I am about to start a major new photography project and I require some help.

I want to undertake a series of environmental portraits of local sports players. That is to take portrait shots of sports players in their chosen sporting arena. Sports players can be from any type of sporting background. All sports will be considered from mainstream to extreme and everything in between. Footballers, Rugby players, Surfers, Cricketers, Bowlers, Sailors or any other sport considered. Shoots will usually be in the evening or weekends unless a mutually convenient time can be arranged.

I am only looking for on person from each sporting genre so will undertake shoots on a first come first served basis. We will need to be able to shoot at a sporting location so maybe it wold be best after events or after training. In return for your time I will give one free 10×8 print of your choice from the session.

If I am lucky enough to be able to arrange twelve sessions I will put together a calendar of the sessions which I will then sell on for a local sporting charity. Any suggestions for a worth cause would also be welcome.

Ideally I would like to represent sportsmen and women from the local area and to be able to show local sporting events that may not be so come elsewhere outside of the county so if you can think of anything unusual for the area I would love to hear from you.

For those of you who do not know me personally I will be happy to show you previous examples of my work and provide references. I would be grateful if you could pass this link on to anyone who you know who may be interested in sparing an hour or so of their time to help me out and to hopefully help out some others.

For more information I can be contacted via email on markbrosnan@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Mark

Many people, like myself, already own an iPhone 3G. Apple have a yearly product release cycle when it comes to new phones but most phone contracts in the UK are 18 to 24 months long. This leaves those of us with such contracts two options when it comes to Apples hardware updates.

Either we are forced to pay huge sums to mobile network operators to “buy out” our existing contracts or stick with our existing hardware and only upgrade it every two years.

With the introduction of micro sim cards the UK’s mobile network operators seem to determined to fleece us even more. Data plans are now being restricted, you need separate plans for your iPhone, iPad, mobile dongles, tethering and home Internet access.

This adds up to a pretty penny if you are a fan of all things Apple or just want data on the move in different formats. Apple are not blameless in this either as it is them that refuse to allow iPad tethering and have designed devices with different sim card requirements.

So, with the iPhone 4′s reported signal problems most of us have so far stuck with our existing iPhone 3G’s or 3GS with the lure of iOS4 to access some of the newer features if the iPhone 4.

This promised iOS update soon brought us woes. iPhone 3G owners found that the feature set in iOS4 has been strictly limited. So far the only benefit I have seen is the ability to create and use folders and a spell checker.

Some people have chosen to stick with the last update of iOS3 and it appears to have been a wise decision. Owners of iPhone 3G’s who ask me about updating are currently met with a stern “no” from me.

iOS4 seems to place a great strain on the 3G chip and those of us who have upgraded have found that performance has dropped dramatically, that the 3G is constantly crashing or freezing and that a lot of apps have become unusable.

This is a big problem that until today Apple have refused to acknowledge. The problem is that once you have upgraded your iOS on an Apple device it is impossible to downgrade the firmware without jailbreaking the device.

However, there does seem to be a bit of relief. According to Gizmodo Apple are now investigating the issues but I wouldn’t hold your breath. Those who owned the first Apple iPhone, the 2G, found themselves in a similar situation an Apples attitude seems to be that we should be happy to constantly shell out to upgrade our devices.

There is also another solution, but one that is not without some pain. I have done it and found that my iPhone 3G now performs on a par with iOS3.

Firstly, back up and sync your iPhone with iTunes. Check any purchased content has been synced as well as this process involves completely wiping your iPhone.

Beware you will lose some data that cannot be recovered. SMS messages, photos and game saves will be wiped so decide if you are willing to sacrifice this data or happy to wait for Apple to possibly get their act together.

Once you are sure your important data has been transferred to you PC or Mac connect your iPhone to iTunes. Under the first tab click “Restore my iPhone” irony the restoration process you will be asked if you want to restore from a back up or a new phone install

Firstly, a brief history lesson. The United Kingdom was a feudal state where the minority ruling classes were the wealth and the majority of the rest were poor workers. After the Industrial Revolution things began to change and the people gained rights and responsibilities. This gave rise to the class system in this country with the ruling, wealthy upper classes at one end of the scale and the working classes at the other.

