…Mark Condren, staff photographer with Ireland’s Sunday Tribune newspaper, who was named last night as the PPAI Photographer of the Year at the AIB Photojournalism Awards in Dublin.
Superbly consistent photographer and all-round nice guy, he must have come close on several occasions in the past to receiving the award.
I can’t remember all the winners by category and as I left the catalogue in Dublin (well done Einstein) I’ll hold off on a review for a while.
…for the big city, the place that thinks it’s the capital, whereas we all know, the REAL capital is Cork.
I’m heading off shortly to Dublinium for the AIB Photojournalism Awards being held this evening. I’ve managed to get the DJ (tux), get the dickie-bow, get the eye-candy for the arm. Will I get an award? I seriously doubt it.
In the unlikely event that the judges were seen arriving for Judgement Day with Golden Retrievers and white sticks, there might be a chance. Should it happen I won’t be able to resist firing off a quick blogette to let you know. Even if I get shortlisted, I’ll let you know.
On that basis, you can expect a quiet weekend.
I WILL be back to report on which dirty rotten scumbags of my gifted peers did win, plus any gossip about who slipped off bar stools into a heap at 3am. As if we are like that. Sheesh, what do you take us for? Any complaints about our behaviour may be made by post to: Press Photographers Association of Ireland, Baghdad, somewhere very hot.
Yes folks, I’m back, just as I threatened I would be.
You had your chance to go and do something useful with your lives and obviously didn’t take it as you are still here, so now you’ll have to put up with the resumption of normal service and all the mind-numbing drivel that goes with it.
It’s a bit late to wish you a Happy New Year I suppose, so Happy St Patrick’s Day, Happy Easter, have a great summer holiday, Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas.
Right, that’s got that out of the way so we can get on with other things for a while without being interrupted.
On the non-work front I have managed to survive the recent spate of glorious weather. Snow, ice, torrential rain, Gale force 9 storms and of course with all the rain, as you would expect, another water shortage.
On the work front, it’s good to see that some things have stayed the same over the years. January remains pretty much a complete waste of time. Still it allows some time for creative thinking (slow down old chap, they’re never going to believe that) about where I’m going with the business in the year ahead. Nothing as difficult to abide by as New Year resolutions that can be abandoned by March, more just some general cranial musings about the direction I want to be heading.
Apart from the natural desire to continue to earn a reasonable income from normal sources and so not add to the charity soup-lines, there are a couple of new things in the pipeline that I’m stoked about (translation for us wrinklies – really am getting rather excited about). Can’t let you into too much about them at the moment, but here’s some tasters:
Firstly, I have in mind a series of shoots on projects that I’m really excited about and hope to get started on soon. I’m intending to do one a month but you’ll have to wait until I’ve two or three done before you get sight of them. Actually I’ll have to play catch-up pretty quickly, as January is already gone.
Secondly, there is a single personal-project shoot that I have been dancing around the edges of for over a year now, and I’m determined to pull it off this year. It will be a collaborative project and it’s going to take a bit of work to pull it off, but I think it will be worth the effort. It’s going to be awesome / massive / wicked / sick or whatever the terminology is nowadays by the grubby unwashed layabouts younger generation that indicates it really will be frightfully good.
Thirdly, I have been invited to contribute to something brand-new that will be starting soon and will be providing educational content and information. I’m sure the creators must be confusing me with someone else, as there has been mention of Creative and Great Execution in their correspondence with me. Maybe David Bailey’s email address has been mixed up with mine. No matter, I’m really looking forward to getting started and I’ll let you know when it takes off.
Lastly (I can only count to three), the Monday post for a few weeks will be featuring a series of posts on Commercial Photography for Public Relations use. I forget sometimes that some people don’t know or fully understand what it’s about, so there will be a walkthrough on getting the best out of it from a client point of view. There might even be a few things in there for people who really should know anyway. In a blinding flash of inspiration I have spookily decided to call it PR Photography 101. How creative.
…are going to miss me, but it’s time to take a short seasonal break from the twice-weekly editions of the strange world inside my head. I think you deserve a break, think of it as time-off for good behaviour.
I know, I know, you are devastated, and packets of tissues will be available at the exits to dry your eyes. If you can take a moment to recover from the weeping and wailing, I’m making a promise that I’ll be back in the New Year. You have been warned.
