Tabo’s gotta brand new bag!
To celebrate an endorsement from the wonderful people at Thinktank photo, I have a chance to thank you for reading this blog. Who’s up for winning a free Thinktank Urban Disguise 35 v2.0, worth over £120? Having used Thinktank gear for a few years now, it’s a real pleasure to say how great their gear [...]
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 [...]
The Leveson Inquiry
In the list of sexy subjects to write about, the Leveson Inquiry may appear to be low down the top 40 but this is the one that has huge potential to change working practise for every photographer in the UK. The fourth day of the inquiry has now finished and, along with a large percentage [...]
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 [...]
Tripoli’s, like, fantastic
With my self-preservation system in full effect, I was assigned to covering the events and features of Tripoli and after weeks of extensive coverage by my colleagues, it was getting harder to find new angles to cover. Still, while ever I wasn’t being shot at, I could always look on the positive side! One of [...]
Fear and reloading in Libya
As my assignment to Libya has continued, I’ve fallen into the routine of a day in the city followed by a day on the checkpoints with the latter involving a lot of waiting and a lot of guns. When I say a lot, I mean a LOT. I’m continually expecting to see Mel Gibson and [...]
Life in Libya, September 2011
I was recently asked what my ideal situation would be, regarding how I’d like to work and after some thought I settled on having the freedom to spend longer on jobs that have a deeper back story without the need to feel that I was there at the start. Speaking to Tom Stoddart recently, he [...]
Anton Hammerl
Yesterday, I got an email from London photographer Teri Pengilley, regarding her decision to attempt to raise some money for the family of freelance photographer Anton Hammerl who was killed in the Libyan desert while covering the recent fighting. Here’s what Teri has to say about her plan; “Next Saturday, September 3rd, I am going [...]
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 [...]
London riots, August 2011
On Saturday, I spent the day in Hyde Park, covering the Women’s Elite Triathlon event before heading off to a barbecue. After a settling in for the evening at home, I got a text from my picture editor telling me of trouble in Tottenham. As it’s only down the road from where I live, I [...]
Caution: This post may contain flashy images
I was recently sent a parcel of goodies to review/torture and while some items won’t be of use to me as a press photographer, one item stood out as being of interest; the Godox PB820 Propac battery pack. To those of you who work in press, wedding and entertainment photography, you’ll already probably own either [...]
Mirrored? Single? Manoeuvre!
Having always trusted my digital archive to a random variety of techniques, I recently decided to bite the bullet and sort it out once and for all. Up to now, I’ve always gone for the very risky technique of storing my archive on a single disk until the end of the calendar year. At that [...]
DIY Trumpet-blowing for beginners
After baring my soul in the Royal Wedding blog including all of the lows of the day, it’s time for some straight good news; I just won second place in the NPPA Photojournalism 2011 awards: “Olympic Features” category! Whoop! Big congratulations should also go to AFP colleague Carl de Souza for his Honourable Mention in [...]
Yes, One can
With the Royal Wedding supplements only just hitting the recycling bin, London had to spring back into gear once more for a visit from the American Eagle himself, President Barack Obama. Having already produced some great moments during his visit to Ireland, it was going to be hard to beat some of the fantastic photos [...]
This just might be a one shot deal…
After many hours of thought, concern and general fizz, the day of the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton was quite definitely the biggest rollercoaster that I’ve ever been on. Thirty six hours after the day ended, I’m just starting to get a clear idea of how the day went. The problem with [...]
The day I shouted at a Wizard
***** THIS IS AN OFFICIAL WARNING – DUE TO TECHNICAL CONTENT, THIS POST WILL ONLY BE OF INTEREST TO PHOTOGRAPHERS WHO USE POCKET WIZARD TRIGGERS WITH THEIR NIKON CAMERAS – ANYONE EXPECTING THE USUAL STUFF PLEASE ENJOY A POST FROM THE ARCHIVE ***** Following a mind-destroying battle with technology to get my new Pocket Wizard [...]
La Fashionata
Last week I got the chance to shoot a couple of days of London Fashion Week. With colleague Carl de Souza organising the week’s coverage, the bulk of the shows are being covered by him with a few odds and sods open for me to play with. The work that goes into dealing with pass [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
