Times/Argus « Bambling

Posts Tagged ‘Times/Argus’

Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

I’ve been watching too much Seinfeld. It’s kind of a grim reminder how little life has a plotline. In a good way, though.

So, let’s see … what’s happened in the [fucking long time] since my last post?

New president (Zuma, what a shock):
This photo of someone sleeping while waiting for election results won me Photo of the Week at work. Which is pretty cool.
Can’t say that I necessarily support a lot of the horrible politicking of the election season, nor can I say I’m a horribly big fan of how the Zuma trial went, but … well, it’s been over 24-hours and he hasn’t completely obliterated the country. So: so far so good
Finally covered a decent protest-gone-bad: Some might call it a riot. I’m not so sure. I mean, yes, it devolved into stun grenades and rubber bullets and rocks being chucked at the police, but only for about 3 - 5 minutes. I really think SASCO and the CPUT students have more in them (and I hope so, ’cause I came back with shit photos) …
My best photo of the violence ... WHY DID I HAVE TO HAVE A 12-24 ON MY CAMERA?
Finally went to Blue Waters: Refugee camp that was actually shut down several months ago, but people won’t leave because they’re afraid of the horrific violence they’ve already experienced. It’s been about a year now since the xenophobic attacks. So, in a nutshell: horribly depressing situation, incredibly photogenic. Ah, horrible, suffocating poverty.
Life outside work: I’ve been readmitted to Cal, though I haven’t gotten my appointment to sign up for classes yet. I’ve also been elected to the Staff Rep position at the Daily Cal (very competitive: I was running against myself). So … I guess I’ll have something resembling that other life I’ve been living once I get back.

Work is treating me well. Ian (boss) keeps asking me about extending my visa. Oh, if only he had asked a month or two ago. As it is, I’m starting to look into freelancing opportunities back in the states (and by “starting to look” I mean “have considered the idea of starting to look”).

Actually, most of this happened in the past week or two. I don’t know if it’s just been quiet(er) otherwise or it I just don’t remember very far back … oh well.

Desmond Tutu and a cross-dressing political satirist: Highlight of my election night.

“Good coffee should be dark as the devil, hot as hell, and sweet as a kiss.” - Hungarian saying.Though I think there should be something about “bitter” in that …

Hmm … can’t seem to get photo alignment right on here. Should really brush up on internet-technology-isms and such.

Tags: Add new tag, ANC, Blue Waters, Daily Cal, Desmond Tutu, election, Jacob Zuma, protest, refugees, Seinfeld, Times/Argus, UC Berkeley
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Devil’s Peak

Thursday, March 19th, 2009

Excerpt from an e-mail of explanation sent to Anna after an early morning Gchat in which I’m sure I made no sense:
“[...] last night Devil’s Peak basically went up in flames. I was killing time on Facebook, about to go to bed, when one of the other interns knocks on my door and just bursts in. About that moment was when I started to smell smoke. The entire mountain had disappeared: a puff (maybe a plume?) of grey-ish orange, occasionally red smoke just rolling out onto the entire city. So, like anyone who’s lost their mind, we headed out there.

“I spent about 4 hours runing around in the smoke and embers (seriously, blowing embers SUCK). [...] By the time I got home I couldn’t actually focus my eyes, they were so full of ash. My hair was standing on end with soot and the smoke inhalation made me want to vomit. It took me an hour just to import my photos for filing, a mix of exhaustion and near-blindness. The photos I ended up sending in were complete crap (though only mildly worse than most of what I had … none of it was too good, sadly).”

My eyes are still burning (although the eyedrops help) and most of my photos were, in fact, crap. A mix of out-of-focus and just missing the moment and (here’s the odd one) not moving deep enough into the scene. That last one is what bothers me: I always move closer. I have a fairly blatant disregard for my own safety a lot of the time. But something about the smoke and the embers and the exhaustion … I just didn’t have it in me to give 100%. Oh well. There’ll always be more fires.

My favorite photo from the night, and it doesn't tell the story in the slightest. Le sigh.

Tags: Devil's Peak, fire, Times/Argus
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Paparazzi “R” Us

Wednesday, March 4th, 2009

Paparazzo (pä’pə-rät’sō): A freelance photographer who doggedly pursues celebrities to take candid pictures for sale to magazines and newspapers.

Do I consider myself a paparazzo? No. Definitely not. Well, I used to think definitely not. Now just not fully. Not all the time, anyway. I mean, I do other things. Really.

