Thursday, December 24, 2009

Soundslides - a very, very quick guide

Quick guide on how to use the excellent Soundslides tool.


But first, a warning: If you add your own text slides, specifically at the beginning, DO NOT upload to YouTube as the file corrupts images on YouTube playback.

Warning two: Images do not transfer well on YouTube, they become very low quality. Alternative site I recommend is Vimeo.


Add photos. Add music. Dead easy. Add titles. Easy.

To convert your new slideshow to a file than can be uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo, do this:


Find the file publish_to_web which will be in the directory you’ve saved the new slideshow.
Right click on mouse button then select Send To… Zip file.

Once Zip file is created, go to this page on Soundslides.

Upload the file.
A link from where the new mpg4 file can be downloaded will them be emailed to you.  Download, save. Then uploads to YouTube, Vimeo or whatever you want.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Kevin Mitchell versus Amir Khan





Two photographs I took some time ago.

Super featherweight boxer Kevin Mitchell (top) was photographed at a hotel in Preston in autumn 2005. I was at the weigh-in ahead of Dagenham fighter Mitchell's fight in the city's Guild Hall against Daniel Thorpe, which he won.

And the young man next to the devil's head is Bolton's Amir Khan, photographed outside his gym in Bury. He was just seventeen at the time. He had just decided to fight for Britain instead of Pakistan and was sweating on winning a place in the 2004 British Olympic team.

He did eventually get his place in the squad. And don't you know it, he won a silver medal. When I interviewed him at Bury's Seedfield Resource Centre I was bowled over by his politeness and confidence. I've been a supporter ever since.

Khan, a lightweight fighter turned light-welterweight, is a brilliant role model for the people of Bolton, the people of Pakistan and all British youngsters.

Both these fighters won in Newcastle at the weekend and could face each other in 2010. That's why these pictures are here.

Tuesday, December 08, 2009

Go Broadcast Yourself You Tube

An exercise in freedom of speech.

A few weeks ago I uploaded to YouTube a slideshow of images I took in America of the Westboro Baptist Church. It was a photojournalism essay on the lives of the family.

I got this email from YouTube over the weekend:

YouTube | Broadcast Yourself˙
Regarding your account: gazcook
The following video(s) from your account have been disabled for violating the YouTube Community Guidelines http://youtube.com/t/community_guidelines

  • God Hates America - The Westboro Baptist Church - (gazcook)
Your account has received one Community Guidelines http://youtube.com/t/community_guidelines warning sanction, which will expire in six months. Additional violations may result in the temporary disabling of your ability to post content to YouTube and/or the termination of your account.
Sincerely,

The YouTube Team
Copyright © 2009 YouTube, LLC


This church has what can be called extreme views about god and homosexuality. My journalism aims to raise awareness of issues. This is how the media works at its best.

These are some of the photos:








In Britain, the BBC and Channel 4 have aired documentaries on the Westboro Baptist Church. I often see and hear members of the church on Radio and TV in this country. I know they are in the media regularly in the US, having sat through one of Shirley's radio interviews.

So why have YouTube taken away my toy and made me sit on the naughty step?

There is nothing shocking about the YouTube video, of which some images are attached below. If my photos had included profanities, outrageous violence or hardcore sex then I would expect to be kicked out of mini-video land.

YouTube's Community Guidelines state:
We encourage free speech and defend everyone's right to express unpopular points of view. But we do not permit hate speech (speech which attacks or demeans a group based on race or ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status and sexual orientation/gender identity).

My photos do not do this, they merely highlight an issue. Do a YouTube search for the Westboro Baptist Church or God Hates America and you will find hundreds of videos of the WBC, many of which include speeches which could be deemed offensive. They have not been withdrawn.

My short slideshow is part of a serious, considered piece of journalistic work. I certainly don't think it's as bad as this sexual-innuendo packed episode of children's TV classic Rainbow:

http://www.youtube.com/v/Zg2vbA9KSqk&hl=en_US&fs=1&

I could not even contact YouTube until I clicked their I ACKNOWLEDGE button which was blocking my account, forcing me to accept their rather unreasonable reasoning for removing my video.

