Kenya - Wildlife

No visit to Kenya would be complete without mention of the wildlife. As my visit wasn't primarily to photograph the wildlife I didn't take any long glass, but even with the longest lens with me at 85 mm f1.4 I was able to pull in a herd of elephant as they slowly trooped by seemingly oblivious to our presence. I counted 22 in total ranging from the female matriarch at the head of the herd closely followed by what I can only assume was the latest addition to their group.It was an impressive sight seeing them make their way through the bush and nothing you see on television comes close to seeing them in the wild, in their natural habitat. I've seen them before on a previous visit to Kenya a few years ago but never this close. Just one more amazing thing about Africa.I also saw zebra, giraffe, buffalo, gazelles, weaver birds, and hippos during the various drives through areas of the remote bush. All of which is a hell of a sight in that environment.

Travel light and work fast...

I recently agreed to shoot some portraits of my nephew who was visiting with my brother and his wife. We had decided to go out onto the beach a take a few pictures, I prefer the less formal portrait situations rather than studio portraits that can look too staged and make it harder to keep a two year old entertained.

So the beach would provide interesting photos as well as give Ted plenty to do. Another advantage of shooting in this kind of environment is that it would divert his attention from the bloke with the camera and I would get more natural images.

By it's very nature shooting portraits like this make you think on your feet. You can't control what happens so you just have to be ready to take advantage of a picture opportunity when it arises, but there are some things you can do before the shoot to prepare and give yourself the best chance of getting some nice stuff.

To start with I had changed into some older clothes, clothes and boots that I was happy to get wet and covered in sand as I knew I would be spending a lot of time at the waters edge, probably on my knees to get down to the same height as Ted.

I was keeping my kit to a minimum - 2 Nikon D2x cameras, one with a 70-200 f2.8 and the other with a 12-24mm f4, each with a 4Gb card, my trusty chamois leather that I've had for years to wipe away any water or sand splashes and a SB800 speedlight, I took this down just in case I wanted to add a bit of fill in to the pictures but I never used it.

That was it, no bag, no other lenses, simple kit that allowed me to move and shoot quickly. That's very important because you have to be ready for pictures and to work fast when you see a picture coming together and you don't want to be loaded down with lots of kit that you won't use.

None of the shots were posed, they are all taken as Ted was enjoying himself by the water. I had a couple of ideas for shots that would probably work but I didn't interfere with what was happening and in situations like this I much prefer to allow things to just happen. I find you get far more natural shots and ones that show the subject, Ted in this case, acting as he would normally act.

You have to concentrate hard at these times, always looking for poses or pictures that will be strong. I always shot in manual, so you have to be aware of the light changing in order to adjust your exposure. Keep the camera to your eye and follow the action, you can guarantee that the second you take your eye away from the viewfinder something interesting will happen and you'll miss it.

Concentrate on focusing, I was using continuous auto-focus in the main because of the random movements but I kept my finger over the focus lock button ready to press it when I wanted to hold my focus but change my composition. This takes practice and is tricky, but the more you do it the more comfortable and quicker you will become. Expect the failures though, you will get a fair few out of focus shots when either the focus point has come off your subject or there is movement that you haven't adjusted for, but don't worry about it there will be further opportunities during the shoot.

Take plenty of shots, it doesn't cost anything with digital, but as a cautionary note, don't just stick the camera on 'continuous high' and hose your subject down all the time, by all means use this feature at certain times, it is after all another tool to use and you can get some nice sequences but use it sparingly and when appropriate.

Remember to use the lenses you have with you and don't just stick to the same one, it's amazing the effects that can be achieved by switching your focal length, from the tight head shots to a wider perspective showing the subject in the environment, so experiment and see what you can get.

With practice it becomes second nature to switch very quickly between two cameras, my favoured way of working in these situations using two cameras is to have the one with the smaller lens, the 12-24 around my neck and the other with the longer lens over my right shoulder, but have it the 'wrong way around' so the lens hangs across your backside, this gives a couple of advantages, firstly it allows you to reach down and your hand goes straight onto the grip allowing you to bring it up to the eye and start shooting, if the camera strap is adjusted correctly you can leave it over your shoulder so if you need to switch to the wider lens you can drop it back down into this position quickly without worrying about making sure the strap is secure, secondly, because the lens is not sticking out from your side it is protected from banging into anything and getting damaged, this is especially useful if your moving through crowds or space is limited.

After returning to my house I put up my SB800 speedlight on my light stand and took a few portraits whilst Ted was playing with some toys, shame to miss a photo opportunity! Shooting through an umbrella and getting the light in close you can get a nice soft light which has a flattering effect on whoever you photograph. The flash was triggered with Pocket Wizards.

Hopefully though, at the end of it all you will get some nice stuff that your happy with and that catches the natural expressions and mannerisms of your subject.

One final word, continue to keep your eyes open even when the 'official' shoot has ended and your walking back to the car, you never know when a shot will present itself.

Recent pictures...

Just a couple of recent pictures from last weekend...

Birds flying over the North Sea

Teeside Steel works through sea fret.

Dog on Saltburn pier.

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!