Despite the threats of Christmas coming I am holding fast with my bid to have a ‘real’ Christmas tree. Mrs Sitbonzo loves all the baubles and ’stuff’ that I really detest. She wants a fake plastic tree! ( good name for a band?). We already have the basic ingredients for a house full of all sorts of nightmare tat and once again it causes creative tension. A nice simple (real) tree with a simple lighting effect and a few tasteful bits and pieces on it. not some tinsel covered flashing gaudy multicoloured tune playing plastic stick! worst thing is, the children love it too! argh. Maybe I am just an old killjoy but seriously it just so infuriating that I may have to do a secret tat dump when they are not looking!

I’ve not posted much multimedia to this site in the past days as most of what I have been producing has been hosted direct on the Advertiser site and doesn’t need the high quality offered through vimeo, my video hosting service. We can also now post the videos bigger than previously.
It has been busy though as you will see if you pop over there.

I start the nativity season tomorrow with heaps of children doing their thing. Its a two week stretch of singing and me having to be nice to people ( I am a press photographer after all) but, I’m kind of looking forward to it.
You will, no doubt, be seeing them as they arrive. If you reading via RSS please don’t cancel your feed, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible!

I do need some help though. Better kids christmas jokes. My standby for the past few years is to ask the children dressed as sheep if they have been good or baaaaaaaad and that one is getting a bit lame.

please drop me a line with some good one liners.

thanks

Surrey Mirror reporter David Farbrother and photojournalist David Berman accompanied a group of students to the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland site of the deaths of an estimated 1.2million people. Please see my other video for a more personal view of the day.

A more personal view of the trip to Auschwitz. To see better quality photographs please see the soundslide show below. (its Flash)

This version is the highest quality photographs and it is preferable to watch this rather than the UTube version

and this version (below) is for those iPhone users with no support for Flash (poor us)

Not much to choose from for this review I’m afraid.

Wow, it is funny sometimes how lady luck can play you a hand. I had a job today, opening of the refurbished Scope charity shop in Horley by the Grand Dame of fashion, the mother of Punk herself. Vivienne Westwood.

It just so happens and purely by coincidence that this was one of the shops I chose to provide us with an Autumn outfit last week for the charity fashion shoot.

She was a big draw to the opening and, along with the in house photographer we got her to do a little more than just cut the ribbon. Following a pretty long autograph session, She gave me a little time to do a short piece to camera for the fashion competition. I was really wanting her to say good things about charity shops and, with some hesitation she was pretty good.

There is a piece early in our conversation, not very well caught on camera, where she says my photographs of the models are ‘ very nice’
I’m happy to take that to the bank!

She found it difficult to choose a winner out of the five outfits but she picked 2 front runners. Where do we go from here? Invite readers to vote on line I guess.

I think I have a bit of an edit ahead to rework the fashion shoot video and that will be a challenge but, I’m well up for it.
UTube stats are looking like just over 1k views for the video so, if you have voted then thanks. if not…… what are you waiting for..

EMAIL YOUR VOTE NOW email.

have a good weekend.

It coming close to the end of the ‘first day at school’ supplement season and I have been quite surprised by the difference in reactions to my visits.
When I worked the Croydon Advertiser patch, schools were almost without exception glad to see the local paper snapper. Booking the hall making sure children had permission for pix and er, not much else needs to be sorted out. It was seen as what was done and happened without problems. Friendly staff and teachers, even the odd cup of tea.

Down here on the Surrey Mirror patch it has been rather different. Some schools appeared happy to see me but the majority were grumpy and I must say acted pretty much as if they were being really put out.

I know its a hassle to have the children’s day interrupted for 15mins but its a historical thing to have the local rag in to do this and shouldn’t be a surprise to anybody.

One teacher was openly hostile when I suggested that it would be far better to take the picture in the hall rather than the cramped and cluttered classroom. No, of course I didn’t say it was cluttered or cramped.

The teacher went ballistic. ” we always have the picture done in the classroom” “why do you need space to set up lights?” “how much longer are you going to be”

Why is there such a difference here in the countryside?
I really don’t know. I’m not a rude man so, smiled sweetly and said that if it was inconvenient to move the children into the hall why not take a bench or two outside the classroom. That compromise did happen but not without complaints.

I always try my best to do the best possible job I can but, sometimes you just have to shoot what you are given.
When those children see their badly set up picture in the paper and maybe look back on it in years to come they may be disappointed.

On the upside, the fashion video is being viewed allot and my editor likes it. Lets hope they use the photos well in a spread in the print editions across the region.

I’m asking IT to put a copy of Premier elements on the work laptop so I can start the process of learning that to help the reporters when they start to shoot video content.

No, you cant just plug a flip camera into utube and upload the story including shots of your feet and the sky.

To Ikea and beyond! (insert camp giggle here) A big hit with the little Sitbonzo’s I thought I would create my superhero self.

When I get requests to get from one job to another in the space of 20mins when those jobs are 30mins apart which includes shoot time I think it could be kinda cool to have a cape.

(Make yours here)

Well, its been a while but i think my MoJo may be slowly returning. I realised how much I have been missing shooting for multimedia this evening when, during intermittent downpours, I got my teeth into a project. An open air production of the Passion play. I shot the stills last night and decided to go back tonight and get the rest. I dusted off my video camera and put fresh batteries in my mics.
Unfortunatly, some sneaky bugger had hidden the power cables for my hot lights and the main sony battery gave up the ghost as some silly arse forgot to charge it fully.

Hopefully I will have enough time to get a good edit done tomorrow afternoon and be able to post it up tomorrow evening.

Here’s hoping that I can remember how to work Final Cut!

recent stuff.

My 6 year owned stock 1979 2l devon bay. In need of work to pass MOT. It will fail on hole near seat belt mount and a small bit of welding on the front beam. I have been quoted £3k + parts to replace basically most of the bottom foot of rust. The front doors can be repaired or replaced. The cab steps and wings are totally shot. Structure underneath is basically sound.
Interior by cabinet maker and original seats recovered. virtually Unused 3 way electrolux fridge, interior panels recovered. Removable face single cd player and decent speakers.