YouTube have not yet responded to my complaint.

Tuesday, December 01, 2009

Vimeo slideshow - Bethlehem

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=7905859&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1
O little wall of Bethlehem from Garry Cook on Vimeo.

Budget flights with Ryanair, where you can’t paint over the craics.

If you like misery stress and despair with your holidays, there’s only one airline for you.

I’ve made around 20 return trips over the past two years with various airlines. How would I rate the flights? Some good, some bad, but the flight’s from hell are always with Ryanair.

The experience with Irish company Ryanair actually makes travelling with British Rail on a Bank Holiday Monday seem like bliss. From start to finish you are made to feel like you ruining their business by using their airline.

Yes they are a budget airline, so no-one is expecting a silver service. But am I wrong to expect any kind of service at all?

A complicated online booking service is followed by an online checking in service which doesn’t actually serve any purpose. The stress of checking in, with the worries of missing your flight, could brake the weak-hearted.

Then there’s the laughably low baggage weight limit – 20kg for a suitcase which is only 5kg more than hand luggage weight, yet comes at an extra cost of £20.

At Edinburgh airport I found myself amongst a sea of other passengers crouching on the floor over an open suitcase trying to stuff heavy items into hand luggage to dip below their suitcase's 20kg limit. This was after queuing for almost an hour because the company employs for too few check-in staff for their flights.

When I began the booking process for two people from Edinburgh to Berlin, the flights were around under £50 each for return flights. Do the maths yourself. Flights, for two people, should have cost under a £100. The total I paid out was £244.22.

This included a £5 debit card transaction fee per flight, per person - £20 in total. And £10 for a web check in – useless as you have to physically check in anyway if you’ve got a suitcase or not, plus £94.26 in ‘taxes, fees & charges’.

But it’s the physical process of checking in that turns a weekend break into a dreaded nightmare. No one smiles in Ryanair’s queues. No one laughs in the stampede to board the flights and get the best seats. Sadly, no-one even bothers to feel sorry for his overworked and probably underpaid staff.

After several journies with Michael O’Leary’s famous airline I feel so bitter that I even find myself hoping that his staff are as miserable as they make me feel. It’s not a good thought to takeaway for my onward journey.

NOTE: For complaints about this article, please contact Ryanair's Customer Service helpline on... oh, er, hang on, Ryanair doesn't do customer service.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Budget flights with Ryanair, where you can’t paint over the craics.

If you like misery stress and despair with your holidays, there’s only one airline for you.

I’ve made around 20 return trips over the past two years with various airlines. How would I rate the flights? Some good, some bad, but the flight’s from hell are always with Ryanair.

The experience with Irish company Ryanair actually makes travelling with British Rail on a Bank Holiday Monday seem like bliss. From start to finish you are made to feel like you ruining their business by using their airline.

Yes they are a budget airline, so no-one is expecting a silver service. But am I wrong to expect any kind of service at all?

A complicated online booking service is followed by an online checking in service which doesn’t actually serve any purpose. The stress of checking in, with the worries of missing your flight, could brake the weak-hearted.

Then there’s the laughably low baggage weight limit – 20kg for a suitcase which is only 5kg more than hand luggage weight, yet comes at an extra cost of £20.

At Edinburgh airport I found myself amongst a sea of other passengers crouching on the floor over an open suitcase trying to stuff heavy items into hand luggage to dip below their suitcase's 20kg limit. This was after queuing for almost an hour because the company employs for too few check-in staff for their flights.

When I began the booking process for two people from Edinburgh to Berlin, the flights were around under £50 each for return flights. Do the maths yourself. Flights, for two people, should have cost under a £100. The total I paid out was £244.22.

This included a £5 debit card transaction fee per flight, per person - £20 in total. And £10 for a web check in – useless as you have to physically check in anyway if you’ve got a suitcase or not, plus £94.26 in ‘taxes, fees & charges’.

But it’s the physical process of checking in that turns a weekend break into a dreaded nightmare. No one smiles in Ryanair’s queues. No one laughs in the stampede to board the flights and get the best seats. Sadly, no-one even bothers to feel sorry for his overworked and probably underpaid staff.

