by Tim Gander

A Goodall Moment

A few weeks ago we learned of the passing of pioneering primatologist Dame Jane Goodall.

It was additionally sad because Jane was to be the keynote speaker at this year’s IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, which as I said in my previous post, I covered alongside a team of photographers from the UK. Jane would have been addressing hundreds of climate leaders from around the world, but passed away just a few days before the event.

It would have been a huge honour to have been there to photograph her, but at the grand age of 91, we can be thankful she had such a long and impactful life.

On a more personal note, I shall now always share my birthday with the anniversary of her death.

But on the subject of tenuous connections between myself and Dame Jane, here’s another for you; I once had what I call a “Jane Goodall moment”.

In 2004 (April 21st to be precise) I was engaged to take photos at Howletts Wild Animal Park for their marketing. At one point during the day I was asked to go to the medical unit where a female gorilla was undergoing a hysterectomy. She’d had a baby, but she had a condition which meant that another pregnancy could kill her. I was asked to do a few photos to document her aftercare, but I was probably in there for no more than five or ten minutes.

After I came back outside I saw that the father of the baby, a large silverback, was in a nearby enclosure so he could be close to where the mother was having her operation. We looked at each other and he came over to the wire fence, turned side-on to me and with a definite look of pride, indicated for me to see what was clinging to his back; his young son.

Between us were two layers of fence and one language barrier, but I could tell he wanted me to look. I spoke softly in appreciation and at the same time, had to think quickly.

An unconscious female western lowland gorilla lies on her back on hay bales with a medical tube coming from her gaping mouth while a keeper and veterinary practitioner (both male, one crouching and holding her hand, the other standing over her checking her breathing) look on.
Still unconscious after her operation.
A baby western lowland gorilla is clinging to the fur of the father's back, looking directly into the camera.
A baby portrait with a difference.

One of my tasks that day was to find a cover image for the Howletts souvenir booklet, and here was the perfect moment. I managed to find an angle to make a portrait of his baby. You can just see a strip of green haze down the right-hand side of the frame where I couldn’t quite avoid the wire.

It was a magical moment and one not many people will have experienced except primatologists such as Dame Jane Goodall, and she wouldn’t have been fenced off from the experience. To be fair, I hadn’t spent years building up the trust of this gorilla, proud dad or not, so that fence was a welcome safety feature.

The photo did indeed make the book cover and of course I was pleased with that, but the longer-lasting memory for me was that moment of connection between myself, a proud dad and his baby.

A fleeting moment of course, and incomparable to the deep connections and impact Jane Goodall had throughout her career, but I like to think of it as my Jane Goodall Moment.

I very much hope her work will continue to influence our approach to, and understanding of, the impact of humans on the natural world. We still have a long way to go just implement what we already know.

in Older Work / Personal Opinion / photographer / Uncategorized 0 comments
 by Tim Gander

Teamwork

While most of my photographic work involves working solo, when I do get to work with a team it is always rewarding and enlightening.

So it was a real thrill to be part of a team of photographers covering a huge conference in Abu Dhabi in October.

The IUCN World Conservation Congress 2025 was hosted at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (ADNEC) where representatives of national governments (more than 140 of them!) and Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) from around the world gathered to network, share ideas, cultures, technologies and knowledge, and to discuss and thrash out international policy on climate and the environment. I understand there were more than 10,000 delegates there!

As a team of five, we faced a big challenge with many moving parts, but we quickly slipped into a method of working which felt almost psychic. With our leader Steve (second-left in the photo) handling the daily schedule, between us we were able to coordinate to ensure an even load across the team. Also that when one photographer’s pictures were urgent they had time to edit and deliver their work, and that when late nights were required of a photographer, they started later the following day.

We worked together to support each other, helping out with technical snags, exchanging tips and ideas – occasionally fetching coffee and food to help keep us fuelled.

The images we produced were used across the IUCN’s various social media channels and in their Daily Highlights page of the website, with the communications team keeping us updated on what they needed urgently.

The photography team L-R are: Marcus, Steve, Andy and Abhi

Flexibility was key to the success of the week, and we were constantly having to review and adapt plans to keep on top of what was required.

