I recently discovered that there are quite a few photographers that do not have any real system of filing their images for easier archiving.  With this in mind, I thought I’d share my thoughts on how to make life easier when it comes to organising your digital diamonds.

When I first arrived in London, a photographer at The Times showed me his technique of data management and it has stuck with me ever since.  It’s simple, easy and once you’ve started working like this, you’ll find it becomes second nature to always do it.

After shooting a job, I always download from the card to the laptop.  This may seem obvious but I know a number of photographers that only work off their cards and, worst of all, then go on to format the CF card, deleting every image except the ones that they have edited.  That’s such a bad way to work as you really do never know what will become important in the future.  The guy that’s in the background means nothing today but in six months when a story appears connecting him with someone else that you managed to capture in the same frame, your photograph suddenly goes from being a bog standard picture to an important document.

The downloaded folder is renamed from the standard automatically-created digits and letters to something that can be easily traced and located.  With this in mind, I name the folder with my initials, today’s date in reverse order and a couple of keywords relating to the job.  An example from a recent job would be “LSN2010-06-18 Sarkozy Carlton Gardens”.  In this way, if I only know a single element of the job such as the date, the year, the person involved or the location, I can still locate the folder using the search function.

When I download the images, they are copied to a folder called “Today’s Pix” on my hard drive.  Here they stay until the job is edited, sent and I have finished shooting for the day.  At this point, they move into another folder called “Pix”.  This way, I can quickly find the latest jobs that I’ve worked on if I need to.

Once I have edited and sent my selection of images, I copy these into a folder that is titled similarly to the unedited folder except I drop my initials from the start ie “2010-06-18 Sarkozy Carlton Gardens”.  In this way, I can tell at a glance what the date of the job was, where it was shot, who the job involved and finally whether the images in the folder are the unedited versions or the finalised, filed versions.

This may seem to be quite convoluted if you are used to just dragging the images to a random, bloated folder on your drive but the difference that it makes when you are trying to locate an image quickly and efficiently is vast.

If you’ve bothered to spend time shooting an image, you really should spend the time naming and archiving your folders correctly too.  You never know, someday there may be gold in them there digital hills..

Just a quick post to both shamelessly promote myself and to push a great photographers resource called the Photography Parlour.  Aimed at sharing hints, tips, information and galleries among photographers from all areas of the industry, they’ve linked to my Olympic blog here with an interview coming as soon as I get time to answer their questions!

Having just written this update, I’m now not only aware that I’ve never written the word “parlour” so many times in my life but it also screams to be spell-checked whenever you read it back.

One of the biggest annoyances among photographers who have to carry cameras over both shoulders during their working day is the need to constantly do the Les Dawson-esque bra-adjusting manoeuvre as they recover the camera straps back onto their shoulder.  As a news photographer, trying to run while laden with cameras involves a unique position with the arms pressed by the side, clutching at your straps as you pray your gear won’t bounce off and clatter along the ground.

Last week however, I saw the light.  After seeing the UPstrap on fellow photographer Carl Court‘s cameras, I ordered a couple from their website and have now been using them for a week.  While looking a lot thinner than my previous Lowepro and Domke straps, the “UPstrap SLR Large” is made from 600-pound rated Kevlar with a non-slip moulded rubber pad that sticks to shoulder like a pirate’s parrot with separation anxiety issues.  The strap adjustments are made from metal rather than the usual plastic for an added element of build quality.

So far this week, I’ve been in bun-fights, chased after cars and jumped over walls with no sign of the infamous “photographer’s shrug” as I grab for my cameras before they hit the floor.  With the import tax that I was hit with on arrival, they do work out to be pretty damned expensive at $43 each plus shipping from the US, PLUS an import tax of £18.  Despite this, I’m hoping that they should keep me happy for quite a while as they seem to be built to last.  Time will tell but for now, I can only advise on breaking out the credit card.  Bravo, UPstrap people..

After a busy year of bickering, squabbling and grumbling, nothing clears the air in Westminster better than the annual snowball fight..

Trust Blair to go and start another war…

Merry Christmas and happy 2010, everyone!

Sorry about the the lack of posts recently but I have an 8lb 9oz excuse..

Eight days overdue and after a 45 hour labour involving attempts at a waterbirth, shedloads of drugs, a botched epidural and finally an emergency caesarian with an audience of 15 surgeons, staff and student doctors, Maximillian Mavric-Neal finally decided to show up on Monday morning at 10.58am.

