A visit in 2010 to my first primary school - Broomloan Road, Govan
So why deebeeandswivel?
In the late 1960s, when we were both quite young, my brother Iain and I were given a dart board (one Christmas if my recollection serves me). It had a blackboard backing board and surround for keeping score like a "real" pub dart board. You know the kind of thing… 501 start... finish on a double. Although sometimes we would play 301 start and to hell with the double as long as we got enough numbers to finish a game. And the surround? If truth be told it was there to protect the wall. Although not entirely effective given that we were children launching darts like javelins in the general direction of the wall. Near the top on either side of the dart board was a printed team name. On the left hand side it had DeeBee and on the right it said Swivel. Don't ask me what the significance of these names was, but I would always be DeeBee as my initials are, coincidentally, D and B. Having said that I am sure that was the reason for mum and dad buying it for us. It meant that we shared the present. Most Christmases my brother and I got a "shared" gift. Usually a game. We got Subutteo one year. Another year we got a "real" football. And one year we got Scalextric. (I think that one just about broke the bank of mum and dad.) However, in today's PC, safety conscious, family friendly world I doubt our dart board would be thought of as a suitable gift for children. Children no longer have "blackboards". And today children of our age, and we must've only been 7 or 8 or 9, would surely never be given darts! Heaven forbid. As for us being encouraged to play a "pub game"? Oh my Lord, call social services and the "bad parent" police immediately. Today's children are in a much safer place than we ever were. They have the internet, computer games with violent outcomes and solitude, and, oh yeah, pushy parents that want them to believe they can be anything they (the parents) want them to be.  In spite of the dart board set, my brother and I never lost an eye nor had the board fall off the wall onto our young heads and cause us injury. No, Iain and I simply learned a combination of hand eye co-ordination, to do sums and count, and to bond as brothers. All of this is just to explain the pseudonym. When choosing a name for my flickr account I didn't want to choose my actual name then add a number. Not sure why, but I think that was part of the gig back then. Name a name that hadn't been used. Be inventive, Wacky even. What else can I say? It was relatively early days in my relationship with computers and such wizardry. I recalled this dartboard from my childhood and co-joined the names. Hence, I chose deebeeandswivel. It stuck. Like a cheap dart in treble 14 bed of life's dart board. I hope that goes some way to clearing up the name...
So what about me? What would anyone like to know about another person that takes photos? Age? Born 1960. Work it out. Why photography? Jeez… toughie… well actually no… that's not tough at all… I love photography… and not just taking photos. Anyone catching a moment in time and freezing it will never cease to amaze or delight me. What kind of photography do I enjoy? portraits? landscape? studio? posed or candid? live performance? sport? projects or commercial work?  black and white or colour?… eh… yes to all of the above and more. I just wish I had realised it earlier. I also wish I was better than I am. That's not saying "aw shucks, I'm not very good… I can't take photos"… it's just saying I wish I was better. I know I can be and I will strive to be. But for the time being I am content that I am what I am and that in time I will have more to offer in the way of quality, quantity and creativity. 
I hope you enjoy looking at some of my photographs and graphic design work, and perhaps you may come back again from time to time as I add more. x

My class photo from 1970 at Copeland Road Primary School.

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