Making the Most of the Rain

Whenever theres a prolonged wet period I tend to take advantage by catching up in the office.
Today has been one of those days!!!
I had a large submission to send off to my agent, and managed to get them all onto the server by lunchtime and felt suitably smug......however I then had a call to say that one of the images was no good due to "dirt on the filter"........I was taken aback as this is something Im fanatical about (and another reason why I hate digital!) so went to have another closer look at the photo. I had a certain amount of pleasure in calling him back to tell him it wasnt dirt.....it was a pheasant! it turned out hed done a quick automatedQC on one of the images which was of a large pheasant shoot in Somerset.....the so-clled "dust" was in fact a group of tiny pheasants crossing the sky in the background, but the automative programming couldnt spot this. I suggested a bit more human input and less computerisation might pay off!
Yesterday was one of those bizarre jobs that saw me stood on top of a tractor cab, trying to photograph a satellite dish for one of the agricultural magazines I work for.......not so easy on top of a windswept hill in strong winds....but the brief of "make the dish look interesting" was a challenge I couldnt resist......and how often do you get comissioned to photograph an alpaca and a satellite dish in the same frame?!!
My final job today was to organise some equine photos for a client. This was my favourite of the batch. Tomorrows forecast is rain again so......if you owe me money and have ignored all my reminders....BEWARE because tomorrow is my day for recovering bad debts!!

Diversity is my middle name!

I dont think I have ever had such a diverse week in terms of variety of work!
In 10 days, it has varied from photographing for advertising at one of Europes leading kennels ........ a MotoGP in Brno......... a hydro-electric plant for a local paper............... a hunt terrier show ...........to photographing a satellite dish for a farming publication!!
The mileage has racked up to over 2,600 weary miles, and Im relieved to be having a few weeks in the office playing catch-up on the image library orders. A number of the images are of course embargoed, and so cant be shown here until after publication. The pressure hasnt been helped by the fact that the accreditation at 1 of the European jobs was completely ballsed up by the person who was meant to organise it, and it made the job ten times harder than it should have been.....thankfully my NUJ Press Card card saved the day!
I see yet another photo competition has come in for a huge amount of stick due to its rights-grabbing t&C. This time its the kennel Clubs "Dog photographer of the year" competition......unless they change their terms promptly they are going to be in for a lot of stick from the professional bodies. I still cant believe a "pro" would even contemplate entering under such terms but it appears sadly that there are still some"weekend warriors" who do.....but if they want to be taken seriously as pro's then they need to take heed of whats happening to their images and their copyright.

How time flies.........

I cant believe its over a week since I updated the blog (thanks for reminding me Sarah!), but in my defence I have been so poorly and so busy that there havent been any spare moments to play catchup. I struggled through Paignton championship show with my bug that has laid me so low for nearly 2 weeks, and then had 3 hound shows in 3 days to contend with....two were work and one was play, but still demanding all my attention!
Today was the 2nd year in a row I have covered the AP Angling festival in plymouth, but the gloom, drizzle and mist that passes for August summer weather put paid to my boat trip and after a few hours off Rame Head,in Plymouth Sound, we all came back again, rather damp and cold!
An email from an editor this week, leaves me despairing, as they expected me to be thrilled at the offer of working for nothing, and getting a byline in their wonderful magazine....errr.....I dont think so!!! Im sure that there are some "wannabees" and weekend-warriors who would think of it as some sort of a priviledge to work at a major event for free and get a few of their images published inreturn, however for the remaining professionals amongst us, who have struggled up the ladder over many years and have to put food on the table (or in the bowls!), such an idea is not only abhorrent its completely insulting.
The week looks like continuing with its whirlwind of work......another Dairy herd comission tomorrow and then its "wagons roll" as I prepare to go to the MotoGP in Brno......a mere 1200mile drive..... Not normally the sort of job I would opt to take, as motorsport holds little interest to me, however it seemed like an interesting job, and it had the good fortune to tie in nicely with something else in the area at the same time, so couldnt resist the challenge!
The weekend finished nicely with this guy enjoying his photo session.

the clue is in the photo

The image is self explanatory but it appears people still dont get the message.