The Unknown Snapper

Moving!

2010-06-12T23:57:00.002+01:00

As per today's posts on Twitter, the blog has moved! You can now find my random (and all to scarce at present) ramblings over at:

http://unknownsnapper.wordpress.com

Come on over!

P.S. Thousand apologies to Jaded Snapper who added a link to this blog yesterday... I obviously remain the master of bad timing!

Don Who?

2010-03-10T22:17:00.010Z

Even though I've been doing my best to become a recluse and hide away from the world in my shoebox type room in Newtown, somehow I've managed to get out and about for once!

The other week I jumped on a coach full of (mostly) not so eager uni students making their way to the Imperial War Museum North in Manchester to visit the eagerly awaited (by me anyway) Don McCullin exhibition*.

It was my first time visiting IWMN and as we pulled up I was surprised at the architecture of the building**. For some reason someone seems to have decided that a museum dedicated to allowing present and future generations the chance to understand war and it's ramifications within an avant-garde monstrosity! Listening to a quick introduction from a museum representative, she explained that the architect had taken his inspiration from a broken teapot, that the 'shards' were there to represent conflict in the air, on the ground and at sea. It was also mentioned that the space inside of the museum was designed to disorientate and confuse the visitor, making them understand more about the 'chaos of war etc etc etc'.

What a bunch of balls! The majority of the visitors will not bother to check why the building was deigned the was it was, nor will they understand about the building's chaotic nature and the parallels supposedly drawn with chaotic nature of war... If anything the way the building is set out and the non-linear nature if the main exhibition hall will put people off and detract from the museum's intentions. I can understand the concept, but it goes way over the head of most (including a lot of the students)***.

The exhibition itself was absolutely brilliant; each section had a filmed piece with Don McCullin talking about that relevant period in his life and enough text to keep even the most avid bookworm's attention. Visually the exhibition consisted of intricately printed black and white images, punctuated every so often by large light box lit images. Also present were the paraphernalia associated with such a long career in photography, showing his helmet, boots, passports and the Nikon F that caught a bullet in Cambodia.

Though in mostly chronological order, the museum really doesn't lend itself to displaying imagery of this type****. It felt as if the earlier years (The Guvnors, Vietnam, el Salvador etc) languished with room to spare, whilst the photographers later work (including his landscapes and still life imagery) were packed in at the end, this led to the feeling that the museum was only really interested in his formative years, packing the newer work in on a whim. Obviously this should definitely not be the case, all of Don McCullin's work is important, it shows the path he has taken through life as well as the way he tries to deal with his demons; surely every aspect of the exhibition is important?

That aside, the exhibition was absolutely brilliant, to be able to view McCullin prints at length and at that size was such an amazing opportunity; well worth the trip 'oop north' and I urge anyone with an interest within photojournalism to get their arses up there.

*To set the scene, before the trip various videos and bits of documentary footage had been presented to the class, to allow them to know a little bit more about one of my favourite photojournalists. Before playing the first documentary, one of the tutors asked who hadn't heard of Don McCullin, his jaw dropped when two students put their hands up (they may not have been the only ones, the class can be a bit hesitant to express anything approaching an opinion at times).

**Someone said it looked like one of the alien ships from Independence Day; I have to say I agree!

***OK apologies for this rather long piece of procrastination. I have to admit that after smoking for many years I'm doing my damnest to give up... unfortunately this has the effect that it makes me rather odd(er than normal) and prone to going off on more tangents than usual...

****Point to note, low lighting, lightbox images and reflective glass in frames are NOT a good combination... bit of an amateur mistake!

Few interesting links:
More on the show from the Guardian
Don McCullin talking about his photography (also from the Guardian)
Interview with Don McCullin on the BBC website
Audio-Visual show (again BBC) with images and the photographer talking about his work

Photographer, NOT a terrorist

2010-01-14T22:35:00.004Z

Honestly, I am!

As per a couple of my older posts, the photographic world is still dealing with the lovely piece of legislation that is section 44 of the prevention of terrorism act, much 'fun' has ensued over the past months with photographers getting detained and arrested (and even a film crew covering the story of a photographer being detained!).

Despite numerous triumphs of common sense, wandering around taking pictures is still perceived by those who honestly should know better as a more than slightly dodgy thing to do (yes you'd probably still get pinged as carrying out a hostile reconnaissance if you put down a tripod, metered for the the light conditions and start kerchunking away with an 5x4 piece of photographic antiquity).

As such (and it's been going a while now - better late than never on my part I suppose) a campaign called I'm a Photographer, not a Terrorist (PHNAT) has been set up to enable photographers to work together and combat the ongoing attack on, what is already, an industry with enough problems.

With quite a bit of useful information on their site, including a bust card detailing your rights as a photographer if you are subject to stop and search under section 44, a map showing places where photography is likely to be a problem and even an online shop where you can buy some very fetching I'm a Photographer, not a Terrorist branded clobber.

As part of the campaign a mass photo gathering has been set up to take place in Trafalgar Square at 12pm on Saturday 23rd of Jan; so far, according to the facebook event 1,050 people have expressed an interest in being there, including yours truly.

Supporting this campaign is extremely important, whether a photographer or not. I'm not one to harp on about civil liberties, usually I like to remain detached so I can look at things in an objective light, but we should all be doing our best to ensure that something gets done about a rather stupid piece of legislation that effects us all, from the tourist with the point and shoot, right up to the professional photographer working on assignment.

You can also find PHNAT on facebook.
Or keep up to date with the latest news via the @phnat Twitter stream.

If you're there, maybe you can find the unknown snapper (play spot the bloke with a paper bag on his head)?

Quick post - first of 2010

2010-01-14T22:23:00.004Z

Happy New Year to both of you!

A very quick post, I'm up to my eyeballs in university work for the next two weeks, but have some bits and bobs lined up to post after.

Just found a video I'd been looking for for some time, but somehow managed to miss on Google.

New York Times photojournalist Tyler Hicks files from southern Afghanistan (link to video is below the paragraph).

Filmed by Prof. Bill Gentile, the 13 min piece of video shows how Tyler Hicks files his images back to the US from Afghanistan in very basic conditions. A very informative piece that's well worth a watch.

Filmtastic mate!

2009-10-03T23:01:00.020+01:00

I've bedded in nicely at university here in Newtown and after bypassing much of the Fresher's Week mayhem (being rather older than a vast majority of the students and mostly more responsible) studying has started in earnest.
The course itself has kicked off with a module that is to be shot in film, allowing me to do something I've yet had a chance to; process and develop my own black and white film!

As I knew last week would start with everyone on the course developing their own films, I'd used some of my (out of date film stocks) taking odds and sods around the university and in town and walked into the developing room with my pockets brimming with exposed film (two 35mm and four 120). The onus was on 35mm so I pulled out a roll of FP4 (that old it's not even FP4 Plus), loaded it into the cassette, popped it into the dev tank and busied myself with the various steps...

An hour or so later, after washing the film, and with a great deal of anticipation, I took a peek at the fruits of my labour... only to find a blank film, frame after frame of nothingness*, frustration turned into unknownsnapper position #1**.
What could have gone wrong? Instantly I and others around me decided to blame the age of the film***,it was either that or my inexperienced bumbling and fumbling in the darkroom had just plain mucked it up.

With this in mind, the next day with two other students I wandered back into university to process some my other 35mm and 120 film. The 35mm was in date Ilford Delta 100, so I was expecting some nice results (quite a few frames of street photography taken around town), the 120 rolls were made up of random images taken as I learn to use the Bronica I've borrowed (again using out of date FP4 - so not much was expected).

Surprisingly this time again the 35mm was completely clear (further inspection of the ancient**** SLR I use has shown that it or I have some not previously encountered issues with loading film), but the 120 rolls all yielded results; I spent the next half hour or so hopping from leg to leg like a child needing a pee until yet more peeking could take place as the film was transferred to the drying cabinet. Apart from the the dubious subject matter, the only real problem found was with, what I now know to be, reticulation which only occurred on the roll at that was at the top of the dev tank (see image at the bottom of this post).

Unfortunately the only equipment I could scan with was a rather poorly maintained flatbed (I didn't know, until yesterday, that we have a dedicated scanning suite here at Newtown Uni), but the results are still good enough for the web and this blog.

I know I've only touched on the world of developing, but there's something about it I really like, knowing that generations before me only worked this way; a heritage if you like. It's hard to describe the elation I felt as I realised that I could create an image from shutter to negative without a memory card or the even the opportunity to chimp at a screen - a pure process if you will. The future for me must, and will, be digital, but bloody hell this felt good!

*This is obviously quite dull and not the breathtaking demonstration of my photographic skills I had hoped for.
**The intensive head scratch - imagine a macaques monkey, absent mindedly scratching it's balls, but move the scratching hand up to the top of the head and you're about there.
***The majority of the other students were around 4 years old when it went out of date.
****Manufactured the year I was born.

Reticulation - possibly adds to the image.

Boxes of Boxes

2009-09-06T21:59:00.007+01:00

Blogging amongst many, many boxes at the moment* as packing for my descent into studentdom continues! Due to the fact I'm taking my bike along it would seem that two trips to the new digs will be needed, so trying to prioritise what should be taken on the first (quite epic) journey.

