Life On The Road

Actually, I must comment on the way the camera performed in difficult conditions, consisting of high humidity and quite a lot of showers.. I was really impressed that the autofocus system was able to track (and focus on) what was little more than a speck in the sky for much of the time. Of course it helped to know which settings to use but I was very pleased that I was also able to use high-speed continuous shooting at 4 frames/second. Needless to say I came very close to filling up a 4 Gb card and fortunately i'd swapped out the one i'd used for the static displays in the morning,

i'll be posting a selection of pix on Flickr later so please keep a lookout for any announcements.

Anyway, enough of all that - you can see a selection of images at http://www.flickr.com/photos/mhmedia/sets/72157624401342078, and if you hang on until the end of this month you'll see FI2010's pictures as well :-)

This morning's discovery then of a bunch of DVDs labelled as 'media backup 2007' may just be what I need, and once I've hopefully been able to restore them i'll know whether i'll be in luck or in the same situation as before. Of course, I take a much more organised approach to image backup now, with multiple off-site copies (just in case the house burns down).

If all goes well i'll post some Airshow pictures on Flickr. Watch this space!

The one that I found I believe was typical of its type: lots of relevant images and a strict set of submission guidelines. As I read down the list, I checked off the points:

• Nikon D200 is ok (check)

• Images in TIFF format (check)

• Files to be at least 48Mb in size (NO!)

So I did some quick tests on the camera, and even shooting with the best-quality JPEG setting I couldn't create a TIFF of more than 29Mb.

So the only option left was to start shooting in RAW format - basically whatever the camera image sensor collects dumped straight into a file, and almost equivalent to using film. Essentially, the camera performs no processing on the image at all, and when put through the appropriate software (of which there is a good selection in Ubuntu), will produce a TIFF of some 58Mb! I was saved!

Of course the only problem now is that all my previous work is now in the wrong format and can't be back-processed, so effectively as regards shooting for an agency I'm right back at the start. It also means that I'm no longer able to use the Nikon D80 as backup which is actually a real pain.. Never mind though, if it helps me finally sell some pictures then I'm sure it'll be worth it, and maybe it'll see me return to the Gdansk shipyards for a reshoot - something I've been wanting to do for some time.

Okay, so there was no sand as such, but it appeared to be an old mooring-place and with the tide out the pebbles were reminiscent of a South-coast beach. So there was Dad, in his anorak and baseball cap: I could only see their backs but he looked rather grey in colour. Then there was Mum, dressed in a stereotypical track suit which was attempting to restrain what appeared to be a personal lard collection. Between them was an open bottle of red wine, no glasses.. Oh, and the kids - randomly rushing around the beach, beating pebbles with their beach-spades.. I was going to ask to take a picture of what was rather an out-of-place group in what was, in fact, their neighbourhood; or at least it used to be. I moved on instead, and later wished that I'd had the courage to ask. Next time. Then, a walk into Island Gardens and an inward cheer when I spotted the Island Gardens DLR station, coz by this stage my feet were starting to seriously overheat.

The next stop was Canning Town - a community in the process of redevelopment, allegedly, and one that I'd photographed on a number of occasions before. By the time I got there, the rain that had previously threatened had started to fall heavily and I had to put my jacket on, conceding defeat :-) The train actually terminated at Canning Town anyway due to planned improvement works (or investment work as they now like to say) so I wearily left the station and headed for the town, or what was left of it. Opposite the station was a new building which was under construction on my last visit - The Place - which Newham Council had pumped a lot of money into to try and get a bit of community cohesion. It was shiny, new, and surrounded by one of those pictorial hoardings which documented the history of the area. Sadly, the characters portrayed on the boards were no longer in evidence, and the streets had a very uneasy feel about them, no doubt helped (or should that be hindered) by two groups of youths who were arguing noisily under the underpass that had to be negotiated to get into town. At this point I decided that life was too short to get the camera out of the bag and risk getting mugged. I walked back to the station and mused that whatever The Place may aspire to, its going to have to work damn' hard to engage with the people that really need it!

I got the Jubilee Line tube straight back to Waterloo, but instead decided to get off at Westminster instead, where I got a few shots of the Democracy Community there, along with some shots of Big Ben. Well heck, the sun was out at long last and I had to get the camera out at least once. From there I walked over the bridge to Waterloo Station but got slightly lost, ending up in the Leake Street Tunnel. Now, that was a surprise.. I'm no stranger to London Tunnels but this one was a bit different and turned out to be a colour photographers dream - check out the Flickr link to see what I mean!

So far the weather is sunny and it'll make a real change not to be shooting a high ISO just to get the shutter speed I need, so if things kick off I should be able to get some good action pics. We shall see..

Oh, and my "patch" is an area only a couple of miles long so I won't even need to use the Tube, which is always a plus point at the weekends..

L8rs!

"Since Labour was elected in 1997, we've changed this country - rebuilding the lives of children, older people and families through investment in schools, hospitals and other public services. Make no mistake - none of this could have happened without Labour supporters like you campaigning tirelessly for three Labour General Election victories. Now we face an opposition who wants to undo the achievements we have made - to deny our successes and cut the public services we rescued. We must stand together and show how proud we are of these historic achievements".

Er, yeah.. historic is right - they'll go down in history for some of those events! Anwyay, the group pool at http://www.flickr.com/groups/change-we-see started off quite reasonably, with some pretty good before-and-after shots of buildings, office blocks etc; then the cynics started contributing and the tone of the images changes, perhaps to reflect the type of society that 3 terms of Champagne Socialist diktat has wrought. And in true Socialist style, all images now have to be vetted and there's a warning that "..racist, sexist, homophobic or other offensive content or trolling is not permitted". Ah, situation is normal then. Anyway see what I mean here:

We think we've proved our point - today - but we'll no doubt meet up again for another demo. The interesting news though is that as of today, all Section 44 Stop and Searches are referred to the IPCC, which for photgraphers is good news. When I've posted the pix from today on Flickr I'll post a link. L8rs!