As time went by the class system attached itself to political parties with the working classes being represented by the Labour party and the upper classes being represented by the Conservative party. In the 1970′s things began to change. Margret Thatcher moved the UK economy away from its industrial basis to a tertiary based system. More and more the country abandoned its manufacturing sectors and moved over to service industries such as banking and information technology. I will not be drawn into a debate about the Thatcherite policies and wether they were a good or bad thing for this country.

As a result the working class became no more. People either found themselves out  of work or in the service industries. This created the middle class or “Middle England” as it was soon to be popularly referred to. During Thatchers reign as Prime Minister the Labour party, headed by Neil Kinnock, stuck to its socialist roots and Kinnock found himself to be unelectable to the role of Prime Minister. After retiring Kinnock moved to European polotics that used Proportional Representation and got himself elected in a variety of roles. It is often said that Kinnock has ruled a country from Europe that he could not get elected in itself. When Kinnock resigned the Labour party was taken over by a more progressive man, John Smith, who inched away from the socialist leanings of his party. Smith died shortly after he was elected to his position as leader of the opposition and was followed by a young careerist by the name of Tony Blair.

Thatchers Conservatives found themselves on a demise after over a decade in power and Thatcher was replaced by various successors including John Major, Ian Duncan Smith and William Hague. The Tories found themselves mired in allegations of sleaze and corruption at a time when Blair began to transform the Labour party. With his party rebranded to New Labour, and its socialist roots being swept under the carpet, Blair swept to power with a huge majority in 1997. The old Labour guard was still there. The party was and still is largely funded by the trade union movement as opposed to the Tories being funded, largely, by private backers.

Tony Blair was the master of electioneering. The Tories had been considering the idea of introducing tuition fees for university students. These students had grown up never knowing a Labour government. Blair promised them change and to review the idea of removing state funding for universities. This whole notion of change and taking middle England’s votes from the Tories as well as retaining the old socialist, working class vote swept the rug from under the Tories. By the way tuition fees were introduced within a year and this policy of offering people one thing and then taking it away from them would be a Blairite mainstay for years to come.

The irony was that Blair had taken the Labour party to the centre right ground occupied by the Tories for so long. By the year 2000 New Labour were proposing and issuing legislation that  had long been the mainstay of the Conservative manifesto. Most of middle england couldn’t distinguish between the two parties so Blair retained power through two more elections.

Blair was also the master of spin. He employed huge teams of media types to twist the news to reflect himself in the best light. One of his advisors took it to the extreme by suggesting the September 11th was “A good day to bury bad news”. This was typical of the Blair years. Scandal and sleazy followed the New Labour movement as much as it did the Conservative government before. But Blair was a masterful tactician. He created hundreds of thousands of public sector jobs with huge wages and pensions. this kept the economy inflated and guaranteed him votes. at one stage the National Health Service had more managers than it did beds. Immigration reached epic levels without being checked, statistics where rewritten with abandon. A million jobless people disappeared out of the system overnight by simply rewriting the definition of “jobless”. Blairs socialist and communist roots had taught him what he needed to know to rule without question. facts and history was rewritten on a scale that would have made Stalin blush.

Blair became like a madman. He believed he could do no wrong and that his control of the media would always get him out of trouble. Then along came the invasion of Iraq and a partnership with Bush that brought things juddering to a halt. If Blair had stood before the people and said that Saddam needed to be removed because he was an evil man the majority of right minded people in this country would have probably backed him. But Blair couldn’t risk the truth or a close call so he did what he had done in the past and called in the spin doctors.

We had dodgy dossiers and lies, claiming that we were 45 minutes away from Saddam launching nuclear and biological weapons and our boys were sent to war. However, unlike the past, even some of those close to Blair couldn’t stomach the thought of British soldiers being sent to die in an unjust war. Slowly the truth began to leak out. Rigged inquiries were run but the public had begun to question the validity of what it was being spoon fed.

