tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83306987348493014132024-03-04T21:58:37.961-08:00PHOTO SOAPBOXoccasional observations from a news photographerHeathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-62357633428908992752018-02-03T13:37:00.003-08:002018-02-03T13:41:15.317-08:00Fuji X Pro 2 long term review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Labour Shadow Cabinet at the TUC headquarters in central London 13 June 2016 </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">1/950th f2 1600 iso</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">I've been shooting with the Fuji X Pro 2 for around 18 months now and thought it was probably time I gave my thoughts on the camera .</span></div>
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When the original Fuji X 100 came out in 2011 I immediately leapt at the chance of owning one as at that point in time it seemed that none of the camera manufacturers had come up with what I was after , a digital equivalent of my old Konica Hexar AF . Back in the nineties when professional newspaper photographers like myself were still shooting film the Hexar was a revolutionary piece of kit . Up until that point if you wanted something smaller than your regular press kit you were likely to wither end up with a Leica M6, a Contax G2 , Olympus Mju II or a Ricoh GR . I never knew anyone that was happy with the G2 build quality, Leica rangefinder focusing has always been an acquired taste which left the Olympus and Ricoh, the latter being the better of the two lens quality wise . The Hexar was something else entirely , small enough to fit in your coat pocket ( but not as small as the Ricoh and Olympus) with a fixed 35 f2 af lens covered in black metal and rubber it was the perfect backup film camera , and when I was stripped for cash and sold my M6 and lenses a few years into the digital age I opted to keep the Hexar . The X100 was a fantastic first attempt by Fuji but it was still a little slow and buggy in comparison to what most pro were now used to .<br />
I resisted the X Pro 1 when it came out as I was convinced by what my colleagues told me about the experiences with the camera but when the X Pro 2 arrived I sold my X100 and picked up the new body and a couple of lenses, the 35mm f2 WR and a 28mm f2, the same combination I used to use with the M6 ttl . I still regret to this day flogging the Leica M lenses as they have doubled in price second hand over the last 20 yrs .<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Iraqi's on Jadriyah Bridge in Baghdad, 12 May 2016</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">1/60th f2 3200 ISO</span></div>
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I'm still primarily a Canon shooter using a mix of the 5dmkIII, 1DX and 1DX mk2 with a large range of primes and zoom lenses, in fact too many to carry around on a daily basis . The great thing about the Fuji is that if I fancy say shooting a prime 50mm on a news story or feature but also need long and short range zooms i can hang the X Pro 2 and the 35 f2 lens around my neck and have a Canon on each shoulder saving a fair amount of weight . If I'm travelling abroad on a news feature and don't have the pressure of competing with a pack of photographers I often work with just a 5d and the X Pro 2, which means I can travel light , a great help if your on your feet for 8 hours in the 35-40 degree heat of Africa or Asia . I'm not going to talk about anti aliasing, purple fringing, chromatic aberration etc in this review , I'm really not that sort of photographer I'm afraid and don't understand most of that stuff . As for Bokeh , as handy as it is at times to through out a messy background by shooting wide open I'm not fussed about what kind of shapes it makes . I'm more interested in how the camera handles, does it get the job done and is it good enough to publish .<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;">The X Pro 2 is beautifully built, with a really solid construction and a nice weight to it . Some of the other mirrorless cameras I've held feel more like slabs of metal in the hand but the ergonmics of the X Pro 2 fell just right, there is no need for a thumb grip or an extra side grip like I had with the M6 . I really like the hefty Shutter and Exposure compensation dials and though aesthetically the built in ISO dial looks pretty cool i find it a bit of a pain to use and now that I wear reading glasses a bit tricky to read . Which leads onto the menu system which is till a little convoluted . All in all it works but I would like to see a shortcut to change the ISO quickly whilst working with out having to take my eye from the viewfinder and also a quicker menu route to card formatting . I now occasionally use the auto iso for which you can have a shortcut button, but it isn't ideal . Much of the menu is very similar to the X100 to be honest .</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">A motorbike meeting under Jadriyah Bridge in Baghdad, 13 May 2016</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">1/40th f2 2000 ISO</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">The viewfinder , like the original X100 is a joy to use , with the X100 I had better luck autofocusing in EVF mode bizarrely and I kind of stuck with that on the X Pro 2. I'm now used to it and I quite like seeing exactly what I'm getting in the frame which you don't when using the glass finder . All the info I need is in the display including a nice little exposure scale, which could be bigger perhaps . What drives me nuts though is cycling through the view mode button, I'd prefer a small knob on the back of the camera to flick when I need to look at the rear screen .</span></div>
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In action the camera feels great , I mostly use single af then recomposing the frame and have tried out continuous af too which though feels a little disconcerting in fact does a pretty good job though I'd say it's not at Pro DSLR level yet . I love the depth of field scale in the viewfinder when on manual focus mode , if shooting re portage street style images it's great setting the camera on f8 and seeing whats going to be in focus and then just walking around shooting as you please . I think zone focusing can often really help with composition as you not trying to get the subject over that little focus icon in the finder !<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The IMC Paediatric ward inside the vast UN compound on the outskirts of Juba, 27 February 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">1/50th f2 3200 ISO</span></div>
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Now for batteries . The battery life is still poor, I have three batteries for mine to ensure I can get a day out of the camera and have bought a third party charger for travelling so that I can at least charge two at a time, as single chargers are a pain after a long day when you don't want to stay up waiting to switch charging batteries . Perhaps that's just life with EVF, with a Canon 5D I could confidently fill several Sandisc Extreme16gb cards over a couple of days on one battery , a big help in remote environments .<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Gordes, Provence 22 August 2018</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">1/160th f6.4 200 ISO</span></div>
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I only shoot raw and so far the camera has been able to keep up with me, I use the burst mode quite often at 3 fps but rarely on 8fps, I'm not shooting sport with it but I guess one day may come in handy. The lenses I own, the 18 f2 and 35 f2 have both been great , the 35mm is the newer WR weather resistant lens and has a great feel, a little like my old Leica 50 f2 Summicron but without the retractable hood , it also focuses incredibly quickly . The 18mm isn't quite of the same quality in build , and even faintly rattles, but at 28mm ( in the 35mm camera terms) I've never had problems focusing and it's nice and sharp wide-open too .<br />
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Low light shooting . Nowadays it's not uncommon to be able to shoot up to 25600 ISO on pro level cameras , quite frankly I've never had much joy with such high rating on any camera, though nice to have in an emergency . I've heard wonderful things about the Sony A7sII and the just released A7rIII but sadly the Fuji is not a low light monster . I'm more than happy working on 3200 but it soon begins to look ropey further up the iso ratings and really wouldn't want to use it further than 6400 . Until a way is discovered to cram so many pixels into a small APSC sized sensor like the Fuji's I can't imagine there will be a massive shift in this area . It all depends on what you're after in a camera, and I haven't as yet found the ISO lacking for my needs .<br />
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I'm still thinking about other lenses, I had a play with the 90mm f2 WR ( a 135mm equivalent ) it's a little big but would be great as a longer lens for when on holidays, foreign assignments and impromptu portraits . The 50mm f2 WR is also really nice, and considering it's 75mm equivalent focal length is not much bigger than the 23 and 35 primes in the same series . I really have no interest in the wider aperture lenses that Fuji has to offer, what I love about the system are the small f2 primes . From handling the other lenses I find for me they just don't balance right on that size camera body, even with the XT2 and grip they feel a little over sized, much like with the Sony system.<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">The Balukhali refugee camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, 27 November 2017</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">1/640th f8 500 ISO</span></div>
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One could pick holes when comparing , especially the focusing and high ISO , to full frame DSLRs from Nikon and Canon and mirrorless cameras from the likes of Sony but consider you could buy three Fuji bodies for the cost of a full frame camera from one of the big three . If I had to choose only one digital camera to take on a paid assignment it wouldn't be the Fuji, I'd more than likely take the 5dMkIII , this may sound a bit harsh but I'll explain why . I know that with the Canon one battery will last all day, the AF rarely misses, the files are great and it's just less fussy to use, which is what you need to know when the pressure is on . It's a great camera to act as a back up for a professional photographer and for those times when you can work at a slower pace . For the non professional I couldn't imagine you would need much else in a Camera and if the ergonomics didn't suit and you wanted a higher frame rate the XT2 would be a great option .<br />
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All in all I'm really happy with the X Pro 2 , even if it were better specced I wouldn't change over from Canon DSLR's for a mirrorless system, I still love the immediacy of glass over EVF, but for what I need and for the budget I think it's a fantastic system . Whenever I've committed to using the X Pro 2 professionally it hasn't let me down and has published, you just need to understand it's limitations .</div>
Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-80088628223372213182017-12-30T15:03:00.005-08:002017-12-31T11:06:35.571-08:0020 Years of Telegraph Assignments<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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New York, 11 September 2001</div>
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When I was a cycle courier in London in the early nineties being a professional photographer was just a dream, I'd ride around with my canon AE1 and 50 1.4 lens delivering packages and sometimes I'd pass the real news photographers at work outside the Old Bailey or on big news stories like the Bishopsgate bombing . I read books like Page After Page by Tim Page and Unreasonable Behaviour by Don McCullin with ambitions of being a war photographer travelling the world and making a difference with my images, I hadn't a clue how to go about getting a job, but you can dream right ? My lucky break came when I left the cycle despatch world and moved into working at a Pro lab developing E6 film in Camden for commercial photographers, It was a great experience and spending my days in the darkroom or sleeving transparencies gave me the chance to see professional work first hand . After about 18 months a fashion photographer by the name of Chris Moore dropped by and remembered me from my bike messenger days and offered me a job as an assistant . Before I knew it I was travelling to Milan and Paris to cover the catwalk shows and met for the first time real Fleet Street photographers . I loved sneaking backstage and shooting reportage style photos of the supermodels of the time like Carla Bruni, Kate Moss and Claudia Schiffer getting their hair and make up done, sneaking a quick cigarette and hanging out before the show started , but it wasn't spot news in far flung places .<br />
Perhaps fate played a part , but it didn't work out for me in the world of fashion and with the help of contacts I'd made covering the shows I found myself at a London agency called National News where I worked for about 18 months covering everyday news stories and celebrity jobs in central London. Liam Gallagher and Patsy Kensit were big news at the time and I spent more than my fair share of days and nights outside their house in St John's Wood with the rest of Fleet Street and TV news channels as well as the election of Tony Blair and New Labour .<br />
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Giorgio Armani's birthday dinner with Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher at Dolce in Los Angeles, September 2003</div>
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My last job for National was Princess Diana's funeral as after the odd "shift" at the Daily Telegraph I managed to get my foot in the door as their High Court Photographer . It wasn't a great job spending everyday covering courts but my day rate trebled and I was at a National paper, to me that was all that mattered , this was the Autumn of 1997 .<br />
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Asylum on the outskirts of Skopje, Macedonia 1999</div>
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It was hard to believe but late this year I realised that I had now been at the Telegraph for twenty years, I've been incredibly lucky in that time, moving from the last days of film into digital and having travelled the world covering breaking news stories, features, conflicts and for about a decade until budgets faded the catwalk shows as well .<br />
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Balenciaga show, Paris 2007</div>
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British girls , Falaraki 2002</div>
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I guess there are a few standout moments for me in the last twenty years, I was in New York on 911 as it is now known and for many years after covered the " War on Terror " in Afghanistan and Iraq, losing friends, and making others, along the way . Other conflicts have included Kosovo, Sierra Leone and Libya .</div>
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Fireman at ground zero , 11 September 2001</div>
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Missing posters, New York Armoury, September 2001</div>
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Westside Boy, Rogberri Junction, Sierra Leone 2000</div>
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Protestor Guilliani Guilliano, shot dead by Carabineri during the G8 riots in Genova, August 2001</div>
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In 2000 I had the privilege of working with the late Adrian Nicholas, a veteran skydiver and incredible human being who had the crazy idea of testing Leonardo DaVinci's design for a parachute , and proved it worked , this image was later used in National Geographic . In 2007 I followed the Ganges river from the Himalayas to the bay of Bengal and crossed Russia in it's entirety, both for early multimedia experiments . Through all of this time up until the late 2000's I would spend a couple of months a year covering the catwalk shows in Milan, Paris and on occasion New York which gave me an incredible variety of work and meant I had the privilege to meet so many incredible people .<br />
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Adrian Nicholas tests the Da Vinci's parachute, South Africa 2002</div>
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Ganga Sagar, West Bengal 2007</div>
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Brick factory, India 2007</div>
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Inya Lake, Yangon 2013</div>
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Marsh Arabs, Iraq 2004</div>
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Varanasi, India 2007</div>
