The Allotments

The allotments in Saltburn are a thriving community of enthusiasts with a wide range of horticultural experience, from the seasoned gardener to new owners of their own small piece of real estate in this coastal town in Cleveland. I started this project of photographing the allotments and some of the people who spend their spare time tending to their land a few months ago.

Before you can own an allotment like the ones in Saltburn, like many others, there is a long waiting list before you get the go ahead from the council, typically the allotment you are allocated is overgrown or needs to be altered to meet your own requirements and the work begins in earnest as soon as you get the keys from the council.

What I found out by talking to many of the owners is how despite having an original idea of how they wanted their allotment to look it soon became apparent that the land they leased became a work in progress, constantly evolving as their own needs evolved.

There is always something to be done - fences and gates to be fixed, plants to be tended, weeds to be picked, in some cases, chickens and hens to be looked after, pigeons to be fed and watered. It take a serious amount of commitment and dedication to keep on top of the work.

Some new allotment owners are slow to get on top of their own piece of garden and are soon asked by the allotment association to make more of an effort. With waiting lists long and filled with potential owners who are keen to take ownership those that don't make the effort are politely asked if they wish to continue. All the people I met strived hard to look after their own allotment and went to great effort to maintain and look after their land.

Despite providing well for their chickens sometimes illness or infection takes its toll on them and the big worry is that whole stocks of birds can be wiped out, something that also carries a heavy financial burden.

Recently, vandalism has caused damage to some allotments with greenhouses having their glass smashed and sheds broken into and some tools stolen. Owners are looking at ways of reducing the risk with possible installation of CCTV cameras to monitor the road in and out of the allotment area.

Despite the graffiti sprayed all over the fences and corrugated metal that lines the road through the allotment once you pass through the ramshackle gates that form the entrances to the allotments they are transformed into individual 'secret gardens' that in some cases stretch back for 40 or 50 metres with paths that meander through a miriad of bushes and shrubs and reveal ponds and bird feeders hidden away. Despite the proximity to a busy rail line and constant stream of human traffic passing through the allotments there is a varied amount of wildlife that frequents the area.

With food prices rising the produce that can be grown in these allotments can contribute a large amount to reducing the owners food costs, all manor of fruit and veg can be grown and there are frequent competitions to judge the 'best of' various categories. What is certain is that the owners take great pride and as true gardeners they follow the seasons carefully to ensure that they plant at a time that will give the maximum yield.

Seasoned owners seem to know intuitively when to plant and when to pick and reap the rewards of their labour, newer owners struggle at first until they gain the relevant knowledge to allow them to develop their land.

Sometimes new owners really do have to start from scratch with their first step of allotment ownership being the building of an entrance. Cutting the fence that has been put up to mark off the land that they now rent and building an entrance that can be secured is the first hurdle that needs to be overcome.

One thing is certain it takes a lot of time and effort to keep on top of their allotments but with increasing experience comes the satisfaction of knowing that they can start to provide for themselves and reduce costs of buying food whilst at the same time enjoy the highs and lows of tending to a piece of land just as people have done for hundreds of years.

Howzat!!

I've only ever photographed cricket once before, many years ago, using black and white film with a 35mm SLR and I think the longest lens I had then went up to 200mm. I remember devving up the film and running off 8 x 10 inch prints in my bedroom which I had converted into a makeshift darkroom, with the enlarger perched on a chest of drawers, the window covered in black card and a bin bag taped to the frame and a seed tray from a garden centre containing smaller trays of dev, stop and fix ready to drop the prints in stood next to me.

After they left the fix I dropped them in a bucket of cold water and when this was full of prints I would carry it to the bathroom and put them in the bath with the tap running to wash them before drying them off by hanging them from lines of string using clothes pegs - it was all very high tech! So I was looking forward to shooting cricket again last week, only this time armed with a couple of Nikon D2x, a selection of top-end lenses including a 500mm f4 which you can pick up for the price of a family car! I borrowed it.