What was most valuable for me was having other photographers I respect peering over my shoulder as I edited and to have that exchange of ideas. I was able to learn from their approaches and styles and I like to think they learned from mine too. That can be a big boost to confidence and motivation when faced with a task as large as this was.

Working alongside other photographers also had a motivational effect in terms of seeking new angles or punchier compositions; an almost subliminal urge to get work noticed within the hundreds of pictures being submitted to the client every day. It’s not a question of being a sharp-elbow competition as it often was in press days, but definitely an underlying driver to keep looking with fresh eyes, even when those eyes have had little sleep for the best part of a week!

So I want to thank Steve, Marcus, Andy and Abhi for being there and for being the supportive, professional colleagues that they were. Photographers can be a prickly, defensive breed, but there were no egos on show here, just fellow photographers all pushing for the same outcome – successful coverage of a large conference under pressured circumstances.

This was a team I’d happily work with again.

Finally, I’d like to say thank you to Kathryn and Giulia from IUCN who, alongside their media and communications teams, worked closely with us in the media centre. Their calm humour kept us grounded at the most manic moments.

in Uncategorized 0 comments
 by Tim Gander

A Couple of Pointers

Many of my photographic jobs involve covering conferences, seminars and general get-togethers of science and industry leaders. The brief will usually involve fly-on-the-wall photography of delegates networking and exchanging ideas during the registration and coffee reception, followed by shots of the key speakers presenting their thoughts.

The spaces I’m working in can range from big lecture theatres with a capacity of 300+ to rooms barely large enough to hold 20 people, which can be a challenge when I’m trying to be discrete.

Lighting will also be mixed – it’s almost always terrible! I rarely get sufficient soft daylight to make the shots easy to edit, so I work with whatever is there. Then I go into battle at the edit stage to ensure skin tones don’t, at the very least, leave people looking ill. Sometimes I’ll use flash, but this can open a whole new can of worms and is often best avoided.

Regardless of the nature of the event, the size of the room or the lighting I’m working with, this work always boils down to ensuring I capture the speakers in a flattering and/or engaging way. One of the keys to this is the gestures people use as they speak.

My preference is to spend a minute observing the speaker to work out which area of the room they tend to address (there’s no point me taking a position to the speaker’s right when they only ever look left). I’ll try to work out if there is a pattern to when they look up and with their eyes open. And I’ll be watching to see if they make interesting hand gestures; again, I’ll look to position myself to capture this the best way possible.

A slim white male in a fine plaid shirt gesticulates with open hand towards a screen the viewer cannot see.
This tight space limited my options.
A young male academic in glasses, dark T shirt with pale green shirt over the top points as he looks to the top left of the image.
A nice strong pointing shot.
A balding white male in navy blue shirt speaks at a lectern while is image is mirrored by a large TV monitor to his side.
Using reflection to create interest.
A Japanese man in dark blue suit gesticulates with his hands up, palms forward in front of his face, towards a projection screen in a lecture theatre.
Enthusiastic gesticulation.
A white male academic speaks in front of a projected slide about his research. He is looking up and making a circle with the fingers of one hand. He wears glasses and a pale blue shirt under a dark blue sweater.
That hand gesture...
A white male with curly hair, a light beard and moustache wearing a mid-blue sweater lifts his hands, palms-up, as he speaks to his audience which we can't see.
Another expression.

Some people aren’t so easy to capture: They might only read from notes with their head down, or they might only look up with their eyes shut. If they move around a lot in a space that is dimly lit, keeping focus on them can be a challenge.

When it all comes together though, the speaker shots can work really well. They might never qualify as art, but since they’ve been taken to support on-going amplification of the event, they really should be as interesting and engaging as possible. Reaching and grabbing audience attention after the event is one of the hardest tasks for the communications manager, but it’s made all the more dispiriting if the photos are poor.

One other thing I try to ensure is that across the set there will be a variety of shots with emphasis to left and right of the frame, as well as some with design space should the client wish to drop text or a graphic into the image. It’s also important to have a mixture of upright and landscape formats for different publications and platforms.

So while this isn’t the most glamorous genre of photography, it’s interesting for me precisely because good results rely on some quick thinking and problem-solving. Sometimes an image will have an additional spark, which is usually down to the speaker’s gesticulation in the split second that I captured the image. That’s when I know all my calculations have paid off.