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The media world is changing a such an incredible pace now with the internet, mobile phones and digital advertising, as a result cuts have had to be made, jobs have been lost and circulation figures on newspapers and magazines have dropped globally . Incredibly there is still work out there and young photographers are making names for themselves proving that news and features photographers can still play an important role in modern society . Without a strong news media governments are answerable to no one which is why around the globe dictatorships and more oppressive regimes on Europe's fringes and other continents regularly persecute journalists and news gatherers, and each year the death rate is in the double figures .<br />
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Police at work, London May Day 2000</div>
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Policitians shake hands at a mass grave, Potocari 2005</div>
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A woman mourns over the coffin of a relative inside the Potocari Battery Factory prior to burial on the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica massacre .</div>
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There's been countless times I've looked at colleagues work with downright envy and kicked myself , why didn't I shoot that? Why didn't I think of that angle? Why did my focus screw up at that critical moment ?! Perhaps that's why I've always preferred Foreign to Home news , you can just get on with the story without having to constantly use your elbows and cover everything the agencies have with often three times the number of photographers . If there were a moment in my career at the Telegraph when everything just forgive the pun " clicked" for me it was in Cuba back in I think 2006 when I was on the Malecon in Havana watching the locals enjoying a day by the sea . The sky blackened and just before the heavens opened I shot a few frames of boys diving into the ocean , I knew instantly (unusual for me) that I had a great set of photos, within minutes my Canon EOS 1D mkII was rendered inoperable by a torrential downpour and took weeks to dry out , but it was worth it . I still work with Canon to this day and never intend to change .<br />
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Divers on the Malecon, Cuba 2006</div>
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Being able to take your time, put down the zooms and flashguns and get to know your subjects if possible makes all the difference covering features and assignments abroad . I was recently covering the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh for the Telegraph and found myself spending as much time playing Connect Four and drawing with some of the traumatised children as I did photographing them . If there were a list of requirements I would say that empathy, hard work and professionalism were more important than technical ability as a photojournalist, but sharp elbows and the ability to get on with others also come in very handy at times !<br />
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There's more of my work from over the last two decades with the Telegraph below and feel free to comment or ask questions .<br />
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Heathcliff O'Malley, London 30 Dec 2017<br />
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Kate Moss and Mario Testino , Milan 2006</div>
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Boatman, Varanasi 2007</div>
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Mujahideen, Taloqan 2001</div>
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A game of Buzkashi, Kabul 2002</div>
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Iraqi referendum, Tikrit 2002</div>
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Abu Ghraib prison, Baghdad 2002 </div>
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Blood on a war comic, Iraq 2003</div>
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A supporter of radical Shia cleric Moqtada Al Sadr gestures to a Marine during a demonstration in Kufa, Iraq 2003 .</div>
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A British soldier takes a light from an Afghan soldier , Helmand 2009</div>
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Usain Bolt 100m Mens Finals , London 2012</div>
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Grenadier Guards 2010</div>
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X Ray of a bullet in boys bladder, Congo 2012</div>
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Royal Wedding </div>
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Tom Daley and Peter Waterfield competing in the 10 meter Diving Finals, London 2012</div>
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Rebel and migrant, Libya 2011</div>
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Jockey Kieren Fallon, Newbury 2013</div>
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Crimean referendum, Simferopol 2014</div>
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Sir Bradley Wiggins, Glasgow 2014</div>
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Men's 10,000m Final on Day 9 of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow .</div>
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Mo Farrah, Teddington 2014</div>
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Je Suis Charlie, Paris 2015</div>
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Vienna Opera Ball, 2015</div>
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Simon Peres, London 2015</div>
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Nyalok Mabor with her severely malnourished daughter Dalia , South Sudan 2017</div>
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Theresa May on the campaign trail, Wolverhampton 2017</div>
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Gerri Halliwell , London 2004</div>
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Trans Siberian Railway , Russia 2007</div>
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Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-45194840677715904992017-12-29T15:56:00.000-08:002017-12-29T16:29:07.250-08:00Plight of the Rohingya<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I recently visited Bangladesh to work on a story with the Daily Telegraph's reporter Nicola Smith to report on the Rohingya crisis. Since late August of this year over 600,000 of the persecuted muslim ethnic minority in Mynamar have fled into neighbouring Bangladesh after claiming to have had their villages burnt down and relatives and neighbours murdered by Burmese security forces and thugs from the Buddhist majority .<br />
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Aid agencies have struggled to meet the demand but have done an incredible job dealing with a string of overlapping refugee camps that now have a population 1.5 times the size of Liverpool at nearly 650,000 . Makeshift homes have been built precariously on terraces of hardened mud and aid workers are deeply concerned about what will happen when the monsoon rains come back again next spring . Of course the Bangladesh government are hoping to have rid themselves of the refugee problem by then and have already struck a deal with Aung San Suu Kyi's government which is still in denial that any atrocities took place during clearance operations against muslim militants in northern Rakhine state . Repatriations in the short term look unlikely , who would want to return to a country so soon after experiencing the trauma of recent months at the hands of a government that is meant to protect them ? In the mean time aid agencies from across the globe often with enormous financial support from the UN work tirelessly to improve living conditions in the camps, digging wells, building latrines, inoculating against killers such as measles and fighting severe malnutrition in infants .<br />
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Our main focus was on the plight of Rohingya children and child trafficking , but as always when on a foreign assignment you set off with a wish list but you never really know what you're going to achieve until you are in country . It was heartbreaking speaking to children who lost or had been separated from their entire families . Children had put this trauma to paper in the shape of drawings depicting helicopters raining bullets down on to their villages and burning their homes .<br />
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After three days shooting and interviews in the camps a last minute meeting back in the nearby town of Cox's Bazar the night before our departure introduced us to two Rohingya girls who had personally born witness to the awful reality of child trafficking . The two teenagers had been picked up crossing the border and sold as sex slaves, had escaped but now found themselves working in a local " guesthouse" having to sell themselves to survive . It was difficult having to then depart for London knowing that we were leaving these two girls behind to such an awful existence after taking their stories , after twenty years of news gathering it never gets any easier .<br />
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Our main points of contact were the UN agencies and Save the Children in the camps but a special note of gratitude has to go to UNICEF who were absolutely incredible and without them much of what we achieved during our assignment would have been impossible without them . If you are looking for anyone to donate to over the winter either of these agencies mentioned are a worthy cause.<br />
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Queuing at a food distribution point .</div>
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OTP supervisor Mohammed Ridwan taking a an infants measurements whilst checking for malnutrition at a children's clinic run by Save the Children inside the Jamtoli refugee camp.<br />
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10 yr old Mohammed Hussein with severe measles , the most extreme case at the ICRC hospital .</div>
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Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-79630027132842892202017-03-09T15:58:00.003-08:002017-03-09T16:01:59.539-08:00South Sudan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Sudan was one of those nations I knew very little about except for the occasional news bulletin or striking image by a colleague covering the brutal conflict that raged between North and South , African and Arab , fuelled I assume by oil and generations of racial oppression . In the not too distant past even Hollywood celebrities began speaking out about the gross injustices suffered by non Arabs in Sudan including accusations of genocide in Darfur . Finally in 2011 South Sudan gained independence and personally, probably out of ignorance I assumed that all would now be well .<br />
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I've just come back from a visit to South Sudan for the Daily Telegraph with some tremendous help on the ground from UNICEF UK and other UN agencies . In fact without UNICEF the trip may never have happened, working as a journalist in this fledgling nation is incredibly difficult and often dangerous . Navigating the bureaucracy to gain all the correct accreditation and Visas alone needs a phd, a lot of patience and smiles when all you want to do is pull out your hair scream at someone .<br />
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I travelled with Tom Rowley a feature writer at the Daily Telegraph who was awarded " Young Journalist of the Year 2016 " by the British Press Awards, and recently moved over to our Foreign Desk . Tom had a few good ideas for stories for the trip but as always working for a newspaper things always change on the ground .<br />
Our original plan was to travel north of the capital Juba to the town of Bentiu but famine was declared shortly before departure and on arrival it appeared that aid flights were now far busier with ...you guessed it aid, and journalists were understandably long down their list of priorities .<br />
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One of our original stories did still work out, we watched as 25 yr old mother Nyabura Nyon was reunited with her children after being torn apart by the conflict three years before . This took place in the POC Three camp inside the enormous UN compound on the outskirts of Juba where over 20,000 civilians currently reside, half of those children .<br />
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Nearby in a clinic funded with UN money children are treated daily with acute malnutrition, it's heart rending to see young children suffering so appallingly . I probably shot some of my most powerful images here for our articles and also took the time to make a short video for online with the basic kit I'd brought with me .<br />
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On Day four we took an ancient Russian MI8 UN helicopter up country to a rebel held area of Unity State with some other members of the media and senior staff from the UN, WFP and OCHA to see a food drop in action . We'd been lucky the previous few days which had been overcast and in the late twenties , perfect for pictures and two un-climatised westerners but today the clouds had dissipated and the temperature was in the mid to late thirties and I had stupidly left my hat at the hotel .<br />
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The village of Padeah was a collection of traditional thatched, conical roofed mud buildings linked by pathways through tall grass where occasionally you pass by a collection of women going about their daily routine or men casually carrying their AK47's . After about twenty minutes walk we came to a large clearing with so many people at first the sound was like that of a hive until i got closer and could differentiate all the separate voices . Hundreds of women were sitting in single files waiting patiently as WFP staff a few hundred meters away were administering the rationing of sorghum grain into large white bags . Many of these women had walked for three hours or more from neighbouring villages after months of existing on water lilies , the fighting had made it impossible to farm or harvest in the previous season and food was in desperately short supply . With the rainy season coming in the next few months and no sign of a peaceful resolution on the horizon theres a good chance that sewing crops and then harvesting will again be missed further exacerbating the food crisis.<br />
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That afternoon I got back to our hotel in Juba dehydrated with a splitting headache but unlike the villages we'd spend a couple of hours with we were immediately able to order Cokes and Pizzas or whatever else we fancied from a comprehensive menu . This is what makes the famine in South Sudan so disgraceful , this famine isn't because of a drought or a major environmental catastrophe, this famine is completely man made . Whilst men, women and children are close to starvation several hundred miles away in the fledgling nation's capital Juba the affluent live their lives in a bubble . Down the road form our hotel another throws regular pool parties, sparkling new air conditioned SUV's bump across Juba's appalling unpaved roads ferrying the Elite who profit from the suffering of their people or the Foreign Aid Workers who struggle to keep the rest of the population alive . In the newly independent South Sudan politics and tribal affiliations can mean the difference between life and death .<br />
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Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-25797113818268656892016-04-22T16:41:00.001-07:002016-04-23T00:01:46.137-07:00My First Royal Tour<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I embarked on my first Royal Tour with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with great trepidation . Some of the other photographers at the my newspaper are old hands but for me this was a daunting prospect, the only other " tour" I'd done was with Prince William in Malta a couple of years previous which was a rather low key affair after the bulk of the media cancelled when the news broke that Kate wouldn't be joining him .</div>
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I've been to India a couple of times already, once to shoot a feature on the Ganges from it's start in the foothills of the Himalaya's to it's finish in the Bay of Bengal and also a street food feature in Mumbai and Delhi . What had me nervous wasn't the location but the scale of the event, the logistics and having to work with a Royal press pack who are a tight knit team and work and with the Palace press office on a daily basis unlike me . Considering that this Royal Tour also took in the mountain kingdom of Bhutan this really was an assignment I could swerve, this was likely my once in a lifetime chance to visit the fiercely traditional Himalayan nation .</div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">The tour saw multiple daily engagements crammed into seven days in five different cities in two different countries . We arrived a day early to get ourselves organised including picking up local 4g sim cards to facilitate sending images back to London which the local High Commission kindly organised with the help of Vodafone . On day one we took in the Slums of Mumbai followed by the glitz of a Bollywood style red carpet event, I then stayed on the following morning to cover an engagement as the Pool photographer whilst the others bundled themselves off to Delhi several hours ahead . </span><br />
