UK businesses can bring new hope and opportunity for Nick Cleggs lost generation

Youth Employment UK is a national campaign which has started to galvanise UK organisations to take responsibility for the skills and prospects of the next generation of employees, entrepreneurs and consumers.

For several years business organisations have cited that young people are not leaving the education system with the appropriate skills for work.  Youth Employment UK recognises that the people needed to bridge the gap between education and employment are the businesses themselves.

Youth Employment UK director Laura-Jane Rawlings sees this as an opportunity for UK PLC to lead the way on prospects for work for young people.  “If we are not educating our young people to be successful in the world of work, then what are we educating them for? “

Businesses are encouraged to become members of Youth Employment UK demonstrating their support for young people through a positive youth charter.  The charter requires members to consider a school leaver, apprentice or graduate for vacancies which arise, provide supportive feedback to rejected applications from young people and to engage in work related learning activities within their local schools and colleges.

In return members receive support and guidance helping them to make the most of the opportunities to engage with their future talent pool, achieve corporate social responsibility objectives and support the UK economy.

“In a tough economy the barrier that exists between education and employment will only continue to grow, as will the growing numbers of young people not in education, employment or training.  We know that businesses have concerns about the lack of employability skills of young people, they have the knowledge to change this but are not supported to take action.”  Laura-Jane sees reducing youth unemployment and making the UK workforce a force once again to be reckoned with in the world economy as a primary goal of Youth Employment UK.

Young people will benefit from Youth Employment UK as they will be able to search in one place for employers, organisations and service providers who are positive about youth employment, a service that is not available to them currently.

There are a plethora of organisations that provide support for employers or young people, however the lack of joined up thinking leaves room for duplication and missed opportunities, many organisations are also susceptible to funding cuts, policy change or reliant on charitable donations.  The Youth Employment UK campaign is run independently of and receives no funding from any government department.  Businesses signing up to the charter pay a nominal fee based on number of employees to ensure the sustainability and independence of this campaign.

“The threat of funding cuts encourages competition amongst service providers and therefore young people may not be aware of all of the support available, with over a million young people not in education, employment or training there should be no competition.  Youth Employment UK is about fairness for all.”

Recently Chris Grayling encouraged UK businesses to look to local young people as an overlooked talent pool.  Youth Employment UK believes this is just so and wants to help match local businesses and service providers with its young community.

Driving Youth Employment UK is an advisory board made up of business organisations,  entrepreneurs, and the young people them self who will ensure that the campaign remains youth focused and on course to have the biggest impact to some of the UK’s most vulnerable people.

The campaign has already received backing from the Recruitment and Employment Confederation, Apprenticeship England and Claire Young (ex Apprentice Candidate).  The social media engagement is also growing rapidly as organisations and individuals recognise the need and potential of Youth Employment UK.

Please don’t forget as a UK employer you could also benefit from becoming a member of Youth Employment UK.

For further details please visit www.yeuk.org.uk or contact ljr@inspire2exceed.co.uk

Code of conduct of the Positive Youth Charter

Recruitment

• When possible, we will consider recruiting a trainee or apprentice for our vacancies
• When recruiting candidates where possible, we will encourage applications from young people
• Where possible, we will be open to the academic and vocational qualifications of our applicants
• When young people apply for vacancies either via an application form or CV we will respond positively to their application and feedback to them with constructive advice and guidance if they have been unsuccessful
• When a young person attends an interview and is unsuccessful we will respond positively with feedback to them with constructive advice and guidance

Supporting Education

• Our organisation will be responsive to the needs of local schools in respect to their Careers Education and Work Related Learning curriculum
• We will attend/support at least two school events or activities per year
• Where possible, we will support Work Experience, mentoring and work shadowing programmes

Providing information and support

•  Our organisation will provide annual feedback into a skills and labour market survey
• Our organisation will champion Youth Employment UK through our own communication channels
• Our organisation will contribute to debates and polls to help drive the policies of Youth Employment UK and support Youth Employment UK with its lobbying activities

How to change your headlight bulb – first get an engineering degree.

Second, have a paramedic on standby to treat the blood gushing from your hand, third ensure no children are within earshot for when you will begin to swear loudly.
I’ve never understood engineers, they just have to tinker and ‘make thing better’. Trouble is they don’t, things just get more complicated and thus expensive. Mrs L returned home the other evening and asked me to replace her headlight bulb. Easy I thought, it’s only a Vauxhall Corsa it’ll only take 10 minutes……….
Hold that thought.
I mean how difficult can it be?

