Tribute to Keith Alexender from a fan. Copyright Richard Williams 2010.

It’s a sad fact that ex Lincoln City FC manager Keith Alexander died yesterday at the tender age of 53. Having been born in the same year I can assure readers it seems like no age at all.

So why do I, as someone who is most definitely not a football fan, wish to pay tribute to this man?

It’s simple. In this world, these days, it seems to me there are too few figures in public life that conduct themselves in dignified manner, maintain their integrity at all costs and are truly inspirational to their colleagues and those they have a charge over.

But Keith Alexander was just such a person. You could hear this in the numerous interviews I listened to on Radio Lincolnshire’s morning breakfast show. And yes, these were the only times I’d hear him speak.

There were the times when the board and Keith didn’t see eye-to-eye, but he always maintained his dignity and integrity during interviews despite what he may have been thinking. He always seemed to put the interests of the club first. And look what he did for the club.

Now I know far less of his achievements than any rank and file member of the supporters club, but even I know of the four play-offs he took Lincoln FC to, dragging them up by their heels in the process.

I believe this man is an all too rare example of how public figures should behave, and I take my hat off to you Keith.

And finally, perhaps, it says it all when the England football team wore black armbands as a sign of respect to him at last night’s match against Egypt.

I don’t use this phrase very often, but god bless you Keith. I’m sure you’re already being missed by thousands.

Konig Tripod from Amazon

This post is long overdue, in part because instead of just recommending a tripod another Going Digital tutor uses I thought I’d get one for myself and try it out.

Well, I’ve now been there, done that and got the tripod, so I can talk from experience as to what it’s all about.

First off, make no mistake, this is a blinder of a tripod for the price (under £50.00). In fact, I’d expect you’d have to pay more like £150.00 from another manufacturer to get the facilities and quality of build found in this Konig. I should mention that this tripod has another brand name – don’t know what it is but it makes it difficult to find on Amazon, but more on that later.

I find that many students who attend the Going Digital “Explore Your DSLR Part 1″ and not forgetting the “Get to know your Compact Camera” course often don’t have a tripod or have bought a very cheap one that is, in all honesty, to flimsy to provide good solid support for their cameras.

However,  not only is the Konig solid and sturdy, but it comes with a host of features normally reserved for its higher-priced competitors. For example, it not only has swivel feet, but also spikes for when the ground gets a bit soggy.

Another nice touch is not only one detachable quick-release plate but two. Ideal if you have two camera bodies, as it saves having to keep swapping over. My students love it when they work in pairs (if they haven’t brought their own tripods) because again they don’t have to keep swapping over.

And the design of these quick-release plates is a joy, the housing they lock into on the ball-head couldn’t make for a simpler or easier way of  attaching the plate. The release button is easy to use and there’s a locking mechanism to prevent accidental detachment. Attaching a camera to the plate is simplicity itself. Instead of the usual slot in the attaching bolt for which a 2p piece often comes in handy, the konig bolt has a flip-up handle making it so much esier to use.

Moving onto the head, it’s the ball-head variety – much simpler to use than a pan and tilt one. If  I had a criticism, and it’s a small one, the ball is a little stiff in its housing, but this may loosen up with time, we’ll see.

The load capacity of the tripod is 4kg and the picture shows it supporting a 1.4kg lens and a camera body that is just short of 1kg. Now, if I had any concerns about the tripod’s sturdiness I wouldn’t risk having to pay out nearly 4k to replace that kit. In fact, I extended the legs fully and wound up the centre column to it’s full height just to be sure I was still happy with the stability.

The centre column is reversible, so that the fact that the tripod legs won’t go as low as some of the competition doesn’t matter, because you simply turn it round. OK, so the camera is now upside down, but your picture orientation doesn’t know that!

Finally, the tripod comes with its own carrying bag.  Again, you usually pay at least another £20.00 from other manufacturers for this item,  so all-in-all this is one of the best camera equipment bargains I’ve seen in a very long time.

