Photography Showreel

For years now, I've been involved in film-making, either in education or as a freelancer. So it's only natural that I'd have a crack at creating a showreel for my photography! Today I put the finishing touches to it (although I'll probably still tinker with it - a wise man once said "a film is never finished, merely abandoned") then uploaded it to my profile on film-sharing website Vimeo. So without further ado, I am pleased to present Photography Showreel 1:

The Showreel can also be viewed in HD on the Vimeo site itself - a direct link to the Vimeo page can be found here: Photography Showreel 1

Thanks for reading, and thanks for watching!

A rant about copyright

Yesterday I posted about the Belfast Giants ice hockey club issuing a press release with one of my photos in it, without asking for permission or giving any credit. After getting in touch with the club, the situation was resolved amicably. Last year I had a similar encounter with Basingstoke Bison using one of my shots of Dave Simms to promote an event that their Supporters Club was hosting, and earlier this year I had a 'discussion' with the Manchester Phoenix's own Supporters Club about using my images without permission.

The bottom line is that the copyright of an image rests with the photographer, unless that copyright has specifically been passed on to another party with the full agreement of the photographer. That's how it's always been, that's how it always should be.

This morning I've encountered another example of how little regard some organisations have for copyright. Luckily this time it's nothing to do with any of my shots, but since it does involve someone's work being taken and used without permission, I've been in touch with the photographer to let them know about it. A friend of mine posted a link on Facebook to a news story on the Digital Spy website, about a motorbike rider in the US who is suing BMW after suffering a permanent priaprism (i.e. unfailing erection) following a long ride on one of their bikes. The article itself can be seen on the Digital Spy website here. Here's a quick screengrab:

The story is accompanied by a photograph, and it's this photograph that caught my eye. Underneath it, the caption simply says '© flickr'.

As a Flickr user, I know that Flickr don't hold the copyright to the photos that they host. The copyright remains with the photographers themselves, and each picture page also includes a copyright notice.

In the comments on the article, someone's pointed out that the photo isn't actually of a BMW bike, it's of a Suzuki Bandit, and so a very quick Flickr search later, I'd found this picture by 'chilloutandsmile', aka Frank, from Bochum in Germany. Click the link and you'll see for yourself, it's the same picture as used in the Digital Spy article.

A quick look at the copyright notice on Frank's page shows that this shot is 'all rights reserved'. Which means that permission has to be obtained before using it. So I've posted a comment on the article asking about their use of copyrighted material, and I've posted a comment on Frank's page with a link to the article, asking him if he's aware of his shot being used. Place your bets now as to whether or not Digital Spy bothered to ask him for permission...

Copyright is one of those things that is harder and harder to enforce in a digital age. But the underlying truth of it all is simple: Nobody has the right to simply take someone else's work and repost it for commercial gain in any way, be it to accompany a news article, a press release, an advert, an event promo, anything. Organisations such as Getty Images and Associated Press exist to handle the licencing of images. Photographic Copyright is a very real concern, and yet too many times we are seeing journalists, writers, advertisers, promoters, and web content developers taking the easy route and stealing someone else's work in the hope that nobody really notices. Sticking a '© flickr' notice under a photograph really doesn't cut it!

It is hard enough for photographers to make a living in a world where everyone has access to a digital camera, whether it's a DSRL, a compact, or a phone! The market for images is saturated, Google searches for images are returning multiples of millions of results in many cases. But this saturation is no reason for complacency when it comes to respecting the rights of photographers. Professionalism should be something that all strive to achieve, and the first step to that achievement comes from respect.

UPDATE: Digital Spy have now changed the photo to one supplied by the Rex Features agency:

It's just a pity that they didn't do that in the first place.

Naughty Belfast! But All's Well Now!

This morning, the Belfast Giants announced the signing of former Guildford Flames player Matt Towe, in this press release. Here's a screengrab of it:

The slight wrinkle, as far as I'm concerned, is that the photo they've used looks awfully familiar... Yep, it's one of mine, and I've not been asked for permission to use it.

So I've sent a polite but firm e-mail to the Belfast Giants office asking for either a photo credit or a removal of the picture, and I await their reply...

UPDATE: I've had a very prompt reply from James Glover, Belfast's Design and Marketing Manager, offering an apology and a photo credit, which they've already put in place:

I'm happy with that, all's well that ends well!

Zombie Netball

This past Wednesday was the annual Staff/Student Netball tournament, and we have a tradition that stems back through the ages. Well, a couple of years, anyway! The Staff team like to make a bit of an effort when it comes to sorting out a memorable outfit for the tournament, and this year Liz had chosen the theme of 'zombies'. So, with that in mind, Liz got busy with the face paint, and I got busy with the camera!