So first I needed to get to the bulb and this involved – and I’m not making this up – removing sections of the engine to gain access to the bulb compartment. I had to remove an airflow duct to get access. All good so far, of course if it doesn’t go back on then the engine would be completely fragged.
Next, and according to the users manual which – contrary to the belief of any woman reading this – I did actually read before starting, I needed to get the cover off.
Now bear in mind that it is illegal to drive with a blown bulb and it’s the sort of job that should be able to be carried out at the roadside quickly and easily. Sadly the engineers and designers at Vauxhall have clearly never been in a position of carrying out roadside maintenance because if they had they would never have designed the front of the car in such an idiotic way.
Don’t get me wrong the 2004 Vauxhall Corsa isn’t a bad car, is handles well, is easy on the eye, and is very nippy in town. It has an engine that doesn’t guzzle fuel and has a tight turning circle that is good for parking. Mrs L’s has low profile tires and is actually fun to drive. Its great car right up to the point she asked me to change a light bulb.
Back to the cover. According to the manual you release the clip and the covers slides off. What actually happened is you force the clip loose and the cover flies out of your fingers and falls through the engine compartment onto the floor where you have to crawl around under the car to retrieve it. By this time my 10 minutes had gone and Mrs L had reminded me she needed to go out this evening so how long was I going to be.
At this rate, all night by the look of things.
The bulb was held in place with a spring clip and the owners manual had helpfully included diagrams of how to remove the spring clip. However, the diagrams bore absolutely no resemblance to what I could feel. Apparently Vauxhall don’t have proofreaders either. What followed were several minutes of fumbling around the spring clip in an effort to understand exactly what I was dealing with so that I knew how to reattach it before I removed it. Another 10 minutes went by as I actually tried to remove the spring clip, which appeared to have been welded in place, until it finally just fell away. I still don’t know how or why.
Blown bulb out….well falling through engine compartment and smashing on the floor. New bulb in. Finally something going right. Reassemble and rebuild engine.
Easy.
No.
As I write this I still have no idea how the spring clip attaches itself, what I do know is the top of it is very sharp.
Reattach the spring clip, that’s what the owners manual says. So I start fumbling around trying to find out how this idiotic excuse for a modern design actually works during which I managed to impale the spring clip into my finger leading to blood gushing all over the inside of the casing. Worse the spring clip won’t come out so now I am attached to the front of Mrs L’s car and she is waiting to go out and she is threatening to take me with her if I don’t get it sorted. It hurt even more extracting myself. Whether it was luck or The Force, and an hour after I first lifted the bonnet, the spring clip reattached itself – sort of – I live in fear that the bulb is just bouncing around inside its casing but we’ll have to wait and see.
I’d like to leave the engineers and designers at GM Vauxhall with this thought. As the end user consumer of your product, I think it sucks. Its complicated, the manual is incorrect and to be honest my 5 yr old could have done a better job designing this thing. Rather than rushing your expensive lump of metal into the shop every time you get a flash of warning light why don’t you try and do the job yourself, realise its next to impossible and then maybe you’ll build a better product.

Depression, Decor and an International Incident. A great city break in Bruges

Its early evening and I’m stood outside the railway station of a city that I haven’t visited for at least 25 years, the rain that has blotted out the view across the square is not helping my mood. To make matters worse and by the way that she is studying the bus route map, I am beginning to suspect that Mrs L – who has organised and booked this little trip- doesn’t actually know where our hotel is.
She is convinced it’s a 10 minute walk from the station and just off the central market square.
”It’s raining,” I point out.
She has an umbrella.
“Lets just get a taxi,” I say, “they’ll know where we are going”.
But she has been sat on trains all day and wants to stretch her legs. She returns to consulting the bus map.
Did I mention the rain?
Its time to take a lead so I pick up the bags a head towards the taxi that has just pulled up. You see I do actually know where the hotel is; I looked it up before we left home and it’s nowhere near where she thinks it is.
“Bonjour” I greet the driver.
”Hello” he responds in English, “Which hotel are you staying at?” Again in English. And then I remember; this is Bruges, they don’t speak French in Bruges, they speak Dutch.

It turned out the hotel was about a 15-minute walk from the centre of Bruges but as luck would have it most of the city was about a 15-minute walk from the hotel and that would work in our favour over the next few days. Its location put us in good range of places to experience an important part of all city breaks, dinner.
The rain continued but gave us a fresh desire to find a restaurant and the walk worked up our appetites. We found a warm and inviting Brasserie on Vlamingstraat where we passed away a couple of hours in the company of local residents and a few other tourists whilst enjoying seafood and local game. Heading back to the hotel the streets were conspicuously empty as were the bars we passed. There is nothing worse than sitting in an empty bar, I’ve been a barman and the only customers who strike up conversations with the barman are the ones whose opinions and attitudes bring up the dregs of society. We headed for an early night and the hope of a brighter and dryer morning.