 

 

in Case Studies / corporate communications / coverage / Event Photography / Event photography / photography 0 comments
 by Tim Gander

When Life Gives You Plums…

The past couple of weeks have been blessedly quiet after what has been a somewhat ‘complex’ period.

A mixture of heavy workload, personal development plans and a bereavement (see previous blog) had left me feeling a little bit broken. No major breakdown, just like I’d been rinsed through and needed to refresh and reset.

However, one of the absolute pleasures of the freelance/work-from-home life is the ability to take a break, step into your garden and pick fruit. Or even just to sit in the garden and ponder the great imponderables.

So it was that yesterday, one of the hottest days of the year, I spent a precious few minutes picking plums in the garden. There is something about fruit picking that I find incredibly mindful. Like my other passion, swimming, I can just immerse myself as I check which fruit are ripe, which need more time and which have gone over and need to be composted.

Looking down on a steel colander of freshly-picked Victoria plums. The colander is standing on a steel work surface with kitchen utensils and condiments visible in the background.
1.6kg of plums looks like this
A table-level view of four jars, of different sizes, of plum jam, two of which have handwritten labels stating "Plum Jam 12.8.25." The jars are standing on a steel kitchen work surface with cooking utensils and condiments out of focus in the background.
1kg of plums made 2kg of jam.

And when you’re married to someone who enjoys making jam, I mean it just doesn’t get any better than that, does it? In fact we had more plums than jam sugar, so I made compote too.

So this very brief post is to remind you to take those little moments when you can. Simple pleasures bring great rewards. They’re the times when you can recharge your batteries, let your mind freewheel in the background, and maybe come up with some ideas and solutions to problems you thought intractible.

I still have some way to go before I’m on the other side of all the admin which follows a death, but at least I have the ability to recognise when I need to take a pause, and in turn this is allowing me to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.

So whatever fruit life gives you, use it to make something positive. Preferably something you can spread on toast and enjoy with a nice cup of tea.

in My News / Point of View 1 comments
 by Tim Gander

A New Perspective and a Sad Farewell

Way back in September 2024 I talked about a camera I’d bought which straddled the Tool and Toy categories of photographic kit.

To recap what I said then, the Lumix GX9 is a compact camera with interchangeable lenses. It acts as a useful third body in my kit bag for work as well as being a fun carry-everywhere camera when I’m not working.

The Excuse for a New Lens

With University of Bath Summer Graduations looming, I decided to invest in an ultra-wide angle lens for the GX9. I could have just got an ultra-wide lens for one of my work bodies, but the cost and weight meant this was the less attractive option. Besides which, ultra-wide isn’t a focal length I use for work very often so I didn’t fancy forking out a fortune.

My thinking was that such a lens could offer some alternative options for shots inside Bath Abbey where the graduation ceremonies take place. In the event it also gave me one or two corkers outside the abbey too.

The lens I bought is a Laowa 6mm f/2, the focal length being equivalent to 12mm on a 35mm camera. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a budget-friendly (£520.00) lens, but I have to say I was impressed!

It’s designed to give a very wide view, while keeping horizontals and verticals as straight as possible – not the fish-eye distortion you might normally expect from this focal length.

I’m posting a handful of examples here. Whether the university ever uses these for corporate communications remains to be seen, but I see no technical or qualitative reason not to. And they certainly offer a different perspective on an event which, given it was 17 ceremonies over 5 days, can risk becoming a bit repetitive in photographic terms.

A procession of academics in colourful gowns and black caps passes by Bath Abbey. The photo is taken on a very wide-angle lens from a low angle looking up from the ground.
Academics process past Bath Abbey prior to a ceremony.
Academics process inside Bath Abbey onto a stage covered in blue cloth while families of graduands watch from the seats.
The procession mounts the stage inside Bath Abbey.
A very wide view taken upright shows the back of a graduand as he mounts the stage to graduate. He is doffing his cap to the presiding officer of the university.
An ultra-wide view taken in upright format makes for another interesting option.

Photo of the Week

This next photo was shot using one of my ‘professional’ bodies and is, I think, my favourite photo from the week. Taken in relatively low light on a drizzly afternoon, I was pleased to have spotted this student as he bolted from Bath Abbey door to embrace his girlfriend waiting outside. It sums up the release and joy of having graduated.