From there I decided to some beach shots and wandered off in the general direction of the Dungeness A/B Nuclear Power Station.and started shooting various debris-not urban for a change, but hey, Mother Nature doesn't stint on her abrasive qualities in any location, and the ubiquitous seaside is no exception. Anything not thickly painted seems to be subject to intensive attack and there's more for me to photograph. So I happily walked all the way up the beach, which incidentally consisted of the same gravel that builders use.. And as I walked, I photographed, taking great care with exposures and using the amazing Nikon SB400 flash as a point light source where necessary. I also decided to tell the camera to write both RAW and JPEG files-this time I wanted some special pictures.

Eventually of course and rather tired, I reached the end of the beach which coincidently marked the start of the Lydd firing ranges. My best bet at this stage was to skirt the not inconsiderable land area owned by BNF and walk back into Dungeness that way. So off I set, and after half an hour began to realise that although the road/track led towards civilisation, it meant an even longer walk to get back to the car. So I accepted my lot and yomped back toward the beach..

On the way back I was "interrupted" by a Police patrol who wanted to know where I was off to.. I explained my predicament and the officers suggested that the beach was my best bet rather than risk the shorter bridle path route that would no doubt get me horribly lost :-( And then started the worst part of the walk: I'll be honest dear reader, the combination of unsuitable shoes, tiredness, a mouth totally dried out by a salt sea breeze and trying to walk on a beach composed of constantly-shifting gravel was too much! Eventually though I managed to get back to Dungeness only to experience extreme sadness when I discovered that THE FARKING PUB WAS CLOSED!!! Ah well, at least I'd got back safely and when I got to my room in Ashford I'd be fine which I was to a certain extent, but I'll write that up later. See u tmw ;-)

And then, quite by chance I was browsing the endless lists of Russian cameras on eBay and found a surprising amount of Fed and Zorki cameras on offer. The majority of them seemed to be being sold from Russia and Ukraine, and my attention was immediately hooked. No surprise there then :-) I waded through at least 11 pages of cameras, some looking decided "tired" and eventually I decided to narrow down my choice to either a Zorki 4 or a Fed. But which Fed?

The main reason for choosing the Fed was that it was originally made as a pure Leica copy; a genuine clone, and even the lens fitting (39mm screw thread) was apparently identical, so in theory I could use Leica lenses, or some other top-class German lens. Yeah, theory - the odds of ever being able to afford any of those are about the same as winning the lottery, but it'll be nice to say its Leica compatible. So again, I narrowed down my search to "Fed" cameras, and waded through another dozen or so pages. Eventually, I decided upon a Fed-5B V, sourced from a Russian seller. This particular one is apparently brand new and still in its original packaging! And the price is just under 50 quid!! It should be here in about 2 weeks and I'm very excited about getting it. Of course, this is no sophisticated Japanese-designed-Chinese-manufactured model: its an agricultural, quirky piece of kit which commands respect. Apparently you can't change the shutter speed unless you cock the shutter first. There's no exposure meter (again!) so it'll be back to the film-box exposure guide, or more likely I'll use the Sekonic exposure meter that I bought a few months back. There are no lugs/fixing points for a strap: the designers decided that the ubiquitous (n)ever-ready case would suffice and no doubt they saved a few bob on manufacturing costs as a result. Oh, and the Industar lens is coated with a rare-earth element, Lanthanum, which is very mildly radioactive. Allegedly...

The Fed actually has a famous history - the first model first appeared in 1934, being constructed in a building that was originally an orphanage in Kharkov, Ukraine, then the capital city. The Government of the day decided it was time to get homeless children off the streets and into work, and orphanage became a combined education and manufacturing complex: the children worked in the factory for 4 hours a day, followed by 4 hours of education. The centre was eventually named after Felix E. Dzerzhinsky, founder of the NKVD which was the forerunner to the KGB. Eventually it came to be known by the initials, FED, and the rest is history.

So now I'm waiting with eager anticipation for my piece of Russian history to arrive, and I'll be curious to see what this piece of 1975/1990s engineering has to offer. Of course, I'll do a full writeup of the unboxing and what happens next. Watch this space!

So tonight I'll be using the "simple" gear: Nikon D80 in pure manual mode, SB400 flash unit (couldn't get simpler than that!) 35mm prime lens, and , er, that's it! The only annoyance is that neither of my off-camera cords will work with that setup so I'll only be able to bounce flash off the back of one of my business cards and luckily the SB400 has a vertically swivelling head. Ok, so watch out for pictures probably and if have to resort to urban grot then look out on www.surrealistragpicker.com.es. L8rs!

Kristin's Twitter bio states "..Get published in Stocked Up, a book of 1,000 hip, unique, and totally fresh rights-free images that readers can use for any project, anywhere, anytime". I was somewhat taken aback by this assault on my rights as a photographer and so I nipped over to the web site at www.stockedupbook.com for a closer look, and to be honest I couldn't believe it. Surely no-one expects photographers to give their work away any more? Kristin does:

1. Anyone can submit work they own the rights to.. and there is no submission fee. Well I should hope there's no submission fee - I'm not going to pay for you to publish the book as well!!
2. Your work will be seen by readers in Asia, Australia, Europe, and both North and South America. I like a big audience for my pictures..
3. It can lead to sales of your other work or commissions on new work. Or it can lead to you endlessly watching your email inbox for the message that never comes ...
4. ..here is your chance to get them published and seen by people around the globe. Just like they can on the Internet already? For free?

And the killer clause is "Contributors are granting RotoVision the right to publish their images in the book and on the DVD to be used by readers in any manner they choose".

