The 2010 Press Photographer's Year Awards have highlighted the ongoing story of the repatriation of service men and women during the conflict in Afghanistan. This recognition serves to highlight the power of emotion that runs through Wootton Bassett High Street during these almost weekly repatriations, and is in some small personal way, our industry's tribute to those fallen soldiers.
the press photographer's year 2010
I was asked by BBC Cardiff, who are presently putting the final touches to their landmark documentary Human Planet which will be screened in glorious hi def on BBC1 in September, to travel with a film crew to Barcelona. They were shooting a sequence for the 'Urban' programme from the series and wanted me to shoot time lapse sequences with tilt shift lenses to give a surreal toy town effect to the hustle and bustle of a major European port and city. Due to the style that director Mark Flowers was after, this was no ordinary time lapse. It required frame rates varying from 1 fps to 5 fps depending on the subject matter for as long as the camera could handle. The camera in question was a Nikon D3S, the only camera out there that could withstand such a pounding on the shutter. Nikon UK very kindly loaned me one for the duration of the shoot, plus a tilt shift 24mm lens. I managed to rack up about 70,000 frames in eight days. Not one frame missed. That in itself is a singularly mesmerizing endorsement of this camera. Coupled with it's ability to offer three versions of dx crop mode, it's in a class of its own.
A huge thanks must go to Rob MacNeice at Nikon who selflessly sat and helped me realize the full potential of the camera. I am not a technical creature when it comes to dslr's, so I had to perform a myriad of test shoots to understand the camera and the effects of fps and playback speeds on the subject matter......and getting the hang of a tilt shift lens aswell was a challenge.
These following images are all taken from various individual sequences....each sequence is made up of about 390 frames which equates to roughly 15 seconds of television time.
I was running to the first corner at Mallory Park to shoot the Scooter race and wasn't really sure where I was going. I looked up and saw this. At first I thought it was Tony O'Brien on his vespa.....but quickly realised that it wasn't. Tony actually goes a lot higher...............
So I was invited to shoot the official unveiling of McLaren Automotive's new concept turned road car the MP4-12C at their Technology Headquarters in Woking today. I have been here previously on a few occasions to shoot various F1 car launches and the aura generated within this complex is as powerful as it ever was. Ron Dennis is a man known for his meticulous, possibly fanatical, attention to detail. This is evident in every aspect of this complex. Dennis has designed a building with huge windows and white marble floors so that if there is any dirt, anywhere, it will be spotted and dealt with immediately by employees dressed head to foot in black t-shirts and slacks with non squeaky shoes to boot. They have translated the F1 ethos for car design to a road car. As for after sales service, well should you in the unlikely event break down, you push a button on your dashboard that sends an sms text explaining the diagnostic problem to a McLaren central server database. They then get straight back to you to tell you if it's safe to drive on. Not necessarily something Lewis and Jenson would expect from the pit lane during the Melbourne Grand Prix, but you get my drift. Given the pedigree of McLaren, I reckon these folks will build you as exquisite a sculpture of aerodynamic efficiency as is humanly possible. They are the sports car industry's version of Apple.
Dennis has focused his attention on producing a road car that can reach 0-200 mph in under ten seconds. Without crunching too many statistics and single piece carbon monocoqs, visually, it's simply beautiful. I am not a petrol head, but this is a marvellous looking car. All I had to do was photograph it.
McLaren managed to throw Jenson and Lewis into the mix, and even these two World Champions in their slightly ill fitting suits and overtly large watches, couldn't detract from this car's aesthetic appeal. All I really wanted was a clean shot of this pulchritudinous machine, which I would naturally expect to achieve. After all, having been invited along for the sole purpose of doing just that, it would be fair to assume that this was a no brainer. Well, never assume anything. There were over 200 journalists and guests and staff and car enthusiasts pretending to be journalists in attendance. And every one of them had a camera.
