Click here to view the embedded video.

I was surprised to learn the other day that a friend of mine and fellow photographer, Lance Rosenfield, had made it onto CNN. I wasn’t surprised that he was in the limelight because he is an excellent photographer…see proof here and here.I was surprised  because he was on CNN since he had just been detained and harassed whilst on assignment photographing a BP oil refinery in Texas.

The above video is an interview with Lance from the Anderson Cooper show on CNN a couple of days ago. Lance outlines his experiences of being followed by the police, detained and quizzed after having taken pictures of the refinery.

It’s understandable that sights such as this will be sensitive to people randomly turning up and taking photographs. It’s equally understandable that they may stop people and ask what they are doing. What isn’t understandable is the way that those people can then be treated by the authorities as was outlined by Lance in his interview. The fact that Lance’s personal information was given to BP security by the police, despite his protests, is worrying. The fact that he was also intimidated by the threat and subsequent arrival of a Homelands Security Officer sounds excessive and uncalled for. Was this really needed when I am sure Lance outlined he was a professional photojournalist working for a reputable publication?

It’s seems this is another in a long line of conflicts between photographers and the authorities with the photographers normally ending up on the wrong side, being treated unfairly and with an excessive amount of suspicion. To be honest, I am not sure of the extent that this happens to photographers in the US on a daily basis. In the UK however it has been a contentious issue for some time now with a series of reported cases of photographers being harrassed and detained for photographing in public places mainly under the auspices of the ‘Terrorism Act’. Have a look at the video below from the Guardian News website from December last year showing the terrible treatment a student photographer received whilst out photographing in central London.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Active campaigning by large portions of the photography community in the UK against this kind of police behavior led to the excellent “I’m a Photographer Not a Terrorist” Campaign which culminated in January with a mass rally in Trafalgar Square in London. Constant pressure by photographers about the increased occurrence of this behavior towards them by the police, coupled with further campaigning, led to the determining that a certain section within the Terrorism Act that was mainly being used against photographers was deemed in breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. It was an impressive victory but cases are still popping up from time to time about the excessive treatment issued against photographers by the authorities.

Wherever we are in the world, it’s an important issue to stay aware of and we must continue to defend our right to photograph in public places without the fear of harassment, detention or worse. Hats off to Lance for doing exactly that.

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine sent me a link. It was a link to a documentary that would give me a new insight into China, like I had never had before.

Made in 2007, “Please Vote For Me” is a documentary by Chinese director Weijun Chen, following the lives of three young schoolchildren as they bid to become the first class president, embracing a new concept…voting.

Following these students though the whole process of the build-up to the election we see a microcosmic display of Chinese society played out beautifully through the lives of three very different children from very different backgrounds.

I do not want to give anything away for those who haven’t seen it, but  the interweaving of the stories of the three children and their preparations are so well done and draw you into a real dramatic climax with a level of drama that is hard to beat.

I can’t encourage you enough to find an hour to sit and watch this documentary. Once you do, please come back and let me know what you think!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Recently, I have started to venture more into the video world and this summer, I will have a project which will allow me to start to really produce more video-work. As I start to add the moving image to more of the work that I do, I start to look more to the video world for inspiration. If I am honest, I always did this anyway as I am a huge movie and documentary fan and drew inspiration from these for many many years for my still work. Now, I am starting to watch videos, movies, documentaries in a different way, mainly trying to visualise in my mind how they were conceived, shot, edited and created.

This week I was blown-away by two videos, actually advertisements, that I caught online. You can get inspired by advertisements? Seems a little odd I guess, for a photographer who concentrates mainly on documentary subjects, but the answer is yes. Each of these videos is quite different, but they both have their own sense of ‘wow’ factor about them. Clever ideas and beautifully shot.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Now I must admit, that with the first video I am slightly biased as I am a big football fan, however I think the video is just beautiful and the editing is really very good (watch out for the hilarious inclusion of Homer Simpson). Now, in the second video I will never use the techniques they employ (this will become obvious after you watch it) but I really like it because it’s nearly impossible not to want to watch it a second time to figure out what you just missed! It made me think a lot about our perception of scenes we view quickly. Don’t want to give too much away though!

What did you think? Which do you prefer?

Click here to view the embedded video.

A couple of months ago, I stumbled upon a hilarious comic. His name is Joe Wong and I wanted to share one of his videos with you here on the blog.

Originally from China, Joe Wong is a relatively new American immigrant, and focuses his act on the experiences he faces in his new culture. Drawing upon daily happenings adapting to his new life, he offers hilarious anecdotes about being a newly arrived immigrant and his journey from China into becoming an ‘all American immigrant’, as he has dubbed himself.

By poking fun at himself and national stereotypes, Joe relates the differences between China and the West in hilarious fashion and offers them up in a completely fresh and interesting way with a dry delivery that is quite unique.

Enjoy!

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Earth Hour | Beijing | China

Last week I posted the first competition for my blog, based on the recent video that I shot to coincide with Earth Hour here in Beijing. If you missed the video, you can watch it here on Vimeo or YouTube.

The challenge was to find me within the video, walking in front of the camera. Sounds easy huh? Yes, except for the fact the that the video is time-lapse and condenses the whole earth hour into one minute, hence making my two appearances very very brief.

Earth Hour | Beijing | China

I worried that I had made the challenge too difficult, until someone came in with nearly spot-on the correct guess. That person was ‘Charles’, who posted a guess of 0:26 and 1:04. The official count was 0:26 and 1:05, based on the two screen grabs you can see here in this post, but Charles’s answer was good enough for me. Very well done, Charles. I’m impressed!