Okay, now the problem with this whole concept is that its all based on "possibles"; things that may happen if you're lucky. In addition you'll no doubt be submitting your best work - there's no point in submitting second best obviously - in order to stand a chance of getting featured and although it hasn't been mentioned anywhere on the Rotovision site, you'll probably not be allowed to include a copyright or watermark logo (TBC). The problem is that its not just private individuals that buy these books and DVDs, its commercial businesses too, many of whom will no doubt be very keen to get their hands of over 1,000 top-class, unrestricted use images. Doesn't make sennse does it - well, at least not to the photographer.

In the contract there are some more onerous clauses:

So presumably that means that they can sell them on, unless they're worried about copyright of course, and believe me, not many people are! This is confirmed by the next part of the paragraph which states that..

Well, I'll not be contributing to this project, and if you have any sense, neither will you! Ironically, the tentative title is "Stocked Up: 1,000 Rights-free Images" and that's exactly what it is for photographers!

Comments please!

Anyway, by the time I arrived back at the pub, there was a small group of people filling in the standard info forms, sitting at tables. I was busy filling mine in when the Director swept around the corner and shooed us all inside: the Moment was almost upon us! The small and rather dingy pub saloon was to be briefly transformed into a bordello for our audition and there was a variety of seedy-looking guys and er, ladies of the night hanging around. For those of you that haven't been following all this, it's a tale of sex-trafficing in the UK and Eastern Europe with the possible option of some French action thrown in, and my part was "a party-goer" in the bordello. Our director seemed agitated but eventually managed to get the rather clueless cameraman ready to do some screen testing.

Each of us in turn had to assume our best acting personality and just state our name: my turn came around and I donned my wrap-around shades, assuming the poker-face that I'd seen so many times in the Czech Republic. I stated my name in Czech-lish and glowered at the camera.. man, I looked sooo mean! The girls were asked their names and also quizzed about any tattoos they might have, the director expressing concern that the leading lady's was not only permanent, it also appeared to be on her neck. I came to the conclusion that tramp stamps are not always a good idea, at least at the start of a career in film. Anyway, body modification discussions over, we then had to run through a scene in which our male lead was having a discussion with the bordello Madame, who was French. Another "lady" then had to come into the bordello via a "door" while the other girls were showing off their tats to their clients. The poor bloke then had to accept a massage, and taking the low-budget aspect to extremes had to somehow prostrate himself face-down on 2 small, low-level bar stools to be massaged (still with his top on). Yeah, it was "really" a massage table, honest!

This was quite a good laugh, and while it was taking place I had to do my improvisation. The Director said that I would be approached by a hooker ("A", from the East of England) who would approach me, take off my shades and flirt with me. Uh huh.. So, I was game for that, and when we heard "ACTION", I leered at "A" who got (very) up close and personal with my thigh. She had to whisper in my ear and I had to respond - all very lascivious - so we actually had a whispering chat about our respective partners. In the end our group did two takes, and the second time "A" went into overdrive with lots of hair flicking (hers) in a very shampoo commercial style.

Shortly after that, the Director shouted "CUT!!", thanked us all very much and I was free to leave: my audition was over! I don't know whether I got the part but he did shake my hand on the way out: was this some coded message to his PA, Kate? Well, we'll have to see - if I get the part it'll mean 5 days filming and no doubt there'll be plenty of thigh-straddling and hair flicking: again, it'll be "A"'s, not mine :^) Have I had my 15 minutes of fame already, or is it still to come? Check back later when I find out some more!!!

There'll be pictures up on Flickr tonight - watch this space.

Right now though I need to find some breakfast, so I'll catch you later..

If I'm selected I get called back and then filming starts in September. Whatever happens, if I have as much fun as on the commercial shoot it'll be great. Watch this space!

And now I'm nearly back to Guildford where I'm really hoping that I can get something to eat. I'll post some pix tomorrow-bye for now!

My goodness, I hate all this waiting around but what else can I do? More later.. probably when I'm on the train home!

The camera gear is also pretty much standard: today I'm packing the D200 with battery pack, the obscenely heavy 80-200 zoom and flash on the flash bar, and I have to say it looks the business. Pity it weighs about 12 pounds/5 Kg but today, looks count more than functionality and we've been told specifically that "we won't be taking pictures". Nevertheless, I'll try and get a few pictures of the general proceedings as I've never been on a film set before.

The weather at the moment is "variable" with plenty of wind and I'm hoping this will keep the rain away. I don't mind working in the rain which is forecast for about 1pm but in theory (ha!) should be sunny when we start shooting at 4pm.

Okay, time to go - I have to get ready! See y'all later!

More on this later, but you can see my "star profile" here!

So, plan B was to keep the same aperture, set the camera to Manual and use the (B)ulb setting: that way I could lock the cable release and decide for myself how long to leave the shutter open. The problem now was that with very little ambient light the autofocus was defeated so I had to set it to manual focus. The problem then was that with practically no light and no clearly-defined subject (lots of trees) it was almost impossible to focus through the viewfinder. Neither the Nikon D80 that I was using nor my D200 have live preview so I just had to set the lens to infinity and hope for the best. In the end, that actually worked very well so that's a tip for next time..

I was now into the realms of 4 and 5 minute exposures: actually, one of the most time-consuming elements of available-light shooting is waiting for the exposure to complete, and in a rapidly-darkening forest there's not a lot to see while you're waiting :-) Then there's the wait while the camera collects and assimilates all the light you've fed it, and in the case of the D80, that was quite a while. But eventually, the images appeared and once again they looked as though it was a sunny afternoon shot: this was in huge contrast to the light pollution in London which gave me scope for some fantastic effects. As a last effort I decided to "paint with light" using my flashgun: this was partly successful and I ended up with something that resembled a forest glade with "ethereals" flying around; again though, not as good as I'd hoped for. As an additional attempt at flash experimentation I set up the camera in "Commander" mode, using the on-camera flash as a trigger for the SB600 flashgun. I did a couple of low-level shots of ferns and this worked well, although I was surprised how much wind-blurring there was even in this far into the forest.

