Nature Reserve

Tucked away in the middle of a busy military training area in North Yorkshire is a small oasis of natural calm. The Foxglove Covert Local Nature Reserve is a small nature reserve covering several acres and consists of woodlands, ponds and fields that allow many different species of wildlife, some of which are very rare, to thrive.

The Woodland Centre.

Walkers follow the Moor Trail.

Funded through donations from visitors and local businesses the centre is the only local nature reserve that is on MOD land and has developed into a popular centre for lovers of the countryside and wildlife with many trails criss-crossing the area, bird feeders and hides from which to view the wildlife.

One of the two reserve managers, Marion Hannaford and her dog Willow.

Reserve Manager Sophie Benaiges.

Despite the busy and often noisy military training that takes place around the reserve the 'wall' of trees surrounding the site keeps the disruption to a minimum and many rare species are well adapted to living in the reserve.

The ponds are home to many rare amphibians.

A trail amongst newly planted saplings.

Looked after by the two reserve managers and a handful of volunteers the site is well maintained and has a modern visitors centre with displays and information boards to educate visitors on what can be seen.

Highland cattle in the nature reserve.

Horses on the beach

Horses on the beach at Saltburn

Lifeboat Training

RNLI crew train in the beach break at Saltburn beach.

Back in the Day...

Check this handy application out, takes seconds to download and is free, the shortcuts take a while to get used to but it offers a simple way of writing those press releases or articles without any other on screen distractions.

And... it makes the key sounds of an old typewriter!

All you then have to do is stick a pencil behind your ear, stick a fag in your mouth and you can imagine yourself working to the deadline with the editor on your case!!

Here's the link.....
http://www.baara.com/q10/

Clemenceau - PART 3

As the ship was towed past where I was on the shore I decided that it was time to get the pictures out.

I returned to my Landrover and powered up the laptop and got everything ready to download my pictures. Because I had plenty of time to prepare for this job, which doesn't always happen of course, everything was ready to go, folder structure was already created to bring my RAW images into, my file info was good to go in Photo Mechanic and I had already written a news release with some general details on what was planned including a brief history on the ship.

After ingesting the pictures with Photo Mechanic, including renaming them and applying general file info, I quickly viewed through and 'tagged' up any I liked, Photo Mechanic is a brilliant piece of software for this, very quick and easy to use, after tagging my 'take' I brought them up in a separate screen and began to bring them into Photoshop CS2 for editing.

Editing is kept to a minimum, with basic adjustments made such as a quick levels tweak if required, a quick crop, again if needed, although I try to compose as close as I can in camera to what I want at the end to save on the editing time. Then they are saved into what I call my 'HI RES' folder, this contains all my edited pictures at their full size. At this stage I add any picture specific file info that is extra to what I originally attached, this could include for example, an individuals name or something about a picture relevant to the story that isn't included in the general file info.

Once again through Photo Mechanic I resave all these pictures into a 'LOW RES' folder, this contains the pictures I intend to wire out at the appropriate size for the papers.

In preparation for this, the day before, I had called everyone I was going to send pictures to and given them a heads up so they knew to expect some pictures. This avoids, hopefully, my email going unseen in an inbox somewhere, especially on a Sunday as this was and it also 'sows the seed' for the story. Then the images were attached to an email with the news release and sent out apart from one which was sent by ftp.

Almost straight away I called the desks to let them know that I had sent some pictures in and that it would be with them soon. At this point I packed my gear away and headed home, for me, about a 15 minute drive from where I had taken the pictures. After getting home and getting a brew on I began to call the desks once again to see if the email had arrived. This proved useful because a couple of the desks said they hadn't received it, so after resending it I decided that I had done all I could to get the pictures out.

It had taken approximately 15 to 20 minutes from returning to my car to attaching the photos ready to send out.

As a freelance you have a number of difficulties doing this work off your own back and not working to a commission, most of which are financially based problems. The papers have a number of options open to them to get there pictures from an event like this...

1. They use their own staff photographers' work whose wages they already pay.
2. They use work off the 'wire' supplied by agency phots - Reuters, Getty, PA, AP etc, agencies that they pay a 'subscription' to each year in order to use their images.
3. They can take on a regional agency to cover the job having already established a contract with them.
4. They can decide to use a freelance photographers work based on a commission for that particular job.

