As I woke up the other day, and reached across to my phone, that was on charge by my bed, I read, through sleepy eyes, that my long time wedding album designer has decided to close her business.

I've been using her services for nearly 10 years for my Fusion Album designs, in which she blended their creative flair along with my images, to create stunning and unique wedding albums. To say I'm gutted, would be an understatement. It's meant that I've had to pass that news on to a number of brides and let them know that their album design of choice is now, sadly, not available.

Finding great service providers is hard. Finding ones dedicated to their art is even harder. With new styles coming through, such as my collage ones, brides are typically picking the cleaner lines, which meant the Fusion design was slowing going out of favour, which is a shame, as I really liked it.

The Fusion Design isn't the only thing I'm shedding from my site, I'm also going to be doing less Press Photography too, as the newspaper industry is in it's last death throws, as more and more journalists are taking pictures themselves, as well as that, the papers are taking any auld toot when it comes to accepting free images from the general public. You simply can't compete when it comes to trying to earn a living from organisations that feel they don't have to pay anymore. I'm currently in dispute with a Northern Ireland based National Newspaper, that hasn't paid their invoice in over 90 days, so I'm taking them to the small claims court. It's ridicules that you have to resort to these sorts of things just to get what was promised to you. More on that as things progress.

My daily focus will now be more aligned to the music scene here in the North West, mainly supporting the Sundown SessionsTeam over on Facebook, who host an OpenMicNights night at The Grand Central Bar in Derry, and if someone else is aware of a gig night like this, get in touch, I'd be more than happy to come and lend my lens to that too (when I can).

Obviously; wedding photography is still going to be my main business focus, because I simply love being a wedding photographer, however, as they're a weekend thing, and the music scene typically tends to be a mid-week thing, they don't clash, which keeps me plenty occupied.

On the music front, not only do I manage to take pictures of the acts, but I also film some nights too, so if you're in to home grown music, you really should check out my YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/OpenMicNights - It's where all the cool kids hang out, and this fat auld bloke too!