The Day Job

Follow the link to see a brief commentary and a few pictures from some of the work I normally do as part of my day job.

Cut and paste the link below into your address bar.....

http://www.army.mod.uk/news/press-office/7728.aspx#

Arthur's Story

When I first met Arthur and his partner Kaz, they were riding up a dusty track on a motorcycle back to their caravan, a caravan that they have called home for the last year or so. The track that they were riding up is called the Drove, it runs next to the ancient monument of Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England and for many years it was used to move livestock along it, to the markets at Netheravon and Salisbury but now, it marks a pothole ridden border to this ancient monument and acts as an impromptu carpark for visitors to the circle of stones who are reluctant to pay the parking fees in the official carpark a little further along the main road.




I had spent the last hour or so waiting for Arthur to return and had spent it looking at the stone circle and the many hundreds of people climbing out of buses or day trippers who were swarming around the English Heritage monument, I had read about Arthur in the papers over the previous week and about the battle that he was now embroiled in and thought that I would try and meet him and find out something of his struggle.


I should also point out that Arthur has a more formal title, a title that may, to the uninitiated, seem a little strange, he is known, legally, as King Arthur Pendragon and is, to use his full title, the Titular Head and Chosen Chief of The Loyal Arthurian Warband and Battle Chieftain of The Council of British Druid Orders.

He is, basically, the head of all the Druids. The leader of all those that follow the beliefs held sacred by this ancient order.



Druids - A brief background...


The Ancient Druids were Judges, Kingmakers, Scientists, Magicians and Priests. The word Druid comes from both the Cornish and Welsh words meaning either knowledge of the Oak or Wizard, or Wise man.

Druidry itself is more of a philosophical viewpoint than a religious view, although it would be fair to say that many Druids view themselves also as Pagan Priests.

There are three basic grades or types of Druids, these are....

The Bardic grade, which deals predominantly with teaching, poetic, artistic, and academic skills, the Vate grade that deals predominantly with the Intuitive and Magical skills and the Druid grade that deals also with Public ritual and Judgements.

There are many different Orders of Druids, both National and Local. Some prefer to only work within their own Sacred landscape, whilst others are equally at home in many different locations. Some Orders concentrate on the teaching side of Druidry, whilst others will concentrate on the Magical and Intuitive.

Arthur is the recognised King of all the druids.


For the last year or so King Arthur has been fighting a battle, a struggle, with English Heritage and ultimately Wiltshire Council over access to the site, he wants the removal of the perimeter fence around the 'henge to allow druids free access to the site, to their site, their monument, so that they can once again conduct their business on free land, a land they see as a very sacred place. This battle has resulted in an eviction order being placed on him and as of last Saturday he was meant to have moved on from his make shift home, something he flatly refuses to do.

Since he set up his picket last summer, a picket that has been entirely peaceful and without any violence, over 8,000 people, including tourists from all over the world, have signed a petition supporting his cause. He wants the fences removed and to open it fully to the public, with a tunnel under the A303 and grass over the A344 roads.

His supporters all say that far from posing a nuisance, they ultimately helped English Heritage to keep the site tidy by picking up rubbish and raising awareness of the importance of this site.

Kim

Arthur and Kaz are supported at the site of their protest by fellow druids Kim and his wife Andrea, who own a well lived-in camper van next to the caravan and who provide administrative and logistical support and are equally passionate about the cause. They also receive visits from local druids to offer support as well as constant phone calls and emails from supporters the length and breadth of the country.

At the time of writing, Arthur has not left the site of his caravan and to date the local authorities have yet to enforce the eviction order placed on him.


The struggle continues...

Yours in the heat of battle;
The peace of the grove and
The sacred space between

To read more of Arthur's struggle visit his website...

www.warband.org.uk

Polo

Two teams, four players in each team, a period of play is called a 'chukka', there are six of these in a match, each lasting for seven minutes.

Polo is a fast and furious subject to photograph, all the usual sports photography challenges apply:
Fast movement, rapid exposure changes, awareness of clean backgrounds, accurate focus, capture peak of the action, anticipation, get the ball in the frame, composition, good light...

Try and get all these things together and add healthy touch of luck and your on your way. Obviously spending time on a subject lets you 'read' the sport better but don't let unfamiliarity with a sport put you off having a go at getting some pictures.

Try dragging your shutter to get some movement to show the drama and action.


You don't just have to fill the frame, try shooting a little wider to go for more of an 'arty' shot, and don't forget about the prep work going on behind the scenes with the grooms getting the horses ready, feeding them and putting the saddles on, there are plenty of documentary shots to be had.

This was my first go at shooting Polo and I'm looking to get back next weekend and have another go, it definitely presents a challenge but if you get the chance, then get amongst it.

What a State!

Nobody can have missed the recent coverage of the G20 meetings in London and the death of a worker returning home from his job as he passed by police officers and was pushed violently to the ground or the reactions of a police officer as he struck a female protester in the midst of the demonstrations and followed it up with a strike with his baton.