It was, if anything, raining even heavier the next morning as we headed out for breakfast. We later found out that the BBC had been reporting a deep depression over Europe centred on Bruges, which contrary to popular myth wasn’t my mood but did explained the heavy rain. There are two recommended ways for touring Bruges, either a trip on the canals or a tour by horse-drawn carriage. However it was throwing it down with rain and neither of those two particularly appealed. We decided to spend the morning visiting as many indoor exhibits as possible in an effort to stay dry. We had plenty of choices, the Friet museum that tells the story of French Fries, they are made from potato fried in oil and too many of them make you fat. I don’t need a museum to tell me that. We could have visited the chocolate museum; one of the products that Bruges is famous for and I suspect one of the primary reasons Mrs L booked our trip here. However, first stop was the Basilica of Holy Blood, a church that is said to be home to a phial of Christ’s blood.  The silver tabernacle in which the relic is stored has been described to me as ‘gaudy’ ‘unsightly’ and even ‘repulsive’.
With a build up like that, this was something I had to see. I was delighted to discover that the tabernacle and its display was everything I had been led to believe. It was a wonder of ornate brutality. An assault on the visual senses. I just had to soak up every detail of its highly polished silver. It had an ugliness that at the same time had a disturbing beauty.
Next stop was the belfry but it was closed for renovation so we couldn’t climb it. Guess that’s the chance you take for visiting in the off-season.
A bit of window shopping – well hiding from the rain under the awnings – along Zuidzandstraat brought us to the Church of Our Lady, home not only to several large and impressive works of art but to a sculpture by Michelangelo, Madonna and Child  (c1504) brought to Bruges by Flemish merchant who purchased it from the sculptor after the original clients failed to pay him. It is one of the few pieces of work by Michelangelo displayed outside of Italy. I was drawn to the face of Mary not for its beauty but for its complete lack of expression as she appears preoccupied with the burden she has been entrusted with and the knowledge of what is to come for her child. By contrast, the child sits on her knee, ignorant of its future, the innocence of life. At the centre of the church are the tombs of Charles the Bold and his family. They are elegant ways to journey to your Afterlife but i’m afraid the family tree and the layout of the tombs lost something in the translations and I’m still not sure who is who.
The rain finally lifted during lunch and took quick tour around the Central cathedral – you know for a city smaller than Coventry and a damn sight smaller than most US cities, it really does have an incredible number of churches, cathedrals and monasteries – It was being renovated in several places as well and so was covered in large amounts of plastic.
We took a chance that the weather would hold and walked out along the canals around the edge of the city visiting the surviving city gates and Windmills.  The park that borders the canal is beautifully presented and its enjoyment is encouraged no matter what the weather or time of year.

As the sun set and the temperature dropped further we headed back to the hotel to change for dinner. We’d selected a restaurant close to the market that turned out to be not quite as expensive as we expected but it was close. With a crisp feel to the cold night air we headed for a bar we had passed earlier in the day. It was busy and lively with an atmosphere that was comfortable and welcoming. We had a few drinks, watched the world go by both in the bar and outside and finally decided to head back to the hotel whilst hoping for better weather the following day.

Our last day held more promise and we followed a walking route that took us not only past some of the city landmarks but through some of the back streets that opened out onto the canals and open spaces. Now I can read a map and can navigate most places but when the roads and alleyways are marked up the same I do get confused at times. More than once we were forced to retrace our steps and turn down different streets. Each time this was accompanied by Mrs L scowling at me and making jibed comments.
”Didn’t realise we were doing a marathon…. you don’t want to go back to the beginning and start again?”

Eventually we came to an area that finally left her speechless. I was surprised as well.  We had entered the grounds of the Begijnhof, the Beguine Convent. A tranquil, tree lined courtyard that is almost its own village within the centre of the city. Now home to Benedictine sisters who seem happy to tolerate strangers walking through there garden, it was once a community of Beguine nuns – the devout women of Bruges who adopted a life of religious devotion without taking the vows of a nun. At one time it was independent from the rest of the city with its own jurisdiction and administration Daffodils and crocus were beginning to push through in the central garden and I could imagine the area would be sea of colour within a few weeks but sadly not towards the end of winter.
It seems that wherever I visit my fellow Britons never fail to cause embarrassment and it was whilst we’d stopped for a coffee that we had the misfortune to sit next to a table where a bearded, bigoted 50-something proceeded to share with the world his ignorance of art. I should have known something was wrong as it was after 11:30 am and he had ordered a cappuccino.
Bloody tourists.
He was quite vocal in being dismissive of the art he had seen in Bruges without clearly stopping to consider its relationship with the culture or era it was produced. He then –and this despite having a camera with him – attacked photography as an art form. “Its not really art” was his opening salvo. “Its not really a skill…. it just records what is there.” Hello? What the hell does he think Turner and Constable were doing?
Mrs L asked for the bill and dragged me out before I caused and international incident.
As the day warmed Bruges became more inviting to the winter tourist and we took another walk along the central canals. Mrs L soaked up the different styles of architecture with words I didn’t understand but she was happy and to be honest that’s all that matters. It also took her mind off the chocolate shops.