As you can tell from this list, for a newspaper to use a photo from another source - an on spec submission from a freelance for example, that they have to pay for is unlikely when they have all the above options open to them. Exceptions to this would be a huge story which was exclusive to the freelance tog.

So what results for my efforts. Unfortunately, nothing this time, a quick scan of the papers I had submitted to revealed that of those who ran the story they had all used pictures by their own staffers or from an agency.

This is the game though, you win some and you lose some, does it piss me off? Of course it does, it's a lot of work for nothing to show, financially, but in the freelance game if you give yourself a hard time each time you get a poor result your going to get very disappointed after a while. The best thing I find to do after each job is to carry out a quick analysis on the story and see what I could have done differently on my side to make sure I can do it as quickly and as professionally as possible and at the best quality and make any adjustments as necessary and then move on and forget about it. Unless you can secure a commission then this is going to be the difficulty faced each time.

Although I do have two more papers to check yet so you never know...now, what's next?

Clemenceau - PART 2

Clemenceau

So this was the idea - photograph the arrival on Teeside of the ship and then get it sent out to the newspapers. Simple idea, but some research and planning was needed. To start with, this story had potential to reach the nationals. It had some good ingredients...A massive French naval vessel, jobs generated in a time of economic troubles, a huge environmental risk due to the asbestos, previous ships from the US Naval reserve have come to the same firm in the past. All good parts to a story.

So research was first, I went online and started googling the Clemenceau to find out what it was and get some background. After that it was onto the Able UK website to get some contact details. I managed to get the number of a press officer for the company and ended up calling him over the last couple of days before the ship arrived for any last minute updates.

I also had the opportunity to get onto a boat with a 'press pool' and shoot from the water but I didn't want to do this for a couple of reasons, firstly, it might take too long to get back and file my pictures, secondly, if a lot of the other photographers were doing this I wanted to try and get something different.

Another way of checking on the progress of the ship and keeping track of regular updates was by checking the posts on their website, a screen shot of which is below...

So this all helped me to determine when it was going to come in, at least to within a couple of hours, I knew where it was going to come in and I know the area so I had a couple of possible shot ideas in my mind that might work. Of course any number of things could spoil it so it's best not to firmly adhere to your preconceived shot ideas and remain flexible.


It pays to be early when possible so I went down there about an hour before the given time of the ships' arrival, I knew that it was going to be on because I had seen the ship far out at sea earlier that day moving slowly along on the horizon, when I had walked to the papershop to get a morning paper. It was held out to sea until the tide was high enough to allow it to be towed in.


By the time it came in I was there and ready to shoot. My plan was to cover it all the way in, I had some shot ideas and depending on who turned up to watch there would be some shots showing members of the public or even possible protests from environmental groups but I knew this to be unlikely as these groups had accepted that Teeside was a better option than dumping her on some beach in India.

Waiting for the ship to get closer provided good opportunity to get some generic crowd shots...






Then as it was close enough it was a case of following it as it moved slowly into the mouth of the Tees...

The shot above is one that I had planned to take from the start as I think the graffiti lends itself to making a comment on the environmental risks that come with the ship including the estimated 700 tonnes of asbestos thought to be on board.

So after 2 weeks of research and planning the ship had arrived, all that remained now was to get the pictures out...details on this in Part 3.

Teeside

Looking towards the coke works on Teeside.

From the end of the seawall.

Looking down the mouth of the River Tees with the, now shut down, lifeboat station on the left and the industrial cranes on the right.

Clemenceau - PART 1

This is the first part of a 3 part blog post about a recent job I have been involved with.

I wanted to explain a job and the process I followed in order to take the job from the initial idea all the way through the planning and research to the taking of the photos and then the subsequent output of the story to the media and the results.

As I write Part 1, I am unsure as to which newspapers, if any, will use my photos. I find out tomorrow!

Below is some initial background information on the job...

The Clemenceau is, a 238 metre long French aircraft carrier. It was one of the main vessels in the French Navy for many years before the decision was made to de-commission the ship and send it to the breakers yard.