Please email me email.or ring on 07850 101 439 ( before 9pm) to arrange a viewing down here in Brighton.

It was with mixed feelings that I packed up my desk on my last day at the Advertiser. Home for the past 12 years. Many happy times, much learnt and some fantastic colleagues. I started as a young freelance and owe allot to my first chief photographer John. Treat people they way you would like to be treated and never walk away from an assignment without some kind of image. Good advice.
John, Dave, George, Kev, Theo, Matt, Paul and Dan and all the regular freelance guys past and present I am proud to count all of them as personal friends.

The new job is really only just down the road but its still going to be a new dawn.

Hold onto your hats Reigate……… El Groucho is comin to town!

The last blog entry I made was at the end of my holiday. Since then I have been really down in the dumps worrying about big changes in my job which demotivated me to such an extent that I was seriously worried that all my creativity had leaked away never to return. Things looked up today and I have the feeling that there may be light ahead.

The times they are a changing. The Chief photographer job at the Ad has now been made redundant and the picture desk centralised. Four Chiefs are now One and to be honest, I found the prospect of managing a team of 20 a bit daunting. The new Chief is a nice guy and I am looking forward to being able to concentrate on being just a shooter again.
Multimedia has taken a back seat at the paper, but I hope to be able to continue in some small way. Maybe just here on the SB site until the desire to service the Web returns. I guess after the economy gets back on track.

I really took the rise out of my old collegue Kevin when he decided to make the move to the Advertiser sister paper, The Surrey Mirror, saying that he would be shooting pictures of cows that had been tipped over by scallywags. I now find the draw of a new job and new opportunities pretty attractive and come the 11th of May I’ll be based in the leafy town of Reigate. ( just north of Gatwick airport ) Sorry Kev

The Advertiser has traditionally been a great team and always a superb news patch. Inner city angst and middle class contentment. I’ll miss the, hard to describe, feeling of turning up at dawn to a breaking news scene. First press there, contacting the newsteam, dealing with the police, briefing your reporter and chatting with other photographers, grinning when the TV crews eventually turn up. If you are a journalist, you know that ‘being there’ vibe.

With having a ‘normal’ job (i.e. not having to work 8am-8pm) the sitbonzo brand has scope to expand into a co-op of talented photographers, video shooters and multimedia enthusiasts. I will continue to try and bring us together to have educational and fun shoots.

Now, to think of an interesting leaving party…….

Florida April 14th

You join me almost at the end of our mostly hot and sunny time here.
The sky is black and WRCA radio is telling us of the weather system
raking the area currently on track to pass by in a matter of mome

….Not quite as exciting as we all expected, a lot of flashing lights
and noise. Not dissimilar from downtown Orlando. Americans, nice as
they are, appear to be intent on covering their rather lovely country
in tarmac. The Interstate system is great but do you really need six
lanes each direction? Well, the answer is, Yes of course we do
especially if we insist on driving 5.7 litre pick-ups.

I was rather unhappy that the little Sitbonzo’s first introduction to
the US was going to be the Blackpoolesque scene of row upon row of
fast food joints and the worst of American corporate culture along
the tourist trails.
In previous travels, the US has shown me much and I have seen the
more interesting and eclectic side to a generally warm and welcoming
people. I was greatly relieved to find them still alive and well if
hiding away from the Interstates.
Family run stores and restaurants harder to find than before but so
much more rewarding. I didn’t manage to do the full ‘ America
Unchained’ (book and film by Dave Gorman) but I think I may return to
make some kind of documentary of the new trailer park life that many
middle class seem to be now forced to adopt. My buddies Rob and
Ingrid, who came down for a few days over Easter tell me there is now
a tent city in Sacramento!

While we still have some days left its off to the beach. Yes, there
is a tornado warning but….. How bad could it be? Keep the video
camera handy.

Later dudes.

Not long to go now before the sitbonzo clan head out west to Florida. Our badly needed and first holiday in a very long time and boy, has MrsSitbonzo planned almost every activity going. Good friends coming from South Carolina to stay for a few days bring promise of beer drinking and card games by the pool.
I took delivery of the underwater housing for my canon G7 and we tested it in the bath ready to take pics of manaties, dolphins and water park splashings.

If you have been seeing lots of property based posts coming up on your RSS feed then I can explain. A few of us photographers under the sitbonzo umbrella are trying to branch out a little and maybe even make some money. You may have seen the press coverage of troubled times in local newspapers. The Croydon Advertiser, owned by Northcliffe / Daily Mail Group, are in the process of making many redundancies and cutbacks. Despite all the new things we have learnt about soundslides and video over the last few years, we all need to upskill even more, diversify and make some plans for the coming months.

Thought it was time to update David’s fashion portfolio. contact us if you wanna be shot!

No, not me, the carpeting is coming for me tomorrow. An interesting survey from one of the leading web journalisim commentators Andy Dickinson. Asking how video and multimedia is developing in newspaper sites accros the web.

(Andy’s site)

Which box do you tick to say it is sick, very very sick.

what would your answer be?

We met up with David Dunkley Gyimah yesterday afternoon to shoot some photos of him. He is a guru when it comes to video delivery on the web. He took time from his busy schedule to spend time with us before jetting off to yet another conference in the US.
(David’s website)

I am a video journalist. March 2009.

The feedback from the Testing 123 final video was pretty good. Some constructive, which is always welcome. There is an email link to the side and It dosent cost you anything but a few minutes of your time to let me know what you think. email.

I’ve been thinking of doing some more different style videos and decided to buy myself a stedicam as I love the effects you can get. I already built my own dolly and a very unsucessful and heavy crane.

I spent a day trying to set the stedicam up. (it is a pretty sensitive piece of kit) I could’nt get it right and drove to see a very nice guy called James in Oxford. He sorted me out.