A university graduate in cap and gown is seen side-on running towards a group of people standing in the rain. He is smiling with one arm outstretched and is blurred by his motion.
Perhaps my favourite photo of the week.

I barely planned the shot, just kept my wits about me as the graduates started to exit the abbey, and locked onto him as I saw him dash forward. I’m glad it worked out.

The week was incredibly hot and humid, and pretty tiring, but I managed to get interesting angles and moments from every ceremony I covered (11 in all as I was alternating with the university’s staff photographer). Often the emotional moments as graduates hugged friends and family in Abby Churchyard would make my eyes prickle, the relief and joy being palpable, but I managed to concentrate on getting the shots needed.

Farewell

I can’t write this post without saying farewell to one of my favourite subscribers, my mum, who passed away on July 25th. This is the last decent photo I took of her as she peels the potatoes for Christmas Dinner, December 2024. I won’t say too much more here, but amongst many other things, I’ll miss her saying, “I read your blog post this week. I’m not sure I understood what it was about.”

An elderly woman with white hair sits at a large wooden table peeling potatoes. There is a window to the right, a potted plant to the left and a bright yellow wall behind her.
Edelgard Gander 1935 - 2025

in Case Studies / corporate communications / event photographic / Event photography / My News / Personal Work 0 comments
 by Tim Gander

YouTubes and Rabbit Holes

A question often asked of professional photographers, myself included, is “what camera can you recommend?”

Spoiler alert, I don’t know every model of camera available (there are MANY) and I don’t know what your end use will be, but in the spirit of the YouTube generation I suggest you stick around to the end of this article and I’ll attempt to offer some pointers.

Screenshot from YouTube search for camera reviews.
YouTube advice is a-plenty

Going Down The Tube

Speaking of Youtube, it’s become apparent that if you watch video content about all the latest cameras and lenses, the gear (to many people) has become more important than photography itself.

How do I know this? Well because in my quest to update my work cameras, I fell down multiple rabbit holes and watched a lot of waffle about the specifications of this camera verses that camera and a lot of “STOP BEFORE YOU EVEN THINK TO BUY THE LATEST *insert camera make and model here*” -style nonsense.

Luckily for me I only needed to check a few models because I’m now a pretty committed user of Panasonic cameras. For anyone starting from scratch, the choice is bewildering.

Finding genuinely useful information isn’t as easy as you would hope it to be. Often the specifications of various models are reeled off at breakneck speed like they’re comparing the abilities of a range of F1 racing cars. Everything comes down to specs and speed, while very little ‘air time’ is given to the real-world performance or picture quality of any given make or model.

Useful info for me is to know how the image quality holds up under a variety of conditions, but if you do find sample photos taken with a specific camera, they’re usually pretty random and uninformative. There will be a flower, a rusty car, a sunset, a neon sign, some graffiti. There’s certainly never a properly-lit, well-composed portrait, for example, so comparing skin tones or fine hair detail is pretty tricky.

Of course I don’t expect a YouTuber to go out and photograph a set of corporate images for a client website just so I can see how the camera performs in the situations I’m normally covering. That would be unrealistic, but it’d be helpful to see more in the way of portraits and interiors. It would help to know how the autofocus performs in sub-optimal conditions (ie a portrait taken against a bright background). The problem is, YouTube photographers are only photographers on YouTube. Very few take pictures for a living and they have to cater for the single largest group, hobby photographers. And hobby photographers are usually more interested in speed and specifications than photography itself.

Achievement Unlocked

Regardless of these niggles, I have come through the ordeal and updated both of my camera bodies. To be honest, I could have eked out a few more years’ use from my existing gear, but it’s not a bad idea to sell it while it has some residual value and the new versions definitely added one or two really useful benefits for the work I do.

The primary benefit has been the upgrade in autofocus performance. My existing cameras weren’t as bad as YouTube reviewers would have you believe, but I always had to be aware of situations in which it might struggle. The new kit is certainly more reliable and accurate in that regard.

Another feature which I’m going to find very useful is rather niche; I can now back up images directly from my cameras onto a portable hard drive. This negates lugging a laptop around if I just want to keep files secure while I’m on the go. If there is one thing I’m a bit paranoid about it’s that camera cards can become corrupt, or physically broken, lost or stolen.

