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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Éire’s Heir Affair
As promised/threatened in my previous post, AFP sent me off for a week in Ireland, covering the blistering story that was putting all that was happening in North Africa in the shade; the Irish election. (Cue lightning strike) Based at Bewley’s hotel in Ballsbridge (fnarr), I was well positioned for the vote count that would [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
Westminster Rumble!
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!
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 [...]
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 [...]
and the winner is…erm.. possibly..
Israel. It never likes doing anything the easy way, it seems. As expected, yesterday proved to be a mammoth 22 hour shift, ending in Tel Aviv at the Likud party base for what was supposed to be Benjamin Netanyahu’s victory speech. But as has become increasingly familiar out here, things didn’t go according to plan [...]
A glorious morning for a massive election
On your marks.. Get set.. Vote! As a little recap, election day in Israel is here with current polls suggesting a tight race between the hawkish former premier Benjamin Netanyahu and centrist Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, with the far-right expected to make major gains. Following “Operation Cast Lead” in the Gaza strip and continued threats [...]
It’ll all end in tear(gas)
Friday? That makes it tear-gas o’clock.. Today, I joined up with Abbas once more and headed to the village of Billin to cover the latest round of weekly clashes with the Israeli Defence Force soldiers. Different to last week, the routine at Billin is to approach the wall along a dirt track until you reach [...]
Jumping Jack Flashbang, it’s gas gas gas..
Holy Land? More like Holy Fu.. On arrival, I’d been told about the “Friday protests” where there’s always a few scuffles between security forces and those with anger to vent so I wasn’t surprised to be told I was to cover one this week. My assigned protest was to be the weekly rumble between fired-up [...]
West Bank Story
Yesterday, I hitched a lift with AFP driver Mano and headed into West Bank for a press conference and another grip’n’grin with man-of-the-moment US envoy George Mitchell at the Palestinian HQ, the Mukata. Heading into West Bank was quite an eye-opener for me as, until I saw it myself, I had assumed that it would [...]
Trying not to bungle Tzipi
With a slim idea of what daily life will entail for me now beginning to form, I took the chance to head back to the Old City this morning for further exploration. Aside from pre-determined jobs that are called through to me, I know that the rest of the time I’m just “on duty”. While [...]
Likud into shape
With my grasp of Israeli politics now so strong, it’s comparable to the vice-like grip of a sleeping toddler, I headed off on my first real assignment today as Benjamin Netanyahu formally launched the Likud Party’s election campaign. I say first real assignment but this doesn’t include yesterday’s mission to cover the funeral of a [...]
There’s a new sheriff in town..
So eleven weeks to the day after winning the US Presidential election, Barack Hussein Obama II was declared the 44th President of the United States of America. As during the night of the election itself, I had to find a way to illustrate the British interest in the story so headed up to Tottenham in [...]
A day in the pool with the Queen
One of the very regular parts of shooting for an agency is the “pool photographer” job. Unfortunately, this has nothing much to do with shooting a swimwear competition and more to do with men in suits shaking hands in front of a fireplace or members of the Royal family meeting random bods (such as the [...]
Apparently, “Yes We Can..”
So after two years of build-up, the moment of truth arrived as America went to the polling stations. Here in England, I headed down to Yates’ bar in Leicester Square, London to watch US ex-pats and politically-aware revellers get down to some serious Wolf-Blitzing.. Despite everyone knowing in their hearts how it was going to [...]
Stop the Press!
I KNEW there was something I was going to write about but with such a complete lack of coverage on the news, it consistently slips my mind. Anyway, before I forget again, I thought I’d let any Americans reading this that apparently there’s an election coming up soon in your country. It’s slipped under the [...]
Labour Pains
Another year, another political party conference. This time, it again saw me heading to the Labour Party conference. All of my previous years of conference work have been in either Bournemouth or Brighton so heading to the sunny climes of Manchester was the new twist on familiar photographic territory. As a little background for anyone [...]
Out of the frying pan..
Of all the protests that I’ve covered since being in London, surely the prize for most unique chant must go to the “Citizens not Strangers” rally in Parliament Square on Friday; “What do we want?” “To pay taxes!” “When do we want to?” “Now!” A slightly different cry from the poll tax riots of old.. [...]