After several journies with Michael O’Leary’s famous airline I feel so bitter that I even find myself hoping that his staff are as miserable as they make me feel. It’s not a good thought to takeaway for my onward journey.

NOTE: For complaints about this article, please contact Ryanair's Customer Service helpline on... oh, er, hang on, Ryanair doesn't do customer service.

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Shortlisted: Travel Photographer of the Year 2009

You can travel right around the world.

You can cross four continents.

You can take some fantastic photos*.

And you can get nominated for the 2009 Travel Photographer of the Year awards.

But where in the world were my four short-listed images taken? Himalayan mountains, Bethlehem, Kiev, Tunis or Topeka.


None of the above. 

The answer is, of course, my favourite frivolous weekend destination, the hardcore venue that everybody loves to hate and the place where brash meets trash with appealingly appalling consequence. Yes, it's Blackpool, Lancashire.


This week I sent off my four prints (excellently done by Genesis in London) to the TPOTY organisers for final judging. The result is announced in December (though possibly not on this blog if I fail to bag the first-prize trip to China).





NOTE: The above image was can be seen elsewhere on this blog. It is one of the images in my short-listed submission to TPOTY's Homeland category.
* The term 'fantastic photos' is not necessarily the opinion of this photographer and his over-inflated ego.

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Open Sesame (to Open09)





The other week I wandered into a nightclub at 10 in the morning, poured myself a cup of tea and discussed the future of journalism for two hours.


Just another wacky morning in my life as a serial conference dweller.



This one was Open09 and it was aimed at discussing the future of the digital and creative sectors.



It was billed as ‘breaking the normal conference model’ by creating a ‘new participatory experience to explore, inform and create…’







I could go on but you might become as confused as me. Though probably not attended by as many bodies as the organisers had hoped, there was a diverse range of professions represented by the 15 people who attended.


The subsequent debate at Preston's 53degrees student venue answered specific industry questions such as (and I paraphrase) ‘Who will fund the freelancers of the future?’ It was enthusiastically debated. We had to write our answers down on big sheets of paper.



Run by the University of Central Lancashire, Open09 seemed to be of more value to the professors than people like me taking part. There is no doubt in my mind that the opinions of those actually working in journalism, photography, multi-media or the BBC are important in realising how the industry is already fragmenting and developing.


What did I take from it? Probably what I knew already: If you’re not working for the BBC you could slip away in a tidal wave of cuts and closures. I also learned a new word, churnalism, which I quite like.



Welcome to the Phoenix Club


It costs nearly £575 to join. You have to pay £8 a week to attend their weekly meetings. Every meeting starts at 7am.



Welcome to life with BNI International, Chorley Phoenix branch.


BNI is the Business Network International, ‘the largest business networking organization (sic) in the world’.


Briefly put, this is how it works: Local groups are called chapters. Chapters are made up of people from local businesses with no profession represented more than once. At each weekly meeting members, through their own business contacts, try to bring in business to other members, known as a referral.


You can tell from the spelling of organisation that BNI originates from the US of A. These referrals dictate chapter succeed or fail. Each meeting runs through a tightly-scripted itinerary and success levels are measured statistically.


But does it work? Well, in England (according to BNI’s own stats) there are over 640 chapters in the UK. 

In 2008 that equated to over 560,654 referrals and led to business worth £190m. I’ll have a bit of that.



Though skeptical as I was at first, the facts do present a strong case. There would not be that many groups – I detest the phrase chapter – in Britain if it was a white elephant organisation.


The literature and website is disturbingly Americanized (it makes me sic) but the ethos – where your one-man-band business suddenly becomes a 15-strong marketing team – is actually an inspired idea.


It’s easy to knock America and its business model but you can’t deny its success. Having forked out £575, denying success is the last thing I need.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Tunisia - the slideshow

http://www.youtube.com/v/gXBlUXA435w&hl=en&fs=1
Slideshow of photographs taken during a press trip to Tunisia.
For more information on Tunisia visit the tourist board. For press enquires go to Rooster PR.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Disk jockeying or Which is the best brand CDr to buy?