Launched in 1957, the Clemenceau was the mainstay of the French naval fleet until it was decommissioned in 1997 and when fully loaded weighs 32,700 tonnes. The vessel, affectionately known as ‘Le Clem’ was named after Georges Clemenceau who served as the French Prime Minister between 1906 – 1909 and again from 1917 – 1920.

The Clemenceau is highly contaminated with asbestos and has previously been turned away from Turkish, Greek and Indian waters and environmental groups have opposed the decision to bring the vessel to the UK.

Able UK specialise in the demolition and dismantling of large facilities and marine vessels and have secured the contract for the dismantling of the carrier.


I first heard that the vessel was going to be towed into Teesport on a very brief, local TV news report about 2 weeks ago. I always listen to or watch news reports, both national and local, to try and pick up on possible stories that I might be able to get involved with. Sometimes the smallest piece of information can generate an idea for a story. As a freelance you have to be prepared to source your own stories, and determine which stories offer potential, you don't always have a picture desk giving you the stories to cover and you want to cover stories that result in some financial success - especially when, as a freelance, your covering the expenses!

This initial part of the process really appeals to me and when you come upon a good idea it does generate a good buzz as the ideas for the story take shape.

This was one such story and I realised straight away that there was potential in covering it. In Part 2, I will go into my planning and research leading up to the day of the shoot and the shoot itself.

Graffitti

Passed this abandoned house the other day with graffiti sprayed all over the walls and it struck me that the comments sprayed on the walls go against what you would normally expect to read when it comes to graffiti. Thats what I thought anyway?

Either way, you have to agree with the sentiment though.

Steel works

I was driving past the steel works on Teeside over the weekend and noticed the run off from the steel making process was trickling down out of the steelworks and looked to me like a stream of molten lava from some volcano.

It was only after photographing the scene did I then notice the workers inside this inferno...

I couldn't get the access to get close enough to do the whole thing justice this time but it is definitely something to consider following up and doing a more in depth story on in the future.

NEW WEBSITE

I'm pleased to announce that my new website is now up and running, check it out at...

www.ianforsythphotography.co.uk


Many thanks to Matt Kirwan ( www.mattkirwan.co.uk ) for building the site and providing technical guidance and giving answers to my endless questions, if your looking to start a website or upgrade your current site you should give him a call and check out what he can provide.

A 'projects' tab will also be coming online soon within the new site to showcase some of my multi-media work so keep checking back for updates.

NEW surf blog

To keep my surfing photography seperate from my other work, and allow me to post new images and comment I have started a new blog specifically on surf photography.

The address is: http://surftog.blogspot.com/

Alternatively, you can follow the tab from my main website: http://ianforsythphotography.co.uk
and go and check it out.

My top 20 list

I don't really follow the trend of giving myself a New Year resolution to try and keep, you can never maintain them anyway, but this year I have given myself some 'aims' of what I want to have achieved with my photography before the end of the year. Some might be relatively easy to achieve others might be a little harder, some will need a little more time than others and some will be virtually impossible, but hey, never say never!

Below is my list of things I need to try and achieve this year...in no particular order...

1. Continue to develop my print portfolio and keep it current.
2. Get my new website up and running (...cheers Matt it's looking good so far).
3. Keep working on my lighting set-ups and technique with my 'Strobist' lighting gear.
4. Start buying necessary camera equipment and stop buying unneccesary camera equipment.
5. Keep working on my personal projects and then keep the momentum going.
6. Keep working on multimedia projects to keep the standard rising.
7. Arrange meetings to discuss my portfolio with the picture editors of at least two major newspapers or news agencies. (The Guardian and Reuters!?)
8. Have one of my photos used in the Guardian's 'In Pictures' double page spread in the centre of the newspaper.
9. Keep taking plenty of photographs.
10. Look for the different and unusual and then photograph it.
11. Keep networking and building my business for when I get out the Army in 3 years (yey!) so I can start doing the projects I want to do.
12. Keep on top of my business accounts and my record keeping.
13. Stop carrying more kit than I need when I go on jobs, my shoulder is knackered!
14. Pursue more shifts with the newspapers in my area.
15. Be more proactive with story ideas that may be of interest to the papers.
16. Plan ahead more for possible stories.
17. Make more effort to keep supplying the picture libraries with my surfing photographs.
18. Enjoy my photography more and remember why taking pictures is such an incredible thing to do and force myself not to get stressed when the crappy work jobs piss me off!
19. Keep on top of my blog posts!
20. Stop making lists!

