2011 – my baker’s dozen
Following my hijacking of Phil Coomes’ BBC “News in Pictures” blog last week, I thought I’d put my slightly revised selection from 2011 on here to continue the series that I began last year. I’m obviously tempting fate as I have one shift left for 2011 on the 31st, so calling these my favourites of [...]
Three days on the Farm
On October 12th, after ten years, the residents of Dale Farm traveller’s site lost their final bid to overturn their eviction, when the High Court refused them the right to appeal the judgement. With every legal option exhausted, it was simply down to the matter of eviction, so I was sent down to cover the [...]
The complete alternative London “Knowledge”
Regular readers may remember the first parts of the “London Knowledge” that I posted a while ago. Having managed the previous “tips”, I squeezed out a further batch to make the century so here’s the final and complete collection. Read and learn (or at least nod with recognition…) You can tell a long-term Billingham bag [...]
The flying cocks of Wembley
From “bad-men-in-town” to just plain badminton. Oh the puns… So many many puns… Following the weight of last week’s work, it was quite a nice break to be sent to cover something new for me; the Yonex BWF World Badminton Championships 2011 at Wembley Arena in London. Regular readers will know of my complete [...]
My Sweet Sixteen
While finalising my entries for this year’s photography competitions, I realised that I never look back on the year’s output other than during the hunt for prizes. In light of this, I decided to put together a somewhat belated collection of my personal favourite images from 2010. These aren’t necessarily the ones that I’ve entered [...]
A quick dash to the Karzai
Foreign jobs often drop out of the blue with no warning as happened a couple of weeks ago with a trip to Afghanistan as the pool photographer for British Prime Minister David Cameron. Never having been to any war zones before (however securely protected), I was actually quite excited before going. Knowing that I would [...]
Fees, fights, foes fumped
Before I begin, I should explain my own experiences with fees and student debt. When I was 17, I took a Foundation course in photo-journalism with my A levels. On passing this, I applied for and secured a place on the next stage, the Pre-entry NCTJ Photo-Journalism course. However, when I was told this good [...]
Rally in the Valleys
Like a bolt from the sky from a flaky A380, my Picture Editor decided to throw me a challenge in the shape of the WRC Wales Rally. Up to this point, my only experience of motor-sport rally was climbing in the trees of Sherwood Forest when my Dad took me to watch the Lombard RAC [...]
Hell is where the party is
As I’ve said in #12, photography is a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows and, recently, I was feeling in a bit of a dip. “What I need”, I moaned at the ever-patient Kirsten, “is a job that really gets my mind working”. Then Satan answered my call. From 12-17 October, the Old Vic theatre [...]
Battle of the ‘bands
Within hours of returning from the heaven on earth that is Villa Cenami, I was up in Manchester for the annual Labour Party Conference, preceded this year by a knife fight to the death between rival candidates hoping to become the new party leader. With a brief speech by the previous Guvnor, Gordon Brown, it [...]
Licensed to Chill
Having spent the last few years with Glastonbury as my only festival event of the year, last weekend I got the chance to broaden my horizons and try out some of the competition, ie “The Big Chill” in Herefordshire. Running from the 5th to the 8th of August, the line-up consisted of a similar range [...]
Raiders of the Lost Archive
Last week, I had the chance to visit the BFI film archive in Berkhamsted to see how the renovation and restoration of Alfred Hitchcock’s first acknowledged film, “The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog” was coming along. The tour started in the acetate archive, a vast warehouse built to house some of the thousands [...]
The alternative London “Knowledge” v4.0
There is no real need to take a camera, especially your Leica, to Focus. When cleaning your lens with a cloth, it will invariably be the final wipe when the cloth slips and you smear a dorito-grease covered finger across the front element. The World Press Awards must be something to do with the Corby [...]
Sensi and Instability (with apologies to Jane Austen)
Glastonbury 2010 was a new experience for me as, this year, I was going all multimedia on this festival’s ass. After pleading with the techno honchos in Gay Paris for some new toys, they managed to get a Zacuto Z-Finder and an Audio-Technica PRO24-CM couriered to me on the day before the festival. The downside [...]
Workflow-a-go-go
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 [...]
“I was right about that saddle..”
AKA Flash ‘n’ the pannier.. On the 12th of June, I covered the World Nude Bike Ride event in central London. Now, as you can imagine, aside from saying “what the hell are they doing?”, there’s not much more to be said so this is more of a photo-blog. Hurray say those who never bother [...]
It’s a Tory’s morning glory
So the campaigning was over and the votes were in. Overnight, early predictions had swayed between a thinnest of victories for the Conservatives and a Hung Parliament. As day broke over Westminster, it was looking like we were about to enter an a very rare era in British politics. The question now remained; how the [...]
Olympic Parlour Games
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 [...]
Never mind the ballots
Having been working in London for seven years, it’s been odd to think that this is the first general election that I’ve actually covered. Back in 2005, I was working for The Times and as far as my archive shows, I appear to have been assigned the all important mopping-up duties by the picture desk. [...]
UPstrapped for cash
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 [...]
Kill Bill
Following a strong grassroots campaign to raise awareness among photographers of the potential threat to their livelihood, I’ve just followed the advice given at stop43.org.uk and written to my MP on the subject. For those of you either unaware of the Digital Economy Bill or unsure of what it’s about, head over to the stop43 [...]
Slip sliding away..
When you cover a job for a month, you very quickly lose track of what happened where and when so sitting down to write anything from the Winter Games in Whistler is going to be hard. Long days and nights of covering training sessions on the icy slopes soon merge into one and only certain [...]
The “s” stands for “sodding hell, it’s even better!”
The other day, the lovely people at AFP Paris sent me through my new toy, the Nikon D3s. To those who aren’t as obsessed with keeping up to date with all things new, the D3s is essentially a D3 with the small amount of concerns that photographers had ironed out plus a few very attractive [...]
Maximum Merriment Message
Just a super quick post to wish anyone who follows this stream of waffle a very happy Christmas and best wishes for 2010. Next year’s going to be a belter, especially for you. May your f. stops never stop, your public exposure not get you arrested and your shutter never fail.. Enjoy!