In conclusion, it was a fascinating evening as regards spending time in the forest and communing with Nature, but as an exercise in photography it was, to be honest, just another shoot. Looking at, and inspired by images like Ansel Adams' Moonrise, my assumption that (a) there'd be enough natural light, and (b) maybe enough moonlight to create that shot I realised that I was wrong. My plan therefore is to try again but take some atmospheric sunrise and sunset shots, making the most of the available light. When it happens I'll let you know, so keep coming back!

In fact, the quotable quotes have already started appearing, with the Vice Chairman of the British Press Photographers' Association stating that "We firmly expect that there will be inappropriate uses of the act and that someone will end up in front of a judge before there is some clarity and before the purpose of the act is properly defined..". The Metropolitan Police Federation has backed the NUJ over fears that new anti-terror legislation could be targeted at journalists. The organisation's chairman, Peter Smyth, said he "shares the concerns of press and other professional photographers that poorly-drafted anti-terrorist legislation could be used to justify unwarranted interference in their lawful activities". So once again, it all comes down to the individual officers' understanding of the Act, and worse still, their interpretation. A Metropolitan Police spokesperson has also stated that "For the offence to be committed, the information would have to raise a reasonable suspicion that it was intended to be used to provide practical assistance to terrorists", but then again, that's initially up to the arresting officer(s), and I'd say that a photographer's defence lawyers could have potentially have a difficult job proving their client's innocence. It's only the first day though and I shall carry on taking pictures as usual.

The NUJ however decided that the situation had gone far enough and decided to stage a day of protest outside Scotland Yard. Sadly I wasn't able to be there, and I don't think I could have taken many action pictures with my hefty Bronica.. I think there are other protests coming up and I'll try and get along to one - and take some pictures at the same time. How much worse can it get? Comments please!

We'll just have to see what happens today though: I'm off to the Embankment near the Globe Theatre so if you see me there please come over and say hello! L8rs ..

The key part of that is the last line, in which photographers are being used to "inform" the public that "active terrorist planning" may be in progress, and to report it to the Police. Unfortunately, a large section of the public has mis-interpreted this and now sees anyone carrying a camera as fair game. Combine this with the average PCSO (who is after all an ordinary member of the same public dressed in a uniform) and we have the climate of harrassment that's all too common. I'm now not sure what the next move is but in the meantime I'll carry on taking pictures.

Laughable, and basically it puts the burden of responsibility back onto the police officer(s) at the scene of the crime which leaves the law open to all sorts of mis-interpretation.

Moving on to the next case, this concerns a famous photographer, Reuben Powell, who's been photographing and drawing life around London's Elephant and Castle for the past 25 years. He had the nerve to photograph the old HMSO Print Works which apparently was close to the local police station and this was deemed to pose an unacceptable security risk. He was told in no uncertain terms that "he was going to search [me] under the Anti-Terrorism Act", and this resulted in a 5-hour detention in a police cell along with his DNA being permanently recorded on the national database. Apparently the police took exception to him carrying a pocket knife for sharpening his sketching pencils, hence the arrest. Fortunately he was released following intervention from his local MP, but how many of us are fortunate enough to have that as an option?

Again, there's more confusing advice on the matter issued by the Association of Chief Police Officers:

This time the message is more easily understood, but it relies on the police officer concerned (a) having actually read the guidelines (and make no mistake, they're guidelines, not rules), and (b) understand them enough to interpret them correctly, and this just isn't happening.

As a photographer who's only been stopped once I can only say that the whole situation is depressing and rapidly getting out of hand. I actually feel so strongly about it that I've today asked the Information Commissioners to ask the Metropolitan Police how many photographers have actually been arrested and charged under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2000: they've confirmed acceptance of the request and are due to reply by February 9th. The response will be very interesting indeed and believe me, I'll be telling as many people as I can to gain maximum publicity. In the meantime I'll continue taking pictures as normal. Come back soon for more on this...

Link to Andrew Pelling's story here.
Link to Reben Powell's story here.

The second incident concerns a journalist photographer (also called Jesse actually.. hmmm..) legitimately taking pictures at a protest outside the Greek Embassy following the shooting of Greek student Alexis Grigoropoulos. In this farcical and incredibly badly managed exercise in police diplomacy, Jesse was stopped and search as the officer in charge believed he had a knife in his back pocket: this later turned out to be a yellow pen. As a result, Jesse was removed from the scene of the protest and searched, while his details were taken, once again in the name of the War Against Terror. What annoys me most about the YouTube video is the cynical and mocking attitude of the officer who's supposed to be in charge if policing the protest: he's also not showing his number on his epaulettes which are conveniently covered by his coat so it would be difficult to report him. At the end of the search Jesse is able to return to the protest, presumably still in possession of his weapon pen.

The real problem here though is that we're getting very mixed messages from the government and the police, both of whom seem to be putting out conflicting information on what can, or can't be photographed. In the meantime, the police seem to have become accountable to no-one, and I believe that any transgression would just be waved away under the all-encompassing Anti-terrorism Act. This in itself fosters a climate of distrust, and this at the very time when if the "authorities" are to be believed they need our eyes and ears more than ever to spot people who might do us harm. In my opinion, if this really is the situation we have in fact arrived at a Police State and we're powerless to stop it.

