Firemonkeyphoto

Photoshelter collection closing0
neil posted in rants, Neil, phototech on September 11th, 2008

Effective 10th October.

Statement on PSC’s corporate blog here. They cite an inability to displace Getty as one of the reasons for shutting down.

I feel like I just got to a great party, opened my first beer, then the police bust the whole thing. For others, who have earned substantial income from the collection, it must be very hard news.

Imp of the perverse @ the Festival Fireworks Concert0
neil posted in Photos, rants, Neil on September 1st, 2008

I have an imp on my shoulder that talks to me when I’m deciding what shot to make. Went scouting the afternoon before the Bank of Scotland end of Festival Fireworks Concert and came up with no original angle that was sufficiently weatherproof. So I went to meet the Edinburgh Meetups flickr folks, figuring I’d shoot them shooting the fireworks or something. The imp told me this was derivative and dull and that I should go to Princes St, screw on a prime and make some people shots.

Wandering down the street I noticed people hanging out in offices above an underwear shop and made some frames. Still at a loss for a good shot, I looked again at the building. The imp and I said in stereo “I wonder….” I threw the camera on the tripod (I HATE tripods) and worked out an exposure for the ambient and started praying. The resulting faff-fest reminded me why I hate tripods as the camera flopped and misaligned. The police then took an amused interest in the one photographer facing THE WRONG DIRECTION. So, thats how to recognise me, if everyone is pointing cameras south, I’ll be the guy swearing at his tripod pointing north.

Bad weekend…..0
neil posted in rants, Neil on August 25th, 2008

Shootin’ the cover0
neil posted in Photos, rants, Neil on March 11th, 2008

A little ice water runs down between my shoulder blades when I hear “its for the cover…” or “got anything for the cover?”. Its good ice water though.
If its the former its a bit like a kick in the pants. Pics gotta sing. Trouble is, I was out of ideas. How does one illustrate “Adam Ramsey disqualified from probable election victory by out of hours campaigning. He waits for the verdict of an appeals committee” in a way that catches attention. I came up with nothing. Instead I just batted for a good average. Borrowed Kirsty to hold down a lightstand and umbrella and arranged to meet Adam. He happily went down to the library and spotted one of his election banners lying in a heap. We did some pictures with him sitting by it or standing by it but the paint on it ran onto his nice jeans. Crap. I did’nt figure I had a good enough range (nothing was suddenly like got it!) so he grabbed one of his cardboard backed posters (strategically deployed AFTER the worst pre-election weather) and I made frames like that. Changed up a bit more and then shot one pure available light frame of him reaching for a now-redundant poster. I asked if I could get a shot of him ripping it down but he thought that sounded too negative. If I’d read “the moment it clicks” a week ago, I would’nt have dropped my camera back in my bag when we were done with the flash shots and had to ask him to wait so I could make the first frame. Sod. Next time. Adam mutters “You photographers always use the last image you take…” We don’t. We pray our editors use the best picture we take and don’t hack the crap out of our masterpiece. Anyhow, off camera flash reproduces real nice on newspaper. I just need to switch up, been lighting from the right too much recently, normally with good reason like staircases and walls to the left, its starting to make everything look too similar. This is the shot that ran big on the cover:

“In many ways style finds us more than we find it….”17
neil posted in rants, Links of the week on December 3rd, 2007

Luminous landscape talking about developing a personal style. If you love photography, perhaps you should go read it here.

Inside Out0
neil posted in Photos, rants, Neil, Links of the week on September 10th, 2007

How often have you been invited inside? When a stranger invites you to take a picture that you wanted, but did’nt feel you could ask for.

Its an incredible experience and reassuring to know in a world of fear, closed doors and suspicion people can still trust a stranger. Talking to Terry Eiler, a professor of visual communications, he put it that you need to be an outsider to properly show someones world. An insider may take too much for granted and not see the novel, the strange and the remarkable. It took a Czech man to tell me that having two seperate taps at a sink is odd. I had’nt realised this in all of my life until he said so. As outsiders, we have to get our invite inside to see these things. Sometimes, however, it is not a stranger who invites you in. Jim Merithew talks about being invited into his Mother’s life here.

Testing…testing…0
neil posted in Photos, rants, Neil, Sports on July 4th, 2007

The prototype page is up here:

www.iseepeople.co.uk/firemonkey/sports/

The photos are nearly the final pick but will be tweakified.

