Archive for March, 2009

Whirling Dervishes

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009

There were three of them, performing in in a dimly lit hall in a leisure centre in Tooting, at the Eid Milad-Un-Nabi celebrations of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad organised by the Sunni Muslim Association, and I really couldn’t quite work out how to photograph them.

Working with flash seemed a good idea, since even with the D700 giving pretty good results at ISO 3200,  it was hard to get both enough depth of field and a sensible shutter speed, but even more of a problem was that the lighting in which they were performing was extremely uneven.  Using the flash, I also wanted to get some ambient exposure to avoid very dark backgrounds and also give some feeling of movement to the figures.

© 2009 Peter Marshall.

My decision in the heat of the moment was that 1/8 would probably give me enough blur and I set that as my slowest speed with flash. I set an ISO of 1250 as the18-200 zoom I was using only covered the smaller DX area and quality was more important, set the flash into TTL FP mode, the camera on P and then forgot about it, concentrating on getting pictures.

© 2009 Peter Marshall

I was also using the D300 with a 20mm wide open at f2.8 with no flash, which gave slightly underexposed results at around 1/60 ISO 1600. There were far fewer usable images from this, though I did get one with a fairly dramatic silhouette.

© 2009 Peter Marshall

You can see more pictures of the Whirling Dervishes as usual on My London Diary, where you can also read something about the deeply religious significance of their performance.  But they were only a small part of the event I photographed, and although they had particularly attracted me to the event, as usual it was the people rather than the performers that I think more interesting in the pictures that I took.

Ancient & Modern – Cleaners Call for Justice

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

Part of the fascination of the City of London is its curious mix of ancient and modern. You see it every direction you look. Even the Druids who I’d photographed earlier celebrating their ancient traditions, were wearing trainers on their feet and one had not switched off a mobile phone which rang halfway through the event.

© 2009 Peter Marshall.

The cleaners who were out again in front of insurance brokers Willis seemed too to embody something both ancient and modern – up against modern capitalism, which seems to espouse a pretty Neanderthal attitude to labour relations, facing up to a modern hi-tech office building with only their voices and whistles.

This was the latest in a series of protests following the sacking of five cleaners – all trade unionists – by the contracting firm, Mitie, which have been going on since mid-February. These protests are unofficial, organised by the cleaners themselves, as their union doesn’t appear to be doing anything to fight their case.

The demonstration on Friday was very much a case of deja-vu, and little seems to have happened since I photographed an earlier protest in the same place two weeks ago.

Vernal Equinox at Tower Hill

Monday, March 23rd, 2009

© 2009 Peter Marshall.

The Druid Order held their usual ceremony at Tower Hill to mark the Spring Equinox last Friday, and this year it was a warm, sunny day.  The sun made photography a little more tricky – hard at times to avoid flare, and only too easy to get the photographer’s shadow on the white robes when I didn’t want it. Fortunately the ‘Active D-lighting’ on the camera really does seem to help a bit with the excessive contrast  – surprisingly like Nikon claim it does, and shooting RAW – pretty well essential for high-contrast light – lets you open up the shadows and bring down the highlights a bit.  The camera tests do show that cameras can handle a greater contrast range when making RAW rather than jpeg files, but I think this flexibility in processing is vital. Lightroom does let you  “stretch” jpeg files a little also, but you can do more starting from a RAW file.

Although the obvious approach is to use Lightroom’s ‘Recovery’ slider to bring the highlights under control, I like to keep it to low values or indeed at zero when I can. Using large values of ‘Recovery’ seems to rather dull the highlights and you lose the kind of glow that you can get. Sometimes you can get the effect needed by simply cutting down on the ‘Exposure’ and increasing the ‘Brightness’, but often the best way seems to be to use the ‘Burn’ tool to bring down the over-bright areas.

© 2009 Peter Marshall
The ‘glow’ here can get lost if you overdo the ‘Recovery’ slider in LR

And of course on sunny days the shadows become an important part of the subject matter – if one that it is easy to forget about, even when they dominate the image. Its one of the many things you have to train yourself to see as a photographer – and which it’s only too easy to forget in the heat of the moment.