The way that the public know about this is because it was, of course, all reported in the media.
Now the facts of these events will come to light in due course, following full investigations and the wider public will find out the details one way or another, it will reach the public domain - it always does. Eventually.

But what should not be forgotten in all the debate, blame, investigation, recriminations, suspensions and everything else that kicks off when events like this take place is that it is the media, there at the time, experiencing the same risks as everyone else, only more so - They risk flying bottles from protesters on one side and they risk flying batons from the police on the other - that takes it from an incident that would pass by without a second thought to one that brings these events to public awareness.

So am I saying that all members of the media are crusading superhero types battling for the greater good of society, who bravely forge ahead with the relentless conflict against the tyranny of the institution and the 'big brother' mind set of the database generation, the politically incorrect, 'there is no hidden agenda' government spokesman?

Is this what I mean?

Is it bollocks!

Of course they're not, they are regular people trying to do their job. Okay some may have an agenda, either their own or their employers but for the most part, many of the ones I have met, especially the photographers, are just going about their job and trying to do it well. To supply images for their newspapers and publications.

But because of how close we now are to living in a full on nanny state where our every move is known, where what we eat is wrong, where what we drive is frowned upon and where we go is monitored, where most of what we choose to do is treated as suspect by those who must know better as they are government ministers and politicians and as such they must know better, we are, after all, but simple folk, who, due to our obvious and basic stupidity would descend into a lemming like panic if not for the comforting support of our government angels watching over us all from their granite towers in Westminster.

The media is not entirely blameless of course, some of the scare mongering pushed to us all is by design, some of it is simply to sell papers and magazines some of it is because they are in the dubious position of having to put out to the public the Government lines that they need to feed us to keep us in check, to keep us in line, to maintain their control.

The climate is changing, the world as we know it is changing at an ever increasing rate, terrorism will get you, it will strike you down at anytime and any place, there is no escape. Soldiers come back in flag draped coffins from shitty places overseas and their stories are overshadowed by the higher and, of course, far more important story of Jane fucking Goody! Who gives a shit about her?

We are fed, by some areas of the press, but more by government press releases, a diet of mediocre bullshit, of mundane, celebrity orientated crap with the occasional statement of regret from a politicians' spokesperson about their unfortunate and regretful failings that keeps us all distracted whilst the real work of fucking up the country takes place.

You know how it goes...

"......It is of course with deep regret that I messed up my expense accounts, I didn't know, honestly, it is a rather confusing system, and you should also know that I thought that I was downloading educational pdf files and never for one minute thought it was porn, oh, but I have just bought a new electric car to help save the planet and as such have implemented a new bill to see 10, 000 new electric cars released onto the streets of the capital that will guarantee a reduction in carbon emissions by 3% by the year 2050 and on this subject I can categorically state that any talk by the opposition party of a 70% increase in carbon emissions in order to produce the electricity for the cars in the first place is false because we have some scientists and some experts and stuff checking it out, BUT if you let us put you on our DNA database you will be safe from everyone including terrorist cells from Pakistan and Manchester, deranged power crazy, ill-disciplined riot police, environmentalists at Stanstead, paedophiles and Catholic priests, climate change, cancer and the Jehovah's fucking witnesses, but please remember to vote for us and not them because at least we won't mess things up as much as they will. The war in Afghanistan is of course going well, exactly as planned, pretty much, it is of course with deep regret that we have lost so many but as our 'cut and pasted' words of concern say we will never forget the sacrifice of Corporal er, what's his name and of course America remains our closest friend as does anyone else with strong business links between us but unlike the opposition we will never simply pretend that we give a shit about those third world types, we of course really, really do. Really we do, so anyway thanks for coming to the press conference, unfortunately I cannot take any questions because they might prove difficult and you journo types will change my real meaning anyway."

Don't forget to vote!


What a State!

Kenya - Scenery

I have never thought of myself as a landscape photographer. I appreciate a good landscape photograph as much as the next person and can admire the patience and commitment of the dedicated landscape shooter, but I never really got into it that much - if I happen to be some place and a good landscape photo opportunity presents itself then I will take a picture, of course I will I'm a photographer, it's just that I can't seem to find the patience, at least not when it comes to landscapes.

However, you cannot fail to be impressed by the landscapes that are presented to you in Kenya. Especially in the area that we were, near Nanyuki, where Mount Kenya (around three times higher than Ben Nevis) was visible on the distance horizon.The morning and evening light is amazing and well worth trying to capture if you can, so with my apologies to the hard core landscape shooters out there I have posted a couple of my efforts below...

Kenya - People

I've recently returned from a brief, five day trip to Kenya on assignment with a journalist from the Independent, his piece should be running soon and I'll put something up on here when it does. But in the mean time I wanted to share a few of the other photos that I took whilst I was there.

Kenya is an amazing place, I have been there once before a few years back and you cannot fail to be impressed by a country that has had a difficult time recently. The first hurdle we had to cross was navigating through the early morning rush hour traffic as we drove out of Nairobi following the eight hour flight from London. Chaotic hardly begins to describe it as cars move randomly along the streets without any obvious right of way or traffic rules. Cars crawl along bumper to bumper, if your horn isn't working then your in trouble.

