>Re:PHOTO Peter Marshall - Thoughts on Photography

Synchronise cameras

One trivial but annoying aspect of working with more than one camera is that of synchronising time between them. It seldom mattered with film, as it was only compact models intended for amateurs than generally kept any record of the time, imprinting it on the film during exposure, and most more serious photographers quickly turned to the pages in the manual that gave instructions for disabling the feature.

But most of us have now grown to rely on the time recorded in the EXIF data of our digital files for various purposes. For me it is often vital in putting images from two camera bodies in correct time sequence, and also often useful when writing about events. What time exactly did something happen? How long was it, for example between the start of an incident and the arrival of police on the scene? Where before I would normally have to rely on having noted down the times (and in the heat of the moment it was often not uppermost in my mind), now a quick peek at the file on camera back or computer tells me to the second. Or should.

This morning I spent a frustrating few minutes trying to synchonise the time on my D300 and D700 bodies, having moticed that some of the pictures I took on Saturday were clearly out of order when sorted by time. I’ve been noticing some slight differences for a while, but when I checked I found the two cameras had drifted over 2 minutes apart.

I didn’t find any easy way to put them right. Setting the two cameras to the same time and trying to push to two buttons at the same time turned out to be frustratingly different as I have the display on both set to turn off quickly to save running down the batteries. My first step should have been to find the custom setting c4: Monitor off Display and set that for rather longer than my normal battery-saving 4s but instead I did it with that, which made it more of a game of chance. Eventually I got it so that the two cameras are now within a second, and I’ll be interested to see how long they stay that way. The clocks don’t seem that accurate – perhaps they sometimes stop for the odd millisecond when the camera is actually busy?

Both are now around 35s fast, but I just could not be bothered to go through the whole thing again to get them closer to GMT. Accidentally they are now more or less in that curious time zone of British Railway Time, where the 10.29 train actually shuts its doors 30s early at 10.28:30, although for some even more curious relativity unknown to Einstein the trains still seem to arrive using 5 minutes behind GMT.

And I’ll have to remember this Sunday to tell both of them that we are now on BST. At least there is a setting for that in the menu. It was several months before I remembered to do so the last time the clocks changed.

Most of the clocks I now own set their time (and make the change to Summer Time) automatically from a radio signal, and perhaps cameras should do the same, although I’d prefer them only to do so when asked. One of my less useful purchases is a travelling alarm clock that when you take it to other time zones still insists on keeping British time. You can set it manually to some other zone, but whatever you do, in the middle of the night it will call home and set the time right. I wouldn’t want cameras to do that!

Sigma, Ahava, Hare Krishna and Pakistan

Saturday evening I wanted to go on to a social occasion after a day of taking pictures, and I decided that my normal camera bag would be a bit in the way. There would have been a cloakroom where I would have had to leave it for some of the time, but I hate having to leave my kit in these, as I’m sure it would not be covered either by their or my insurance. It may be an old and beat-up looking bag, but typically is more than £5000 worth of gear in it. And afterwards I would have to take it with me into a busy pub, where camera bags present an invitation to opportunist thieves, particularly when their owners are perhaps a little less careful after a few drinks.

So I decided to travel light, taking a smaller and less obvious shoulder bag that I can usually take into places without any problems and doesn’t look as if it contains anything of value.

Ordinary bags lack the protection for your gear that is built into camera bags, which means a smaller bag can potentially hold more, but you do need to be careful about damage to gear, and not try to pack in too much. So I decided to make do with just the one camera, the D700, with two lenses, the Nikon 16-35mm and a Sigma DG 28-300 f3.5-6.3. The DG means designed for digital, and although I bought it fairly recently it has now been discontinued.

The Sigma is in some ways a remarkable lens, only sticking out just over 3 inches (87mm) from the front of the camera when at its shortest (and shortest focal length), weighing just over 1lb (465g) and taking a 62mm filter. Considering it covers the full frame this seems incredible, and it is perhaps just a little too good to be true. Nikon’s 28-300 is over an inch longer, weighs 800g and takes a 77mm.

Usually I use it on the D300, as an alternative to the Nikon 18-105mm when I know I will need something longer – on that format it is equivalent to a 42-450mm. So long as there is enough light (at say ISO 1250 that needn’t be a great deal) for its small maximum aperture not to be a problem it can do pretty well.

