11:59/365 Documentary Project

I am about to start my new documentary photography project 11:59/365 using an iPhone read all about it on my website

http://www.documentary-photographer.co.uk/ga/project_1159_365
Gary Austin

How to Record Good Audio

If you are a photographer wanting to do multimedia slideshow you are probably going to need to know how to get good sound and here is a simple 3 step video on how to do just that

And further for those who dablle with journalism the International Journalists.net have a Youtube site with training videos

The Bicycle Wheel

In a previous post I referred to the slope of the bath tub which was an analogy for proving your photographic gear. Of course the wise will do heavy testing at all ISO and lighting conditions to work out how the sensor records details in the shadows as well as the highlights. They will also test their lenses for sharpness, flaws and find the optimum aperture for it and so the testing goes on.

So back to the bicycle wheel; This is another analogy that relates to the business side of photography or outside services that you use, like printing, webhosting etc.

My webhosts recently disappeared from the face of the world wide web, reasons unstated. This left me with my personal websites vanishing, my 5 domains pointing to nowhere and a drop in email service and all just into the credit crunch, so my survival rate with clients going to empty 404 pages and email bouncing back must have thought I had gone bust in the doom and gloom of yet another recession.

This left me with at least a couple of weeks solid mess to clean up at a time when I was just to busy.

It would be easy to lay blame at the host, but my friend and photography buddy was notified of the closure ages ago, (oh yes the sod gloated about it as well…big time) with tools to move websites and domains to cause as little disruption as possible.  Now for some time I have realised that I was not getting service notifications direct, for some years in fact and despite changing my email on there control panel, no joy. so this was a loose spoke in a wheel; as it happens it was not the first.

You see that spoke came undone because of another spoke, my ISP years ago was Wanadoo; who I had no problems with but for some reason, were taken over by Orange who decided they were not big enough  as a mobile phone company and could play at being an internet service provider. It was these who gave me problems with service; so much so I ended up requesting the MAC code (several times and without internet) and switched and bang goes my ISP email with Wanadoo. Cancelled as I told Orange where to stuff there awful service, and not in a polite terms either.

Now what I did not realise at the time was that my email for the webhost was now dead and although I changed it in the control panel there was no way to verify/authenticate the change so this was the first loose spoke, which led to the second loose spoke, before the wheel became broken.

In the past I have remedied an alternative services because of poor service on an online archival system. I ditched them after 6 months because their servers went down and the backup failed; it took weeks for them to restore service and it was at a time when I needed to get images to a client urgently.

Indecently, it was a right move as before Christmas they went under leaving hundreds of photographers and agencies stranded. In comparison my current archive people have not been down once, since 2005 (or as far as I know, before then when I joined) Yes I pay a little more, but it is at least one weight off my mind, and the service is one to one via a phone, with people who know a lot about the photography business, so the advice extends beyond the archive. If I need help with a difficult pricing job I can phone them for advice, their success is my success as they see it!

There are lessons here of course:

• If a company niggles away at you because of poor service, ditch them, it makes you out as being un-professional and one day will catch you out.
• The other is to use an online webmail like Google, Yahoo etc for your logins and system notifications, that way regardless of your ISP it will always be available.

Remember a loose spoke puts the rim out of line, and other spokes will become loose or break, so when you notice a loose spoke….fix it

The good old days to the norm with compact image transmition devices

I have to say I really enjoyed this post as it reminded me of when I was working as a sports photographer for a national press agency.

It is also strange to think that photographers use common soloutions to their problems, as I have been using the Pocket Phojo and a PDA for the last year to do remote transmitions, with the Nikon D2x or the Canon G9

(using the G9 by swapping the memory card or just using the USB cable to view the memory card while plugged into the camera; It does not automaticaly send from the G9, like it does from the D2x)

With the Pocket Phojo software on a PDA and Canon G9 it makes for a very compact reporting kit as the G9 can redord audio and video good enough for the web as well

Read the full article bellow to see how things have changed

The Sydney Morning Herald Blogs: Photographers

For newspaper photographers, the single greatest advantage of dumping film has been faster and easier delivery of pictures.

Before that, a photographer on an away-job might turn his hotel en-suite into a makeshift darkroom, or pay a local mini-lab to stay open after-hours, then transmit one or two prints back to Sydney in a tedious over-the-phone process making you very late for dinner.

Sports photographers needed to work for several hours after full-time to get their pictures back to the paper, while now they can generally get away with the last of the fans.

A decade on, things have progressed to the point where you can transmit your photographs (live) from a smart-phone in your pocket, all the while continuing to shoot the action you were sent there to cover. Read More >>

Photographers agree to blur firearms officers faces

Now this is what really annoys me, who has given the photographers, agencies and newspapers the authority to agree to this, this should have gone trough the unions for a decision if any.