In my continuing search for best products for your computer and camera I turn my attention to CDr disks.



I’ve done all the hard work so I’ll keep it simple: Verbatim disks made by Taiyo Yuden.



Verbatim disks made in Taiwan and India just aren’t as good as these Made in Japan beauties.



If you’re interested Taiyo Yuden invented the recordable CD. Verbatim just bungs their logo on and sells them.



You can buy them from SVP for starters


ConFUZEion





A couple of week's ago I attended the launch event of something called InFUZE at the Moet Bar in Selfridges, Manchester.

If you can give me a moment I'd like to summarise the event in normal people's speak: It was about placing a journalist from one area of the industry and placing them on three month's paid placement in another area of the industry.

You're still with me so far? Much of the talk was by American Amanda Michel who had flown in from Yankland especially to explain her groundbreaking work in citizen journalism (though the concept involves a much steeper learning curve than I can explain here).




If you're still with me, Michel was director of something called OffTheBus at the Huffington Post and is now with something else called ProPublica. If you've heard of these you will be quite impressed that she was in Manchester.

And if you want more excitement out of these photographs, see if you can spot Manchester's big wheel thingy in the background. Clue: It's near Paul Egglestone of the University of Central Lancashire who is also pictured.

More information about InFUZE here.

Monday, November 09, 2009

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Lest we forget: Remembrance Sunday


Today was Remembrance Sunday, where the British public and the BBC comes out in force to show their respect for those who fought and died for this country.

This photograph was taken in November, 2007.

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Business with Business Link

A dozen or so years ago I went to see a Business Link advisor in the hope of expanding the boundaries of my work.

It was a right waste of time. I listened to a few wishy-washy statements, was handed a few leaflets and never heard from them again.

The persistence of Gemma from Creative Lancashire led to me agreeing to meet up with a Yusuf Musa, Business Link’s Digital & Creative advisor.





The only downside was that it was arranged at the coffee shop of Borders book shop in Deepdale Retail Park. It was half-term week.

Anyway, this Business Link fella was brilliant. His knowledge of the photography industry and digital media was spot on.

He made several suggestions on how I could better market myself as a photographer, some I had heard of, others that I was totally unaware of. He was an excellent communicator and talked neither in business jargon or digital riddles. This was appreciated immensely.

He offered hope, guidance and support. How this support will develop I don’t know. But I quite like the new face of Business Link.

Sadly for you lot my camera was left at home so you’ll have to wait for my next appointment to for a photograph of Mr Business Link.

A profile of Yusuf on Lancashire & Cumbria ICT Clusters says he previously worked in publishing and had his own IT business.

And I can exclusively confirm that this is not the same Yusuf Musa you will find in a google search who sends out thousands of spam messages which begin like this:

DEAR FRIEND,
I KNOW THAT THIS MESSAGE WILL COME TO YOU AS A SURPRISE. I AM THE BILL AND EXCHANGE MANAGER IN BANK OF AFRICA (BOA), OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA FASO…

At least I hope he is not this Yusuf Musa. He already has my email address.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

More problems with Lulu uploads


A new, if slightly boring blog, on how to publish books with Lulu.comThe first blog posted in January 2008 was for problems with my Flashes to Ashes book. It was a Crown Quarto Full Bleed book.

This one, a promotional copy of Outsiders, is a 44-page saddle-stitched A4. Book sizes below 68 pages cannot be perfect-bound with Lulu.


The key phrase here is ‘saddle-stitched’. The covers for saddle-stitched books require no spine, though it is almost impossible to verify this on the Lulu website.



It took me five hours to find these words (only revealed when you try the online one-piece cover upload):



One-piece cover requirements:



Your file must be a PDF



Spine width: 0 Postscript points wide (0.000cm)



Spine begins 604 Postscript points (21.31cm) from the left.



Total cover width: 1208 X 860 Postscript points (42.61cm x 30.34cm)



Basically, this means the length of your InDesign document should be 42.61cm x 30.34cm.