The other important issue is not to ignore manual settings just because you may have the latest model that has an incredibly complex Program setting: every time someone asks, I have to remind them that "Program" means an average representation of a scene. That representation is based on a test programme of thousands of shots of a huge variety of situations and it's part of the camera manufacturer's skill in translating this into software that will take a good picture. To get the best settings, I spend a little time before a shoot taking pictures of anything that is in approximately the right position: I can then be sure that I'll only need to do a little tweaking of the settings when the shoot actually starts. In the case of the High Fashion shoot, the presenters asked the crowd not to use flash as this would erroneously trigger the units they were trying to demo with. No problem, but some people were looking worried. To get around this, I turned the flash off, switched to Program which gave me a half-decent image, then made a note of the settings that it decided to allocate. I then switched back to manual and used the same settings with a little adjustment to suit the model's colouring. I hope you'll agree that the results are good - I was very pleased.

I suppose what I really want from Nikon is a very different type of camera. What I really need is an updated version of my old FM2 film body but brought up to date with digital, and by that I mean with very few settings to choose from. To be honest, most of the time I end up shooting with manual settings anyway as I like the control that it affords. Ironically, several key figures in the photo-commentary bizniz are now recommending a return to film, and then getting processed film negatives scanned in using photo labs hi-res scanners. An interesting take, and one that I'll be giving serious consideration to in the near future.

In conclusion though, buying more expensive kit will not make you a better photographer - it's partly the ability to use the camera kit effectively that counts, but more importantly, the ability to record the very essence of what you're trying to photograph. Without that ability, you're just recording an image in a mechanical way, and that's no fun at all: keeping it simple is all you need to do.

So what effect has this amazing poster campaign had? Well, wouldn't it be nice to say that we'd helped the Thin Blue Line sweep the bombers off the street, and that Britain was once again a nice place to bring your kids up in? Yes, but it hasn't happened: instead they've bred a climate of fear, distrust and anger among the very people they're trying to protect. Here's the official results from the Met's own web site:

So basically people are more aware and the Police web site hits have gone up: no mention of any arrests?

You can see more of the same on Flickr.

Pervert alert

ditto

US Trailer Trash encounter

Police seize photographer's film

Police 'overzealous' in Christmas lights fiasco

Don't take pictures in shopping areas!

So then I hit on the idea of using a decorators expanding pole: they're very light, usually made of aluminium and the one I bought expands to 3 metres which fits most average rooms. To protect the ceiling I bought a pair of walking-stick ends from Boots Chemist for 2 quid and rammed one on the end of the pole, very hard. And that was it. It's now being tested in the apartment with my high-tech white background that I'll use for portraits and headshots. Oh, ok, it's actually a 1 metre wide kitchen roller blind bought for about 7 quid (bankrupt stock again). In case you're wondering, the black clamps are full-price Manfrotto Superclamps (about 15 quid each) and I use these for safety: if you're hanging expensive gear in dodgy locations you can't afford to "save money" with cheap gear.

See it all in action on the images attached to this posting and if want headshots just let me know - I can do you a deal.

Buy yours from Screwfix here.

The results weren't too bad: image 1 is the best I think but lacks a little detail in the trees. Image 2 has lighter exposure but is a bit blurred: the clamp isn't wonderful and I think I'll need to use my proper Manfrotto clamps that I bought a while back. Here's the technical info:

Image 1:

X Resolution                  : 180
Y Resolution                  : 180
Resolution unit               : Inch
Exposure time [s]             : 15.00
F-Number                      : 4.0
Aperture                      : F4.0
Exposure bias value           : 0
Metering mode                 : Center weight (2)
Flash                         : No flash
Focal length [mm]             : 7.4
Exposure mode                 : Manual (1)
Flash mode                    : Not fired
Contrast                      : Normal
Saturation                    : Normal
Sharpness                     : Normal
ISO value                     : 100
White balance                 : Fluorescent

X Resolution                  : 180
Y Resolution                  : 180
Resolution unit               : Inch
Exposure time [s]             : 15.00
F-Number                      : 3.2
Aperture                      : F3.2
Exposure bias value           : 0
Metering mode                 : Center weight (2)
Flash                         : No flash
Focal length [mm]             : 7.4
Exposure mode                 : Manual (1)
Flash mode                    : Not fired
Contrast                      : Normal
Saturation                    : Normal
Sharpness                     : Normal
ISO value                     : 200
White balance                 : Fluorescent

A couple of points to note here: at one stage I did actually use flash, but the light was reflected back off the window frame and whited-out the picture. I set the white balance to "fluorescent", not because it was most accurate but because it looked the best. The Powershot has a cool feature that lets you see the image in live view and I just went through the list of options until it looked nice :-) The ISO value was largely immaterial: the image was going to be noisy whatever I used, but this is mainly down to the camera's small sensor.

So tonight it'll be the night shoot for real: I'll be somewhere round Waterloo, near the river I think, and shooting with a proper tripod and the Nikon D80. Check back sometime tomorrow to see the results.. Oh, and if you want to see how it should really be done, check out the famous "Moonrise" by Ansel Adams! One day eh? ...

Quite apart from the rudeness of not even acknowledging my original email, I really have to wonder why some companies put up with second-rate photography from so-called "professionals"? Looking at the images on the web site of the company concerned I could see the challenges that the photographer faced, but nothing insurmountable, and if you're used to shooting at night then it shouldn't be a problem. Likewise, photographing large structures: use the right lens and compose your subject so that ideally you don't need to crop any of the image off. Lastly, if you're displaying an image on the web at a reduced size then for goodness sake make sure it's sharp! There's nothing worse than a small and fuzzy picture to make you say "amateur with a professional camera". I deliberated for a couple of days and then offered my services as a "photographer with flair and imagination", attaching the pictures fromn this posting as evidence.

The problem here of course is that "everyone is a photographer" - it's just that the wrong ones often seem to get the job! We'll see what happens next..

