School's out for summer

Well not quite, otherwise I wouldn't have been at a school taking pictures for their new website last week!

It's odd, of all the things I've done probably the most awkward took place last week as weighed down with kit, I walked into the school reception in a small town not a million miles from Panstville (sometimes I think I need a tribe of ginger baby midget goats to carry my bag).

The day itself started off oddly, jumping on the train with a newspaper under my arm (as is now my custom when travelling on the branch's outdated rolling stock) after stowing my bike; I was confronted by an unusual sight, a 50 odd year male, flat on his back with a map of Africa spread out across his jeans, various people were dithering about and informed me that he was basically drunk as a skunk*! Being an affable type I, of course, lent a hand to get him onto the platform, unfortunately the effect of this was twofold, firstly the train was delayed making me late to meet the client; secondly I ended up stinking of BO and very cheap stale plonk (not the best way to be when en route to take pictures in a school!).
Arriving at the school on a hot day, sweating from a rather hasty bike ride (forgot it was all uphill) and stinking of eau de alcofrolic is possibly not how I wanted to make my entrance!

Anyway, back to the main point; as I walked through the school, I realised how paranoid I am of taking pictures of children, even though I had permission from the school to take the pictures and was escorted around the site by the client, I still felt a sense of fear. My attitude to jobs is that I'm there to record what I see, if I don't do that I may as well put down my cameras and give up (even more so if it's a paying job).

Even before the job paranoia had set in, discussing with the contact if we should draw up forms to say the client would have all images and I would destroy any copies I had when the job was finished. This is definitely not my usual attitude. I know that forms will need to be drawn up by the school where pupils are identifiable to get permission for them to appear on the website - because of that as many images as possible were shot in ways to make pupils unrecognisable (although some were unavoidable).

The job itself was quite a whistlestop tour of the school, stopping briefly in various departments to try and grab fleeting shots of the students at work and as time went on I felt my paranoia easing somewhat, 90% of the kids were fine and were actually quite good when it came to helping out by doing what was needed for a particular picture and most seemed to enjoy the fact that they would end up on the new website.

Regardless of that, I still feel as if I'm caught up in the hysteria surrounding photography and children that seems prevalent in this country; I know I'm not the only one. Speaking to friends who work in different photographuc areas they feel the same and quite frankly it's totally ridiculous! The feeling I experienced was akin to me about to do something I shouldn't, as if legitimate work was actually a crime!

Is there an easy way to photograph kids candidly? Fear of a parental lynch mob rampaging round the countryside complete with pitch forks and blazing torches is, as far as I'm concerned, an irrational fear (isn't that the definition of a phobia?) it is without a doubt totally ridiculous. Maybe it's just the way the country is now; public photography as a whole seems to be moving in ever decreasing circles, with restrictions (imagined or real) squashing down further on what can actually be done (ironic considering even more people are picking up cameras). My one worry is that we will lose the ability to document life within the UK, losing a chunk of history (outside of atrocious facebook pictures) that would normally act as an archive showing those exactly what life was like. I wonder what photographers from ages past would think of the restrictions, rules and paranoia surrounding photography in the modern age?

Anyway - that's enough from me, very rambling post that started somewhere and via numerous doglegs ended up in another county. Off to buy some paper bags (they wear out quickly).




* To be known as a DOT - drunk on train... a very obscure reference to something else.

Flickr update

Taking my queue from Edmond Terakopian I've updated my Flickr stream with recent shots from the agency (RAF Marham, RAF Honington and the new Afghan training complex at Thetford - quite a military theme this time!).



Obviously can't compete with Edmond's work, but hope you enjoy what you find there.

Singing in the rain

Being based in a rural area seems to have it's benefits, rarely, but nevertheless sometimes they occur.
After an email with the details of a press event on the not too distant Stanford Training Area (aka STANTA) I was dispatched by the agency to pop along and take a few pictures. The event itself? First use by British troops of a complex constructed to resemble an Afghan village, complete with actors in residence to add to realism.

As a member of the press, resplendent with tag declaring my agency to the world, I was nudged around three stands demonstrating some of the areas the troops were being trained in. The village itself seemed to project as realistic a picture of daily Afghan life as could be portrayed in the middle of Norfolk, with Afghani actors recruited to play the part of local civilians getting completely into character, even going so far as to set up aspects that were initially missing from the village such as a bread oven (we were lucky enough to sample some of the bread - delicious!) and even a stall furnished with an Argeela being used by two of the actors.

The stands themselves again had an onus on realistic training, during one stand where a platoon was exposed to a suicide bomb attack one of the casualties involved was an amputee (from the agency Amputees in Action with one leg missing above the knee. Given the high rate of military and civilian casualties where traumatic amputation occurs through mine strikes and the like, exposing troops to this level of realism can only pay dividends in the long run (pre-deployment training seems to have come on leaps and bounds since I was in the forces).

