Pointless vanity project of the former Tabascokid

I’ve just returned from Glastonbury festival (of which I’ll be scribbling something down soon), filled with the joys of love and spiritual freedom to be faced with my first ever collective of virtual burning pitchfork wielders. Yup, it seems that after a quiet few months that I hoped had seen the end of the campaign from censorship-demanding horse lovers, I have again managed to find a rich seam of naivety with no effort on my part. This time, the complainants have clearly read all that I’ve said on the issue and still decided to press ahead with their “partition”. The most concerning part is that a professor has added his/her name. I just hope that they hadn’t had chance to read my explanation before publicly putting adding themselves to the list..

message: I and my friends are here to request you to delete the image on the dead horse on the site.

Reasons:
1. Threat against our coat of arms.
2. Against queens coat of arms.
3. Very ill looking.
4. Teasing. (On us)
5. Very bad for children.

Partition:
James Ding
Victor Jong
John Liu
Susan Zhou
Professor Meque
Gary Matthew
Jessica Yang
Alpha Bi
Leo Liu
Tiger LIu
Emily Liu
Payal Prettaki
Mythri Mula
Adithy Mula
Shuaib Doroni
Ajay Matti

Threats will be sent.

PLEASE, I BEG YOU!!!!

Your sincerely,
Tiger Liu

So there you go. That’s what it feels like to be Shell or Nestle. Now let me unpack my rucksack from the nazi hate-festival I just attended and go and find some small animals to personally kill.

This morning I received an email from a person who had seen my site and the image of a girl who has scarred herself through self-harm.

Not receiving mail on this image very often, I was interested to hear what the person had to say but found that I was being involved in part of their harming process. The mail contained a request to make the person “famous” and included two images of their fresh injuries and a photo of the sender. Aside from sending a link to a support group, it’s hard to think what else I should say. In a way, this is a similar situation to the dead horse comments as it is being assumed that I can offer some answers/help/support to a stranger just because I shot the image. However, when safety and injury are involved, it’s hard to just dismiss it.

When a photographer shares an image, does that make them responsible in any way to justify it or is their job completed purely by displaying it? It’s easy to assume the latter is correct but can this just lead to people shooting images with no message or intention other than to shock? I know this happens all the time in the art world but for press photography, are the rules any different?

Despite my questions, I know where I stand on this subject as I believe that each story needs it’s own consideration and thought. Sometimes, you just have to trust in the strength of the viewer.

Just a quick update to combine a healthy dose of trumpet-blowing with pointing all you photography fans to a great new site that’s causing quite a stir among photo fans on the internet, the Boston Globe’s Big Picture. Rob Galbraith’s site featured it recently, saying, “Launched officially only three weeks ago, The Big Picture, a blog at The Boston Globe website featuring galleries of photographs culled from the wire services, NASA and elsewhere, is quickly becoming an essential destination for those who like to look at good pictures of current events, presented at an uncommonly large (for the web) size.”

Happily, I’ve managed to scrape a couple of my shots into the first choices of images so please head over and have a look!

The final job of the trip arrived yesterday with France v Italy. Never having seen Italy play before and only having heard the old stories of their “interesting” techniques, I was stunned at how ridiculous their diving is. The game looked more like an am-dram performance. Every few seconds, a player in white would collapse to the floor, writhing in agony while his teammates battled to save his life until either a) the referee stopped play and a freekick was awarded or b) another Italian player would make a decent break down the pitch.

At which point, in some kind of religious miracle, the wounds would be healed. It got to the point that you could see the French players leaping away whenever an Italian came near them for fear of losing a second penalty.

France were struggling from the off with one guy sent off plus one of their stars going down in a crumpled heap and being eventually buggied off the pitch. I never thought I’d be saying these words but it was quite heartening to see how concerned Henry was with his team-mates welfare. Bravo, that vavavoom-saying chap..