I’ve gone with two versions of the same model; one is high-resolution for when that’s useful (pictures to be used for large displays) and the other is standard resolution and a bit more nimble in terms of moving files around.

“What’s Your Recommendation, Tim?!”

Ok, those aren’t necessarily features you’ll be looking for when choosing a camera, so what should you be looking for? Like anything, that depends on many factors. Mainly that will be budget and usage.

My main advice would be to check out the used market. Secondhand camera prices are incredibly reasonable for what you can get. The same goes for lenses, and I often hunt out used options where possible. As long as a lens has been looked after, there’s no need to shell out for a new one.

Most cameras manufactured in the past 10 or more years will do everything you need and more, so think about size and weight as much as about budget. A camera that is too heavy to cary long distances will end up left at home.

Think Format First

In this regard, think about the camera format – full-frame cameras are larger and heavier than those of a smaller format such as APSC or Micro 4/3rds (sometimes labelled M4/3 or MFT). In fact I have a Panasonic MFT format camera which is great for traveling with and lots of MFT cameras and lenses are available new and used. Look for Panasonic and Olympus for this format.

For general purpose, family snaps or travel, maybe an APSC camera will suit you; Canon and Fuji tend to lead in this field. The cameras will be marginally larger than with MFT format gear, but pixel-level quality will be a small step up too.

If sports action or wildlife are your thing, be prepared to carry a beast of a kit bag around because you’ll need longer telephoto lenses and a camera body that can keep up with the pace. You might also need a camera that has a level of weather-sealing. Canon, Nikon and Sony all have excellent models to choose from, and some of the discontinued professional bodies are incredible bargains now.

Say Hello To Woundwort For Me

The bad news is that having homed in on a lens/camera combo that you think might suit you, you’re bound to end up researching it on YouTube, and only rabbit holes and despair live there. Just don’t forget to click Like and subscribe!

 

in Advice / photographer / photography / Point of View 0 comments
 by Tim Gander

Another (Almost) Anniversary

Apart from a break for the Covid-19 pandemic, this is an event I’ve photographed for 10 consecutive years!

It’s a bit of an outlier in terms of the work I do, but it’s always interesting and rewarding.

The Event

And what is it I hear you ask? Well of course it’s the annual IRTE Bus & Coach Skills Challenge, operated through the Society of Operations Engineers and hosted at S&B Automotive Academy in Bristol.

Yes, that’s all a bit of an eyeful of info, so I’ll attempt explain it more simply. Basically, it’s a chance for bus and coach mechanics (the people who keep our public service vehicles running safely) to test their knowledge and skills and to learn new processes and approaches in a competitive environment.

This year’s skills challenge spanned four days, each with fresh teams arriving at S&B from all over the country, with mechanics and engineers registered to compete in mechanical, electrical and bodywork challenges.

Each day was a hive of activity with welding, cutting and panel beating in the body workshop, and electrical fault diagnostics, tappet measuring, vehicle safety and roadworthiness inspection and for the second year running, a test of an engineer’s approach to testing a high voltage circuit; increasingly important as road vehicles switch to battery power. There are too many sections to list, but suffice to say it’s a long and busy day for all involved.

The Job

My job every year is to capture each competitor in action so that should they win, there’s a good clear photo of them for the awards ceremony and souvenir brochure. The images also get used across the SOE website, printed materials and promotional assets (posters, banners etc). Because of this, I work to ensure there’s a good spread of library images from each day.

I also aim to ensure sponsors get coverage too, with at the very least a photo showing their presence and ideally working their branding into an action shot or two.

By the end of the four days, I aim to have achieved a mixture of team shots, fly-on-the-wall documentary-style action images and a few posed shots too. At lunchtime I’ll send a few rush pics to the client for immediate social media posts, delivering the full edit before I go to bed.

The First Year

I remember the first day I ever shot this event; I hadn’t been particularly well briefed, and it wasn’t until part way through the day that I was told I’d need to get a shot of every competitor. That spiced things up a bit, but I got it all done.

Another regular challenge for me is that many of the activities involve engineers working with their heads down, often measuring or looking at something. I need faces, not tops of heads, so if I can’t find an angle that works, I will often pose a competitor once they’ve completed the challenge they’re working on. This year, on the whole, I was able to get what I needed mid-action.

