Interview result - or "loike me murphy's I'm not bitter"

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!

Reuters in Sri Lanka

New post on the Reuters Photographers Blog detailing a working day for one of their news gathering teams in Sri Lanka.

Post can be found on the Reuters Blog here.

Demotix - True reporting without borders

Thursday last week was the first ever Demotix meet. The evening started slowly, with various contributors converging on the Distillers near Barbican in London, queue much waving and staring at other bemused drinkers in the bar as everyone tried to work out who was who.

The task was made all the more difficult by the diverse types of people that make up the Demotix membership. Looking at the motley crew that assembled and started to mingle in the bar, it was impossible to work out any sort of distinct profile for your average Demotix contributor. Seemingly from all walks of life and with extremely varied lives; the only uniting factor was that everyone there wanted to take part in citizen journalism.

With the arrival of the Demotix staff, the discussion turned to the site, what's happening and the way forward. Listening to Turi and the rest of his team talking about their baby it's hard not to get caught up in their enthusiasm for the project.
The concept and ethos for Demotix really does challenge the way stories are reported, giving a platform to disseminate stories that would, although interesting, otherwise go untold due to a lack of regular media in place at that time. The stories are presented to the world, via Demotix, by people who often have an intimate knowledge of the situation they are reporting on - providing an angle that a 'rushed in' non-local journalist/TV crew/photographer would easily miss without the local savvy represented on the site.

Looking at the front of the site, you can see how serious they are. Recent achievements include Le Monde using Demotix picture feed, the Guardian recently ran a front page with picture showing the last moments of Ian Tomlinson by a Demotix contributorr, to name but a few.
I would definitely urge anyone interested to join the site and give it a whirl, it looks like the start of a bright future for Demotix - Truly reporting without borders.

It was great to put names to faces and meet some of the others I've been talking to for a few weeks now on Twitter and email. GTVONE published some images from the evening here, luckily my anonymity is mostly preserved!
I would like to apologise for anyone I may have bored the pants off that evening - I really don't get out enough at the moment and I fear I may have made a bit of a Pollock of myself!

Friday Feeling

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).

Interesting link

Forgot to mention, over on the ‘Twittersphere’ the other day, Edmond Terakopian threw up a link to an amazing photo essay by Todd Heisler on the New York Times website.

Called One in 8 Million, it’s an ongoing look at the normal everyday, but unique, characters that inhabit New York and is updated weekly. As with a lot of work these days, it’s presented in an audiovisual format (something I really want to try), the audio being of each subject talking about their passions, trials and tribulations. Coupled with the intriguing images AV really works, adding an extra dimension of depth to the personalities involved.

The slideshow can be found at: http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/1-in-8-million/index.html

And more on the photographer: Todd Heisler

I know I’ll be checking back each week to see what else has been added.

This post is brought to you by Baz Lurman’s Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen). Even after all these years the lyrics are still brilliant.

First interview

Today was my first university interview. Although normally I feel quite calm and collected, I actually felt a small amount of nervousness as I stepped into the room to meet the examiner.

The university itself is seems great, astounding facilities, brilliant list of visiting lecturers and speakers – but something in the demeanour of the chap taking the interview meant I didn’t feel I hit it off as well as I could. He seemed taken aback that I was considering study as an avenue to pursue my goals. And definitely wasn’t impressed by my use of an electronic portfolio (the few of you that know me know the reason behind that, unfortunately quite inescapable at the moment), couldn't believe the amount of people carrying huuuuuuge portfolio books! As ever I think part of it comes down to not being able to sell myself effectively.

The result was I’m definitely not sure what the outcome will be (usually get a feeling for how things will go).

Fingers crossed for a positive result though! Even if I didn’t succeed here, there are others. This is after all plan A of a three-part strategy – and there’s

Should hear back within the 10 days.

Thanks to all who wished me luck!

Written on the train back to Ruralshire whilst listening to For What It's Worth by Buffalo Springfield, old tune and a great tune!

Fish fanciers stay away…

To satisfy the Internet gods, yesterday I ran an ego to check I was the only photographer using this name. Imagine my surprise when I found a whole plethora of sites mentioning unknown snappers!