If you’d like to check it out this Heavy Duty Professional Aluminium Camera Tripod with Pro Ball Head on Amazon go right ahead. You won’t be disappointed.

Team Members of the Red Arrows and The Pink Ladies. Copyright 2009 Richard Williams (low res)

Today is Breast Cancer Care’s “Wear It Pink Day” and Grace Wright, PA to RAF Scampton’s Station Commander, and Gill Angel, the base’s Community Development Officer (The Pink Ladies) have been at the gates to the camp since 7:15am this morning collecting money for the charity.

Last year £450 was raised and it looks like that target may be broken this year.

And in support of their efforts members of The Red Arrows aerobatic team were to be flying over the main gates at 10:10am this morning. Unfortunately, a combination of fog and the unavailability of a fire crew meant they could not get airborne.

Instead, members of the press were given the opportunity at a photocall to take pictures of The Red Arrows and The Pink Ladies together, in a show of support.

I just wonder what they’re going to do with all that pink dye in their tanks. Any suggestions?

]]> http://www.rkwphoto.com/2009/10/30/wear-it-pink-day/feed/ 0 http://www.rkwphoto.com/2009/10/22/eddie-stobart-financial-results/ http://www.rkwphoto.com/2009/10/22/eddie-stobart-financial-results/#comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 23:20:09 +0000 Richard http://www.rkwphoto.com/?p=221

Copyright 2009 Richard Williams (low res)

The agency wanted images of Eddie Stobbart lorries yesterday – in time for the company’s latest financial results due out today.

And although the agency took all my shots it’s looking like none of the nationals ran with it as a news item. That or they just didn’t pick my ones – oh well, it got me out of bed nice and early while you, dear reader, were probably still tucked up in bed.

Still, it was good to be doing some more press work again. Been pre-occupied with other stuff lately.

Copyright Richard Williams 2009 (low res).

I took delivery of the Nikon SB-900 Speedlight Flashgun last week, in time for the National Hamfest event I was covering at the weekend. But of course, with delivery being so close to the actual event I couldn’t spend as much time with the instruction book as I would have wished for.

Needless to say, I knew I could have produced better results on the day, but the shots using flash were only a small proportion of those taken. End result: Enough commercial quality images to keep the client happy.

But that’s not the way I like to operate, so to get up to speed tomorrow I’m attending Going Digital’s Portraits Using Flash Photography workshop run by fellow tutor, Rod Corston.

It’s an ideal way to set aside time to become familiar with the flashgun, as I just know claiming enough time during a working day is just not going to happen – with the best will in the world. Small business people will understand…

But for regular folk (who wear the occasional python boot, tips hat to Frank Zappa) the workshop will give them all the basics for producing well-lit shots using either the camera’s onboard flash or one that attaches via a dedicated hotshoe.

Roll on tomorrow.

What with cartridges running out within what seemed like precious few minutes (from new, that is)  colour-fading and general stripeyness I vowed I wouldn’t do it again, and I won’t have to.

The HP Colour LaserJet CP2025n Network Printer entered my life on Tuesday.  Now set up so the whole family can print from it via the wireless router. Absolute heaven!

And how long did it take to print out the same set of photography course notes? Under half-an-hour. Job done.

Copyright Richard Williams. Taken at 6400 ISO. Not bad, eh?

Here is an account in pictures…

…with a fuller report I’ve filed with Demotix.

Captain Daniel Shepherd's Funeral. Copyright Richard Williams (low res)

The funeral of Captain Daniel Shepherd, afganistan war hero, took place yesterday shortly after 11am at Lincoln Cathedral.

To give the people of Lincoln the opportunity to pay their respects along the way, the media announced the cortege’s departure from Doddington Road, Lincoln at 10.30am with details of the route to Lincoln Cathedral.

Not long after 11am the hearse arrived in Minster Yard. It was a full military funeral, as the accompanying images reveal.