So there it is, my top 20 things to be getting on with, I will post on here as things are achieved and I will try and remember to recap on what I have actually managed as we go through the year.

Plain Crazy

Saltburn Animal Rescue Association looks after abandoned animals from the East Cleveland area with the hope of getting many of the animals, mainly dogs, together with new owners. As many charities find, funding is always an ongoing concern, the Association supports the traditional New Year's Day Dip at Saltburn beach as a way of raising some much needed funds...

At the stroke of 11am those individuals willing (crazy enough) to run into the freezing cold waters of the North Sea all line up and prepare for the rush to the waters edge...

The inevitable cold rush that follows their brief dash into the cold water begins as soon as they leave the water...

Despite the low temperatures and cold water most remain in good spirits...

Although sometimes, and even though it's all in aid of a good cause, it's just plain wrong!

Happy New Year!

And the band plays on...

The Heavy Cavalry and Cambrai band are based in Catterick Garrison in North Yorkshire. With all band members trained as musicians by the military their role is to provide music at official parades, visits or other special occasions. To reach such a high level of musical skill they practice and practice. The following multimedia piece is from one of their recent rehearsals....

After the Silence - Harry

Former soldier Harry is a veteran of Burma and India at the end of the second World War, after being called up for service in February 1944 when he was 17 he set sail from Scotland and sailed to India on the SS Orion, arriving in Bombay over a month later. "It took us ages to get there, because of the threat from U-boats we had to zig-zag all the way there" said Harry.

The following photographs are from a shoot I did today with Harry...



As one of the first former servicemen to take part in my 'After the Silence' project, Harry kindly agreed to meet up with me and let me take some pictures and share some stories about his time in India, a keen photographer, then and now, he still keeps many of his old negatives in his home and in the picture above he proudly showed me his favourite photograph from that time of an Indian beggar whose picture he took on a street in India.



More of Harry's adventures will appear later as the project grows in size, and the hope is to also produce a multimedia piece featuring many of the ex-servicemen.

This project is still ongoing so if you are an ex-serviceman or woman from any conflict from any time and want to get involved in this project then get in touch and we can discuss the details..

My contact details if you want to get involved with this project or if you know somebody who might like to you can email me at..... ianforsyth2003@yahoo.co.uk

Go the extra mile!

Once again it always pays to have your camera with you, or at least, to be prepared to drop everything and head out to try and catch a story as it unfolds and before the best shots have gone.

Sometimes though you have to go a little further, in this case over a mile and a half across the beach at Skinningrove on the East Cleveland coast. In this incident, some poor sod had gone over the edge of the cliff and fallen some 70 foot, breaking his leg in the process.



An RAF Seaking helicopter was already there as were the police, ambulance, fire brigade and the coastguard, unsure as to whether I would be able to reach the scene before the casualty was airlifted I tried to get some shots as I accompanied the emergency services along the beach to try and show the distance they had to travel to get to the scene. Some pictures would be better than nothing if indeed the helicopter had rescued the casualty before I was able to get there.

As we closed in on the area where the casualty was lying, the Seaking was dropping a crew member off to allow him to get to work with the medics already at the scene to make sure the injured man was initially treated and secured to the stretcher prior to the lift taking place.

As the Seaking landed on the reef to wait for the word to go back and winch the casualty aboard, firefighters at the base of the cliff liaised with other emergency services as to the condition of the casualty.

As the word came that the casualty was ready to be hoisted aboard, the Seaking took off and moved slowly into position, obviously taking extreme care with the high cliffs nearby until it hovered above the place where the injured man lay.

With the winch-man hooked up and with the stretcher secured the injured man was slowly winched aboard the helicopter before being taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. All in all not a bad job, a couple of newspapers picked the story up after I wired the pictures in, but that wasn't until I had walked the mile and a half back to where my car was parked!