Of course there are limitations, and on Saturday I came across some of these when I tried to use it to photograph the two demonstrations and a religious event I covered.

It is pretty hard to find an undamaged recent lens that doesn’t deliver acceptable image quality these days – quite a change from when I started in photography, when even some of the big names produced some less than mediocre performers, but the Sigma, especially at full aperture on full frame, does seem to fall a little behind the other lenses I use. It’s actually pretty good at the wide end but not quite so hot above 200mm. It’s still a usable lens, just not in the top flight, and given its specifications and price (I think I paid around £200, around a third of the Nikon), a compromise I expected and accept. The Nikon is certainly better at 300mm and has VR which would also be an advantage at the long end.

But in particular when photographing the dancing by Hare Krishna, where I was trying to focus on fairly close and rapidly moving subject matter, I found this lens focussed just a little too slow – so much so that I gave up trying to take some pictures. With the 18-105 I would have been able to lock on and follow the movement more readily, and the 16-35 sometimes focusses so fast I don’t believe it has done so.

Most of the time I’ve used this lens for relatively static subjects – such as speakers on a platform where I can’t get close, or concentrating on a single face in a static or slow-moving crowd – and haven’t had huge problems. Of course working at around 3-400mm I don’t expect every frame to always be pin sharp, but enough are.

So I got by with one camera, but missed a few pictures because of it, both by having the wrong lens on the camera at times, and also because of the slow focus.

It was a not unusual day in London. I photographed two demonstrations, one with two opposing groups about the Middle East and another about events in Pakistan, and I’d gone to cover another political event but found little or nothing happening there. I’d also photographed a festival of a religious movement with its roots in India.

You can see the results in Ahava Boycott Protests Continue, Hare Krishna Celebrate Gaura Purnima and Repeal Pakistan Blasphemy Laws.

After finishing taking photographs I was going to eat at an Italian restuarant and then watch a French film, but we had to change our plans following delays on the Tube and I ended up eating a Chinese meal in a Korean restuarant, accompanied by a bottle of French wine.

St Patrick’s Day in Brent

St Patrick is under threat in Brent, as the local council looks for ways to make the massive cuts that the government is demanding, but I hope very much he can be saved. It’s perhaps hard to see why the annual parade there actually costs very much and I suspect more of the money goes on rather less essential things – perhaps paying performers at the festival. And while the security firm may be needed to comply with the council’s health and safety agenda it doesn’t in fact seem to serve any useful purpose other than supplying a little employment.

People were collecting signatures to get the council to reconsider axing this, along with most of the other community festivals they sponsor throughout the year, and I think it would be a great loss to see any of them go. But perhaps most – and rather surprisingly certainly the few they still intend to fund – could readily be largely if not entirely self-supported by the communities involved.

Photographically it was the kind of situation where most of the time I would have preferred to be working with a Leica. But I’m still not convinced it would be worth trading in my M8 and paying the ridiculous amount extra for the M9. Several of my friends now own them, but I’ve yet to see them getting the kind of results that justify the expense.

Perhaps part of the problem is that we now expect rather more from our cameras than in the old days, and having the name Leica on a camera isn’t enough. Leica just don’t seem to have the digital know-how or research budget to compete. So far neither of the major camera companies has come out with a non-DSLR large sensor model, and perhaps until they do we won’t have a truly state of the art market sector.

Meanwhile I’m waiting for my Fuji X100 and hoping it will be all it promises, though the recent events in Japan are going to hold things up. Fuji’s Taiwa-Cho factory, 20 miles from Sendai city, has been damaged, although fortunately none of the workers there are reported injured. But there has been a temporary halt in production of the FinePix X100, which is expected to result in a delay in the camera coming to market.

But back in Willesden Green, I was shooting as usual with the Nikon D700, along with the 16-35mm lens, and the D300 with the 18-105mm. And it was a beautiful day for March, the Guinness was flowing well and my only problem was that I had to rush away as soon as the parade was over to see my grand-daughter and her father, staying with us for a day.

More of the pictures at St Patrick’s Day – Brent on My London Diary.

Prince Loses Case

I almost put down the mouse and clapped when I read on A Photo Editor the post Richard Prince Loses Fair Use Argument and I think all photographers should drink a toast to US District Judge Deborah A. Batts for her ruling on the case.

It’s dealt with so well on A Photo Editor that there really is not a great deal for me to add other than my applause, which also goes to its author Rob Haggart, and to some of those who have commented on the post, who include another photographer whose work was ripped off by Prince.

