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Pushing yourself and putting yourself on the spot.

July 10, 2013
Sport / Action
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Yesterday we had a sporting event here in Germany.  Chances are few people heard about it, there was not too much advertising certainly outside of the field.

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Every year there is an athletics competition, in the town stadium in Herford, near Bielefeld.  The only people that probably get to know about it are those units that are invited to field a team.  Many of the athletes are probably selected little more than a couple of days before it happens and in some cases, the athletes are actively taking part in their [chosen] event for the first time on the day.

As awful as that sounds, the reality is that for many of these competitors (although not all), their level of experience is largely irrelevant.  The truth is that competitions like these are not really about the level of skill or the ability of the competitors.  These contests are in plain terms military competitions rather than athletic.

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They are about guts, determination, team work, effort and overcoming yourself.  So the opportunity came up to photograph the event, not because we were tasked to but because we could.  In the absence of a formal request I decided it would be a fantastic opportunity to use this as a training day.  Try some new things free from the usual expectation that can lead you to the safest route.

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Photography is subjective as I have said before, and this is not an excuse to show the crap and try to market it as art.  I invited the other two photographers from over here to join me with a brief to submit only five images from the day.  Their choice, but they should mean something to them.

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Now five images is not a lot but it can be plenty.  Once I had been through all the  images choosing the final images was not all that easy.  The ones I chose would probably not be the choices of others but that is the point.  This day was about observation and thought.

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My final choices are those in Sepia as when it came down to it I felt I wanted to unify them in some way.  There is one colour image though.  An image I liked for its use of focus but when converted to sepia, it lost some of its elements.  It stays here though because it’s my blog and I can do what I want.

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The truth of the matter is that when you push yourself, photography is never easy, after concentrating so long and hard, I went hope tired that day……..but content.

Award winning, does it really make a difference?

October 12, 2012
Military work
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I write this blog in somewhat of a state of shock.  I have just been told that I need to get myself over to London next week to pick up a couple of prizes from the Army photographic awards. This image was taken at 0500 using available red light on a high ISO and shows us packed like sardines into the back of a Chinook about to go on an operation.

This year was only the second time I have entered in ten years for one thing or another, and after being runner up last time, the improvement was great. This macro shot was taken with a macro lens and was supposed to be an observation of religious prominence within the military and more so with the Americans.  What is does not show however is the levels of religious diversity that we have now. 

If I am totally honest, I didn’t really hold out much hope as much of the last 12 months was doing video, and if I am even more honest, not to a great standard. Military equipment – this was one of my favorite portraits from Afghanistan, it shows an attitude and toughness that belies the old equipment they operate with.

So back to the competition.  I am obviously very pleased for the recognition, but I really don’t think it means all that much at the end of the day but what we can do to raise the profile of our small group of individuals who work hard to show our colleagues at their best.  This is not down to me being disrespectful to the other entrants in this particular competition, just the fact that winning competitions may be a skill but also requires a lot of luck.  After all three judges look at the images subjectively and pick their favorite and on another day with different judges, the results would, I am sure, probably be very different. This military portrait taken in the studio is intended to show a diversity within the whole port folio.  It is a standard portrait with a little twist.

I had no idea who was judging this competition, not that knowing that would have made any difference.  The simple fact is that photography is purely subjective and what one person loves another simply can’t stand… the Marmite thing I suppose. In the absence of a perfect boxing or skiiing shot (not much of either in Afghanistan), I wanted to demonstrate a little bit of the British soldiers sense of humour… unfortunately there was no lake in sight.

So what did I win?  Well rather surprisingly, the Professional port folio award and the best Professional image.  Wow, now I am speechless. From the harshness of Afghanistan to the grandeur of Hannover town hall for the Queens birthday celebrations, a city that has close ties to the royal family.

The port folio was a simple case of choosing eight images, each one fulfilling a single criteria.  Operational image, Sport, Macro, Black and white, portrait, military equipment, Interior and Public relations image.  So the portfolio was always going to be a mismatch off images rather than a coherent collection of images to support a narrative.

Which ever way you look at it, there will be controversy and disagreement, as everyone will see different things from the images submitted.  So there we have it for another year, I only hope that we as a photographic trade can make the most of this and promote ourselves as the self motivated, professional individuals we are.

The image selected by the judges as the winning image, taken just before the officer at the front of the picture screamed at me for not being where I should be.