If your pdf cover includes imported text or graphics against a similar coloured background they can often come out in a different tone – even though it looks perfect on your screen.



Best thing to do is open the pdf in photoshop which will flatten which will rasterize (whatever that means) the file in to a single layer after asking for a DPI (choose 300) and colour palette (choose RGB).



Converting to a pdf (from an InDesign file)


Follow the Lulu pdf guidelines here, which include downloading a Lulu pdf preset, then selecting it during the Adobe pdf preset process.


Also you must still embed the fonts. The same Lulu guidelines page has this information. You may have to download Lulu’s Adobe Job Options too.



And the last problem concerns ftp transfer, which you will need to do because your pdf will undoubtedly be over the 300mb limit



FTP file transfer



With ftp software FileZilla you need to fill in three login boxes (connect to, username, password).



You connect to Lulu with this address: ftpupload.lulu.com



Lulu tells you that username and password is the same as your Lulu login details – but you actually need to type your full email address in the username box for the ftp logon to work.


NOTE: This blog may be amended as further problems arise. Goodbye.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Martin's Parr'd


Martin Parr opened his Parrworld and Luxury exhibitions at the brilliant Baltic in Gateshead in October 2009.

If photographer's are famous then Parr is undoubtedly the most famous in Britain and one the most well-known in the whole wide world. Not bad for someone who lives in his own little world of irony, wryness and kitsch.

Parrworld is an exhibition of Parr's own memorabilia collection, from ultra-rare photography books and prints to tea trays and Osama Bin Laden watches.

I was at the opening night. This was the second talk of Parr's I have attended.

Like the first at Manchester Metropolitan University in 2007, Parr came across as luke-warm understated speaker who is not really one for engaging with his audience during the Q&A's.

Even when I asked him to sign a copy of his new book I could only get a couple of sentences out of him (I mentioned Middlesborugh photographer Ian Macdonald whose work is in Parrword, Parr agreed that Macdonald was talented).

But it is fascinating to get an insight into what makes his photography work. He has ideas, often about ordinary subjects, but he puts the effort in to produce the results.

And he admitted he quite likes controversy surrounding his work. He's had a fair bit in his time. It hasn't done him any harm.

The Luxury photographs are fantastic, but if you're after a lesson in the history of photography there is no better place to start than through Parr's own collection. Worth the entry fee alone to see the 911 rugs.

Parrworld runs until January 17 2010 at The Baltic. And entry is free, by the way.

Sunderland Host City bid

Here's a link to a story about Sunderland's 2018 Host City Bid which features one of my photographs.

That is all.

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

John Simpson, quad biker

John Simpson is 77. He’s a farmer in Malham in the Yorkshire Dales. He drives a quad bike.

Anna asked if our kids could have a ride in his trailer. Along with his dog Nell, we all climbed in his trailer and barged across two boggy fields.

It was brilliant fun. John Simpson was incredibly kind to us. He was every bit as respectful as you would expect from a man his age. It was a pleasure to take his photograph.


Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Take better indoor photographs with a digital camera

Or an idiot's guide to using flash indoors (you don't actually have to be an idiot to use this guide).

This brief guide is for users of a Canon 450D, though it applies to all digital slr cameras*, plus others which allow a degree of manual use.

Aim: To take photo of people indoors with background lighting visible.
Things you need to do: Change ISO, change to slower shutter speed (Tv).

ISO goes from 100 (for bright conditions) to 1600 (for really dark conditions).
To change ISO: Hold down <iso>button and move main dial (ISO will change on main screen)
Try 400 indoors, change to 500 if background is still too dark in your photograph.
Anything from 800 and above and photo will get too grainy - you would only use these speeds if NOT using flash.

Set to <tv>on mode dial.
Move main dial for faster/slower shutter speed.
1/125th sec is standard flash speed.
Anything faster than 1/200th second is too fast for the flash to work.
Anything slower than 1/60th second means image could be blurred if you are not really steady with your hands.
Tip: to keep extra steady at 1/30th second, breathe out as you press button to take photo.

Try: 1/80th second and ISO 400.

