5 Twitter users worth a Follow

Now I thought I’d focus on the beautiful web space of the Twittersphere today.  It’s lovely cool sky blue bird endlessly tweeting news, gossip, chat, catastrophes and utter bullshit into the eyes of us all. I cannot get enough. Especially now as I’m getting live updates from the #NUJadm from Southport, current problems of park rangers in the Mara Triangle and the latest from the Gaza strip through the eyes of Palestinians. It is a fabulous tool that can bring me information on one or many topics to give me a diverse and colourful view of our planet.

I thought I would share some of the people I have found interesting over the last week.

Filed under: conflict photojournalist, Manchester photographer, Morecambe photographer, pete brook, Stephen Sidlo, tim humble, twitter

101 New Photographer Tips

1. Being petrified. There is not much call for Photographers who don’t shoot. Buy a few cheap SD cards from online retailers they cost around £5 and you can shoot hundreds for hours. ‘Visit 7dayshop.com’

2. Try to shoot on the higher settings like Large JPEG or RAW. It will help when your processing later on to work with a larger image in more detail. ‘Learn about RAW files and their uses’

3. Get in close and fill the frame. If your an amateur, have a go at building both your skill and self confidence in one go by getting up close and shooting. ‘Practice full frame on your pet for one day’

4. Previewing shots after you shoot them (along with the histogram on your cameras LCD) to ensure you have the right exposure. It can become addictive but try counting how many times you glance at the screen in a shoot – try to be more confident in your ability to record light. Previewing also can minimise your battery life. ‘Easy Understanding Histograms at dpreview.com’

Filed under: 101, conflict photojournalist, Manchester photographer, Morecambe photographer

Echo Of Chernobyl – Paal Audestad

Photo essay by photographer Paal Audestad. The Chernobyl exclusion zone. ‘The Zone of Alienation’, which is variously referred to as The Chernobyl Zone, The 30 Kilometer Zone,The Exclusion Zone, The Fourth Zone, or simply The Zone (Ukrainian official designation: Зона відчуження Чорнобильської АЕС, zona vidchuzhennya Chornobyl’s'koyi AES, colloquially:Чорнобильська зона, Chornobyl’s'ka zona оr Четверта зона, Chetverta zona) is the 30 km/19 mi exclusion zone around the site of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster. 

Geographically, it includes northernmost parts of Kyivs’ka oblast’ and Zhytomyrs’ka oblast‘ of Ukraine, and adjoins the country’s border with Belarus. A separately administered Belarusian zone continues across the border.

Filed under: Chernobyl, Exclusion Zone, humanitarian photojournalist, Manchester photographer, manchester photojournalist, Morecambe photographer, Paul Audestad, Stephen Sidlo, Ukraine, Zone of alienation

Systematically Raped Nation….Thank You George…Spiderman on Acid

Have we lost the plot? Have we descended into a puddle of never knowing beasts? Here we are, wandering around the paddocks of Britain, never ending stomping. A red, blue or yellow Rosette pins itself on every new race, on the brain damaged jockey that rides us, endlessly sat on us like a hungry whore crying with lust. Why does he blindfold us as well, while with the other hand on an iPhone he sends children to war? We public, the stiff lipped liberal persons, who now are being systematically ridden, now base our lives on the whims of the sensationalist stories that drivel from our politically controlled rag newspapers…who in turn take a heavy beating from the lobbyists, businessmen and political PR strategists. Why do we do this? Why do i want to keep buying useless items, things I wouldn’t normally buy. I sit at home bashing on the keyboard telling the world I wont fall for consumerism, but as I walk around a shop I feel a need to buy. Buy until my eyes bleed.

The horrible country we are now immersed in, that promotes doing nothing, doing nothing till we fall asleep. A nation of people who work until depression, brain bubbles and heart attacks.

Filed under: Lancaster, manchester photojournalist, morecambe, Morecambe photographer, piccadilly gardens, Stephen Sidlo, TTV

Age of the Warrior

Iwas watching ‘The Age of the Warrior‘, a talk by Robert Fisk on his journalism, findings and research in the Middle East. About 10 minutes in he describes the cards that each soldier in the US Army carry. These cards reflect a nation overseas, and can be looked at, and theoretically analysed like poems. If taking this literally, the pre-gun waving ‘Right of Hitler‘ sloth Donald Rumsfeld era was something of a safe haven for countries to ask for help. According to the Creed….

Filed under: humanitarian photojournalist, Manchester photographer, Morecambe photographer, ngo humanitarian photographer, robert fisk, soldiers creed, the age of the warrior, warrior ethos