Charles, are you in Beijing? If yes, please send me an email via the email address in the contact section to the right and let’s organise your free workshop. I look forward to hearing from you!

I am delighted to announce here on my blog that this month’s issue of National Geographic China contains a 12-page essay of my images and text, about my Pulitzer Center-sponsored work on “China’s Growing Sands”. This is a wonderful opportunity to reach out to a new audience in China and bring wider attention to the issue of desertification, which is gripping the north of the nation.

I considered just posting photographs of the layout here as a traditional tearsheet display, but then I thought it would be more fun to create a short video to showcase the layout. Also, this story only appears in the Chinese edition of National Geographic this month, so I wanted those not based in China to be able to see the excellent layout, as if you were flicking through yourself.

Please click on the video above to begin and thumb-through the magazine article with me on Vimeo. If you prefer YouTube, please go here.

If you are in China now, or over the coming few weeks, please pick up a copy. You should be able to buy it on most newsstands across the country.

Always happy to hear your thoughts. What do you think? Do you like the spread?

Earlier this week I released a video titled ‘Earth Hour: In One Minute’, a time-lapse video that captured last month’s Earth Hour at the Bird’s Nest Stadium in Beijing. I thought it would be fun to use this video as the basis for the first competition that I have run through the blog. Up for grabs is a half-day (3hours) one-on-one workshop with me here in Beijing. Maybe you’d like to brush up on your editing, your night photography, your photoshop skills, your street photography? No problem. We’ll have 3 hours to target anything you want, FREE.

Okay, so how to win? In my time-lapse video I actually appear twice within the video by walking into the foreground. (I was waiting alone in the cold for an hour doing the video, so I had to entertain myself somehow!) The challenge is to tell me the correct second count at which I appear, both times. To clarify, it’s the second count on the YouTube/Vimeo counter NOT the clock in the bottom-right of the screen you see counting down the Earth Hour. You can watch the clip on either YouTube or Vimeo. They are exactly the same.

The first eagle-eyed person to post the correct answers (or closest to them) here on this post on my blog will win the free workshop. Easy as that!

(*Hints* You may have to pause/start the video quickly to see frames individually around the points you think you spotted me. Those who know me and/or have met me on a workshop before, may have an advantage to knowing what I look like…obviously!)

I’ll reveal who is the winner at the beginning of next week, that’s assuming somebody gets it over the weekend! If no-one gets it, I’ll leave the competition open until someone does! Good luck!

Double click window above to watch up to HD 1080p on YouTube

Last weekend, I was sat at home wondering how I could test out my recently purchased Canon 7D. I had been waiting to get this camera for a while as it has video capabilities and comes at a relatively affordable price, compared to most high-end camcorders. I had seen the quality of videos that the camera could produce and I was keen to get my hands on one and to see what it could do.

I was trying to think up ideas when I stumbled on a news piece about Earth Hour that evening. I am sure you are well aware of the concept, however if you’re not, head here to Earth Hour’s site to get more background info. In a nutshell, Earth Hour is a ‘call to action’ against climate change by switching off lights for one hour on a specific date, with millions of people taking part all around the world. This year, the date was Saturday 27th March 2010 from 8:30 pm to 9:30pm.

As those who visit here often will know, much of my photography is based on environmental issues, so I thought this event would be perfect as a continuation in the theme of my work. So, braving a bitterly cold, biting wind on one of Beijing’s last winter nights, I decided to head to the Bird’s Nest Stadium, the city’s centerpiece for the 2008 summer Olympic Games.

I arrived a couple of hours early and scouted for positions that I thought would work best to create the effect that I wanted. I knew I wanted to do time-lapse, so I needed to set myself up in a position that would not only show off the lights on the stadium but also have something happening within the foreground to keep the video interesting. I settled on a spot to the west of the stadium, right in front of the equally spectacular Water Cube swimming Center.

Setting the 7D up on a tripod, I started the video rolling about 10 minutes before the lights were scheduled to go out. At this point, I wasn’t entirely sure that the lights were going to go off. I had read that the Bird’s Nest was involved last year but couldn’t find any confirmation it was happening again in 2010. Much to my relief, they went off. Then came my second worry. Would they come back on again? The Olympic park was scheduled to close at 10pm, half an hour after the end of Earth Hour. I thought, if I was the one in control of the electricity, why turn them on again so close to closing time? ! Luckily, my worries were not needed as the lights came back on, right on schedule.

I hope you like the final piece. If you want to see it bigger, double click on the video window to launch YouTube. You can watch it in HD, up to 1080p.

Please let me know of any thoughts you have and don’t forget to check out Earth Hour’s website to find out more information. Any events that raise awareness of environmental issues are worthy ones.

The first of the videos can be found below.

Question 1 “Why did you decide to report on this issue?”

Please head here to view answers to the following questions: What was your biggest hurdle reporting on this issue? How is this story related to issues in the US? How has climate change news coverage evolved since you started reporting on these issues, and what could be done better?

The most popular post over the past 6 weeks has been the video that I shot and produced in North Korea, here. It’s been popular on my YouTube channel too, getting nearly 1000 views, as of today.

The most popular page on the blog has been the WEEKEND WORKSHOPS page, which is getting a lot of interest. We are just about to announce our workshops for January, so please stay tuned, they will be posted any day now!

Thanks again for stopping by. As you know, we’re on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube so stop by and see us there as well. Here’s to the next 6 months…at least!!!