Now, all I have to do is to learn how to ‘fly’ the rig. ( thats what the stedi eddy’s call it)

When the kitten decided to rip open Little Sitbonzo’s duvet I was cross. Then the thought came to me that we could use the resulting 3 bin bags of feathers for a bit of fun. No, not with the children.
Some days later I found myself in the woods with 2 other photographers, 3 bags of feathers, 3 bags of flashguns, a leaf blower, some smoke grenades, a bride and a woman due to give birth to her first child.
Why? just a bit of fun to let us get our creativity going. Was it fun? You bet……

Feathers. 21st Feb 2009 from Sitbonzo on Vimeo.

Ian and I spent Tuesday afternoon and evening shooting promotional videos for Testing 123, the battle of the bands that takes place all this week.

I started the edit of 12 videos on Wednesday morning and, after far too many hours to be healthy, (left the office at 3-30am Thurs!) have 12 videos which I feel are pretty good work.

Testing 123 final is on Friday and is my natrual late shift.
Despite my inclination to just cover it for the print edition, allot less work and sweat, I think I may well video it as well.
There is one big problem these days and that is where to find the time? Time to shoot and time to edit. A 2min piece of video can take 2-3 hours to edit .

I can forecast that I may have to miss yet another lunch break but it seems a little unfair that its always the shooter that ends up paying the price.

A colegue from far away contacted me to talk about multimedia and stuff. They had a few questions that I am of course more than happy to answer. Learning how do soundslides, gathering audio, shooting enough good pics and developing interview techniques to the computer side of the whole thing is not easy when traditionally local news photographers have only really had to worry about getting 2-3 decent shots for the print edition.

I take every opportunity I get to eulogize about the benifits I have got personally and profesionally from making the transition and have been trying to get a course set up so that I can help other photographers develop.
I’ve always been a photographer first but, working for a news operation means we are also journalists. Only change is that now, I am a multimedia photojournalist.

Yes, it takes allot of hard work and many hours, mostly my own time, to get to somewhere nearing getting to be alright at making multimedia. I think I have made pretty good progress but there is a long road ahead.

Is it worth it? A difficult question. If you are self motivated, if you can take the decision to occasionally have put many hours work in the bin, if you are prepared to make the effort to get your brain into gear and biggest of all, if you can identify what will make an interesting piece of MM that the readers will find engaging. then I guess the answer is a solid yes.

How much longer will I be able to, or can afford to carry on developing? who knows. The core tasks of a local newspaper photographer are to shoot stills for the print edition anything else requires more work. Multimedia is hard to do and we all like to be stroked once in a while.

yeaterday was certainly a challenge. digging the car out at 0545am and getting stuck about 0546am. roads quiet but snowy until i got off the motorway. then the 3 hour = 5 miles kicked in. I was only able to take pictures from my car as there was nowhere to stop and this lost me the golden time as it got light and people started walking to the stations and bus stops. I managed to feed the web with some ‘car park’ pics but little else. By the time I eventually got into town I had had my fill of sitting and only did a cursory swing round planning to get out later for some sledging and kids snow fun photos and video.

I know now I needed to stick to plan A which was to dump the car and walk through town to the local sledge park and then walk back. But, being the only photographer able to make it in I had quite allot of office stuff with helping download others pictures.
(Impressed those fellas made it in with one coming from Luton, others walking the 5 or so miles in office shoes! I mean fellas, get some sensible footwear!)
By the time I was out again there were some jobs booked in and I got to those and tried the live broadcast thing which worked ok. Editing the video when i got back to the office at 5 took much longer than it should have done and I got home late and tired. Managed to drive right off the edge of the driveway and get stuck. So, I pass the baton to Dan who I am sure will do a better job than my very poor efforts yesterday.
I hang my head with the poor performance.
One photographer I know walked a good 10 mile round trip to get some pick up pictures of a major fire. I don’t know why he could’nt get them emailed?

Live trafic and weather loop from Sitbonzo on Vimeo.

We have a challenge on the picture desk at the moment. To ‘un gum’ our eyes. The brief is to make a 1-2min multimedia piece on whatever we like.

I have made this one but rejected it as my main entry. Paul and Danny are on the final furlong with theirs and we will be posting them here and hope that you vote to decide the winner.
1st prize is a meal for one at KFC

The Drive. from Sitbonzo on Vimeo.

Listening to the radio on the way in this morning I heard a very interesting piece, in between all the Obama coverage. Its a story about a species of Dung Beetle studied in Peru.
This insect is attacking and eating millipedes 10 times its length.
D. valgum no longer dines on dung. It has evolved and now prefers to decapitate it’s prey and then devour their insides.

In order to become a carnivore, the beetle has developed longer legs and a bigger head.

Its quite a nice example of how I feel we photographers are, or need to be. Once a one trick pony we all have to evolve into multimedia photojournalists or die. Personally, I feel my legs are growing a little longer but I still need to work on the bigger head.

(BBC story on the bug)

Florence







Photographs by: David Berman

Thanks to my friends for a great trip.

Le Ski. Jan 09 from Sitbonzo on Vimeo.

Scream if you want to go faster! What a busy day today. A photographer off on secret assignment left us thin on the ground. I like working under pressure. You don’t get the opportunity to ponder your decisions. Go with your gut feeling.

It reminds me of my days as a boy city trader. “Do it now and do it fast” and, one of my personal favorites, “if you want a friend, buy a dog”

That said, I am really really looking forward to a few days off, joining my oldest friends, skiing for the weekend in France. One, a fine Martini maker the other, wonderful when drunk. If I have to spend time away from the sitbonzo clan, what better way could there be?

So much hair. Where did it go?

Well, I don’t think many people watched the 1st ever Croydon Advertiser LIVE broadcast on the web today and that may be just as well. The content was not premium quality, just me driving around town, checking traffic and shopping crowds.
Once the last second glitches of getting the camera actually linked up to the computer were ironed out the rest of it went very very smoothly.
This technology will be invaluable for breaking and visual news. The player is easy to embed and I am very excited about bringing it into play on the Advertiser main site.
I guess this will be snow or, the next big story. Many thanks to Ian and Martin for being my chat companions and testing the facility.