As the traffic stops and starts as it grinds along, the street sellers approach the waiting cars with all manner of products hoping for a sale, everything from daily newspapers, DVD's, steering wheel covers, flags, ceremonial machetes, plastic windmills and other assorted collections of trivia. It would be interesting to discover how many of these steering wheel covers they actually sell?

Nairobi seems, at least in the relatively small part of it we were passing through, to be a city of huge contrasts. On the one hand you have very impressive buildings with amazing architecture and mixed in around it there are signs of great poverty but it all seems to blend into one massive, sprawling sea of people, noise and traffic.

After breaking free of the rush hour traffic and getting further into the countryside the roads become less congested but are less well maintained and some of the potholes are pretty serious and can catch out the unaware. Its also worth keeping an eye out for sheep and cattle that are frequently moved down the sides of the road.

One thing that immediately strikes you is the rich, red colour of the soil as you drive through the open plains, contrast this with the lush greens that seem to come to life as the rainy season starts between March and May and you have heady mix of dark colours that grab your attention.

Maybe as a way of giving themselves more colour, to break up the dark rich earthy colours that colour the landscape many of the buildings, signs and window shutters are painted in bright colours - as you pass by you cannot fail to notice the bright yellows, greens, reds and blues that jump out and grab your attention.

Equipment and advice...

I took 2 camera bodies with me on the trip, both Nikon D2x, a large amount of memory cards, probably aroung 20Gb in total, you can never have too many memory cards! As for lenses I was using a 17-35 mm f2.8 and a 85 mm F1.4 on the bodies and carried a 50 mm f1.8, as it turned out I never used the 50 mm but it was there as a reserve in case one of my others went down.
One SB 800 speedlight fitted with a 1/4 CTO gel, an off camera flash cable, spare camera batteries, notebook, pens, memory card wallet, blower brush, paint brush for the dust and a chamois leather and lens cloth. Basic kit but essential.

For editing I had my laptop, portable hardrive for backing up and the usual leads and cables carried in a small canvas bag.
I carried my kit in one of two set ups depending on what I was doing, either a small canvas bag on my shoulder or three Domke pouches on a belt, both of which allowed me to move freely without too much weight.
Power supply is the same as UK so the plugs we use are fine although I did have a converter just in case and as it happened one of the extension sockets I used was originally from Germany so it came in useful. If you are going to have time to shoot wildlife (photographically that is!) then take some longer glass.

Take the minimum of kit that allows you to pack and move quickly and one thing I found handy was a small canvas bag from Domke that I used to keep all my cables, leads, mouse and phone charger in which made it easier to pack up into my daysack. It's worth considering weather protection from the dust and the occasional heavy downpour, this time, fortunately we never had any rain but the dust did get pretty bad, especially when driving. I found that when we were driving along I used to rest the camera on my lap and cover it with my shemagh, this helped keep the dust off when it got particularly bad but meant I could bring it to my eye and use it quickly if there was a good pitcure opportunity as we drove along. I also had a couple of gortex bags that I had made a while ago by a local seamstress which are ideal for keeping all the other bits and bobs in and keep them clean.
One thing to definitely take is some lens cleaning solution, there were a couple of occasions when I tried to clean some crap off my lens and it left a horrible smear all over the lens and no amount of rubbing would remove it but a quick spray from the lens solution and it cleaned right up. Don't forget to fit UV filters over your glass to protect them, better to damage or scratch a 20 quid filter than your more expensive lenses and it's worth carrying a couple of spares in case of damage.
One final thing to consider is the battery life of your laptop, I was quite lucky and had access to electricity most nights so was able to charge my stuff up but there were a couple of occasions when the laptop ran out of juice so a spare battery might be an option if you can get hold of one. I have been looking at the solar charger equipment available to see if there is something that will pack enough punch to charge bigger equipment than just mobile phones but without bringing too much extra weight.

The time difference in Kenya is 3 hours ahead of the UK, currency is the Kenyan Schilling but US dollars are taken in many places. Make sure you get your jabs before going especially your yellow fever and get your malaria tablets, if your visit is last minute and you don't have much time then consider Malarone, you can take these 2 days before you go and a week after you return and they should be ok but make sure you seek medical advice from a doctor before you go to see what is best suited to your needs.
The main airport in Kenya is Nairobi Kenyatta and flights from Heathrow (Terminal 4) go there usually once a day and the flight time is around eight hours on either BA or Kenyan Airways - So take a good book! A visa is required and can be obtained either before going or on arrival at a relatively small charge. Internet terminals are available in the airport at a charge.

Africa is an amazing place and photographically it offers many opportunities for all types of photography. There is something pretty spectacular about being out in the African bush as the light fades, quickly, as your close to the equator, and soon the sky is filled with the millions of stars making up the constellations of the Milky Way, so clear it doesn't seem real. Despite the torment of this great continent it isn't surprising that people who visit quickly fall under the African spell.

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.