For dinner we picked a grill that we had passed earlier in the day, the guidebooks said it had fresh fish and local game so it sounded good. We were greeted by friendly staff and a huge roaring fire that was to double as the grill. Whilst we were watching our trout take its last journey on the grill a couple of elderly English ladies came in and sat down next to us. I have no idea what their relationship was or how they had come to be in Bruges – I suspect they might have gotten lost on route to bingo – but the bite marks on the inside of my mouth testify to my effort in not laughing. For what felt like a month, but was probably only 10 minutes, they discussed in depth whether to have apple, orange, pineapple or tonic water…I’m still not sure what they had. They discussed the menu with each other in depth. “Oh no I don’t like that” or “ooh that sounds a bit rich for me” and the classic “I’m not sure my teeth will get through that” Then, like typical unadventurous British tourists, they turned to the poor waitress and announced they’ll just have fish and chips. “No salad on mine” said the first “Oh I’ll have salad on mine” said the second.
At this point Mrs L left the table and bolted for the bathroom, clearly unable to contain herself any longer. We attempted to eat without laughing as they discussed who wanted the chips. “There was to much oil on my plate last night” said the first “well mine was OK” said the second, “oh no mine had much to much oil” said the first, “mine was OK,” said the second “yes but my plate was covered in oil” said the first, “well mine was fine” said the second. By now I had raced to the bathroom and slammed my head against the wall…repeatedly…. in an effort to numb the pain.
The sea trout, by the way, was fantastic however our fellow diners would have made perfect fodder for stand-up comedians.
Mrs L wanted to visit the same bar from the previous night; I wanted to visit a bar I had spotted earlier that over looked the canal and gave views of the illuminated church towers and belfry.
I lost.
The bar was showing a football match between Arsenal and AC Milan that nobody was watching except for a lone German who was drinking coffee. Think about this, we’re in a Belgium bar showing a match between an English and an Italian team and as far as I can tell the only person remotely interested in the match was a caffeine addicted German. I’m no great fan of football but sitting in that bar did make me realise that the game really does brings down borders.
Not that anyone else cared as they belted out the refrains from many 1980’s soft rock hits playing on the speakers, this much to the annoyance of the German who just wanted to watch the match.

Bruges in winter is very cold and very wet but when the sun comes out it is also an outstanding city.  If you do ever visit and come across two old English ladies carry bags of knitting just smile sweetly, tell them they are in Margate and the that the bingo will open later.

Horror as photographer is caught making image better on his computer

you have read this week of the wave of  derision sweeping across the world of journalism. No it wasn’t the shock of Paul Dacre claiming the Daily Mail is any good and reliable but that a photographer from the Sacremto bee newspaper has been sacked for….. wait for it….

Manipulating an image!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOO, run for the hills, the Apocalypse is coming, nothing can be believed any more. The photographer, award winning Bryan Patrick, should be stoned to death.

Calm down, need to take deep breaths. So what was this deeply offending image? the aftermath of an armed standoff with police? the  horrific injuries to a child caught in a car bomb attack?

No.

It was a picture of two birds fighting over a dead frog. OK, so he took two images and combined them because the one where the birds are actually fighting doesn’t show the frog as well as an image further in the set. You can see all images involved on the Bee website Are there two birds in the images? yes. Are they fighting over the frog? yes. you have to wonder what the problem is.

After all don’t we all as photographers alter all our images in some form or another? don’t shake your head. We all adjust levels or the colour balance or the contrast. and as for cropping an image, come on we’ve been doing that since we were in darkrooms. I’ll take a bet with you that every other photograph that appeared in the SacBee that week had been edited either by cropping or adjusting the brightness or contrast. Cloning open eyes onto closed eyes from a different image of the same person???? - that’s a real bug bear of mine, I seem to do it twice a month as people can’t do what they are told.

Here are two examples of where I have mislead the viewer. Sadly I don’t have the originals:

In both of these you are looking at about a quarter of the orginal image. Does it matter?

I don’t want to go into to much more about the for and against but would rather open up the floor to debate. Its is difficult to overly criticise an organisation that upholds the need for truthfulness but  when you look at the images of the birds you need to ask is it being dishonest with the reader? Bryan Patrick captured images of two birds fighting over a bit of food and ultimately that’s what you saw in the final image.
Over to you, what is the ethics of this?

We handed decision making to the machines, then we gave up on common sense.

We handed decision making to the machines, then we gave up on common sense.

It was grey and wet on Tuesday morning this week as I passed a mobile speed ‘Safety’ camera vehicle, just sat in a lay-by about 200 metres from where I had just left a set of traffic lights. Why was it there? I wondered. Who was in control? Was my next thought.
I’m lucky in that I – so far – have never had a speeding ticket so don’t really know how the process works but I am constantly left with the impression the decision making is done by the machine attached to the speed gun. It decides how fast you are going and it decides to issue a penalty notice. Human input appears to be reduced to the position of chauffeur.
I’m not anti speed camera or anti enforcement but I personally would put them on all roads within half mile of all schools and reduce the limit to 20mph in those zones. But that’s just common sense so it probably won’t happen.