Over the years the lies became bigger and the public questioning grew. Many people questioned the true economic viability of the country that had been run for all these years by Blairs right hand man, Gordon Brown. Blair and Brown had an agreement in the days of John Smith. When Smith was gone the old working class socialist Brown would help Blair to get elected by quietening down the unions. The great Blair experiment to out Tory the Tories was allowed to go ahead on the proviso that after ten years Blair would step aside and let Brown be the Prime Minister. The ten years past and Blair refused to keep his side of the agreement. Browns camp grew increasingly hostile and relations between the two became strained. In the end Blair realised that his public had turned and got out while the going was good and on the eve of the world economic crisis.

Brown took over and was immediately tested by the economic crisis and a terrorist attack on London. Brown had no choice but to insist that the economic crisis would barely effect us. For he was in charge of the economy for all those years and had repeatedly bashed on about prudence and no more boom and bust. The economy and the figures unravelled and the British economy went into recession . Amazingly Brown survived the worst of it but crucially backed out of an early election. The countries love of Labour (now rebranded back) diminished and Brown was forced to call an election due to legislative time restraints.

Labour peddled out the socialists in large areas of the country. Largely this country has become a class less society with a niche of rich and the growing class of unemployed and far ends of the spectrum. Brown relied on associating Cameron with Thatcher, the ghost of decades ago. It worked to some degree as there are still large parts of the country that refuse to vote Tory because they hold on to the belief that they are working class and that the working classes only vote Labour. the truth is that the working class no longer exists in this country. Most of those who still cling to the notion of working class are out of work. True, it may be thatcher Conservative policy put them there but it was labours years of throwing benefits at these people to encourage them to always vote Labour that has kept them there.

The national debt is not too far off of levels of Greek debt, public services despite years of investment are performing worse than ever. The tax payers money has been spent and all we have to show for it is the Emperors new clothes.

Those who fear a return to the Thatcherite years and those who have fallen for the diatribe and brainwashing kept the Tories from gaining a majority. Disillusioned with the expenses scandal many turned to “the new way” of the Liberal Democrat, forgetting that just as many of them got caught with there fingers in the pies. As a result Britain now has it’s first coalition government since the second world war.

The Liberal golden boy had promised that in the event of a hung parliament he would first try to form a government with the party that gained most votes. Despite the Conservatives and the Democrats having a big gulf between their manifestos he has been true to his words. We are now emerging with a centre right wing liberal coalition. In written english it makes no sense. But, this country does need is a change of government that has a stable basis and this appears to be the best option. Whether it will work or last no one knows. I personally think that a referendum on alternative voting will pull the coalition apart as it is one of the things that they are polarised on. Maybe I am just a cynical dinosaur and this is what the country needs? i don’t really know. If this great political experiment lasts perhaps it is a new way forward in the best interests of the country. Half of me wants it to succeed but half of me wants it to fail.

And what of the Labour party? Gordon Brown resigned last night as its leader. Will its new leader return to its core socialist communist roots or will it also continue to plow a centre right furrow? We wait and see. All i can say is that is new leader will be might pissed as all the media will be focused on the new government and its success or implosion.

The number of people who chose to comit suicide by throwing themselves under a train, be it mainline or Underground, is one the rise. Rail workers refer to these events as “Person Under a Train” or a “One Under”. This rise can probably be attributed to the recent ecomonic woes and the general rising trend of suicide. There is also a trend for an increase in such events around Christmas time. It is a hazzard of the job unfortunately.

My rant began yesterday primarily due to the inconvienence caused to ke personally. I was in the train behind the one involved in the fatality and was delayed by just over an hour. I was fortunate that my train was in the platform at Cadwell Heath so at least people could get off the train and stretch their legs or find an alternative route to their destination, if possible.

Usually when these things occur trains are stalled between stations and hundreds of people would have been stuck on trains with no where to go. If you ever have the misfortune to be caught up in one of these incidents on the Underground there is the possibilty that you could be stuck in a tunnel for a similar amount of time. Anyone who has been stuck in such a position will tell you how unpleasant this can be.