Alternative quick technique (if you have not got time to think):

Set to
(for Program)
Set ISO to 400
Press the <flash symbol="">

*NOTE: Slr means single lens reflex. It's kind of a proper camera where you can (usually) remove the lens.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Paradise lost



LEGG UP: Blackpool Council's Head of Enterprise & Employment Peter Legg tells it like it is.

Spent the evening in Blackpool at a kind of social event for creative types last week. It was in the Paradise Room of the Pleasure Beach – parking £5 for up to 12 hours.

Creative Lancashire (other regional organisations available) is, to put it briefly, is a Lancashire County Council-funded group which assists creative companies in the region in their business dealings.

As a photographer, that means I can be part of the process. It’s still a bit fuzzy in my head as to how this organisation works or how it quantifies its success but Gemma could not have been more helpful to me and persuaded me to take part in two upcoming events.

This was the first. I am slightly skeptical of these organisations (an appointment with Business Link in my early freelance journalism days was largely useless) but the theme Chasing The Public Pound looked interesting so along I trotted.

There were several photographers at the Sizzle event, validating my own appearance, and it was eye-opening.

My journalistic and photographic background has been largely editorial, so to see such a network of support for small businesses on a regional level was impressive. I had no idea these networks existed.

I’m not really one for PR networking and schmoozing – in fact I hate using the word schmoozing, it’s offensive to me – but being able to meet people from similar and complementary industries was rewarding.

As I aim to market my photography in a more focused fashion over the coming months, I will be taking in a whole range of events, courses and seminars – and includes an appointment with Yusuf from Business Link. Can’t wait.



IN TRIPLICATE: North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium's Mike Haslin, Think Say Do's Iain Leslie and 2am's Peter Stubbs at Sizzle Blackpool

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Ta Dar



Just got back from a press trip to Tunisia.

Quite a nice country, actually. Food, especially the fish, was outstanding. The boutique hotels we were shown were stunning.

And the markets, very much in the style of those within the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem, were superb.

Gifts of scarf, dish and camel-shaped plates went down a treat. But I particularly enjoyed watching the man who sold me two brass plates, as he hammered the shape of a camel and the country of Tunisia into two plates, for Teddy and his mate Seamus. Their names are on the there too.

And they only cost £5 each (this price included minimum haggling).






Thursday, September 17, 2009

Dressed-up dogs in Blackpool


“This is the place to be if you like dogs dressed up, and who doesn't love a clothed canine?”

Not my words and not here. No. These are the words of the Peckham Pet-Tastic website, home of the slightly surreal and very eccentric Pet-Tastic event.

And where does Pet-Tastic go for a holiday? Blackpool, of course. Home of the surreal and the eccentric. The brash and the crass. The working classes and their dogs.

Artist Rachael House has the kind of pink hair usually seen in wig-wearing dozen-strong Hen Parties.

The point of her art is that it reaches the working classes, communicates with the masses and takes away the elitism of art. They should give her a summer season in Blackpool.

Anyway, I love owt like this me like.

On Sunday, September 13, I went along (without the dogs) and took photos. Here are a few.








Tuesday, September 15, 2009

The survey said: Bahrain

Managed to indirectly donate £25 to Medecins Sans Frontieres after answering some survey questions on Middle East countries.

They contacted me through my Nantional Union of Journalists listing. Or was it the Journalist Directory?

The research was being carried out on behalf of the Kingdom of Bahrain, eager to gauge perception of their international standing compared to Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates.

I don’t recall ever seeing a travel feature on Bahrain. My main impression of the kingdom is of oil and oil tankers – when I was six or seven a boy in my class at school moved to Bahrain when his dad got a job out there as a tanker captain. Oh, and they host a Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Some of the questions were a little mundane. Statements included ‘Bahrain is a base of American and Allied forces’ specified answers ‘very important’, ‘quite important’, ‘not very important’, very unimportant’. Other questions asked were repeated for each of Bahrain’s neighbouring countries.

But I did learn some interesting facts: the country is inclusive of all religions, works hard on peace in the middle east and has an excellent human rights record.