Fail
There was story leaked out of Northamptonshire police a few years ago that a speeding ticket had been issued to an agricultural tractor doing 100mph on the M1. Yes you read that correctly. Despite the photograph showing the offending vehicle to be a BMW car, which must have been on a false plate, the police operative issued the speeding penalty anyway and of course it went to the farmer.
Common sense?
Fail.

The case for common sense
On our road, which has been identified as a speed area, we regularly have two police officers with a hand held speed gun checking the traffic. I spoke to them recently and asked what action they take. The answer was it depends. Most of the time they just give the driver a good talking too – probably in an extremely patronising and derogatory manner – about watching their speed on a residential road and only occasionally will they issue a penalty notice for excessive speed on that road.
I once met a traffic officer from the west midlands and we got talking about speed. He told me that in 25 years patrolling the roads he had never issued a speeding ticket. I asked why. He replied that whilst he did see people speed in most cases it was probably a minor slip and they weren’t being hazard to other road users. He also added it probably had something to do with the fact he was in a car with big blue lights on it and word POLICE written down the side.

Machines will rule the world
So why oh why have we come to the point of letting a computer decide who has broken the law? When did human input get removed from the process? Are we too stupid to make our own decisions?
I see the pursuit of money pushing this removal of human judgment along at greater speed as we see an increasing number of premiership football managers demanding the use of goal line and touchline technology during games. Every time they loose a game they blame the referee and demand technology to assist him in his decision-making. Assist him? Doubt it, the machine will over-rule him.

And where is our inbuilt intuition?
Computers are supposed to assist us in our lives but to often I see people letting the computer do all the work and trusting the results too highly.
Sat-navs are the biggest offender in degradation of common sense. People will blindly follow the softly spoken womans instructions into industrial estates, private drives and even up dirt tracks to the point that the local farmer, with 100mph tractor, has to come and tow them out. Again.
Whilst walking home from taking my children to school a delivery lorry drove up the cul-d-sac I was walking along and asked me if this was the neighbouring secondary school. Well yes it was but he’d be doing a lot of walking from there. He’d followed his Sat-nav and despite having a delivery note with the full address of the school including the road it was actually on he had just put the name of the school in and finished up in a dead-end. The first three letters of the company were B.R. and A. He knows the rest.
Watching him try and reverse back out was very funny.
I might not even have mentioned this except a couple of weeks before a group of trainee teachers had done exactly the same thing.
Teachers. These people have the future of my children’s education in their hands and they have surrendered control of their decision making to a machine.

I rarely use a sat-nav, and if I do its for the last few miles a of a journey. If I need to go to Newcastle I know I need to head north, I don’t need to a computer to tell me to take the M1, M18, A1. More often I’ll use a strange paper instrument called a map. They are wonderful things, I’ll check it for where I’m going before setting out and when combined by those strange things at the roadside called roadsigns allow a person to get from A to B easily. Even my 9yr old daughter can read a map.
My inbuilt senses tell me whether I’m going north or south when I’m travelling, everybody has it but very few use it.

The future is bleak; we need to take off the shades
I’m not a technophobe, I tweet, I Facebook and I spend large chunks of the day arguing with Photoshop. But when I see even the cream of our academic institutions handing over their ability to think to a computer I begin to worry about future generations.
The world has changed and we can’t undo progress. We need to embrace it and use it to make our lives better.
We also need to let go of the machines and return to our own common sense. We need to teach our children to make choices and not rely on computers to decide for them.

Whats the point of photography?

‘What’s the point of high quality or professional photography?’ is a question I get asked from time to time ‘It’s just a picture, does it matter what it looks like?’ to paraphrase a friend of mine who a similar situation whilst teaching a self defence class recently….Are these people mad?
You may not see it and you may not immediately identify with it but high quality professional photography touches nearly everyone’s life.

From the school portrait of your children to the haunting images of famine in Eastern Africa during the mid 1980’s images stay with us because they are fused into our memories. It has also caused controversy.
Early Daguerreotype photographs were met with a mixture of wonder and suspicion.
The artist Paul Delroche is quoted, upon seeing a daguerreotype, as stating “From today painting is dead.”
Fortunately this was 1840 and painting certainly didn’t die out and, despite being one of those people who can’t even draw a straight line, I am glad to say the painting world thrives today. My guess is that Delroche was saying that media of painting as a record of life was now under threat by the new media of photography. In some ways he was right. This change was born out when during the 2010 UK general election, for the first time, the official artist was a photographer.
Some of the most recognisable images of World War II were photographs taken by Robert Capa both during and after the Normandy landings of 1944. Even the movie footage of the landings does not get across the desperate struggles faced by troops who fought their way ashore.