Following their eventual 2-0 win over France, Italian forward Antonio Cassano decided to strip off and do a victory lap as he waved at supporters. I just love the ball-boy’s face to the right of the frame. In days gone by, you can imagine young kids looking at their footballing heroes and being flooded with inspiration. This child will probably require counselling.

So there it is. EURO 2008 over for me. With the delights of Glastonbury on the horizon, I can’t say I’m THAT sad it’s over for me..

Another day, another press conference in the media tent in Lugano. It really is like some kind of mental test to see how many times you can shoot the same person with the same backdrop in the same tent saying the same thing to the same people and still try to think up something different. When you’re working in a press environment, it’s both a challenge to find that extra something that makes a decent shot and then, equally importantly, to shoot it without drawing everyone’s attention to it so that they copy your idea. Two weeks into shooting these press conferences and most photographers spend the time scouring their immediate environment for any new ideas and/or watching out for others who have a decent idea. I’ve always done my very best to think of my own ideas when I think there is more than one angle and in those times when someone else’s idea is just too good, I’ll ask the photographer who thought of it if I can do something similar. I’m sure it fades with time but it still bugs me if I put in the thought and effort to do something different then find a queue of people behind me, doing all but asking me my settings.

When I’m back on home turf and I’m working with friends and colleagues from other papers and agencies, this isn’t a problem as it’s understood that it’s a bit off to just duplicate someone else’s shot but while I’m over here, there isn’t the luxury of that code. Unfortunately, I can’t say that I’m an eternal fountain of ideas which is a shame as life would be soooo good as these “Groundhog Day” press conferences would be a breeze..

After following the Swedish team through rain and drizzle at tedious press conferences and wet training sessions on pretty much a daily basis, today I bumped into five of the players in Lugano town centre. They were all sat on a wall, in their regular clothes and, for the first time, I actually saw a picture involving them that would have been something out of the ordinary. I wandered over, put on my most friendly and approachable face and asked if it was ok to get one quick photo. “No”, was the blank and abrupt response. Thanks. I’ll savour standing in the rain to shoot your practice sessions even more now, knowing how friendly some of you chaps are. *meditates into internal happy place*

Up to that point, I had a vague connection with Sweden to do well in the tournament but I can’t say that I’m that enamoured any more. I guess my patience is wearing thin as my tour of duty slowly reaches its end. However, with Dutch fans such as the one below, how can I help but follow them now? Come on, how many of YOU guys has a folding t-shirt with a flap on that reveals the inside of a lion’s mouth? I thought not..

What better way to start the shooting of my penultimate game than with a bunch of cigar-chewing blokes in drag and a French man showing off his cock. Marvellous..

At least this time, not only were there goals scored (LOTS of goals, thanks to a formidable show from the Dutch team..) but I was also in a new position in the stands looking down on the action. Not being a natural sports photographer, it’s certainly easier to shoot from up there as you can follow the game more and see how things are playing out a little more clearly.

It saves you from being in the crush of things but I have to admit that, compared to the pictures on ground level, the football shots all seemed a little detached. Maybe it’s just because I’m not used to seeing everything and being able to shoot comparatively wide (a 200mm for wide goal mouth stuff and a 400mm for mid-field action).

However, with only one more game and a handful of training sessions to go, I can almost smell the smog of London again. Huzzah! All this Alpine fresh air can kill a man, I tells ya.. Look what it did to Arsene and he’s only 22..

Another day, another visit to the Swedish training camp for my daily breakfast of crusty bread with some kind of salami. Thankfully, I just discovered that the guest-house that I’m staying at serves fantastic food so my evenings are no longer spent searching the area for decent fodder.

All talk today was about a bust-up that happened yesterday between two players during the training session. Being the true professional wot I am, I’d already left the pitch-side area to shoot the Zlatan press conference so was blissfully unaware of it. Thankfully, it seems everyone else had too or I’d have been in for a bit of a slapping from the head bods.