Surrounded by an air of calm at the moment, possibly due to a recent bout of illness (which has annoyingly even stopped me training on my bike for the last few days), I know as soon as I get 50 miles away from Pantsville, the inevitable will happen; I shall slap my forehead and burble about some piece of equipment I've forgotten.**

On another note, thanks to the generosity of a friend I now have loaned sound recorder with which I intend to record a short interview for the fishing story. Only drawback is that I have just three days to secure the interview before I leave and I know how busy they are. Despite the compliments from those that have seen them, I view the images I took as useless without the audio to overlay in a slideshow. Don't get me wrong I feel as if I could easily write enough text to go with it, maybe I'm just too fixated on making my first AV show... Just have to see what happens.

Back to the boxes...

*Not actually that different to my normal situation; I've been living out of boxes for the last six months, packing is just a case of shifting bits from one box to another!

**For some strange reason I always seem to forget towels...

Fishy tales

2009-08-31T17:38:00.011+01:00

Top tips for shooting fishing orientated stories at sea:

1. Seasickness tablets are for winners
2. Scoffing a whole double stack of custard creams will also help stave off the nausea, but is not advisable as you will probably look like a custard cream addicted muppet*
3. In choppy seas remember where the locations of things to hold on to (you WILL look like an idiot when you grab hold of something and fall over)
4. Wide angle lenses are a good idea on a 25" boat!
5. Keeping a straight horizon in the back of your images WILL go to pot
6. No matter what they say, crushed sea fauna does not come out of the knees of your jeans easily
7. Dogfish are rather angry when hauled to the surface
8. Fishermen also do not know where Peter Mandelson lives and enquiring as such will be met with a blank look

*You may actually be a custard cream addicted muppet, but you certainly don't want to give off that vibe

As those following me on Twitter will no doubt have noticed; Tuesday last week was a very enjoyable day for the unknown snapper.
After three months of gently cajoling someone into allowing me to shoot an essay, I recieved a call on the Monday from the subject offering me the chance to pop out with them the next day.

The essay will end up as a multi media slideshow with audio from an interview overlayed; hopefully sooner rather than later as I only have two weeks left before I leave Pantsville for pastures of a slightly greener variety.

Obviously I can't say too much about the project, as with other things it will probably end up being shunted out under my real name somewhere along the line (really must get the sodding website up and running properly!).

As a taster I've put a few images over onto flickr, which can be viewed on the mini slide-show below or by following this link to the album.

Win some lose some

2009-08-10T18:36:00.015+01:00

After today, and for future reference, I have compiled two lists that may be of use should someone chain themselves to Lord Madelson's railings again;

List of people who don't know where Peter Mandelson lives:
Me

4 Traffic Wardens (two didn't speak English, but one had a solution to global warming)
2 Ice cream men
7 Taxi drivers
3 Drunks
1 Member of the Royal Parks Service
1 Sadistic PCSO
2 Barmaids
Several of my friends
1 Zoo keeper
2 Armed policemen (though I know they were bluffing)
3 Shop keepers
1 Random women who thought she knew where he lived, but took me back to the armed policemen

List of people who know where Peter Mandelson lives:

Climate Rush suffragettes
The Evening Standard staff photographer
Peter Mandelson
Peter Mandelson's other half
Peter Mandelson's cat

Now, apart from the recent scandals concerning MPs submitting silly claims, I'm not usually annoyed by politicians, nearly all are equally as bad as each other. But today, Sir Peter Mandelson at at the top of my 'slightly narked with you' list, it's not really his fault; but I find a good scapegoat always calms me down.

As I'm filling in for another London based photographer (he's sunning it up somewhere warm) I decided to park my bum in Central London and wait to see if any calls came in from the agency.

After an hour or so (and just after I grabbed this - yep, bit bored by that point), I received a call from the agency asking if I could very quickly make my way to Regent's Park and try to find the home of Lord Mandelson; apparently some members of Climate Rush had chained themselves to his railings as a protest against the closure of the Vestas wind turbine farm on the Isle of Wight.
Naturally I jumped at the chance to try and get some extra work in, the only problem? We didn't have Mandelson's address.

Not really a problem I thought, plenty of people will know, I'll send a blanket text to those that may know and canvas anyone in the area that could possibly know. Oh how naive!

The first friend managed to give me a rough steer, "Looks like Primrose Hill/Regent's Park" said the text. By this point I had managed to run most of the park perimeter, so was starting to get a bit sweaty. A-Z said that was north, so off I trundled, optimistic that I would soon pick up the scent. The first person I asked was a cycle based PCSO writing out a parking ticket (he smiled at me when I spoke to him, so I assume he must have been enjoying himself); knowing the current police/PCSO trend of not liking the press I had already assumed that whatever said, I would do the opposite. Unfortunately despite hearing something about it on his radio a few hours before he didn't know Mandy lived. I walked onward...

Calling in at a pub on the north side of the park, the next people to be interrogated were the regulars gathered around one end of the bar, again all rather cheerful (one was on crutches so I assumed he wouldn't travel far for his daily drink). "Peter Mandelson lives around 'ere? I've lived 'ere 40 years and I didn't know that! I can tell you where Paul McCartney lives though, if you go left at the lights...." As he spieled off Sir Paul McCartney's address I said my goodbyes and wandered off pondering on who to ask next.

The first 5 Taxi drivers shed no further light, so I stopped, pulled out my laptop and started a Twitter and google search, again nothing really concrete turned up, just a vague area and a few pictures of the front of the house.

My next informant was a traffic warden; the area seemed to be teeming with them (unfortunately the two I'd spoken to already didn't speak more than a few words of English). This time as soon as I'd mentioned Mandelson's name the chap launched into a rhetoric on how well 'Sir Peter' was doing now and how much more respectable he'd become. Nodding like the dog from the Churchill adverts, I soon realised that all I was going to get was a lecture on politics, "China, now they have the right idea. One child families, they're the solution to global warming."... His last words rang in my ears as I disappeared (more skidded like a member of the Keystone Cops) around the corner and into yet another pub, where an Australian barmaid gave me what seemed to be a very positive lead.

In a very broad twang she announced that although she hadn't a clue who Mandelson was, a politician lived just round the corner and there "were policemen there and everything!" With the Benny Hill theme tune ringing in my ears I again ran off in search of Peter Mandelson, Climate Rush types, fame, fortune, death, taxes, the woman of my dreams, blah, blah, blah...

Using my heels to come to an abrupt stop, I came face to face with two rather bemused looking armed policemen standing outside what definitely wasn't Mandy's pad. For some reason I instantly thought of the film Labyrinth, where two door knockers bar the way, one will tell only the truth, one will tell lies. A pointless thought; Labyrinth although a good film, in no way represents real life and armed British Bobbies, as we all know, will probably not be that helpful to a chap with two cameras hanging off his shoulders. Which they weren't, apparently they hadn't heard about any protesters, or knew where Mandelson lived (definitely not true). Needless to say, I didn't stay long!

Starting to flag and fancying some chocolate, I wandered to a nearby shop and (even though by this point I knew that the story was long gone) asked my question du jour. Unfortunately (using that word a lot in this entry) the woman that said she knew, gave me directions straight back to my two favourite armed policemen... I grinned, waved my Toffee Crisp, they waved back and I called it a day.

With a sigh, I wandered back to the shop, purchased another Toffee Crisp and a copy of the Evening Standard for the journey back, it wasn't until I walked outside and peeked at the front page that I noticed, with some dismay, that a certain politician was slyly grinning on the front page; oh well!

You win some, you lose some!

Panstville II: The Rewenge

2009-07-22T16:17:00.000+01:00

Bear with me, even before I begin I can tell that this is going to be a self indulgent and rambling post as I'm tired and really need to get out more!

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the denizens of Pantsville are revolting... honestly one bit of sun and the overweight are out wearing unfortunately skin tight clothing (or in some cases just no clothing) and pushing veritable armadas of little Shazney-Jane's and Dwayne's around the shopping area as they puff away at the obligatory Lambert and Butler, hanging limply from the corner of their collective mouths.

The fact that I'm still talking about the inhabitants of this rather unfortunate and still anonymous town is that frustratingly the summer challenge is on hold... On a slightly different note, three of you have now guessed at the location of this dingy hole of mediocrity and although not a thousand miles out, I am as yet unable to hand out T-shirts or monogrammed paper bags...

As all great generals know, no plan survives contact with the enemy (Helmuth von Moltke) - though I'm fighting a different kind of enemy, namely the Forces of Bureaucracy (aka FoB - the dastardly swine), who have a habit of taking no prisoners.
The FoB are waging, what I like to term 'a pain in the arse campaign' (they're that underhanded, I wouldn't be surprised if they were also responsible for my lack of reception when using 3mobile dongles and third world debt*), which means I am currently surrounded by teetering piles of distasteful paperwork needing my attention and stuck here till the beginning of August.

*I'm not really sure if I can hold them accountable for third world debt.

Sadly this means that the amount of photographic work I'm doing has also slowed to a snails pace for now. My two main projects (and a third at research stage) are also on hold as a result (two are London based and one is local but waiting for the subject to find an appropriate couple of days), so I have a couple of weeks to spend in the purgatory that is Pantsville before I can even think of setting sail for London for what probably be a large amount of flying visits in August.