I’ve been looking a lot at what my colleagues in the US have been doing in the changes in the ways they are delivering news. Predominantly it seems they are stills photographers making the move into video. Some brave souls are now broadcasting live pictures via a piece of free software called Mogulus. I have been looking at it for some time and, prompted by the desire to raise my voice and probably more importantly, having a house full of children overnight, I retreated to my room and signed up.

I plan on doing a small test this afternoon and would be very happy if you would have a look at my progress and contribute to the discussion. Assuming I can get the kit to work, starting at 1pm I will make a journey around town. Tell me where you want me to go and I will go there.

I’m thinking how amazing it has got from shooting stills for Friday’s paper to potentially being able to bring live pictures from a fire or, 100th Birthday!
;-)

LINK TO LIVE VDEO

The office has been closed for the past 2 days after the toilets flooded and left the main electrical cupboard resembling a cheap waterfall from the garden centre. I was a little surprised on Monday when the security guard asked me to try to turn on the main circuit breaker whilst standing in an inch of water. I’m no electrician but I knew this would be a bad idea. The office is quiet and there are no lights or in fact any power whatsoever. Due to be out until at least Monday.
I have based myself between sitting in the car and sitting in a McDonalds using their wi-fi listening to horrendous and too loud euro pop. The car has this anoying feature to save the battery by switching off all the electrics after about 10mins so not too much fun having to a) be cold and b) have to keep starting the engine.
I gather the reporters have now all clocked off for the holiday so I will shortly be heading back to the south coast for some new year martinis.
Happy new year.

The presents are wrapped and under the tree. The children are excited and behaving remakably well. Mrs Sitbonzo is warming the mulled wine so there is only one last thing for me to do before I don my Santa suit.

I wish you a very merry Christmas.

More like barred! OK, so my scientific survey into the correct use of baby Jesus dollies wasn’t strictly speaking all that scientific. I just got bored asking the teachers if it was a boy or a girl doll.

The ‘Are you a good sheep or a baaad sheep?’ gag just started to sound like some cack laden and overplayed advert in my head. A bit like that anoying Des O’Connor advert for Tesco that plagues every TV viewing I make at the moment.

With just 2 more nativities to go, a sub editor asking when I can rush the pics back to make sure they make it into the supplement these kids tomorrow are only going to get one take at ‘away in a manger’ Blimey, its worse than XFactor. if a bit more of a crush at times.

It’s been a production nightmare with two schools discovering that they didn’t have permission for a child to be either in the paper or on the web site. This meant scrapping one show all together and remaking 2, removing said child from the running order. Its all done now touch wood and come Wednesday I can get onto the serious business of worrying about budgets and how to get a gallon out of a pint glass.

Sitbonzo *1 had her Christmas music concert on Saturday. The regular cello club had their 5 mins of fame and followed close behind the frankly strangled cat like violins.

Christmas Cello concert. from Sitbonzo on Vimeo.

There was just a very slight perceptable groan as I delegated this afternoons Nativity play to Danny. He is in fact a charming guy and loves his assignments. Don’t you Dan!

The scores so far.

Female baby Jesus dollies = 6
Male baby Jesus dolly =1
Non specific Jesus dollies =3
wet child =1
Baaaad sheep jokes told = 10
Photographer Kookie meter = I have developed a twitch in my left eye.
Photographer groan meter = miniscule but noticed

On the upside, I do actually quite enjoy the nativities, it really is very local community newspaper. Its also nice to think that the children will have good pictures of themselves in years to come.

I really have fixed the RSS settings for anti Nativity filter.

So, we now have a big plastic tree. I suppose the upside is that the dog doesn’t think he needs to pee up it.

Score so far:

Female Baby Jesus dolly = 3
Baaad sheep jokes told = 5
wet children = 1 (a new category since Friday)
photographer kookie brain overload meter 20%

Cool, through my extensive computer programing skills, (>a>b>x>pr><:? )I think I figured out how to take the nativity plays off the RSS feed. One has slipped through though and I apologise if you are easily offended by small children being, er, frankly very sweet. The little 5 year old who sang a solo today was charming and had a really nice voice.

If you do want to see every show then be sure to click onto the sitbonzo nativity08 section for a full dose of crimbo sweetness.

score so far.
1. female baby Jesus dolly

forecast for female baby Jesus dollies: 98%

Baaad sheep jokes told
1
other jokes offered
0

yeah, thanks for your support!

Just me and little Sitbonzo *2 tomorrow as the girls are off to the cat show in Birmingham. I Don’t get the trains though, the fare is something like £60 with a 4 hour journey and 3 changes! what would that be by car? 3 hours and about the same cost in fuel ( if that ) I just cant see how we are trying to get people off the roads and onto public transport.
Anyhow, apart from taking the girls to the station which involves getting up stupid early, just like most days, the boys will mostly be loafing about, eating junk food, playing playstation, getting hair cuts and doing buddy stuff.

It dosent get a whole lot better than that.

bon weekend.

Not so sure about the New man part, but I do do my own ironing, can cook and sometimes can bee seen wearing pink.
I am however certain that I have a new mac. oh yeah at last. The new office one is great but I quite often have to put in extra hours to do production and am just not prepared to stay in the office until 9pm after I have done a full day already.
The new office one also made me realize just how slow the old laptop was.

It’s allot of money to spend but at least now I can read to or play with my children in between crunching video or soundslides.
best thing about it is the magnetic power cable, lets hope that will save me from crashing it to the floor and ending up with costly repairs. I did that twice with the old one. ( anybody wanna buy a dented and slow 5 year old G4 powerbook?)

Sarah is back. My long time colleague is back after her 2nd baby. We are really pleased she has returned on 2 days a week.
Full of enthusiasm and a ‘can do’ attitude I am hoping some of her good spirit will rub off and we can all get a bit of a lift from her return.
Her job has changed a considerably since she left and some great opportunities now present themselves to her in the form of multimedia for the web.
Her first go at producing a soundslide for the remembrance service in the center of town yesterday was truly a great job. 20mins of ‘how to’ and she flew at the task producing an excellent show. I am put to shame by her photoshop skill and eye.
See her show here (here)

I can’t recall the last time I wasn’t working on this Sunday of the year. I’ve always felt it a very big part of my role in the community to cover the Croydon, or other, events.
This year however I am on a day off and, after swimming, went down to the Brighton memorial to join the many hundreds also paying their respects.

