to the here and now... I'm still alive and kicking, I'm continuing to support key corporate clients and events just like I have before. I have a couple of pre-booked events and fear not, I'll still be there to snap away at those.

The Stuart Homer Photography website and email aren't active at the moment, but you can still see my archived work here - hope you enjoy browsing.

Stuart Homer Photography updated their info in the about section.

Stuart Homer Photography updated their business hours.

Stuart Homer Photography updated their website address.

Stuart Homer Photography updated their phone number.

Just to follow on from Monday's post of the Imagine John Lennon show... Here's a couple more of Jimmy and the show in action.
(Not wanting to spoil the show for anyone seeing it this weekend - it is a great show though!)

It was great to have the opportunity to photograph 'Imagine' on Sunday night, great to catch up with the fantastic Jimmy Coburn as John Lennon, and backing band (also good friends Rick Wilson, Chris Grindrod, Mikey Beck and Justin Crowe). Thanks to all involve cast and crew for hosting - good luck on the rest of the tour and beyond.
The photos will be with Jimmy and the team very soon, but here's a little taster. Hope you like it!

Ok - which of my favourite clients and suppliers would like to see their logo displayed here? I’ll be wearing this top whilst I cycle 100km in one night around Liverpool & The Wirral - all to raise as much as possible for British Heart Foundation.
Chipping Steam Fair are onboard - how about you?

Minimal donations welcome. www.justgiving.com/stuarthomer

There’s 12 reasons I’m really unhappy right now....
On Sunday I carried out a lifestyle photo shoot for two separate corporate clients. I’m not unhappy about that - in fact I couldn’t be happier. Two lovely, vibrant clients, both with their separate stories.
An amazing venue too - a 12th century manor farmhouse on the bank of the river Ribble.
I couldn’t have been happier with the venue, and the early spring sunlight was amazing. I’m not unhappy with any of that either.
During the session I captured about 150 digital images on two cameras, both outdoors and in studio conditions. Even mixing studio light with ambient. From the session I’ve processed and supplied images to my clients next day - they’re delighted and I couldn’t be happier. I’m really happy with some of my best work.
The thing is, just for fun I also ran a roll of film through my Bronica medium format camera during the session.
The camera is a work of art in itself and a whole different way to photograph - nothing auto, no batteries, no autofocus, autoexposure or even light metering. Just judgement and experience.
Now, for a 50 year old camera it’s obviously ‘mature’ and it seems in need of a bit of TLC...
I’m just a bit totally and utterly gutted that every one of the 12 images from that roll of film has part of the picture masked- cutting the head off in pretty much every case.
What would have been 12 amazing photos, instead 12 reasons to be very unhappy.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here... busy, busy, busy.
I’ve a good excuse today - feeling on top of the world after a dual corporate portrait session on Sunday, providing edited images last night and more particularly the fab feedback email I got today:
“They are absolutely fantastic, thank you so much!! I had such a great day and it really comes across in the photos, I’m absolutely delighted.”
So - where are the pics you ask, why aren’t I posting them - well, that’s for my clients to do. One of the differences that being a pro makes - often the very best work is not for public viewing.

Beyond the world of photography, this is a personal challenge I'm taking on in mid-July... Cycling 100km around Liverpool and the Wirral at night.
I'm undertaking it in support of British Heart Foundation - please check out the link below, I'd love your support!

Read Stuart's story Stuart is raising money to help British Heart Foundation

It's that time of the year again, and what an amazing year 2018 has been!!! Here's a few images from some of my favourite events of the year - with 17,806 photos to choose from it was no easy task choosing just this handful.
Huge thanks to all the clients I've had the chance to work with - in corporate terms it's been awesome to continue to support The Cavern Club, Longridge High School, RAF Air Cadets, Chipping Steam Fair and Hill Chapel School amongst others. I won't embarrass my personal clients by mentioning them by name.
Whatever our connections - thanks for an amazing 2018, here's to doing it all again to the max in '19.
Happy New Year all!!!

Always great to work as part of team Cavern Club Liverpool - last night no exception, with Cheap Trick playing to a very full house. Almost straight off the camera a few hours ago, here's a little taster.
All images (c)2018 Stuart Homer Photography. All Rights Reserved.

Rubbish photo on the phone - in between doing the proper job for Cavern Club Liverpool and these guys - Cheap Trick.

The tidy out continues, today’s offering: Can anyone make use of a cash register?
This Casio 140CR has been really useful but is now surplus to my needs. Programmable item keys, printed transaction log etc. Mains powered. Ideal for a small business, charity stall etc. Some signs of use with minor marks, but in good working order.
Unfortunately no cash included in cash drawer 😉
Please ask for any further details...

For sale: Now surplus to business needs, my professional quality 6m x 3m (20ft x 10ft) folding awning is available for sale.
Will be supplied with a brand new sealed plain canopy in your choice from 14 available colours (worth £120) or I can even supply the brand new canopy printed to your exact design (at cost price).
Easy folding design, very sturdy 45mm hexagonal aluminium legs. Also includes set of six side panels in black fabric and wheeled carry case.
Available immediately- contact me for further details and price. (07970 307298)