The tournament gives the staff and the students the chance to collectively let their hair down and share in an evening of good natured physical violence disguised as sport, and appearance is everything! Liz's handiwork proved to be excellent as usual, with an impressive array of zombies taking to the hardwood for the staff team!

The evening ended with an admirable draw between the staff team and the Level 6 team, with only a small number of injuries and only one hospitalisation (a new record!) More photos can be seen on Flickr here: Zombie Netball

Play-Offs 2012

After the end of the regular hockey season, the EPL closes proceedings with the Play-Offs. The top eight teams in the league are paired up in position order (1st v 8th, 2nd v 7th etc) for the Quarter Finals, a straight home-and-away aggregate competition, with the winning four teams progressing to the Semi Finals. As the Manchester Phoenix finished second, we were drawn against Swindon Wildcats for the Quarter Finals, and as usual I was covering the home game which happened to be the second leg of the tie.

The game ended in a resounding win for the Phoenix, and with the other fixtures going the way they went, the Phoenix found themselves heading to the Semi Finals to face local rivals, the Sheffield Steeldogs... The Semi Finals and Finals take place at the EPL Play-Off Weekend, a two-day bash that takes place in Coventry at the Skydome. It's an experience that I look forward to every year, it's a chance to let your hair down and party with hockey fans from all over the country. Hockey fans traditionally get on well, no matter which team they support, which makes it a fairly unique sport. Sure there's banter between fans during games, but the rivalries play out on the ice and not in the seats! As I wasn't there in an 'official' capacity, I was shooting the games from my seat, with my view partially obscured by the netting. As a result, many of my shots feature a rather fetching diamond pattern on them! But at least they don't detract too much! The first Semi-Final was played between hot favourites, the league winning Guildford Flames, and fourth placers Slough Jets:

Slough came from behind to go against form and book their place in the final. Next up it was the match we'd been waiting for, Manchester Phoenix v Sheffield Steeldogs, and it didn't disappoint! A game with plenty of goals and plenty of aggression, the Phoenix sealed the win on the penalty shootout, with the game having ended with a tied 5-5 scoreline. What a game!

With the final two teams decided, everyone was on the edge of their seats for what promised to be a cracking match. Alas, the Phoenix had very little left in the tank, and the Jets were able to power their way to a Play-Off title. It was a heart-breaking game, but there was still plenty of pride left in the Phoenix blocks.

But aside from the hockey, Play-Off Weekend is about the people. The supporters, the fans, the behind the scenes people, they're the ones who make Play-Off Weekend as enjoyable as it is! I was lucky enough to be asked to take part in the Phoenix Podcast live broadcasts again this year, and I was able to shoot the participants:

Even when you're taking part in a fun weekend, and letting your hair down, mixing with friends and encountering many wonderful characters, the opportunity for shooting a portrait or two is never far away!

The full set of off-ice shots can be seen on Flickr here: Play-Offs 2012 Here's to a productive off-season, and to the start of the 2012-2013 hockey season - woohoo!

Gardens, a church, The Duke, the night sky, and Nazis....

Last weekend Yol and I took a trip to Bridgemere Gardens to have a look around a wedding fair, and whilst we were there we had a chance to take a wander around the gardens there, enjoying the sun and getting a breath of fresh air. The Gardens are a peaceful place of greenery, with a variety of different 'garden themes' on display, and they're a great place to get the camera out!





The journey back from Bridgemere passes through the village of Woore, and it's there that we spotted a church that looked a little out of place, but in an eye-catching way. Saint Leonard's Church is, to me, very reminiscent of the churches of New England that we saw on our trip over there in 2010, so much so that I just had to pull over and get a shot!



The journey back also gave me the opportunity to track down and shoot a local landmark, The Duke of Sutherland. Well, not the Duke himself, the statue of him. Tracking it down is surprisingly tricky especially considering that it doesn't tend to move around anywhere, what with it being a statue. It's visible for several miles around Stoke, perched on top of a hill near Trentham, and to find the pathway up to it required a little scouting around on Google Maps. The walk up to it is a sod, no two ways about it, but it's worth it when you get there!





The set of photos from the day's trip can be seen on Flickr here: Bridgemere, Woore and The Duke

Regular readers will know that I'm still trying to get some decent shots of the night sky, but that finding a place to shoot from that doesn't suffer from light pollution is a problem. I took some advice from a member of a photo group on Facebook, and tried out a shooting spot near the village of Thorncliffe in Staffordshire, and took the opportunity to shoot the moon, the stars, and the light trails from passing cars:





I'm still not 100% happy with the stars photos, but one day...