Despite the parade and ceremony hardly being a patch on the Croydon one (which is really good) it was very touching and, for once not being able to hide behind the lens, I spent time thinking of those that have sacrificed and those that continue every day to do their bit.

As I hugged my children I looked around to see other dads doing the same. I thought of those in Afghanistan and Iraq who cannot be holding their children today and those who may never hold them again.

you can see last years Croydon parade (here)

I don’t claim to have any knowledge of football and that pretty much suits me but I did smirk at one of my jobs earlier in the week. 3 Fulham football club 1st team players paid a visit to a youth club to give some football tips and to be interviewed by the children for a video they are making. In the question and answer session after the kick about one of the boys asked ” where did you get your hat?” and another, “how much did it cost?”  See, you always gotta take care of your headgear!

While I’m thinking about what is on your head I am producing a video for one of my photographers and wondering WHERE his head was when he was shooting this piece! pan left, pan right, zoom in, zoom out,wiggle it all about! haha it’s early days but I do wish I had asked him to hold the shots for just a little bit to help me edit.

Having birthday fun with Little Sitbonzo tomorrow as she turns 10. Boy, do I feel old.

shh. keep your voice down but little bonzo *2 and I are just about to sneak out to pick up the very surprise birthday present for little bonzo *1 who turns 10 at the end of the week.
Bonzo *1 has been wanting a cat for the last 2 years and we had to wait until the dog grew up a little before we got her one.
The heating is working, the lens thingy is ordered pumkins were carved and sweets scoffed, I’m not having to stand on a cold touchline this afternoon. Life is good.

Just before the start of my very long weekend off I worked late last night to get the hat video produced ready for the big Friday rush of viewers to the Advertiser site.
Along with most of the other shows I have produced this week it will probably live only on the Sitbonzo pages and the Advertiser video page which dosn’t get quite as many views as the main news pages but we are developing quite a following.

The heating man unfortunately couldn’t finish the replacement of our boiler! Its freezing cold in the house so it is lucky I am/was planning on staying in bed as long as is possible. Todays itinery says otherwise. Including making pankakes, pumpkin carving, driving little Sitbonzo’s to various classes including trampoline, cricket and swimming. Followed by some afternoon house tydying, trip into town to look for an adapter for my new video camera lens thingy followed by a little light trick or treating. My children will NOT be doing unplesant tricks.

So, I’m off until late shift Tuesday with a bit of London to Brighton veteran cars on Sunday morning. cool a rama. bon chance.

Being a youth in the 80’s my clubbing days were filled with sitting on the floor doing rowing and drinking vast amounts of expensive beer.
skip forward to tonight and it was a far more sophisticated scene. I did’nt sit down once and didnt feel too much of an old boy that was until a very pretty young woman introduced herself as a friend of mines daughter!
Paul and I were of course shooting pics for the Miss Croydon Advertiser competition at HUB nightclub.
A great turnout despite the advert on the Advertiser web front page reading ” Free entry into HUB on Friday night if you enter Miss Croydon Advertiser”

If you had your picture took, thanks very much.

Anyhow, well past my bedtime as I am taking little Sitbonzo *1 swimming at 7-30am!

Office move went well and nice Mr IT supped up the new Mac G5 to a spanking 6 gigs of ram. ( for non computer people that is about as fast as as very fast thing.)

Sunday morning sees me just leaving for a shift. Its been difficult lately to commision good freelance photographers so I have to get things covered somehow.

Talking of getting things covered, Its the naked bike ride this afternoon at queens park. To raise awareness of green issues. Its really pretty chilly today so I’m not entireley sure how much awareness they will be able to raise.
I want to offer moral support, so may just show that by restricting my clothes.

I will just wear a nice warn and toasty fleace, coat socks and warm trousers.
I will NOT wear a nice warm wooly hat and gloves.

By the way. Monday sees us shooting MISS CROYDON portraits at Picture Partnership’s studio’s Peal Road Croydon. If you are or know anybody that fancies coming down please let them know. Its free and may be quite fun. I will also be wearing clothes for that shoot too.

Phew. It’s been a while. Packing and throwing so much stuff from our office. The move is on Friday and we are pretty much there. Nice IT man has delivered the Mac G5 but has also put a notice on the Bonzo cave which says ‘multimedia suite’ !
I like to think of myself as less of a ’suite’ kinda guy and more of a 3* backpacking photojournalist so, that is going to have to be ‘modified’ at my earliest opportunity.
I am very seriously thinking of buying a camp bed as poor old mac (laptop) is once again giving me grief crunching three videos and 2 soundslides.
Fergus has shot 2 really strong Soundslides and I am trying to code them so they can go onto the Advertiser video page.

Crunching continues… The Black history month project is coming along slowly with copy and paste from computer to external hard disk. Takes more time but I may have some good news at last.
You may have seen we are due to be moving office soon. A new multimedia suite ( the bonzo cave) is being built and the nice Mr IT director is giving me a spare MacG5 with some grunt. ( insert big smiley)

Off again shortly to the Afro Caribbean Centre for some dominos and have to pick up some rum on the way.

I shot some video at the new office which you can see (here)

Grr. I really do need to get something sorted out for my computer woes. Danny isn’t going to be pleased when he gets to the office today. The hours worth of video he shot yesterday at the AfroCaribean cultural centre is still on the camera!
I told him I would do the edit but unfortunatly, despite me wiping pretty much everything off my machine.. you guessed it.
COMPUTER SAYS NO!

Sorry Dan, you are going to have to crunch it on your machine.

maybe video shot to be crunched on this little mac will only be able to be 15-20mins.

Hollywood is calling. I can imagine the phone ringing now. ‘Amber the counting dog” they are SHOUTING…. ” We WANT Amber the magic counting dog!”

I jest but, cute animal videos get big audiences on youtube.
Amber was in fact, a very sweet little poodle and can indeed do magic.
Watch the video to find out how good she really is!

