The Unknown Snapper

This one has been sitting un-published for a while, so apologies for it being rather behind the curve of trending topics.

As photographers we all know the AFP/Morel situation to be completely reprehensible and that we all hope (and need for the sakes of the industry and common sense) for said photographer to win his case against the agency, lets face it photojournalism is in a state of flux with some of the oddness enveloping it,

What really narked me about the situation were the comments made by the organiser of Visa Pour l’Image, a certain Jean François Leroy.  Visa is seen by most as the world’s premier photojournalism festival so you would think that his thoughts would reflect the industry and those within it? Right?  Oh no!

Leroy has decreed (in an interview with the BJP) that he does not support Morel, in fact this mess is all Morel’s fault!  That we, as photographers, should not be using the likes of Twitpic and flickr to post our work online.

In a strange twist, within the same article Leroy also professes to fighting for the rights of photographers for 30 years.  Of course, as with all human beans, he is titled to his own opinion, but good grief what a backward opinion it is.

In a world where the internet must now dominate business plans and marketing strategies for anyone working in the photographic world his comments sound like that of someone who really isn’t living in the real world.  Does he realise how much of a struggling industry his own beloved photojournalism inhabits?  Social media and all it’s nuances are a part of the world, they are there to be used as extended marketing tools beyond those traditional types previously used, ignoring that and saying that photographer should not use them is burying your head in the sand and trying to wish away the effect the internet has had on our industry.

All of us need to get as much exposure as possible, we need to get ourselves out there, showing the world we are creating new and interesting content, hopefully steering potential clients and viewers to our work and if that includes throwing that amazing picture onto the internet via social media we should be safe in the knowledge that the media industry will respect our rights (just as we try to respect theirs).

In some ways Leroy’s comments are along the same lines as the supposed quote by Marie-Antoinette, who upon hearing that the peasants were starving uttered the now famous words, “Let them eat cake.” One could suggest that Jean François is as out of touch with the very photographers and industry he professes to champion, just as the Marie-Antoinette was with the French population she ruled over.

Maybe Jean François is happy, he is, after all, the organiser of the worlds largest photojournalism festival, but maybe, just maybe he should step outside his Ivory Darkroom and sniff the same realistic air that we all breath, day in, day out and have look at what’s really going outside.

Thursday was yet another foray into something new – this time video with the famed 5D Mk II.

Before we begin I need to explain, I have never before shot serious video footage, but it is an area that I have had an interest in for quite some time and have previously worked on projects with an editor to produce a product for clients – so know a little about the subject (and hopefully just enough) and have access to quite a few people who know what they’re doing.

My only previous contact with the 5D Mk II was over the New Year’s period, when a very good friend (James) plonked one in front of me and said, “Have a play!”
Being a big fan of the original 5D I did just that. It seemed straight forward enough, although I was warned that to do anything overly creative I would need to trick the camera due to the automatic settings in video mode.

Even though I took tons of stills all evening and managed a little bit of video and playing really didn’t last long enough. I had enough time to know that the camera I was playing with was one of the most powerful and amazing tools to land on the market in a long time, and immediately started to think of the uses I could put it to (unlike a lot of people out there who just wanted to shoot Christmas tree lights so they could whinge about “black dots” on forums).

Fast forward to a few weeks ago; I received a call from a friend (Chris) asking if I had any experience of working with video. He was interested in making a five part cooking series, with a view to publishing it on his website. No money involved, but travel would be paid. Straight away I approached James to see if he would let me use his 5D Mk II, and thankfully the answer was yes (considering how busy the chap is I’m very thankful he could!).

The camera was dropped off with me on Tuesday, with instructions to update the firmware; by chance it was the same day Canon decided to release the new manual video controls (talk about good timing). Immediately I set to work trying to understand as much as I could about the camera (even taking it to take stills at an agency job the next day), obviously I want to do the best job I can on Chris’ cooking episodes.

And zip forward again to Thursday, myself, camera, lenses and tripod (talk about that more in a moment) found ourselves in Covent Garden and ready to begin the first part of the first episode consisting of: cutaways, a quick interview and a piece to camera that will form the episode introduction.