The NUJ have said: "Whilst the police deny they are targeting legitimate photographers we have plenty of evidence to the contrary. This abuse must stop". And .. "The routine and deliberate targeting of photographers and other journalists by the FIT undermines media freedom and can serve to intimidate photographers trying to carry out their lawful work. The rights of photographers to work free from threat, harassment and intimidation must be upheld. Photographer members of the union frequently protest at the way the police deal with them, particularly at public events and demonstrations. They say they are regularly obstructed by police officers who sometimes say they can`t tell photographers from demonstrators and treat them accordingly".

When I attended the first NUJ Photographers Conference in London last year, we had a lecture from a very senior police officer and a lawyer used to dealing with this type of incident. In a rather unconvincing speech, the police representative stated that they'd drawn up new guidelines for rank-and-file officers to deal with journalists, and that he expected them to be followed. With a new, clearly-defined relationship in place it would enable both groups to get on with their jobs. You can imagine how surprised I was therefore to read about FIT tactics which seems to have flown in the face of what the police authorities very publicly stated. Personally I feel very let down, but not too surprised in what appears top be rapidly turning into a Police State, although that wouldn't be so bad if they were effective! The Police have also said that although they issued copies of the then new guidelines throughout the force, "..it's unreasonable to expect all officers to read it straight away": quite a strange statement I think, and hopefully not typical of other standing orders that come from senior officers.

I'll post more on this as it happens - I'm already monitoring the Met web site for likely venues and will post some gallery images when I've been to one. Check back soon!

The building itself is actually in a poor state of repair right now and the contractors had fenced it off, but we had full access to the perimeter of the building which made for some excellent photo opportunities. The weather also helped as well, varying between azure skies and plump clouds and threatening British Summer skies in rapid succession: both were equally welcome though and the building looked regal but also very vulnerable too. We managed to canvass some genuine local opinion in the form of a member of security who'd taken on the temporary job to earn some extra cash. After quite a lively discussion, it became very clear that the only involvement that the local populace would have would be guarding it and building it: as with Canary Wharf, Nu Docklands and London projects of a similar nature, the locals in this currently-poor area would soon be priced out of the area. I guess that's what they call progress.

We wandered around the area for quite a while, talking to people and taking pictures - such a lot of photographers and interesting to see that most were using Nikons. As the day was drawing on, we decided to walk to Covent Garden and went via the Thames Walk along the river: again, there was a cold, strong breeze coming off the river and seagulls were much in evidence so we were glad we'd packed our jackets. It took us a while to get to a very overcrowded Covent Garden where we shopped for a while before retreating to a nearby pub for a couple of beers. Not relishing the long walk back, we decided to take a bus back and eventually ended up back at V's place.

Sunday saw us at Highgate Cemetery East, taking in the atmosphere of a very pleasant part of London and yet more pictures. V had been before a long time ago, then on a subsequent trip had got lost, so I used the amazing Google Maps for mobiles to guide us there: it uses both GPS satellites and land base-station points for location sensing, and the moving map was extremely accurate: unfortunately the trip completely drained the mobile's battery and I was without cellphone access for the rest of the day, hence no blog entries :-( We saw a wide variety of graves and headstones in this very overcrowded burial ground, including that of Karl Marx. I'd often read about his monument and had honestly expected the bust to be bigger, but nevertheless it was an impressive sight and I managed to get some half-decent pictures. We spent about an hour there and then drove back to V's place again for tea. We didn't get back until late so I stayed over a second night and came back to Woking this morning. All in all a great weekend and one that made me realise what a great place London can be if you're prepared to go off the beaten track a little. Next weekend we'll be in Woking and hopefully back to the Hampshire countryside for more exploration. In the meantime there's plenty coming up, so stay tuned!

"The big sensor has not been stuffed full of pixels and so reduces noise in low light": yeah, that's good, and although it's "only" still 12Mp, there's less interference so low-light pictures will be noticeably better, which for me would be ideal. The converse can be said of shooting in light though: the problem is that the sensor is now over-sensitive so it might actually struggle in bright light! The advice is to "carry a hefty ND (neutral density) filter" to put on the lens. That's not good, and if you carry a range of lenses with differing thread sizes it means you now have to carry a filter for each size. If you're using a pro camera like this you can expect to pay between UKP45 and UKP70 for each one - believe me, cheap filters make your pix look like they've taken through .. cheap filters.

"..probably has every bell, whistle and doohickey that you can think of": over-complicated then - normally I just want to point, compose, shoot.. not wait for my subject to move on, have a birthday before I can capture it. I'm sure someone uses all these features but I'll normally just change speed, aperture and maybe a bit EV compensation. It's all getting a bit silly really.

"..includes an artificial horizon that tells you if you're holding the camera level: WTF?! Okay, so this isn't a new feature, but hey, what happened to that line in the viewfinder that you used to look at. This is just bollocks really..

"..the only thing missing is an anti-dust system": and this is a big omission! I came across a dust-spot on my small sensor while in Prague but had no facilities to clean it at the time: debris like this is inevitable with any camera with removable lenses and DSLRs are particularly prone to them. In a full-frame sensor version there's twice as much surface area to be affected so Nikon have really boobed this time! By contrast, with the old 35mm film SLRs you'd just open the back, take off the lens and blow through. Progress? No.

"..you'll need new lenses to get the best out of the full-frame.., but you won't have to upgrade straight away. Feck! I paid UKP800 for my biggest lens and now I'm not going to get the best out of it? Ha! No thanks, I'll stick with my primitive half-frame model. Now how did we know this was coming? What they're really trying to say is that for an typical UKP10,000 spend you'll end up with a decent camera kit. No, I'm not joking on this one as you're nearly half-way there with the body alone..

"..this is Nikon's first foray into full-frame digital imaging and it will almost certainly not be it's last..", which proves my point. Buy this new one and be depressed in 6 months when they bring out the next version which will have (say) 27Mp as well as the full frame, and no, of course the body won't be upgradeable! You know it'll happen!