So now we have “The police will be issuing guidelines to picture desks across all London papers soon.” but thousands of press photographers won’t get that guideline, so it should be down to the editors decision on what is needed in privacy as they are the ones in control if a picture is too horrific it is the editors decision not the photographer. What about other forces don’t they have firearms officers? Do the guidelines apply?

We just don’t have time to vet and consider if the image is offensive to readers or we may have breached some hidden point of privacy in an individual we would have to start asking them this right at the beginning in which case the pictures change dramatically from the candid approach that says its real and not set up or posed.

It is also interesting to note that Nigel Howard an Evening Standard Photographer said “there could still a problem when “citizen journalists” take
pictures of crime scenes using mobile phones, but he admitted there was
little either side could do about it.”

No there is little you can do about it and you don’t have the right to speak for them either Howard!

Now its all very well them saying one dads kid got jibbed at school but that can happen for anyone who appearers in the paper, what about parents committing sucide, or being a hippy a pagan, a priest, all of which is enough for a kid to get teased at school, thats waht school is like…sadley

Photographers agree to blur firearms officers’ faces – Press Gazette

A group of Fleet Street photographers has agreed to greater cooperation with firearms police officers with the Metropolitan Police, including pixelating faces to hide the marksmen’s identities.

About 12 newspaper, agency and freelance photographers met senior officers from CO19, the Metropolitan Police’s Specialist Firearms Command, yesterday in a bid to foster better relations between police and press. Read More>>

Bruce Schneier: Are photographers really a threat?

Well have you been to the movies lately? this is one well worth keeping so when you get harassed for showing your camera in a public place

What is it with photographers these days? Are they really all terrorists, or does everyone just think they are?

Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harrassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We’ve been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required.

Except that it’s nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn’t photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn’t photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn’t photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren’t being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn’t known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about — the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 — no photography.

Bruce Schneier: Are photographers really a threat? | Technology | The Guardian

Can you use the Canon G9 for a Fashion Shoot?

Oh yes…

This is a very interesting video by Photoshop Retouching & Photography Tutorial Videos. However it does not surprise me that much as I used the G9 for some art nude, but just shows how versatile this little point and shoot is, as a backup for a photojournalist or as a stand alone camera.

The adage its the photographer, not the camera springs to mind!

The retouching is also interesting to see as well, although I try to avoid it as I am a bit of a purist

Click here to watch the video 

Enjoy…

Using the G9 as a discrete recorder

OK, sometimes it can be really useful to be able to record a conversation without other people knowing you are doing it, especially when you are being hassled by the police or jobs worth for taking pictures when you are in the right doing so and the situation looks like going from bad to worse. On the other hand you might have a set of photos and need to do a write up of all the details or interview a person in the pictures and you can use the audio feature on the Canon G9.

You could of course use the video feature, but when the lens extends out it might arouse suspicion, but there is a neat way to switch on the audio without opening up the lens and is a quicker way than going through the menu.

From the camera being switched off press the Play/review > button right of the optical viewfinder, press and hold the Microphone button * top right of the LCD (you should see the recorder display come up on the LCD) press Func/Set  in the middle of the command dial to record.

That’s it 3 buttons to press and you are recording… a short press of the Mic.* button brings up the audio recorder for tagging the image on display (normally the last photograph you took) when you press the Func/Set

Another little trick of the Mic.* button is if you have the camera sounds on (beep for focus, shutter sounds etc.) pressing this while turning the camera on mutes all the sounds from the Canon G9 and is ideal if you want to do some candid shooting, but remember when you play back video or audio you won’t hear it, as you have muted the sounds so you need go into the menu, go to the settings (hammer and spanner) tab and set the MUTE to off

Innocent photographer or terrorist?

Just found this on the BBC website if you are into photography you can go and sign the petition but asking for the PM to clarify the laws is not a good idea in my opinion. It is open invitation to put laws into place when they are not needed.

Its paranoia that if you have a camera you are a terrorist or up to no good and a culture of fear has been built up deliberately. There is no law saying you are allowed to take pictures in a public place, there is no law saying you can’t either; its considered a right

Photojournalist uses G9 for assignment

There is a great post on Strobist for the Canon G9 users on how to get the most out of your G9 using flash and  how they used a G9 shooting for an assignment.
It is no wonder that many PJ’s are now using the G9 as it is a pocket size  DSLR. Heck you can even use Nikon speedlights with this baby so why wouldn’t you buy a G9

Still not convinced?
Magnum Photographer Alex Majoli also used Olympus point and shoots in 2005  and shot many assignments using an Olympus C-8080 in remote and dangerous places and won awards

Now back in 2005 that is considered very old technology for a digital camera compared to today’s G9 era, so when you here some one complain of shutter lag tell them to read this article
It’s the photographer, not the camera that is the important piece of the kit in the equation.

Rob Galbraith: Alex Majoli points and shoots >>

Strobist: On Assignment, Par for the Course >>