It was an assignment for our sister paper the Surrey Mirror. Their newsdesk, quite rightly, decided that a video shot on a reporters mobile phone really wasn’t quite up to their usual high standards. I grabbed my passport and wellington boots for the long trek deep into the rural idil that is Redhill.

Quality or Quantity?
It’s a subject that is discussed much in the field of newspaper video and multimedia at the moment.
There are those, like me, that think that if a job is worth doing then it’s worth doing well.
There are, unfortunatly, those that think that if you throw content up that is badly shot and edited and there is enough of it then, it will do the trick.
Howard Owens is a well know Web comentator who believes this is the way forward. (howardowens.com) I strongly disagree.

If you take a newspaper with a good reputation for good stills photography and journalism and just write or shoot substandard the readers will be dissatisfied and may leave without letting us know they are unhappy.
There are many UK newspapers crashing their video service with badly shot, edited and presented multimedia due to the Owens way of thinking.

I really and passionately believe that whatever we do as publishers, be it online or in print it needs to be done well.

Bon weekend.

:-)

There is a movement around, I forget what it is called, but the ethos is to just do a kind act once a week without expecting any payback of any kind.
I once bought some ice cream for some ladies sitting outside their shop on a hot day. They were very surprised and very happy. It cost me a pound but it was worth a fortune.

So, when I saw one of my collegues walking to work yesterday from her new place about a mile from the office, I thought she may appreciate the small folding bike I have laying in the back of my garage. I need to pop to the florist to get some ribbon just to make it look the part.

Please Anna, don’t fall off it!

:-)

I’ve been at home for a few days with a gout attack. Trying to put my time to good use I have been trying to learn Final Cut (video editing software) It’s harder than you may think as I can’t even connect the camera!
I also desperately need to free up some space on the hard drive. ( did I mention my Mac is sick?) I stumbled across this old picture from 1990 which relates nicely to my post of a few days ago.
(old post)

My buddy Andy is pointing to the spot where we got duffed up a second time on our travels. On this occasion the ‘bandits’ had been europeans traveling on motorbikes on the same road as us. They were cutting us up and being aggressive too. Further down the road we found them under a truck, one of their heads sadly some distance away from the rest of their body. At the time we called it bad Karma.

Designated driver here was good to his word and stayed dry at the tapas joint. Its nice to have such good friends that don’t take offense when you tell them where to stuff the idea of splitting the £40 Scotch and £30 beer tab 3 ways when you have spent all evening on coca cola!

Unfortunatly, drinking buddies decided it was a great plan to go back to my brothers place for some more ‘conversation’ No longer designated driver, I was forcibly made to drink red wine until 1.30am by which time I was proper drunk.

I have a hangover and a major headache. Just got back from shooting the healthy living conference at Fairfield halls and did slink around hoping to be unobtrusive.

I know I’m going to get it in the neck when Mrs Sitbonzo finds out I’m not going to be rolling down the drive later this evening but it IS my brother’s birthday tomorrow!

I got a call a while ago from him giving vague venue and time. I’m quite impressed that both my friends and I can still react at such short notice to an invitation to party.

Its deadline tomorrow so not to much beer for me, in fact I think I may be the designated driver so maybe no beer!

It’s strange how relationships go. One moment you are trusting and loyal the next thing you need to sit down, take a breath and re evaluate your values and opinions.

There have been some pretty strong voices raised over the course of the past few days which have left me wondering just where the heavy handled club falls into other peoples communication tool bag.

I was once smacked hard in the chest with the butt of rifle belonging to an angry Indian soldier. We were crossing the border into Kashmir. Out of the blue the group held us up, making unresonable demands on me and my traveling companions and refused to negotiate. They too left unsatisfied.

It’s possibly been one of the most demanding weeks. Training, early morning drugs busts, really busy days, followed by trying to make sense of a hard to edit video.
Getting in at 7am and leaving at 10pm. I’ve not eaten in 24 hours and not seen my kids since Sunday.
I am unwashed, unshaven and generally unpleasant. At least one of the new reporters was growled at earlier on today.

Managed to delete the whole of last weeks archive of photos and my card full of images from today.

I gotta get home now! Need to get some shut eye before another busy day tomorrow.

Spent the day locked up in the board room in training. It’s not so bad, but I do suffer if I can’t get outside.

I was very flattered late last week to be contacted by award winning international journalist and multimedia Guru David Dunkley Gyimah (David’s site)

He spent some time with us in November 2007 making a piece about multimedia in newsrooms around the world. We, the lowly Croydon Advertiser, mixing it with the Telegraph and Al jazeera ( we’re at the end)
(view video)

He also later blogged about us when we were messing about for a lighting forum we have all learned a lot from
(strobist.com)

its long (11mins) , and if you are not into photography, a bit dull after about 2mins but there is some prize winning messing about in there.
(Silly video)

Click here to see the finished
results from the lighting set ups.

The slightly badly written job sheet said. “Portrait of James and Armagnac. The restaurant is under new management.”
I dutifully turned up at 10am, on time and smiling as usual. One of the waiters unlocked the front door and I asked for James and Armagnac. Oh, and just how do I pronounce his name? He looked a little perplexed. Waiting for them to arrive I busied myself with setting up my lights for a portrait.
Not until I asked what time Mr Armagnac would arrive did I realise we were talking about the places fine selection of french Brandy.

bon weekend mon amis (SEE NEW VIDEO BELOW)

how do you get 39 filing cabinet draws into about 10?

If you know the answer please let me know.
Due to some reorganisation, our old files of prints needs to be radically condensed then scanned. Its a bit of a mammoth task and one we are cracking into today. We need to be a little covert as each print is known personally by our librarian and will be sadly missed.

actually picking up the video camera for the first time in ages later this afternoon.