The first photo opportunity came when Lewis and Jenson were asked to unveil the car and stand next to it. Sitting on the floor to one side, the four of us (bona fide photographers) slid along the white pristine marble to get a better angle. Only for someone sitting behind me to lean forward and inform me that I was obstructing his camera's view. An android phone attached to a tripod. It didn't get any better. When we were given another opportunity to photograph the car, onto it's bonnet swarmed two dozen iphones. How did these people get in here? These ubiquitous shutterbugs manage to get accreditation or invitations or neither for everything, be it the World Indoor Artistic Gymnastics competition, Premiership Football matches or even England rugby training sessions at Pennyhill Park.
So, the four of us again, naturally, realized the only angle to shoot the car from was at the back of the room. It didn't work on a wide angle up close to it...you couldn't see the shape or structure or linear dynamics of the car. It would be like viewing the Mona Lisa through a magnifying glass........totally pointless.So we haggled and moaned and fought to get the picture we wanted minus the enthusiastic piston heads with their iphones in the corner of each frame. It was a struggle, but hey, we got there in the end. And what do I have to show for it? Well, a picture of a fast car that wasn't moving.
I noticed yesterday that photographers kept shutter bursts to a minimum. This isn't some High Court snatch picture opportunity. This is a story that requires grief to be documented as sensitively and delicately as possible, as I am sure every photographer working in Wootton Bassett yesterday, as on every previous occasion, was touched in some way by the sadness caused from the loss of loved ones.
Yesterday I travelled with friend, colleague and scooter legend Tony O'Brien to Mallory Park in Leicester to spend a practice day with the fellas who drive these iconic machines at over 90 mph around a race track. The scooters share the practice day with the classic bike and sidecar brigade and were allotted half a dozen 10 lap sessions in which to fine tune their scooters. I have still yet to learn the different classes of machine and to my untrained eye, the main difference between the scooters is their shape.
My camera kept being drawn to that classic Vespa/Lambretta style of scooter. This will be an ongoing photo essay project as I hope to be joining this elite group of riders throughout the coming season. As for yesterday, I just focused on the track to acclimatize to how it all works.
I think this sidecar rider was more interested in preparing for his close up than concentrating on the corner in hand.........
bottoms up.........
The image below was taken at the 2009 World Cold Water Swimming Championships at the Tooting Bec Lido in London. This amazing spectacle brings together people of all ages from every part of Europe, and gives them the chance to compete against each other while swimming at almost sub zero temperatures.
I was perched on the pool edge waiting for the four brightly clad ladies to exit their respective colour coded cubicles. This was the start of the opening ceremony, a bugle sounded and the doors opened. At that precise moment, a lifeguard, for reasons known only to himself, decided to enter stage left and with impeccable timing and a belief that his crouched posture was helping matters, proceeded to exit stage right having masterfully choreographed his head and shoulders in front of each cubicle to synchronise with my shutter finger.
In my opinion any one of the first four frames was a winner, the fifth and only usable frame is the one you see below. I imagine most photographers will have experienced a similar frustration. We can strive for perfection, and ultimately discover that the lifeguard is out there in many guises, as even Robert Capa would testify to.
That said, I am not complaining too much. This image was chosen for National Geographic Magazine's Visions of Earth. It was also in The Boston Globe's Best 100 Sports Pictures for 2009.
It was also my most published image from last year.
A garlanded HRH Prince Charles visits the 1st Batallion of the Royal Gurkha Rifles today in Wiltshire before their deployment to Afghanistan next month...
I heard that the Burj al Khalifa ( the world's tallest man made structure ) had closed it's observation deck on the 124th floor after a few technical problems with the lift. I was lucky enough to get up there two weeks ago while on assignment in Dubai.....
So here we go. Didn't really believe I would get round to ever writing one of these on my own site but am fascinated enough with the whole blog phenomenon to want to give it a try. My main concern was what on earth am I going to talk about that folks are going to want to read about.......on a regular basis? When I have answered that question, I will post it. In the meantime...............