In such circumstances London Underground has a policy to get people off of stalled trains within 20 minutes, whoever this is not always possible. So imagine what it’s like to be stuck in a tunnel with no way of telling anyone where you are or what’s happening.

So back to me. Yes I was pissed because I was on my way home to pick up the kids from nursery and I haven’t seen them for four days as I have been working late turns. It was also my wifes birthday yesterday so I was on the way to arrange a surprise for her.

Even taking this into consideration I can understand that people may have been upset by what I said. Life is full of delays and problems and perhaps we should all learn to deal with them in a more considerate manner, but this is the hustle of modern life.

What really angered me is that someone chose to kill themselves in such a selfish manner and this is what I am going to attempt to explain.

I have every sympathy with anyone who is in such a situation that the only way out of it is to consider taking their own life. I cannot ever imagine what it must be like to feel that way. I am luck and I know it. I have a good job, a wonderful family and great friends. For this I am truely grateful.

However, taking the inconvienence of hundreds of people out of the equation, people are effected by this in many different ways. I am fortunate that when I was a train driver I never had this happen to me. I had a few close calls and that was enough to shake me up.

I have spoken to a number of drivers who have been in this situation most of who are older and wiser than me. I have also known some people come straight back to work and be unaffected by a fatality and I have known others who have never been able to work again. Their careers have been taken away from them through no fault of their own and the impact this can have in their life can be devastating.

This is why most rail workers consider this to be a selfish act.

A colleague of mine who had been through this had great trouble explaining the effect this had on him. He eventually managed to put it into a context that most people could understand.

He said “Imagine that you are sitting at your desk, or wherever your place of work is. You are just getting on with doing what you are paid to do and a stranger walks in unexpectedly. This stranger, without a word or warning, pulls a gun from his pocket. He places the gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger right in front of you”

This is what a train driver experiences when these tragic events happen.

Factor into this that if you drive a train on te Underground this will happen to you at least once. Some drivers have this happen to them many times in their career if they are luck enough to be able to continue on.

The driver then has to stop his train and call for help. This is all we ask from any of our staff on the Underground. However being human, most if them do more. They will climb under the train and see ifthe person is still alive, they will assist them if the are injured, they will get passengers off of the train and to safety and they will assist the emergency services if possible. These are truely brave people. I’m not sure I could do that if it happened to me.

Even if the driver cannot do these things other staff will have to. Staion staff and managers deal with the situation until the emergency services arrive.

Spare a thought to for those who are paid to deal withthese things. The firemen and ambulance staff. How must such an event effect them even though they are trained to deal with it?

This is what makes me angry. I have every sympathy for someone who finds themselves in such a state if mind and I feel sorry for their loved ones they leave behind.

My point yesterday was suicide is never a good thing but to do it in such a manner is worse. If anyone reading this ever finds themselves in such a situation please seek help. There is nothing a human cannot over come with help. There is always someone to help from family to friends and even strangers.

The chances of being successful if this is a persons chosen way is also statistically low. Many people survive with serious trauma and injuries. Some even walk away without a scratch, amazingly.

Remeber though, no matter how someone choses to die, there is always someone who has to pick up the pieces and deal with it.

How would you deal with the stranger walking up to your desk?

A prime lens tends to be cheap these days thanks to the manufacturer having a fixed barrel length rather than a zoom one and are usually of a higher quality. Nikon and Cannon start their prices at £100, the Sony is a bit more expensive but this is due to supply numbers.

In the days of film SLR’s some of you will remember that there was no kit lens in the box and the camera would usually come with a fixed length wide prime instead. 50mm was the standard as it is widely believed that this is the closet angle to what the human eye sees. This focal length is still common but with ther conversion factor on todays non full-sized sensors it would be truer to use a 35mm prime to display what the eye sees.

A prime lens removes some of the laziness that technology has give us. As the photographer cannot zoom in to correctly frame a shot they are forced to move into the correct position in order to get the shot they want. This encourages a photographer to “see” the image before pressing the shutter button and can creat opportunities that would otherwise have been missed.