© 2009 Peter Marshall

But in the end what is more important important for me than making single images is that the pictures tell the story. And you can read them and it on My London Diary.

Prague Poet Remembered

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

I’ve long been a fan of Josef Sudek – and my copy of the first edition of the monograph on him published in the West in 1978, two years after his death, edited by Sonja Bullaty shows considerable signs of use.  Bullaty, a photographer who shared some of his lyrical approach, had been held in Nazi concentration camps (including Auschwitz)  before managing to escape from a death march and return to Prague as the war was ending.  There she found none of her family had survived. She became Sudek’s apprentice until she was able to leave for New York in 1947.

Sudek’s images in the book were finely printed in gravure, and have a quality that often very much echoes the originals. His work very much showed a different sensibility and an alternative photographic printmaking syntax to the bravura zone-based silver prints of American photographers such as Ansel Adams or the glossy bromides of photojournalism. Complex, sometimes brooding, and always with feeling, whether on matte silver or pigment his prints had an interest in surface and depth. It was work in a different register to the prevailing US hegemony.

Later I bought a few more books of his work, and around 1980 organised a small gallery display of Czech photography that included at least one of his prints along with these. I’ve had another gravure of one of his images hanging on my front room wall for many years. And of course I wrote about the man and his work for About Photography.

So I was pleased to see a mention on The Online Photographer  (though I think to call him “one of the fathers of 20th-century photography in the Czech nation” belittles a man who was truly one of the greats of  20th century photography full stop) directing me to a note marking the anniversary of his birth on March 17, 1896 at the Disability Studies site of Temple University.

Sudek fought in Italy in the First World War, losing his right arm, and it was this very disability that brought him into photography, as he was given a camera while convalescing from the amputation, and his disability pension allowed him to study photography. The site also links to an extensive gallery of his work and you can also see some at Iphoto Central  and Luminous Lint.

One aspect of his work that I developed a particular interest in was his use of panoramic photography – something indeed that led me to buy and use a number of panoramic cameras. The internet doesn’t lend itself too well to the  format and not many of his (or mine) appear to be on line.

DLR at Bow Creek, © 1992 Peter Marshall
Definitely not Sudek, but one of my panoramas – some others are on the Urban Landscape web site.
Right Click in sensible browsers and select ‘View image’ to see the picture larger.

One site that has a few (it is poorly written – scroll far to the right to find images) compares some of Sudek’s Praha Panoramaticka images with 1992 images at the same locations by  Peter Sramek. Although it is sometimes interesting to see the differences time has made, Sudek’s work has a quality that sets it at a quite different level to the later work.

St Patrick’s Day in Brent

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

© 2009 Peter Marshall

Beautiful weather, beautiful people, a blessing from St Pat, dancing girls, a goat, what more can one want?

© 2009 Peter Marshall

Just a shame the Guinness was only plastic.  But it wasn’t far to go for the real stuff.

© 2009 Peter Marshall

More pictures on My London Diary.

Invade Jersey Now!

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

Don’t Invade Jersey Iraq  read the placards that Mark Thomas had made for his one-hour demo (sorry, this was a ‘media event‘ and not a demonstration and thus needed no SOCPA authorisation) outside the MoD. Demonstrating (or media-eventing) along with him were representatives of Jersey’s teachers, who want a British take-over of this offshore tax haven so they can get the same working conditions as UK teachers including the right to a lunch hour. But the main point of the demonstration was that, thanks to PFI, the Private Finance Initiative that is Gordon Brown’s prime dogma, most of our government buildings (and policies?) are now in the hands of private companies based off-shore in tax havens to avoid UK tax.

© 2009 Peter Marshall.
Mark with demonstrators and police on the MOD steps

You can read more about the demonstration and the six reasons that Mark gave for we should invade now

© 2009 Peter Marshall

and see more pictures on My London Diary.

End Child Poverty – 10 Years

Wednesday, March 18th, 2009

© 2009 Peter Marshall.

Ten years ago today the Labour Government made a promise to eradicate child poverty by 2020, and to half it by 2010. The Campaign to End Child Poverty turned up today with a birthday cake to mark the 10 years as well as a small demonstration on Parliament Square with men and women dressed in black with bill boards reminding him of the pledges and the organisations involved in the campaign, and a petition with 5000 signatures.

