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?

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).

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Sir Bobby Robson Farewell and Goodbye

Sir Bobby Robson died aged 76. A football legend.

Online book publishing: Blurb pdf uploads, easier than lulu (just)

Okay, the good news is that online printing outfit Blurb now accept pdf uploads just like competitor Lulu.

The bad news is that Blurb’s system it is only marginally simpler to get right than Lulu.

Lulu is still a winner when it comes to price, book sizes and styles, having dozens of alternatives to Blurb’s six.

The book’s I’ve seen from Blurb have been of high in quality.

My first attempt to upload a pdf was far from a cake walk so, just to jog my memory, here is a quick guide on how to get it right:

Guide for Standard Portrait, hardcover with dustjacket in InDesign.

Problem one: pdf upload does not work with Internet Explorer. I had to use Firefox.

Problem two: winzip templates download failed to unzip dustjacket template. Error message states that the file name exceeded 260 characters. It didn’t, but I could only unzip these when I manually renamed them in the winzip program.

To make sure you can convert your pdf easily, ready Blurb’s downloadable pdf conversion guide (which is a pdf file). Follow the instructions to add the Blurb pdf template into InDesign’s pdf conversion option.

Problem three: My document sizes for the book and cover pdf’s did not match those stipulated by Blurb.

To conquer this follow these steps (sizes used here are for standard portrait pdf, 44 pages, premium paper, hardcover dustjacket):

1. Use points as a measurement so you can check for faults easier with Blurb’s guidelines.
2. Set Indesign doc size to Trim Size specified by Blurb. Book: 558pt x 702pt. Cover: 1833pt x 720pt.
3. Add Bleed specified by Blurb for top, bottom and outside edges only. The bleed for the dustjacket is for all sides (top, bottom, inside, outsider). Book: 9pt. Cover 9pt.

When my first few uploads failed pre-flight checks Blurb suggested that I may have forgot to include bleeds marks while converting the document to pdf. This was wrong – you don’t have to change anything in Blurb’s pdf conversion template set-up. It’s more than likely you have the incorrect document measurements.

The outputted pdf size for the book itself should be: 567pt x 720pt. The cover should be: 1851pt x 738pt.

At any time you copy one of your pages on to the Blurb template to see if it fits.

CouchSurfing is brilliant

Couchsurfing is a website which makes you realise the internet is brilliant.

A non-profit organisation effectively self-administered by volunteer members, CouchSurfing is a free-to-join website where users agree to put up other travellers visiting their city.

In short this is what happens: You email someone who lives in a city you intend visiting. You ask if you can stay with them. They say yes or no.

No money changes hands. This is feel-good factor surfing.

The same process can also happen in reverse. If you stay with someone they are usually very nice to you. They might cook you a meal, they might show you round their area. If you’re a nice guest you will probably take them a gift of appreciation.

With an average age of 25, the one million plus users (1,152,463 users on Sunday May 31) are perceived to be backpackers, but the sight accommodates are far wider ranger of people. Literally.

I have surfed in mid-America, Prague and India. I also met some CouchSurfers in Warsaw for a drink. Always had a brilliant time. Being driven across the Punjab at 100mph was almost as memorable as the out-of-control naked party held in my honour on the outskirts of Kansas City.

Sadly, the concept is open to abuse. Spam emails and bad experiences are kept to a minimum thanks to a fairly robust screening process for members and a vigilant administration team.

But talking to an Australian couple travelling across India I was made aware how the nature of the sight was being abused. While staying with a CouchSurfer in New Delhi, they were shown round the city by their host. However, after visiting various bars, restaurants and shops, the Indian host appeared to get paid by the owners of the various establishments.

The power of the tourist pound in India is very strong. An India taxi driver can earn as much from one tourist as he could from 20 fares carrying locals. White tourists are targeted as soon as they get off trains or step out of the airport. I can testify to this.

But the cynical manipulation of the travelling CouchSurfer goes against everything the website strives to achieve. Obviously, tackling this problem won’t be easy. Certainly the travellers would have to report the host, and they would be reluctant to do that if he was otherwise charming.

I myself stayed with a CouchSurfer named Hemant and his family for three days in Ludhiana and had no such issues with him. He could not have done more for me and my sick girlfriend Anna, reinforcing the generosity that CocuSurfing has worked so hard to generate around the world.

Shortly after my visit to India I hosted a Slovakian man named Joe and his Hungarian girlfriend. They bought me a bottle of whiskey. Don’t drink the stuff, but the offer was very much appreciated.

I’ve surfed a few times. I’ve hosted twice now. Great experience. I feel I've contributed. As CouchSurfing gets bigger I hope it manages to retain its personal touch.

Paris has more CouchSurfers than any other city – 20,602 - followed by London (17,856), Berlin (14691), Montreal (13,650) and Vienna (9,607). Just over 30per cent of CouchSurfers (353,330) had couches available at the time of checking. Over 230 countries are represented, and 59,199 cities have at least one CouchSurfer. The least spoken language by CouchSurfers is Lojban (four members).