Permission denied. No photographs by Garry Cook in this post

Taking photos of people, mostly without pre-arranged permission can be fraught with difficulties.

People don’t like cameras pointing in their faces. You have to tread carefully.

I always look for danger signs of people looking uncomfortable or agitated.

But when it comes to friends and family I’m a bit more dismissive of their objections.

Sadly for me, I get far more objections to being photographed from people I know than those I approach on the street. Greg Boyd, Anna Byrom, Russell Peplow are frequently annoyed with me.

I took some photos of Boyd at his unusual home in Argentiere in the French Alps in March 2009. He was rather annoyed. I took the photos anyway. He got more annoyed.

Getting the cooperation of those I photograph has always been an essential part of my work. So essential, in fact, that I have not even been able to bring myself to look at the photographs, never mind show them to the world. Six months on, perhaps I should ask him.

Photojournalism and the cash crisis

Photojournalism is a tough industry. There’s next to no money to be made.

You can discuss amongst yourselves the reasons for this. Fewer and fewer printed outlets for photo essays, reduced editorial budgets, lack of appetite from readers.

This last reason has always confused me. People always seem to be interested in photo essays when they published in newspaper and magazines, yet an increasing number of magazines are ditching this content in favour of lifestyle and celebrity pieces. Perhaps it’s just me who despairs at the wishy-washy stuff while being mesmerised by brilliant pictures.

Anyway, the truth is most of the people making money out of photography do weddings.

Examine the winners at the various awards ceremonies which take place around the world, Arles or Perpignan for example, and you’ll be surprised at how many of those stories honoured have failed to be published.

This has forced photojournalists to be ever more inventive in how their work is promoted. Sometimes a cult magazine like Vice comes along to promote the art on its pages.

There’s a brilliant magazine called vewd which is doing its best for photojournalism. As with all things innovative, it is backed up by a strongly designed website and includes the facility to download paid-for pdf versions of the magazine.

While vice is superb example of a free magazine succeeding around the world, it is not that easy to get hold of. There is a pay subscription option on the vice website - but who wants to pay £35 in the UK (or £60 for the rest of the world) for something that most others get for free just because they live in a big city?

Museum of the People


It took seven-and-a-half hours to get there. Preston, Lancashire, to Deptford, London. I’ve had better journies.

But it was worth it to see six of my Outsiders photos form part of the Museum of the People exhibition at Utrophia, curated by Evie Manning (she’s from Bradford but is half Geordie thanks to her lovely mum).

There was some intriguing and highly personal work on display. I particularly liked the drawings by the local school kids of who they would like to interview for the project, based around my Outsiders project.

Did I like these because they were inspired by my photos? Probably.


Monday, September 14, 2009

Photojournalism and the cash crisis

Photojournalism is a tough industry. There’s next to no money to be made.

You can discuss amongst yourselves the reasons for this. Fewer and fewer printed outlets for photo essays, reduced editorial budgets, lack of appetite from readers.

This last reason has always confused me. People always seem to be interested in photo essays when they published in newspaper and magazines, yet an increasing number of magazines are ditching this content in favour of lifestyle and celebrity pieces. Perhaps it’s just me who despairs at the wishy-washy stuff while being mesmerised by brilliant pictures.

Anyway, the truth is most of the people making money out of photography do weddings.

Examine the winners at the various awards ceremonies which take place around the world, Arles or Perpignan for example, and you’ll be surprised at how many of those stories honoured have failed to be published.

This has forced photojournalists to be ever more inventive in how their work is promoted. Sometimes a cult magazine like Vice comes along to promote the art on its pages.

There’s a brilliant magazine called vewd which is doing its best for photojournalism. As with all things innovative, it is backed up by a strongly designed website and includes the facility to download paid-for pdf versions of the magazine.

While vice is superb example of a free magazine succeeding around the world, it is not that easy to get hold of. There is a pay subscription option on the vice website - but who wants to pay £35 in the UK (or £60 for the rest of the world) for something that most others get for free just because they live in a big city?

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Pointless photography press release

Received a press release today from a public relations company called Six Degrees on behalf of their client Serif.