The Next Ten?

I somehow doubt I’ll be doing this job for another ten years – it’s a lot of running around, bending and holding awkward positions for periods of time, but I’ll do it for as long as I can and for as long as SOE wants me to do it.

In the meantime, for this year, the past 10 years and however many years to come, I’d like to thank SOE for engaging me on this one and to express my gratitude to all the patient mechanics who have to put up with me in a stressful situation. Special thanks also to Richard Belton at S&B Automotive Academy for his seemingly never-ending willingness to help and for listening to my terrible jokes for four days solid.

 

A bearded man in safety glasses and high-visibility vest and thick gloves looks down on a shaped sheet of steel he is holding and cutting.
Jason Bates of Reading Bus in action in the body shop.
A bearded male bus engineer in goggles, hat and high-vis vest shines his head torch on a set of instructions so he can read them in a welding bay of a workshop.
Competitors are often reminded to check the instructions as they go.
A mechanic in orange and blue overalls reads a pamphlet on Varta batteries, There is a large Varta sign just behind him.
Gary Walsh of Metroline works on a written test at the Varta station.
A bus engineer in orange high-vis overalls bends in to listen for a leak from some coloured hydraulic pipes.
Vince Hourd of Trent Barton listens for a hydraulic leak in a door operating system.
A mechanic in yellow and blue overalls holds a thick yellow rubber glove to his mouth to blow air into it to test for any leaks.
Martin Andres Hueche Bizama of Trent Barton tests safety gloves for breaks during preparation for working on a high-voltage battery unit.
On the left an older man in glasses, blue shirt and tank top points to something on a piece of paper that an engineer on the right is holding and looking at. He is younger with darker hair and glasses.
Competitor and assessor working together.
A bald man in white T shirt with a tattooed arm uses a torch to look into an inspection bay of a bus. He is also holding a small hammer. He is wearing glasses.
Danny Duffy of Grays of Ely undertakes the vehicle inspection challenge.
in Bristol / Case Studies / corporate communications / coverage / Event photography / photographer 1 comments
 by Tim Gander

25 Years of Digital (almost)

A few days ago I ventured into our attic where I came across the storage cases for my early digital work; 340 CDs and DVDs dating from November 2000.

It didn’t immediately register that this means I’ve been shooting digitally for almost 25 years! I reckon I only shot film for about the first 10 years of my career, which is another sobering thought on multiple levels.

The Time Had Finally Come

But seeing those cases of CDs for the umpteenth *damn* time, I finally decided to bring them down and start transferring them to a hard drive. The discs won’t last forever, especially being alternately boiled and frozen in the attic. Eventually the hard drive too will die and my archive will be landfill.

Brief side-note; apart from properly (expensively) stored negatives, transparencies or prints, no photographic format is immune from decay over time. I’m convinced that no amount of care can preserve digital images indefinitely, and analogue formats will always be more robust. But that’s a separate discussion.

Old Tech to the Rescue

Anyway, back to the plot. I’ve rigged up an older MacBook Pro with the DVD reader/writer I used to use, and connected a spare external hard drive. It’ll be my archiving station until the project is done.

Your job now is to rejoice as I share some of those early digital images. Don’t worry, you won’t have to suffer this until the 50th anniversary, when I’ll be in my early 80s. I doubt my nurse will let me near a computer by then.

Enjoy!

PY Gerbeau (left) and the then deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at a press conference staged on the roof of the Millennium Dome in London.
P-Y Gerbeau (left) was credited with rescuing the Millennium Dome project...
DJs Fatboy Slim (left) and his then wife Zoe Ball are wrapped up for winter as they walk away from Brighton pier. Zoe is pushing a pram while Mr Slim is carrying a small dog inside his jacket.
An exclusive of the couple for News of the World
Princess Margaret leaves King George VII hospital aided by a nurse.
An early "scoop" with my first digital SLR, the Canon D30.
Actress Martine McCutcheon signs a copy of her book in Harrods, London
A barely-in-focus photo of Martine McCutcheon

Notes on the photos:

Millennium Dome press conference 30th December 2000 – P-Y Gerbeau was credited with rescuing the flailing Millennium Dome project and appeared for a press conference on the roof of the structure alongside Deputy PM John Prescott, who couldn’t have been more miserable if he’d tried.

