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.

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.

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.

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

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).

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.

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.