After a number of visits to the new birth centre at the Whittington Hospital in north London, we’d made our mind up that the lovely peaceful waterbirth in a private room with our own choice of music was the way for us.  Who can say the NHS is a bad system when all of that is offered for free?  With the inevitable first baby panic causing a 4am rush to the hospital, we were sent home after 4 hours and I drummed my fingers as Kirsten sat through contractions in the bath.  Eventually, we headed back in and got stuck in to what lay ahead.

With Pethidine and Entinox flowing through her system, we were moved from the peaceful ambience of the birth centre to the “traditional” environment of the labour ward before finally ending up in the operating theatre for a forceps birth which then turned into an emergency caesarian section.  At least we got to tick off the whole set of options in a single pregnancy.

Max has already managed to show me up by having more hair than me and being far more photogenic, damn his speckly hide..

After 5 days in hospital while Kirsten recovered from the ordeal, we’ve finally all come home now and Maximillian is trying to get his head around this thing called life.  I just hope he doesn’t ask me for any advice..

http://www.leonneal.com/blog/2009/06/11/the-alternative-london-knowledge-v10/

http://www.leonneal.com/blog/2009/06/15/the-alternative-london-knowledge-v20/

http://www.leonneal.com/blog/2009/07/10/the-alternative-london-knowledge-v30/

Following on from my three-part guide to the press photography “knowledge” listed above, it’s good to see that others have offered hints and tips from their own fields of expertise.

New additions include a helpful guide from the PA picture desk on the view from the other side..

http://paphotocall.wordpress.com/2009/07/24/the-pr-picture-editors-knowledge/

and music photographer Nick Pickles‘ Festival Edition..

http://www.music-photographer.co.uk/blog/?p=277

Top work, peeps! 

After seeing some of the great shots that came out of the storms at Glastonbury, I realised that I had yet another hole in my photography knowledge that needed filling and last week, I had the perfect opportunity to experiment.

After reaching fatigue point recently, Kirsten and I got the chance to stay at a friend’s apartment in Folkestone for a few days.  While Folkestone may not be a hedonistic nirvana, it perfectly fitted the bill with a stunning sea view and absolutely nothing to do but unwind.  On Thursday, after a day in the pool and a fine feast, the evening entertainment arrived with dark clouds filling the horizon and distant rumbles. While lacking in tripods, monopods or anything other than a 24-70 lens, the fact that it was all so far out to sea allowed me to sit outside on the rooftop balcony in the dry and snap away. Having now discovered the joy of using an ironing board and a box of sultana bran cereal as a camera support, I may never go back to Manfrotto again..

Now I have no idea what the official way to shoot lightning is so I ended up experimenting and found that the most successful technique was to shoot in RAW on bulb, predicting the flashes.  With my aperture settling around the f5.6 mark in the end, most exposures were for around three or four seconds. Scientific stuff, eh?

For a more in-depth and accurate guide, there are plenty of guides online but this one seems pretty good to me.  It’s well worth a go if you get chance.  Just be careful with your positioning and have fun!

Wow.  Do you know how sometimes everything just goes wrong and other times it all just clicks?  I guess I’m on the peak of the rollercoaster ride at the moment (See #12) as I’ve just won the the “Portrait of the Year” category in the Press Photographer’s Year awards, here in the UK.  I’m staggered and exceptionally pleased.

The portrait is of the Ukraine’s President Viktor Yushchenko and was shot during a press conference outside Downing Street, following a meeting with Gordon Brown.  Using the television lights, you could see the scarring caused by alleged Dioxin poisoning during an assassination attempt.

The print will feature in an exhibition of all the winning entries at the National Theatre in London from 4th July until 31st August.

Today saw our second and final scan before the big day in September. All looks well and despite being a decidedly lazy little buggar, the little tinker appears to be all fine and dandy! Huzzah!

With another hurdle passed, we then decided to do our first “babystuff” browsing (rather than shopping due to severe skintness). Prams are currently the point of discussion with various types being the unit of choice until we get our hands on them and find problems. If anyone has a nice bugaboo to sell me for a nice cheap price, you know where I am. I could even throw in a print or two!

For the second time this week, I got to lay my eyes on a new toy heading my way.  This time, I don’t get to touch it for another six months.. 

All is healthy and looking good with the little one putting on a fantastic burst of breakdancing for us as the scan took place.  I was expecting some indistinct blob so to be greeted with this space-prawn doing the caterpillar move in glorious mono was quite a shock!

The poor woman doing the scan had to deal with two photographers asking her to wait for the right moment before capturing the scan images. All measurements were good with the date being logged as September 20th.  Bring it on ( but not the sleepless nights..)

This child had better get used to posing as it doesn’t know what it’s in for..