If you see da bugs, please email me or leave a comment. Let me know what browser you are using.

Friends0
neil posted in rants, Neil on July 2nd, 2007

Larium, anime and the Scottish Socialist Party0
neil posted in rants, Neil on April 3rd, 2007

First thing this morning, I’m confronted with a newspaper from the SSP with the huge headline: “TRANSFORM SCOTLAND”. A combination of anti-malarials and anime resulted in this thought popping into my head:

How (not) to be a photographer0
neil posted in Photos, rants, Neil on February 14th, 2007

We photographers, professional and amateur alike, all exist on the sufferance of our subjects. Basically, we can only take good meaningful photographs when our subjects grant their (tacit oftentimes) approval. There are exceptions, but there are not many. Thus one of the most important skills in photography is respect. It is possible to respect a mourning family, injured footballer or charred corpse and still get the picture. Rudeness, arrogance and stubborness may get you one picture once, but no more.

We photographers are intrusive, we are distracting. The best among us either become flies on the wall (Cartier-Bresson) or active participants (Harvey). We reduce the intrusion, the distraction and we try to make our pictures without imposition or danger. Access is our key to intimate, emotive pictures and this is gained through respect and communication. If this limits your shooting, tough, make do. Often this will give you the better picture and more open mind.
Today I witnessed how not to do it. Shooting horses, hundreds of kilos of flighty muscle, requires a great deal of respect. It was a competition of Scottish University B & C teams (I.E: not newbies but not the best) involving dressage and showjumping. During the dressage I hunched in the corner and shot available light and only when I was sure both rider and horse were comfortable. One “spooky” horse disapproved entirely and I would just sat tight when it was in the arena. The showjumping was nervy even as the jumps were being built. People were muttering that they were too high and demanding measurement. Even the home team, familiar with the jumps and horses, was nervous. One of the first horses round was apparently a pony and had real difficulty with some of the fences. It needed two or three runs and nearly shucked its rider. Another horse tossed the girl on its back clear up its neck.

I was a bit concerned then when another photographer arrived and started setting up remote strobe units. I’m a fan of these units, they freeze action, add contrast and bring out colour. Well used, they make beautiful photos in the darkest dankest caverns. The arena was a dark and dank cavern (1/40 F2.8 ISO1600) so I can see his logic. He had asked the arena manager if it was OK (common sense) and she’d told him to go ahead but not to flash the horses when they got close. Oblivious to the air of tension already present, he did’nt ask the participants. They would have told him that they were borderline on boycotting the jumping anyway and that flashing twitchy unfamiliar horses was dangerous for them. I admit I’d pulled my flash out at this point, but was really very leery about using it. It would make GREAT pictures, but after seeing horses shy at my mirror slap I was worried I could cause an accident. I decided to let the first few horses run and see how edgy they looked.

Sensibly he flashed the horses as they came in, to see the reaction, however everyone (horses and humans) was too highly strung to tell if the horses were being put off or the riders were having problems. Also the horses were facing away from his strobes.”Fine with it” he declared. The ponies replacement was a horse the colour of dark coffee, long and lean looking. He had a brief warmup and then was “shown” to the watching jockies. Jumping the fence nearest the grandstand (too close for my 80-200) the horse tossed its rider and nearly fell. The atmosphere got even more gloomy/tense. The competition began like this. Each time the horses were flashed as they came in then started their runs. It was obvious however the horses felt about it, the ladies jumping were not happy about man-made lightning being unleashed as they made their runs. They asked repeatedly for the flashes to be turned off. At which point I heard muttering very like “If they’re gonna whine about it…”

Whine? Are you perched on the back of a giant quadruped headed for a fence at high speed? I felt it was a justified complaint and required adapting to the situation. I was crouched low over the grandstand using it as support and was panning with the horses as they jumped. The other fellow, as far as I could tell, was freestanding with a slow canon 100-400 glued to his eye. “Blurry horse going over a jump” Gee….ya think? He stayed for a few more rounds and left.

I was a little upset, he had come across as self-interested and did’nt appear to care for the situation. If you have a camera, don’t shoot like this. Respect your subject enough not to put them in danger or even appear to. We’ve all crossed the line by accident a few times through inexperience, but learn quickly and you’ll be better for it. Is the picture worth it? Or is the relationship worth more?