Urgent government action will be needed to meet the target, and it will need perhaps £3 billion pounds – which would also help to boost the economy by being spent on food, clothing and essential items to bring children out of poverty.

Taking the cake and the petition to Downing St were a small group of 10-year olds from Newham, accompanied by End Child Poverty Director Hilary Fisher, Colette Marshall (no relation) the UK Director of Save the Children and David Bull, the UK Executive Director of UNICEF. I left them in Parliament Square as I was on my way to another event.

A few more pictures on My London Diary

London St Patrick’s Day Parade

Monday, March 16th, 2009

Sunday’s St Patrick’s Day parade in London formed up on Piccadilly, which was a problem for photographers, with lowish sun streaming into our lenses much of the time. Things were a lot easier for us when they used Park Lane around the corner.  So although everyone else was probably enjoying the bright sun, we were cursing it.

I wasn’t helped by not having a lens hood for my 20mm on the D700, although frankly most wide-angle lens hoods are hardly worth the trouble. As usual I made use of my hand, holding it in the right place by looking through the viewfinder until I can just see it – and then at least in theory moving it just out of picture. In practice it’s more efficient than the Nikon lenshood, but it also means I have to crop the occasional image where my fingers intrude along the top of the picture!

© 2009 Peter Marshall.

Kennedy Homestead‘ above is a good example – the sun was only just out of picture and my hand was just visible along the top of the picture; fortunately I could also crop a corresponding area at the right and still keep the normal aspect ratio.

I’m not quite a cropping fundamentalist à la H C-B (and it’s always worth remembering that perhaps his best known picture, the leaping man in the Place de l’Europe which featured in most of his obituaries, was quite seriously cropped) but like him I do believe in composing in the viewfinder rather than after the event.

The second problem with bright sun is of course lighting contrast. Fortunately using fill-flash can help with this, along with a little dodging and burning in Lightroom. I’m not quite sure what the US-style cheerleaders were doing at this Irish event, though doubtless some of them had Irish ancestors, and it isn’t anything more than an adequate picture, but it is one that I would have found impossible just a few years ago.

© 2009 Peter Marshall.

Modern flash systems and high sync speeds make fill flash simple to handle. I couldn’t have done this with my old Olympus OM system. The shutter speed here was 1/320s (at f11, ISO 400) and I had my usual -2/3 stop setting on the flash along with +2/3 on the camera exposure. Really I didn’t have to think about it at all, other than to check I had the flash switched on and take a quick look at the image and histogram after taking the picture.

It did need a bit of work in Lightroom, bringing the sky area and some highlights down and opening up some of the shadow areas.  The kind of control that in the old days one could do in black and white, but was very tricky with colour – I remember a number of times getting messages back from the lab that  what I wanted just wasn’t possible in those good old days.

© 2009 Peter Marshall.
Another that would not have worked without fill

The St Patrick’s day parade was one of the big events started in London by Ken Livingstone, and one that he always seemed to enjoy. Although many of the supporters of Boris Johnson moaned about Ken wasting money on such events, I’m pleased to see that they are continuing under the new management – and Boris was there himself at the front of Sunday’s march. So far as I’m aware he doesn’t claim any Irish ancestors and for once he didn’t put his foot in anything.

© 2009 Peter Marshall.
Fill again essential

You can see more pictures from the parade- including several different St Patricks –  on My London Diary.

Happy Newroz!

Sunday, March 15th, 2009

One of the many festivals observed in our richly variety of cultures in London is the Newroz Festival, celebrated in Trafalgar Square this year for the first time – celebrations in previous years have taken place in Finsbury Park, Shoreditch and elsewhere.

© 2009 Peter Marshall

Newroz is the Kurdish version of the ancient Iranian New Year holiday, celebrated (as we used to) at the Spring Equinox, and since the 1980s has become widely celebrated as a symbol of Kurdish identity.