Troops struggle ashore on D-Day by Robert Capa - Image owned by Timeinc.net

Today photography is used to get the message across in areas. News stories and world changing events focus on the faces and individuals of those involved, charities will use photography to document their work and the people involved or helped. Business benefits from high quality photography that shows them as a high quality organisation who deliver results.
Sometimes it’s a quirky and humorous image that sticks in the mind. A couple of years ago Alan Piggot, who runs a promotional items company, allowed me to do a shoot of him surrounded by sweets to launch a range of branded confectionary. He still uses the image and it is still talked about.

Professional photography gets noticed, gets remembered and gets talked about.
That’s why it matters. These are all things that business needs others to do about them – get noticed, get remembered, get talked about.

But I’ll leave you with this thought about the power and impact of a photograph:
There have been – arguably – six technology advances for mankind.

1. Fire
2. The wheel
3. The Printing Press
4. The Steam Engine
5. The Internal Combustion Engine
6. Powered flight.

Of the first two on my list we know nothing. We don’t where, or who, or why or how. The printing press is credited to Johan Gutenburg in 1440.
Thomas Newcomen patented the steam Engine in the early 1700’s. They were regarded as rugged and inefficient but paved the way for further industrial breakthroughs.
The development of the internal combustion engine goes back a long way to the 1680’s and dutch scientist called Christian Huygens, although he never actually built a working model.
However of all of the list above, only one was documented as it happened.

The first powered flight at Kittyhawk in 1903.

The beginning of the first flight, December 17, 1903. This is the complete print of the photo that John Daniels took. The chip in the lower left corner is often cropped out. Credits - Library of Congress

I won’t romanticise about the image – I’ll save that for another day – but I urge you study the image, an image you probably know well.

What’s the point of a high quality or professional photograph? It stays with us and stays for future generations.

Selecting your wedding photographer

An interesting thing happened last night. As a result of yesterdays post, several people contacted me and asked how I would go about selecting a wedding photographer.
Ouch.
Don’t get me wrong, wedding photography is rapidly becoming a minefield of almost unreasonable demands, unrealistic fees for the work required and the constant fear of litigation from a Bride and Groom who were probably far to vague in giving the photographer their requirements for their big day. This can all add up to tears, misunderstanding, arguments and bad blood all round.
I do not envy the life of a professional wedding photographer in any way.
However, there are plenty of things a Bride and Groom can do to ease the fear of disappointment, working with your photographer rather then expecting them to have all the ideas can go a long way to making things run smoothly.

So my first tip is Know what you want from the day.
Get a notebook and along with everything else that you make specifics on such as catering, decoration, clothing, flowers, favours, entertainment make a specific list of your photographic requirements. Ask yourself these questions:

• What style do I want? formal? informal? mixture? deeply romantic? documentary record of the day? If you are not sure then ask around, your friends and family will have an idea of the style that best suits you and I’m sure you’ve been to weddings in the last year so ask to see what they had done.
• How long will I want the photographer to work? will they meet us in the morning as the bridal party prepares? or will they start work from the location of the ceremony? Will they need to stay right through late into the evening? (will they want feeding?…probably.)
• What do I want the photographer to provide me with? That may sound a daft question but many couples just assume they get copies of everything shot to do with as they wish, others expect a beautiful album with several dozen images to be included. You need to check what the photographer is offering and they may need to tailor their package to your requirements. The good ones will. One thing you do need to understand right now and that is wherever you are in the world the photographer owns the copyright on your wedding photographs, not you.  In your list you need to think about an album, or just a proof book. Maybe the images on a DVD presentation with music. you may wish to ask for a combination of those along with some larger framed prints. At this point you also need to be think budget, we’ll come to that in a while.
• Along with the stills photography will the day be videoed? Its a simple decision, yes or no but the photographer will like to know as it helps them plan the day and prepares them for the need for extra discretion.

So, you have your list of demands…sorry requirements for the big day. Next you need to think about what might actually be possible when you take into account the venue, your guests and any special ideas you might have.
And this is my next tip. You need to be realistic.
Photographers are only human and like the rest of us have human tolerances. They can only do so much on their own. A heavy workload such as asking for informal reportage shots as well as dreamy romantic images for your album cannot be done at the same time by one person so you need to expect a second photographer will be brought in.
At this point I will raise video again. If the photographer is also providing the video package you must ask whether it is a separate person doing the video who will do only the video. If this is not the case then you either do without or find your own video company.
If you have a list of specific photographs that you want then write them down and make sure the photographer has a copy in advance. You will need to allow time within your day for these shots to be taken. You can’t just have them done on the fly or they will get missed and you will blame the photographer who was only trying to meet an unrealistic demand.
You must be able to work with your photographer, they have done this before and will be able to give some very good ideas to help make the day special.
In same way that you would inform the venue or the caterer of any changes, keep the photographer up to date of any changes. They are part of the team who are helping your big day go smoothly.