I don’t take any time-off during the summer, so this is the time of year when I take the opportunity to do a bit of recuperation and a bit of travelling.
In fact I’ll let you into a little secret. By the time you read this I should be somewhere heading up a mountain, or heading back down, or in a crumpled heap somewhere. Ah the wonder of Wordpress and it’s timed postings and auto-feed to Facebook (do you really think I’m up at 6am every time to post blogs?)
If I can avoid the mountain precipices and having a close encounter at 30+mph with any trees that line the pistes I should be back with all limbs intact. In the event of a major mishap, I have a multi-lingual note that asks the surgeon to please, whatever else you can’t save, at least ensure my shutter finger still functions.
You (and I) won’t miss much in the next few weeks anyway, not much happens at this time of the year, which is one reason I take some R & R time about now!
Whatever Nationality, Religion or Ethnicity you have, I wish you Seasons Greeting and Happy Holidays. Make the most of whatever time-off you may be blessed with, and enjoy your families, friends and loved-ones.
Whether you read these regular doses of drivel at the blog or the Facebook page, thanks for stopping by.
…time of year again when I have to try and sort through a whole year’s work and try and pick a maximum of 20 bits of crap from about 3,000 bits of crap.
It’s time to start sorting through images in preparation for the PPAI annual awards which happen in early February, but entries have to be submitted by early January. This year I am slightly ahead of the game. Instead of the usual last minute panic where I have to grub around through a years worth of images, I started a folder in my archive around March and ever since have been putting “possibles” into it every month or so. Just so you don’t think I’m becoming delusional, the criteria for “possibles” is if I look at an image and don’t instantly think “Complete and utter shit”, it becomes a “possible”.
The PPAI is the Press Photographers Association of Ireland and the correct title for the awards is the AIB Photojournalism Awards (AIB being the sponsors Allied Irish Bank – thanks very much for the support).
So, the awards themselves. There are awards and there are awards. Some associations dish out awards like confetti at a wedding and photographers proudly claim to be “Award-winning”, but the awards remind me of doing homework at school. Get a 6/10 for your homework, but instead of a gold smiley, you get an award. People come away with 4 Gold, 6 Silver and 3 Bronze. WTF is that all about, it’s like “One for everyone in the audience” to quote a famous TV show here. Award-winning my arse.
Actually, I’ve just re-read that last bit above, and it does appear a little over critical. I still stand by it, but would also point out that I’ve seen some of the images and they are stunning. It’s not the quality of the images but the way that pretty much anything half-decent gets an award.
The PPAI Awards are not like that. Last year there were nearly 2,000 images entered, from around 120 photographers, competing for just 29 awards. There are 1st 2nd and 3rd in nine different categories which are: News, Features, Sports Action, Sports Features, Individual Study, People, Politics, The Arts and Picture Story.
Now if you’ve been paying attention you will have noticed that 3 awards x 9 categories = 27 awards, and I said 29 earlier. The missing 2 are: from all the entries the judges will pick one image to receive a special Humour Award and all the award winners will then have their whole entry reviewed and one will be declared as Photographer of the Year.
It’s a bit tough on the guys that specialise in one field, like sport, as generally the POTY award will go to someone that includes News, and Politics in their entry. These are Press Photo (Photojournalism) awards after all, and those would be fairly important categories.
It’s all a bit of fun though, and the award ceremony is a very posh do, with everyone in penguin suits or evening dresses (not decided yet which I’ll wear this year), and is a chance to meet up with people that you may only meet a few times, or even once, a year.
Every year I get the same problem though (well apart from only having crap to choose from). I can edit down to about 50 images very easily, then 30 or so fairly easily. It’s then a bit of a struggle but I can get down to 23 and then… stuck, and the more you try to make a decision on the final 20, the harder it becomes!
Half the fun, and also sometimes the main problem, is having to think up a title for the image when it is limited to 8 words.
So here’s just a few of my entry from last year, with the CATEGORY / title:
SPORTS ACTION / Gaelic Football – it’s a summer sport.
SPORTS ACTION / That’s going to be sore in the morning.
FEATURES / A word in your ear.
FEATURES /At the cow-wash.
INDIVIDUAL STUDY /Says who?
SPORTS ACTION / You chukka-it, I’ll hit it.
PEOPLE / This horse should be dead.
Time to go. I need to carry on with sorting the dross from the crap from the rubbish for this year’s entry.