Apparently, out there in the big wide world, there are a lot of people trying to work out what fish they’ve seen – it would seem that members of the snapper family(?) are extremely elusive and defy attempts to be identified (maybe Police Forward Intelligence Teams should be sent in?).

I would like to clarify for the record, I am not, nor have I ever been a fish or related in any way to said species. I had a goldfish once though.

Of course this could just be my google settings!

Possible relative, oppressed by Japanese fishermen!
Found here

Busy week

The realisation struck me today, that even as an infrequent blogger, I’m not actually saying much about what I’m doing to move myself toward my eventual goal stated on the Unknown Snapper blog description!

Since I’m currently southbound on a train from Crapsviille (home) to civilisation (London) I thought I’d bung up something of my current activities!

This week is a bit on the busy side – Today I’m transiting through Civilisation on my way to Ruralshire (just the other side of the city), the plan is that I lodge with friends overnight, before zipping to Wales for a uni interview tomorrow. Tonight will probably be spent re-jigging my portfolio until I’m 100% happy with it and running through the written interview task again to make sure I’m happy with the wording.

Tomorrow (Wed) will be an early start so I can zip over to Wales and have an interview at one of the three universities I’ve applied to for photographic courses. I know I have to keep plugging away at things to get where I want, so the higher education is just one route of three that I’m working on (Plan A of A, B & C), will be overjoyed if I get a place at any of those I’ve applied to as all look to be top notch establishments from the standard of work available to view.

Thursday is now mostly a free day with one meeting in the evening between Demotix and some of it’s contributors, as someone who hopes to contribute rather soon, should prove to be a very interesting meeting. And as most of the day is free I’m hoping to bugger off to some of the galleries (it seems like an aeon since I last visited the Photographers Gallery!).

Last (and by no means least), thanks to a very kind soul, I have been granted an hour to have a career guidance chat on Friday with a very well respected former broadsheet picture editor. Something I’m really, really excited about. This chap has been at the top of his game and I’m really looking forward to sitting down and talking to him.

All things said and done, quite a stimulating week! Will have to pop up another post and tell all after.

Protests 11/04/09 or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Bit of a late post, one I'd intended to make before now, but much got in the way - and it's not as if I'm being paid for it!

On the 11th I arranged to nip down to London, two events were taking place on one day, a perfect chance to gain some more experience!

The first of the day was a walk in memory of Ian Tomlinson who die under controversial circumstances after the G20 protests on the 1st of April. The march was to start at Bethnal Green Police Station, with all participants walking to the Spot on Cornhill where Ian passed away.
My initial feelings upon arriving at Bethnal Green were that the press outnumbered the marchers - this seemed to be the case for quite a while.
When Paul King, Ian Tomlinson's son, stepped out of the station to say a few words, he was greeted by a barrage of flash guns and TV cameras. To be expected, given the high profile of the story.

With the march about to start, the decision was taken to leave the rest of the pack behind and take the tube to Bank and capture the mourners arriving. Quite a good idea considering how many other photographrs would be present on Cornhill. The marchers eventually arrived, walking down Threadneedle street and around Bank before heading up Cornhill.

Managing to nip up the street quickly, I grabbed what seemed to be a good spot to photograph the protesters laying flowers, unfortunately, despite my positioning I started to realise that I really was working at the limits of my equipment.
I have always been of the view that a bad workman blames his tools, certainly with the kit I have now I've managed to do quite well over the last few years, but from beginning of the day (which was quite dull) I had started to get frustrated. The get what I needed demanded I up the ISO speed as much as possible, even though the image quality would suffer. The ageing bodies I use really are lacking on high ISO, causing problems should I need to perform any crops at a later point.
The lenses I use also annoyed me slightly, due to the APS-C format sensors, I found when in the midst of the press scrum around the people laying flowers at the site of Mr Tomlinson's death I just couldn't get wide enough and when I needed to I couldn't get close enough to get the effects I wanted (thus coming back to the cropping problems again.