At what point is it a news event and at what point are we invading the lives of people in private situations? Obviously I’m not the first photog to ask this and I obviously haven’t had to deal with the problem in the most serious cases. But let’s take an instance I’ve become more familiar with over the years (and that I dealt with today, thus my thinking to bring it up): funerals.

The recently deceased's mother

Today I attended the funeral for Cytheria Elaine Rex, who was brutally murdered on 22 February. I don’t remember the story exactly, but the general layout is that she was (allegedly) raped by a group of tik users then murdered and then I think they cut out her intestines or something along those lines (don’t quote me - but it was rather fucked up). So ignore the crap quality of the photograph and tell me: newsworthy in the gruesomeness of the murder? Should there have been over a half dozen journalists at this funeral of maybe 150 people?

That one’s more of a question of moral guidelines to me. At some point you just have to ask when it’s appropriate to keep shooting and when you should keep taking photos. And I’ve hardly the experience to start tackling that one. It’s the ongoing question and I haven’t had to deal with the real shit situations where that decision - of when the job has to stop and the humanity has to kick in - is really serious (see: The Bang-Bang Club).

For more on the purely paparazzi side of it: J Arthur Brown’s co-accused, Jacobus Theart. This isn’t the first time I’ve done the “court” jobs (I swear I’ve shot … ahem, “taken pictures of” Marius van der Westhuizen more times than I can count), but it’s definitely the one for which I feel most paparazz-ish (Paparazz? Paparazzi-ish? Paparazzo-ish?). Seriously, running down the street with two other photogs alongside a guy who’s trying to walk as quickly as he can down the street to get away from us … makes you feel a little dead inside. So do the funerals. So do the various “paparazz”. But it’s part of the job, especially when it’s actually related to a real story. Isn’t it?

Of course, this can bring about the questions of at what point it’s acceptable to take a photograph in any extent. Take a photo of that fire that’s just starting, or wait for it to catch more? Or put it out, like a good, moral human being does? That, alas, is a discussion I rarely cherish having and, as such, I will choose to skip for tonight.

Tags: Cytheria Elaine Rex, fire, J Arthur Brown, Jacobus Theart, Marius van der Westhuizen, paparazzi, The Bang-Bang Club, Times/Argus
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Recap, part 1 of … something: Wine Day

Thursday, February 12th, 2009

From my Twitter account:
Woohoo, wine day! It’s like real work, but involves drinking! 9:43 AM Feb 4th from web

Wine

From my Twitter account
Wine day did not go as expected. No drinking and lots of fire … and didn’t get off work till after midnight. 11:51 PM Feb 5th from web

Not wine

It’s been a week since this happened … suppose that just means I’ve been busy, which is nice. Still.

Yeah, I was manual focusing. Bitch, what?

This was more interesting than the non-blurred version.

It was a long day. Abnormally long, with little down time. Oh, how I wish every day could be like that:
9.00 - Morning paper. Wait for assignments. Think that half the day will be spent like this.
10.00 - Wine assignment. Shoot Groot Constantia for a multi-photo story (in the end it was only two photos … cunts).
13.30 - Come back, start filing. Get sent out to take photos of a market just across the street. So I shoot from a window in the office.
15.30 - Start filing. Figure it’s time to grab food, seeing as I haven’t eaten today. Grab food at the canteen.
16.30 -First bite into dinner, Ian runs in saying that there’s a fire in Stellenbosch. Do I know how to use the laptop to file remotely? Yes. Okay. Go with the even-newer-guy. Don’t eat any more. Fuck.
21.00 - Back to the office, smelling of braai. People in Stellenbosch are insane. They didn’t stop playing cricket, despite the air being replaced by thick orange smoke. Everyone we saw was jogging. Not to leave, but for exercise.
21.30 - What’s that? The roof of the gym of the university in Stellenbosch is on fire? So it’s threatening buildings? Yeah, I just finished filing. I’ll go with Jeffrey to cover it more.
1.30Well, that was a load of crap. Why would the roof of a modern building be on fire? Should’ve thought of that … Still, it was pretty. Bed … I don’t care if I still smell of smoke.

Hmm … odd how that turned into an internal monologue.

Here’s the photo that ran in the Argus the next day (Times ran a shitty one from a freelancer, despite the fact that mine were filed in time. Punks):

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire. We don’t need no water let the motherfucker burn. I had it stuck in my head the whole fucking time.