Zoe and Fat Boy Slim 29th December 2000 – I’d been sent to assist a News of the World reporter tasked with finding celebrities and asking them general knowledge questions to see how bright they were. While the reporter got his s**t together having had a bit too much fun in his hotel room the night before, I toddled off and got a fun spread of pictures of Zoe Ball and Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) walking on Brighton Pier. When the reporter finally turned up and asked Zoe and Mr Slim to answer some questions, he was told to eff off and that was that. My images made a double page spread in NotW and Heat Magazine.

Princess Margaret leaving King George VII Hospital 20th January 2001 – I was sent along by News of the World to catch a photo of Princess Margaret leaving hospital. I knew two other NotW staffers were already there, but I also knew they were using film cameras. By shooting digital, I was able to file from the scene and my shots made the paper just because they arrived at the desk first.

Martine McCutcheon book signing at Harrods 25th November 2000 – My first digital SLR, a Canon D30, was pretty dreadful in low-light conditions. The autofocus just couldn’t keep up, so my shots from this press call are soft to say the least. I include this image to air my shame.

in Archive / photography / Point of View 0 comments
 by Tim Gander

Photo|Frome is Looming

View of the front of Frome Library with extremely large format vinyl photographic prints attached to the walls showing the work of Joanne Coates
Frome Library wears the work of Joanne Coates

After a fallow year in 2024, Photo|Frome is set to return with a bang in 2025. In fact, it’s nearly upon us and installation has started!

I should start by saying that due to a combination of personal and professional commitments, I have much less involvement in this year’s festival than in 2022 and 2023. For the planning of Outdoor Exhibitions in 2025, I’ve taken on a more limited advisory role to assist de-facto new head of outdoor Mark Somerville, who’s done a grand job from a standing start.

And so on Monday of this week I was back on a scissor lift, helping a great team of volunteers to install massive vinyl prints on the outside of Frome Library. In 2023 this consisted of a collaboration between myself and the photographers of T House, an Italian collective.

This year’s star of this most visible of locations shows a small selection of images from Joanne Coates’ project “The Lie of the Land” which looks at rural life through working class and low-income communities, encompassing issues of gender and heritage and human impact on the landscape.

I haven’t necessarily summed it up very well, so do explore Joanne’s work more thoroughly here.

The wider festival, which runs from 5th – 27 April, promises to be exciting as exciting as ever, with a breadth and depth of exhibitions which will have something for everyone (always an aim of Photo|Frome).

Just returning to the library show for a moment, it’s also worth mentioning that the vinyl posters from 2023’s show have been recycled into bespoke, each-one-unique, handmade tote bags which will be available for sale at this year’s festival. Or if you’re interested in owning one, drop me a line via tim@timgander.co.uk. They are very limited edition (I believe just over 60 were made before we ran out of material), so don’t hang about!

Finally, just to say that if you are planning on visiting Photo|Frome, drop me a line so we can meet up if time allows. Either way, enjoy your visit!

Thank you to Photo|Frome’s sponsors:

MPB is Photo|Frome’s Official Sponsor, the largest global platform to buy, sell and trade used photo and video gear.

Arts Council England Photo|Frome is supported using public funding by the National lottery through Arts Council England.

Frome Town Council is Photo|Frome’s Local partner.

in My News / photographer / photography 0 comments
 by Tim Gander

The Naked Truth About Safety

The idea for this post was sparked by a post by fellow photographer and blogger Neil Turner, which you can check out here.

In it Neil discusses the requirement for professional photographers to fill in Risk Assessment and Method Statement (RAMS) forms when working for clients. As a professional, Neil is keen to emphasise that while RAMS and Health and Safety regulations do contribute to the freelancer’s work load, they are there to minimise risk and keep everyone safe.

But aside from how societal and commercial attitudes to risk have evolved in the past couple of decades, Neil’s post got me thinking about the riskiest job I’ve ever done. There are a number of contenders – scaling a 150ft hospital incineration chimney, or taking photos from the open door of a Royal Navy helicopter over The Solent having forgotten to attach my seatbelt (oops!), but these were back in the days when H&S didn’t seem so important.

