3G - A Dongle Too Far

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!

Unknown Snapper - Unknown Bandwidth

As I sit on the train back to Pantsville, with a very bruised shin, embarrassing fez/donkey/"papping a growler" related flashbacks from a evening of alcohol fuelled fun and a hangover exacerbated by a carriage packed with Mockney football supporters (honestly, they’re from nowhere near London) drinking Stella and calling each other ‘caaaaants’, I’m still smiling.

I’m still smiling because yesterday, saw me in London again shooting another demonstration. This time a march by organised by the Stop the War Coalition protesting at the ongoing situation in Gaza and I managed to chalk up another first for me – I actually managed to file!

My intention from the beginning had been to submit the images from the day to the agency and I just about managed it. Of course, as usual there were complications, but this one was rather unexpected.

I – along with the usual suspects – followed the march route from Malet Street to Trafalgar Square, quite a nice route and as ever very surreal to be walking in the middle of roads I know are usually chocker block with traffic. Arriving in Trafalgar Square, I managed to get onto the base of Nelson’s Column where Alexei Sayle and George Galloway were to give speeches about Palestine to the assembled demonstrators.
Oddly not having a press card wasn’t too much of a problem this time (although it’s something I still need to address).

After shooting Mr Sayle I whipped out my laptop and started to edit my images in Aperture (thanks go again to Stephen who watched over my shoulder and helped me with what is still an unfamiliar piece of software). The final quick edit finished I plugged in my lovely new 3G dongle and connected to the internet… Unfortunately things were not to be as simple as one would have liked.

Initially, it seemed I had a good connection, but after 30 seconds the bandwidth dropped to a few kilobytes a second. Giving me a total predicted upload time of 45 minutes. Five minutes in and 0.0003% of an image uploaded, a call came through saying that the Sri Lankan President had declared victory over the Tamil Tigers and the war was over, queue everyone else jumping up and high tailing it to Tamil Land (aka Parliament Square) with promises of texts and calls if anything kicked off…
Not really an ideal situation obviously and after 10 minutes (and only 3 of 18 images uploaded to the agency’s ftp) the decision was made to shut up shop, decamp to Tamil Land.

Fortunately, on our arrival, we found that other than the usual chanting, quite a relaxed and family friendly atmosphere prevailed over Parliament Square, so out came the laptop and filing take two commenced.
It took an embarrassing 35 minutes to upload the majority of the files, with a group of my peers sat around the, now very frustrated, unknown snapper. Obviously much mirth was made of my situation. At one point a group of Tamil children appeared over my shoulder to ask innocently, “Mr, why’s your internet so crap?” obviously, at this point my first instinct was to try and calculate how far I could throw them and how many I could throw before the majority decided to run and gather a lynch mob to string me from the top of Big Ben (thanks go to Jools, who by this point was laughing uncontrollably after sending the kids to what could have been a very messy and early grave).
In the end, no harm was done (other than to my ego), with help from others the images were filed and we all trotted off to the pub - though that ended rather messily after I didn’t mind the gap at Turnham Green tube station – really, why would I expect the platform to be a whole 12 inches higher than the train doorstop when I’m trying to exit the train and Tweet at the same time?)

I say this every time, but as ever quite a few points to take away, digest and rectify for next time ranging from getting a better grip of Aperture (shooting with two different sensor sizes seems to be a problem when I want a specific ‘end’ file size), to the obvious upload problem (anyone have any experience with 3G mobile wifi dongles and Macs).
Even though my images didn’t go up on the wire service (too similar to those submitted by one of the other photographers and not the most newsworthy event) I actually feel as if I accomplished something this time – one could say, I had a feztastic time...



As an aside I also broke my Demotix cherry and filed some other images from the same demonstration, which can be found here. Felt like quite silly having a blank profile with no stories!

UCAS - no fun being a late applicant!

At the moment, I'm considering taking the university mentioned below up on their offer of a place (even though they're not London based etc).

Oddly - never having dealt with UCAS before - I found out today, that to move forward and even think about accepting I need to have definite answers from the other choices applied to. Not really a problem with two of my choices (one no and one unconditional yes). But, my last choice, the uni that sparked it all, that I'd been set on from the start hasn't yet said anything.

I know they're currently waiting to hear from people who applied on time, so until they know if they have any places left they can't say anything, so it's not a fault at their end. Thinking over the situation makes me wonder though. If someone who went for the uni I'm waiting on and was offered a place is waiting on another university to bung an answer their way then the whole system becomes like some convoluted bastardised housing chain!
Finding it quite hard to work out the benefits associated with this part of the system...

Despite that, I obviously have a choice to make. I think Plan A (university) is going to be the way to go, but I have now come to a bit of an impasse .

1. Kick the application for the university I really wanted to at least have an interview with and get things started with the offer I've just had.
2. Play a waiting game to see if I get the interview and then make a decision.
3. Say sod it all, call in my flying monkeys from their holiday in the Seychelles and make a concerted push to take over the world one country at a time.

Complications are a pain - just have to have a damn good think!
Written under the influence of Green Day - Basket Case - apt...

Update and good news!

Although I've been quiet of late, despite that a few good things going on.

First off, after much encouragement from friends I submitted my portfolio to a freelance photographic agency. To my surprise I received a very positive reply and am now on some one's books! Though this seems like an excuse, I feel a bit stuck at the moment, there really isn't much going on in this part of the world - Pantsville is a notoriously dull place - and the only projects I can run here that will, hopefully, bear fruit are of the ilk that would be destined for features, couple that with not being able to get to Civilisation for at least another week and it all adds up to me being a very frustrated bunny! All in all I see it as a very good step toward achieving my goals!

The second good thing happened last week. My second university interview bore fruit! The feelings I had throughout my visit to this (unnamed) university were extremely positive. The course sounds great, the facilities spot on and tutors I met were extremely friendly; I found it extremely hard not to be completely enthused by everything I saw, a total contrast to the last uni.
The interview itself was great (and over ran), this time I had a really good feeling all the way through - although I was a bit stunned when at the end of the interview I was told that I had a place if I wanted it! Not what I expected, and until an email from UCAS arrived I suspected I had misheard him (though recently had my ears syringed so can now hear a pin drop!).

Last and not least, I made a call to the university I originally wanted as my first choice. I knew they had my application, but had heard absolutely nothing from them since corresponding with the course leader around a month ago; obviously I wanted to know where I stood. Speaking to the course director (who remembered me - not sure if that's a good thing), he informed me that they were waiting for the on time applicants (I'm classed as late - story of my life!) to confirm if they will be accepting a place on the course of not and that I am still in with a chance for an interview.

So, Plan a & b are in play and working well (apart from not doing as much as I would like with plan b just now), some decisions will need to be made soon, obviously I need to see if the third and final interview will take place before I can head in whatever direction I end up choosing... The game is afoot!

Post sponsored by Creedence Clearwater Revival - Lookin' Out My Back Door

Probably quite an obscure one and I'm definitely not a country music fan, but I had the Big Lebowski on as I spent the weekend trying to learn CSS (cheers for the help Jools!).