Keep your eyes open..

When I'm out on a job, either my normal work as a photographer for the Army or when I'm doing shifts for a local paper (...in my own time in case my boss reads this!!) I try and keep my eyes open for other picture opportunities that I might come across when out on other jobs.

You never know, it might lead to another story, or something more interesting or simply allows you to 'keep your photographic eye in'.

In this case I was in Newcastle the other week doing a shift for a local newspaper. While out getting pictures for one of their regular pieces in the paper there were a couple of events taking place in the Grey's monument area of the town that I stopped and photographed..

This is a guy trying to promote the 'Fight Against Global Capitalism' by highlighting the plight of Cuban socialists by urging people to fight against the US blockade in Cuba...

...in the same area, about 20 metres away, there was a bungee trampoline contraption set up which allowed members of the public to get harnessed in and have a go on the trampoline.

I thought it a bit of a surreal mix - Fighting global capitalism on the one side and bouncing on a trampoline next to it.

Worth photographing though.

Keep your eyes open - there's always something to photograph.

If you can't stand the heat...

I was covering a formal function the other night and between some of the other relatively mundane requirements of the night I thought I would also try and put a short piece together on what goes on behind the scenes...

The Photographic Cycle

Speaking with fellow photographer Matt Kirwan the other day(http://www.mattkirwan.co.uk/index.php?page=home ) he spoke about how he had finally, after a long delay, taken delivery of his copy of the Press Photographers Year Book, (http://www.theppy.com/). This book is sent out to all the entrants into the competition and contains all the winning photographs from each category. As we discussed the book and the quality of the entries it became apparent to me that looking at books like this causes a bit of a dilemma to the photographer.

Having looked at the copy I received and also at the World Press Photo Competition (http://www.worldpressphoto.org/) book that I received for submitting photos to their competition, (and whilst I would love to say how I had won a category in this famous competition - But I didn't!) but there is a definite 'cycle' that as a photographer I find, having read these books, that I go through when looking at the high quality entries.

I find it is a four part cycle...

Part 1: AWE
The cycle starts with a feeling of amazement at the standard of the pictures that you see.

Part 2: INSPIRATION
A wave of inspiration as you look at how you can begin new projects or look for new ideas.

Part 3: PANIC
Blind panic kicks in as you realise that if your honest with yourself your probably never going to be anywhere near as good as some of the photographers whose work you looking at!

Part 4: MOTIVATION
Despite the reality you feel motivation to continue regardless, hoping to improve and learn as you go along.

And you know what, you will, faster than you realise, because there is no better way to develop your ideas than look at other pictures and build your ideas from there.

And as for the future competitions, well you never know, one day, maybe.

Will We Remember Them All?

Whilst the Remembrance Day Services are still fresh in your mind I have posted four pictures below. Taken in a cemetery in Saltburn in Cleveland, England they belong to four servicemen. I have no idea who they are beyond the names on the stone or what they did or how they died or indeed anything else about them. There were no services at their grave, no parades in their memory, no poppy wreaths laid on the cold, wet ground, no religious words or prayers - if you believe in religious words and prayers. I don't. Nothing to tell of their history, their lives or their endeavours.

These white headstones standing anonymously amongst all the others in the graveyard, untended, unkempt, forgotten, with the dead Autumn leaves gathered at the base, fallen from the skeletons of trees surrounding them are the only visible reminder of them having lived and died at all.

So next time, as the parades take place around the country and our political leaders are seen in all the right places and the religious leaders say their piece and our royals do their thing spare a thought, brief or otherwise for these forgotten reminders, scattered around the country of what it's all really about, of what is really important.

2nd Lieutenant GA McNeal - Royal Signals - Died 26th June 1940

CSM J Sloane - East Lancashire Regiment - Died 19th May 1920

2nd Lieutenant Wilhelm Jacobus K Knoll - Royal Air Force - Died 20th May 1916

Sapper CP Aitken - Royal Engineers - Died 23rd August 1918

Get busy living..