The match was between Durham and Sussex at the Riverside Ground in Chester-le-Street in County Durham, England and was a 4 day affair as part of the LV County Championship.

Now I have to admit from the start that a big cricket fan I am not, some of the terms are a bit confusing and lets face it, it is a bit boring! But I didn't want to miss the opportunity to shoot a sport that I don't get to photograph very often. The weather was perfect and the crowds weren't huge but it was on a Thursday that I went so not surprising.

The first thing I try and do when I turn up to cover something I am not familiar with, especially sport, is to have a look around the ground. Looking for places to go to give me the best view of the sport, looking for what can be one of the most important factors in shooting sports - a clean background.

I had a quick look at some cricket photos on the internet the night before to provide some inspiration and possible ideas and most of the ones I had a chance to look at were straight action shots - bowler's bowling and the batsman, well, batting. Don't take this to mean I viewed some of them with any less respect for this fact. Getting good action like some of the ones I saw still takes great skill needing perfect timing, a good position, patience (cricket is a long game!), good light etc etc. But I wanted to explore a little if I could and try and get something a little different as well.

Knowing the game was due to run all day and knowing that the weather forecast was looking good I decided on a position to start from, aware of the sun's position, I had decided to move from position to position as the sun tracked across the sky, trying to keep it directly out of my lens. (Although, shooting straight into the sun can give great effects so don't rule it out).

With Durham opting to bat first and Sussex fielding I took a wander around the ground hoping to get some wide shots to show the venue, it is quite impressive, especially with Lumley Castle perched on higher ground behind the stadium. Considering the day before play had been called off because most of the pitch was under water from recent rain the ground staff had done a great job in getting it ready for play.

I always find with the sports photography I have done it takes a while to get 'warmed up' to get your eye in and to get your timing up to speed but then you start to see shots or potential shots as they happen, you get to anticipate what will happen, how a bowler, in this case above, does his follow through and if you watch it enough you know when he is at his most animated. I have to say as well that the majority of these are single shots, in other words, I didn't have the camera on 'continuous high' and hose the players down. I feel it helps improve your timing, there is a shutter lag with digital, albeit very small these days and with the ball travelling at around 90 miles an hour or so it is very easy to miss, and I did, plenty, so you have to concentrate and understand the game and its' nuances. This will only come with time.

I always try and get something a little different if I can, to use composition to good effect and try and see the smaller details which can make strong pictures. I had seen the empty red seats in one of the stands at the very start and really wanted to get a shot like that below, at f4 my background blurred out just enough to carry it off, but I would like to see it thrown out further.

As the day went on I continued to move position, to shoot from higher to try and lose the advertising hoardings and fill the back with the grass to simplify the composition. Cricket is very repetitive, the bowler tends to have a very similar 'action' as he bowls, soon you can observe how others react as he takes his run up to the wicket, the batsman not at wicket will move tentatively forward, the fielders will all close in slightly. What I found helpful was keeping one particular player in my lens for a while, whether it was a batsman or bowler or fielder and follow them for a while to try and capture a shot if they had hit a six, bowled someone out, or caught them out!

Again keeping an eye out for the small details, I had noticed that after each over, the helmets were lined up behind the stumps and I thought it would make an interesting composition.

I really like this shot below, I can't claim it is a high drama action shot - it isn't, but I like the subtle effect, the expectation that something is going to happen. Again, using simple composition and a 'clean' background brings attention to the players.

And then, after all that waiting....

Howzat!!!

On the whole it was a good day, some shots worked but some didn't, some were close to being winners and some were miles off the mark. Luck plays a part without a doubt, but an awareness of composition, of timing, of light, knowledge of the game (limited in my case), imagination and patience all play a part. I'm not sure when I will get the chance to shoot cricket again but hopefully next time I will apply what I picked up this time and get even better shots.