First off, I realised very early on that to achieve anything on this project, shooting hand held would not be an option. Probably the only con with using the 5D Mk II (other than the sound – which I will get onto next) is that the balance really doesn’t lend itself to shooting some kinds of footage. Not really a problem as such, just something to bear in mind. Having seen work where people had made this mistake with a conventional video camera it was something I really wanted to avoid (possibly to an extreme). As such the night before I stripped and cleaned my faithful old tripod, knowing that it’s sturdy tubular construction would carry me through. Sadly for me I underestimated the amount of use I’d got from said piece of equipment. Unpacking my kit at Covent Garden I found that one of the legs had some how decided to break off, with really no way to permanently fix it, ad hoc use of gaffa tape saw me through, though the Michael was mercilessly ripped by all and sundry (tripod was thrown into a bin on the Strand – with Stephen filming it for posterity). Quite a sad moment as that tripod had been to Iraq twice and all over Europe with me!
With sound I had decided quite early on that an external recorder would be the only way to go, I don’t like the quality provided by the on camera mike, a very automated system that I hope will be the subject of another firmware update (there is a hack out there, fingers crossed that forces Canon’s hand to do something official). To that end, I badgered Stephen into coming along with a recorder to help with the sound (he also looked after the much needed gaffa tape, gave me abuse and said he felt insulted after I asked him to carry a spare Canon lens, ‘because it wasn’t a Nikon product’!).

We got off to a frustrating start, wandering around the area looking for somewhere to shoot the intro; sound was a problem with ambient vehicle noise and music emanating from Covent Garden so after a short hunt an alleyway was found, which we hoped would suffice. The next stop was looking for somewhere to film the interview, gift of the gab prevailed and Stephen managed to get us 10 minutes in a Café round the corner.

As we were both beginners, we shot two takes of the interview (as well as a few where background noise meant we needed to cut and restart), adjusting the aperture, ISO and shutter speed to suit the conditions within the café was really easy thanks to live-view giving a real time display of exposure etc; I’m not too sure what it would have been like with the older automatic setup, certainly the results would have been rather hit and miss (not actually knowing how to trick the meter).

Interview over, we proceeded to shoot the introduction with Chris (the friend who will be presenting the episodes) nailing his script rather well after a couple of false starts. I certainly didn’t envy him as he did his piece to camera! Again the camera proved to be very straightforward to use, with the grid on the back providing a great reference when lining up the shot.

Filming almost wrapped we adjourned to Covent Garden where both Stephen and I filmed a series of cutaways; unfortunately brought to only a slightly premature end by a rather large security guard with a Russian accent saying we were not allowed to film without a permit, “You must go to office and ask for pass” (even though he didn’t sound it, when I say that in my head it resembles a cross between Dolph Lundgren and Borat – not sure why, hey ho). Needless to say we didn’t push the subject (had enough footage).

As a straight forward stills camera, the 5D MkII knocks the spots off any other camera I’ve used so far, as someone who shoots on partial frame sensor cameras it feels other worldy when I use a lens at it’s actual focal length and am always astounded by the image quality the camera turns out, don’t get me started on how much I love the quality at high ISO!
I can now say the same for its video function, with the large display screen and (at last) fully manual controls, shooting film is exceedingly easy (at times it seemed too easy!).

Lessons to take away for me? Camera wise: External sound – paramount importance, will be getting a clip mike as well. Tripod – sturdy type and not broken. Memory cards – one just couldn’t handle recording and needed to be swapped; investing in some more soon. Gaffa tape – never leave home without it!

Owning a 5D Mk II is something that I will acknowledge is a long way off for me, everything I do is on a shoestring at the moment. Really can’t wait to have another crack at shooting video with it, even doing the small amount of video work that I did, truly an addictive experience.

Thanks go to Stephen Simpson for being the sound guru, filming extra BG footage and for getting us a place to shoot the video. Very much appreciated (hopefully he won’t mind if I mention him in the same entry as a Canon camera!).

OK, so everyone knows in these enlightened modern times, press photographers/photojournalists need to file on the go; the world has an unquenchable thirst for media, sucking in thousands of images to spit out in the next day’s papers; so they can land on Mr Smith’s breakfast table and allow him to um and ah over the latest developments.

