Jemima’s Blog | London

I had a pretty productive last day, though it flew by. I started off with some simple portraits before being drafted in to be the page 3 girl for tomorrow’s edition! Seriously, they needed a model for a feature on page three about an old school in Edinburgh being turned into a cafe/bistro, so we collected up a table, some chairs, coffee cups and a cafetiere for a location shoot. We had it all set up on the pavement outside the school, whilst Greg laid down on the road (avoiding the odd car) to take the perfect shot. Shame about the models though. Never thought I’d be a page three girl, so that’s one ambition realised.

Local folk musician Kim Edgar is releasing her debut album, ‘Butterflies and broken glass’ I thoroughly enjoyed this shoot which was with Dan again. I think one of Dan’s went to press eventually, but I’m pretty happy with these.

An ex TT racer is turning 100 this week

Just a few more still to come, and I’ll be sure to scan a copy of the page 3 photo tomorrow!

This week I took on work experience in press photography for the Edinburgh Evening News. A great little paper that has two editions a day, and do nice local news with some national stuff splashed in for good measure.

Having never taken photos for a news publication before, its been a steep but thoroughly enjoyable learning curve. I’ve been refreshed to be out doing new things every day, and meeting so many great photographers in the process. The joy of the work is that you’re always on the move, adapting to developing situations, or simply chatting nicely away to whoever’s portrait you’ve been sent out to capture. I’ve learnt a little new lingo: ‘GV’ is a general view, usually of a street, shop, statue etc that is being discussed in a report. ‘Spot news’ I think is photos you’re capturing of news the moment it happens – i.e being sent out with the Police for a Saturday night in town. ‘Vox Pops’ are when you go out onto the street with a reporter to canvas a response to a simple question like, ‘do you think Scottish folk are friendlier than English folk’ (example thanks to Dan), and you get a little head shot of everyone that answers – I’ve seen these so many times.

Below are some of the photos that I’ve taken out on the job with staff photographers. So many thanks to all of them, a great relaxed, talented, and cheerful team to work with!

A demonstration against the closure of several community crèche facilities’

The announcement of Ann Street in Stockbridge as being one of Scotland’s ‘Golden Postodes’

This is just a photo of a cat:

A dance teacher frustrated that the venue for her next show has been cancelled at the last minute for no good reason

The head of ‘Visit Scotland’ being interviewed for a feature on the new targets to increase tourism in Scotland (That’s Fife in the background)

The winner of the latest Big Brother with some members of ‘Young Edinburgh’ to present the results of a large research project into the opinions of young people.

A man who is going to be bringing his ‘Emotional Freedom Therapy’ to troubled children from local schools. (It involves lots of tapping on particular spots in your body whilst reciting a phrase about a physical or mental niggle that you can’t let go of – he tried it out on me rather unexpectedly)

Edmund John Edwardes Jones, a superb photographer from the Evening News, see www.ejej.co.uk

…and the man we were waiting to see, Larry Kingston a footballer for Hearts’

The barmaid from the Caledonian Ale Pub which is being knocked down on Saturday to make way for the new tramline

A statue of a sailor that has lain vandalised for years and has just been granted funding for renovation

There shall be just a few more to add tomorrow after my last day with the paper.
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Here’s a selection of photos from a series of six (the rest of which you can see on my flickr page if you’d like).

If you wouldn’t mind helping me out, I’d be incredibly interested to hear what you feel these photos communicate to you. They were a response to a competition brief, and if by some miracle they get shortlisted, I promise I’ll tell you what the story is meant to be. Till then, do let me know what you think as it’d be a great way for me to learn how to successfully express an idea visually.

Big thanks go to Ross Kilgour and Tess Mitchell for being my beautiful and imaginative models. They were both superb. Thanks also to Anna Gibson who agreed to be my photographers lackey and press the smoke button and move the lights about on demand.

The Edinburgh college of art are celebrating 100 years of their history, and I was asked by the Skinny Mag to go down and take some photos at the press event.

I turned up to find myself among a number of pro photographers from places like Reuteurs and the Herald, and as usual I was the only girl, and the only one under 30. I think something definitely needs to change about the photography industry. I never would have guessed that it was so male dominated when its essentially an arts career. I supose it involves handing machinery though, so maybe that’s what attracts the boys.

I took photos of four artists’ work, but this one stood out as a favourite. I think it looks like a painting (though I may be tooting my horn a little hard there), the artist has a fantastically interesting face and glows beautifully in the light coming through her (equally beautiful) glass droplets that were hanging from the ceiling. The light was terribly low (despite flicking almost every available switch) so the high ISO meant it’s not as clean as I’d have liked. Nonetheless, if anyone knows this girl, I’d like to pass it on to her.

Mathu

Mathu again

Boys watching football

I take absolutely NO credit for this photo as all the lighting and set-up was done by a bunch of much more practiced people than myself – I just jumped in at the last minute and grabbed this shot. It’s not perfect, but I almost feel a pro nonetheless! Check out iScotalypse run by a very organised man called Warwick.

Kind thanks to everyone who taught me so much yesterday at the shoot. More to come tomorrow.