Youtube photographers struggle under isolation

With everyone but press photographers stuck at home in lockdown due to the Coronavirus – or more commonly referred to as the Chinese Virus, you would think the army of Youtube photographers would have a captured market…well, think again.

As the Covid-19 bites harder, the plethora of Youtubers or educators have struggled to get to grips with their new environment.  Some, who use their channels to educate viewers on the latest techniques in post processing, appear to be able to provide a ‘normal service’ whilst others have gone into complete meltdown.

Unable to venture out or test the latest bit of kit, there have been some peculiar postings in recent weeks as they struggle to find suitable subject matter for content.  Somehow, the newest, fastest camera lens or ultra lightweight tripod seems a little trite under current conditions and besides, who will be able to afford to spend any money with so many out of work or suffering huge financial penalties due to the virus?

It is a sad reality that with so many amatuer and professional photographers seeing their incomes slashed, the idea of buying anything at the moment may appear like wishful thinking.

What is intriguing as a complete newbie to the Youtube ‘educators’ is the amount of vitriol that flows and ebbs between the hosts.  Many of whom, as I have been discovering, are not actually working photographers and by that I mean, photographers who earn a living by using their skills as a photographer, but are merely presenters using cameras to demonstrate one thing or another.  They don’t have clients, they don’t shoot editorials, they just talk about photography.

How long they can continue their valuable income stream through the medium of Youtube is questionable as people turn their attentions to more pressing matters. For genuine photographers, the industry will recover and their skills will once again be required.  For the ‘educators’ they might have to rebuild their subscriber fanbase all over again.  But for now, it’s interesting to see how this will all play out….

 

Raw vs Jpeg

This is an argument I have seen played out on many occasions between photographers, most recently on social media and in particular on my favourite new fix: YouTube, where there is no shortage of advice and opinions.

Two high profile ‘educators’ or vloggers, (not sure if they are working photographers or just YouTubers) publicly slugged it out via their video channels, each arguing the case for either format.  None of their arguments made much sense but that’s probably just as well. However, the fundamental point of which is better, completely missed the point.

Just like the cameras and lenses photographers choose to use for a specific job, so too can be said of which format a photographer should use be it RAW or Jpeg.  I would go further and to be fair, this point was made…sort of, a beginner would do well to learn as much as they can before shooting in RAW, for no other reason than there is a certain amount of post processing required to extrapolate what they have shot in-camera before they can use the image.

It stands to reason therefore, that a person just starting out in photography will have little if no experience on how to process a RAW file and would be better served shooting Jpegs until such time that they have gained the required level of skill to extract all the detail from a RAW file.

And to be honest, this is an area that I have yet to fully exploit as my skill level in post is pretty basic as I have never needed to use photoshop other than the basic tweaks and for captioning.

To this end, the only time anyone would readily choose to shoot Jpegs would be those working as a press photographer, where the single most critical aspect when on a job -apart from the obvious – is speed.  They do not have the luxury of trawling through hundreds of images converting RAW files into Jpegs before transmitting them to their respective publication or agency.

Of course speed is all relative. When I was working on assignments back in the day of film, speed could be a matter of hours or in some cases days. Naturally, this was before the age of the internet and lead times were much longer. You had time to return to your publication, pop into the darkroom, place your rolls into the drop tanks of developer and so on…

If further afield, you had the option of handing your undeveloped rolls of film to a courier who would then either jump onto a bike or in extreme cases if abroad, onto a flight back to base. 

Then we had portable scanners and wire transmitting equipment and things became a lot faster until we finally reached the point of rolling news and the internet and speed was down to a matter of minutes.

Today, everyone from fashion to landscape to wedding photographers and most probably everything in between, should be shooting in RAW to maximize the full potential of the image they have captured.  And despite what anyone says or tells you, maximize they will and do.