A quick word on budgets: Your photographs will be visual memories that as years go by you can share with your children and grandchildren so how much do you want to spend? What do you realistically expect to get for that money? for example, your photographer has taken time to build a professional reputation and business so he will not be working for pocket money.  A second photographer will need paying as well. If you want an album at the end then you need think style. These things do not come off the shelf at your local stationers but are handmade. The actual materials not including prints can be up to UK£300 (US$460), prints can be UK£150 (US$230) and the photographer will spend the best part of two days carefully assembling your wedding album.
My personal opinion on this is you need to set aside £600 for the photographers fee and the same again for the extras and you need to be flexible both with your budget and your requirements.

Next you have to pick the right photographer for you.

• Ask around, did your friends hire a person they liked? were they happy with the attitude? results? service?
• Use a search engine with keywords such as wedding photographer and your location. Read the testimonials. Put the photographers name into a search engine and see what comes up about them in other news sources
• Go to wedding fairs, meet the photographers and have a look at their work. whats your first impression?

Select at least three photographers to interview. Make appointments to see them at your home, find out the way they operate, ask to see the result of a full wedding shoot not just a portfolio of their best images. This way you get a far better feel for how the day unfolds and what you can expect from the photographer. Are comfortable around them?
Have they made you smile yet?
Don’t forget to discuss your ideas and ask them for their opinions on how they will approach the day. They might say they need a second photographer. Is that extra cost? Tell them what you want from them at the end of your wedding, can they tailor a package just to suit you?
The best ones will recommend meeting you at the venue about two weeks before your wedding to talk through options and look at where you might like your photographs taking. They will also discuss a rain option.
Ultimately it is up to the Bride and Groom to select the photographer they feel most comfortable with and who they feel will give them the best service. This comes down to personal choice and for that I’m afraid there is no guidebook.
I hope that my personal opinions on to look for and how to approach organising your wedding photography will help those of you planning your futures together.  But above all my last bit of advise is that on your big day you need to relax, have fun and leave the running – be it food, drinks, entertainment or the photography – to the professionals you have hired.

Photographic Specialist not General Photographer

My last post  gained more responses than any other i’ve written over the last year and as somebody whose work is in the vast majority in the public space knowing that the security industry was taking the rights of the individual seriously. although i’m lucky, I was able to study these things whilst at college so came to the world of professional photography armed with the knowledge that I could say ‘no’ to a police officer and get away with it. It also taught me how to deal with being in a public area and having people complain that they are being photographed…. which when you are stood on a high street with local politicians and senior executives of businesses can be a problem if the said high street is busy with shoppers. In case you are interested the quickest way to diffuse an irate shopper in the above scenario is a simple apology and an explanation of what you are doing followed by a tactful pause whilst irate shopper leaves your field of view.

There was also the time, when shooting a council leader and a local MP with a senior person from a German manufacturer, that I was stopped by a police officer who demanded to see my camera permit. He got a short response and was soon sent packing after I showed him the error of his ways.

So what has any of this got to do with specialist V generalist? As with any supplier you need to hire you need to look not just for quality of skills but professional competence as well. Quality images can make a real difference between being seen on a page and being turned over.

When looking for a photographer you may come across somebody who offers a great menu of services from weddings to portraits to product shots all the way to press and PR. now I’m sure they are very competent in a proportion of those services but in my opinion if you want a wedding photographer then you need to hire a wedding photographer who only does weddings.

In the same way if you want a PR photographer then make sure you choose one that specialises in PR. At the very least they should be able to demonstrate experience in working in a Press and PR environment, with and for newspapers and magazines.

More often it will be a specific event or opportunity that sees the need for a photographer so look for someone who has a good relationship with local media outlets and is flexible to your needs such as sending out a number of different images to different media such as print, web, trade magazines. Somebody who can identify and shoot several different images to suit the needs and style of different publications. There is nothing worse than sending a happy group image to a magazines that specialises in the technical side of an industry, but your local newspaper will take the group shot rather then a picture of your branded lorry racing down a motorway.

But, whenever possible it is always better to plan ahead. I have been working on a series of projects for clients aimed at ensuring they have up to date, contemporary imagery suitable for a multitude of uses from websites and promotional brochures to press and PR releases. The advantage of the image style being that it is flexible and can adapt to nearly all needs. The important thing is to plan ahead and not be rushing around trying to scrape images together at the last moment.