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From now on we would be staying only a night at each location until we reached Bhutan. From Delhi we flew to Assam and then a 5 hr bus trip to the Kaziranga National Park where the Windsors that evening watched some local dancers . The following morning I shot the solo pool of the couple on Safari where they spotted several Rhino . At one point it looked as though the Safari shots wouldn't work as the couple were seated and couldn't be seen from the vehicle I was in ahead, but fortunately their Press Officer after some nagging from myself and the tv cameraman managed to persuade them to accommodate us and stand for some of the drive . Solo pools are frustrating as not only do you have the pressure of being the only photographers and the ear of getting it wrong, but also the knowledge that you'll be then handing over you images to other photographers and agencies who can sell you images on ! In fact looking at the Royal Tour edition of Hello i can see number of pictures shot by me but credited to other people, but that's just the way it is, for all of us !</div>
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After an incredibly busy day in Kaziranga we all shot off in various vehicles for the 5 hr drive back to Guwahati where we would take a charter the following morning to Bhutan . On arrival we discovered that there had just been an earthquake which bizarrely we hadn't noticed on the drive into town, and were greeted by other members of the team who'd been evacuated from the hotel and were still clearly distraught .</div>
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The flight into Bhutan didn't quite live up to expectations, after the stories I'd heard I was exception a white knuckle ride, apparently only specially trained Companions can pilot into Paro airport, and it was obvious from my window view that some hard turns had to be made on the final approach but the landing was one of the smoothest I'd ever experienced !</div>
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Bhutan was incredible, like something out of a TinTin book, with the majority of it's inhabitants still wearing traditional dress . On day one we had an official welcome, a palace visit and archery session to photograph which made some great images ( for a Royal job ) and a sudden realisation that our Bhutanese data sims were basically useless ! Luckily the hotels had excellent wifi but any plan to shoot live from the camera the following day for the trek up to the Tigers Nest Monastery were out of the question .</div>
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Only one photographer and one cameraman we allowed to go to the top of the climb for the monastery shot the following morning and to honest I wasn't to bothered as the trek to the midway point with our camera's was strenuous enough . I'd already decided to despatch with the 500mm lens as it seems to me that as with the Taj Mahal the following day , the image was all about the backdrop and shooting too tight would ruin the point of the location . It did seem a pity and with more time I would have loved to complete the ascent but to do so for a mass photocall would have spoilt the experience .</div>
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That night we were entertained by the Bhutanese government with some delicious local food, music and dance preceded by a brief informal drinks gathering with the Duke and Duchess . </div>
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The following morning we took the charter flight to Agra for the final engagement of the Tour and the one that everyone in medialand had been waiting for... the Taj Mahal . 24 years previous the Dukes mother, Princess Diana was photographed sitting on a bench in front of the ivory white mausoleum which illustrated the loneliness and isolation of the final years of her relationship with the future King. </div>
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We were greeted by a wall of heat and humidity when we descended the steps of the airliner at Agra airport, the weather in Bhutan that morning had been 12 degrees and drizzly, in Agra it was 41 degrees . The heat, weeks of tension and finally exhaustion from a relentless week on tour created a few heated moments at the Taj Mahal and resulted in me having some kit damaged and a flash gun stolen during the push and shove for a position . In retrospect I didn't need a flash but at the time with fairly hard light it seems like a good idea to be prepared, fortunately Adobe Raw can cope with all but the harshest of lighting scenarios ! For the tour, and with occasional other news jobs I shot Raw and Jpeg simultaneously so that I could send images live off the camera and then send a better high res edit off the laptop later . In the end it all worked out fine, a Pool of half a dozen photographers shot the classic image of the couple sitting on "Diana's bench" whilst<span style="text-align: left;"> a larger pool shot which I was in shot the Will and Kate standing below framed by the same backdrop of the Taj Mahal .</span></div>
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All in all it was a fantastic trip and one I will remember with fondness , I have always loved India and it's fantastic inhabitants and Bhutan lived up to all my expectations , if only I'd had more time to explore . Whether I'd put my hand up for another tour, we shall have to wait and see !</div>
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Nerdy stuff : For the trip I took 3 cameras, a Canon 1DX, 1DkIV and 5DkIII with 4 lenses , a 500 f4 , 70-200 2.8, 24-70 2.8 and 16-35 2.8 . I left my short primes at home as weight was an issue so zooms made a lot more sense . I also carried an Apple 15"macbook Pro, Lacie hard drive, Mophie portable battery pack and all manner of cables and chargers . All camera gear was taken on as hand baggage as I couldn't risk landing somewhere with my kit in another city thousands of miles away !</div>
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Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-20039476440773535332015-03-17T04:44:00.001-07:002015-03-17T04:47:39.475-07:00A night in Vienna<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Recently I was lucky enough to be sent to Austria by the Daily Telegraph on an assignment to shoot a feature on the Vienna Opera Ball , an annual Austrian society where tickets can cost from €270 to more than €20,000 euros .<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfoCRbKF0m6ZO0KBmrcegBLzaaAKCACk-X8xfJR3m9rfQSMH5LKnFLWZvi22ehW4ugUlKaVRdrW3uaU-qH-ihrbL1-aWKbZIsxqeT5W1drrzgNpYoGXghwblp1b0VjhN0qAjuWUhLlWmye/s1600/dtho20150212ViennaOperaBall007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfoCRbKF0m6ZO0KBmrcegBLzaaAKCACk-X8xfJR3m9rfQSMH5LKnFLWZvi22ehW4ugUlKaVRdrW3uaU-qH-ihrbL1-aWKbZIsxqeT5W1drrzgNpYoGXghwblp1b0VjhN0qAjuWUhLlWmye/s1600/dtho20150212ViennaOperaBall007.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">After a ballet performance nearly 200 debutantes and their partners dance the opening waltz in front of the Viennese elite and a smattering of A list celebrities, after this the dance floor opens up to a predominantly middle aged crowd who dance into the early hours to renditions of everything from Mozart to Barry Manilow . </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7XKzaq6xUlufJOfR_ZTJwTtVRpGpZBkcm-zExv8jt2KnMed83yvMx2LWlqMic_FryQFijhbNFV3xNvU_uKf8GKBLVoOLbCzB06g4eM_2Z8cJlVSAK7p8GE4AYolOdm_S4cdAH5X_o7E6u/s1600/dtho20150212ViennaOperaBall022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7XKzaq6xUlufJOfR_ZTJwTtVRpGpZBkcm-zExv8jt2KnMed83yvMx2LWlqMic_FryQFijhbNFV3xNvU_uKf8GKBLVoOLbCzB06g4eM_2Z8cJlVSAK7p8GE4AYolOdm_S4cdAH5X_o7E6u/s1600/dtho20150212ViennaOperaBall022.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrXjKgn0DW1QvNmJ4h9Y9FPHZpu9ztaAi5PdCznAPXB7RfbRfQNJRmxx_6_p7CcHKSuRE4UKPOofHBDA6FV2Eu2sKb58-mb7DuNkcKPApEA4tBi9jnbn87z7UgzfrPKdxj8PR3WQnufmtq/s1600/dtho20150212ViennaOperaBall023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrXjKgn0DW1QvNmJ4h9Y9FPHZpu9ztaAi5PdCznAPXB7RfbRfQNJRmxx_6_p7CcHKSuRE4UKPOofHBDA6FV2Eu2sKb58-mb7DuNkcKPApEA4tBi9jnbn87z7UgzfrPKdxj8PR3WQnufmtq/s1600/dtho20150212ViennaOperaBall023.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a name='more'></a><span style="text-align: left;">The light was pretty appalling for a photographer to work especially with the movement of dance, but the people there were incredibly friendly and it's not every day that I get to dress in white tie and tails ...</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWcmD3sxEfCHRJn_pHVuOgAAwGuxpY2CVVCHGkKGTbSSh_6UqUZbB2zBbd7XurRg_ku3-Yb4wV-m3x3hlLb_rQm8av7oaEZbncDTZ3MQlFN9j5ujdvZE7CR-duO1VHBOHpqHlTsmCXEKXr/s1600/dtho20150212ViennaOperaBall031.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWcmD3sxEfCHRJn_pHVuOgAAwGuxpY2CVVCHGkKGTbSSh_6UqUZbB2zBbd7XurRg_ku3-Yb4wV-m3x3hlLb_rQm8av7oaEZbncDTZ3MQlFN9j5ujdvZE7CR-duO1VHBOHpqHlTsmCXEKXr/s1600/dtho20150212ViennaOperaBall031.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdNdRKmUxf4vwWXQ34qcyhhVtrTftTKUwuqF_R6XcPoPhk_bOdu6wru7nxD_OM_iVt3z6VoBfSV1vqXhOGi1ngKrJqfEkJgcaZX0C-XvUUkb5nJ4F_Xbtb_DMUw6L3Wxv25XVDuSJs4F1R/s1600/dtho20150212ViennaOperaBall008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdNdRKmUxf4vwWXQ34qcyhhVtrTftTKUwuqF_R6XcPoPhk_bOdu6wru7nxD_OM_iVt3z6VoBfSV1vqXhOGi1ngKrJqfEkJgcaZX0C-XvUUkb5nJ4F_Xbtb_DMUw6L3Wxv25XVDuSJs4F1R/s1600/dtho20150212ViennaOperaBall008.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPhYd3clsrjOJ4uajSfJf4545IZBGdYJxPlYVRoYqFaqkeP46XY5PzuZNtSPd47IF4KxxGX6NnUUfkKhbp10NJKiAfqSliZ6WxmtfM0KCYmZjVLaM5uDk9qycbKr6LiZwJEIwdJ-xvnvJD/s1600/dtho20150212ViennaOperaBall042.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPhYd3clsrjOJ4uajSfJf4545IZBGdYJxPlYVRoYqFaqkeP46XY5PzuZNtSPd47IF4KxxGX6NnUUfkKhbp10NJKiAfqSliZ6WxmtfM0KCYmZjVLaM5uDk9qycbKr6LiZwJEIwdJ-xvnvJD/s1600/dtho20150212ViennaOperaBall042.JPG" height="640" width="426" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3LgvnqpDKdzXTf62UWhlTBlyvvxptYrrCEkFpFJP2atC5_vPXQXw1pacGyLuZPhIz2z0AqYFGu6MlRsUfhEnX5fKeAPZBfliBFb76zFM2Qma2AbO9SxphRKXmtxAOi46BV1hkGFO_CYsf/s1600/dtho20150212ViennaOperaBall045.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3LgvnqpDKdzXTf62UWhlTBlyvvxptYrrCEkFpFJP2atC5_vPXQXw1pacGyLuZPhIz2z0AqYFGu6MlRsUfhEnX5fKeAPZBfliBFb76zFM2Qma2AbO9SxphRKXmtxAOi46BV1hkGFO_CYsf/s1600/dtho20150212ViennaOperaBall045.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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Later I stumbled upon the debutantes and their dates who gathered on the main staircase whilst their parents continued to dance the night away .The debutantes all wore tiaras by British jewellery designer Sean Leane in collaboration with Swarovski .</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJNrc9TDm2LcrZ6_GcfIypAJa06PXJJjEZf6EX5rUTM9H9C_DlYhGtS6iZOkMWg6a3gbCNz-iegou7yYhsMkDev1jyVhnMj7bK7_pkywCAxpgsKGFlEEwqKbQqK8cwqRdtVMucDG-GS9d/s1600/dtho20150213ViennaOperaBall062.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFJNrc9TDm2LcrZ6_GcfIypAJa06PXJJjEZf6EX5rUTM9H9C_DlYhGtS6iZOkMWg6a3gbCNz-iegou7yYhsMkDev1jyVhnMj7bK7_pkywCAxpgsKGFlEEwqKbQqK8cwqRdtVMucDG-GS9d/s1600/dtho20150213ViennaOperaBall062.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0yp-_AmBxEEQOQY9hl5wBl18pKvVvtlLRWyxmP6FxcNmSNQCHfLbQet3Zr1IOPbzwvx-JCKuaJhJzPKGKcwSFgjGRxTCHI5kNXD0dIkHC8Iq1H2SyaeIK4n37IVyPnJZESP2FPTc7PoyA/s1600/dtho20150213ViennaOperaBall067.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0yp-_AmBxEEQOQY9hl5wBl18pKvVvtlLRWyxmP6FxcNmSNQCHfLbQet3Zr1IOPbzwvx-JCKuaJhJzPKGKcwSFgjGRxTCHI5kNXD0dIkHC8Iq1H2SyaeIK4n37IVyPnJZESP2FPTc7PoyA/s1600/dtho20150213ViennaOperaBall067.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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more images can be viewed on my website <a href="http://heathcliffomalley.photoshelter.com/gallery/Vienna-Opera-Ball-2015/G0000jr0K73LedNw/" target="_blank">here</a><br />
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Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-15964261961616362182014-11-28T11:46:00.000-08:002014-11-28T11:46:14.514-08:00Black Eagle - shooting multimedia in Poland<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjEjKxkyI6MGDi06I_rEEzHJO5jDQyxIG17cSVh2P6a5bfrt76sNOEDFBD-9QwHmSfflZhL4Xhzw0UbZL9MkfiPV1vpShToEC8HJ0vGArsweI2StAd_PdgqypQ_6ibEZEH4ACJFNl_lvn/s1600/dtho20141121BlackEagle012.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAjEjKxkyI6MGDi06I_rEEzHJO5jDQyxIG17cSVh2P6a5bfrt76sNOEDFBD-9QwHmSfflZhL4Xhzw0UbZL9MkfiPV1vpShToEC8HJ0vGArsweI2StAd_PdgqypQ_6ibEZEH4ACJFNl_lvn/s1600/dtho20141121BlackEagle012.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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As if often the case in the era of multimedia news gathering
I was recently despatched to Poland on a whirlwind visit to shoot stills and
video . A British armoured Battlegroup have been taking part in war games with
the Polish military entitle “ Black Eagle” for several weeks and the press had
been invited along to coincide with a visit by the CGS General Nick Carter .<o:p></o:p></div>
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We had to be at the army base in Poland bright and early on
Friday morning so our only choice was to fly late Thursday night to Berlin and
then drive for the border, luckily only a 2 ½ hr drive . Our hotel for the
night was literally a truck stop Motel, with a bit of a Swiss chalet style
thing going on, but being a 10 minute drive from our rendezvous point the
following morning it was bearable .</div>
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Now, I have this thing as many of you probably do where I
conjure up in my head a</div>
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“ best case scenario” of what to expect on a job and then
set myself up for disappointment . In this case I envisaged myself in a trench
with a screaming corporal throwing smoke grenades as the tanks roared forward
all shot on a 24mm …….<o:p></o:p></div>
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As if….. After being transported to the range with a host of
other media from the likes of ITN, The Times ( sans photographer) the BBC and a
likeable but complete anorak from Combat and Survival mag we found ourselves on
a Soviet era style viewing platform from where we were expected to shoot all
our images . No chance of using a 24mm here ! <o:p></o:p></div>
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Then again they were going to be firing live rounds so
probably was best to be have some distance between us .Luckily due to some
advice from a former Telegraph colleague who now picture edits for the Army I had
begrudgingly brought a 300 and an extender with me without which I would have
been in deep trouble, but was still utterly under-lensed for the live fire part
of the exercise .<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3notX138hRVDxy3cfJBFO2SP7INDXpbssohPCyPUISSjfOmwvD5LnwXeMe_ti1Bpmg3ikShBoPH_Rn3WhyphenhypheneDrEkuWPwtDYlPGbYQHRhO5v7OVpDIuLhOY03JKsrSFM4-9ARAXvlsAWzxA/s1600/dtho20141121BlackEagle023.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3notX138hRVDxy3cfJBFO2SP7INDXpbssohPCyPUISSjfOmwvD5LnwXeMe_ti1Bpmg3ikShBoPH_Rn3WhyphenhypheneDrEkuWPwtDYlPGbYQHRhO5v7OVpDIuLhOY03JKsrSFM4-9ARAXvlsAWzxA/s1600/dtho20141121BlackEagle023.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>I recently bought a canon C100 video camera, which takes all
my EF lenses, and has revolutionised video for me . I now no longer have to
fanny about with a 5D taking bits on and off depending on whether I’m shooting
stills or video with it’s built in ND filters and XLR inputs . I now have a
dedicated video camera which can use all the lenses I have collected over the
years . Mind you this doesn’t solve the issue of when to shoot stills and when
to shoot video on an assignment where there are no second chances .</div>
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<o:p><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="281" mozallowfullscreen="" src="//player.vimeo.com/video/113108829" webkitallowfullscreen="" width="500"></iframe></o:p></div>
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Once the demonstration started there was nothing I could do
but go with the flow and let my instincts take over. My c100 was mounted on a
tripod and as the Challenger II tanks burst out of the tree line I panned with
them and when I felt I had enough moved to stills leaving the camera rolling .