The wide aperture is great for defocused backgrounds on portraits with a messy background or for a special effect.

I will post more on primes later, but in short if you do not already own a prime lens you are probably missing out on a great lens and one that will force you to become a better photographer. And at todays prices you have no reason not to try, you wont be disappointed!

Updates to Charlotte Chapman’s Flickr account. One of my favourite photographers at the moment!

My cat likes to hide in boxes.

The cat from France likes to sing and dance.

But MY cat likes to hide in boxes.

The cat from Spain flew an aeroplane.
The cat from France likes to sing and dance.

But MY cat likes to hide in boxes.

The cat from Norway got stuck in a doorway.
The cat from Spain flew an aeroplane.
The cat from France likes to sing and dance.

But MY cat likes to hide in boxes.

The cat from Greece joined the police.
The cat from Norway got stuck in a doorway.
The cat from Spain flew an aeroplane.
The cat from France likes to sing and dance.

But MY cat likes to hide in boxes.

The cat from Brazil caught a very bad chill.
The cat from Greece joined the police.
The cat from Norway got stuck in a doorway.
The cat from Spain flew an aeroplane.
The cat from France likes to sing and dance.

But MY cat likes to hide in boxes.

The cat from Berlin played the violin.
The cat from Brazil caught a very bad chill.
The cat from Greece joined the police.
The cat from Norway got stuck in a doorway.
The cat from Spain flew an aeroplane.
The cat from France likes to sing and dance.

But MY cat likes to hide in boxes.

The cat from Japan waved a big blue fan.
The cat from Berlin played the violin.
The cat from Brazil caught a very bad chill.
The cat from Greece joined the police.
The cat from Norway got stuck in a doorway.
The cat from Spain flew an aeroplane.
The cat from France likes to sing and dance.

Look at all these clever cats,
Cats from Spain, Brazil and France,
Cats from Greece, Japan and Norway,
Cats who sing and fly and dance…

BUT MY CAT LIKES TO HIDE IN BOXES.

By Eve Sutton. Original work illustrated by Lynley Dodd.

Copyright Eve Sutton and Lynley Dodd 1973. Published by Penguin Books

www.penguin.com

For @Josianna

Those of you who are old enough to remember will recall the days when you brought a SLR it would come with a standard prime lens. This was before the days of telephoto lenses that everyone could affoard. The reason behind this chosen focal lenght was it is said to be the length that gives you the same size field of view as a naked eye.

Using a fixed length lens meant a photographer would have to think more about their shot. You had to move around as the lens could not move for you. Some photographers still prefer this fixed focal length approach now.

Manufacturers have noticed this and prime 50mm lenses can be picked up relatively cheaply these days. Don’t worry if you don’t have one you can still take part in this challenge.

The rules are fairly simple.

• You must create a project of 50 photos.
• The project must be entitled 50 Faces.
• You must take photos of faces.
• If using an SLR or a full frame sensor DSLR you must use either a 50mm prime lens or a standard telephoto set to 50mm.
• Those of you using non full framed sensor DSLR you must use a 50mm or 35mm prime lens or a standard telephoto lens set to either of these focal lengths. You can only used one focal length for the entire project.

So far so good? Here is the point of the challenge. You MUST use the project to raise 50 of your chosen currency (£50, $50, €50 etc) for a charity if your choice.

I will shortly start a Flickr group for all the submitted projects. If you really want to challenge yourself set a 50 day time limit to take the photos.

This is a chance to challenge yourself as a photographer and do something good in return fir what you will learn about yourself and your photography whilst doing the challenge.

There will be more rules about cropping, processing etc shortly to add to the challenge. For now start thinking about your project and the charity you will benefit.

This post will be updated before the weekend.

For further details contact me on markbrosnan@hotmail.co.uk and have fun!

Mark

Mark

Restano le briciole, però si continua a fingere. Lo sai, lo so., originally uploaded by Make me smile_♥.

One of the best examples I have seen of colour popping recently.