*ooof*: In the Bag

The gauntlet has been flung at my feet. A suggestion of a press photograph is one thing. But to also provoke some outrageous narrative from my dry mind is a challenge I can’t resist. This has the potential to fail spectacularly, but I like to live dangerously. A bit of adrenaline here and there keeps the blood pressure busy. Let’s start easy, with a look at press photography.

Wellington Touchdown
Armitage and Freeman arriving at Wellington Airport, Nov. 2012
Picture via RAfrenzy

Today’s image was suggested by Kathy Jones. For once we have an image that is quite clearly RL, even with a proper date and occasion attached – RA’s arrival in Wellington in November 2012 before the world premiere of THAUJ. Pictured here are Armitage and Freeman at the airport, surrounded by a group of female assistants (?), supposedly on their way from the plane to the terminal. It is safe to assume that the image was shot with a zoom from a good bit away – we assume that because we know that an airport is a high-security area where photographers cannot move freely. In order to freeze the motion and avoid any blur, the image has been shot with a fast shutter speed. The image is reasonably clear – except for the background – and must have been shot with a mid-range aperture to keep the (moving) people in the foreground clear while blurring out the unimportant background. The facial expressions on the two protagonists are not exactly ideal. Does the word “derp” come to your mind? Well, press photography is not about beauty! This is merely recording the event. “Two famous actors arriving back in Wellington”. Not “photo shoot to make two famous actors look good and desirable while arriving back in Wellington”.

I have not *ooof*ed many press photographs so far – as images for an analysis, the deliberately styled, posed and post-produced images of studio and location photography offer more beefcake  “meat”. The composition of those images can be considered more controlled in every respect; the photographer’s (and even the sitter’s) input is much more independent from circumstance than in press photography. That is not to discredit press photography. Merely to say that press photography is a different kettle of fish than studio work or press call images. Press photography, essentially, is news photography. Press photographers attempt to tell a story through images. They document events. As such, press photography is always shot on location, under pressure, in a highly competitive environment. Flexibility of movement is essential on press photography assignments – the photographers have to find the best perfect angles and vantage points from which they shoot. Sometimes they need to move fast, or even shoot while they are moving, and therefore press photographs are shot hand-held. There is essentially no time for major artistic consideration – apart from choosing your angle and a quick crop to enhance the image after shooting. If photography has a documentary nature at all, this is the only place in photography this could be said of.

All photographers obviously rely heavily upon their gear. I find this particularly the case with press photography. You will have noticed in the occasional shot that includes the press photography gang in the background that press photographers come with two cameras slung over their shoulders. This is not really because they are insatiable camera perverts. Bringing two cameras is essential in order to be prepared for all eventualities. In the context of an event that means having two cameras at the ready – one with a long lens, usually a zoom (70-200mm, occasionally even longer, with a fast lens of f 2.8 at least), and another with a fast prime. (Excursion into technicalities: A prime is a lens that has a fixed focal length – the focal length being the distance between the sensor/film and the actual optical lens. A 50mm prime is the most widely used prime lens – it roughly corresponds with the angle we can take in with our own eyes (about 46°). A picture made with 50mm focal length thus represents reality *as we see it*. Any focal length below 50mm is considered a wide angle – it takes in a wider expanse than what you see through a 50mm lens. Anything above 50mm will narrow down the actual frame of what you see through the lens, but it simultaneously enlarges what you see, much like binoculars.) You need a zoom in case the action happens far away and you have to enlarge the image on your sensor. You need a shorter prime for close-up action. Changing the lenses on one camera body would be impossible – too time-consuming and also not advisable outdoors as you might get dust blown into the camera and onto the sensor – therefore two cameras are the easiest option. – The two cameras are also equipped with two flashbodies, as it is advisable for photographers to “bring their own light”, especially when there is cross-lighting (for instance tungsten light from lamps indoors while daylight streams in through a window – the flash can drown out those lightsources and therefore create better results, quick.)

Have I nerded you out? On a more practical level, press photography presents a number of challenges that you need to have the right skill-set for to address. Press photography is a waiting game. There is a lot of time spent waiting for the actual event to happen – and a press photographer can’t afford to be late. Sometimes, it is of course a case of being in the right place at the right time. But even that can occasionally be brought down to instinct, sensing where something might be happening, and therefore being there before others. It is a highly pressured job, very competitive, where freelancers have no guarantee that they will be able to sell the work that they have produced. This in turn means that a press photographer (when free lance) tends to work all day, every day – or at least has the camera at the ready at all times. It can also be physically demanding in the sense that you are operating heavy equipment. Try holding a 10 pound camera plus lens plus flash for any length of time. You need muscles – and a steady hand, in order to get those hand-held shots free from camera shake. (The text book rule is that you should always have a shutter speed at least the same number as your focal length. So if you are shooting with a 400mm lens, your shutter speed needs to be at least 1/400. With a much smaller lens such as a 50mm prime, you can hand-hold longer shutter speeds. As mentioned before – the rule of thumb is that you can hand-hold shutter speeds of down to 1/60 of a second. I am pretty steady and go down to 1/30 of second on a regular basis. But my equipment weighs only half of that of a press photographer with 400mm zoom, who sometimes manage even 1/15 of a second hand-held. Ice-cold cool dudes, those guys!!)