End of Era: Boris Johnson

Like him or loath him, there can be few other politicians who attract more attention than Boris Johnson. As his tenure as Mayor of London comes to an end, his successor will have enormous shoes to fill and there is little doubt, that he will never have the reach of the charismatic politician with the floppy mop of blond hair.

No other politician I have photographed has ever drawn the crowds quite like Boris. Mobbed in the streets, the public clamouring for a selfie, the press corps and in particular the snappers, all desperate to grab a moment which inevitably will make the headlines.

There can be few politicians who are known simply by their first name, so much so, that even London’s bike hire scheme was hijacked and inextricably referred to as ‘Boris Bikes’ even though it was his predecessor Ken Livingstone, who initiated the scheme.

Photographers will miss Boris as the Mayor of London, game for anything much to the consternation of his aides. As a tribute to a heady few years, here are just a few images of the blustering MP for Uxbridge & Ruislip

Boris Johnson with Giorgio Loccatelli at the Taste of London show in Regent’s Park

London Mayor Boris Johnson with Big ben in background

London Mayor Boris Johnson plays table tennis during a visit to a new youth centre in Brixton

Mayor Boris Johnson on the mayoral campaign trail in Croydon South London

London Mayor Boris Jonson on his bike in London with Oyster advertising on helmet

Yes, he’s in there…Boris in chinatown London

London Mayor Boris Johnson about to get on his bike in Downing Street

Boris at Trafalgar Square signing autograph for army Veteran

Mayor Of London Boris Johnson, South London,

Mayor Boris Johnson with family celebrating the British Team Persuit at the London Prepares UCI Track Cycling World Cup at the new Velodrome in the Olympic Village London

 

Baptism of Fire: a freelancer’s behind the scenes look at covering areas of conflict is now available from Amazon as an e-book and no, you do not require a Kindle. http://tinyurl.com/l57rqa6

“Theo liasi has written an honest, no frills account of life as a war photographer. His was the reality of a freelancer with no one to cover his back. His conclusion Is surprisingly funny given the subject matter. Well worth the read especially if you are contemplating a career in this area”

 

Another bloody year for journalism

2014 was another year where journalism bore the brunt of an ever changing landscape when it comes to news reporting with 60 confirmed deaths and its no surprise where most of the deaths occurred.

What is also noteworthy are the number of foreigners or local photographers who lost their lives covering areas of conflict. For many years, the ‘western’ media have been reluctant to send staff photographers out to ‘hot spots’, partly due to cut backs and they simply do not have the staff any more and in part because there are plenty of aspiring photographers be they local or freelancers who willing to risk everything in pursuing their dream of becoming a top photojournalist.

There are the odd exceptions, with the wire agencies especially AP who have lost several photographers but on the whole, it is the freelancer or local photographer who paid the ultimate price in 2014 as in previous years.

A full report can be read on the CPJ – Committee to Protect Journalists – websitehttps://www.cpj.org/killed/2014/ it makes for depressing reading but can come as no surprise as I have been predicting this steady death toll for years.

What is just as alarming is the apathy expressed by the very people we hope to inform and educate; the public, who at best take photojournalists for granted and at worst totally ignore the foreign pages preferring instead to ruminate over Kim Kardashian’s antics, whose only talent appears to be her deformed rear-end and a home porn video allegedly leaked on the web.

Celebrity culture has won the day when it comes to news and it is the responsibility of the media to readdress this imbalance but they wont. For as long as there is this inane appetite by the public to devour the latest report on the exploits of some wannabe celebrity real news, the things that really matter will forever go virtually unnoticed.

Baptism of Fire: a freelancer’s behind the scenes look at covering areas of conflict is now available from Amazon as an e-book and no, you do not require a Kindle. http://tinyurl.com/l57rqa6

“Theo liasi has written an honest, no frills account of life as a war photographer. His was the reality of a freelancer with no one to cover his back. His conclusion Is surprisingly funny given the subject matter. Well worth the read especially if you are contemplating a career in this area”