But what I think reflects so badly on the wider photography and art community is that the work of Richard Prince has ever been given any credence. That any gallery has ever exhibited or sold it. That magazines with a high reputation in the photographic world have published it. That idiots have bought it (or perhaps I should say invested in it.)

As for the $18 million that people seemed to have paid for it, frankly it beggars belief. But I think I made my own views about Mr Prince and his work clear several years ago in A genuine Richard Prince photograph? though then I was rather too kind towards him.

I imagine Prince and Gagosian, his gallery, will appeal, and if so I very much hope the decision will be upheld, not because of any particular animosity towards those concerned but because of what the whole case implies about the status of photography, and of documentary photography in particular as their case asserted that Patrick Cariou’s photographs “are mere compilations of facts concerning Rastafarians and the Jamaican landscape, arranged with minimum creativity in a manner typical of their genre, and that the Photos are therefore not protectable as a matter of law.” Of course legally it is nonsense (and I think a nonsense settled in courts in the nineteenth century when copyright protection was extended to photographs) but as QT Luong points out in a comment to the piece, it is a widespread if “particularly arrogant and insulting expression of how the art world views documentary photography.

Given there is very little justice in this world whichever way it goes they will still both be laughing all the way to the bank. Even the maximum statutory damages if awarded would only make a minor dent in their profits and the publicity from the settlement would probably increase the value of the works they still hold by a greater amount.

Perhaps the only thing that could truly dent the party a little is if they Emperor’s new clothes were to be widely seen for what they are.

About Turn on Stop and Search

I learn from the British Journal of Photography that Home Secretary Theresa May has brought back the police powers of stop and search, which the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) threw out in their ruling last June – and with a vengeance.

Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 became infamous because of its use by police to harass photographers and journalists going about their legitimate business in reporting protest. The new section 47A, brought in under the The Terrorism Act 2000 (Remedial) Order 2011, replaces the discredited sections 44-46 and not only allows the same abuses of power by police but removes the need for police to gain prior permission from the Home Office to employ them. Now any “senior police officer” – an assistant chief constable or above – can decide these powers are necessary and put them in place, with no requirement to gain any permission, only a requirement to inform the Home Office that this has been done “as soon as reasonably practicable.” In fact it will only be necessary to do so if the powers are to remain in action for more than 48 hours, and it seems it might be possible simply to repeat the order at 48 hour intervals to keep it in force without event letting the Home Office know.

Prior to the ECHR ruling, some photographers faced ridiculous obstacles in carrying out their work. One was stopped and searched three times in one morning covering a protest, another I think well over a hundred times in one year. So far as I am aware there has been not a single case in which any of the thousands of searches of photographers carrying UK Press cards has ever yielded any evidence relating to the reason used to justify them.

The authorisation of stop and search in a particular area is only justified if the officer doing so “reasonably suspects that an act of terrorism will take place; and considers that the authorisation is necessary to prevent such an act.” But as before, the main use that will be made of them will be in circumstances where terrorism – as this term is normally understood – is not in any way at issue.

The Orwellian-named “Protection of Freedoms Bill” once it becomes law will replace this temporary legislation, probably with some equally draconian abuse of our rights, nodded through by our political machine, though possibly with a little coughing against it by the peers. The reason for this hasty emergency measure is obvious. March 26 promises to see one of the largest demonstrations ever in London, against the government’s cuts.

Photographers can expect a further round of harassment from police, which comes as a particular disappointment as following the demise of Section 44 and other events over the past year or so there has generally been some improvement. Since the obvious mishandling of the student demonstrations in November and December there does also seem to have been an attempt by police to improve both tactics and communication with protesters too. But this Order suggests that their political masters at least want them to play a tougher game.

Hughes Leglise-Bataille (1968-2011)

Photojournalist Hughes Léglise-Bataille along with six others, including his wife and sister-in-law were killed when the van in which they were travelling in Brazil was involved in a head-on collision with a lorry.

I first heard of Hughes Léglise-Bataille when his pictures of Demonstrations in Paris won the first prize for News Blogs in the NPPA’s Best of Photojournalism contest in 2007 for a dramatic silhouette of a protesters on the fence in front of a floodlit Assemblée Nationale. It was just one of 30 pictures in a set still on Flickr taken at a series of demonstrations against a new French employment law in March/April 2006.