So here are a few tips that could help:

• As an absolute minimum, ensure you have headshots of all people mentioned in your press releases and spokespeople representing your organisation, have a good and strong selection of images taken which picture them in a natural working setting representing your specific business, both with your company logo and without. Make sure you get wide and upright orientated shots.
• If you are ‘telling a story’ in your press release, make sure the photo also tells the same story. Ensure it has enough impact to immediately grab the attention of the editor and then the reader.
• A feature picture instead of a simple headshot is the biggest single thing you can do to bring your story to the top of the pile. Sometimes the most mundane story can be published as the lead story on the page thanks to a superb photo.
• Have some generic shots taken that represent your business and industry sector. Both internal and exterior shots should be produced showing your business at work. Sometimes having these generic shots available when a picture editor is looking for a photo to go with an existing story can result in your organisation being asked to comment, but make sure you are told what the basis of the story is before supplying pictures.
• Make sure all your photos meet media specifications so they can easily be sent by email and will not overload the mailbox of the journalist you are sending them to. This really wouldn’t help your cause.

To be honest, if you are not sending pictures out with your press releases, you are missing a vital part of your PR campaign. A release with a photo has a much higher chance of being used and could elevate your story from a few column centimetres on an inside page to a more prominent position and possibly the front page. So plan ahead, make sure you’ve got everything you need to make an impact and keep your images up to date.

Security Industry clarification of photographers’ rights in public places.

Northamptonshire Photography a county based PR and Commercial photographer welcomes a Home Office backed guidance document that has been issued to the security Industry that clarifies the rights of photographers in public areas.

BSIA, (British Security Industry Association) the body for personnel guarding, crowd management, close protection and all other security staff has released a 10-point guidance note which is a list of “key” actions and rights’ making clear that security guards should approach a person to ask why they are taking pictures “only” when that’s person’s behaviour is “suspicious”.

Northamptonshire Photographer Paul Lashmar feels this guidance, which follows on from formal guidance issued to police in late 2010, has been far to long in coming and will hopefully ease cases of friction that have developed in the past as photographers were prevented from carrying out lawful business.

The document reminds security personnel that “It is not an offence for a member of the public or journalist to take photographs/film of a public building. They do not need a permit to photograph or film in a public place, and the police have no power to stop the photographing or filming of incidents or police personnel.”

For Paul who has in the past been on the receiving end of obstruction and forceful instructions this is welcome news. “It now states clearly the legal position of a public area and that, contrary to popular myth, a licence is not needed to operate a camera in a public place.

“More importantly it outlines to security personnel what can be done in a public place, just because a building in private they cannot prevent it being included in a photograph if the photographer is stood on a public road.”

As a professional photographer Paul also feels this new guidance should not be taken as a photographers charter to do whatever and wherever they wish. “There are some places that whilst the public has access will actually be privately owned and so restrictions can be in place regarding film and photography.

“However, I would not expect shopping centre staff to prevent a parent photographing their child on a ride although anything more substantial will I’m sure be frowned upon.

“For this guidance be adhered to there will need to be give and take on all sides but mostly I expect common sense to prevail to allow anyone to go about their lawful business.”

The issuing of the guidance follows the government’s counter-terrorism review, conclusions from which highlighted concerns about “security guards attempting to take action against photographers”.

Key guidance recently issued to security personnel
(Source: British Security Industry Association)
• The vast majority of individuals taking photographs are doing so for entirely innocent purposes, and the fact that an individual is taking a photograph does not in itself indicate hostile reconnaissance or other suspicious behaviour.
• The size and type of cameras are not, in themselves, indications of suspicious behaviour. Large cameras, lenses and tripods should therefore not be viewed as being more suspicious than other types of equipment.
• If an individual is in a public place photographing or filming a private building, security guards have no right to prevent the individual from taking photographs.
• If an individual is on private property, s/he may not take photographs if such activity is expressly prohibited or requires a permit which has not been sought or granted. In this instance, a security guard may inform the individual of the restrictions and politely request that s/he ceases to take photographs or film. The security guard could request that the individual leave the premises and could use reasonable force if necessary to effect this.
• All approaches to members of the public should be made in a courteous manner.
• If an individual is behaving in a manner which a security guard believes to be suspicious, it is important that the suspicions are resolved either through reporting the incident to the police or through polite questioning of the individual.
• Security guards cannot delete images or seize cameras, nor can they obstruct individuals from taking photographs.
• Members of the public and the media do not need a permit to film or photograph in public places. This includes where an individual is in a public place but taking a photograph or film of a private building.
• On private land, the public may take photographs unless this activity is expressly prohibited by the landlord or a permit is required and has not been sought.
• Security guards should be mindful of the impact their actions have on members of the public. They should avoid behaving in a manner that individuals may find intimidating or aggressive, or interfering with individuals’ activities without adequate reason to do so.

More Favourite Places to Photograph

There is a village just down the A14 that sits on the river Nene called Islip. Its tranquil.

Just walk a few hundred metres and the noise of the roads disappears to be replaced by the sounds of countryside, birds, horses, cows and the occasional low flying RAF jet.

It also boasts an unusual shaped bridge nicknamed the Nine Sisters – or Nine Arches – for reasons that should be obvious.

 

There are many places like this all around its just a case of leaving the car and hitting the footpaths, of course good weather helps and knowing there is a pub at the other end of the trail as an even better incentive to take the walk.