It was offering photography tips for kids.

Started off a bit desperately (money is tight this summer/families can’t afford to take kids to theme parks/why not give them cheap digital cameras instead and it was sent with less than a week of the school summer holidays remaining.

Still the tips (below) reminded me of the workshop I did a few months back teaching journalists at Trinity Mirror in Birmingham how to take decent images on their camera phones for their newspaper.

Here are the tips from Six degrees' press release:

“Top tips for little fingers:

1. Hold the camera still. It sounds obvious, but it’s a mistake
that many of us make, which is why sometimes our pictures can look a little blurry! Make sure your child is holding the camera completely still in order to get a clear shot.

2. Heads-up. Make sure you’re standing far enough back to get
everyone into the shot, or zoom in/out to avoid chopping their heads off!

3. Bright light!! The light is your friend, use it carefully and you will achieve some great pictures. Just make sure it’s behind you rather than in front as this may cause over-exposure.

4. Get creative and clever. Use photo editing software like Serif’s PhotoPlus X3, which allows you to adjust your photo’s colouring, add black and white effects and even do retouching, like adding a suntan or whitening those teeth!

5. Sticky fingers! Avoid taking pictures straight after eating wet or sticky foods—the smallest amount of liquid can damage your camera (and the shot) so be careful!”

And just to prove that big fingers sometimes don’t have a clue what they are doing, these are some of the photos I used in my presentation to illustrate how not to take a photograph.








NOTE: After some exhaustive research I came to the conclusion that the consistently best-rated mobile phone for taking photos with was a Sony Ericsson Cyber-shot (mine’s the K810i, there are several in the Cyber-shot range).

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

The Outsiders project

The first half of my project Outsiders has been completed.

It’s a book of portrait photographs and accompanying interviews.

The profiles examine how we judge others, not just through the experiences of the subjects but also by our own thought processes while reading the interviews.

Subjects include a politician, a Ukrainian rock star, a homeless person, a treasure hunter, a vicar, a homosexual hater, a transgender dominatrix and a paedophile.





Fun fair having fun

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It’s no good bleating about the brilliant coastline if you don’t use it.

“I really enjoyed the funfair,” said Teddy Cook, aged three and a half during August 2009 visit to South Shields' Ocean Beach Pleasure Park.

Berlin, bikes and queues

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My fascination with bikes and tourists continued in Berlin.

Queuing to get in to the Reichstag reminded me of queuing to get in to the Golden Temple in Amritsar. It reminded me of Ryanair check-in desks. Queues are what make tourism torturous.

Cycling around Berlin reminded me of cycling in Klagenfurt, Vienna, Amsterdam, Den Haag and Leiden. If only Britain could embrace the cycling culture. In Bristol they just started one. It's a start, just not a very good one. The registration fee is prohibitive for visitors to the city. The city itself is too hilly. And wet.

Anyway, these pictures celebrate tourism in Berlin. The Reichstag (German Parliament), Berlin Dom (Berlin Cathedral) and the Holocaust Memorial.

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Sunderland versus the World (Cup Host City Bid)


I was fortunate to be invited to Sunderland to photograph the Football Association’s delegate visit for the city’s World Cup Host City bid.

Basically that means important people came to have a look round to see if the city could host World Cup football matches in 2018, should England win the bid to host the competition.

The city struck it lucky with the weather but the real gold are the people of the North east. Welcoming, excited, interested and friendly. Photographing them at Herrington Park and Roker and Seaburn seafronts was brilliant.

Then there were the kids from schools across Wearside and the teenage football club visiting on tour from South Africa.

There are a lot of preconceptions about Wearside, Tyne & Wear and the North east, but let me assure you the brilliant coastline is worth the entrance fee alone.*

South Shields to Roker, past Souter Lighthouse and Marsden Grotto, is a surprisingly stunning coastal drive. The North west coast of England does not have any beaches to rival those on Wearside and further north in Northumberland. Formby Point is good, but it can’t beat Roker beach or Marsden when the tide is coming in.





*Entrance to Sunderland’s coast is actually free.