I remember later reading a feature which mentioned his decision to abandon investment banking (a career for 13 years in Sao Paulo and New York) and become a professional photojournalist. From October 2009 worked for the French Agency Wostok Press, where you can see more of his work, including a set of recent pictures from Tahrir Square.

He continued to contribute his pictures to Flickr and to take an active part in discussions of the ‘Hard Core Street Photography‘ Group, where he was also known simply as ‘Hugo’.

You can see more of his work on his Photoshelter site, which features some fine photojournalistic images as well as some of his street photography, which I find of rather less interest.

Mothers March

The Mothers March For Everyones Survival & Welfare which called for an end to cuts, poverty and discrimination was the final event I photographed around International Women’s Day this year, and the one that I enjoyed most. Not because it was the most radical or the event that to me most reflected the spirit and history of International Women’s Day – though it was. Not because of the diversity of those taking part and the individual nature of all the placards – hardly two the same – and banners, although this does perhaps make photography easier.

It was certainly the most friendly and welcoming of the three IWD related events I covered this year, and one that involved women, children and men working together, although it was an event organised by women’s organisations.

But perhaps most importantly, although it was organised it had a feeling or freedom and a little chaos that I think is truly liberating.

Of course there were plenty of serious political issues around – and some, such as rape and asylum issues that women on the march have experienced first-hand, but I rather liked the placard that said ‘Don’t take the fun out of being a mum’ and there are serious issues behind this as well. Another placard stated ‘Mothers Want to Care. Only 6% want full time jobs’ and there were others around the same issue. Caring really is central to any civilised society and another said ‘Invest in caring not killing! Good for Mothers Good for Soldiers.’

For once there were no real photographic problems, except a little carelessness on my part that led to me working for some time with the D300 set on ISO 1600 – but that isn’t a great problem so long as you get the exposure correct. The light was good, there were few police around, just a few friendly stewards, and even my foot with which I’ve had problems for some months had shifted down a notch or two from agony towards discomfort. And for once it was a dry day too. More pictures and text at Mothers March for Survival on My London Diary.

I was sorry to have to rush away and catch a bus after the march reached SOAS, as I would have liked to hear the address by Selma James (on International Womens Day) and the report from Winconsin, but there was another protest I wanted to photograph.

Free Tibet

The first event I photographed last Saturday was the annual Free Tibet March, held every year in London around the anniversary of the 1959 Tibetan uprising. I can’t remember when I first attended this, certainly in the older thematic index for My London Diary (covering 1999-2007) I find these entries:

Free Tibet March, Mar 2000
Free Tibet March, Mar 2001
Free Tibet March, Mar 2002
Free Tibet March, Mar 2003
Free Tibet March, Mar 2005
Free Tibet March, Mar 2006
Free Tibet March, Mar 2007

and in the newer month by month index, I was there in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

So certainly since 2000, possibly the first year I photographed it, the only year I’ve missed is 2004.

So the main problem for me is trying to take pictures without just repeating myself from earlier years, and if possible to do something better. Of course it is different each year – different people taking part and to some extent different activities, but the number of people wearing Tibetan colours, yellow, blue and red and carrying or wearing Free Tibetan flags does make for a certain visual uniformity.

This was one picture where I just missed, by having the wrong camera in my hand when it happened. I was using the D300 and the wide end of the 18-105mm just wasn’t wide enough – it would have been a better picture with the dog’s rear feet visible, but there wasn’t time to pick up the D700 with the 16-35mm attached.

I could have gone in to Downing Street with the group that was delivering a letter, but I find that kind of thing too boring – and will only do it if I’m getting paid for that very purpose – which doesn’t happen often. Photographers normally get penned on the opposite site of the road from that well-known black door, and it’s a long lens job with little chance to get different pictures.

Before the group went through the security gates with the letter they posed for pictures, and I took one, though it isn’t great:

I was a little to one side and it was hard to get everyone’s face in the picture and I ended up with a rather diverse set of expressions, which was one thing that made it slightly more interesting to me than many set up pictures of people holding a letter. The other thing that lifts it a little is the back lighting. But while I quite liked this, the handful of other photographers photographing the group saw it as a problem, and got the group to turn around 180 degrees and photographed them in rather flat frontal sunlight. I did take one but it was too boring to keep.

