Stories, subjects, thoughts, ideas and updates
27/12/2010 Leave a comment
Remember Gaza protest 27/12/2010
30/11/2010 1 Comment
It will be interesting to see what this is like today
27/09/2010 7 Comments
I was in London on Saturday 25th September with four other photographers at Waterloo Place where the Families Fighting for Justice march had just finished
We walked down the steps to The Mall to take a look because some filming was going on (Rowan Atkinson I believe although the following meant I can’t actually confirm that)
As soon as a security man saw the long lenses and cameras he told us we couldn’t take photos without permission as The Mall is within the Royal Park boundary and asked us to talk to the Royal Parks representative there
Walked over to her and was told – no commercial photos allowed. When I asked about news or editorial pictures, was told still no go
I asked (somewhat frustratedly) what would happen if, say there was an incident of some kind and was told that I should buy an annual news permit then I’d be covered for that eventuality
When one photographer said he wouldn’t use the pictures for anything except his own viewing, the Royal Parks rep then said politely “sorry, it’s private property so no photo permission anyway”
After that, we (and all the members of the public) were asked to move to the steps at the lower end of Waterloo Place – then just we photographers were told to photograph from the top of the steps by Waterloo Place as that’s where the Park Boundary actually is
So…
I suspect that a significant number of the photos in the world’s press and media of last weeks Papal visit won’t have been taken by full time professional photographers – but by members of the public and quite possibly along the sides of The Mall
Anyway – I’ve looked at the Royal Parks website and it does indeed say that a News Permit is currently needed to cover even “editorial” items – costing £100 per year (a lot of money to spend on the basis of covering oneself just in case something happens – although to be fair it would allow coverage of pre arranged press calls and events)
Questions that arise:
How can the Press be free if you have to buy a News Permit just in case something happens in certain places ?
What would happen in the event of a “hard news story” in a Royal Park ? Surely the people with the most chance of grabbing the first pictures are more likely to be members of the public or tourists and park visitors (or “Citizen Journalists”) rather than a professional reporter or photojournalist ? (and those members of the public would, I’d have thought, be unlikely to have bought permits)
I now understand that the reason the other photographer was stopped from taking photos for personal use is likely to have been that it would have contravened the exclusivity that the film company had paid for. In which case, even if I’d had a news permit in advance, I’d have been unable to photograph anyway since that too would have contravened the exclusivity
Apparently these permits have been in place for some time now, so why is it that a large number of people seem to know nothing about them ?
However, the good news is that the Royal Parks Press Office have today confirmed that the news permit system is currently under review with the intention of bringing in a more appropriate or flexible system in 2011 that actually does cater for Press and News photography properly
From a personal perspective, I’d like to see the idea of news permits dropped because a permit system for news photography seems to be rather contradictory and difficult to enforce – although, perhaps a solution is to officially recognise the UK Press Card in the Royal Parks. (Organisations including the British Association of Journalists (BAJ), The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the other gatekeeper organisations for the UK Press Card would be some of the appropriate sources of feedback and guidance for the Royal Parks to contact) along with other photography interest organisations as well
(c) Peter Webb – www.webbpix.com – All rights reserved. No reuse without prior permission
Royal Parks website and the information about News Permits linked here
10/09/2010 Leave a comment
Went up to London last week to take some photos for a small charity based in Romania – named casaioana (www.casaioana.org)
The idea of the challenge is that a Father & Son team – Ian & Peter Tilling had to get to the USA and then build a craft suitable for sailing down the length of the Mississippi River in the 30 day gap between their birthdays
Ian Tilling’s 60th birthday was on September 5 2010 and Peter’s 31st is on October 6
01/07/2010
Huntington’s Disease (HD) is an inherited disease of the Central Nervous System
Under the banner of HiDden No More, (http://www.hiddennomore.co.uk/) around 500 people affected by this disease met yesterday 30/06/2010 in London and walked from Dean’s Yard to near the Houses Of Parliament in order to raise awareness and to increase publicity for this disorder – for which there is currently no cure
Many courageous people spoke to the Press and TV interviewers about their experiences to raise the profile of the disease, which in many cases seems to be an un-talked about condition
Tony Hadley of Spandau Ballet is one of two celebrity Patrons (the other is Shane Ritchie) of the Huntington’s Disease Association, the UK Charity which supports both sufferers and carers affected by HD in the UK – Further information can be obtained from the Huntington’s Disease Association website: http://www.hda.org.uk
The cause is also supported by Sarah Winckless (former British Olympic rower), Charles Sabine (ex NBC correspondent) and also present at the launch was Martyn Lewis CBE (former newsreader)
The pictures below are of Tony Hadley giving a TV interview about his involvement with the Charity and what it means. And also of him meeting some of the people affected by this illness
Further images can be seen here
14/04/2010 Leave a comment
About 20 or 30 protesters gathered outside Kensington Olympia Exhibition Centre today against the Counter Terror Expo being held there
There was one arrest for after a protestor chalked two slogans along the pavement
It certainly looked as if something was up when it began to look as if we were going to be refused admission despite having pre-arranged Media access
But…. A bit of shoving from the venue security and then the passes were brought out to us – unlike the other passes which were being issued inside and there was a bit of a delay issuing them too
Sadly, but unsurprisingly I guess, a strict no photos policy inside too
Although an image that stuck in my mind was the exhibitor selling shooting targets – lo and behold – one life sized target was a man with a camera
Anyway – photos from this protest will be uploaded to Radical Images later on
21/03/2010 Leave a comment
Took some photos at this march in London on Saturday 20 March 2010
The march was from Kings College, The Strand, London to Downing Street and was calling for an end to job cuts in Higher Education
Pics on Radical Images
14/02/2010 Leave a comment
There didn’t seem to be much in the way of mainstream UK Media coverage at the protest on Feb 10th in London. (At The Iranian Embassy)
It was quite well attended – several thousand protesters gathered would be my estimate
Photographs are on Radical Images website in my stock collection