In conclusion I'd say that although Nikon have pulled off an amazing technical and marketing feat, the ability of the pro-sumer to actually afford this camera will be tested to the limit, and bearing in mind it's actually not rated as a true pro camera it's going to have a limited life span anyway. I'm not sure what the take-up rate on this will be other than by the kind of people that simply must have the latest model (that ain't me any more), and honestly, will the pictures it takes be that much better? It depends how they're viewed I think: if they're printed off on good-quality inkjets then you'll be limited by the printer/cartridge combination. If viewed on the screen of a PC then they'll be fine, but it's overkill unless you have a 19" monitor. If professionally printed on real photo paper then it'll be better but that's expensive - incidentally that's how I get my portfolio images printed now, and normally go up to 30"x40" without too much trouble. I probably wouldn't buy this one even if I could afford it - based on the life-span and the cost of re-equipping my photo accessory set I don't honestly think the cost could be justified. Whether anyone else agrees it's too soon to tell, but maybe i'll report back in 6 months with a revisit. Until then i'll make do with my existing kit and keep taking those sub-standard pictures :-)

Anyway check out my oil burner picture, and please bear in mind that the original quality has been degraded for the web - I didn't think you'd want a 12Mb download :-) See you after tomorrow's shoot!

Also very important, it doesn't change anything on the camera so no warranty issues: when it's turned off it disappears from memory and you'll need to reload it next time. Anyway, don't take my word for it - check out the site and see if there's a version for you!

Some not so good news is that the two CDs that I've sent off to the Czech Republic seem to have gone "missing" again: this isn't the first time it's happened of course; last year I had a number of DVDs go missing and had to remake and resend them. The problem appears to be that if a packet "feels" like a CD/DVD it never reaches its' destination, and considering I now pay nearly a fiver for each packet because I used International Signed-for I think someone owes me an explanation. The media itself is worth pence, but the fact remains that I spend time making the discs up as well and that all needs to be factored in to the overall cost. Of course it's very difficult to figure out where it's going missing but this time I'll be complaining and following it up. The other problem of course is that it makes me look like a real amateur, which I'm not. My only other option now is to go for the next level of tracking up which is more expensive still, or maybe just get people to download the bloody things and cut out the thieves completely!

"Armin Only" 2008 has now been announced and once again I start the marathon of trying to get permission to take my camera, especially this time as I want to take my new friend along as well. I've contacted Armin's record label and also the Media and Marketing Manager of UDC who organise the event. So far I've had a hit on my website from "somewhere in Holland" but that's as far as I've got. My patience is not endless now though, and if I don't get a response soon I'll just write it off as a bad job and move onto something else.

There's another couple of projects coming up though, and one concerns a rather tall crane so I'll let you know more once I've heard from the owners.. See ya later!

Although I suspected there may be some strong feelings I was surprised at the level of violence that some of the posters were proposing, and as someone who's been seen taking the occasional celeb picture in various clubs I'm now quite concerned to think that it could happen to me. Not that it'll stop me taking pictures - oh no, I'm not going to join the ranks of the oppressed by bullies who are afraid to go out. Here's a selection of some of the comments (names removed to protect the stupid):

"those camera guys are fucking whacks! fuck those guys! chris is dead on saying have some respect! his wife just got out of the hospital and i dont think she wants people fucking taking pictures of her! fucking gay ass camera guy saying "youre supposed to be a father!" what a faggot. and when he threatens to break his door. yeah, good one, asshole. like chris martin couldn't afford a new car door. i fucking hate that camera guy"

"this is great, fair play to chris! i like the fact that this was supposed to get chris bad press but i have read the first 3 pages of comments on this an not one has been against him. i hate the peperami! its not on to snap people out side hospitals!"

"What a strange film. The guy Chris pushed down wore the same clothes colour combination as Gwynneth. Why did Chris enter the car on the right instead of the more logical left (G. stepped in right side)? The papparazzo coming after his camera suddenly turned into someone else with a beard. Huh? And why didn't the bald-headed driver WARN these camera guys? Real world reality: celebs WILL be harrassed (duh-duh-duhhhh). There's more to money and fame."

"u know, we are all bashing the paparazzi, yet we are all watching their video!"

The interesting thing about the majority of the comments is that people are happy to incite violence but at the same time they claim that society is not violent, so I decide to add my 2cents worth, and two people commented:

"I think maybe alot of people watched this video just to get the pleasure of seeing Chris knock the paparazzi to the ground. Just because people watch this video does not mean they support the Paparazzi."

And this classic:
"What you guys don't realise is that we'd be equally happy seeing a vid of you guys [paparazzi] being beat up by a wino. It's not the celebrity that's the draw here."

If that's not an incitement to violence and a sad indictment of what society has become, I don't know what is!

So the effective life of the pictures had been just 2 days, and although I now anticipate the usual sporadic revisiting, my mainstream visitors have now departed. A much gentler slope can be seen on HarderFaster.net where the same (and more) pictures have now recorded 12,018 views, but as it's not my site I can't tell when those occurred. Of course, if I was doing it "properly" I'd have taken a laptop, post_processed the images on the Sunday after the gig and then transferred them to my web site from the airport where there was plenty of wireless internet access. Yeah right... ;-)

Whether all this is worth it given the short-lived nature of the "product" might be debatable, and in terms of return on investment no, but personally it's so much fun I'll continue to do it for as long as I can. Roll on the next party!!

Second "up" was a bit strange: my long-term dispute with DSI seemed to take a turn for the better with one of the admins emailing me to organise a phone chat. This is quite a breakthrough considering what's been going on. I restated my case and confirmed that (a) I wasn't going to sue and (b) would just like a photo credit on the pictures that are attached to my client's (yes, it's true) profile. Between us we still couldn't figure out why it happened and to be honest I'm not about to rule out human/computer error but I just want the matter sorted. Whether I write to my (hopefully not totally lost) clients to put my side of the story I don't know at this stage but the lure of money (theirs), fast cars (theirs) and international travel is looking pretty tempting right now, especially if they pay my expenses. More on this as it happens.