The set of shots from near Thorncliffe can be seen on Flickr here: Thorncliffe

On Monday I found myself back on set once again, this time on director Jay Guy's shoot for the film "The Path". The shoot was taking place at Bantock House in Wolverhampton, a small historic building that was doubling for the home of a wealthy German SS officer in World War Two, and the shoot gave me the opportunity to shoot not only behind-the-scenes shots but also character portraits. Of the behind the scenes shots, I was lucky to have been working with a great cast and a very lively, character-laden crew:






Shooting the character portraits was an interesting challenge too, it was like shooting regular portraits but with the actors in full costume and remaining in character. Even though it was a sunny day, I decided to shoot in the shade in order to get more even lighting, and it seemed to pay off!:







The experience of shooting on the day was incredible, a fun but professional shoot with a great bunch of people! The full set of photos can be seen on Flickr here: "The Path"

Cheers for reading!

Oakamoor Skies, a trip to Beeston Castle, and two film shoots. Oh, and hockey!

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post on here, and it's been a busy couple of weeks at that! The night skies have been clearer than expected and this has allowed me to have another crack at shooting the stars, this time heading out to the remote village of Oakamoor. The hope was that the light pollution would be virtually non-existant, but alas it wasn't the case:



Nonetheless, it was still a learning experience! One day I'll get it right, but until then it doesn't hurt to keep trying it out and learning new things:



The set of shots from the evening's experimentation can be seen on Flickr here: Oakamoor Skies

Earlier this month, a rare Sunday without a Phoenix game gave Yol and myself the chance to go out in the car and pay a visit to a historical site, and after a quick consultation of the interwebs we chose Beeston Castle in Cheshire, an English Heritage site. The castle itself consists of the remnants of fortifications on top of a hill, with a circumference nature walk to stretch the legs and fill the lungs. As a place to visit, it's great for those who enjoy a little piece of history!





The weather wasn't perfect, but even under cloudy skies it was still a cracking place to visit! The full set of shots from our visit can be seen on Flickr here: Beeston Castle

This past Saturday saw the car being loaded up with filming equipment to head out to Tatenhill Airfield for the shooting of Vicki Smart's documentary "Tatenhill". With three location recces done in advance, pretty much every eventuality had been planned for, and the big day had arrived!






The shoot itself was set at Tatenhill Airfield, but it took place in several locations around the airfield thanks to the generosity of the pilots and staff who graciously allowed the filming to go ahead in the briefing room, in the hangar, on the grass verge, in the tower, and even in the air! All five members of the production crew (myself included) were invited to take to the air to get footage, opportunities that we all readily took up!







During the shoot, we were able to get close to a plane that I fell for when we did our first location recce at the airfield, the Antonov AN-2. This time around it was cameraman Danyl Rathband who was shooting it, and naturally I was on hand to take the production stills:





The full set of production stills from the Tatenhill shoot can be seen on Flickr here: Tatenhill Shoot

The second film shoot was one that my involvement in was a lot less planned in advance. A few weeks back I'd been chatting with Dan Barlow, one of the Media Production students, who was in pre-production for an experimental documentary piece called 'Crushed Ice', the topic of which is what's known as 'bar flair'. Think of Tom Cruise throwing shakers and bottles around in the film 'Cocktail' and you get the idea. Anyway, the shoot was today, and this morning Dan popped in to ask if I'd be able to take some stills for the shoot, even though it was a working day. So inbetween my other work duties, I popped in several times to see how the shoot was going, and to take some stills behind the scenes:





The shoot features the bar flair talents of Tom Dyer, an internationally renowned exponent of his art, and he was performing in front of a backdrop made up of carefully lit bottles and cocktail props:





The job of the Production Stills photographer is to document what's happening behind the camera as well as in front of it, which means getting shots of as many of the crew in action as possible:






The behind-the-scenes stuff is always the best stuff to shoot for me, as it's the least 'contrived' - what happens in front of the camera is normally deliberate, so for me you get a better sense of the 'reality' of a shoot by looking at the people behind the camera! But you still can't beat a good Crew Shot!:



The full set from the 'Crushed Ice' shoot can be seen on Flickr here; Crushed Ice Shoot

All the way through this, I've been carrying out my usual duties as Match Night Photographer for Manchester Phoenix ice hockey club, it's something that I always enjoy and look forward to, whether we win or lose!





One of the Phoenix evenings that I covered was the All-Star night, which included marks being awarded for the most unusual goal celebration, and I'll leave you with these two - make of them what you will! Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you: The Weight Bench, and The Toilet!