Tags: Add new tag, fire, Groot Constantia, Stellenbosch, Times/Argus, Twitter, wine
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Be Our Guest, and Less Recognizable Quotes

Thursday, January 29th, 2009

Beauty and the Beast is playing at a local theatre for the next few months.

The week’s been a touch busy, at least at times. Other times I’ve found myself wondering how I’d possibly pass the time. For instance, today. As I said earlier, I spent a good part of today sitting around waiting for an assignment. After being in the office from 8-12 and checking my email about a fourteen thousand times, Andrew finally gave me something.

sr0_0039 sr0_0055

So I shot a press call for the Cape Town performance of Beauty and the Beast. I didn’t realize it until I got back, but Andrew basically handed me a front page. A blind, retarded monkey could’ve made a pretty photo out of it, and with the show opening this weekend … well, yeah, knock on wood. The photo that I was told might make the front is the first image.
Note:For the paper I cropped closer to the bottom of the stage, but here I left the conductor in. Thought it made it interesting. Just wish I had a working copy of Photoshop so I could dodge his outline a little bit.

Otherwise, the week’s been good. I’ve been getting out on assignments, though few of them are actually worth mentioning in depth. Rastas and Police Day and horses and comedians and politicians and trying to shoot the sun and a giant freakin’ jersey. That about sums up my week.

… Wow, that actually makes it sound rather interesting.

Whitey likes hats

Oh, and then there’s Hat Lady. I don’t remember her name and don’t want to bother checking my notes. Needless to say, it’s a woman who’s rather well-known in the hat making business because she makes really nice, fancy hats. We’re covering her because she’s made a lot of hats for a big Cape Town event, the J+B Met. I came back with a few nice shots (and a free hat … ) but my favorite was of the photog who I went with, Whitey (Mxolisi, but everyone calls him Whitey. I don’t know the back-story).

It goes well overall, I suppose. And that’s about it for the moment. Maybe I’ll talk about my life outside of work at some point. Just have to figure out if I actually have one …

Tags: Add new tag, Beauty and the Beast, eclipse, FFP, IFP, J+B Met, Police Day, Rastas, Times/Argus, World Cup 2010
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SIX and Thoughts

Monday, January 26th, 2009

SIX is Southern Ink Xposure. It is also awesome. I’ve recently had quite a bit of interest in tattoos, in tattoo culture and body art. So I was probably going to go, anyway. So this was, to say the least, convenient.

Shaun Nel working on Ross Warwick.

What’s occurred to me as a result, however, is the way in which online photo galleries have affected the job of a photojournalist. While, admittedly, it shouldn’t be that different, I have found myself making a practical distinction in what I take photos of: when working for something with online galleries, every assignment is a photo essay (albeit a short one). Even a speaker shot can have multiple angles and more emphasis on supplemental details. But if it’s just for paper, even though I know I should still look for those little details, I find myself concentrating on the one photo that tells the whole story. I think that ramble made sense …

sr0_0018 sr0_0036 sr0_0068

Whereas back home I would have spent hours upon hours at the event, taking detail photos of the equipment, of the DJs, of the T-shirts and people sitting in a line against a wall (okay, I still took that last one, but it didn’t come out), here I did the same shot over and over: tattoo artist giving tattoo. And while I got that same shot in a number of different ways, it’s still the same shot.

It’s not that I’m unhappy with my shots … I just feel that it makes me, well … lazy? I know that I should keep getting those other shots, but it’s not something that’ll get used because the online content here is - how to put this - scarce. It’s good practice, I suppose, but I hope I don’t get too rusty with supplemental images.

"What more do you want than two women on your thighs?"

I don’t know. It’s just something that was crossing my mind.

In personal life news (yeah, shocking, I have a life outside work): there is now a third person in the flat I’m in. His name is Pieter and he’s Belgian. I’m trying not to make crappy jokes about waffles or Flemish (which is, let’s face it, a horribly unfortunate name for a language). He and Martin both managed to humble me in poker this evening.

“Learning is about more than simply acquiring new knowledge and insights; it is also crucial to unlearn old knowledge that has outlived its relevance. Thus, forgetting is probably at least as important as learning.” - Gary Ryan Blair

Tags: Add new tag, poker, Southern Ink Xposure, tattoo, Times/Argus
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Hard Knock Life

Wednesday, January 21st, 2009

Oh, the woeful work I do. How horrible and draining and difficult. I don’t know how I can ever keep up with it. Such mental and physical and emotional strain.

Andrew, hard at work.

