Variety is the spice of life
The last time I was in Blackpool, I spent the day dashing between the “Haunted Swing” and the “Steeplechase” at Blackpool Pleasure Beach and building up the guts to go on the creaky looking “Grand National”. Nineteen years later, I’m onstage at the Opera House in front of a few thousand people taking pictures of [...]
Recession hits the money shot
Another year, another Erotica exhibition at London’s Olympia centre. Having covered this event four times, it’s actually become quite a challenge to get something that’s both different from previous years and is acceptable for publication on the news wire. While horrible nastiness and the carnage from Middle Eastern suicide blasts often makes it’s way straight to [...]
Bring on the Wall!
In full JFK-style, I became “ein Berliner” when I flew over to Germany last week to work with the Berlin bureau in the coverage of the celebrations and events surrounding the twentieth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Never having visited Berlin before, I had the usual mixture of anticipation and nerves with [...]
Don’t tell my D3, but I’m having an affair…
As anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis may know, I generally tend to avoid doing reviews of cameras and equipment partly due to lack of time but mainly due to the abundance of websites available such as dpreview that offer incredibly in-depth, fast and dependable advice on which route to take when [...]
“Beached” now available in TK-Vision
As I’m trying to put together a selection of audio slideshows for presentation I might end up doing, I thought I’d post one on here to see how (and more importantly if) it works. Please feel free to give me any feedback on how you think it looks as it’s all a bit new to [...]
..and one rule for another.
Yesterday, I was put on “Climate Camp” watch along with fellow AFP photographer and good friend Shaun Curry. Following a few days of media hype with demonstrators refusing to give any information on their planned camp site location and the police offering “community-style” policing if the demonstrators were prepared to cooperate, we both went to [...]
A full 360°
With their trademarked sense of understatement, U2 set up camp in Wembley Stadium for a two-night residency and I managed to get into the first night to see what subtle delights they had to offer on their 360° tour. Running over 2009-10, the tour is expected to include up to 100 shows all over the [...]
Metal as anything
After the love and peace of Glastonbury 2009 comes the angst, anger and aggression of the Sonisphere rock festival at Knebworth. Featuring rock and metal bands ranging from veteran British groups “Saxon” and “Heaven and Hell” through to the latest young bands from around the world such as “Airbourne” and “The Defiled”, it saw the [...]
The knowledge continues to grow..
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 [...]
Nature’s flashgun
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 [...]
The alternative London “Knowledge” v3.0
If you actually prepare for the bad weather for once and get fully waterproofed up, by the time you arrive at the tube station in central London, you’ll emerge to blistering sunshine. The same also applies in reverse. You will see the politician that you waited 10 hours outside the House of Commons for on [...]
File under “Good week”
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 [...]
Eavis: Outstanding in his field.
Having had a lot of my Glastonbury festival shots on the Boston Globe’s “Big Picture” site, I wasn’t sure how to put this blog together as I didn’t want to just repeat shots that a lot of people have already seen. In the end, I’ve decided to go for a mix of some of my [...]
The alternative London “Knowledge” v2.0
It’s good practise to get on with all the photographers you come across as it’s guaranteed that you’ll end up stuck on a doorstep for three days with the one you told to piss off. Stand next to the loudest shouter at film premieres. (See also “Ian West“) Even if the object that we’ve been [...]
The alternative London “Knowledge” v1.0
Not much can compare to feeling the first hot rays from the sun as you leave Downing Street on a Summer’s day after an 8 hour stakeout. No matter how sure you are of the job, the longer you wait for it to happen, the more likely you are to feel the need to frantically [...]
Broken Cabinet? Yeah, it’s a Common’s problem..
With tonight’s news that Works and Pensions Secretary James Purnell has quit his position in the Cabinet and released an open letter to various newspapers calling on British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to quit, it reminds me how fascinating this job can be. The news from Westminster over the last few weeks has been slowly [...]
Madchester? I’m f@*!in’ livid!
As many of you know, I LOVE football. Everything about it excites me, be it adding new parts to your kit, learning new grooves or finally nailing a fill you’ve been working on for a while… Erm.. Hang on. That’s drumming. Oh, FOOTBALL. That’s the one I don’t like at all. Pushing this from my [...]
I love it when a scan comes together..
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). [...]
Influence/Influenza
Working within the shining golden towers that is “the media”, it’s quite easy to forget how much influence (or rather ironically “influenza” in Italian) it has over how people feel on a day to day basis. I see my self as quite toughened to the scaremongering of certain news outlets and can usually laugh it [...]
Beached
One job that proved very successful for me and still creates interests and enquiries from viewers on flickr was my coverage of the sinking of the MSC Napoli cargo ship and the resulting free for all that put the village of Branscombe on the international news map. Having heard about a cargo ship running aground [...]
In the words of Mr. Punch..
..”That’s the way to do it”. Having extensively covered the G20 protests last week, I can honestly say it was a real pleasure to photograph the Tamil demonstration in Westminster. By arranging the “flash-mob“-style protest through text messages and avoiding social websites that can be monitored, the group managed to appear from nowhere and catch [...]
G20-20 visions
After countless hours of research, meetings, plans and tactic proposals, the G20 rolled into town on Wednesday for a few days of PnP (politics and protests). First job of the day was a visit to Maggie’s Cancer Care unit in Hammersmith with Michelle Obama and Sarah Brown. Usually a pool job means one photographer and [...]
Going through the change
After months of speculation among the head bods, AFP London moved to the dark side, or more particularly, the black and gold side. Now armed with Nikon D3 bodies and various lenses, I’ve wandered the streets of London zooming left rather than right and pushing the exposure the wrong way. I mean, who in their [...]
Puttin’ on the Brits
Enough with all that serious news, it’s back to the red carpet and the London weather for me! Tonight, I covered the arrivals at the Brit awards for my fourth consecutive year, I seem to remember. Always the photographer, never the winner. Tch! You’d think those judges would want to at least give me a [...]