But what of plans A, B and C? I hear my only reader shout from the back of the internet? Well... Plan A (university) is in full swing, I am soon to become a member of the great student unwashed, digs are being prepared and there's a pile of books outside my bedroom door that rivals the Leaning Tower of Piza. Come September I will be packing my bags and moving to another anonymous town (name for use on the blog yet to be decided) in a shire far far away. Although it's not London and not the university I had originally banked on, the course seems great and there are plenty of big hills to thrash myself over and keep me occupied.

Plan B to take over the world head on is something I intend to continue with during during university, I definitely don't intend to be idle when it comes to carrying on, even if it means I spend a lot of time visiting London via National Express coaches (very cheap and sofas ahoy!).

And finally we come to Plan C, a few people out there know of Plan C and what it entails. This option is still alive and slowly ticking over, running in conjunction with Plan A, and indeed will compliment my poor student lifestyle (after checking I was informed that working during term breaks would definitely be possible).

Reading back through this post with it's oddball references, vague mentions of bits and bobs that only a few know and meandering style I think I may have lost the plot slightly... Regardless, things are moving forward and I know with all my conviction that I'm moving in the right direction (again).

Published!

2009-07-22T10:10:00.002+01:00

Please note, as I received a full credit in the newspaper I need to avoid mentioning exactly what the event was, which will make for a very VERY random post... I can't even bung up the picture.

Living in a bit of a news dead spot, the majority of stories that make involve 'poorly' animals and local staffers grabbing grin and grips (I think the most newsworthy event Pantsville has seen would be back in 1998 when a friend opened his car door only to crack a visiting Jools Holland in the gentleman's vegetables*), but sometimes something odd makes it's way to float on the surface (but not like a Mersey Trout).

*Oh also, I think someone may have once knocked a policeman's helmet off, but I think he may have taken it off because he got a bit warm or I may just be suffering from early onset dementia.

Saturday was one of those days, stumbling around at 07:30 and getting ready to go out for a quick training session I was distracted by a call from the agency picture desk. There was an event taking place that afternoon and I was strategically well placed (also known as a coincidence) to pop along and grab a few pictures.

I left the house with reassurances ringing in my ears from the picture desk and a friend that, 'this will make', given that the event was held at the equivalent of a village fête I didn't fancy my chances...

Arriving at a pub for a quick pre-job drink and newspaper reading session I spied a man in a suit** who I immediately thought could be a tabloid scribbler (he was drinking the ale usually reserved for 'out of towners' and dribbling profusely onto what looked like an M&S machine washable suit).

**not a common occurrence in these 'ere parts - wearing a suit usually involves being run out of the town/village/local phone box by locals waving torches/pitchforks/shotguns/nearest pointy object to hand as they scream, 'this is a local shop for local people'/try to arrange a marriage between you and their hideously bloated and curiously hairy 'female' offspring/ask you to squeal like a pig. Not even going to say what would happen if you were female and in a suit... but it could end up like this.

After finishing up my beer and trying to ignore the now annoying HAMTHRAX paranoia stories available in most good (and bad) papers, I made my way to the fête to try and work out how I was going to take something interesting. Much head scratching ensued!

Default unknownsnapper postion #1 in Latin known as; Scratchiticus maximus
A rare picture of me taken as I pondered exactly why I needed a tripod that large.

The site of the shoot was a field complete with tombolas, scout run jumble stalls and local round table whack-a-rat stands, as I stood surveying the carnage before me (was hoping someone would go mad on the whack a rat stand (in a Hot Fuzz 'for the greater good' stylee) the man in a suit turned up (clearly the locals were having an off day). During the usual 'oo you workin' for' chat said he was from the Daily Times (mum's the word) and was waiting for his photographer to turn up, apparently the story was a regular funny and they featured it each year. After some conversation and some jokes about pointy heads and the local gene pool I wandered off to again scratch my head and try to work out what I was going to do (although scratching head is my default position I haven't discounted that I may just have dandruff). I was quite surprised when I found a bemused TV camera man, a German reporter and someone with tenuous connections to an African news channel standing in line with me doing exactly the same thing!

Soon others began to arrive, the photographer from the Daily Times arrived along with a couple of local rag snappers (who duly sniffed at my camera gear) and we all got to work trying to make things look as interesting as possible.

I didn't feel ecstatic about the pictures I filed, and not much was said by the picture desk (other than, "can you send the third one again, it's corrupted.") and I wandered off to get on with my life (aka filling in silly paperwork demanded by the Forces of Bureaucracy) knowing that as ever I'd learnt how to photograph something different.

So Imagine my surprise when the following Monday (incidentally the day the unknown snapper was hatched from his test tube and let loose into an unexpected and not quite ready world) I received a call from the picture desk telling me to look on page # of the Daily Times. For some reason the only image used in print was one of mine, complete with credit (yay tearsheet goodness - NUJ here I possibly come). It was also used in the online version, with a selection of images from their own photographer (which I think are rather good and probably deserved to be printed rather than my quite stock type shot).

Others have always stated that sometimes you can never tell what will make, even if someone has a staff photographer/arranged agency snapper on site sometimes you'll get in there; til; now I didn't believe it. I know I've had long chats with other photographers lamenting the fact that an astonishingly good picture of theirs didn't go anywhere when a published image of the same event was rather lacking, I guess it all comes down to the luck of the draw. Which web page/picture feed someone looks at first or if someone uploads their images a split second before the photographer next to them.
In a very regulated world, randomness and chance seem to provide another aspect to consider when pondering if something will go somewhere...

Again, this is another self indulgent post and I look forward to the time when I become blase about bits being published, but until then I shall continue to bore both of you with posts about it...

School's out for summer

2009-06-30T23:05:00.000+01:00

Well not quite, otherwise I wouldn't have been at a school taking pictures for their new website last week!

It's odd, of all the things I've done probably the most awkward took place last week as weighed down with kit, I walked into the school reception in a small town not a million miles from Panstville (sometimes I think I need a tribe of ginger baby midget goats to carry my bag).

The day itself started off oddly, jumping on the train with a newspaper under my arm (as is now my custom when travelling on the branch's outdated rolling stock) after stowing my bike; I was confronted by an unusual sight, a 50 odd year male, flat on his back with a map of Africa spread out across his jeans, various people were dithering about and informed me that he was basically drunk as a skunk*! Being an affable type I, of course, lent a hand to get him onto the platform, unfortunately the effect of this was twofold, firstly the train was delayed making me late to meet the client; secondly I ended up stinking of BO and very cheap stale plonk (not the best way to be when en route to take pictures in a school!).
Arriving at the school on a hot day, sweating from a rather hasty bike ride (forgot it was all uphill) and stinking of eau de alcofrolic is possibly not how I wanted to make my entrance!

Anyway, back to the main point; as I walked through the school, I realised how paranoid I am of taking pictures of children, even though I had permission from the school to take the pictures and was escorted around the site by the client, I still felt a sense of fear. My attitude to jobs is that I'm there to record what I see, if I don't do that I may as well put down my cameras and give up (even more so if it's a paying job).

Even before the job paranoia had set in, discussing with the contact if we should draw up forms to say the client would have all images and I would destroy any copies I had when the job was finished. This is definitely not my usual attitude. I know that forms will need to be drawn up by the school where pupils are identifiable to get permission for them to appear on the website - because of that as many images as possible were shot in ways to make pupils unrecognisable (although some were unavoidable).

The job itself was quite a whistlestop tour of the school, stopping briefly in various departments to try and grab fleeting shots of the students at work and as time went on I felt my paranoia easing somewhat, 90% of the kids were fine and were actually quite good when it came to helping out by doing what was needed for a particular picture and most seemed to enjoy the fact that they would end up on the new website.

Regardless of that, I still feel as if I'm caught up in the hysteria surrounding photography and children that seems prevalent in this country; I know I'm not the only one. Speaking to friends who work in different photographuc areas they feel the same and quite frankly it's totally ridiculous! The feeling I experienced was akin to me about to do something I shouldn't, as if legitimate work was actually a crime!

Is there an easy way to photograph kids candidly? Fear of a parental lynch mob rampaging round the countryside complete with pitch forks and blazing torches is, as far as I'm concerned, an irrational fear (isn't that the definition of a phobia?) it is without a doubt totally ridiculous. Maybe it's just the way the country is now; public photography as a whole seems to be moving in ever decreasing circles, with restrictions (imagined or real) squashing down further on what can actually be done (ironic considering even more people are picking up cameras). My one worry is that we will lose the ability to document life within the UK, losing a chunk of history (outside of atrocious facebook pictures) that would normally act as an archive showing those exactly what life was like. I wonder what photographers from ages past would think of the restrictions, rules and paranoia surrounding photography in the modern age?

Anyway - that's enough from me, very rambling post that started somewhere and via numerous doglegs ended up in another county. Off to buy some paper bags (they wear out quickly).

* To be known as a DOT - drunk on train... a very obscure reference to something else.

Flickr update

2009-06-15T21:16:00.005+01:00

Taking my queue from Edmond Terakopian I've updated my Flickr stream with recent shots from the agency (RAF Marham, RAF Honington and the new Afghan training complex at Thetford - quite a military theme this time!).

Obviously can't compete with Edmond's work, but hope you enjoy what you find there.

Singing in the rain

2009-06-13T09:03:00.002+01:00

Being based in a rural area seems to have it's benefits, rarely, but nevertheless sometimes they occur.
After an email with the details of a press event on the not too distant Stanford Training Area (aka STANTA) I was dispatched by the agency to pop along and take a few pictures. The event itself? First use by British troops of a complex constructed to resemble an Afghan village, complete with actors in residence to add to realism.