The Ugly of War

I've just been on the blog of photographer Edmond Terakopian, the link is below...
http://edmondterakopian.blogspot.com/

One of his latest entries has a link to two multimedia pieces from John D McHugh, a photojournalist currently working for the Guardian newspaper who has recently spent time with the US troops in Afghanistan, in this piece, linked below, a medic from a US Medical Helicopter - a 'Dust Off' as they are called, tells of his experiences...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/video/2008/sep/08/sixmonthsinafghanistan.afghanistan

A very powerful piece of multimedia, probably one of the strongest I have seen for raw emotion and for trying to explain the difficulties faced by these medics and others working in this country. All of this is done without any of the imagery that you would normally expect to see on a piece covering this subject. The way the young medic explains what he has seen and what he has to do tells the viewer more about combat in the seven or so minutes it lasts for than anything I have seen for a long time.

Check it out. It's worth a look.

After the Rain

In the late evening of last Friday 5th and the early hours of Saturday 6th September the residents of Morpeth started to become more concerned about the heavy rainfall that was falling on their Northumberland town. The environmental agency had issued flood warnings as the River Wansbeck began to rise to alarming levels. Sandbags were hastily placed to try and offer some protection to homes and businesses, some residents moved their cars to higher ground where friends lived as the water began to flow over the banks of the river.

Suddenly the water began to rush through the surrounding streets, a fast flowing torrent engulfed everything in it's path - homes were swamped, with water rising to 3 or 4 foot in some, casting furniture and belongings aside with little effort, local pubs and businesses along the river found their cellars quickly filled with dirty, dark river water, ruining their stock and as cars were damaged and hit by floating debris elderley people were quickly evacuated to temporary shelters by members of the RNLI and Police and Fire services.

On Sunday morning myself and fellow photographer Matt Kirwan ( http://www.mattkirwan.co.uk/ ) drove to Morpeth to document the aftermath of the floods and tried to record some of the devastation brought on this town and how it affected the residents in what turned out to be the worst floods experienced in some 40 years...

Road signs telling of the dangers remained in place highlighting the disruption.

Front doors of houses in Carlisle View, a street right on the banks of the River Wansbeck suffered some of the worst damage, looking closely you can see the water level reached over the letter boxes.

As the water level dropped a young child in bright rain gear walks along the edge of a flooded street. From reports in the media there were no serious injuries as a result of the flooding.

This man had returned from holiday the day before to find the flooding at its peak, hastily trying to salvage some of his property he moved it upstairs in an attempt to save it, although many of his belongings were destroyed by the river water and all he can do now is begin the long process of cleaning up. The house next door belongs to his mother, she was also on holiday at the time of the flooding and has yet to return to her home.

Tom Donnelly, Morpeth resident and local businessman surveys the damage to his boats on the River Wansbeck. He has run a rowing boat hire business on the banks of the river for 24 years. Mr Donnelly said that it was the worst flooding he had ever seen. As the river levels increased and the risk of more serious flooding became more apparant he was forced to sink some of his boats to ensure they weren't ripped from their moorings with the force of the water.

Local residents make their way through the flooded streets of Morpeth on Sunday morning as the flood waters slowly begin to recede.

The force of the water rushing through the town caused severe damage to several public buildings. The church was flooded as was the Health Centre and Ambulance station. The public library also suffered damage as the windows were smashed by the force of the water and shelves of books were flung all over the building.

Local resident Helen Patton also returned to her home from her daughters' house to try and salvage what she could from the chaos. As the floodwater hit her furniture was scattered all around her front room only settling once the water receded. Her bathroom was covered in a thick layer of sludge and all her ground floor carpets were ruined. Family photo albums were destroyed along with other personal items .

A resident waits for word from other family members who have returned to their home to search for any personal items that might have survived.

Cars caught in the rising flood waters.

A young girl sits on a damaged piece of furniture, prepared for more rain.

A grandaughter greets her grandmother in knee deep flood water after she returns from her flood damaged home following her rescue attempt to save 'Milly', her cat, carried to safety by a police officer.

