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.