Sometime the jobs for a local paper photographer are pretty mundane. After all, It cant all be ‘run n gun’ can it!
Yesterday’s first day back at work was one of those worthy days which are good PR for the paper. We are after all, in the community for the community and for the people involved, it was a big event for them.
However, it can sometimes be difficult to interpret some jobs into interesting images.
Some jobs are just Non Visual Assignments.
1) exterior of shop
2) crane delivers classroom (2hours after I arrived)
3) plaque unveiling
4) lifeboats give talk to townswomens guild in church hall
5) tennis player (good job)
6) meeting at town hall

Not much to get your teeth into there and that sometimes happens. Mind you, It may help on assignments, if we know who we are supposed to be interviewing or, what they look like.
I’m sure the people walking past us, security and the reporter from the other local paper were impressed that we were there in force but, In 40mins I took 3 photographs so did feel a bit like a trophy bride.

hmmm. lets see what today brings.

the bad weather held off just long enough to make this weekend on the Isle of Wight great. Sunny and quiet. Surfing and plenty of good times with the little sitbonzo’s including how to make fire, cut marshmallow sticks and answer one of the all important questions in life……
do the white marshmallows taste different to the pink ones?

Still can’t decide. Better have some more.

So, in true rock star fashion there has been a bit of a mix up. Neil and the other band dudes did their practice but (forgot!!) to tell me where and when. I don’t think I am too much of a dictator behind the camera but I may have scared these good ol boys.
you can catch them at the Hare and Hounds, Preston Circus, Brighton at about 10pm Friday.

Mrs Sitbonzo booked the ferry to the island so the BonzoBus is now loaded and waiting to take us on the road. Bit of a misfire but she is pulling strongly ( the bus that is.) This may well be the last major road trip before she visits the tin doctor.

Fingers crossed for better weather than last time.
p.s. thanks for your feedback about the Knife videos.

What have I done? As we dropped the little sitbonzos off to swimming club we were spotted by some old friends so we stopped for a drink a chat and a plate of nachos. Turns out Neil is getting the band back on the road for a one off gig.( sounds more like the Blues Brothers) Now, I’ve never seen them play, but the playlist sounds good. They’re doing a charity gig in Brighton on Friday night. ( no, Its not to raise money for the penguin)

I’ll be in the Isle of Wight so wont be able to go but, did mention I need some video practice and tomorrow nights rehersal does sound like it could be some fun although I AM supposed to be taking some time off!
I have a plan. get mrs sitbonzo to drop me off, Drink beer and play at being video guy. Any blur / crap shots will magic into creative interpretation. edit quick and dirty and job will be a youtube success. oh yes the simple plans are the best, ones that involve getting drunk and doing fun stuff are better. Now, where did i leave the rest of my smoke grenades.

mmm wonder if Carrie Fisher will turn up.

The alarm clock goes off every day at 5.30am. Those days that I’m not off to work I turn it off. But, it turns out I don’t need an alarm clock because my body does a pretty good job of waking me up itself.
Voila. 6am bank holiday and I am wide awake. I’ve been wandering about, working on my plans for world domination and looking on ebay. I wonder what time I can wake up the kids? should I put in a bid for a 1980 Mercedes 450sl?

Eventually finished the ‘Knife crime’ videos by midnight Thursday. The late hour due to the last showing to web editor spotting that 2 of the stills in the middle of one of the shows were not the right boy. That meant a 2 hour remake of the whole thing.

I’m dissapointed not to have had much feedback but, I guess I’ve also not had any complaints. viewings are standing at just under 700.

Holidays this week, the last for a while, maybe we’ll try the Isle of Wight again. Weather still doesn’t look great. Meeting with the Grand Fromage on Tuesday. Can’t decide to turn up to the meeting in the campervan and Hawian shirt. Probably best not to.

Well. The back of this project is broken. Come to think of it, most of me is broken too. I’ve definitely got a cold coming, probably due to having the door to the edit cave closed, with the air con on for 2 days straight.
1 more video to encode then all 5 need to be uploaded to Vimeo and the Advertiser video hosting service. I guess that will take about 3 hours so, if I’m lucky I will be able to put this all up later this evening. If you have an RSS feed you will know as soon as they get posted.
I warn you though it may be tough viewing.

Mrs Sitbonzo has been very understanding but, I left her a message telling that for the 4th night in a row she will be home alone ( with the BonzoBrats of course )
Holiday next week
Oh yeah, My mac is sad.

Man. I’ve been pulling all kinds of tricks to try to get this all to come together. I’ve got an external hard drive that is almost full and a mac that is rather frail. A colleagues Macbook with a DVD burner but no power lead!
Got thrown out of the office at 10 last night and got back here at 730 again. Still, I’ve produced the 5 videos as best I can and now just have to encode them and get them up onto various hosting sites. I guess I may be pulling another late one but these shows need to be live for the paper coming out tomorrow.
Updates later.

I’ve been sitting here since 7.30 this morning trying to import the near on 3 hours of video from last nights meeting. This mac is DEAD I am sure. The Wing Wang hard disk is just not big enough and the processor too slow.
Its now just after 1pm and I am seriously thinking of just tossing it out of the window. Did I say that my Mac needed replacing?

I’ve just borrowed one of the freelance photographers machines and am actually sitting open mouthed gawping at it as it is capturing the video in real time as opposed to the 1/4 speed mine will do with small clips. Hells Teeth!

gggrrrrr. Well, at least this will let me get the video on my machine so as I can start to edit.

Appy dayz!

2.30 update.. Curses….. new machine video not compatible with old machine video. I wonder if I am going to spend the night in the office? no. I’m not kidding.

We have a really important meeting planned for after work today. It will, I think, prove to be a very interesting piece for the paper.
I have been asked to capture it on video.
All the video pieces I have produced so far are the kind of thing that is possible to re shoot or dump. Tonight is different and I am determined to get it right.
Learning anything new is a challenge and this video malarkey is actually quite a bit harder than I ever imagined. Still, all these light pieces I have been making, like the new Inspect A Gadget, all help me to learn storytelling with moving pictures.
Its funny, after all these years as a committed stills shooter, I really look forward to picking up the video camera.

Yet another youth killed on the streets of Croydon this morning. We cover a lot of crime on our patch but it seems the rise in ultra violent attacks are on the increase. It really makes me sad to think how many people are affected by this tragic waste of life. The solution? Who knows but the liberal in me is being sorely tested.