As a member of the press, resplendent with tag declaring my agency to the world, I was nudged around three stands demonstrating some of the areas the troops were being trained in. The village itself seemed to project as realistic a picture of daily Afghan life as could be portrayed in the middle of Norfolk, with Afghani actors recruited to play the part of local civilians getting completely into character, even going so far as to set up aspects that were initially missing from the village such as a bread oven (we were lucky enough to sample some of the bread - delicious!) and even a stall furnished with an Argeela being used by two of the actors.

The stands themselves again had an onus on realistic training, during one stand where a platoon was exposed to a suicide bomb attack one of the casualties involved was an amputee (from the agency Amputees in Action with one leg missing above the knee. Given the high rate of military and civilian casualties where traumatic amputation occurs through mine strikes and the like, exposing troops to this level of realism can only pay dividends in the long run (pre-deployment training seems to have come on leaps and bounds since I was in the forces).

Construction of the village was apparently completed in an extremely short time, with contractors and planners being extremely enthusiastic and working around the clock to get the complex open in only a few months.

The last part of the exercise was a stand where troops practised searching a compound suspected of containing explosives and or weapons. To view this we ascended a ladder onto the roof of the compound next door and peered into the area where the action would take place. Lined up and looking down into the compound, it felt slightly as if we were at the zoo, waiting for the appearance of a giant panda from the gate in the corner, this feeling was further backed up when (as with most trips to the zoo) it started to rain...

Various grumbles started to emanate from our little group of journalists as the rain got harder, soaking most to the skin (most, including me were wearing light clothing!). Now as I was shooting with uninsured equipment, after a few minutes I started to fear for my cameras (I'm really not in a position to replace any of my kit just now) even sheltering them in the lea of my body didn't seem to be doing much good so I elected to go below, find somewhere dry and try to keep damp to a minimum.

Putting my kit down inside one of the buildings, I started to dry bits and bobs so I could change a lens and go back up, as I knelt haunched over my equipment one by one people from the roof started to file into the room; shaking themselves off and plonking sodden equipment onto the floor with a cameraman complaining that despite the waterproof cover his video kit had stopped working and followed shortly by a photographer from The Times who found one of his 1D bodies had taken the brunt of the downpour and again ceased to work. Bearing this in mind I made my way back onto the roof with a single body and lens. Finding myself the only person on the roof was quite fun and led to a scene reminiscent of the sand people moment in Star Wars, in fact in my bedraggled state I probably resembled one of the sand people (see end of this clip). Sadly, despite my enthusiasm, good shots were very scarce.

With the exercise drawing to a close, lots of sodden journalists, photographers, camera operators, and the like, all made their way back to the coach to wait for the journey back to their cars.

As I sat there downloading images to my Macbook, as usual I started to rehash the job and work out what I would have done better if I could have a 'do over'. Other than waterproof covers (something I've been meaning to purchase for a while now), the words of the editor on the agency's picture desk kept on bouncing around in my head (not a big place, but there isn't much in there), "you need a longer lens", something I know I've admitted previously in my blog. The longest lenes I currently possess are 105mm, one being a zoom and the other a prime. The prime is one of my favourite lenses with a lovely f2.8 aperture providing a lovely look when wide open. Unfortunately 105 just doesn't cut it, I really need to get my hands on something with at least 200mm at the top end (agency would prefer 300mm).

So... still have my sights set firmly on the 70-200mm f4 L, it seems like the way ahead. Though at the moment I won't be able to afford one till my student grant later this year.

Anyway, I think I've rambled enough, shall probably post on equipment again at some point soon. The bits that I lack are causing me great consternation at the moment, I know in the past I've had access to a lot more and have always been of the opinion that a bad workman always blames his tools, but there's a limit to the amount of times you can chant that mantra before you realise that maybe it's not always right... Despite the problems 8 images went up for sale.

Annoyingly on the waterlogged kit front, I'm still drying cameras and lenses out! End and lens caps are off battery and memory card hatches are open and everything is sat on a towel in the middle of the floor. My camera bag has only just dried out after it sunbathed all afternoon in the garden! Probably pack everything back away tomorrow, scared stiff of mouldy lenses!

This post was written to the tune of many different tunes, but today's blog post tune is...(queue drum roll and profuse apologies for the poor quality):

Call it an indulgence, fancied the pants off Lady Kier as a teenager...

The 2009 Summer Freeloading Challenge

2009-06-08T21:45:00.001+01:00

Those of you that know me (loose term - how well does anyone know a chap with a paper bag on his head? The rumours that I look like Jim Carey are greatly exaggerated!) will have heard of my rather idiotic and pikeyish plans for this summer... Probably harped on about them waaaay too much, but for those out there that as yet haven't sat near me and heard me waffle about them...

Even though I'm getting the odd assignment through the agency whilst up here in Pantsville, I want to maximise my chances of getting bits and bobs published and making some money. To that end, I hit upon a brilliant(ish) idea!

For two months this summer I will hit London (not literally as I would probably hurt myself, obviously), grab a job for around three days a week (do you get free coffee if you work in Starbucks?) and for the remaining four work my socks off plodding the streets of London and filing to the agency.

In tandem with this, because I really do work on a shoestring, my evenings will be spent couch surfing with whoever of those out there that know me will have me, the idea being that I spend as little time as possible in each location, thereby not wearing out my welcome (and stopping anyone from discovering my true identity...).

Obviously this has the potential to be quite an interesting adventure, or a rather ridiculous folly! How it will actually pan out is yet to be seen, but of course the blog will keep both of you up to date with my progress.

The first bit to aim for (other than begging emails to those with sofas and floors) is to reach the grand total of £200, I know with that amount I can get cracking and start shuffling toward the door of opportunity!

Lights - 5D Mk II - Action!

2009-06-06T17:08:00.005+01:00

Thursday was yet another foray into something new – this time video with the famed 5D Mk II.

Before we begin I need to explain, I have never before shot serious video footage, but it is an area that I have had an interest in for quite some time and have previously worked on projects with an editor to produce a product for clients – so know a little about the subject (and hopefully just enough) and have access to quite a few people who know what they're doing.

My only previous contact with the 5D Mk II was over the New Year’s period, when a very good friend (James) plonked one in front of me and said, “Have a play!”
Being a big fan of the original 5D I did just that. It seemed straight forward enough, although I was warned that to do anything overly creative I would need to trick the camera due to the automatic settings in video mode.

Even though I took tons of stills all evening and managed a little bit of video and playing really didn’t last long enough. I had enough time to know that the camera I was playing with was one of the most powerful and amazing tools to land on the market in a long time, and immediately started to think of the uses I could put it to (unlike a lot of people out there who just wanted to shoot Christmas tree lights so they could whinge about “black dots” on forums).

Fast forward to a few weeks ago; I received a call from a friend (Chris) asking if I had any experience of working with video. He was interested in making a five part cooking series, with a view to publishing it on his website. No money involved, but travel would be paid. Straight away I approached James to see if he would let me use his 5D Mk II, and thankfully the answer was yes (considering how busy the chap is I’m very thankful he could!).

The camera was dropped off with me on Tuesday, with instructions to update the firmware; by chance it was the same day Canon decided to release the new manual video controls (talk about good timing). Immediately I set to work trying to understand as much as I could about the camera (even taking it to take stills at an agency job the next day), obviously I want to do the best job I can on Chris' cooking episodes.

And zip forward again to Thursday, myself, camera, lenses and tripod (talk about that more in a moment) found ourselves in Covent Garden and ready to begin the first part of the first episode consisting of: cutaways, a quick interview and a piece to camera that will form the episode introduction.

First off, I realised very early on that to achieve anything on this project, shooting hand held would not be an option. Probably the only con with using the 5D Mk II (other than the sound – which I will get onto next) is that the balance really doesn’t lend itself to shooting some kinds of footage. Not really a problem as such, just something to bear in mind. Having seen work where people had made this mistake with a conventional video camera it was something I really wanted to avoid (possibly to an extreme). As such the night before I stripped and cleaned my faithful old tripod, knowing that it’s sturdy tubular construction would carry me through. Sadly for me I underestimated the amount of use I’d got from said piece of equipment. Unpacking my kit at Covent Garden I found that one of the legs had some how decided to break off, with really no way to permanently fix it, ad hoc use of gaffa tape saw me through, though the Michael was mercilessly ripped by all and sundry (tripod was thrown into a bin on the Strand – with Stephen filming it for posterity). Quite a sad moment as that tripod had been to Iraq twice and all over Europe with me!
With sound I had decided quite early on that an external recorder would be the only way to go, I don’t like the quality provided by the on camera mike, a very automated system that I hope will be the subject of another firmware update (there is a hack out there, fingers crossed that forces Canon’s hand to do something official). To that end, I badgered Stephen into coming along with a recorder to help with the sound (he also looked after the much needed gaffa tape, gave me abuse and said he felt insulted after I asked him to carry a spare Canon lens, ‘because it wasn’t a Nikon product’!).

We got off to a frustrating start, wandering around the area looking for somewhere to shoot the intro; sound was a problem with ambient vehicle noise and music emanating from Covent Garden so after a short hunt an alleyway was found, which we hoped would suffice. The next stop was looking for somewhere to film the interview, gift of the gab prevailed and Stephen managed to get us 10 minutes in a Café round the corner.