I continued in this fashion alternating between camera until the tanks were
probably a 750m off in the distance shrouded by a cloud of smoke which only the
muzzle flashes of their powerful guns could penetrate . At one point I even
mounted the 300 2.8 on the c100 for a few long shots, the 1.5 crop factor
really helped .<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVSYeultQZKD50L7KmESkN57MpFRD4rZQTgXOp2btJ5N4CxdYG5Dilz_BjYK2doLbbULWalAZq_wAdMeuAdGyWmhLUvmvBTEbfXBtgW0FXHRqw0MemRKbr_cqwYwXK-do25dW1f5v7Fy0x/s1600/dtho20141121BlackEagle028.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVSYeultQZKD50L7KmESkN57MpFRD4rZQTgXOp2btJ5N4CxdYG5Dilz_BjYK2doLbbULWalAZq_wAdMeuAdGyWmhLUvmvBTEbfXBtgW0FXHRqw0MemRKbr_cqwYwXK-do25dW1f5v7Fy0x/s1600/dtho20141121BlackEagle028.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>Afterwards we got to have a short walk about where I bumped
into an old school friend I hadn’t seen in 30 yrs who is now a Brigadier and
shot some short lens stuff of soldiers and officers that made a huge difference
. Finally there was an interview with the general and piece to camera with the
reporter Ben , whom I had worked with a lot over the years and has now gained
the confidence needed to stand in front of a camera , a skill which is not to
be underestimated .</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBYUPLe5ppmeujEYRTSHBdT_mWjZRajzJ7GPNKKvGl3hzsymEQk81PxzO8Ep7Jwdxlri7s6j0kopp1g9zP636GIqLdJlkShFNvl3ZOp5oBvCeRD9MIT2skDU-qOg11VfefjmA3mTk5AQCM/s1600/dtho20141121BlackEagle007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBYUPLe5ppmeujEYRTSHBdT_mWjZRajzJ7GPNKKvGl3hzsymEQk81PxzO8Ep7Jwdxlri7s6j0kopp1g9zP636GIqLdJlkShFNvl3ZOp5oBvCeRD9MIT2skDU-qOg11VfefjmA3mTk5AQCM/s1600/dtho20141121BlackEagle007.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>After a quick edit, caption and send of the stills we jumped
back into the hire car for the drive back to Berlin with only around 5 hrs
before our flight was due to depart forcing me to edit in the front passenger seat whilst Ben drove back down
the dual carriageway westwards . The stars were clearly in alignment that day as
miraculously my 4g mifi worked flawlessly ( never usually does when it really
matters! ) and was able to file the video before going through to departures
and the luxury that awaited with our Easyjet flight back to Gatwick .</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1h5-s3Ac0tPFvPdatZqKG4mg0jS1kAP_-JIlYgCSK66uvYvIAPazaZqeE_jr7qaVJNLHYrp5wqcHLIGqKQo0HXFF0j1cYUPMOA-OqH58tnZtzMW6ZiM3Syrna1bOqQAePyqA7uX3OXg32/s1600/dtho20141121BlackEagle026.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1h5-s3Ac0tPFvPdatZqKG4mg0jS1kAP_-JIlYgCSK66uvYvIAPazaZqeE_jr7qaVJNLHYrp5wqcHLIGqKQo0HXFF0j1cYUPMOA-OqH58tnZtzMW6ZiM3Syrna1bOqQAePyqA7uX3OXg32/s1600/dtho20141121BlackEagle026.JPG" height="426" width="640" /></a><br />
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Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-44428668528091013752014-08-26T08:52:00.001-07:002014-08-26T08:55:52.875-07:00The Games<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Glasgow, I heard plenty over the years and Scots would often reply if I mentioned that I'd visited Edinburgh once in my twenties that Glasgow is a real Scottish city . With the backdrop of the Referendum for Scots independence I travelled up to Scotland's second city on a particularly noisy Virgin train (was on the way back too and I complained), it's tannoy refusing to keep quiet for more than 5 minutes at a time .<br />
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The Commonwealth Games were a bit like a diet version of the Olympics without the Juggernauts of America, China and Russia, and without quite so many photographers . I was a little more familiar with the sports by now after my fortnight at the 2012 Olympics but still felt every bit the novice when working in the shadow of the likes of The Guardian's Tom Jenkins and the experienced sports guys and girls from the major agencies .<br />
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Canon's <a href="http://cpn.canon-europe.com/content/services.do" target="_blank">CPS</a> were there as they usually are at major sporting events and Jakki Moores and Frankie Jim were a fantastic help with lending me kit at short notice when needed throughout the Games .<br />
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It was a tough two weeks and the amount of Athletic stars that pulled out after tickets were already sold was disappointing but for all that I had a great time . Funnily enough forgetting the hype surrounding a certain Virgin sponsored sprinter from across the pond competing in the 100m relay the highlight of the Games for me were in fact the Glaswegians themselves .</div>
Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-47939738276302005362014-04-17T16:34:00.000-07:002014-08-25T16:42:49.852-07:00Helmand - The End ?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
In March I visited Camp Bastion on a media visit for the handover from British to NATO control signalling the beginning of the end for the British military deployment in Afghanistan . I've been visiting Afghanistan since late 2001 when I lived with the mujahideen fighting the Taliban in the West's proxy war post 911 . As the British are due to pull all combat troops out of the country by the end of 2014 any opportunity to witness the final days of the mission had to be taken regardless of the fact that such trips usually equate to poor picture taking opportunities, especially after my experience on a press junket to Basra for the handover in 2009 .<br />
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<a name='more'></a>As to be expected the MediaOps team at Bastion were a little nervous of taking on four British national newspapers simultaneously and OPSEC (the process of having our images vetted before publication) was more stringent than ever regardless of the fact that we never even travelled beyond the wire wherever we were . This made working in Bastion frustrating but never the less I managed to get a front page image for The Telegraph (still the holy grail for us older photographers who remember the analogue era ) and a few short films to keep the web guys happy !<br />
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What struck me on the trip though after a two year absence was how the atmosphere had changed on base, in those two years all but one of the scores of once British manned bases across Helmand had been closed or handed over to Afghan Security Forces and there had also been a substantial Taliban attack on Camp Bastion by the Taliban which had resulted in the deaths of US servicemen and a number of aircraft destroyed . Since then security had been stepped up substantially, but what was most concerning for me was that the majority of the security was focused on the perceived threat from within, not outside the wire . The last few years have seen a marked increase in "Green on Blue"attacks, in 2012 fifty-three ISAF servicemen were killed by members of the Afghan Security Forces alone . Bastion is now a maze of razor wire fences, blast walls and security gates to protect western troops from the threat of attack by those they are meant to be training and mentoring . To travel around the camp now anyone unarmed has to be escorted, the days of wandering freely for a cup of coffee at the Green Bean have long gone, then again with the creeping dismantlement of Bastion the luxury of an Iced Latte will soon be a distant memory for those on the final tour ....<br />
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Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-27929384586045862012014-03-21T17:34:00.000-07:002014-08-25T17:41:32.390-07:00Crisis in Crimea<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Earlier this month I travelled to Donestk in eastern Ukraine which was in the process of political upheaval after Putin's recent annexation of Crimea after the Kremlin friendly Ukrainian President was ousted after months of protests in Kiev . The situation was still relatively stable in Donetsk, a city which had seen the worst of the Reich's brutal excesses in WWII, with two thirds of it's population wiped out under German occupation . The elderly Russian speakers who remembered the days of security as members of the old USSR and the young unemployed found comradeship in Lenin Square unified in their aim to once again be joined with Russia under a President who seems hell bent on recreating the greatness of an eastern Empire that probably never really existed in the first place during Communist or Tsarist times by bullying former satellite states into rekindling old alliances .<br />
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<a name='more'></a>Street fights were beginning to break out between opposing groups and there was evidence everywhere you turned of thugs bused in from across the Russian border .<br />
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After a number of days myself and The Telegraph's Damien McElroy decided to make our way to Crimea where a referendum was soon to be held to decide the future (if you believe that ) of the home to Russia's Black Sea fleet . After being turned away by air traffic controllers on our descent into Simferopol we had to resort into taking the train from Kiev where we were finally greeted in the Crimean Capital by a phalanx of Russian Cossacks looking for agitators sent by the "Fascists" in Kiev . Pro Ukraine protestors met in their scores wearing flowers in the hair and tape over their mouths whilst overweight Policemen look on in bemusement .</div>
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In Simferopol we were joined by the Moscow Correspondent Roland Oliphant who had been following the story since the early Maiden protests in Kiev . There was uncertainty on the streets and people queued for hours for the chance to withdraw the equivalent of $50 usd from the ATM . There was evidence of local Radio and TV broadcasters being intimidated and ultimately closed whilst state television showed archive footage of the great patriotic war to remind the Crimean's of the horrors of Fascism .</div>
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As the Ukrainian soldiers remained under siege in their bases by unbadged Russian elite forces the Russian speaking population went about the most biased Referendum I'd ever witnessed, ironically overseen by drunken Fascists from the EU political fringe who have a rather odd relationship with Putin revelling in his sticking two fingers up at what they see as a far too liberal, multicultural West . One evening in the hotel I overheard them talking about how Russia need to keep Ukraine "destabilised " for the foreseeable future .</div>
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The result of the Referendum was never in doubt, and some like myself wondered how Crimea ever became part of Ukraine in the first place, regardless of the West's posturing and the Kremlin's intimidation it was clear the majority of Crimeans were more than happy to rejoin Russia. In my opinion it wasn't the end result that left a bad taste in my mouth but the methods used by the pro Russians to achieve their aims . Those who's opinion differed were driven underground and on at least one occasion beaten, tortured and murdered . </div>
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Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-89140250241154288852013-03-18T16:23:00.000-07:002013-03-24T08:50:08.228-07:00Iraq 10 Years On<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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14 March 2013 , Falkland Islands</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Before the dust had even begun to settle after the events of
9/11 and the 2001 conflict in Afghanistan, I was despatched to Iraq by the
Daily Telegraph to cover the final months of Saddam Hussein’s brutal Baathist regime.</span></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>Saddam announced an amnesty releasing thousands of prisoners
from the notorious Abu Ghraib prison after "winning" a 100% Yes vote in a referendum, hundreds, possibly thousands of Iraq's turned up at the gates of the prison and ultimately forced their way inside the outer perimeter of the jail hoping to find their loved ones being released, it was the first sign that the regime's days were numbered .<br />
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<o:p> </o:p>It was a fascinating time to be in Iraq. The United Nations
weapons inspectors under Hans Blix were searching in vain for evidence of Iraqi
weapons of mass destruction (WMD) under the watchful gaze of not only the Iraqi
Security Services but also the world’s media. Each news organisation was assigned an often comically
inept government ‘minder’ who accompanied us daily on our travels around the
country, keeping a watchful eye on our reporting and who we spoke to, making it
difficult to get an honest opinion from anyone. We’d fill most days either following the UN inspectors in
wacky races style convoys across the country to derelict former chemical
weapons plants or run down military bases searching for WMD’s. These bases were
more often than not guarded by soldiers whose toes poked through the holes in
their well-worn slip-on shoes.</div>
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The evenings were often spent in open-air restaurants in the more affluent parts of town, at
the closing down parties of the numerous embassies in town or back at
the Al Rashid hotel where room 222 became “Le Club Trois Deux”. Photographers
and correspondents from the world’s media would stop buy for a glass of Arak
and a chat . Alcohol was government subsidised and cheap in Saddam’s Iraq. Being
a Police state, Baghdad at this time was also quite safe and one could easily
hitchhike back to the hotel in the early hours without fear of being mugged or
killed .<o:p></o:p></div>
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As it became more apparent to the Iraqis that war was
inevitable in early 2003, there developed an air of disbelief mixed with resignation.
Life carried on - families went to the funfair and slaughtered sheep for the
Eid festival to announce the end of the month-long Ramadan fast. But there were
also mass protests against the impending Allied attack, orchestrated by the
regime to coincide with the anti war protests held in London.</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">The day before the first “shock and awe” airstrikes on
Baghdad, the Daily Telegraph correspondent David Blair and I were pulled out of
the capital by our then editor, Charles Moore. I flew to Kuwait before
re-entering southern Iraq through a hole in the border fence in a hire car,
accompanied by journalist Peter Beaumont from the Observer and photographer Sharon Abbady. Arriving a little late in the day we covered the final days of the predominantly British battle for Basra, at night we would hunker down with other "unilateral" un-embedded journalists back towards the relative safety of the port of Um Qasr . The Italians had strapped a table to the roof of their jeep and would dine at it every evening. </span></div>
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Basra in the end fell with a whimper with the majority of Iraq soldiers melting away and we walked down the main street into the centre along with men from 3 Para as the inhabitants passed us laden down with looted goods.</div>
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Petrol is a problem in a war zone and although we had packed extra jerricans we too ultimately had to resort to looting ourselves and were led by some locals to a fuel dump where we syphoned off what we needed to head north to Baghdad. We drove along MSR Tampa in a 3 vehicle convoy of
4x4’s, along with our colleagues Jim LoScalzo and Peter Turnley arriving miraculously in one piece on the day the capital fell after
being shot at twice by American soldiers on the road up.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The city was almost unrecognizable, the major thoroughfares
and bridges being mostly blocked by American troops, especially in the
government districts of the city where most journalists had been based prior to
the invasion. Shops were closed, the Iraqi police had disappeared and daily there
were fatal shootings of innocent civilians who failed to stop at American
checkpoints. <o:p></o:p></div>
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My driver before the invasion Salah was sadly found dead in
his bullet riddled car by his daughter’s days after the US Marines fought their
way into the centre of the city. The scenes of jubilation in the first 24 hours
following the fall of Baghdad gave way to the harsh reality of US occupation
and the power vacuum that it created. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>Chaos hung like a dark cloud over the city. Looting was
rife, and after the palaces and other government buildings were stripped bare,
the looters turned on the hospitals and other municipal facilities. Shortages
of medical supplies were combined with power cuts, caused by the looting of
copper wire and other materials from power stations, the power cuts also
affected the water supply in a city in which temperatures can soar to 50 C. </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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There were heart-rending scenes at the Abu Ghraib cemetery,
where families came to find the graves of loved ones who had disappeared during
Saddam’s rule. Former intelligence officers had sold them the locations of the
graves, marked by numbers not names.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p> </o:p>If anyone benefited from the end of Saddam’s regime it was
the Shia Muslim majority who had suffered for years especially after the 1991
uprising in Basra. Finally allowed once again to publicly display their faith, the first Ashura after the war was particularly passionate, men and boys of all
ages dressed themselves in white sheets and cut open their heads in memory of
the martyrdom of Prophet Mohammed’s grandson Hussein at the Battle of Kerbala
in 680 AD.</div>
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Under the leadership of Moqtadr Al Sadr, who had lived in exile in Iran for many years, the more militant Shia
began to protest against the perceived western occupation which ultimately
ended in street fighting with US forces in the holy city of Najaf two years
later.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Hard to believe for an oil rich country like Iraq but there
were extreme petrol shortages for many months after the war and petrol queues
could be many hours long. I photographed this small boy just after having his Jerri
cans of benzene and cash confiscated by US soldiers for street hawking. <o:p></o:p></div>
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In the Spring of 2004 a year on from the invasion the
country’s American Governor Paul Bremer announced the 100 day countdown to
handover of power to the Iraqi’s in the palm tree lined gardens of the
Conference Centre, punctuated by the distant thud of insurgent’s mortars. The were huge protetst on th streets organised by Moqtadr Sadr after one of the more Shia newspapers was closed on the orders of Bremer, which quickly spread across the country.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In late 2004 I began my first of what were to be many
embeds, firstly with the Black Watch in an area known as the “Triangle of
Death” just south of Baghdad as a blocking manoeuvre to Insurgents escaping the
battle for Fallujah. The viciousness of Central Iraq came as a shock for
British troops who had been accustomed to the more benign insurgency in Basra
in the south of the country suffering casualties from a suicide bomb within
days of arriving.</div>
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The US Marines were also operating in the area and I joined
a platoon of the 24<sup>th</sup> Marine Regiment on search and destroy missions
before finally heading south to work with the Welsh Guards in Al Amara, one of
the tougher areas to operate in the British area of responsibility. Here I went
on dawn raids to locate caches of weapons hidden by the Shia militia groups,
which were often under the beds of their own children.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Embedding enabled me to see the war from another
perspective, that of the young western soldier thrown into a conflict not of
his making but nonetheless hoping to make a difference, or simply survive and I
developed a great sense of respect for them.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The following years in Basra were fraught with danger for
British forces as the insurgency matured and resupplying the military bases
around the impoverished city became increasingly dangerous as the Shia militias
frequently attacked their supply chain. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Chinese made rockets regularly rained down on their bases inside
the city and I would often find myself donning my body armour after being woken
from a deep sleep at the sound of the siren. Insurgents would also time their
attacks to coincide with mealtimes hoping to catch soldiers on open ground
between the cookhouse and their sleeping quarters.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In the Old State Building in central Basra I photographed
soldiers from 7 platoon, Chindit Company, the Duke of Lancaster’s Regiment,
crash out fully clothed on their bunks after another tough patrol in the city.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Finally in April 2009 I documented the final days of our
venture in Iraq. I watched Lnc Cpl Martin Campbell of A Coy, 5 Rifles carefully
and thoughtfully fold the Company Colours at FOB Oxford on the banks of the
Shat Al Arab river as the base was dismantled. I then moved on to the handover
ceremony of Basra Airbase from British to American command marking an end to
six years of British involvement in a war that was unpopular at home.</span></div>
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A deeply touching memorial service was held prior to the
handover and the names were read out of the 179 service men and woman that had died
since the spring of 2003. This left a lump in my throat, having witnessed the
final moments of one of those servicemen and my thoughts also turned to the
friends I’d made and lost during that same time. To then see their sacrifice reduced to the shaking of hands
and the lowering of the 20<sup>th</sup> Armoured Brigade’s flag was difficult
to see, but it would have been impossible to march through Basra in a victory
parade when none had been achieved, having been hampered from the start by a
lack of political will and poorly resourced.</div>
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It is common knowledge now that over 115,000 Iraqi Civilians
died violent deaths during the 2003 invasion and in the following years during
the occupation, even though the US publicly stated that they didn’t keep a
count of Iraqi deaths, only western ones.. These statistics make it
somewhat of a challenge for me to regard our foray into a country once lauded
as the cradle of civilisation positively, but only the Iraqis themselves can be
the final judge of that .<br />
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Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-59053384986070570032013-01-22T22:25:00.000-08:002013-01-22T22:40:02.081-08:00Five Days in Rangoon<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="text-align: left;">23 January 2013</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">After many years as a pariah state under the rule of a military dictatorship, Myanmar has recently reopened it's arms to the world and I've just had the good fortune to explore one tiny fraction of the country, it's capital city Yangon .</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb4IO0r5xzqxQY_Ni4Uxnn_8qfohmC3k9XnWZzKbIOnee1PaAs-uWEoBMGRlxm41G9mqDoBcR6rUgpa3u-oR2GozFJThvzc6iJ-DC8_KkwEtaNOKbq1Qotc9YU_JhIBNAbtCJ433GvsV6V/s1600/_MG_3866.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhb4IO0r5xzqxQY_Ni4Uxnn_8qfohmC3k9XnWZzKbIOnee1PaAs-uWEoBMGRlxm41G9mqDoBcR6rUgpa3u-oR2GozFJThvzc6iJ-DC8_KkwEtaNOKbq1Qotc9YU_JhIBNAbtCJ433GvsV6V/s640/_MG_3866.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sule Paya Road, Yangon</td></tr>
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<a name='more'></a>I originally came to look at the possible excavation of crated Spitfires rumoured to have been buried at a former WWII airbase on the outskirts of the capital at the end of the war with the Japanese. After several weeks of digging , David Cundall and his team have found nothing and in the short time I've been here on standby I thought it better to at least have a look around the city and take some pictures .<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7WfmJCZ2JR1iCNzxXhKow76DylPFtEpA9oXFJCP0jqH4oP6rPtop8nRm0AnbsETnBfkQAdgD-OO3hcBjmSh4ZG87DKl6WvItCb_esLR9K0A_R7ehiq29dwmvf3gEgvdLIrrOZXd5oK85O/s1600/_44G3584.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7WfmJCZ2JR1iCNzxXhKow76DylPFtEpA9oXFJCP0jqH4oP6rPtop8nRm0AnbsETnBfkQAdgD-OO3hcBjmSh4ZG87DKl6WvItCb_esLR9K0A_R7ehiq29dwmvf3gEgvdLIrrOZXd5oK85O/s640/_44G3584.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A monk walks along one of the terraces of the gold plated stupa of Yangon's Shwedagon Paya </td></tr>
