Paul Harness

Got a phone call yesterday asking me to cover a wedding today; talk about last minute! The wedding was at Wood Hall hotel, Linton.

Cable and Wireless Christmas party at the Loft, Leeds; the vodka luge!

Happy Christmas to all my readers (if I've got any!).

Photographed a wedding yesterday at the Bridge Inn, Walshford. Nice surroundings, but I think the bride was disappointed there was no snow. That's global warming for you! Back there in a week to video a wedding!

Whilst everywhere else in the north had snow, a wet Thursday in Manchester saw EDF Energy awarding its Customer Service staff with excellence awards at the Midland hotel.

Late November saw me filming and photographing a "Hell's kitchen" event at Blenheim Palace, with a dinner and awards afterwards at Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons (for those who aren't regulars there, it's Raymond Blanc's restaurant). Fortunately (!) there were people who dropped out, so there was a spare meal up for grabs; Fois Gras, and duck amongst the 5 courses; very nice! Only problem; after a day without any other food, it'd have been nice to get some good sized portions to sustain me on the drive back to Leeds at midnight.

Well, after having climbed up York Minster tower the other day, the latest job was underground at Drax power station. Down I went into the bowels of the station to photograph their new pumps designed to stop flooding. It was dark & damp! And people seem to think photography is glamourous!

Not sure what it is about this year, but I seem to spend an awful lot of time climbing church towers! This time it was late at night at York Minster, to photograph one of the bellringers for his company's magazine. So there I was again, climbing up narrow spiral stairs with all my gear, and feeling somewhat tired! What surprised me was how much the tower moved whenever the bells rang!

On Saturday I agreed to photograph two charity balls for a client; what an idiot! Meant a dash from one side of Leeds to the other, from the Mencap ball at the Royal Armouries to the Fall ball at Elland Road. Pictured are the organisers of the Mencap ball.

Yesterday I was doing a job in London, which gave me the opportunity to have a lunchtime wander through Regent's Park (somewhere I've not been for years). Whilst there, I came across some "interesting" sculptures, which I found out are part of the Frieze art fair; http://www.friezeartfair.com/

Covered to Leeds Academy (the old Town & Country) opening, with headliners the Kaiser Chiefs. Ricky decided to go crowd surfing, the pit security guys didn't want him to, grabbed him by the belt & managed to pull his trousers down! Meantime, his mike lead got caught round my neck & nearly strangled me; ow!!

We're all being watched! Recent pic for a client of their monitoring camera inside their vehicle. Watch what you're doing!

Rain, rain, go away! Been waiting for literally weeks to go take some "sunny" shots of Nottingham and Sheffield for a client designing new liveries for a train. Every time I've tried, it's rained. Argh! Finally got some at the end of August. But still no sun.

Yesterday I photographed the High Sheriff of Yorkshire's annual summer garden party, attended by the Lord Lieutenant, several mayors and judges, and there was a rare sighting of Sir Ken Morrison. Saying that, I've actually photographed him several times recently.

Yesterday's wedding at Bedern Hall in York; David & Sara. The bride is the sister of my old postman, whose wedding I photographed a few years ago.

Went up Howden Minster yesterday to take panoramic photos of the town; boy was it a long way up a set of very narrow, spiral, winding stairs. So today my thighs ache like they've not done for ages! Howden's a lovely little town; well worth a visit.

The video I did for the Sue Ryder Care Yorkshire women of achievement awards 2008. It was nice to be invited as a guest to the event itself.

Just one of the thousands of designs on show at Graduate Fashion Week; I like the visual quality of this one (though, not knowing anything about design, I couldn't say if this one's technically good!).

The gorgeous Gok Wan presented one of the prizes at Graduate Fashion Week, and there wasn't a single naked woman anywhere in sight!

Ravensbourne college wins the Gold award at Graduate fashion week again, with another menswear collection.

Couple of jobs today, one of which seems to get womenfolk excited, involving me photographing some firemen. I wonder why?! :-) Here they are, just to keep the womenfolk (and the odd bloke I know!) happy:

When all around is doing your head in, dance! Went dancing last night for the first time in a couple of weeks (been going since Jan; thank you so much to the lovely person who introduced me to it) just to make my body realise it does possess a couple of endorphins. Such a good way to bring a smile back to your face! And my 3 favourite dancers were there too (you know who you are; you bring out the best in those of us with 2 left feet!). That begs the question, if you can use both hands with equal dexterity you're called ambidextrous, so what are you called if you can use each foot? I've always been able to; what's that make me ?(and no rude answers if anyone reads this!!). For those who've never tried dancing, DO IT! I do Ceroc ( http://www.ceroc.com/ ). A good buzz, good exercise, nice people, and you end up being in awe of the good dancers.

What on earth is happening to this world? Have we all forgotten what's important?! I watch the news with incredulity; miilions of people are going through intolerable hardship and suffering in Burma as their government sits idly by. But what concerns me more is the pitiful amounts of money we spend on sending aid. The British government will spend £50bn to shore up a bank that is incompetant, but only spend 1% of that amount to try allieviate suffering and hardship. What's gone wrong with our priorities? Yes, it's a tough world out there, yes we have to protect our economy as best we can, yes, globalisation makes us have to make tough choices, but for Heaven's sake, where's our humanity gone? Is money the only thing left for us to care about? I got news for us all; money ain't important! Think about how we can help each other before it's too late. Even if it's just something small; it doesn't even have to involve money. Contact someone who you've

Wedding fair today at Parkside hotel, Pontefract. Large, airless room with 20+ exhibitors in it and boy oh boy, were we hot?! Mind you, glad I wasn't in the conservatory where they had the fashion show; poor old trio that were in there were flaking! As with most wedding fairs these days, far too many photographers there for the limited number of potential clients.

Well, thought I'd give this blogging stuff a go, seeing as everyone seems to be doing it. Not sure if anyone will read it but here goes anyway.