Owt from Nowt

Shhhh. Listen. It's Friday evening and across the country that sound you can just hear is hundreds of local press photographers weeping softly in a corner, as they've opened their in-boxes and seen what joys await them on their weekend picture lists...


OK, perhaps I exaggerate slightly but there's precious little "news" work to be seen,  (usually) far too much "padding" for creative comfort, with Coffee Mornings, Jumble Sales (yes, really) and lately, "Xmas Fayres" (broadly the same thing but with tinsel). Sadly, this is all just because there's pages to fill, not because these events are significant or, frequently, even picture-worthy.  Of course, there  "might be some picture sales"...   (sob..)


Right, rant over. Stop whinging and pull yourself together! Only a major shift in outlook will ever change this, it's been that way for years ("Doesn't mean it's right!" "Shut up!") so we need to crack on, even if, as Joe McNally says, sometimes "you just have to hold your nose, go to the happy place in your head and make a bad picture". 


Yet sometimes you are pleasantly surprised at a Christmas Fair; there's lots of happy people, colourful stands, and an image appears that's nicely above the usual "face the camera and smile" local press fare (Fayre? "Stopit!!").


Here's one from last Saturday at a local Grammar School, where the few working brain cells remaining sparked into life when I saw this...

Belgian chocolates and other sweet treats are sold by Joan Stanton, centre, and Jean Carvell, during a fund-raising Christmas Fair at Highsted School, Sittingbourne, on Saturday 26th November 2011.

Nikon D3, ISO800, 1/60 at f7.1, 24-120mm at 24mm, plus SB900 flash, 

fired in bounce mode off ceiling of hall at +0.3EV compensation. 

The flash had just enough "pop" off the high ceiling that I could take off the diffuser dome, otherwise the foreground sweets would wash out, and the ambient was just bright enough to give good fill-in - although there's some 'fluorescent" green, most of the bulbs were pretty close to a warm daylight, which is always helpful. Don't really like the light fittings appearing, but it's the real world so can't do much about that other than accept them.


Almost, almost, a proper photojournalist's image...

Carl...

As a local press photographer, you will rarely get to shoot anything as momentous as, say, a Reuters pro. But what you do does matter, in a small way, to the community that you work in and with.

Sometimes, this can come back to you in good ways, and sometimes it can remind you of just how precarious life is.

I shot Carl Davies. a Sittingbourne and Sheppey teacher, a few months ago before he did a charity tandem parachute jump. Only with him for 15 minutes, but he made an impression in my memory.  A few weeks ago he had moved on. As an ex-marine, he was now a security consultant on a ship in the Indian Ocean, which is plagued by pirates.

Then came the news that he had been found dead on La Reunion island.

And then, following a second post-mortem, it became murder...

I cannot imagine what his family are going through. But I hope they take some comfort from the chinese lantern launch by friends and ex-pupils in his memory which took place on Minster Leas last Saturday evening. Over 150 people and possibly many more - it was so dark - left a glowing tribute slowly streaming into the air...

Dozens of glowing chinese lanterns in the sky over The Leas, Minster, on 

19th November 2011, an airborne tribute to ex-teacher Carl Davies. 

Evan Borg-Myatt, 9, left, and Jack Mair, 10, sons of friends,

 let their lanterns go into the night. 

FOR ABSOLUTE CLARITY- IMAGE ©KM Group, NO REPRODUCTION IN 

ANY MEDIUM OR MEDIA WITHOUT EXPRESS PERMISSION OF KMG.

Girl Boxer

Meet Jodie. She's an ultimate anti-stereotype: 14, pretty, blonde, a grammar school girl. Oh, and she has strength and a punch that means her trainer is struggling to find opponents for her in her amateur boxing, as nobody locally wants to fight her in her age group, or above. She's having to go farther afield for bouts because of her ability...

Amateur boxer Jodie, 14.
She has strength and a punch opponents who know of her don't want to face.
Nikon D3, 1/250 sec f5.6, ISO 800, SB900 through shoot-through umbrella,
above and to camera right, triggered in TTL mode by PocketWizard FlexTT5.
Flash was dialled down (I think) by 0.7 EV for this one.

A shoot was set up at the hall where she trains, and the brief was to get a variety of pics of her sparring, using punchbags, relaxing in the ring (?) etc for a feature. The ring was ready on the stage of the village hall, but I'd had a look at the light and decided it wasn't much help - full sunlight streaming through high windows, leaving hot and cold patches of full sun or nowt. We closed as many curtains as would shut and I reached for the Pocket Wizard FlexTTs to light her and her trainer with flash...

More after the break...