Regardless of the equipment woes, the laying of flowers and speeches afterward went smoothly enough, with only a few problems from a small minority of Anarchists spread throughout the crowd and shouting over people trying to have their say at the megaphone.


Leaving Cornhill behind, we meandered our way over to Embankment where the Tamil protest was in full swing. The amount of people present really had to been seen to be believed, with estimates ranging from 100,000 to 300,000 all being very well marshalled by the march organisers. Actual numbers aside, it just showed how many people cared about the the ongoing genocide in Sri Lanka. More astonishing than anything was the fact that it warrented so little coverage in the media, with only a small mention online to show that it had even happened - even though at one point the demonstration stretched from Charing Cross Station to Hyde Park!


Maybe it was that the protest was organised so well that there was no real trouble, maybe that Sri Lanka is on the other side of the world and not deemed newsworthy; whatever the reason it seems slightly wrong that so many people should take to the streets and bring the centre of London to a standstill to make their voices heard and for it not to actually garner any support as such from the popular media.

Everyone that I met was very friendly, and only wanted the person with the camera to understand why they were there. As an example of the level at which the protest was organised, as I walked away from the main stage where several high profile people were talking about the situation in Sri Lanka, smoke could be seen rising above a rather dense area of the crowd, it took 30 seconds to run to the source and see that some of the demonstrators were burning an effigy of the Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Within 3 minutes, the protest marshals had arrived on the scene with a crate of water and were dousing the flames. Only a couple of minutes later the now extinguished dummy was gone, having been placed in black bin bags for disposal.

Photographic equipment ignored, again another invaluable learning experience.

Thanks go (again) to Stephen and Jools who put up with my waffle for the duration!

Images from the 11th are up on Flickr (they have been for a few days now, but wanted to accompany them with a blog post).

Shall post a bit of a status update on what's going on shortly!

Met Apologises for use of public order act against photographers

Further comment from the BJP regarding the Met Police apology and misuse of the public order act.

British Journal of Photography

Met Apologises for use of public order act against photographers

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

G20 Excel Protests - a second lesson in being in the right place at the right time

With another day of demonstrations ahead of me, the Thursday 2nd April was a bit of an early start, even though I was staying in East London (thank you!). With information pointing to a 7am kick-off outside Excel. Arriving on time I found that I wasn't alone, at the beginning there were as many photographers/reporters as police and a steady stream of limousines arriving with delegates for the first day of the summit.


Although not much went on (other than several of photographers talking, jumping up and down to keep warm, trying to yawn away early morning starts and extreme lethargy), I did manage to grab a couple of images of Cadillac One and Two arriving with a small (but still rather huge) chunk of President Obama's huge security detail.

After several hours of waiting, a slow trickle of protesters started to arrive, setting up in an area surrounded by barriers put aside for their use. Again the groups represented were rather diverse, with a sprinkling of communists and quite a few from the Stop the War Coalition but, most apparent were those protesting against the Genocide in Ethiopia.



By far the largest group evident there, the Ethiopian group were adding to the relaxed atmosphere; singing songs, chanting slogans, dancing and generally having a good time.

Again, certainly a learning experience, knowing that most of the images I took there would be of a similar look and feel I should have headed back to the Bank of England to get images of the clean up (which would have meant covering the second mini protest that, unknown to me, was taking place there). Equipment, was again a bit of an issue, though more on the lens front this time.




Some more of the images can be found on flickr here.

Hopefully have more blatherings soon...

G20 Madness - a lesson in being in the right place at the right time

Wednesday saw me in London for the protest at the bank of England. Quite a mad day really; the main reason for me going was to expand my portfolio and to (as usual) apply myself and learn.

After looking at various sources I decided to follow the march starting at Liverpool Street Station, the so called 'Green Horseman of the Apocalypse/Climate Chaos' column, having heard that some troublemakers would possibly be amongst the protesters (50/50 toss up between Liverpool Street and Cannon Street).

First problem seemed to be which exit the marchers would muster at! After approaching another photographer (Stephen Simpson of Picture it Now with whom I spent the majority of the day) I soon found out I wasn't alone, although things eventually sorted themselves out. Quite surprised by the Saracen armoured personnel carrier (see above) zooming by as I stood outside the Royal Bank of Scotland! When keywording my images I peeked at the wiki entry and found a reference to the G20 protests already added!