The effects of this flood will be far reaching for local residents, many people were forced to evacuate to safer and drier ground, homes were severly damaged and will take many months to be repaired and returned to how they were before the flood. In covering this event it was strange how, despite suffering from this flood how open people were when talking about the damage that had been caused to their homes and their property. Many invited you in, a complete stranger, and then allowed me to photograph their homes and the damage. It was like they wanted to talk, to vent their frustrations, their concerns.

It was a shame that we couldn't spend more time there, to hear more stories, to glimpse more into the lives of someone else. It's a unique thing to be allowed this opportunity. Initially you feel almost like a voyeur, you feel a little awkward, you feel like you shouldn't be there. But then you start taking pictures and it develops from there. A comment or a look leads to a conversation and the connection is made. Press work, by it's nature is fleeting, you go in, shoot the pictures and then go. Probably to another job. I want to start to develop these stories further, to see them through to their natural conclusion or to a point where you can't take it any further.

That's why photojournalism has always held such an appeal.

Staithes Lifeboat Weekend

The annual Staithes and Runswick Bay Lifeboat weekend took place this weekend here on the North Yorkshire coast. The event aims to raise the profile of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution and the work carried out by the volunteer crews by holding various events throughout the weekend.

The small streets weaving through the Yorkshire village are festooned with red, white and blue bunting which is strung between the houses.

Members of the public could watch from the harbour wall as the lifeboat launched and made it's way over the North Sea on a routine training exercise.

Fortunately, this weekends' event passed without major incident and the Search and Rescue team from Cowbar, an area of Staithes, was not called out!

Support the Lifeboats - Train one save many

http://www.rnli.org.uk/

Look at Pictures and Do Stuff !!

Where do you get your photographic ideas? Where do you draw your inspiration from? Does it come to you naturally without any sort of process that you are aware of? Or is it a real slog to arrive at an idea and then carry that idea out?

I remember when I was in school, a good few years ago now (!) I used to get very frustrated during maths when others around me seemed to carry out their various tasks with apparent ease, revision and the subsequent exams seemed to be effortless whereas for me it was a bit of a nightmare - I just didn't 'get it', (although if any younger readers are going through a similar situation then don't worry too much, I can say that about 90% of the weird and wonderful equations and formulae I tried to learn at school have never been used again since that time!!)
Photography is a bit like that - you either 'get it' or you sometimes struggle a bit.

Although I think that there is some leeway here. To understand exposure, flash techniques, lenses, cameras, Depth of Field, focus, lighting etc etc then hit the books and it is explained in excruciatingly boring detail. Read and study it enough and you will 'get it', but the difficulty then comes in the application of this in the real world.

Don't get me wrong, a firm grasp of all of these things and more won't hurt you photographic process at all, it will help, but don't follow it to the letter at the expense of your creativity. So where do you learn about photography? How do you pour fuel on your creative photographic fire? There are two answers in my opinion and both are relatively simple - LOOK AT PICTURES and DO STUFF!

Depending on what 'genre' of photography your passionate about, be it photojournalism, documentary, sport, portrait, still life, wildlife, macro, whatever, then look at pictures others have taken (I must point out at this point that you shouldn't try and copy the pictures you see pixel for pixel - so to speak, unless, I guess it's for your own viewing pleasure or education, that would be boring). But look at them, hundreds of them, thousands even, the internet is a big place and don't forget newspapers also, after a while all these pictures will sit in a sort of 'mental hardrive' that you can draw upon for ideas - for me, my passion is photojournalism, when I look at these pictures I ask myself questions about these pictures things like how was it composed? How is it lit? How did they get the perspective they did? Where did they stand? And then I ask further questions if it's a photo-essay..Is it done simply? (often the best way to get a point across), does it flow, showing contrast and variety? Does it work better in colour or black and white? And on it goes (NOTE: I won't go into photo-essay projects too much here I'm working on another entry to look at this subject).

But the more you look at and then ask questions of these pictures the more you will develop and improve as a photographer - Please note that none of these questions really ask about the kit used - what camera was that taken on etc - who cares! The only time kit issues make an appearance I think should be if you try and work out the lens used to obtain the perspective that the photographer achieved, or if you try and reverse engineer a lit photo.