Not understanding a word that’s said by virtually anyone during these press meetings is proving to be a slight disadvantage as, for all I know, these guys could be announcing that they’re pregnant and I’d be wandering off looking for a top -up of my peach iced tea. As I mentioned before, I’m currently basing pretty much all of my news sense on a “clicks per person” system ie as soon as someone appears, follow the pack instinct. Really not my usual thing as I like to be informed about the history of stories if possible as I think that’s the only way to go beyond the obvious picture and find something interesting.

Eyebrows were raised by the other photographers when I started shooting shots like the one below. A commonly used technique in London, for some reason out here people were asking me how I was doing it including a camera crew that interviewed me on tv and filmed my stunningly interesting technique.. *cough* For those few that can’t work it out, it’s just a 16mm lens on a ten second timer on the end of a monopod, held in the air over the scrum of journos. Some would simply use a chair but where’s the style in that, eh? Having said that, the crews out here are so hungry for material to fill the airtime, I’d probably have ended up doing an interview about my chair technique..

So halfway through my tour of duty with two of my four matches shot, I can now say, if all goes according to plan, that this time next week I’ll be heading home to my lovely lady and work that interest me. Never again will I feel the need to scoff at any job in London (or at least for a week or so..)

So the miles rack up and the EUROs plod on. After last night’s frantic battle to see who could be less inspiring to shoot between France and Romania in Zurich, I’m making my way back down to Lugano to shoot fans watching tonight’s match at an outdoor arena. As the thunder clouds rumble outside my hotel room, I’m not overly confident.

Anyhow, following Mute’s comment on another post that the was interested in the “behind-the-scenes” side of the job, I thought I’d share how the system works when shooting sport for an international agency. The reason I stress the “international agency” part is not a lame attempt at bigging my job up but more to show the difference in speed that is necessary when thinking for a global market. As someone once told me, the deadline for print is always minutes away SOMEWHERE in the world so it’s always worth getting your shots out fast..

Having previously only shot football in the UK where it’s just a case of wandering up a few hours early and shooting the match, the organisation involved in international championships such as these are a totally different thing.

Firstly, the whole area around the stadium is closed to traffic hours before the match begins so pre-allocated parking/transport passes are issued and you’re generally expected to report to the venue around 4 hours before the match starts. On arrival, I have to wear one of the branded bibs and my personal pitch pass that displays my allocated position. In regular matches, it’s just a case of arriving early and putting a monopod down to mark your spot but here, my seat will be waiting for me along with a power socket and a LAN cable.

First job is to shoot the fans and any interesting aspect to the event that makes it different. New venue? Unexpected team playing? Die-hard fans in full team colours? This should be considered from the moment you get near the stadium so I always make sure I have a camera ready to shoot any fans on interest who are loitering with intent to support on the streets outside.

When it comes to editing, captioning and sending the pictures, this is where the main difference appears; instead of performing the tricky skill of balancing a 400mm lens on a monopod, a 200mm around my neck and a computer on my lap as I frantically choose, crop, edit, caption and send the images back to the picture desk, I now have to shoot small bursts of maybe 2 minutes of action, scroll the images on the back of the camera, lock two or three that I like and delete ALL the rest. Then the card is slotted into my reader where the images are automatically ripped, identified and sent straight to Paris where someone else will choose, edit, caption and release the images that they want. Yikes. This goes against everything that the vast majority of people reading this will know or be used to (including me) The feeling of having to decide there and then what pictures work from a 2″ screen before sending the images off into the ether, hoping that someone a few hundred miles away has “seen” the same thing in the image that you have is a hard one to get used to.