As we were both beginners, we shot two takes of the interview (as well as a few where background noise meant we needed to cut and restart), adjusting the aperture, ISO and shutter speed to suit the conditions within the café was really easy thanks to live-view giving a real time display of exposure etc; I’m not too sure what it would have been like with the older automatic setup, certainly the results would have been rather hit and miss (not actually knowing how to trick the meter).

Interview over, we proceeded to shoot the introduction with Chris (the friend who will be presenting the episodes) nailing his script rather well after a couple of false starts. I certainly didn’t envy him as he did his piece to camera! Again the camera proved to be very straightforward to use, with the grid on the back providing a great reference when lining up the shot.

Filming almost wrapped we adjourned to Covent Garden where both Stephen and I filmed a series of cutaways; unfortunately brought to only a slightly premature end by a rather large security guard with a Russian accent saying we were not allowed to film without a permit, “You must go to office and ask for pass” (even though he didn't sound it, when I say that in my head it resembles a cross between Dolph Lundgren and Borat - not sure why, hey ho). Needless to say we didn't push the subject (had enough footage).

As a straight forward stills camera, the 5D MkII knocks the spots off any other camera I’ve used so far, as someone who shoots on partial frame sensor cameras it feels other worldy when I use a lens at it’s actual focal length and am always astounded by the image quality the camera turns out, don't get me started on how much I love the quality at high ISO!
I can now say the same for its video function, with the large display screen and (at last) fully manual controls, shooting film is exceedingly easy (at times it seemed too easy!).

Lessons to take away for me? Camera wise: External sound - paramount importance, will be getting a clip mike as well. Tripod - sturdy type and not broken. Memory cards - one just couldn't handle recording and needed to be swapped; investing in some more soon. Gaffa tape - never leave home without it!

Owning a 5D Mk II is something that I will acknowledge is a long way off for me, everything I do is on a shoestring at the moment. Really can’t wait to have another crack at shooting video with it, even doing the small amount of video work that I did, truly an addictive experience.

Thanks go to Stephen Simpson for being the sound guru, filming extra BG footage and for getting us a place to shoot the video. Very much appreciated (hopefully he won't mind if I mention him in the same entry as a Canon camera!).

3G - A Dongle Too Far

2009-05-29T16:14:00.007+01:00

OK, so everyone knows in these enlightened modern times, press photographers/photojournalists need to file on the go; the world has an unquenchable thirst for media, sucking in thousands of images to spit out in the next day’s papers; so they can land on Mr Smith’s breakfast table and allow him to um and ah over the latest developments.

Being very green at the ‘filing’ game and noticing that all networks use 3 coverage, I thought it would be a rather smart idea if I pipped for a 3G dongle provided by… 3 mobile (it’s their network after all!).

Unfortunately this would prove to be a rather frustrating (and costly folley). My first attempt at ‘dongle use’ was at the Stop the War Coalition Gaza demonstration in London on the 16th of May and as per my post , it proved to be a pain in the backside!

So, today I was given my first assignment by the agency, first time off on my lonesome after being asked to shoot an event taking place in the middle of nowhere about 30 miles from Pantsville. Not taking any chances, I visited the local 3 Mobile shop, chatted with the very nice adviser therein and was shown a lovely coverage map of the shoot area and informed, “you should get 2G there”. Thinking that my previous dongle was defective, I then purchased a new stick and threw on some credit.
Not really my best decision…

Upon arriving at the location that shall remain anonymous, my first port of call after liaising with a media rep was to pull out my laptop and check my promised astounding coverage. All happy thoughts evaporated as I looked at the signal bar displayed on my screen to find that I had not three bars as I had in London, but a lonesome, single, solitary bar, it hadn’t even had the common decency to bring a friend. It just sat on my screen as if saying (in the voice of Droopy the Dog), “I’m sooo lonely”. Right then I could sympathise with it, I was suffering from the same feeling! With the event starting I cast aside thoughts of lynching the entire staff of 3G from the cleaners to the CEO, I busied myself with taking pictures and doing what I was there to do.

With a media scrum ensuing and knowing that I could not just pop off travelling the byroads and high roads looking for a good signal (stuck with pubic transport see!), I quite the event early to file. The rest is history, but involved: a 2 mile run, editing images by the side of a busy A road as I waited for a taxi ride that cost £13 (very helpful driver though).
Eventually I managed to file in a bar in a town that shall now take the generic name of Nowheresville (reader, I know there’s only one of you, please note all backwater towns outside Pantsville will be called this from now on), and had the extremely positive and pleasurable moment when I was informed by a friend that the majority of the images I’d filed had made it onto the wire service.

The upshot of this long, and quite certainly boring, post is that I know I need to find a network for mobile wifi, but it sure as hell won’t be with 3 and would urge all and sundry that are looking toward that company for their photographic needs to look elsewhere. To bastardise a slogan - The future’s bright, the future’s not 3 Mobile (no I’m not going for Orange either).

On a brighter note, the agency used 99% of the images I filed, no sales as far as I know, but still extremely happy overall!

Unknown Snapper - Unknown Bandwidth

2009-05-17T22:14:00.009+01:00

As I sit on the train back to Pantsville, with a very bruised shin, embarrassing fez/donkey/"papping a growler" related flashbacks from a evening of alcohol fuelled fun and a hangover exacerbated by a carriage packed with Mockney football supporters (honestly, they’re from nowhere near London) drinking Stella and calling each other ‘caaaaants’, I’m still smiling.

I’m still smiling because yesterday, saw me in London again shooting another demonstration. This time a march by organised by the Stop the War Coalition protesting at the ongoing situation in Gaza and I managed to chalk up another first for me – I actually managed to file!

My intention from the beginning had been to submit the images from the day to the agency and I just about managed it. Of course, as usual there were complications, but this one was rather unexpected.

I – along with the usual suspects – followed the march route from Malet Street to Trafalgar Square, quite a nice route and as ever very surreal to be walking in the middle of roads I know are usually chocker block with traffic. Arriving in Trafalgar Square, I managed to get onto the base of Nelson’s Column where Alexei Sayle and George Galloway were to give speeches about Palestine to the assembled demonstrators.
Oddly not having a press card wasn’t too much of a problem this time (although it’s something I still need to address).

After shooting Mr Sayle I whipped out my laptop and started to edit my images in Aperture (thanks go again to Stephen who watched over my shoulder and helped me with what is still an unfamiliar piece of software). The final quick edit finished I plugged in my lovely new 3G dongle and connected to the internet… Unfortunately things were not to be as simple as one would have liked.

Initially, it seemed I had a good connection, but after 30 seconds the bandwidth dropped to a few kilobytes a second. Giving me a total predicted upload time of 45 minutes. Five minutes in and 0.0003% of an image uploaded, a call came through saying that the Sri Lankan President had declared victory over the Tamil Tigers and the war was over, queue everyone else jumping up and high tailing it to Tamil Land (aka Parliament Square) with promises of texts and calls if anything kicked off…
Not really an ideal situation obviously and after 10 minutes (and only 3 of 18 images uploaded to the agency’s ftp) the decision was made to shut up shop, decamp to Tamil Land.

Fortunately, on our arrival, we found that other than the usual chanting, quite a relaxed and family friendly atmosphere prevailed over Parliament Square, so out came the laptop and filing take two commenced.
It took an embarrassing 35 minutes to upload the majority of the files, with a group of my peers sat around the, now very frustrated, unknown snapper. Obviously much mirth was made of my situation. At one point a group of Tamil children appeared over my shoulder to ask innocently, “Mr, why’s your internet so crap?” obviously, at this point my first instinct was to try and calculate how far I could throw them and how many I could throw before the majority decided to run and gather a lynch mob to string me from the top of Big Ben (thanks go to Jools, who by this point was laughing uncontrollably after sending the kids to what could have been a very messy and early grave).
In the end, no harm was done (other than to my ego), with help from others the images were filed and we all trotted off to the pub - though that ended rather messily after I didn’t mind the gap at Turnham Green tube station – really, why would I expect the platform to be a whole 12 inches higher than the train doorstop when I’m trying to exit the train and Tweet at the same time?)

I say this every time, but as ever quite a few points to take away, digest and rectify for next time ranging from getting a better grip of Aperture (shooting with two different sensor sizes seems to be a problem when I want a specific ‘end’ file size), to the obvious upload problem (anyone have any experience with 3G mobile wifi dongles and Macs).
Even though my images didn’t go up on the wire service (too similar to those submitted by one of the other photographers and not the most newsworthy event) I actually feel as if I accomplished something this time – one could say, I had a feztastic time...

As an aside I also broke my Demotix cherry and filed some other images from the same demonstration, which can be found here. Felt like quite silly having a blank profile with no stories!

UCAS - no fun being a late applicant!

2009-05-13T14:56:00.010+01:00

At the moment, I'm considering taking the university mentioned below up on their offer of a place (even though they're not London based etc).

Oddly - never having dealt with UCAS before - I found out today, that to move forward and even think about accepting I need to have definite answers from the other choices applied to. Not really a problem with two of my choices (one no and one unconditional yes). But, my last choice, the uni that sparked it all, that I'd been set on from the start hasn't yet said anything.

