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Fergal McCleary

guest post by Philip Sutton: philipsuttonphotography.com + instagram at fineartfoto

I have too many years under my belt now to dare count them all. However, one thing that never fades with the decades is the memory of my wonderful childhood growing up in New Zealand. We were as poor as church mice, but my dad worked two jobs, so my sisters and I could have a wonderful upbringing. Aside from the trips to the lakes and wilderness areas of such a pristine land, the thing that burned deeply into the memory of my childhood, were the hours spent exploring and ‘plinking’ with my dubious friends on dad’s small hobby-farm. We would spend hours making wooden tree houses, collecting wild bird eggs and looking for rabbits and other critters. The one character in all of these escapades – who stood head and shoulders above the rest of us (not literally, but in legend status) – was Fergal McCleary.

Notwithstanding the many legendary stories surrounding Fergal – the one thing where he truly excelled, and made us all sick with envy – was his ability to ‘shoot from the hip’. We used to carry slingshots for our ‘plinking’ trips and target practice. We could shoot steel ball bearings straight through thick pieces of fibro cladding – like it wasn’t even there. We would practice for hours shooting tin cans and other targets in readiness to unleash ourselves upon the poor hapless critter population. No matter how much we practiced – nobody could ever beat Fergal McCleary. We mortal plebs had to hold the contraption up near our face or eyes to aim, but so often we would miss. Fergal had the uncanny knack of being able to hit almost anything – and very seldom ever miss – by shooting from the hip. He would just pull back at waist level and let the ball bearing fly – nine times out of ten he would hit the target.

On one occasion we disobeyed dad’s instructions, and went into the neighbour’s property. My dad had warned us to never go there, because the neighbour was well known for his unfriendly dogs. Like most things I never listened to my dad. In one adventure we ended up jumping over the neighbour’s fence, when suddenly we heard the deep, terrifying growl of an angry dog. By the time we turned to face the noise, here was a furious mongrel charging in our direction. We stood there riveted to the ground in fear, but not Fergal McCleary. In an instant he flicked up his wrist from waist level and ‘let fly’ with his slingshot. The steel ball found its mark, and the dog beat a hasty retreat. Fergal’s fame grew throughout the school yard, and nobody ever dared to get on the wrong side of Fearless Fergal McCleary. In fact, as the years grew and we moved on to high school some of the stories had become rather embellished. If Fergal is around somewhere – still telling his stories, I am sure the dog has grown into a rhinoceros and the rest of us were dwarfs and midgets!!

I am sure by now you are well and truly wondering what on earth I am on about, and what if any vague reference Fergal McCleary has to a photographic blog? In those dark and distant times, I was never able to challenge or even approach the prowess of Fergal McCleary, when it came to shooting from the hip. Well I want it to be known at this juncture, that by the time I have completed this blog, I will be known as the Fergal McCleary of the photographic world – oh yes – He who shoots from the hip!!

Where it all began