Skip to the photo for a surprise

Anyone who has ever had a skip delivered, whether for the builders, your own DIY or after being inspired to do some real spring cleaning will know those questions the hire companies rattle off about accessibility from the road etc.

Well at AASVogel, providers of skips and waste disposal across West Berkshire and south Oxfordshire, they have a rather neat skip lorry that can deliver skips over hedges, walls and suchlike and squeeze them into hitherto unreachable corners - I know because Morgan PR was photographing one today and accepting that pictures can sum up to many words, here you go:

Putting a Framer in the Frame

Morgan PR has a fun photographic job today – we seem to have done rather well this week for such projects, because Capital Corporate Finance was more fun than I am sure is technically allowed; this morning I was at Artifax, the picture framing shop that is also brimming with unique and original artwork and gifts.

Owner Jean Ince had made me very welcome earlier in the week when we met to discuss a feature we had been commissioned to write for her advertisement in the forthcoming edition in the Newbury Weekly News leisure magazine Out & About.

This is a business that puts the customer at the fore and I’ve no doubt the warmth expressed to me is something that every visitor to the store enjoys.

Fun Photography Can Mean Business

How's this for a happy corporate picture? Morgan PR captured the cheerful trio from Capital Corporate Finance earlier today.

We had written about the finance company previously for a business publication as well as on this blog and also taken a photograph of Helen Mackenzie (pictured above centre) and that led to a request to take photographs of the three directors for a variety of different publications and media.

Helen, Ross Smith and Carole Roe were good fun to work and keen to have their pictures taken. Honestly it made this a much easier job than those were staff are told I'm taking their photo!

And just to show you that it wasn't all laughter in every photograph, another shot below.

'Are You A Photographer?'

'Are you a photographer?'

So began an somewhat curious conversation in Marlborough town centre earlier today. It was a fairly astute question from one of a pair of teenage girls who were stood near to my car as I wrestled with what was obviously a camera bag.

'Yes, amongst other things' I replied.

Somewhat warily as there was a distinct challenge in the girl's question. I had visions of becoming a news story when I was robbed at knifepoint by two teenage girls in rather affluent Marlborough!

'You should be ashamed' she practically spat before they stormed off.

Actually more of an angry flounce really.

Somewhat taken aback and looking around for the punchline I was reminded of a party I was at the day after Princess Diana died in Paris, and had to leave early after suffering the wrath of alcohol fuelled party people who had made the clumsy leap from 'Police Press Officer' as I was then, and 'Murdering Paparazzi Scum'. Actually it possibly had more to do with me pointing out that if people had not devoured publications who bought such photos there would not be an market for them.

Anyway, back to bewildered in Marlborough... it took a comment from a client I was visiting to bring everything into sharp focus and neatly explained my exposure to teenage wrath. It turns out that tabloid villain/darling and abundantly misunderstood drug addict/musician Pete Doherty is staying in the town and gigging at the local pub as he 'gets clean'.

I had a camera bag and was obviously therefore trying to pap Pete. I hasten to add I know lots of photographers and none of them would ever go to work suited and booted like I was!

Learn to Create Raving Fans at Profit Club

Learn to Create Raving Fans at Profit Club

We are still fizzing with entrepreneurial energy after Vegas (at least we are when the jet lag isn’t try to tempt us with a goose down escape strategy) and today’s trip to the fortnightly Profit Club provided ample evidence.

For those not familiar with Action Coach’s Profit Clubs I can best describe them as a fortnightly networking meeting – with generous levels of business coaching included. It is even more than that because so much more than simply selling to the people your fellow attendees know, you swap advice and experiences and grow together. Because let’s not forget, as good as we are at delivering Morgan PR’s core offerings of public relations, photography, web design and mystery shopping, we are still learning the mechanics of running a successful business. Anyone who says they are not is quite possibly in denial!


The Profit Club, run in Faringdon by award winning Action Coach Sally Rainbow-Ockwell, has always been exceptional value and leaving aside the invaluable business coaching, the referred business has been fabulous.

However, today everything seemed to have even more resonance than normal; clearly motivated by the Entrepreneur’s MasterClass in Las Vegas we are redoubling our efforts and making the most of this investment.

We meet fortnightly on the second and fourth Tuesday of the month from 8am to 9.30am and you would certainly be welcome to join me as a guest, however more specifically I thought your curiosity might be piqued by this month’s training session: ‘Creating Raving Fans’. The two hour session, from 10am to midday on the 13th November at the Gateway Business Centre in Faringdon (more info on the venue, which is just over the downs!) and will be delivered by Sally. Normally for non Profit Clubbers the charge is £49.50, but this event will be free to celebrate our first birthday.

So, spaces are limited, but if you would like to come along just let me know pronto. Naturally, if anyone wants to come as a guest to the 8am Profit Club immediately before the training session, they are more than welcome.

Mole Mapping in the Thames Valley

I am still chuckling at the friend who seem puzzled when I mentioned I had been photographing a client who offers mole mapping as a service. They thought for a moment and then announced: "They must be very patient, we had moles in our garden and we only ever saw the hills they left behind."

Of course I was actually talking about the moles on your skin, the kind that are behind the UK biggest cause of Cancer and Morgan PR was interviewing and photographing Mike Samuels from Medical Photographic Services.

The company was established last year by Mike Samuels and is a medical photographic practice, covering medico legal, personal injury and pre-cosmetic surgery photography.
Newbury born and bred, Mike Samuels is the former Head of Medical Photography & Illustration at the Royal Free Hospital and University College London Medical School. A registered, qualified medical photographer with 40 years experience, he is an Associate Member of the Institute of Medical Illustrators and has an Enhanced Disclosure Certificate from the Criminal Records Bureau.

Tackling skin cancer was one of the primary motivators behind setting up the company as Mike Samuels explained: “I have worked with Cancer Research UK and they urge us all to ‘know our bodies and be aware of any changes’. However, changes in the skin are probably some of the more difficult ones to notice.

“By having your existing moles photographically recorded and documented by a registered medical photographer such as myself, you will have reassurance that when you visit your doctor they can immediately compare the change you may have noticed and do not have to rely upon your verbal description of what might be a very small, but very significant change.”


We met up at The Wellbeing Centre in Newbury where Mike practices, together with visiting people at home, and took the pictures, including the one above, you see here to reflect his work. They will appear in the forthcoming edition of the Newbury Business News on October 11.

Incidentally, if you do have moles... I can recommend the pest control division of Garden4You!

Morgan PR Photography Website Launched

More astute readers will have worked out that Morgan PR has a core offering of PR - Public Relations - and with this comes the myriad of ways to market for a company seeking to raise its profile and increase sales. From websites to mystery shopping.

Naturally part of that involves photography and indeed most days will involve us taking photographs of a client or for a newspaper such as the Newbury Business News. As the 'artist' in copyright law parlance, we own the rights to the photos and do indeed sell both prints and also the reproduction rights to many of our images.

However, there was no formal procedure for this... hence the launch of Morgan PR Photography, a website dedicate to publishing the photographs we take and providing the opportunity for people to order prints and to potentially buy the reproduction right, effectively transferring the copyright.

Gradually we hope to upload a full archive of images and will be contacting those featured to give them the link to view their photographs. Incidentally, the way we will be listing the images means they will help Google recognise these companies!