Technically, press photography is not necessarily as demanding as studio photography. Nowadays, theoretically, you could shoot all kinds of photography with automatic settings. Yes, technology is that good. It is for artistic reasons, that (studio) photographers choose to shoot manually, carefully considering the effect they want to produce on their images. For press photographers, shooting automatic is almost a God-send – when you have to shoot fast, there is little time for adjusting your focal length, the aperture and the shutter speed, or even focussing. The ability of modern cameras to shoot multi-exposures is another great development, meaning the photographer just keeps the shutter release button pressed down and the camera continues shooting frame after frame. Too much, however, is not necessarily a good thing, because after shooting comes the editing – and if you have to find 4 to 5 usable shots (the average number of shots usually required by picture editors for an event), it will not serve you well if you have to go through 1000 shots to find those perfect 5…

With all that in mind, I hope you can see that press photography is a genre of its own – and the images resulting from it are true to life, but not necessarily as drool-worthy than most of the studio work. That depends on your own aesthetic preferences, of course, whether you prefer RL situations or an idealised interpretation of the subject. Whatever it may be – images, whether studio-made or shot for press purposes, capture one moment, and they both have the power to evoke feelings, thoughts, ideas or creativity.

The latter didn’t come that easy to me, for this image. Maybe because I personally and generally do prefer studio work and appreciate the artistic considerations that have gone into them over the RL quality of press work. Plus, Kathy’s suggestion, that this ficlet could place the subject in a completely fantastical situation probably exceeded the limits of my imagination? This is the fruit of my labour:

The therapist stroked his stubbled chin in a thoughtful gesture. His latest client was a tough nut. He had been referred to him for anger management issues. “De-snarking”. Under pressure, the small man would easily snap, become extremely rude and pour buckets of acerbic vitriol on those who were unlucky enough to be around him. Apparently it was affecting his working relationships, hence his client’s boss had sent him to see a therapist after a few unsavoury scenes in the workplace, involving an inordinate amount of expletives, a number of thrown items and several big contracts falling through because of inappropriate slandering, reviling and abusing of customers.

 The therapist was an expert in the field of anger resolution, and his ever rising number of clients and subsequent success stories was testament to that. This client, however, had him in a fix. The man was extraordinarily pleasant to him whenever he came for his scheduled therapy sessions. All smiles, compliments and an obvious friendly approval and consideration of him. The therapist had yet not been able to catch him out on one of his outbursts. And he needed to get him to blow his top, before he could address the issue. He obviously didn’t push the client’s buttons. Or his own calm and collected personality was too decent for the client to pull his usual stunts. He needed to come up with a plan… draw the client out and make him spew his fire like a dragon – which, he had been told, the man was still doing at work, much to the despair of his boss and colleagues. Heck, the case was beginning to have him vexed. “For fuck’s sake – I am *the* authority in anger resolution. I’ll be damned if this guy gets away with it.” He slammed his fist on his desk and his teacup wobbled theatrically on its saucer. Damn. It was himself who’d be needing anger management lessons soon, if he couldn’t get his client to show his real self. Some drastic measures had to be taken.

 —

 Today was the day. He was taking him on a field trip. “Mr F___,” he had said, “I’d like to accompany you on your next business trip and see you in action.” “Sure”, the client had agreed. “I like having you around. You’re a good influence.” The therapist had gritted his teeth at that. We’ll see about that, mister!

 So here they were. The therapist was taking the client to the most stressful environment known to 21^st century man – the airport. If you didn’t already hate flying, then the long queues, the overpriced cups of coffee, the lack of smoking facilities, the annoying fellow travellers, the rude security officers, the long waiting times and the restrictive airport security rules would certainly get you. Yes, he had this one in the bag. So far the client had kept his cool, despite having been charged 7.50 Dollars for a cup of tepid, vile coffee and being run into his ankles by an octogenarian traveller and her out of control baggage trolley (an assistant, who had surreptitiously followed them around). They had joined the longest check-in queue and the air steward on the desk had been sufficiently discourteous, informing them that the flight was delayed and Business Class was overbooked, so they’d have to sit in Economy. No eruption, yet. But the client would break, he’d make sure of that. They were striding towards the security check, already, and he couldn’t help but smile self-satisfactorily at the mayhem that was bound to erupt as soon as they got there. A 200ml bottle of baby oil, a small pen-knife and an envelope filled with icing sugar would do the trick. He shouldered his bag. The client would not live this one down, he’d capture it on film, with the camera hidden in his bag. Oh this would be the highlight of his professional career… His clinic’s name would be all over the academic journals. “RA – Resolving Anger”. He definitely had this one in the bag!

All text © Guylty at me + richard armitage, 2013. Please credit when using excerpts and links. Images and video copyrights accrue to their owners.

~ by Guylty on October 22, 2013.