My second way to keep your creative juices flowing is to 'DO STUFF' -push yourself, learn the basics, develop them, practice them, improve on them but at the same time keep thinking of personal projects you can do. For me, I have at the time of writing this SIX projects that I am working on - some are still very much in the early planning stages others are a little further along and with some I'm taking pictures already. It doesn't matter if you have a specific end use for them at this stage, great if you do but don't stress if you don't, as it develops you might make a contact through the course of doing the project which opens other doors. The planning and thought process involved are a big attraction for me with these documentary projects and that's before I get to the picture taking stage.

Remember: Be flexible, remain motivated, keep inspired, look at pictures, look at some more pictures and then get out there and take some!

Below are 4 pictures I have taken as part of a project I'm currently doing on 'Allotments' - I decided from the start to shoot in black and white, I also decided to shoot it all on prime lenses - 14mm, 20mm, 24mm, 50mm and 85mm depending on subject. I wanted to try and shoot in a different style - quite harsh and contrasty, I still don't have a confirmed end use but I could try and go for an exhibition, maybe get it published as a photobook, maybe a gardening magazine I don't know yet - but it doesn't matter at this stage it's just good to be putting an idea into practice and taking some pictures.

Evening Surf at Saltburn

Evening surf at Saltburn, even though it was small, good light and a nice sunset afforded the opportunity to take some silhouette shots of a couple of friends down on the beach in Saltburn.

No photoshop trickery here apart from normal darkroom techniques - dodging and burning and slight contrast and levels alterations.

Don't be afraid to experiment with Black and White, even though the light was good.

The key to a successful silhouette is to keep the composition fairly simple yet have a strong subject matter.

Morning Glass

There are a few things that go towards making a half decent surf photograph - Decent surfers, good waves, equipment that will allow you to capture the shots with good enough quality, composition, timing, a willingness to stand with wet feet for a few hours(!), a knowledge of the subject, patience, persistence, the list could go on..

But one thing that will make or break any picture, not just surf pictures is LIGHT. Even with all the above in place, if you don't have good light you might as well leave the camera in the bag and go for a surf yourself.

I was photographing yesterday at a spot close to where I live, which will of course remain nameless, an early start had us there for about 7.15 as the early morning light was working its magic on the surf. But even with good light, the location of the surfers in relation to the sun and myself on the reef always proves tricky with the camera exposure shifting all over the place.

Most of the action shots were taken pretty much straight into the sun, 'contre-jour' as the books call it, which comes from the French 'against daylight'.

Its always a buzz going through the edit from a shoot where you think you might have taken a few good shots, its even more of a buzz when you see a couple of winners.

Surf Injury

So there I was surfing at Saltburn yesterday, took off on a cracking left-hander, couple of turns later off I came only to feel a big blow on my chin, as I paddled back out into the line up the first sign of something wrong, apart from the stars in front of my eyes was the big piece missing from the nose of my board - probably not a good sign!

Then, noticing the blood flowing heavily onto the board below me as I paddled I reached up and felt a hole in my chin, again, probably not a good sign!!

Three hours, a trip to A and E, two pieces of broken surfboard and four stitches later this is the end result. Nice. Although I ask everyone not to concern themselves too much, you will be relieved to hear that I have been informed that the board should not be too difficult to repair. At least I have an excuse not to shave for a bit. Surf on.

Saltburn Folk Festival

This weekend saw the 11th Festival of Folk Music, Dance and Song come to the Cleveland town of Saltburn by the Sea. The event, which sees folk musicians and fans of the music from all over the country descend on the Victorian seaside town has always been well supported by people and businesses from the local community and this year was no exception.

The weekend gives the opportunity for artists to perform in many of the pubs and venues in the town and with a full programme of entertainment throughout the weekend everyone attending had plenty to keep them busy.

I took some pictures during an impromptu musicians session in one of the local pubs.

The festival returns to Saltburn in August next year and will once again pull in fans of this music scene from all over the country.