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Yangon was known during the British Colonial era as Rangoon and didn't revert to it's pre-colonial name again until 1989 and as you travel around the city there are many victorian era building in varying stages of decomposition waiting to be snapped up by the wealthy foreign investors that are now queuing up to enter Myanmar now that sanctions have mostly been lifted. Around the capital there is an obvious increase in building and construction after years of stagnation.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Children watching builders at work on Sule Paya Road, Yangon</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Although rather musty and dilapidated on the whole, Yangon has some incredible sights including reportedly the worlds oldest Buddhist pagoda, the Shwedagon Paya which is coated with sixty tons of gold and topped with a 76 carat diamond and one can see devotees offering flowers and prayer flags visiting the shrine that symbolises the particular day of their birth .</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Young nuns at the Shwedagon Paya in Yangon</td></tr>
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<span style="text-align: left;">The streets around the capital are buzzing with activity, market stalls sell everything from fresh fish to counterfeit iPhones and for the more intrepid, wonderful street food reflecting the range of ethnicities living in Mynamar . </span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Staff at the Nilar Biryani restaurant on Anawratha Rd<br />
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: small;">Everyone I've met has been incredibly friendly and welcoming and the service in the rather overpriced upmarket hotels (due to a present shortage, and no lack of foreign business travellers ) second to none .</span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption">Lunch time at the Bogyoke Aung San market</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fruit market on Mahabandoola Road</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Breakfast one morning</td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small; text-align: center;">My only regret was not having the opportunity to travel farther afield to the likes of Bagan, Inle Lake, the beautiful beaches and as a photojournalist at heart, perhaps the more important story still ongoing in the north along the Chinese border .</span><span style="font-size: 13px;"><span style="font-size: small;">Hopefully one day I'll be able to come back again, more likely on a holiday, as there is so much to see in a country that after so many years in relative isolation hasn't yet been spoilt by tourism. </span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A street barber and client close to the Strand Hotel in downtown Yangon</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Craftsmen hand carving and painting deities close to the Shwedagon Paya</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption">The Yangon river crossing to Thanlyin</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Couples on Inya Lake at sunset</td></tr>
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Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-75338930487626641032013-01-09T07:02:00.000-08:002013-01-22T22:26:33.235-08:00My 2012 IN PICTURES<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
2012 was a busy year what with the Diamond Jubilee, Wimbledon and the London 2012 Olympics within such a short space of time. It was also a year where I travelled to Africa more than ever before, and it was a real privilege to explore more of such a beautiful continent although sometimes for tragic events. Let's hope that 2013 is even better !<br />
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Occupy protestors at St Pauls, Jan 2012</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">Scenes in the village of Manyoro, in the Bolgatanga municipality of North Eastern Ghana, Jan 2012</span></td></tr>
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Syncro team training for the Olympics in Aldershot, Feb 2012</div>
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Behind the scenes at Madame Tussauds, March 2012</div>
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John Carlos, US athlete famous for his Black Power Salute at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, May 2012</div>
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Chirimba Primary School in Blantyre, Malawi, May 2012</div>
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The Diamond Jubilee River Pageant on the river thames, June 2012</div>
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The final day of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, June 2012</div>
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Andy Murray, Wimbledon, June 2012</div>
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Tom Daley and Peter Waterfield in the 10 meter Diving Finals at the 2012 Olympics, July 2012</div>
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Jessica Ennis in the 2012 Olympic Womens Heptathlon, August 2012</div>
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Usain Bolt wins the 100 meter Mens Final at the London 2012 Olympics, August 2012</div>
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Crazy Horse troupe pose for photographers on London's Southbank, September 2012</div>
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James Shannon performs in the London debut of one of Australia's pre-eminent contemporary dance companies Chunky Move at the Royal Festival Hall, October 2012</div>
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Gloucester RFC player/coach Mike Tindall, October 2012</div>
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The London to Brighton vintage car rally, November 2012</div>
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Muzumuko Bahati holds an x-ray of the bullet lodged in his son's bladder in a hospital in </div>
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GomaCongo, November 2012</div>
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The Boy Choristers of Winchester Cathedral skating on the cathedral's ice rink, December 2012</div>
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Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-26184676274201794082012-11-29T15:13:00.004-08:002012-11-30T11:56:39.211-08:00<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"> Trouble in Goma</span><span style="font-size: large;"> </span> 29 </span>November 2012 <span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;">I've just come back from assignment in Goma, the capital of the mineral rich region of north Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo where rebel M23 fighters recently took control with what appears</span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: left;"> to be the aid of a neighbouring state.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Myself and Daily Telegraph correspondent David Blair had been planning the trip for some weeks, the plan was to look at the plight of the vast numbers of innocent civillians who had been displaced by the most recent conflict and to find hard evidence of Rwandan interference in Congolese affairs, Rwanda being a country which has traditionally received a large sum of aid from the British taxpayer and become somewhat dependent on it .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">These plans appeared to have been scuppered at first when news broke that M23 rebels had crept even closer to Goma and Congolese FADRC troops were retreating quickly away from a relatively small rebel force, but due to previous recent history we found it hard to believe that they would ever actually take Goma, how wrong we were. The city fell on the day of our arrival in the region to little resistance and the morning after the fall of the city we spent the oncoming days collecting the evidence we needed for David's story.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: -webkit-auto;">There were terribly saddening scenes at the many IDP camps scattered around Goma, many families having been displaced two or three times. Kanyaruchinya Camp one of the largest camps on the outskirts of the city which until recently was the refuge of over 100,000 people emptied almost overnight as the fighting came close to the city and right under the impotent gaze </span><span style="font-family: inherit; text-align: -webkit-auto;"><span style="line-height: 16px;">of Monusco </span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16px;">peacekeepers . With many Aid organisations evacuating the majority of their staff in the wake of the rebel advance to neighbouring Rwanda, the sudden movement of vast numbers of civilians was a potentially grave situation with many people lacking food, water or shelter .</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit; line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">In the Heal Africa hospital in Central Goma, a few days after the city's capture civilians were still arriving with wounds from the fighting after being caught in the cross fire, including pregnant mothers who sadly lost their unborn babies. 5 year old Sami Bahati was one of those victims and now has a bullet from an assault rifle lodged in his bladder which surgeons at the hospItal say can't be removed without the help and expertise of a Urologist, of which there are none in eastern Congo.</span><br />
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<span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">But why is this happening at all ? As with many other developing countries the DRC is cursed by it's mineral wealth . The country is rich with Gold, Diamonds and perhaps more profoundly Coltan, a metallic ore used in the production of mobile phones and other electronic equipment, and the DRC has the largest reserves of Coltan known at present, although other nations such as Australia, Canada and Brazil also have mines. </span><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">Many blame these incredible resources for </span><span style="line-height: 16px; text-align: left;">prolonging and funding the conflict in the eastern DRC, and there has been evidence of the precious mineral being traded illegally by neighbouring countries and perhaps helps explain their alleged involvement in the conflict. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">Perhaps if companies paid more attention to the ethics of whom they were doing business with the innocent civilians of the Congo and other nations in a similar position wouldn't have to suffer at the hands of corrupt Dictators and Rebel fighters vying for control of riches which should benefit all .</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">The Democratic Republic of Congo is a beautiful country rich with culture, wildlife( including the mountain Gorilla), wonderful people and an incredible landscape with lush rain forests and active volcanoes . The majority of the county's inhabitants should be living very comfortably off it's natural resources, when in fact the vast majority live in poverty and suffer at the hands of the tiny minority in power that ultimately profit .</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">David Blair's piece in the Daily Telegraph can be found at the link below:</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: black; color: white; font-family: inherit;">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/democraticrepublicofcongo/9700471/Rwandans-fighting-an-illegal-war-in-the-Congo.html</span></div>
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Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-77509526313687837362012-08-15T17:08:00.001-07:002012-08-15T17:08:06.558-07:00The 2012 Olympics, some thoughts<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Now sitting down in the Devon countryside I can finally reflect on the previous two action packed weeks that were the 2012 London Olympic Games, and what a fortnight they were !<br />
Although I've dabbled in "Sports Photography" in the past, merely brushing the surface covering the Ryder Cup and Wimbledon I really hadn't a clue how I would fare being thrown into a world which was completely alien to me . I looked up sports photographers blogs, checked out agent galleries of previous games and quizzed the very few sports photographers I know about what to expect, but there was really no way to prepare for what I was about to be confronted with .<br />
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On most days I would cover an average of 2-3 different events mostly for the first and last time without a clue what was going on in front of me having not followed any kind of sport since I left secondary school . My peers would often have bemused looks on their faces when I'd ask them yet again what was going on, I once (and even I knew it was a pretty stupid question) asked whether all races on the athletics track finished on the same Finish Line .<br />
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The days were incredibly long, I would leave home in west London between 6 and 7am every morning and usually get home well after midnight . I travelled between the venues around London on the incredibly well organised media bus system which was based in Russell Square where most members of the worlds press had booked hotels .<br />
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Photographers all had to wear special vests at the games, like the ones they used to wear in the eighties with lots of pockets which are now terribly out of fashion . The "Pool" agency guys wore Blue and this would on occasion grant them access to the inside track positions for instance at the track and field and track cycling events or head on positions for the swimming which would enable them to shoot images more freely and comfortably, from angles the rest of us in our Tan vests could never shot from . There were also cameras mounted high above which were remotely controlled by joystick and others on the bottom of the swimming and diving pools which gave incredible views of sport that are rarely otherwise seen .<br />
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I would often look on jealously at the others in Blue as they worked from their privileged positions but to be honest some of the best work I've seen were taken from spots anyone with enough planning, initiative and talent could have taken, whether it was the image of an ecstatic Mo Farah crossing the finish line or Bradley Wiggins racing past a pub full of cheering fans in Middlesex . Ultimately there were beautiful images to be potentially taken by all .<br />
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The atmosphere during the Games were absolutely incredible, whether covering the Hockey, Athletics, Track Cycling or Fencing the sense of passion and euphoria from the fans for their respective sports was fantastic . The thousands of volunteers working at the Games were on the whole a joy to deal with, the Venues fantastic, the Facilities brilliant, I honestly couldn't find a bad word to say about the Games if I tried . It was one of those times when I really felt proud of what our country had managed to achieve , and that's not even mentioning all those medals !<br />
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Renowned sports photographer Bob Martin and his team that ran the Photo Operations side of the Olympics did an incredible job planning positions and vantage points for photographers at all the venues during the Games and I owe a huge thanks to them as I do Frankie Jim at Canon UK for loaning me the extra kit I needed (long lenses and fisheyes) for the duration of the Games .<br />
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I do have regrets though, which may sound ridiculous considering how privileged I was to be able to have a free ringside seat at any event of my choosing for the Olympic fortnight . Having to move from one completely unfamiliar event to another I often found myself so focused on trying to get the "News" photographs nailed that I didn't find the time to just simply take "Pictures" and therefore some of the more creative shots I envisioned never came to be. In the last few days I began to wish that It would last just another week just so that I could revisit the glorious Velodrome, Athletics Stadium and Aquatics Centre to shoot those other angles that I never had the time to the first time round . Not to sure how the Athletes would have felt about that though !<br />
Regardless, to have been there and witness the likes of Hoy, Daley, Ennis, Bolt and others fulfil their Olympic dreams is an experience I shall never forget and will cherish for a lifetime .<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"> All Images ©Heathcliff O'Malley 2012 , All Rights Reserved, Reproduction Strictly Prohibited<br /> In Any Format Without Prior Written Consent.</span></div>
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Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-72637986684006892162012-01-31T16:25:00.000-08:002012-01-31T16:47:42.147-08:00Ghana<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I've just had the unique opportunity to spend a short time staying with a family in a rural village in upper eastern Ghana for a <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"><a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/telegraphchristmasappeal/9038537/Telegraph-Christmas-Charity-Appeal-How-Ghana-got-under-my-skin.html" target="_blank">story</a></span> reporting on the work of Anglo/Ghanaian charity <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #eeeeee;"><a href="http://www.afrikids.org/main.php" target="_blank">Afrikids</a> </span>. Myself and feature writer Bryony Gordon spent two days and nights with Alfred Yoroyire and his extended family in the village of Manyoro, 5 kms from the border with Burkina Faso .<br />
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Afrikids was one of the Daily Telegraph's Christmas charities and each year the charity runs the Afrikids Experience Challenge where people are placed with rural families in northern Ghana to give them an insight into the daily struggles that families face and ultimately an opportunity to help bring change with their own expertise and experience .<br />
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Alfred is one of the lucky few who has some land to grow crops and a small chemist shop to support his family. Although their lifestyle compared to us in the west is incredibly basic they still are in the more fortunate minority, levels of poverty in the Bolgatanga municipality and across Ghana are incredibly high with many families struggling to support themselves without the help of NGO's and charities as their own government appears to struggle to provide much help beyond the most basic infrastructure . The gulf between rich and poor in Ghana is simply astounding , like in so many "developing nations".<br />
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I was deeply touched by the Yoroyire family's kindness and generosity during our brief stay and of the work of Afrikids. I've been fortunate enough over the years to have travelled to many countries and have witnessed much along the way, but occasionally I'm still struck by how those who have so little material wealth have hearts that are so generous they can put us all to shame.<br />
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A gallery of my images from Ghana can be viewed <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc;"><a href="http://heathcliffomalley.photoshelter.com/gallery/Afrikids-Ghana/G0000VmJDDyjWEfg/" target="_blank">here</a></span></div>Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-25144184107834188252011-09-10T03:47:00.000-07:002011-09-11T16:03:15.411-07:00Remembering 911<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Tripoli 10 September 2011<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">The burning twin
towers are an image that has been indelibly etched on to my memory for
life. I was in New York that fateful September on assignment covering New
York Fashion Week and on the evening of the 10<sup>th</sup> I could never have
imagined in my wildest dreams how the lives of so many would be irreparably
changed for life. </span><br />
<a name='more'></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">As I made my way down to the scene New Yorkers on West
Broadway sat on the roofs of cars sipping coffees and watching the smoke rise
from the towers after the initial impacts, some with binoculars. But the calm
was soon broken as panic took over when the towers collapsed one after the
other sending billowing clouds of dust and debris across the financial district
of downtown Manhattan. As others fled I fought my way through to where the
firefighters were that had survived the towers collapse. The scene of destruction
was nothing like I had ever witnessed before, firemen struggled with fighting
the burning debris from partially crushed fire Engines amidst great shards of
steel and concrete, all that remained of the World Trade Centre complex. Others
sat in shock, exhausted, silent and motionless, the immensity and tragedy of
the morning’s events had simply overwhelmed them. I walked out of ground zero
caked in a caustic dust which burnt my uncovered skin struggling to
comprehend what I had just witnessed . I was discovered by a colleague
who managed to flag down a car who's driver kindly took me back to my midtown hotel where I
was able to file my images back to London. The first words from my photo editor
at the time Bob Bodman, were “thank god you are still alive”.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Over the coming days
the strength and resilience of New Yorkers was undeniable as they fought fear
and confusion to get the embattled city working again with most of downtown
Manhattan's streets still closed to traffic and acrid smoke and dust clouds still rising from ground
zero. The raw emotions of fear, shock and grief were slowly replaced with that
of stubborn patriotism, perseverance and a community united. But there were
also heartbreaking scenes as relatives of the missing posted photo flyers on
the walls around the New York Armoury on Lexington Avenue, which as the days
went by became shrines to the victims of America's most devastating terror
attack.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">Since that September
morning I have gone over again and again in my head the events that have not
only profoundly effected the lives of thousands across the globe but my own
career and personal life too. Bearing witness to the attacks made me feel more
akin to the inhabitants of New York than my own city, I felt I could identify
with them far better than I could with my friends back in London, especially
when it came to what I felt should happen next. Retaliation seemed a perfectly
reasonable response at the time.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">On the first
anniversary of the attacks I went through my images again properly for the
first time, tears welled up in my eyes as I flicked through the image files on
my computer, there were obviously still emotions I had yet to come to terms
with. To this day what happened that morning, still doesn’t seem real,
more like working on a Jerry Bruckheimer movie set. I never saw a single body in the debris, it was if they
simply disintegrated along with one of America’s greatest landmarks. Only the
faces and emotions of the living immediately around me made me realise the
stark reality of the situation. As I made my way to the burning twin towers
that morning on foot a young woman approached me asking if I had a mobile phone
that worked as her father worked in one of the towers and she couldn't get in contact. I explained that I
didn’t have a working US mobile, she thanked me and carried on but remarked as
she left “I hope you get your pictures”. I will never know if her father was
one of the fortunate ones that made it to safety.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">I have never once
had to question the reality of what was to come next. In the 10 years since 911
I have documented the fallout in Afghanistan and Iraq, what is known in the West as the “War on
Terror". The months at a time I have
spent abroad in the Middle East and Central Asia amount to several years when
added together. The images I have had published during this period have done little to
contribute to the understanding of a somewhat misguided and poorly prosecuted war. Images that did such as those that were to come out of Abu Ghraib prison, taken by the sadistic guards themselves more than likely prolonged the suffering, but also rightly illustrated our own duplicity. Although I didn’t
struggle with the morality of the initial campaign in Afghanistan I had deep reservations
about the invasion of Iraq and it’s relevance to the war against Al Qaeda. Both
started in lightning fast, largely successful military campaigns and then
slowly descended into terrible quagmires, resulting in the death and maiming
of 1000's of western soldiers and tens of thousands of innocent civilians.