My Riskiest Job

The job that I think entailed the most extraordinary risk mitigations was when I was commissioned to shoot some stock images for The Pirbright Institute and BBSRC. But the measures I had to undertake were less about my personal safety, more about bio-security. In this case, not accidentally transmitting a highly contagious pathogen to livestock.

Because I was going to be working in laboratories which investigate animal pathogens such as BSE, Bluetongue and, from memory, even Anthrax, the rule was that anything which went into the lab could only come back out either through a shower, sterilisation cupboard, or through a peroxide bath. This had certain implications on my approach to the task.

Kitting Up and Kitting Off

For a start, the kit I could take in would be very limited. I opted for my Canon 5D MKIII with 24-70mm f/2.8 L lens which would give me the best range of flexibility under the circumstances. There was no point taking a second lens in since the camera was going to be sealed into an underwater housing for the duration of the session, which was going to exit the lab through the peroxide bath. This also meant no flash because the underwater housing prevented this being an option.

All well and good for the kit, but what it meant for me and the client contact going in with me, was that not a single stitch of clothing could be taken in because it couldn’t then be taken out again.

This was the first and only time I’ve been naked in front of a client, but y’know we were pro’s. And so we stripped off, passed through a shower section, and dressed in scrubs on the lab-side of the biosecurity barrier. In this way, this laboratory is as sealed as it is possible to be from the outside world.

The Tricky Bit

Once in and dressed in lab scrubs, it was then a case of working out which parts of the lab would get the images the client needed, while also doing our best not to hamper the work of a very busy team of scientists. It’s also fair to say, as a working lab this was never going to look like a Getty Images photo session with clear benches, shelves of identical flasks and vials and clear white walls, all perfectly lit like Heaven’s waiting room.

I had to pick angles with the least distracting backgrounds and contend with a mix of off-white ceiling lights and a bit of window light here and there. Most of the colour correction was going to have to happen in post-production.

Add to this, working a camera inside an underwater housing is like trying to knit while wearing boxing gloves (not that I’ve tried that, but you get the picture). However, by the end of our time in the lab we had a good selection of images of all the key activities the client needed covering. So time to leave.

U-Bend If You Want To

This is where things got a little tricky. You see my camera needed to exit through the peroxide tank; imagine a sort of large u-bend filled with a powerful bleaching agent. We could have used the fumigation cupboard, but that would have taken around an hour and none of us saw an issue with passing the camera, in its underwater housing, through the peroxide.

That is until it got stuck in the u-bend. With a lab-side technician trying to prod the unit down with a rod while another technician outside the lab tried to hook it out (we’re talking a strong peroxide solution, so full gloves, masks and all the health and safety being observed), there was a 20-minute tussle to retrieve the camera.

In the meantime, my client and I got showered in the fanciest shower I’ve ever been in. A single-person cubicle with doors which locked automatically and didn’t release you until you’d showered for a set amount of time (six minutes, if memory serves).

By the time the camera equipment was retrieved and thoroughly rinsed off I was back in my usual clothes, but the underwater housing looked a little sad after its ordeal. Even one of the locking screws had sheared off in the process, but the bag was still watertight and everything inside was fine.

A scientist in blue scrubs stands looking into a large steel door with round porthole windows. He's in a mostly white corridor with other scientific equipment installed to his left.
A female scientist looks at a red coloured liquid in a large test tube which she is holding horizontally between her face and the camera while wearing PVC gloves.
A male scientist in white lab coat is turning away from his computer monitor to look beyond the photographer. There is a micoscope image of a sample on his computer monitor.
Close-up view of the front lens housing of an underwater housing for a camera, with camera lens visible through the clear plastic. The paint on the ring has been corroded back to an alloy metal ring by strong bleach.

What’s Not In The Picture

I suppose what all this illustrates is how we can see a routine-looking image and not realise what’s gone into making it happen, a lot of which might be completely un-related to the photography itself. Sometimes this can be the extensive planning of logistics, other times health and safety considerations (often both), or even whether or not the photographer had to take their clothes off to do the job.

Needless to say, that last bit isn’t routine for me, and thankfully so for everyone’s sake.

 

in Uncategorized 1 comments