I know they're currently waiting to hear from people who applied on time, so until they know if they have any places left they can't say anything, so it's not a fault at their end. Thinking over the situation makes me wonder though. If someone who went for the uni I'm waiting on and was offered a place is waiting on another university to bung an answer their way then the whole system becomes like some convoluted bastardised housing chain!
Finding it quite hard to work out the benefits associated with this part of the system...

Despite that, I obviously have a choice to make. I think Plan A (university) is going to be the way to go, but I have now come to a bit of an impasse .

Kick the application for the university I really wanted to at least have an interview with and get things started with the offer I've just had.
Play a waiting game to see if I get the interview and then make a decision.
Say sod it all, call in my flying monkeys from their holiday in the Seychelles and make a concerted push to take over the world one country at a time.

Complications are a pain - just have to have a damn good think!
Written under the influence of Green Day - Basket Case - apt...

Update and good news!

2009-05-12T20:16:00.003+01:00

Although I've been quiet of late, despite that a few good things going on.

First off, after much encouragement from friends I submitted my portfolio to a freelance photographic agency. To my surprise I received a very positive reply and am now on some one's books! Though this seems like an excuse, I feel a bit stuck at the moment, there really isn't much going on in this part of the world - Pantsville is a notoriously dull place - and the only projects I can run here that will, hopefully, bear fruit are of the ilk that would be destined for features, couple that with not being able to get to Civilisation for at least another week and it all adds up to me being a very frustrated bunny! All in all I see it as a very good step toward achieving my goals!

The second good thing happened last week. My second university interview bore fruit! The feelings I had throughout my visit to this (unnamed) university were extremely positive. The course sounds great, the facilities spot on and tutors I met were extremely friendly; I found it extremely hard not to be completely enthused by everything I saw, a total contrast to the last uni.
The interview itself was great (and over ran), this time I had a really good feeling all the way through - although I was a bit stunned when at the end of the interview I was told that I had a place if I wanted it! Not what I expected, and until an email from UCAS arrived I suspected I had misheard him (though recently had my ears syringed so can now hear a pin drop!).

Last and not least, I made a call to the university I originally wanted as my first choice. I knew they had my application, but had heard absolutely nothing from them since corresponding with the course leader around a month ago; obviously I wanted to know where I stood. Speaking to the course director (who remembered me - not sure if that's a good thing), he informed me that they were waiting for the on time applicants (I'm classed as late - story of my life!) to confirm if they will be accepting a place on the course of not and that I am still in with a chance for an interview.

So, Plan a & b are in play and working well (apart from not doing as much as I would like with plan b just now), some decisions will need to be made soon, obviously I need to see if the third and final interview will take place before I can head in whatever direction I end up choosing... The game is afoot!

Post sponsored by Creedence Clearwater Revival - Lookin' Out My Back Door

Probably quite an obscure one and I'm definitely not a country music fan, but I had the Big Lebowski on as I spent the weekend trying to learn CSS (cheers for the help Jools!).

Interview result - or "loike me murphy's I'm not bitter"

2009-04-29T20:08:00.004+01:00

OK, today an email from the UCAS happily plopped itself into my inbox saying I had received a result from a university application (makes a change from the usual penis enlargement and offers to recover untold treasures from African bank accounts). Knowing that it related to last week's university interview I logged in to find the below amongst my choices:

Actually I don't feel that fussed.

To explain I have to go back to the introductory talk given at before my interview, I remember listening to the what was said and having the distinctly uneasy feeling that I didn't want to study there. Don't get me wrong, the university has a cracking reputation, lovely campus and I know looking around the net that a lot of their students are doing quite well, but the style of photographer they churn out is leans distinctly toward the 'contemporary' category - so much so that the images are definitely not of the ilk I have ever shot or aspire to. This became evident during the talk when they dissected images to the extent that they found meaning every little aspect, to the extent I wondered if I'd wandered into the talk for an art photography degree!

Another disturbing trend presented itself in the interview when, talking to the lecturer, I was informed of the close links to a certain photographer whose work I really don't like. This happened not once, but on three occasions during a conversation! The photographer in question, he who shall not be named, is very much like Marmite - you either love his work or you hate it (though probably without that horrible lingering stomach churning smell). This made the interview rather tricky and I definitely didn't sell myself as well as I should have (hard when I felt no real enthusiasm, certainly I know my portfolio (which some of you will have seen) wouldn't have appealed to them.

All of this added up to a very neutral feeling as I left the interview, which on the train back to Ruralshire changed to a mindset, where I knew 100% the course wasn't for me and that even if the offer came I would turn it down.

Photography for me is just as much about understanding myself as it is the world around me and this time I've learnt a little more about what I want.

On another note, just about to get in contact with someone about a project (have four that I want to get started before summer kicks in) exciting times - obviously because I'm the Unknown Snapper I'm keeping them all under wraps!

Reuters in Sri Lanka

2009-04-26T18:50:00.002+01:00

New post on the Reuters Photographers Blog detailing a working day for one of their news gathering teams in Sri Lanka.

Post can be found on the Reuters Blog here.

Demotix - True reporting without borders

2009-04-26T15:50:00.006+01:00

Thursday last week was the first ever Demotix meet. The evening started slowly, with various contributors converging on the Distillers near Barbican in London, queue much waving and staring at other bemused drinkers in the bar as everyone tried to work out who was who.

The task was made all the more difficult by the diverse types of people that make up the Demotix membership. Looking at the motley crew that assembled and started to mingle in the bar, it was impossible to work out any sort of distinct profile for your average Demotix contributor. Seemingly from all walks of life and with extremely varied lives; the only uniting factor was that everyone there wanted to take part in citizen journalism.

With the arrival of the Demotix staff, the discussion turned to the site, what's happening and the way forward. Listening to Turi and the rest of his team talking about their baby it's hard not to get caught up in their enthusiasm for the project.
The concept and ethos for Demotix really does challenge the way stories are reported, giving a platform to disseminate stories that would, although interesting, otherwise go untold due to a lack of regular media in place at that time. The stories are presented to the world, via Demotix, by people who often have an intimate knowledge of the situation they are reporting on - providing an angle that a 'rushed in' non-local journalist/TV crew/photographer would easily miss without the local savvy represented on the site.

Looking at the front of the site, you can see how serious they are. Recent achievements include Le Monde using Demotix picture feed, the Guardian recently ran a front page with picture showing the last moments of Ian Tomlinson by a Demotix contributor r, to name but a few.
I would definitely urge anyone interested to join the site and give it a whirl, it looks like the start of a bright future for Demotix - Truly reporting without borders.

It was great to put names to faces and meet some of the others I've been talking to for a few weeks now on Twitter and email. GTVONE published some images from the evening here, luckily my anonymity is mostly preserved!
I would like to apologise for anyone I may have bored the pants off that evening - I really don't get out enough at the moment and I fear I may have made a bit of a Pollock of myself!

Friday Feeling

2009-04-24T19:59:00.005+01:00

Thanks to a friend, Bob, today I had the opportunity to meet a very well established and respected photographer (to be known here as John) for a discussion about the way forward. Bob is an old friend of the family and works in a completely different area of photography, but over the years has helped me understand photography, to the extent I sometimes see a little of his work in my images. Out of the blue last week I received a call from Bob, he had talked to John and I needed to ring and arrange an appointment for a chat. Certainly not something ever discussed before!

So… Today I met John. I must say I entered his office with a slight degree of trepidation, although I had heard of John before, I really wasn’t completely aware of how well known he was! To explain; I’m useless with names and have a tendency to remember images rather than who shot them (quite vexing when people are firing questions about who inspires me etc!). Certainly last night at the Demotix get together, when I mentioned John’s name everyone knew him – to the extent that upon arriving at my digs that evening I was thrust a book of John’s work by a friend… What at first seemed quite straightforward now seemed a very different beast! I ended up staring at my portfolio, wondering if I’d made the right choice selecting the images it contained and pondering as to if I would be able to come across as anything other than a complete buffoon.

I really should have relaxed and concentrated at the task ahead, confident in the fact that my portfolio shows a competent body of work, with photography demonstrating that, actually, I can work in a diverse range of situations etc etc. Really, it boils down to the ugly bastard-child that is self doubt, popping it’s drooling, bespectacled and sneering face above the parapet before sticking two fingers up and leaning in to whisper hoarsely into an ear “You stink!’

I shouldn’t have worried. John was extremely down to earth, certainly not the scary and daunting figure that in my mind I’d built him up to be.
I knew I had limited time, John is, as you would expect for someone his standing, a very busy man. Usually, especially of late, I sometimes feel that I find it hard to express what I want to do and where I want to go, but this time, no doubt due to the relaxed atmosphere, it seemed a lot easier to state my case. A lot less burbling than usual!

The discussion was varied and wide-ranging, chatting about who I was, what I wanted to achieve and where I want to go with my photography. Much to my surprise I was informed that I was not a complete idiot! That to do what I’m doing isn’t idiotic and ridiculous.
A few good pieces of advice were given as well I need to shake up my portfolio, it is indeed diverse and demonstrates an ability to take good photographs, but… It needs more structure. I need to show how I work a story and give more of a feel for the way I work. Diverse is good, but the situations shown within my portfolio are so wide ranging that it really doesn’t give a feel of style or ownership. To arrange a portfolio around six picture stories would be much better – something I will make a start on immediately.
Also I should aim to be as diverse as possible, to work in photography alone just won’t cut the mustard for papers and agencies – off to speak to friends about film making then!
Other than that, until I know if I’m going to a university or not it’s quite hard for John to advise me further, hopefully be visiting him again next month.