Being very green at the ‘filing’ game and noticing that all networks use 3 coverage, I thought it would be a rather smart idea if I pipped for a 3G dongle provided by… 3 mobile (it’s their network after all!).

Unfortunately this would prove to be a rather frustrating (and costly folley). My first attempt at ‘dongle use’ was at the Stop the War Coalition Gaza demonstration in London on the 16th of May and as per my post, it proved to be a pain in the backside!

So, today I was given my first assignment by the agency, first time off on my lonesome after being asked to shoot an event taking place in the middle of nowhere about 30 miles from Pantsville. Not taking any chances, I visited the local 3 Mobile shop, chatted with the very nice adviser therein and was shown a lovely coverage map of the shoot area and informed, “you should get 2G there”. Thinking that my previous dongle was defective, I then purchased a new stick and threw on some credit.
Not really my best decision…

Upon arriving at the location that shall remain anonymous, my first port of call after liaising with a media rep was to pull out my laptop and check my promised astounding coverage. All happy thoughts evaporated as I looked at the signal bar displayed on my screen to find that I had not three bars as I had in London, but a lonesome, single, solitary bar, it hadn’t even had the common decency to bring a friend. It just sat on my screen as if saying (in the voice of Droopy the Dog), “I’m sooo lonely”. Right then I could sympathise with it, I was suffering from the same feeling! With the event starting I cast aside thoughts of lynching the entire staff of 3G from the cleaners to the CEO, I busied myself with taking pictures and doing what I was there to do.

With a media scrum ensuing and knowing that I could not just pop off travelling the byroads and high roads looking for a good signal (stuck with pubic transport see!), I quite the event early to file. The rest is history, but involved: a 2 mile run, editing images by the side of a busy A road as I waited for a taxi ride that cost £13 (very helpful driver though).
Eventually I managed to file in a bar in a town that shall now take the generic name of Nowheresville (reader, I know there’s only one of you, please note all backwater towns outside Pantsville will be called this from now on), and had the extremely positive and pleasurable moment when I was informed by a friend that the majority of the images I’d filed had made it onto the wire service.

The upshot of this long, and quite certainly boring, post is that I know I need to find a network for mobile wifi, but it sure as hell won’t be with 3 and would urge all and sundry that are looking toward that company for their photographic needs to look elsewhere. To bastardise a slogan – The future’s bright, the future’s not 3 Mobile (no I’m not going for Orange either).

On a brighter note, the agency used 99% of the images I filed, no sales as far as I know, but still extremely happy overall!

OK, today an email from the UCAS happily plopped itself into my inbox saying I had received a result from a university application (makes a change from the usual penis enlargement and offers to recover untold treasures from African bank accounts). Knowing that it related to last week’s university interview I logged in to find the below amongst my choices:

Actually I don’t feel that fussed.

To explain I have to go back to the introductory talk given at before my interview, I remember listening to the what was said and having the distinctly uneasy feeling that I didn’t want to study there. Don’t get me wrong, the university has a cracking reputation, lovely campus and I know looking around the net that a lot of their students are doing quite well, but the style of photographer they churn out is leans distinctly toward the ‘contemporary’ category – so much so that the images are definitely not of the ilk I have ever shot or aspire to. This became evident during the talk when they dissected images to the extent that they found meaning every little aspect, to the extent I wondered if I’d wandered into the talk for an art photography degree!

Another disturbing trend presented itself in the interview when, talking to the lecturer, I was informed of the close links to a certain photographer whose work I really don’t like. This happened not once, but on three occasions during a conversation! The photographer in question, he who shall not be named, is very much like Marmite – you either love his work or you hate it (though probably without that horrible lingering stomach churning smell). This made the interview rather tricky and I definitely didn’t sell myself as well as I should have (hard when I felt no real enthusiasm, certainly I know my portfolio (which some of you will have seen) wouldn’t have appealed to them.

All of this added up to a very neutral feeling as I left the interview, which on the train back to Ruralshire changed to a mindset, where I knew 100% the course wasn’t for me and that even if the offer came I would turn it down.

Photography for me is just as much about understanding myself as it is the world around me and this time I’ve learnt a little more about what I want.