One of my all time favourite films is the 'Shawshank Redemption', starring Tim Robbins as an accountant sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit, forced into all kinds of awful situations who then after spending years in Jail finally escapes after planning to do so for years by digging through a wall to get out and crawling through shit, literally, for hundreds of feet to freedom. Fleeing to Mexico from the prison he sends documents to the FBI that implicates the warden of the Jail for fraud and other crimes and awaits the arrival of his friend played by Morgan Freeman.

I won't go into it further in case you haven't seen it, but get yourself to Blockbuster and check it out, but there is a line in the film that I always find provides me with massive inspiration. It makes you want to just think about whatever it is you want to do in your life and doing it. Seizing the moment. Taking or making an opportunity and just jumping in and seeing where it takes you. It may work out, it may not, and the implications of it not working out can be pretty severe. Things like financial security (or rather financial piece of mind- I don't earn that much), stability, an element of certainty, fear of the unknown, family or other pressures, work pressures, paying the mortgage,the list goes on; all this adds to the decision to go for something different becoming very difficult to make.

I have three years to go before my time in the Army is complete - 22 years! A lifetime really, a period of time that I can now reflect on with various feelings. Extremes of emotions. From immense pride to complete disillusionment. Sometimes I think of the sacrifices I have had to make on a personal and professional level to keep on top of my game, to be good at what I did. I like to think I was good at what I used to do and also what I do now. But it comes at a price. You have to put some things to one side, in my opinion, to be good at this job: family, friends, relationships, career, other work opportunities. All take a back seat for the 'greater good'.

But there comes a time when you have to make a change, you have to concentrate on what is important to you and where you want your life to go. Three years is a short amount of time in the scheme of things, it does go past quickly, my last 19 years show me this, and at the end of it, when my time is up and I finish my 22 years - a pension awaits, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, the carrot on the stick, the flame that attracts the moth, the temptation that keeps you ploughing on regardless for years and years. Truth is, it's not a massive amount really, handy to have but your not going to be retiring to somewhere warm and sunny and drinking cocktails for the rest of your life.

But that is by the by, the question is, can I wait for another three years? This is my dilemma. My quandary. If I am honest with myself I am ready now, to leave it all behind, I have been for a while now, a long while, my situation now is such that I would quite happily walk away with no regrets. To continue my photographic life as a civilian. To become a better photographer and do the things I want to do, to work on the projects I want to develop away from the military. To photograph issues that I am interested in.

The sooner the better, but the 'sensible' part of my brain constantly flags up warning messages about financial issues, security etc...the 'what ifs' that can keep you up nights.....

Time for a decision to be made, or rather, time for me to act on a decision already made.

By the way, the line in the film is......'Get busy living, or get busy dying'.

Time to do just that. And as Morgan Freeman says in response to this line, 'absolutely, goddamn right'!

The film ends as the camera pulls back to reveal our hero working on an old fishing boat resting on a long, sandy, deserted beach.

Contented......at peace......free.

Parade outside the Box

I've covered many military parades before and to a certain extent you can initially make a mental note of all the 'safe' shots that you need to obtain in order to cover the event effectively but you should always keep an eye open for other possibilities. This applies to all your jobs. If you have to fulfill a brief then make sure you do so but don't forget to also keep your creative eye open for other pictures. Push the limits and really look for alternative pictures. Try different techniques on the fly to see if you can get some good results.

Don't be afraid to experiment and see what you can achieve, it costs nothing other than a fraction of a second. Learn and understand exposure and then under or over expose on purpose to see the effect. Get away from convention. Get away from the norm. Everyone else will be doing that. Shoot straight into the sun. Get your flash involved by popping some light into an underexposed image it can make it really jump out, especially with the red tunics some of the troops here are wearing.

Blur your pictures on purpose, whilst adding some fill flash and see what happens. Many pictures won't work, some are close and one or two will look good. However, don't think that this is a 'hit and hope' approach, relying on luck alone to get a picture, remember, it's partly luck but also it needs a sound knowledge of the techniques in the first place and then all you need is the imagination to push it.

Despite all of this the one thing I find is the most helpful of all is probably the most obvious piece of advice. LOOK for pictures, really look, as you move around your subject, look for angles, look for an approach, look for something different. It takes concentration and after a long shoot you can be drained from the concentration involved but sometimes, if you get a good shot, it is worth it.