Iraq may now be on the slow road to
recovery after years of unforgivable suffering since the fall of Saddam Hussein
but Afghanistan is still in a state turmoil , with a political solution still way
beyond reach. Osama Bin Laden may now be dead but there is still no end in sight
to the threat of Islamic extremism. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;">More images can be seen in my Photoshelter archive below</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><a href="http://heathcliffomalley.photoshelter.com/gallery/911-and-the-War-on-Terror/G0000KXxDHwvIYeM/">http://heathcliffomalley.photoshelter.com/gallery/911-and-the-War-on-Terror/G0000KXxDHwvIYeM/</a></span></div>
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Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-37291987454893569592011-05-05T02:50:00.000-07:002011-05-05T03:01:42.490-07:00Photographing the Royal Wedding<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr4Uzs_Nj4EGy-bGfwj6AixVHPwdZyqdL-CLCyDDvhs8KSyRgvdUFwRfUZOA4b5a90k7ayLI2d4aLzZqQNopZevdSu9R7XRP4SlQxhghplxn8M0_sFHi3lt0722v8u3teBsrfCMfvG-UNk/s1600/dtho29April11Wedding027.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="301" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr4Uzs_Nj4EGy-bGfwj6AixVHPwdZyqdL-CLCyDDvhs8KSyRgvdUFwRfUZOA4b5a90k7ayLI2d4aLzZqQNopZevdSu9R7XRP4SlQxhghplxn8M0_sFHi3lt0722v8u3teBsrfCMfvG-UNk/s400/dtho29April11Wedding027.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">On Friday morning I found myself taking part in a small slice of history and after weeks of anticipation I arrived in Westminster just before the sun rose and slowly made my from the car laden with equipment to my position for the big day. Even at such an early time in the morning there were already large crowds of excited members of the public gathered curb-side behind barriers, some of whom had been camped out for days. Fortunately for me everything had been prearranged by ballot so I already had a spot marked on the Crimean Memorial directly opposite the West Gate of the Abbey and didn't have the stress of the "first come first serve"situation that other photographers did in other positions .</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: left;">This didn't stop myself and others finding other things to worry about though and from 6am until the first arrivals at around 10.30am the discussion instead focused on where the Royal Couple would kiss for the first time, would the mobile networks work , which focal length , iso and f stop to use and of course who was going to get the coffees! There was also the question of remotes, some of the agency photographers had a number of cameras on remote, the majority opting for a wide and a telephoto zoom such as the 70-200 2.8. With only 3 SLR cameras; a 5D MkII and two 1D MkIv's, I couldn't possibly do the same so opted for just one remote using a 5DMKII and 16-35 mounted on a <a href="http://www.teamworkphoto.com/shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=11712">Manfrotto Magic Arm</a> triggered using <a href="http://www.pocketwizard.com/products/transmitter_receiver/plus%20ii/">Pocketwizard Plus II</a>'s, but on the U.S bandwidth which meant they wouldn't be interfered with too much by other photographers remotes. In retrospect this was probably a mistake and perhaps should've shot tighter on perhaps a 50 or 70 but at the time I was happy to have anything up at all ! After some deliberation with other photographers about where the Royal newlyweds might stop to pose I opted to use the Canon 400 2.8L as my main lens and the 70-200 2.8 L with the fantastic new <a href="http://www.canon.co.uk/For_Home/Product_Finder/Cameras/EF_Lenses/Extenders/Extender_EF_14x_III/">1.4 MkIII</a> extender (both courtesy of Frankie Jim at Canon UK) as my looser lens both mounted on a MkIV's. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY21_27wlljCwM5pvDGLHENkZ_PGDQnc7_EveVuaOAf0ucS4QV_2ogsdewbt9af7B2zPsF0fYFo0PvYs8LfnFk0AgFcCyCOwtFnRKcBH3EpHqkM0wPF2cqJ1KjoHooX1w6jOlN-W5Rmltc/s1600/dtho29April11Wedding009.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY21_27wlljCwM5pvDGLHENkZ_PGDQnc7_EveVuaOAf0ucS4QV_2ogsdewbt9af7B2zPsF0fYFo0PvYs8LfnFk0AgFcCyCOwtFnRKcBH3EpHqkM0wPF2cqJ1KjoHooX1w6jOlN-W5Rmltc/s400/dtho29April11Wedding009.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">From our position we could catch all the Royal and Foreign dignitary arrivals but occasionally we could hear loud cheers as some of the more popular guests such as the Beckhams arrived at the other gate, we of course could see nothing except for some of the photographers on the opposite stand focusing their long lenses in the direction of the crowd noise. Finally the focus of all out attentions began to arrive, first of all a slightly nervous looking Prince William and his brother Harry and then finally Kate Middleton who looked absolutely stunning and her father Michael, who's top hat tumbled out onto the road as his door was opened.</div><div style="text-align: left;"> Before the event there had been lots of talk about mobile bandwidths being restricted and the possibility of not being able to wire our images back to our publications and some had opted for incredibly expensive internet cables lines . As I sent the first arrival shots whilst the wedding ceremony took place in fact although the 3g networks were working fine and the option of walking back to the office in Victoria afterwards with all my kit to upload there was now finally laid to rest !</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUWGSexZl0P1uhqUS8GwThd4TpyN8wR4y052lW99u7WW-LEXW3dS8Je2YYOXqAVjZ573gW8gsamXu51EEp3vmQbDJtjo3FeX843P75jyd3iCX26kvJyYUzpcb5saDOmcUjGgPPSPJe-UgK/s1600/dtho29April11Wedding022.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUWGSexZl0P1uhqUS8GwThd4TpyN8wR4y052lW99u7WW-LEXW3dS8Je2YYOXqAVjZ573gW8gsamXu51EEp3vmQbDJtjo3FeX843P75jyd3iCX26kvJyYUzpcb5saDOmcUjGgPPSPJe-UgK/s400/dtho29April11Wedding022.JPG" width="266" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">In the end the shots of William and Kate leaving the the Abbey after tying the knot worked out really well and although I shot on RAW I'd got my exposures pretty much bang on by compensating for the dark background of the Abbey interior. Somehow I also managed to get both William and Kate looking directly at me, almost impossible in even a controlled environment and the next day the image was used down the whole page of the Daily Telegraph's souvenir pullout, I may not have got the kiss but it was a pretty good result !<br />
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</div>Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-10827676341021785492011-04-22T18:30:00.000-07:002011-04-23T01:23:12.048-07:00Chris Hondros and Tim Hetherington in Memoriam<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">On wednesday 20th April the devastating news that two of the world's leading photojournalists <a href="http://www.timhetherington.com/">Tim Hetherington</a> and <a href="http://www.chrishondros.com/">Chris Hondros</a> had been killed in Misrata came out via <a href="http://twitter.com/">Twitter</a> and other social media networks, before finally making it to the mainstream news later in the evening. They were returning to relative safety from the frontline of Tripoli street in the besieged city of Misrata with a number of other photographers when they were both mortally wounded by shrapnel from either an exploding mortar or RPG round. Two other photographers Guy Martin and Michael Christopher Brown were also injured in the attack, Martin seriously. The news has hit the journalism community hard with many of my colleagues including myself, struggling to come to terms with their deaths, and my thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with their families and partners.<br />
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I knew both Tim and Chris, though we were not close. Tim and I travelled into Benghazi together from Tobruk during his first foray into Libya for Vanity Fair in late March and I bumped into Chris in the hotel lobby on his arrival in Benghazi and had a quick chat for the first time in a number of years and told him how dangerous I thought it was and to be careful during his stay, the next morning I left Libya for home. There is a kind of bond between people that witness the more extreme aspects of the world we live in which is hard to explain, and although our paths may not cross that regularly there is always a sense of kinship between fellow travellers that never goes away.<br />
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Tim and Chris were incredible talented and compassionate photographers, their craft admired by so many people across the globe, and anyone who has seen the documentary Restrepo could testify to Tim's incredible talent as a film maker too. In fact when our paths first crossed I couldn't help myself but say how much I admired his work, had watched his film and bought his incredible book Infidel. He cracked a joke thanking me for adding some extra change to his coffers and we carried on our journey to Benghazi chatting about our work and experiences over the years. Tim was humble, charming and like Chris incredibly brave, risking his life to highlight the plight of others in countries many people at home have barely heard of or at least never travelled to. If Chris Hondros' last published <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-13154053">photographs</a> from Misurata are anything to go by it is understandable why they were both willing to put themselves in the line of fire to get the story. Misrata has been under siege by Gaddafi's forces for many weeks now as one of the first cities to rise against the dictator, and some parts of the town have been reduced to rubble and possibly more than 1000 civilians have died, their only crime to have wanted to take the path towards democracy. Tim's last Twitter update read <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">" </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">In besieged Libyan city of Misrata. Indiscriminate shelling by Qaddafi forces. No sign of NATO." </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">All those that choose to report from war zones are fully aware of the risks that sometimes have to be taken to illustrate the sheer inexcusable brutality of conflict and inevitable human suffering, sadly this time it claimed the lives of two of photojournalism's leading lights and they will be missed by so many forever.</span></span><br />
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</div>Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-68810717956130892122011-04-19T16:49:00.000-07:002011-04-23T11:09:18.070-07:00Covering the conflict in Libya<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal">I recently returned from an assignment covering the war in Libya, which was a dramatic change from recent years where I have only had the chance to cover conflicts “embedded” with the western military in Afghanistan and Iraq.</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><a name='more'></a><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJIHNuV61miqwfwHDd4ga_wLHP7BVKyKU_y3vYrD0S8tlN6B9kozXYZEHtqkKDlY9FoHQq7c0-hgCQbt2q8Fk_xVVCXVZqk5wCaaiDBGq0CTJ5utdbdhTBK1nHK-Z-hYUcnNucJIpXKnXd/s1600/dtho31March11Ajdabiyah001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJIHNuV61miqwfwHDd4ga_wLHP7BVKyKU_y3vYrD0S8tlN6B9kozXYZEHtqkKDlY9FoHQq7c0-hgCQbt2q8Fk_xVVCXVZqk5wCaaiDBGq0CTJ5utdbdhTBK1nHK-Z-hYUcnNucJIpXKnXd/s400/dtho31March11Ajdabiyah001.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">It had been a long time since I’d had to employ fixers to take me to the frontline, if there was such a thing as a frontline , and filed my stories from the roof of the car or back at our Hotel instead of a military base . In Libya there was no waiting for the stamp of approval from a British military Unit Press Officer who would check my images for “OPSEC” before being allowed to send my pictures to the paper or ground rules about how to cover the story. Instead myself and the reporter Ben Farmer worked unhindered by the yoke of bureaucracy and used old fashioned reporting skills from our collective years of experience and gut instinct to find our way.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">These rediscovered freedoms also unleashed the nearly forgotten dangers of covering such a conflict. At one point we were having to drive for up to four hours from Benghazi to where the Rebel forces gathered on the coastal highway heading towards Gaddafi’s hometown of Sert. Without the advantage of sophisticated communications equipment the only way to find out where the frontline was on a particular day was to edge our way up the highway ( often at 160kms per hour) and stop occasionally to check with rebel fighters whenever we found a group gathered by their pickup trucks, more often than not scrounging for fuel or ammunition This information was of course not always reliable and we would always keep our eyes peeled for other journalists along the way who were often a better source of information. On one occasion we arrived in the town of Bin Jawwad which had only recently fallen back into the hands of the Rebels and the only thing stopping us from driving past rebel lines and into the clutches of Gaddafi’s troops or a hail of 50cal gunfire was our wish to stop and chat with some journalist friends we recognised . Shortly after the whistling of incoming rounds over our heads became the signal for a mass retreat of hundreds of rebel vehicles back in the direction of Benghazi.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Perhaps I’d become somewhat institutionalised by my years of embeds where the greatest threat are invisible IED’S and occasional small arms fire whilst on patrol in dense agricultural land, not sporadic barrages of artillery fire along an open desert road with very little cover and the inevitable and infectious panic of a rag tag rebel force in full high speed retreat that always followed.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvIoMU2Ho1eogw9y2yZUIfYK5vXqB4T0e_yIk_aa_mq-5C3WWz6GA7UooIIot1YB5UjHJky5jziIYMGJzWNvxVM54j19TNuenUVq9E2b3MlmY6MZTlAJAEPH4Q9NbDDnuIZpC42vVpGfRE/s1600/dtho5April11Brega014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvIoMU2Ho1eogw9y2yZUIfYK5vXqB4T0e_yIk_aa_mq-5C3WWz6GA7UooIIot1YB5UjHJky5jziIYMGJzWNvxVM54j19TNuenUVq9E2b3MlmY6MZTlAJAEPH4Q9NbDDnuIZpC42vVpGfRE/s400/dtho5April11Brega014.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s for this reason I think that I found covering the conflict in Libya quite intimidating and almost frightening at times. Having no faith in the fighting force you’re with is disconcerting to say the least and to get any real action on a human level that didn’t consist of men lobbing explosive ordnance at one another from a distance of 20kms meant travelling into a kind no mans land where your only cover was the car you came in and if your were lucky perhaps a slight berm of coarse rock strewn sand, factors that I for one found very off putting . This same sand did seem to “dull” the impact of artillery shells though by absorbing much of their force and fortunately the majority tended to fall either side of the highway.