On another note, just about to get in contact with someone about a project (have four that I want to get started before summer kicks in) exciting times – obviously because I’m the Unknown Snapper I’m keeping them all under wraps!

Thanks to a friend, Bob, today I had the opportunity to meet a very well established and respected photographer (to be known here as John) for a discussion about the way forward. Bob is an old friend of the family and works in a completely different area of photography, but over the years has helped me understand photography, to the extent I sometimes see a little of his work in my images. Out of the blue last week I received a call from Bob, he had talked to John and I needed to ring and arrange an appointment for a chat. Certainly not something ever discussed before!

So… Today I met John. I must say I entered his office with a slight degree of trepidation, although I had heard of John before, I really wasn’t completely aware of how well known he was! To explain; I’m useless with names and have a tendency to remember images rather than who shot them (quite vexing when people are firing questions about who inspires me etc!). Certainly last night at the Demotix get together, when I mentioned John’s name everyone knew him – to the extent that upon arriving at my digs that evening I was thrust a book of John’s work by a friend… What at first seemed quite straightforward now seemed a very different beast! I ended up staring at my portfolio, wondering if I’d made the right choice selecting the images it contained and pondering as to if I would be able to come across as anything other than a complete buffoon.

I really should have relaxed and concentrated at the task ahead, confident in the fact that my portfolio shows a competent body of work, with photography demonstrating that, actually, I can work in a diverse range of situations etc etc. Really, it boils down to the ugly bastard-child that is self doubt, popping it’s drooling, bespectacled and sneering face above the parapet before sticking two fingers up and leaning in to whisper hoarsely into an ear “You stink!’

I shouldn’t have worried. John was extremely down to earth, certainly not the scary and daunting figure that in my mind I’d built him up to be.
I knew I had limited time, John is, as you would expect for someone his standing, a very busy man. Usually, especially of late, I sometimes feel that I find it hard to express what I want to do and where I want to go, but this time, no doubt due to the relaxed atmosphere, it seemed a lot easier to state my case. A lot less burbling than usual!

The discussion was varied and wide-ranging, chatting about who I was, what I wanted to achieve and where I want to go with my photography. Much to my surprise I was informed that I was not a complete idiot! That to do what I’m doing isn’t idiotic and ridiculous.
A few good pieces of advice were given as well I need to shake up my portfolio, it is indeed diverse and demonstrates an ability to take good photographs, but… It needs more structure. I need to show how I work a story and give more of a feel for the way I work. Diverse is good, but the situations shown within my portfolio are so wide ranging that it really doesn’t give a feel of style or ownership. To arrange a portfolio around six picture stories would be much better – something I will make a start on immediately.
Also I should aim to be as diverse as possible, to work in photography alone just won’t cut the mustard for papers and agencies – off to speak to friends about film making then!
Other than that, until I know if I’m going to a university or not it’s quite hard for John to advise me further, hopefully be visiting him again next month.

Very hard to put into words how I felt when I left John’s office – to some it would probably be a little thing, but to me after the recent setbacks… means the world!

Will bung up a post on the Demotix meeting as soon as I get a sec!

Written on a train back to Pantsville, no music was harmed in the making of this post (laptop battery was almost dead).

Even though this cropped up two days ago on Twitter – I still think it’s a rather noteworthy article to highlight.

After police misused the public order act to stop photographers working at the G20 protests, a Metropolitan police spokeswoman apologised! Certainly an extraordinary occurrence given the police’s propensity for misusing anti terrorist laws against journalists carrying out their day-job.

I feel extremely naive saying even thinking the following, but could this, coupled with (as far as I know) no use of the much anticipated and dreaded Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act 2008 actually signal the start of a more tolerant policing attitude towards photographers and journalists?
Certainly the members of the police (Met, BTP and other regional forces brought in for the G20) on the whole seemed quite approachable when I needed to ask them during the protests and I had more trouble from Anarchist types.

I guess time will tell! Certainly something that causes some concern to me as, a) just starting out and b) not actually having a press pass yet!

British Journal of Photography article

Northcliffe Media (Daily Mail and a collection of regional papers) cuts 1000 jobs.