Not long after the first demonstrators started to appear outside the main entrance to the station along with a huge puppet depicting their mascot for the march (see left), the atmosphere was very light-hearted and extremely relaxed, with marchers and police laughing and joking; even with the ominous presence of masked protesters hiding their faces from the police. One thing that struck me at this time was the amount of press present; to begin with they outnumbered the marchers and moved with what seemed like a pack mentality.

As soon as two photographers would notice a good picture and move in the rest of the pack followed leaving me with an odd situation - If I followed the pack, the chances are I would find a good picture, but it would be almost exactly the same shot as everyone else had. I soon decided that as much as possible I would try to find something different (be it what I should have done or not), and for the most stuck to that ideal throughout the day.

With very little ceremony the column quickly moved off to Bank Square, the route lined by curious bystanders taking pictures on mobile phones and staring from windows. Still a party atmosphere prevailed within the march, with a drums leading the way and lots of smiling and laughing from most taking part.

Again I was on the lookout for different shots, not easy as the area was saturated with other photographers, all with the same thought in mind! I did manage to photograph two Starbucks employees cheerfully watching the column through the window of their shop. Something that struck me as ironic, with the brand having attracted unwanted attention before.

It was around this time that we decided to sprint ahead to see what was going on closer to the Bank of England, with hindsight (again) I should have stayed with the front of the column to get images of them meeting the first police line. Something I did from a high vantage point from a window on Prince's Street after the column was held, but with images that create a lot less impact.

As I watched on, perched very precariously on a window sill, it became apparent that the masked elements within the crowd were doing their best to rile and cajole the police into action. Pictured left is one of a few that were shouting in the faces of the police present on Prince's Street. The image doesn't really show the extent of what he was up to (would be better represented by a ground level image!).

Eventually the police, on command, withdrew to allow the Climate Chaos column and the Green Horseman of the Apocalypse into the main square to converge with the other marchers now present. Again looking back, rather than go back to cover the arrival of the climate chaos column, I should have stayed in the square to cover what was going on there, Stephen did just that and managed to capture more of the action taking place.




After missing the ransacking of RBS (crowd was unbelievably packed on Threadneedle street) I contented myself with taking images of the crowd around the square itself, catching, amongst other things, a pig masked, Spanish reveller trying unsuccessfully to spray a police line with diet cola. The number of causes and groups represented at the demonstration was truly staggering, certainly more than I expected. Flags and banners proclaiming everything from Free Trade to inciting people to take back land could be seen flying above heads within the crowd, even one or two people holding placards stating 7/7 was an MI5 conspiricy.





My favourite though must be the board being carried by a skinhead when the climate chaos marchers reached Prince's Street and seen again later on held by someone else walking up Threadneedle street.











At this point, other than the problems taking place on Threadneedle Street not much seemed to be going on. So the decision was taken to leave the police cordon and go for a wander (thanks go to Stephen for liberal use of press card and the phrase "he's with me"!), again encountering more protests outside the HSBC on Queen Street and having the pleasure of again being 'kettled'.

The day as a whole was a big learning experience for me, finding out more about the areas of photojournalism that before were blank (working without a press card was quite an hindrance), as well as a lot more about how I work and take images. Couple of other points came up as well; I really need to upgrade my cameras at some point (high ISO work not being an option at present) and I need to invest in a longer lens (I've always worked very close up to my subjects). I have a lot to learn, but that's something I relish.

Oh, I also found out - people will wee anywhere after a few hours cooped up and that if I have camera, I am deemed to be a pig by anarchists. Lovely!

A big thank you goes to Stephen, who allowed me to tag along and ask about a million questions during the day (also for the beer that evening) and to the manager of an Eat restaurant that gave us some sandwiches destined for the bin as he closed his shop, contrary to a lot of the day - that was right place right time!

More images can be found on my flickr account next post should hopefully be on the Excel protest on the 2nd of April.