Very hard to put into words how I felt when I left John’s office – to some it would probably be a little thing, but to me after the recent setbacks… means the world!

Will bung up a post on the Demotix meeting as soon as I get a sec!

Written on a train back to Pantsville, no music was harmed in the making of this post (laptop battery was almost dead).

Interesting link

2009-04-22T22:05:00.007+01:00

Forgot to mention, over on the ‘Twittersphere’ the other day, Edmond Terakopian threw up a link to an amazing photo essay by Todd Heisler on the New York Times website.

Called One in 8 Million, it’s an ongoing look at the normal everyday, but unique, characters that inhabit New York and is updated weekly. As with a lot of work these days, it’s presented in an audiovisual format (something I really want to try), the audio being of each subject talking about their passions, trials and tribulations. Coupled with the intriguing images AV really works, adding an extra dimension of depth to the personalities involved.

The slideshow can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html

And more on the photographer: Todd Heisler

I know I’ll be checking back each week to see what else has been added.

This post is brought to you by Baz Lurman’s Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen). Even after all these years the lyrics are still brilliant.

First interview

2009-04-22T19:37:00.003+01:00

Today was my first university interview. Although normally I feel quite calm and collected, I actually felt a small amount of nervousness as I stepped into the room to meet the examiner.

The university itself is seems great, astounding facilities, brilliant list of visiting lecturers and speakers – but something in the demeanour of the chap taking the interview meant I didn’t feel I hit it off as well as I could. He seemed taken aback that I was considering study as an avenue to pursue my goals. And definitely wasn’t impressed by my use of an electronic portfolio (the few of you that know me know the reason behind that, unfortunately quite inescapable at the moment), couldn't believe the amount of people carrying huuuuuuge portfolio books! As ever I think part of it comes down to not being able to sell myself effectively.

The result was I’m definitely not sure what the outcome will be (usually get a feeling for how things will go).

Fingers crossed for a positive result though! Even if I didn’t succeed here, there are others. This is after all plan A of a three-part strategy – and there’s

Should hear back within the 10 days.

Thanks to all who wished me luck!

Written on the train back to Ruralshire whilst listening to For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield, old tune and a great tune!

Fish fanciers stay away…

2009-04-21T23:13:00.002+01:00

To satisfy the Internet gods, yesterday I ran an ego to check I was the only photographer using this name. Imagine my surprise when I found a whole plethora of sites mentioning unknown snappers!

Apparently, out there in the big wide world, there are a lot of people trying to work out what fish they’ve seen – it would seem that members of the snapper family(?) are extremely elusive and defy attempts to be identified (maybe Police Forward Intelligence Teams should be sent in?).

I would like to clarify for the record, I am not, nor have I ever been a fish or related in any way to said species. I had a goldfish once though.

Of course this could just be my google settings!

Possible relative, oppressed by Japanese fishermen!
Found here

Busy week

2009-04-21T15:09:00.002+01:00

The realisation struck me today, that even as an infrequent blogger, I’m not actually saying much about what I’m doing to move myself toward my eventual goal stated on the Unknown Snapper blog description!

Since I’m currently southbound on a train from Crapsviille (home) to civilisation (London) I thought I’d bung up something of my current activities!

This week is a bit on the busy side – Today I’m transiting through Civilisation on my way to Ruralshire (just the other side of the city), the plan is that I lodge with friends overnight, before zipping to Wales for a uni interview tomorrow. Tonight will probably be spent re-jigging my portfolio until I’m 100% happy with it and running through the written interview task again to make sure I’m happy with the wording.

Tomorrow (Wed) will be an early start so I can zip over to Wales and have an interview at one of the three universities I’ve applied to for photographic courses. I know I have to keep plugging away at things to get where I want, so the higher education is just one route of three that I’m working on (Plan A of A, B & C), will be overjoyed if I get a place at any of those I’ve applied to as all look to be top notch establishments from the standard of work available to view.

Thursday is now mostly a free day with one meeting in the evening between Demotix and some of it’s contributors, as someone who hopes to contribute rather soon, should prove to be a very interesting meeting. And as most of the day is free I’m hoping to bugger off to some of the galleries (it seems like an aeon since I last visited the Photographers Gallery!).

Last (and by no means least), thanks to a very kind soul, I have been granted an hour to have a career guidance chat on Friday with a very well respected former broadsheet picture editor. Something I’m really, really excited about. This chap has been at the top of his game and I’m really looking forward to sitting down and talking to him.

All things said and done, quite a stimulating week! Will have to pop up another post and tell all after.

Protests 11/04/09 or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

2009-04-20T13:19:00.015+01:00

Bit of a late post, one I'd intended to make before now, but much got in the way - and it's not as if I'm being paid for it!

On the 11th I arranged to nip down to London, two events were taking place on one day, a perfect chance to gain some more experience!

The first of the day was a walk in memory of Ian Tomlinson who die under controversial circumstances after the G20 protests on the 1st of April. The march was to start at Bethnal Green Police Station, with all participants walking to the Spot on Cornhill where Ian passed away.
My initial feelings upon arriving at Bethnal Green were that the press outnumbered the marchers - this seemed to be the case for quite a while.
When Paul King, Ian Tomlinson's son, stepped out of the station to say a few words, he was greeted by a barrage of flash guns and TV cameras. To be expected, given the high profile of the story.

With the march about to start, the decision was taken to leave the rest of the pack behind and take the tube to Bank and capture the mourners arriving. Quite a good idea considering how many other photographrs would be present on Cornhill. The marchers eventually arrived, walking down Threadneedle street and around Bank before heading up Cornhill.

Managing to nip up the street quickly, I grabbed what seemed to be a good spot to photograph the protesters laying flowers, unfortunately, despite my positioning I started to realise that I really was working at the limits of my equipment.
I have always been of the view that a bad workman blames his tools, certainly with the kit I have now I've managed to do quite well over the last few years, but from beginning of the day (which was quite dull) I had started to get frustrated. The get what I needed demanded I up the ISO speed as much as possible, even though the image quality would suffer. The ageing bodies I use really are lacking on high ISO, causing problems should I need to perform any crops at a later point.
The lenses I use also annoyed me slightly, due to the APS-C format sensors, I found when in the midst of the press scrum around the people laying flowers at the site of Mr Tomlinson's death I just couldn't get wide enough and when I needed to I couldn't get close enough to get the effects I wanted (thus coming back to the cropping problems again.

Regardless of the equipment woes, the laying of flowers and speeches afterward went smoothly enough, with only a few problems from a small minority of Anarchists spread throughout the crowd and shouting over people trying to have their say at the megaphone.

Leaving Cornhill behind, we meandered our way over to Embankment where the Tamil protest was in full swing. The amount of people present really had to been seen to be believed, with estimates ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 all being very well marshalled by the march organisers. Actual numbers aside, it just showed how many people cared about the the ongoing genocide in Sri Lanka. More astonishing than anything was the fact that it warrented so little coverage in the media, with only a small mention online to show that it had even happened - even though at one point the demonstration stretched from Charing Cross Station to Hyde Park!

Maybe it was that the protest was organised so well that there was no real trouble, maybe that Sri Lanka is on the other side of the world and not deemed newsworthy; whatever the reason it seems slightly wrong that so many people should take to the streets and bring the centre of London to a standstill to make their voices heard and for it not to actually garner any support as such from the popular media.

Everyone that I met was very friendly, and only wanted the person with the camera to understand why they were there. As an example of the level at which the protest was organised, as I walked away from the main stage where several high profile people were talking about the situation in Sri Lanka, smoke could be seen rising above a rather dense area of the crowd, it took 30 seconds to run to the source and see that some of the demonstrators were burning an effigy of the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Within 3 minutes, the protest marshals had arrived on the scene with a crate of water and were dousing the flames. Only a couple of minutes later the now extinguished dummy was gone, having been placed in black bin bags for disposal.

Photographic equipment ignored, again another invaluable learning experience.

Thanks go (again) to Stephen and Jools who put up with my waffle for the duration!

Images from the 11th are up on Flickr (they have been for a few days now, but wanted to accompany them with a blog post).

Shall post a bit of a status update on what's going on shortly!

Met Apologises for use of public order act against photographers

2009-04-08T14:49:00.002+01:00

Further comment from the BJP regarding the Met Police apology and misuse of the public order act.

British Journal of Photography

Met Apologises for use of public order act against photographers

2009-04-08T11:10:00.002+01:00

Even though this cropped up two days ago on Twitter - I still think it's a rather noteworthy article to highlight.

After police misused the public order act to stop photographers working at the G20 protests, a Metropolitan police spokeswoman apologised! Certainly an extraordinary occurrence given the police's propensity for misusing anti terrorist laws against journalists carrying out their day-job.

I feel extremely naive saying even thinking the following, but could this, coupled with (as far as I know) no use of the much anticipated and dreaded Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008 actually signal the start of a more tolerant policing attitude towards photographers and journalists?
Certainly the members of the police (Met, BTP and other regional forces brought in for the G20) on the whole seemed quite approachable when I needed to ask them during the protests and I had more trouble from Anarchist types.

I guess time will tell! Certainly something that causes some concern to me as, a) just starting out and b) not actually having a press pass yet!