The threatening rain clouds held off as hundreds of people remained gathered outside the cathedral to watch the coffin followed by family enter by the west doors of the cathedral.

Captain Daniel Shepherd’s Funeral

Crich 1940s day re-enactment of bomb blast. Copyright Richard Williams (low res)

On Sunday 09 August, Dave Muscroft of Going Digital ran a “Reportage Masterclass” at the  Tramway Museum in Crich, Derbyshire, the subject of which was a 1940’s weekend.

Most of the students, about 8 in all, had arrived by 9.45am and shortly afterwards passed through the gatehouse into the glorious sunshine of the open-air museum.

Prior to making a start, the students all filed into a cafe, grabbed a drink and sat down for the morning’s briefing. Dave discussed student’s equipment, explaining what sort of shots would suit specific focal length lenses and gave guidance on how to take shots in the strong and quite harsh light.

As part of the requirements of attending the course, students were familiar with the controls of their cameras and had a working knowlege of apertures, shutter speeds and ISO settings. So Dave was there to guide everyone on how to compose and grab shots on the move – a subject he’s extremely familiar with given his 25 years as a press photographer.

There was a fantastic turn out of people in 1940s period dress, including american GIs, tommies, nurses, ambulance drivers, spivs and of course very glamouress young ladies. There was also a Winston Churchill and Montgomery look-a-like who, later, gave a re-enactment of a street scene. There were also re-enactments of a bomb blast, a spiv being thrown out of a pub and the capture of a german pilot. This gave students ample subject matter to photograph throughout the day.

Most if not all of the people attending in period dress were happy to have their pictures taken and it proved to be an excellent opportunity for the students to cut their teeth on this style of photography.

Dave kept his eye on students, offering help and advice where needed,and everyone seemed happy getting stuck into the job at hand. Dave gave two more briefings, one at lunchtime and the other at 4.30pm prior to everyone departing about 5pm.

Dave is running two more reportage masterclasses, one on 31 August at Bolsover Castle (Clash of the Knights) and the other on 06 September at Chatsworth House (Chatsworth Country fair) both in Derbyshire.

Pond Dipping at Hardwick Hall: Copyright Richard Williams/Going Digital

The other day Jan, from Going Digital, called me to see if I could fill-in for her last Wednesday. She’d been asked to photograph a pond dipping event run by the National Trust’s community learning project at Hardwick Hall.

Needless to say, I jumped at the chance as event photography has to be one of my favourite photographic activities. It’s the candid nature of the shots one is aiming to capture that provides the challenge and, dare I say it, a bit of an adrenalin rush.

For this event I was tasked with capturing the children’s activities and those of the course leaders and assistants. As Jo said, “It’s almost impossible to teach, supervise and take photographs at the same time.”

Starting at 9.15am, the group left the park centre and headed up the track to the ponds where Jo split the group in half, one lot doing ponding dipping and the other playing games related to local wild life (foxes and voles).

I started with the pond dippers, catching their attempts to gather pond life using nets, and then trays, to examine what they’d caught. It couldn’t have been easier to take the candid shots  I was after, because the children were so absorbed in what they were doing.

Occasionally, one of them would look up and smile – at which point I lowered the camera and returned their smiles. They soon learned to ignore what I was doing.

Once I’d got enough images of the pond dipping, I moved on to the “foxes and voles” activities. This was more of a challenge as the children were racing about – the foxes trying to catch the voles. The children got to wear foxes masks and it was obvious how keen they were to have the next turn.

A slight fly in the ointment was my camera deciding it had a dead battery and refusing to fire. Replacing the battery with what I knew to be a fully charged one had no effect. The only thing that worked was turning it on and off whereupon it would work for a few more shots before playing up again. This was very frustrating, particularly when trying to capture fast-action.

Still, I got through the rest of the morning’s activities including “food chain” games, and making animals out of twigs and leaves.

Having delivered the images on CD I got a lovely email from Jo saying how pleased they were with the photos and how well they portrayed the event. It was a pleasure, Jo.