I covered the police operation at the scene in stills and video and did my first ever voice over. Up within 2 hours of arriving on scene. Also, today I have produced the Grease piece which I will crunch overnight.
Off home to cuddle my children.

Teenager stabbed to death in Croydon brawl.

Be safe

A fun but busy day with the first of what I hope will become a regular feature. ‘Inspect A gadget’
Let me know what you think and, do tell, what is your best / worst gadget?
Had a good afternoon with Andy Pag who is setting off tomorrow on a drive to Athens with 10 other cars powered entirely by either vegetable oil or bio-diesel made from used chip fat. I’ll be in the office tomorrow producing the video. Go team kebab!

But, if it were this much fun I may be tempted to try! ( you need your sound on)

My late shift sees me back to crunching video. My poor mac placed next to the fan to try and keep it cool. Did I mention I am patiently waiting for the Mac gods to swoop down and deliver me one that can process a 4min video in less than 2 hours?

I’m no too unhappy to be sitting here. Little sitbonzo *1 was in such a foul mood yesterday on her return from a 4 day brownie camp that I did at one point think about sleeping in the garage.

ho hum. just another 1hour 50mins to wait. What to have for dinner?

bon voyage.

I don’t ‘do’ weddings as a rule. Too much pressure. I’ve done my sisters, My best friend and One other a long time ago.

However, having seen ‘the man’ in Oxford today I think it will have to be considered.
I could always sell my beloved camper and buy a…… well. Old style, mint Fiat 500, old mint Merc 450sl or countlless other classic cars. But, after nearly 6 years, she (Betty) has become part of the family. Lil Sitbonzo *1 would probably kill me. She is 9, owns half of the bus, and asks me every time we go for a drive when she will be able to take her turn at the wheel.

I can do Bahmitvahs kiddies parties and portraits

I suppose I could ask for a raise or wait to see the Christmas bonus???

When I left you last dear reader we were into a long day of soundslide production.
It was a long boring slog but had to be done. When almost finished the BATPHONE started ringing.
MASSIVE EXPLOSION Whitehorse Road Thornton Heath.
I jumped in the car and sped out.
My friends, expecting to meet me at 6pm were calling. ‘ you s’posed to finish at 5.30pm?’ yeas but it’s news fellas. I’ll meet you at the pub.

Great night with my oldest buddies but, they forced me to drink too much and then eat a truly excellent Chinese meal ( to celebrate the Olympics)

Friend *1 reccomeded listening to a guy called Dan Le Sac. and I pass you a link to two
utube videos which i think are very interesting.

Off to Oxford on Monday to take the van to the metal surgeon. She needs a facelift.

Massive explosion
http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/latestnews/South-Norwood-homes-evacuated-broken-gas-main/article-258879-detail/article.html
and while nearby, go this story too!
http://www.thisiscroydontoday.co.uk/latestnews/Young-man-splits-head-open-Thornton-Heath-pools/article-258859-detail/article.html

11pm cat starts making a noise to go out
1am cat sits outside window making a noise to come in
4am cat jumps on my head wanting to go out
6am cat comes in and makes a racket for food
6.30am I go to work!
7.30am I get to work and start production on 13 After Dark soundslides.
12.30pm I am on Afterdark soundslide number 6

later today aprox 6.30pm pick up my best buddy to go to the pub. ahhh I deserve it. If I am taking your photograph tomorrow I may be a bit groggy

yo yo daddy mac! no no, not a new mac but a good meeting with the chief. I love going into meetings with some really strong ideas and a receptive audience, when you know you are both talking sense and get some good things discussed and sorted out. Those kind of meetings really make life alot easier.
so would a new mac by the way!

Ian Stratton is still at mission control working on the site but I am sure there will be some cool things going on soon. I hope one of the next things is a coments section as long as it dosent get filled with spam which is what happened before.

I made the mistake of telling the little sitbonzo’s about the kittens i photographed today and had quite a long and pleading discussion with them explaining again why we can’t get one. The facts are that our lakeland terrier would be more than likely rip it apart before it had a chance to use the litter tray. One of our cats already traumatised by a close and not so productive meeting, moved in with the neighbour.

————————————————

4th August 2008. Stand by your beds. the chief is back.

Well, It was a long day. Thanks to the guys on the desk, not too stressful but, no new mac and my 80-200mm lens is still in the menders. The 300mm lens is also still broken in the safe! grr.

However, when I got home, the delivery I have been waiting for had arrived. 2 new filters for the video camera. Cool. Unfortunataly, the skylight (to protect the lens) wont combine with the lens hood ( to protect the lens) doh, thanks Sony or B&W I don’t know who to call a Klutz.

I got some comments from you lot and thanks for those. I do need more so please keep them coming. I also managed to cheer up the Editor with some good feedback which is always nice.

3rd August 2008. oh err Mrs. Did you enjoy your bit of camping?

It’s got to that time of the holliday that always comes. The Sunday before the return to work!
We did a few days on the Island but were sad that our usual campsite had been taken over. £5 per night now magically £25+vat? We ditched idea that and stayed in Auntie Penny’s garden. Not quite as intimate as it sounds as Auntie Penny owns a pretty big chunk of the coast near Ventnor. Lots of bunnies and some cattle in the next field kept both the kids and the dog happy. The rain meant we came home a bit soggy. Everything in the washing machine now for mammoth ironing session this afternoon.

I’m kinda looking forward to getting back to work and cracking on with this new video adventure. I do hope the request for a beefy mac (not the golden arches kind) has gone through but in the meantime I will have to continue with this one, sitting next to the aircon to keep the processor from frying.

my list of video ideas is short so I really would appreciate any input you care to make.
so far I have:
the cost of bottled water both to pocket and planet.
some kind of ‘interesting’ cooking show.
Ian S’s look at a once famous theatre, now a bit shabby.
fuel ( early stages)

I think Ian Stratton ( web guru) has been working on a new look for the sitbonzo site so I hope to be able to sit down with him sometime this week to have a look at what he has done so far. the early look I got last week was pretty cool.

This picture kinda sums how my time in the camper feels to me.