British Journal of Photography article

G20 Excel Protests - a second lesson in being in the right place at the right time

2009-04-07T22:20:00.000+01:00

With another day of demonstrations ahead of me, the Thursday 2nd April was a bit of an early start, even though I was staying in East London (thank you!). With information pointing to a 7am kick-off outside Excel. Arriving on time I found that I wasn't alone, at the beginning there were as many photographers/reporters as police and a steady stream of limousines arriving with delegates for the first day of the summit.

Although not much went on (other than several of photographers talking, jumping up and down to keep warm, trying to yawn away early morning starts and extreme lethargy), I did manage to grab a couple of images of Cadillac One and Two arriving with a small (but still rather huge) chunk of President Obama's huge security detail.

After several hours of waiting, a slow trickle of protesters started to arrive, setting up in an area surrounded by barriers put aside for their use. Again the groups represented were rather diverse, with a sprinkling of communists and quite a few from the Stop the War Coalition but, most apparent were those protesting against the Genocide in Ethiopia.

By far the largest group evident there, the Ethiopian group were adding to the relaxed atmosphere; singing songs, chanting slogans, dancing and generally having a good time.

Again, certainly a learning experience, knowing that most of the images I took there would be of a similar look and feel I should have headed back to the Bank of England to get images of the clean up (which would have meant covering the second mini protest that, unknown to me, was taking place there). Equipment, was again a bit of an issue, though more on the lens front this time.

Some more of the images can be found on flickr here.

Hopefully have more blatherings soon...

G20 Madness - a lesson in being in the right place at the right time

2009-04-05T15:33:00.001+01:00

Wednesday saw me in London for the protest at the bank of England. Quite a mad day really; the main reason for me going was to expand my portfolio and to (as usual) apply myself and learn.

After looking at various sources I decided to follow the march starting at Liverpool Street Station, the so called 'Green Horseman of the Apocalypse/Climate Chaos' column, having heard that some troublemakers would possibly be amongst the protesters (50/50 toss up between Liverpool Street and Cannon Street).

First problem seemed to be which exit the marchers would muster at! After approaching another photographer (Stephen Simpson of Picture it Now with whom I spent the majority of the day) I soon found out I wasn't alone, although things eventually sorted themselves out. Quite surprised by the Saracen armoured personnel carrier (see above) zooming by as I stood outside the Royal Bank of Scotland! When keywording my images I peeked at the wiki entry and found a reference to the G20 protests already added!

Not long after the first demonstrators started to appear outside the main entrance to the station along with a huge puppet depicting their mascot for the march (see left), the atmosphere was very light-hearted and extremely relaxed, with marchers and police laughing and joking; even with the ominous presence of masked protesters hiding their faces from the police. One thing that struck me at this time was the amount of press present; to begin with they outnumbered the marchers and moved with what seemed like a pack mentality.

As soon as two photographers would notice a good picture and move in the rest of the pack followed leaving me with an odd situation - If I followed the pack, the chances are I would find a good picture, but it would be almost exactly the same shot as everyone else had. I soon decided that as much as possible I would try to find something different (be it what I should have done or not), and for the most stuck to that ideal throughout the day.

With very little ceremony the column quickly moved off to Bank Square, the route lined by curious bystanders taking pictures on mobile phones and staring from windows. Still a party atmosphere prevailed within the march, with a drums leading the way and lots of smiling and laughing from most taking part.

Again I was on the lookout for different shots, not easy as the area was saturated with other photographers, all with the same thought in mind! I did manage to photograph two Starbucks employees cheerfully watching the column through the window of their shop. Something that struck me as ironic, with the brand having attracted unwanted attention before.

It was around this time that we decided to sprint ahead to see what was going on closer to the Bank of England, with hindsight (again) I should have stayed with the front of the column to get images of them meeting the first police line. Something I did from a high vantage point from a window on Prince's Street after the column was held, but with images that create a lot less impact.

As I watched on, perched very precariously on a window sill, it became apparent that the masked elements within the crowd were doing their best to rile and cajole the police into action. Pictured left is one of a few that were shouting in the faces of the police present on Prince's Street. The image doesn't really show the extent of what he was up to (would be better represented by a ground level image!).

Eventually the police, on command, withdrew to allow the Climate Chaos column and the Green Horseman of the Apocalypse into the main square to converge with the other marchers now present. Again looking back, rather than go back to cover the arrival of the climate chaos column, I should have stayed in the square to cover what was going on there, Stephen did just that and managed to capture more of the action taking place.

After missing the ransacking of RBS (crowd was unbelievably packed on Threadneedle street) I contented myself with taking images of the crowd around the square itself, catching, amongst other things, a pig masked, Spanish reveller trying unsuccessfully to spray a police line with diet cola. The number of causes and groups represented at the demonstration was truly staggering, certainly more than I expected. Flags and banners proclaiming everything from Free Trade to inciting people to take back land could be seen flying above heads within the crowd, even one or two people holding placards stating 7/7 was an MI5 conspiricy.

My favourite though must be the board being carried by a skinhead when the climate chaos marchers reached Prince's Street and seen again later on held by someone else walking up Threadneedle street.

At this point, other than the problems taking place on Threadneedle Street not much seemed to be going on. So the decision was taken to leave the police cordon and go for a wander (thanks go to Stephen for liberal use of press card and the phrase "he's with me"!), again encountering more protests outside the HSBC on Queen Street and having the pleasure of again being 'kettled'.

The day as a whole was a big learning experience for me, finding out more about the areas of photojournalism that before were blank (working without a press card was quite an hindrance), as well as a lot more about how I work and take images. Couple of other points came up as well; I really need to upgrade my cameras at some point (high ISO work not being an option at present) and I need to invest in a longer lens (I've always worked very close up to my subjects). I have a lot to learn, but that's something I relish.

Oh, I also found out - people will wee anywhere after a few hours cooped up and that if I have camera, I am deemed to be a pig by anarchists. Lovely!

A big thank you goes to Stephen, who allowed me to tag along and ask about a million questions during the day (also for the beer that evening) and to the manager of an Eat restaurant that gave us some sandwiches destined for the bin as he closed his shop, contrary to a lot of the day - that was right place right time!

More images can be found on my flickr account next post should hopefully be on the Excel protest on the 2nd of April.

2009-03-25T19:51:00.000Z

Northcliffe Media (Daily Mail and a collection of regional papers) cuts 1000 jobs.

A sign of things to come, or will that be it for now? One can only hope this is the a case of companies settling into the recession to weather out the storm .

Intending to move away from the subject, but...

2009-03-08T14:13:00.000Z

I stumbled across a video on the Guardian website.

Here

Somehow the Guardian have managed to get hold of a police video taken during a climate camp demonstration in August last year. The police seem to spend a lot of time concentrating on the journalists present.

What exactly is wrong with the media covering a demonstration or event? The two officers concerned seem to have a problem with "press officers" being present and capturing the event. As they filmed an ITV film crew making their way out of the field the demonstration was taking place in they remarked:
"a lot of press officers aren't there? They think they can just wander in and out of the field."
Going further to say (still filming the ITV crew):
"I trust them less than the protesters."

All food for thought, why do the police have such a bee in their bonnet?

Counter Terrorism Act 2008

2009-03-08T12:19:00.000Z

You would think that any piece of legislation created by the government to protect the public from a terrorist act would be a) well thought out and b) fit for purpose... Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case with Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008.

In the UK the problem already exists where the police (and over zealous Police Community Support Officers and security guards) seem to believe that taking photographs in public areas is against the law and carried out only by people with intent to do harm. With various amateur and professional photographers detained, pictures deleted and films confiscated due to misinterpretation of various anti-terrorist laws.

Some examples can be found on the Wardman Wire; including:
Jess Hurd a photojournalist accused of carrying out a "hostile reconnaissance" and detained for 45 minutes by police as she covered a gypsy wedding in Essex (audio of the police can be found here with more info here and here).
Justin Tallis a freelance photojournalist who had the misfortune to take a picture of a policeman at the BBC/Gaza demonstration.
Steve Carroll an amateur photographer who's negatives were taken by the police thanks to the hideous crime of taking pictures of people in a public place.

These incidents serve to illustrate that giving the police such wide ranging powers; freedom of speech and freedom of the press are both two majorly important aspects that set western society apart from dictatorships and oppressive states, but we seem to be moving backward these days.

One glaring fact hits me in the face, as an ex-soldier (for my sins) and someone who once upon a time was employed to take surveillance photographs without being seen, if I were trying to grab images for the purpose of committing an act of terrorism, I would certainly not be doing it disguised as a card carrying member of the press pack, at a gypsy wedding in Essex or by being seen to take street photography in Hull.

Is there an ulterior motive to the way the Police are acting, or is it a case of them seeing terrorists everywhere? Obviously it could all just be a case of crossed wires and a few police officers cocking things up, but somehow I doubt it.

How things will unfold from here onwards is yet to be seen...

First Post

2009-03-08T11:22:00.000Z

In a way this blog is a purely selfish affair, if anyone else reads it... well that's just a side effect.

My choice to stay anonymous is in essence because I believe you have one chance to make an impression; to have one's first impression ruined by a candid thought would be extremely bad. Even though chances are nothing I say here will be anything out of the ordinary.

Anyway, should you chance across this blog somehow, hope you enjoy!