The other new development for me is using remote cameras behind the goal. Anyone who watches football may have seen all the cameras on the floor behind the net but not realised that they are triggered by either a foot switch that you fire whenever you think there may be a goal or a transmitter from another camera that simultaneously fires the goal camera whenever you take a picture. This results in some unique style of tap-dancing whenever there’s any action near your goal as you quickly change from your long lens camera to your shorter range, swing the long lens to your side so you aren’t blocking other photographers and watch for the chance to press your foot switch. Craziness. Thankfully, here at EURO2008, all of the images from the camera behind the net are also transmitted directly to Paris without having to take the card out so someone else has to wade through a card full of shots of sky with no action to find one worthwhile..

After the match, there’s a quick scan of the terraces near you for celebrating/sobbing fan reaction pictures then pack it all up and begin the long walk back to the car..

Couldn’t have put it better myself..

Kilometres! The measurement of choice for the MTV generation! Gasp as the units fly past! Laugh as the satnav talks in metres for once rather than “yards”! (I mean, WHO knows how far a yard is?) Feel all tough like Kris Kristofferson in “Convoy” as what was only a quite short journey feels like a marathon session as the odometer goes into four figures!

Yes it’s been another day of travel as I headed back down the length of Switzerland to Lugano to shoot a press conference with Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the star of Swedish football (apparently). I only figured this out after hearing bursts of shutters going during the training session and judging who was near a ball whenever the bursts went off. I’m dead technical, me.. *shakes head*

Anyhow, as the conference was over before I knew it, it gave me the chance to wander around Lugano for the first time so after a quick look in the centre and finding it mainly closed (Sundays, eh?) I headed up to the top of Mount Bre and the fantastic little village of Bre. Tiny cobbled streets are broken up with random pieces of art ranging from sculpture to stained glass to carvings. A really beautiful place with a totally unique feel.

Tomorrow sees the second of my four games to shoot with the edge-of-your-seat action of France v Romania BACK up in Zurich. How am I going to remain sane for another ten days, people? I’m not sure even the mighty power of kilometres will help this time..

My first of four matches arrived today and I was dumped squarely in the deep end of learning with remote goal-mouth cameras on pocket wizards and VPN-based remote editing software. If that means nothing to you, don’t worry, that’s the last time I’ll mention it. Suffice to say that the remotes didn’t work so I essentially spent 90 minutes pressing a useless button but thankfully the second thing worked and the editors saw my pictures so all is well.

Switzerland v Czech Republic certainly brought out the nationalist excitement but unfortunately for the Swiss, their early hopes came to nothing after a decidedly tedious game. It’s a fine line for a game of “soccer” (as the ILP readers among you may know it) to actually be interesting to me but at the very least, it needs goals. 1-0 does not a fun game make.

It really is a challenge to be inspired to write about what I’m experiencing at the moment. Boo to football.. The only news to buoy the day was hearing through a colleague that I got an honourable mention in the Press Photographers Year awards. Huzzah!

An interesting aside came over dinner with other AFP photographers when we discussed what we had eaten. One photographer mentioned that he couldn’t eat fillets of meat anymore, partly due to him spending time in Indonesia where it’s not that common and partly due to seeing too many burnt bodies in combat environments. Made me wonder how regular an occurrence it is for people who’ve seen charred corpses to suddenly become vegetarian.. In his words, it suddenly dawned on him that we were exactly the same thing and once cooked, we look identical. He’s not been a fan of red meat ever since..

After this conversation I was suitably embarrassed to find myself surrounded by people who could switch from French to English to German to Italian without any thought. Growing up in Europe really does leave you with a far more useful language-base to work from. The only thing that I could gather from the conversations were that a) none of the people present ordered a chocolate ice cream b) none of the people present were from Sheffield, North England or c) none of the people present mentioned greengrocers shops. I feel totally stupid and WILL open the teach-yourself French book I bought a while ago when I return to England..

Tomorrow sees me taking the long route BACK down the country again to Lugano. I’ve only been here a few days and tis will be the fourth time that I’ve driven the distance of this place. I have a strange feeling that, despite it’s beauty, I may dislike this country by the time these two weeks are over..