And then there's the down.. well, there has to be a balance I guess, but that doesn't make it any easier. So here's the situation: I had a good response to a set of pictures I took at a big party in London recently (and I mean a BIG) party. They liked them so much that they featured many of them on flyers and posters. So when a landmark party came up in September I went along with the camera and took more pictures. I said that I'd do the usual 2-day turnaround and send the pix on disk, which I did. It ended up being a DVD containing 500 full-size pictures along with smaller ones+thumbnails, but that's normally what I'd do. As I know how the Royal Mail can "lose" mail that feels like a CD/DVD I sent them Guaranteed Next Day+Signed For which costs a bit extra but gives me peace of mind. So off went my package and I sat back and waited. And waited. And waited.

In the meantime I'd also uploaded 300 of the images to HarderFaster.net and had over 27,000 page views in 3 weeks which stroked my ego no end. I heard nothing from the promoters so I emailed asking if they'd received the disk. In fact I emailed three times and heard nothing, and having heard nothing from the Royal Mail about non-delivery am at a loss to know what's occurring. So tonight I've had another newsletter from the same company telling me about the next event in December. It sounds really good and they're clearly approaching the stage where the event's getting too big for the current venue but do I offer to take pictures this time? No, of course not! Let some other sucker do it and get walked over! I've actually written a real, paper letter to them tonight and based on what I receive back I'll either name and shame or just move on.

Call it petty if you like, but I'm just protecting my assets: think of it as a child that you leave at school in good faith only to find that your offspring has been left to roam in the street and has gone off with some random stranger. I think any normal person would feel aggrieved?

I've a feeling this is going to get messy but I have to protect my interests: they've had a free lunch for too long and now the waiter's walking towards them with the bill. More on this as it happens.

Link to remaining disputed copyright picture here

So I started looking at a true wireless setup and in common with many of my fellow snappers recoiled in horror at the prospect of spending 200-300 quid for a single transmitter and receiver. Eventually the answer came in the form of the Cactus V2S wireless set, and at a staggering $38 (18 quid) for both transmitter and receiver had to be investigated. Actually I managed to investigate it twice over as a "transaction declined" plus a subsequent OK transaction magically worked twice and I got two sets, sadly for the price of two. Even so, at that price they possibly won't last long in the field so a backup set might be useful.

Anyway... I did a test in the office and it worked okay, and a test with the two receivers in the window (plastic-covered metal frame) across the street also worked. I then tried it on a real camera (D80) and a flashgun (SB600) and it worked well although I had to put the SB600 on manual before it would fire. Whether this is normal I'm not sure but further investigation will tell me this. It shouldn't actually be a problem though as i'll be using for fill-in flash to remove some of the shadows.

I'll do another write-up when i've played with the rig more. The picture is of the Cactus boxes, triggered remotely. Not bad..

In the meantime, here's the press release:

"BONN, Germany, October 22nd 2007 – The Electronic Beats Festivals planned for Prague on October 27th and Bratislava on October 31st have been postponed due to artist illness.

New dates for the Electronic Beats Festivals will be announced soon and purchased tickets for both Festivals will be valid for the rescheduled dates. In addition, tickets will be transferable so fans can give them to others if they do not wish to attend on the new dates. Fans who would like a refund can do so by contacting the ticket distributor which sold them their ticket.

The management of Underworld has released the following official statement: "It is with great regret that we have had to pull out of the European leg of the current Underworld tour due to severe illness in the band. More details will follow, but in the meantime, we appreciated your patience and understanding."

Electronic Beats apologizes for any inconvenience caused by this unanticipated development and looks forward to announcing the new Festival dates as soon as possible".

The trick with this system is to have balanced flash on both sides of the subject plus ideally a similar setup directly overhead. The problem I had in this case is that the studio flash tripod does not (yet) have a suitable mount arrangement but this will follow in time when I figure out how to make it. So for now I had the big flash on one side set to lowest power, and the new softbox on t'other. I originally used the Nikon D200 and SB600 flash in "commander" mode (this is only wireless because there are no wires - don't be fooled by the terminology!) as a third light but there appeared to be too much light flying around for it to figure out what to do, so I switched it off and left it out of the equation.

So I now triggered the studio flash using my camera-mounted IR trigger, and the big flash in turn triggered the Vivitar using a slave cell. Feck! That's a lot of text - just look at the picture and you'll see what I mean. The result was actually better than expected and the overall lighting is pleasing to the eye (let me know if you think otherwise). It needs a little more work to fine-tune the light balance but not a lot: if I'm to do any serious product photography then I may invest in another, cheaper flash gun but when I'm out on the road the current arrangement should work just fine, and if it means I don't have to lug a large bag full of gear around that suits me fine!

In my opinion this is not only a breach of trust but the end of a friendship and a possible future business relationship. Whether it'll be the subject of legal action will only be known once I've had replies back from a couple of key people. Later..

The test now was to see if the cleaning had worked so I re-shot my test shot and compared: success!!! I now feel more confident in performing this procedure although its not one I'd like to do on a regular basis. Fortunately the cleaning fluid is airline-approved so I could take it in hand luggage on subsequent trips, although the prospect of sensor-cleaning in some dire nightclub gents loo doesn't sound like much fun :-)

To see a before and after comparison just check out the picture on this posting and see what a difference it made.

In the meantime I've invested in a bulk pack of 100 CDs at a very good price, a bug pile of paper CD sleaves and some card-backed envelopes: not quite as effective as padded Jiffy bags but until I start getting some money coming in they'll do the job. More later!