Had I been the photographer working for the organisation, I would have done it differently in any case, perhaps getting the group together in front of the march rather than by that rather bland wall. I’d taken a few as they were getting ready to present the letter – like this one, but it was a shame that no one was actually holding the letter in them.

While the deputation and most of the photographers where inside Downing Street I was able to work with rather fewer others getting in picture as I photographed the crowd who were getting on with making their protest known. One of the pictures I took is at the top of this post, but perhaps that below is my favourite:

You can read more about the event – which I left at Downing St although it was continuing through London to a rally at the Chinese embassy – and see more pictures on My London Diary.

NHS Day X

The marchers gathered for a rally outside the Royal London Hospital at Whitechapel as it was getting dark, and as they listened to the speeches I was able to take pictures both with and without flash. Usually I work with two cameras, the Nikon D700 and the D300, but only take one SB800 flash – I just find it too difficult to handle two cameras both with flash mounted on them. Working with two on straps around my neck is tricky enough, and I sometimes find I have them tied in knots and have to stop and untangle them before I can carry on.

Now we can work at high ISO and get good results, the main advantages of flash in this kind of situation is really in colour. Street lighting is usually a pretty discontinuous spectrum, particularly where orange sodium lighting is still in use, and adding a little daylight with the flash always makes people look healthier.

At first I mainly worked with the flash on the D300 as I wanted to use it with the longer focal lengths of the 18-105 zoom (27-155eq) where camera shake would have been a problem without it. With the wideangle 16-35mm on the D700 you can certainly work at slower speeds and keep static subjects sharp (though you can’t rely on people to stay still.) I had the vibration reduction switched on, though I’ve still to be convinced it makes any difference, but it doesn’t do any harm.

I started working with the flash in balanced flash mode (TTL/BL) which balances the flash with the ambient light, using what I now regard as the moderate ISO 1250, and setting a minimum shutter speed of 1/30s. Later as it got darker I switched to standard TTL flash, but kept the shutter speed at 1/30s while remembering to set aperture priority so I could work at f5.6. With the wide angle there is seldom any need to stop down more than this, though in P mode Nikon selects f8 at ISO 1250. The extra stop at f5.6 does give better results in decent street lighting, though in some of the darker areas the march later went through I should have set a higher ISO but forgot.

1/30s is an interesting speed with people marching and me walking backwards when taking pictures. Without the flash there would be at least a slight blur, but the flash provides a sharp image of people near to the camera. The effect isn’t exactly predictable – and in the top picture where I was very close to the woman with the placard (the lens was at 24mm) I was actually stumbling slightly when I took the picture, which gives the exaggerated blur in the background.

In this picture I was moving the zoom ring and again the flash gives a sharp image which predominates for the close objects. It wasn’t done deliberately, just part of working in a hurry, but I rather like the effect it gives.

Working with flash does often involve quite a lot of work in Lightroom.

The line of people on the balcony outside the RBS in Aldgate are at rather different distance from the flash. I was using the lens at 16mm (1/30 f6.3 ISO 1250) and with the flash diffuser in place the SB800 gives fairly even coverage, which was a slight pity as I could have done with less on the woman at the right of frame. Often I try and angle the flash a bit away from close subject matter on one side like this, and I think I probably did on this occasion.

There is an obvious difference in the colour temperature and you can see that all the figures close to the flash have been darkened while those further from it – and lit mainly by the street lighting – have been made lighter. The processed image is a much better representation of how it actually looked.

You can read more about the rally and march and what the plans will mean for the NHS in Day X Defend the NHS on My London Diary where there is a large set of pictures, mainly taken with flash.

30 For 2011

It’s always interesting to look at PDN’s annual ‘Top 30‘ choice of ‘New and Emerging Photographers to Watch‘, and interesting too to look at them a few years later, by which time a few will have become well-known and others we will have heard no more of.

This years batch include rather more than in previous years that I haven’t heard of before, and perhaps includes rather fewer photographers than usual who I think we will hear of in later years. The choices come from nominations by a fairly long list of people, (including few who I know and slightly fewer whose opinion I respect) which I think have – as you might expect from PDN – a strong US and in particular New York bias.

You can read what is at times an interesting discussion of the ‘Top 30’ on the A Photo Editor blog, though I’m not sure that I see many of those selected as “artsy, young award-winning, British hipster-ish types of shooters” and there is rather too much attacking people who make comments rather than reading what they are saying.