[Hacker]

Following on from last weeks trial day I now have more dates in the diary to freelance for the local newspaper group which covers Herts & Essex. All photography is subbed out to an agency and this is who I am working for. The papers have quite strict requirements, usually they require a mix of landscape and portrait orientation (usually around 8-10 images per job if possible), all at 200dpi and saved as a jpeg to around 900k. A lot of detail has to go into the 'File info' area including date, job number, address, description of photo and the photographers name so obviously there is a certain amount of PP work required.

Yesterday I was covering the 1pm-9.30pm shift and had about 7-8 jobs on, quietish in the afternoon but a busy evening. First order of the day was to check, re-check and triple check settings, batteries and cards and to ensure I had everything I needed. Job number one was to get some pictures in a primary school of a quiz the whole school were taking part as part of the anti-bullying awareness day. I am not going to include all pictures of the day, just enough to hopefully give a flavour, in some of the images I have blurred faces for obvious reasons.





Next up was another primary school where the pupils were releasing about 200 balloons, again to raise awareness about bullying. Obviously I had to get this one right as there would not be another opportunity and as I was waiting in the playground the sky was getting darker and darker with an approaching squall, in the end I had to up the ISO to 500 and even then I was only getting around 1/125th shutter speed:





From there it was onto Broxbourne Civic Hall where a Christmas Fair was being held. One big function hall/room with a couple of annexes filled with various traders, along with a Father Christmas on the stage for the kiddies. Lighting was difficult and finding subjects of interest even harder. After about 40 minutes I bade farewell as the next job was calling and I had to pop home to get my assignments for the evening.







A quick trip up the A10 found me at another Christmas Fayre, this time at a school, it was typical school fund raising type of event, I got some shots of the choir, face painting, Father Christmas etc etc

[Hacker]

I had about half hour to spare so dropped into the house for a coffee on my way to Buntingford, it also gave me a chance to pick up a list of the rest of the jobs and download the images taken so far. The next port of call was to photograph the switching on of the Christmas lights in Buntingford by one of the towns oldest residents, Olive Pritchett who turned out to be a very funny, witty and sharp centerian, which is more than can be said for the council officials. There were about ten very elderly people there in wheelchairs along with other guests and the first councillor stood up and introduced himself as the the chair of this committee, vice chair of that committee, member of such and such committee blah blah blah. He then said that he only had a short speech, about four pages long and everyone laughed at his joke until.......he pulled out four sheets of paper! Twenty minutes later and I'm starting to keep an eye on my watch as the next job looming as well as losing the will to live.

Then another 'official' got up and made another imtermnable speech before we finally went outside to switch on the lights but, yep, you've guessed, more speeches. At one pont, one of the wheelchair bound guests said (in a typically loud, hard of hearing type voice) "Has he finished yet? He ain't 'alf bloody going on!". I almost p*ssed myself laughing. Anyway, here are some shots of a lovely lady.








Next job was round the corner for a swimming club presentation night. The rules are that if there are 15 or less people in a shot you must have all there names and in the right order so I was dreading this as once you have taken a shot they tend to mingle and names get muddled up. I walked in to the hall and was very pleased to see more than 100 awards laid out on the main table so a nice group shot would be inorder. I had to wait about ten minutes and was supplied with an ice cold beer which went down very well. A few photos of the group of winners and I was on my way.



Last job of the night was back down to Cheshunt, which was a bit of a pain travelling wise, to photograph the Cheshunt Bowls Society awards presentation. When I got there luckily it was another group shot, around 18 in total (phew!) so got a few in the bag and done.



Obviously that's not the end of it but there were no tight deadlines so I did all the processing and uploading this morning which took just over an hour, once I have my workflow sorted out that should come down.

Verdict? Enjoyable but glamorous it ain't! You certainly learn a lot and you do have to keep on your toes to stay on top of it, the type of jobs I was on are standard fodder for local press and I am sure there will be much more variety in the coming weeks. I've got a Saturday lined up in a couple of weeks so I'll probably be covering some rugby and football matches.

[water]

Yep.I'll stick to photography as a hobby

[Dabhand16]

Thanks for the insight, Hacker. Bit different to the recent TV series on the Paparazzi.

Looks like you are keeping your head above the water, so well done, and good luck for the future.

[Chris]

Been there Hacker - at least you didnt have an editor bellowing for 1000 words at short notice as well good luck

[Dave]

Excellent write up Colin. Knew you would stand up to the mark