The long, challenging day started with a delicious port from [I don't have my notes and I can't be bothered to try and read the tiny cursive in the photos]. A nice way to start a day (okay, it was probably about 11, but the point stands). Admittedly, my experience with port is minimal, but a good drink is a good drink is a good drink.

We saw the full view of the valley before lunch and I couldn’t help thinking I was back in Sonoma county.

Not Sonoma. Confusing.

While it’s on the table, a question of journalistic integrity: the two people were asked to walk in front of the vineyards. In the States, that would probably get me fired. It’s altering the scene. That being said, it doesn’t actually alter the meaning of the scene: it simply illustrates how fucking big the vineyards are. Aside from the basic fact that it’s against “the code”, is this actually okay? How else should someone go about it (these are theoretical questions, not so much situational ones)?

This table was AWESOME.

Then a free lunch. Which is always awesome. So I will heartily suggest Bar Bar Black Sheep if you’re ever in Riebeek. It’s a “nice” (i.e. eerily clean) little wine-tourist town which reminded me even more of Sonoma. Just that everyone was speaking Afrikaans. And the vineyard workers were mostly African instead of Mexican.

Ah, communes.

This has all, obviously, made me want to become [more of a] wino. And this place delivers affordable (but DELICIOUS) wines at a very affordable cost. This might not end well. Or it could end very well. We’ll see, I suppose.

More wine tasting, small vineyards and huge. Amazing how it can actually be so exhausting at the end of the day.

Everyone has these shoes.

I think we sampled ... four bottles? Five?

24 million liters of wine come out of this place. One helluva party.

Yes, a difficult life.

Tags: Bar Bar Black Sheep, Reibeek, Sonoma county, Times/Argus, wine
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Clutch

Monday, January 19th, 2009

I really need to learn to drive manual so that I can actually get out and do more. I’m considering driving school.

There wasn’t anything to do at work today (not necessarily new - the holiday season seems to be slow as shit), nor was there anyone at work today (I have no idea how there will be pictures tomorrow). I spent a large part of the day talking to some of the employees at a restaurant on Long Street. They all seemed nice enough: obviously a little crazy. Just like twenty-somethings in the States.

Saw In Bruges. Quite good.

The most productive thing I did today was study a road guide. I’m finally getting an idea of the lay of the land, I think. Again: I need to start driving manual.

In the interest of a visual:

After about 7 attempts to find a vein to start my infusion: I was getting frustrated.

I have 272 photos taken at 15 second intervals from doing my infusion (Enzyme replacement therapy for Gaucher disease, if you don’t know). Now I just need to figure out how to present them. Ideas?

Tags: driving, Gaucher disease, In Bruges, Times/Argus
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I Hate Introductions

Saturday, January 17th, 2009

Well, I have the technological ability of a snail, so I might as well just start doing this whole thing and then worry about figuring out how to code it to match the rest of my site …

Have I mentioned that Cape Town is gorgeous? 'Cause it is.

On the off chance that someone reading this doesn’t already know: I’m in Cape Town working at the Cape Times and Cape Argus (one job, two competing papers: don’t ask) until the end of June. I take pictures and don’t get payed, but the light is so fucking beautiful all the time that I could care less.

Past few weeks have been nice, restful, but I’m starting to feel the itch to get out more. Appropriately enough, my editor talked to me a few days ago and said (loosely): “If this is something you want to do, kick it up a fucking notch. Think of independent assignments and pitch them.” This was, mind you, in the context of actually complimenting a photo from my portfolio, so it really just felt like good advice.

That said, I’m making lists of things to do photo stories on in Cape Town. I was thinking about tattoo culture (it always seems to interest me): there’s an expo next weekend which might serve as a good segway into that. I was also thinking about the townships. But I’ll get into all that later.

I’ve had one photo in the paper so far; a stand alone on the front page.

It's kids on the beach. Exciting. Really.

Of course, it doesn’t deserve to be front page. It’s just not that interesting, inspired, original, or anything. It’s cute. That’s about fucking it. So now I need to deserve a front page photo.

I like to play with flash.

On the “not work” front, I’ve been playing a lot with off-camera flash (hmm … that sounds conspicuously like work). And reading (What is the What by Dave Eggers). And learning to surf. And exercising occasionally. So yeah. Keeping busy.

I’ll try and somewhat regularly throw photos and such up here. And, you know, write. But I’m a bit more for the whole “pictures” thing.

Bit of what the past few weeks have been:

So … that’s about it for now.

“It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.” - Warren Ellis

Tags: portfolio, tattoo, Times/Argus, townships, What is the What
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Bambling