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal"> Others it has to be said were braver than myself, possibly for some because they don't as of yet have children like myself, including some of the younger generation of twenty-something photojournalists that have recently arrived on the scene, many of whom are incredibly talented and driven . For many years I’ve been in awe of the Nachtwey, Delahayes and Kozyrevs of the photojournalism world , but there are in fact too many names to mention amongst the list of my contemporaries who are immensely talented and experienced war photographers , some of whom I count as good friends. Soon I am in no doubt there will be many more names to add who are currently in Libya to that list who have come of age in the digital, social networking era who have already begun gracing the pages of some of the more credible publications across the Atlantic and in Europe that still use photography well. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">As time went on, just as it had when Rommel and Montgomery were fighting on this same road, fuel also started to become hard to come by. Luckily we found out about a warehouse full of metal jerricans in an abandoned Libyan army base which we filled up with fuel before setting off each day and kept in the boot of our driver’s Chevrolet with our flak jackets. On the road to the “front” we would pass petrol stations with queues of Libyans attempting to fill their tanks by lowering plastic water bottles into opened underground fuel tanks as the pumps had either been sabotaged by the retreating Libyan army or were disabled due to powercuts. There were so many “tourists“ coming up the road each day from Benghazi, often with their kids in tow still euphoric from the recent revolution that they themselves became a strain on logistics and it wasn’t until early April when the Rebels began losing the gains they had made due to the NATO airstrikes and the euphoria subsided that this began to be less of a problem. On one day we found ourselves in an oil refinery trying to scrounge fuel amongst a scene of utter chaos but gave up when we realised quite how many hours we were losing on a fast moving story.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal">My weeks on the road in eastern Libya were so many thing; challenging, upsetting, sometimes daunting, often frustrating as well as exhilarating and most definitely exhausting. </div><div class="MsoNormal">To bear witness to a small slice of the revolution against Gaddafi was an experience that I shall always remember and may perhaps return to before it's conclusion. There was something quite endearing about the people of Benghazi who welcomed us western journalists with open arms. There was little evidence on the ground of the alleged Al Quaeda elements in their midsts , even though I’m sure there must be the odd Jihadi amongst them., but so what ? The majority, the plumbers, school teachers and university students who’ve taken up arms in their inexperienced and often frighteningly inept hands were incredibly brave to do so and although I do wish them success in achieving democracy and freedom from Gaddafi’s tyranny I do worry at what cost in human suffering.</div><br />
</div>Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-9625145181680312422011-03-20T16:26:00.000-07:002011-03-20T16:26:04.227-07:00Fuji X100 first impressions review<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">105th @ F8, 800 ISO. Focus preset at 3m </td></tr>
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I've owned the new <a href="http://www.finepix-x100.com/">Fuji Finepix X100</a> for about a week now and think I have a pretty good idea of how it performs and thought it was about time to post my first impressions. I'm no camera reviewer so I won't be posting performance graphs and crops displaying sharpness comparisons and artifacts (what are they again ?) but will purely describe in simple terms how the camera has handled now that I'm used to it and how happy I am with it's handling and image quality . <br />
<a name='more'></a>The kind people downstairs in the pro department at Jacobs Digital in New Oxford Street had one on pre order for me since the camera was announced at <a href="http://www.photokina-cologne.com/">Photokina</a> and when it arrived I shot a series of quick tests before parting with any cash.<br />
I was instantly surprised at how good it was shooting at high iso, 3200 looked great and 6400 is more than usable . After a few tests in the shop at high film speeds I moved outdoors and checked the shutter lag and autofocus. Shooting with the <a href="http://www.finepix-x100.com/">Fuji X100</a> was pretty straightforward and the camera felt responsive enough, with relatively quick autofocus and minimal shutter lag. I then switched over to manual focus flicking the switch on the side of the camera and using the rear dial to adjust the distance to 3 meters and set the aperture ring to F8 . Immediately the camera came into it's own and I snapped away without anyone taking any real notice, the image above of a canoodling couple on new Oxford Street was shot then, apparently completely oblivious to my presence.<br />
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The viewfinder is a joy to use, for years I've felt unimpressed with the lack of built-in viewfinders on higher end compacts and it makes such a difference to the way I shoot, the optical viewfinder is fantastic displaying the necessary information one needs such as aperture, shutter speed, iso and an exposure scale. With the simple flick of a lever you can switch to EVF mode which was surprisingly pleasant enough to use , and having the added advantage of displaying the sharpness of the image before capture. You can even have a quick review of the image after capture in the viewfinder which is great to check exposure etc but can be somewhat distracting.The digital overlay of horizon and grid I do find a bit to busy for my liking, keep it simple. Having an aperture ring on the lens and shutter speed/exposure top dials on top of the camera make adjustments a cinch whilst on the move and really make you feel "in charge" when shooting, unlike a regular "pro"compact .<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">60th @ F4, 1600 ISO</td></tr>
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A few days later I used the camera at Crufts, my first time there ever and slightly bewildering, but in the astonishingly poor mixed lighting the Fuji X100 performed well again and I filed images to the newspaper shot at 1600 iso without a moments hesitation .<br />
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The light meter and white balance are both accurate enough, the images shot with the X100 do still have the "feel"of a compact as opposed to an SLR though. I can't really put it better than that but the files certainly don't have the creaminess say of the 5D MkII . Once in Photoshop though with minimum tweaking the files definitely improve.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1nGIQ3PiFUDucqSjeN98YVVkcjHfPYqrLbfD5sCosrIyRvKKoA3NmwMt7Jcv8AZfzFZBM2a4I-A5L2b4CQPth8bwBPzDam_S9FSaZa7u3FhA0FBJEF-nUl70it7AqxoidNiDVe-f31sx_/s1600/_DSF1421.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1nGIQ3PiFUDucqSjeN98YVVkcjHfPYqrLbfD5sCosrIyRvKKoA3NmwMt7Jcv8AZfzFZBM2a4I-A5L2b4CQPth8bwBPzDam_S9FSaZa7u3FhA0FBJEF-nUl70it7AqxoidNiDVe-f31sx_/s400/_DSF1421.JPG" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">240th @ F2, 400 ISO</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<br />
Now it's not all a bed of roses, the buffer is poor when shooting at 3/5 fps and has put me off using it in high speed mode unless absolutely necessary.<br />
Focusing in low contrast and backlit conditions at around 1meter from the subject can sometimes be a problem also but strangely switching from optical finder to EVF seems to remedy this most of the time.<br />
This could be to do with the fact that the minimum focus distance with the optical finder is 80cm(not far off a Leica M9 digital rangefinder) whilst with the EVF 35cm, so watch your distances !<br />
The control dial on the back is also very fiddly and switching over to macro mode, changing iso and other menu options can sometimes be frustrating . There are however some shortcut buttons on the camera that can help with some of these issues.<br />
Battery life isn't fantastic either, after a days shooting you will definitely need to recharge, in this day and age with new battery technology and at this price point I expected better.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-YgDm8jSa5V_pU2kfmXidLoRnPyT2KziMorIAZPQPvj0J4rjjHyIp1U5l3RwxAP5dMpYYqHXVImyHuFgsOzCmTzN1y2UX4E7jl8XuiGa20d3xd7cTFumV3J2y61it8RoRTrDaMUitDTgo/s1600/_DSF1201.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-YgDm8jSa5V_pU2kfmXidLoRnPyT2KziMorIAZPQPvj0J4rjjHyIp1U5l3RwxAP5dMpYYqHXVImyHuFgsOzCmTzN1y2UX4E7jl8XuiGa20d3xd7cTFumV3J2y61it8RoRTrDaMUitDTgo/s400/_DSF1201.JPG" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">125th @ F2.5, 200 ISO</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
<br />
In conclusion, I really like this camera, it has it's bugs, the fiddly menu dial and buffer speed, but nothing so serious that I regret in any way buying the thing. The camera looks and feels great with it's retro styling and weighty magnesium body, it's a joy to use. The hybrid viewfinder, sharp lens, excellent file quality and high iso are fantastic for a camera of this size and I only hope that Fuji don't release a version in black in the near future as that would really be annoying !<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCeVyNcTR4rrVa8ILoTP3baaWViw0ceHfmDpHBj5tjPoFUIS-ZxFgjRTlZ2fm_j9UfTiVSgniW_n7J5cJ9yzWxYUHamhQP7LVGTUGgX4ikJnaNcglM0jE0WE1cDV6ELMADEymcoFVpoKOV/s1600/_DSF1337.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCeVyNcTR4rrVa8ILoTP3baaWViw0ceHfmDpHBj5tjPoFUIS-ZxFgjRTlZ2fm_j9UfTiVSgniW_n7J5cJ9yzWxYUHamhQP7LVGTUGgX4ikJnaNcglM0jE0WE1cDV6ELMADEymcoFVpoKOV/s400/_DSF1337.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">14th @ F4, 800 ISO</td></tr>
</tbody></table><br />
</div>Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-91027196902592516622011-03-15T16:25:00.000-07:002011-03-15T16:32:32.035-07:00London Fashion Week<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">London Fashion Week has been and gone once again until later in the year and along with the daily slog of shooting the straight up and down catwalk images for the newspaper I also managed to have a bit of fun along the way seeing old friends and soaking up the general atmosphere of a world so completely different to any other.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilRipWlQsRvW2FWi5i_8F_L7xJFJvbrcUeSegJ_H9FIWYh9x71IpG46j-58qIcUdj0zrm-pesG4T4bl7im54lSoxODYF6n60ySA8PqbO-dNL5hrsYthLMWg4ZWAdUlvATyFN8DiXfI4d9B/s1600/dtho21Feb11PaulSmith042.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilRipWlQsRvW2FWi5i_8F_L7xJFJvbrcUeSegJ_H9FIWYh9x71IpG46j-58qIcUdj0zrm-pesG4T4bl7im54lSoxODYF6n60ySA8PqbO-dNL5hrsYthLMWg4ZWAdUlvATyFN8DiXfI4d9B/s400/dtho21Feb11PaulSmith042.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Up until a few years ago I used to cover the majority of the shows in Milan, Paris, London and occasionally New York for over a decade, but with the recession and budget cuts at the British newspapers this has now come to an end for the Fleet Street contingent of catwalk photographers.</div><a name='more'></a>The catwalk shows hold a special place in my heart as it was where my photography career started off as an assistant to Chris Moore the man behind <a href="http://catwalking.com/">catwalking.com</a> . I learnt my trade with the original Canon Eos 1's, at the time unbeatable for it's fast autofocus, shooting on bulk loaded <a href="http://www.kodak.com/global/en/professional/support/techPubs/e144/e144.pdf">Kodak EPT 160</a> transparency film before moving over to Fleet St and national newspapers. It was a fantastic time and incredibly hard work , often 16 hour days for weeks at a time, 5am marking up spots with gaffer tape, shooting solo or as a second to Chris on "House shows" for the designer and spending my evenings bulk loading more film from 100 meter cans for for the next days shows, up to 12 shows a day.<br />
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</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiepHy0885G1F2IRsXzYNeWsw-vfx8RIbZAKG8REva38TlbHjHDus3YwSLEB3nUV_da9IDxLWUwf0DXJcrzJvy61K826id9tzQpEWaq1nUfe4sMhmIslrhYfLgyKDt_6KMQFOBbW7cnb5Ta/s1600/dthoBalenciaga0011.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiepHy0885G1F2IRsXzYNeWsw-vfx8RIbZAKG8REva38TlbHjHDus3YwSLEB3nUV_da9IDxLWUwf0DXJcrzJvy61K826id9tzQpEWaq1nUfe4sMhmIslrhYfLgyKDt_6KMQFOBbW7cnb5Ta/s400/dthoBalenciaga0011.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Balenciaga, Paris 2007</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Although, contrary to popular belief there IS a skill to photographing catwalk well, watching the light and shape of the garments as the model swings her hips from side to side down the runway and adjusting exposure along the way. The No1 factor though in great photos is a great spot, the 1'x2' foot rectangle drawn with gaffer tape with your name on it makes all the difference to good catwalk images, and to get a good spot means getting on with the rest of the pack. Literally rubbing shoulders with the same group of photographers for a month at a time twice a year, plus the menswear and couture shows for the really hardcore makes the pack a very tight bunch, and "tourists" as strangers and part timers are referred to (like I now am) can struggle to get those prime positions .</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhrF8ZO6JG5ofNyZAw9E4gqGYzAXWHUg9flzv0z0bAReAltlmLCQfUD9b52vx3pQ93UECibg3ao_Yledw7Y_igxKQL7_kHavMpZHm-NwIwoml4o2599-1PHieKfXHc22mseWNioMJcsy6k/s1600/dthoOnlineChalayan021.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhrF8ZO6JG5ofNyZAw9E4gqGYzAXWHUg9flzv0z0bAReAltlmLCQfUD9b52vx3pQ93UECibg3ao_Yledw7Y_igxKQL7_kHavMpZHm-NwIwoml4o2599-1PHieKfXHc22mseWNioMJcsy6k/s400/dthoOnlineChalayan021.JPG" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hussein Chalayan, Paris 2007</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-AEuwGIE1Tuw_r6bL6O4_AqxS-Oy3yud72KX14ptBzAgb-9s0AkvIeyo0SrPjDKkMlf9dg91JGno-QDdAEV_YE-1ZrshhZzMqxPPFO-MouSLawnAG-QS-jbN2POXjcGGSPtrnnecRoK2X/s1600/Kidman001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-AEuwGIE1Tuw_r6bL6O4_AqxS-Oy3yud72KX14ptBzAgb-9s0AkvIeyo0SrPjDKkMlf9dg91JGno-QDdAEV_YE-1ZrshhZzMqxPPFO-MouSLawnAG-QS-jbN2POXjcGGSPtrnnecRoK2X/s400/Kidman001.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kidman and Lagerfeld, Chanel, Paris 2004<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span></span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">Photographically though catwalk photography is not particularly rewarding and I've always tried to nip backstage between shows if I have the time to shoot something a bit different and this year on a show I didn't need to cover for my fashion editor I tried out a Cokin starburst filter from the other end of the runway to catch the model walking back with the bank of lights in the background. Although there was a bit of flare to deal with the image below worked really well for me along with a handful of others.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz6JOFaa12QaDDne4reknR7umgxQXyNyQPSpppWKl2h1unxt4v6M4u4Qm2DBhBWNK_9WDAoTRo-QYOlEmgRVYOnF3fnv3qjfq8yg8UZNcz90GuggqQBvUfuDEfjCB-nzikLxIKvhGQxcPW/s1600/dtho18Feb11Aksu007.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz6JOFaa12QaDDne4reknR7umgxQXyNyQPSpppWKl2h1unxt4v6M4u4Qm2DBhBWNK_9WDAoTRo-QYOlEmgRVYOnF3fnv3qjfq8yg8UZNcz90GuggqQBvUfuDEfjCB-nzikLxIKvhGQxcPW/s400/dtho18Feb11Aksu007.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bora Aksu, London 2011<br />