Construction of the village was apparently completed in an extremely short time, with contractors and planners being extremely enthusiastic and working around the clock to get the complex open in only a few months.




The last part of the exercise was a stand where troops practised searching a compound suspected of containing explosives and or weapons. To view this we ascended a ladder onto the roof of the compound next door and peered into the area where the action would take place. Lined up and looking down into the compound, it felt slightly as if we were at the zoo, waiting for the appearance of a giant panda from the gate in the corner, this feeling was further backed up when (as with most trips to the zoo) it started to rain...



Various grumbles started to emanate from our little group of journalists as the rain got harder, soaking most to the skin (most, including me were wearing light clothing!). Now as I was shooting with uninsured equipment, after a few minutes I started to fear for my cameras (I'm really not in a position to replace any of my kit just now) even sheltering them in the lea of my body didn't seem to be doing much good so I elected to go below, find somewhere dry and try to keep damp to a minimum.

Putting my kit down inside one of the buildings, I started to dry bits and bobs so I could change a lens and go back up, as I knelt haunched over my equipment one by one people from the roof started to file into the room; shaking themselves off and plonking sodden equipment onto the floor with a cameraman complaining that despite the waterproof cover his video kit had stopped working and followed shortly by a photographer from The Times who found one of his 1D bodies had taken the brunt of the downpour and again ceased to work. Bearing this in mind I made my way back onto the roof with a single body and lens. Finding myself the only person on the roof was quite fun and led to a scene reminiscent of the sand people moment in Star Wars, in fact in my bedraggled state I probably resembled one of the sand people (see end of this clip). Sadly, despite my enthusiasm, good shots were very scarce.

With the exercise drawing to a close, lots of sodden journalists, photographers, camera operators, and the like, all made their way back to the coach to wait for the journey back to their cars.

As I sat there downloading images to my Macbook, as usual I started to rehash the job and work out what I would have done better if I could have a 'do over'. Other than waterproof covers (something I've been meaning to purchase for a while now), the words of the editor on the agency's picture desk kept on bouncing around in my head (not a big place, but there isn't much in there), "you need a longer lens", something I know I've admitted previously in my blog. The longest lenes I currently possess are 105mm, one being a zoom and the other a prime. The prime is one of my favourite lenses with a lovely f2.8 aperture providing a lovely look when wide open. Unfortunately 105 just doesn't cut it, I really need to get my hands on something with at least 200mm at the top end (agency would prefer 300mm).

So... still have my sights set firmly on the 70-200mm f4 L, it seems like the way ahead. Though at the moment I won't be able to afford one till my student grant later this year.

Anyway, I think I've rambled enough, shall probably post on equipment again at some point soon. The bits that I lack are causing me great consternation at the moment, I know in the past I've had access to a lot more and have always been of the opinion that a bad workman always blames his tools, but there's a limit to the amount of times you can chant that mantra before you realise that maybe it's not always right... Despite the problems 8 images went up for sale.

Annoyingly on the waterlogged kit front, I'm still drying cameras and lenses out! End and lens caps are off battery and memory card hatches are open and everything is sat on a towel in the middle of the floor. My camera bag has only just dried out after it sunbathed all afternoon in the garden! Probably pack everything back away tomorrow, scared stiff of mouldy lenses!

This post was written to the tune of many different tunes, but today's blog post tune is...(queue drum roll and profuse apologies for the poor quality):



Call it an indulgence, fancied the pants off Lady Kier as a teenager...

The 2009 Summer Freeloading Challenge

Those of you that know me (loose term - how well does anyone know a chap with a paper bag on his head? The rumours that I look like Jim Carey are greatly exaggerated!) will have heard of my rather idiotic and pikeyish plans for this summer... Probably harped on about them waaaay too much, but for those out there that as yet haven't sat near me and heard me waffle about them...

Even though I'm getting the odd assignment through the agency whilst up here in Pantsville, I want to maximise my chances of getting bits and bobs published and making some money. To that end, I hit upon a brilliant(ish) idea!

For two months this summer I will hit London (not literally as I would probably hurt myself, obviously), grab a job for around three days a week (do you get free coffee if you work in Starbucks?) and for the remaining four work my socks off plodding the streets of London and filing to the agency.

In tandem with this, because I really do work on a shoestring, my evenings will be spent couch surfing with whoever of those out there that know me will have me, the idea being that I spend as little time as possible in each location, thereby not wearing out my welcome (and stopping anyone from discovering my true identity...).

Obviously this has the potential to be quite an interesting adventure, or a rather ridiculous folly! How it will actually pan out is yet to be seen, but of course the blog will keep both of you up to date with my progress.

The first bit to aim for (other than begging emails to those with sofas and floors) is to reach the grand total of £200, I know with that amount I can get cracking and start shuffling toward the door of opportunity!

Lights - 5D Mk II - Action!

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!).