Category Archives: Photographers in the News

Annie Leibovitz + NPR = Yes.

By Brad Leclerc | Published November 20, 2008

How did I miss Annie Leibovitz on NPR on tuesday? I must be seriously slacking in my news gathering. Check it out over here. Among other things, she talks about her great new collection, “Annie Leibovitz at Work”.
Here’s a couple of short quotes to wet your appetite…
“It’s a romantic story,” she says. “Can you imagine? [...]

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Real Life of a Pro Photographer

By Chris Garrett | Published August 1, 2006

Gary Bagshawe has written up the events of the day he snapped a big news story practically right on his doorstep. It’s a cool story, regardless of what you think about this type of work, and netted him a good little earner.

The prince Naseem Case

Some of you who are reading this may recall the Prince Naseem Car Crash pictures and the ensuing court case that followed; below I have written my involvement of the case as a freelance photographer. May bank holiday 2005, World snooker final is on at the Crucible (didn’t manage to get a press pass….again) so the Mrs had me working in the garden re building the dry stone wall, oh joy!!! Half way through this enviable task I heard a lot of sirens, and I mean loads. Having chased many a blue flashing light I could tell that there were fire engines, police cars and Ambulances, I looked towards the Mrs and said “that sounds nasty and continued my joyous task of re building the wall, about 5 minutes later I heard more sirens! Then I saw the air ambulance fly overhead. I looked pleadingly towards my better half…

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What is in Dan Chung’s Camera Bag?

By Chris Garrett | Published July 10, 2006

Dan Chung from the Guardian is giving us a look inside his camera bag and gives us an insight into gear being used for shooting the world cup. Geeky stuff but I for one love looking at what equipment people use, especially the top guys like Dan

Anyone not interested in gadgets can stop reading now, but for those of you who asked, this is the kit I use to cover a World Cup match. Like the vast majority of photographers at the tournament I’m using Canon digital cameras. You only have to look at the number of big white lenses at the pitch side to realise how dominant the brand is in professional sports photography. I use up to five Canon Eos digital camera bodies at the average match, my main cameras are two Eos1D mk2 cameras on my 500mm f4L and 200mm f1.8L long lenses. I also have my Eos1Ds mk2 attached to a fixed 35mm f1.4L wide angle and a 580ex flashgun which I keep by me in case the players celebrate right in front of me. I then place an Eos20D with a 14mm f2.8 and a borrowed Eos1D mk2n with a 16-35mm on remote controls placed at either side behind the goal on Manfrotto mini tripods. I also have a 135mm f2L and 70-200 f2.8L lenses with me in case I can’t get to sit where I want to use my preferred lenses.

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Photographers’ Money Woes

By DamianM | Published July 7, 2006

Chris wrote in a post of his how Carl Purcell had one of his photos appear on an American stamp and how he must feel since it was a stock photo and he basically got nothing out of it. Well spare a thought for Kelly Fajack. Here he finds people violating his copyright and making money from one of his photos, literally!

The central African nation of Burundi have used one of his photos without his permission for their 10,000 Burundi franc note. The photo was not in the public domain; it was just used on Mr Purcells personal website.

Quite rightly he is suing the Burundi government, but to sue a government is quite tricky. Good look with that Carl, I hope you get a fair and just outcome.

Read more about it here.

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Pro DSLR vs Pro-Sumer: The Difference

By Chris Garrett | Published May 12, 2006

It works out the main difference between a prosumer and a pro DSLR is the pro version survives being used as a weapon …

David Honl’s Weblog: Why do you need a pro DSLR?

On Monday my new 30D backup was crushed beneath me, and became destined for the scrap heap. I was covering a heated political demonstration here in Turkey and things took a painful turn for the worse. After being attacked by a group of volatile PKK supporters, thrown to the ground, kicked, beaten, and introduced to the experience of having a 1D body slammed over my head, I was face-down on the pavement with my 30D. My pro-grade 1Ds survived, even after being used to hit me over the head (ouch). On a CF card note, I was able to rescue my nearly-filled 2gb card from the ground before running for the hills (it popped out of the camera on impact).

On top of it all, I became news in all the Turkish media this week as “American journalist attacked” and spent the rest of the week fielding phone calls and doing interviews. Ughhhh.

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Insight into a professional photographers life

By Chris Garrett | Published April 27, 2006

I love reading about the travails of professional photographers, Michael Fox in particular seems to have carved out an interesting career.

I’ve been shooting everything from an evening with George Lucas at his beautiful Digital Arts Center in San Francisco’s Presidio, to the Fetish Ball in downtown San Francisco. Michael Chertoff has passed through, and so has John Travolta. I can never complain that there is no variation… But last weekend I was hired by The Learning Annex to photograph their “Real Estate Wealth Expo”, an event that drew approximately 61,500 people

Read the full thing, it makes for interesting reading. I think that sort of creative pressure wouldn’t sit well with my nervous nature but it’s fun to read about!

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Creative commons: How safe is your work?

By DamianM | Published March 13, 2006

Do you use a creative commons license on your Flickr photos. Do you even know what it is? Well very basically it is a license that you grant that allows non-profit use and sharing of your photography (More Info).

Why am I talking about it now?, well the legal strength of the idea has just been put to test in court. Adam Curry the ‘POD father’ has recently taken to court a Dutch magazine for publishing pictures from his Flickr account. The magazine apparently thought that since the photos were on the internet they could do whatever they liked.

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Photographing the Winter Olympics

By Chris Garrett | Published March 6, 2006

This is an interesting article about photojournalist Vincent Laforet and his experience of photographing the Torino Winter Olympics.

Apple – Pro/Photo – Vincent Laforet, pg.1

There are no medals awarded for photojournalism at the Winter Olympics. But anyone watching photojournalist Vincent Laforet run with 50 pounds of equipment from the Oval Lingotto — where he’d just photographed 5000-meter speedskater Chad Hedrick winning America’s first gold medal of the 2006 Games — toward Palavela, the pairs figure skating venue, a chilly mile away, might easily believe that he was witnessing an unannounced leg of a new Olympic test sport.

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Making versus Taking Photographs

By Chris Garrett | Published January 17, 2006

What is the difference between making a photograph and taking one? It seems some photographers do not like the idea that an artist might stage a scene before capturing it, like the genre should be about recording what is there rather than “creating”.

NPR : Gregory Crewdson’s Photo Alchemy

Gregory Crewdson doesn’t so much take pictures as make them. Some critics say the photographer and artist is reinventing the genre by using film techniques to stage pictures.

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Again with the Digital Vs. Film!

By Chris Garrett | Published January 16, 2006

OK, you might think this is getting boring but I found this article from a professional medium format user very interesting.

Source: Shootout

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