<br />
</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">In the past I've also shot a few frames on my medium format cameras, a <a href="http://arukucamera.net/Fuji645.html">Fuji GS645</a> and <a href="http://elekm.net/pages/cameras/rolleiflex-35f.htm">Rolleiflex 3.5F</a>,</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">both beautiful cameras which really make you think carefully before you shoot, which in these days of shooting digital is actually great for the photographic side of the brain to take a step back occasionally and get back to basics.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI1ndRZeGRbCgMMthgAS7J0hUs-D0uazFxALa6oJa7fW6qiZGBB59k9u-6tOp6saXSC6n3l7zMw9OxtAPhae0GpUPpnszicik3mKw5wWzqMOGeb-oz77OmPHawURRbbXwwZiRjfRMET7pr/s1600/13540008.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI1ndRZeGRbCgMMthgAS7J0hUs-D0uazFxALa6oJa7fW6qiZGBB59k9u-6tOp6saXSC6n3l7zMw9OxtAPhae0GpUPpnszicik3mKw5wWzqMOGeb-oz77OmPHawURRbbXwwZiRjfRMET7pr/s400/13540008.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Matthew Williamson, London 2010 </td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYRmeScUhHvdU2TdbZRBjA7YqvxXIA0w5zS3PgRplFEBc8b9BbyinvINCWNwBUP8UNjDZB3gJWgB34wJLMs6RnGqVFygN0HwkbdXvO4TWxuqLz4Jmr30NBwhpYPG5PdJByE8oUunU6-ukB/s1600/13530004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYRmeScUhHvdU2TdbZRBjA7YqvxXIA0w5zS3PgRplFEBc8b9BbyinvINCWNwBUP8UNjDZB3gJWgB34wJLMs6RnGqVFygN0HwkbdXvO4TWxuqLz4Jmr30NBwhpYPG5PdJByE8oUunU6-ukB/s400/13530004.JPG" width="291" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Catwalk photographers, London 2010</td></tr>
</tbody></table>here's looking forward to the next season of shows .....</div>Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-86762146933359960572011-02-17T07:44:00.000-08:002011-02-17T11:58:27.045-08:00Lighting For A Promo Shoot<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Last week I shot some photographs for a national newspaper client who were doing a readers promotion with beauty products retailer The Bodyshop . I do a fair amount of portrait work these days but not much under studio conditions and I thought this would make a good blog posting on lighting for those who like me not too long ago, find lighting rather intimidating, as the setup was very simple and easy to replicate<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKegvtYlxa5GZ7r1AvJnkhyphenhyphenNdZocQqfkOdmeBHN5lUZ0efi4-JwPu5WOO2gGmNzzMzyumLI6_TlhQkZXRuwxafeTpm6iVcWye2QbeoKyzYSS1BDhcRILnagfDlKI-YvwY52pvdrq5Z4vc9/s1600/dtho10Feb11Bodyshop002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKegvtYlxa5GZ7r1AvJnkhyphenhyphenNdZocQqfkOdmeBHN5lUZ0efi4-JwPu5WOO2gGmNzzMzyumLI6_TlhQkZXRuwxafeTpm6iVcWye2QbeoKyzYSS1BDhcRILnagfDlKI-YvwY52pvdrq5Z4vc9/s320/dtho10Feb11Bodyshop002.JPG" width="213" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><a name='more'></a><br />
<br />
using only a couple of lights and a bounce card. It is often easy to overcomplicate lighting and working as I do predominantly without an assistant as newspaper budgets are relatively small keeping it simple helps to keep you focused on the job in hand. No one wants to be running back and forth moving lights around and adjusting f stops when you only have a short amount of time to get the job done !<br />
<br />
For this shot I used two <a href="http://www.elinchrom.com/">Elinchrom</a> 400W heads both on low power ; one camera left at 45 degrees with a 1 meter Rotalux softbox no more than a metre from the model to help softly wrap the light around the subjects face, a bounce card on a <a href="http://www.lastolite.com/">Lastolite</a> stand close to the models right for fill and the other 400W head illuminating the background with a wide angle reflector. Another option would have been to place the main light directly in front of the model slightly higher at 45 degrees and a large reflector underneath, which is a classic "clamshell "beauty setup, but the the one used seemed to work fine with the white backdrop bouncing just enough light back up off the floor.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFtRPl0NqAGhLoF0BqpQIe1MLbxfNY0OTwnmp5JXSgFYJrEeOs_W4mIxW3K9VnzL_qrLEeD5D4S5PSeb_IjLIOPsqIqyZyxajtNQBSK_t_jAWHzWRzVd6ngBomvI3rgvcdGNK8LyNmQY6q/s1600/_44G9574.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFtRPl0NqAGhLoF0BqpQIe1MLbxfNY0OTwnmp5JXSgFYJrEeOs_W4mIxW3K9VnzL_qrLEeD5D4S5PSeb_IjLIOPsqIqyZyxajtNQBSK_t_jAWHzWRzVd6ngBomvI3rgvcdGNK8LyNmQY6q/s320/_44G9574.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>There is another Elinchrom head camera right which can be seen in the photo above, but ignore this as it is left over from a previous full length shoot . The flash heads were triggered using <a href="http://www.pocketwizard.com/products/transmitter_receiver/plus%20ii/">Pocketwizards</a> (which have never yet let me down) and shot using the fantastic <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/specs/Canon/canon_eos1dmkiv.asp">Canon 1D MkIV</a> with a 70-200 2.8L lens,<br />
160 iso, 160th @ F8.<br />
Here's a lighting diagram courtesy of the excellent <a href="http://www.lightingdiagrams.com/">www.lightingdiagrams.com</a> to give you a clearer illustration of the set up.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgybdTzmjAuckp8HfImEGfZAmw_BhRA6M1L1JqfNXf2QJ47xCTPiPMNMV0pnQAnpg1oqHlQpqg_bI7ViUQpy7RDlP1gFh-hZFP_65eLfbajSYikgsowAZzcENVuAvNthTwewKWS3OY-u7Q7/s1600/lighting-diagram-1297952807.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgybdTzmjAuckp8HfImEGfZAmw_BhRA6M1L1JqfNXf2QJ47xCTPiPMNMV0pnQAnpg1oqHlQpqg_bI7ViUQpy7RDlP1gFh-hZFP_65eLfbajSYikgsowAZzcENVuAvNthTwewKWS3OY-u7Q7/s320/lighting-diagram-1297952807.jpg" width="291" /></a></div><br />
<span id="goog_1729386099"></span><span id="goog_1729386100"></span><br />
<br />
I did two shots like this with two different models, a blonde and a brunette, one for the Daily Telegraph's front page puff and another for the Sunday edition .<br />
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I'll be starting on London Fashion Week tomorrow so hopefully I'll find some inspiration there for another posting soon and I'm planning another about lighting food sometime in the near future.</div>Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-32314969036009566002011-02-08T14:58:00.000-08:002011-02-17T11:57:51.168-08:00Fuji X100 release date and pricing announced<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxnDGGYgEDQbaghaTdaEQ2gi3hicYjrljkl4X-qH4d7EDDg8BicY7Is4OdwWwaP_1_LWrUks55fjJg5mtMm68L5bhx091LEnLpgIagBNjNcWk2la2ignzL-fL8hVm6CtipCgXWeENkArj/s1600/X100_LEFT_FRONT_REF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyxnDGGYgEDQbaghaTdaEQ2gi3hicYjrljkl4X-qH4d7EDDg8BicY7Is4OdwWwaP_1_LWrUks55fjJg5mtMm68L5bhx091LEnLpgIagBNjNcWk2la2ignzL-fL8hVm6CtipCgXWeENkArj/s320/X100_LEFT_FRONT_REF.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Finally the moment a lot of us have been waiting for, the release date and price-point for the <a href="http://www.finepix-x100.com/">Fuji X100</a> pro spec-compact camera have been announced. I've been pretty excited by this camera since it was unveiled at Photokina in September 2010 and on paper it looks fantastic... 12.3 MP, up to 5 fps, 200-6400 ISO, RAW and Jpeg capability, a hybrid viewfinder, a fixed Fujinon 35mm(equivalent) F2 lens and a Magnesium alloy body, this could be the killer compact.<br />
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The camera should be on camera shop shelves in early March and the recommended retail price is £999 in the UK but it has already been suggested that many retailers will go for a £899 price point although I have already noticed a few online retailers advertising the camera for pre-order at £1020. Considering the price of a Leica X1 being around £1400 and the M9 £4850<br />
<div style="text-align: left;">the Fuji X100 sounds incredible value. The only hitch is that as of yet, no one has had a proper look at it, so hopefully soon we'll see the likes of <a href="http://www.dpreview.com/">dpreview</a> and the print media publishing in depth reviews and high res samples of the files it can actually shoot.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">Focus speed, Shutter lag, Image processing time, quality and ISO performance are all questions that have to be answered before parting with any cash of course but I'm fairly confident Fuji will deliver, I mean it's about time someone brought a out a truly decent high end digital compact with a viewfinder !</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">It's very reminiscent in it's essence to one of my all time favourite cameras, the <a href="http://photo.net/equipment/point-and-shoot/konica-hexar">Konica Hexar AF</a>, </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4xifbAMKvJwQI8ZAFK9vgk45a9gHo2_jnTglQglOpEeGA4AaAmuDm8ATfO_sFqUWcvVFaSjkz3kfgBYuHki2DHozrMOLsi0Oj8w219dVUCrfVbQGVpXJU0l2k1h3RhbZ5IFBhCsm38K2P/s1600/HexarAF.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4xifbAMKvJwQI8ZAFK9vgk45a9gHo2_jnTglQglOpEeGA4AaAmuDm8ATfO_sFqUWcvVFaSjkz3kfgBYuHki2DHozrMOLsi0Oj8w219dVUCrfVbQGVpXJU0l2k1h3RhbZ5IFBhCsm38K2P/s320/HexarAF.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: left;">a fantastic street camera, which I still own and occasionally take out of it's box to shoot a few rolls of Neopan through. If the Fuji X100 comes anywhere to close to the experience of the Hexar in digital form, I for one will be incredibly happy .... oh yeah and before I forget, how about doing it in black as well as silver ?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br />
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</div></div>Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8330698734849301413.post-85547254542769315682011-02-07T04:13:00.000-08:002011-03-15T16:41:52.693-07:00Archiving Your Photo Library<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Over the years I have saved my digital and analogue images to so many different types of media . First there were sleeves and zip discs for film and then CD's/DVD's and as files sizes from digital images have now increased tenfold, in recent years external Hard Drives . I've always used Lacie D2 drives, not because they are necessarily the best, but they have always worked for me, I can "daisy chain" them together with firewire cables and so far have never failed.<br />
The thing is it came to the stage in 2010 where I had my archive spread over this whole range of media and it was taking ages to locate images for clients and any presentation I was making. I had been reading up a lot about the various types of media storage now available, and there are plenty including optical discs, Drobos and RAID systems but eventually I decided to go with a pair of larger 2TB versions of the LACIE drives I had been using over the last 5 years or so .<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpH00mROq-2jKmsTgJ-XHk4Gg4ej_5uyv7VcR9ytffwth50Z3g2qi1wUNJxcfUpH7zUKWtvd2g_P3MgBw5yWkuum4uKbJrDpnJC3TMOtsGZQ4zmoTtEzw0kg3w_oSwFSRFJGM-7Jrr1vwz/s1600/_MG_8815.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpH00mROq-2jKmsTgJ-XHk4Gg4ej_5uyv7VcR9ytffwth50Z3g2qi1wUNJxcfUpH7zUKWtvd2g_P3MgBw5yWkuum4uKbJrDpnJC3TMOtsGZQ4zmoTtEzw0kg3w_oSwFSRFJGM-7Jrr1vwz/s320/_MG_8815.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpH00mROq-2jKmsTgJ-XHk4Gg4ej_5uyv7VcR9ytffwth50Z3g2qi1wUNJxcfUpH7zUKWtvd2g_P3MgBw5yWkuum4uKbJrDpnJC3TMOtsGZQ4zmoTtEzw0kg3w_oSwFSRFJGM-7Jrr1vwz/s1600/_MG_8815.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a><br />
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The reasoning behind this was that I still find large RAID systems prohibitively expensive, needing an initial minimum outlay of £1000.00 to set up whilst with smaller non RAID media I can for now, stagger my costs.<br />
I had been following <a href="http://mulita.com/blog/">George Jardine</a>'s excellent articles in the U.S published <a href="http://www.digitalphotopro.com/software/image-processing/managing-your-photographic-legacy-part-i.html">Digital Photo Pro</a> magazine which also raised other issues I had with my archive including how I named my files .<br />
Over a month or so I transferred the last decade of images shot since I moved to digital in 1999 during the Kosovan war over to a 2 TerraByte drive and then went about the arduous process of renaming all the folders into reverse date format, sometimes followed by the job name if needed. Therefore the portrait shoot of Tory Peer Nigel Lawson I made last month changed from my old date format of "27/1/11 Lawson" to "20110127 Lawson" which then sorts all of my folders into chronological order on the drive index.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr6nDD10On54dkj_lOMgCDQTrkBYZsNOJym8uneZ3Y1EdgJesakn50ax8P4Qu6ck4r_NzvalKX15cHdxLBDsjj84OSBGz48nxCmH3ys-NKhvhZXMP8HE4ecgxCQO5EbFbtYyc_zTExqhnd/s1600/Screen+shot+2011-02-07+at+11.23.43.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="231" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgr6nDD10On54dkj_lOMgCDQTrkBYZsNOJym8uneZ3Y1EdgJesakn50ax8P4Qu6ck4r_NzvalKX15cHdxLBDsjj84OSBGz48nxCmH3ys-NKhvhZXMP8HE4ecgxCQO5EbFbtYyc_zTExqhnd/s320/Screen+shot+2011-02-07+at+11.23.43.png" width="320" /></a></div> Once that process was completed I then duplicated the photo library onto another identical drive, re-boxed it and stored it safely, hopefully never to be touched until my everyday working drive fails. Labelling my everyday drives underneath with masking tape makes identifying a particular archive a breeze.<br />
My current archiving workflow is of course not fool proof and although I managed to squeeze an entire decade onto 2TB's, now that I consistently shoot RAW and use Canon cameras with a far higher resolution than my original Canon/Kodak DCS 2MP cameras, a years worth of images is taking up that same 2TB of space !<br />
This system, although taking up a lot of storage space is however enabling me now to locate images with ease and has the added bonus of giving me the opportunity to look at, reassess and enjoy images I haven't seen in years.....<br />
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</div>Heathcliff O'Malleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17520724997457102164noreply@blogger.com0