Turkey brought in its own official Spring celebration in 2000, Nevruz, in an attempt to replace the celebration of Newroz. It’s now a crime to use the name Newroz or celebrate it there. Newroz celebrations in Turkey, supported by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) have at times led to mass arrests and killings, and the same is true in Syria where although in theory it is allowed, in practice the security forces clamp down on it because of its political overtones.

© 2009 Peter Marshall

I’ve photographed many events involving Kurds over the years and come to admire their fiery determination and appreciate the dream that unites and energises them as a people. Their immediate goal is the release of the man who has become a symbol of their nation, Abdullah Öcalan (pronounced ‘erdjerlan’), and the dream is of a Kurdish nation, Kurdistan.

© 2009 Peter Marshall

London now has a Mayor who has made bumbling idiocy an art form, and one he has used to great political advantage, not least in defeating Ken Livingstone. As we are seeing it’s a smokescreen that hides some policies  which will make London a worse place to live in, particularly for those on low incomes and who rely on public transport.  His gaffe over Newroz is a curious one, and suggests to me some serious confusion at City Hall.

Here is a part of Ken Livingstone‘s message about Newroz in 2006:

‘Newroz is an important opportunity for the size and contribution of the Kurdish community in London to be recognised, and with a celebratory concert in Finsbury Park this weekend, an ideal opportunity for Londoners of all backgrounds to celebrate, explore and educate themselves about London’s Kurdish communities. It is my pleasure to wish you a Happy Newroz.’

And here is some of what Boris Johnson had to say in a press release that doesn’t appear to be on the extremely confused official London government web site:

‘I have the pleasure to announce that a Newroz Festival will take place for the first time in Trafalgar Square on Saturday 14 March. I’m proud so many people of Turkish and Kurdish backgrounds, like my paternal grandfather, have made London their home and have brought the rich history, culture, cuisine and trades of Turkish speaking communities to the capital’

Ilhan Genc, in an open letter to  Boris on KurdishMedia, prints the whole of the message Boris sent to the London Kurdish Community, but with a deliberately unsubtle difference to point out the offence his message caused: ‘the words Turkish and Turkey have been substituted with German and Germany, and the words Kurdish and Newroz substituted with Jewish and Hanukkah.’

This results in Boris’s final paragraph now reading:

‘I am proud to be the Mayor of Londoners from every community and I’m extremely proud of my GERMAN ancestry. HANUKKAH is a wonderful opportunity for strengthening the links that exist between City Hall and everyone marking HANUKKAH.’

Genc ends his letter:

‘I hope I have made my feelings clear, and look forward for an apology from the Mayor.An extremely angered and insulted Kurdish Londoner’

Boris is of course rightly proud of his Turkish great-grandfather Ali Kemal, a liberal Turkish journalist and politician, editor of the anti-Nationalist paper Sabah.  Kemal was sentenced to hang by the Military Governor of Smyrna “In the name of Islam, in the name of the Turkish nation … as a traitor to the country” but was seized and torn to pieces by a mob of women with knives, stones, clubs and cutlasses as he was being taken to the gibbet. As the New York Times commented at the time of his death in Nov 1922, he was known as one of Turkey’s most enlightened and most impartial citizens.

© 2009 Peter Marshall

Had Boris been at Newroz, he would clearly have seen that it was Kurdish and not Turkish, viewing the event through a sea of flags with pictures of Abdullah Öcalan, in prison on Imrali Island in Turkey since his kidnapping in Kenya in 1999 and heard the chanting “We are the PKK” and the calls for Öcalan’s release. As the finale of a highly energetic folk dance display on the stage, each of the troupe of young women pulled out a flag with his image and danced around the stage to tumultuous applause.

© 2009 Peter Marshall

Many more pictures from this event on My London Diary.

Harry Benson at the Palace

Thursday, March 12th, 2009

On the Pop Photo‘s State of the Art blog you can see a picture of Glasgow’s most famous photographer Harry Benson getting his CBE from Princess Anne today. Unfortunately the link they give to Vanity Fair for more simply gets me an invitation to subscribe, but given the quality of the image on State of the Art I’m not too sorry.

You can however see a video interview with the man himself on Live Books, which also contains quite a few of his more famous images. I wrote about Benson last August after seeing his show at the Kelvingrove  Art Gallery and Museum.