The British Press Photographers’ Association is commemorating not one year of great photography, but two. With the world having temporarily been put on pause for much of 2020, the Assignments 2021 exhibition is covering stories from April 2019 onward. One hundred images have been selected, representing the best of the best reportage photography in the country.
One selected image is Samir Hussein’s transcendent shot of Stormzy performing at the 2019 Brit Awards – one of the last live music events to happen before lockdown. A moment of strange calm in the midst of a kinetic performance, Samir’s image captures the essence of one of the country’s most important artists of the moment.
As the exhibition prepares to open, we spoke to Samir to learn more about how he captured this incredible shot.
Jon Stapley: Congratulations on a fantastic exhibited image, Samir! How did it feel to learn that your image had been selected for Assignments 2021?
Samir Hussein: I was absolutely delighted. The BPPA have done a great job of bringing together the past two years’ worth of pictures – maybe more due to Covid – and they got so many great photographers from all over the industry, so to have a picture or two included is amazing. They must have had so much incredible imagery to go through.
JS: Tell us about capturing this image – do you remember the few seconds when you clicked the shutter?
SH: It was at the Brit Awards; it was the last music I shot before we went into lockdown. I shoot the Brits every year, and I’d shot Stormzy the year before and got a really great image. He’s just amazing live, and always seems to produce these incredible images with so much energy.
I remember it was quite a spectacular show, but there was this one point – which was when the picture was taken – where all these people came together as one, dancing like crazy. I remember thinking it would make a lovely moment. I could see all the people around him going crazy with so much energy, but what I really wanted was something from him to show his energy. Because a lot of the time, he had a mic to his mouth, and the energy wasn’t really translating.
But then there was just this one moment, and you can see it in the picture, where he had his arms to either side and was looking up. It did seem to capture something from him and really brought the picture together; it was just a second or two when he made this expression, and it all came together as a picture. I remember just trying to capture that amongst all the madness.
JS: That’s very interesting – because you’re right, it’s a beautiful expression and positioning from him, but probably wasn’t something he was doing very often during the performance.
SH: No, he wasn’t. And it wasn’t like I was getting bad pictures by any means, there were still great pictures because of everything going on, and the lighting looked amazing. But I was just looking for that moment from him that would really bring it all together, and that was the moment.
JS: You’ve photographed plenty of different artists live throughout your career – do you find you have to approach them differently? Does photographing Stormzy require a different approach to photographing, say, Taylor Swift?
SH: Well, you’re always looking for that same little moment of emotion, to help to translate to the viewer what it might be like to be there. Obviously someone like Taylor Swift is going to be quite different to Stormzy; it’s a very different kind of show. But all the same, you’re just looking for those little moments that mean the viewer can look at the picture and the energy of that show is translated. It can often be just a second or two.
With some artists, it’s a lot easier than others. Some artists, you know that every time you photograph them you’re likely to get a standout image, and Stormzy is definitely one of those artists. I’m actually going to be doing Reading Festival this weekend, and he’s one of the headliners so I’m looking forward to seeing what he brings along to that one.
JS: So Reading is your next job? Have you done it before?
SH: I haven’t, actually. I normally do Glastonbury every year, and a few of the big London gigs like Hyde Park. But because there’s no Glastonbury on this year, I think Reading is probably the biggest one that’s been able to go ahead, so I thought I’d give it a go. It’ll be great to be shooting live music again; I photographed Tom Jones a couple of weeks ago, and that was the first live music I’d shot for a long time because of Covid.
JS: It must be so nice to be back into it again.
SH: Definitely. I do a lot of events, showbiz and Royal photography and stuff like that, which was all largely shut down. Now all these things are coming back so it’s really exciting.
Samir Hussein is on Instagram as @samhussein1 his website is samirhussein.com. The BPPA Assignments 2021 exhibition runs at Bargehouse London, Oxo Tower Wharf, London SE1 9PH, from August 27th to September 5th.
The 100 images selected for the BPPA Assignments 2021 exhibition cover some of the most seismic news stories from the past couple of years. The abrupt exit of Dominic Cummings’ – special advisor to Prime Minister Boris Johnson and architect of the Brexit campaign – was one of the biggest political stories of the year.
While rumours had been circling that Cummings was on his way out, no one knew precisely how or when. While it had been thought that Cummings would stay on until Christmas, an auspicious Friday 13th of November 2020 saw his abrupt exit from Downing Street carrying a box of personal effects. One of the press photographers there to capture the scene was Hollie Adams, whose atmospheric, street-lit shot would go on to earn a place in the BPPA Assignments 2021 exhibition.
As the exhibition prepares to open, we chatted to Hollie to get the story behind the shot…
Jon Stapley: Hi Hollie – congratulations on getting an image featured in Assignments 2021! How did it feel to find out?
Hollie Adams: It was great. I’ve not actually had a picture hung on a wall before, so I’m excited to see it. I’ve been down there helping out the last couple of days, and it’s exciting to see the exhibition all come together, and see all the work that people have managed to produce, even during a lockdown.
JS: So this particular image, can you talk us through the moment you captured it?
HA: There was a bit of mad panic. I had got a call early in the morning asking if I could get to Dominic Cummings’ house, but by the time I got there he’d already left. So I’d kind of started the day on the back foot, and I was thinking to myself, “I’ve gotta get him, I’ve gotta get him at some point.”
I was at Downing Street all day, waiting and waiting. I got another call saying, “You know, if you think nothing’s going to happen, you can probably head off.” But I thought I’d just give it a bit longer. Another photographer had already left. But then, out of nowhere, Dominic Cummings just walked out of the front door with a box.
It seemed very deliberate. We weren’t expecting it, because if he’d wanted to avoid us, he could have. Because I’d missed him earlier, I’d set up an off-camera flash to make sure I got the lighting right. It was in winter, so it was getting dark really early at that point. And when he started walking down the street, all the other photographers continued to shoot him, and I only had a camera with a long lens in my hand and my flash was off-camera. So I panicked, and I just thought, “Well, there’s available light in the street,” so I ran out into the street after him. And to my surprise, he stood there and hailed a cab. Obviously he was very aware of the photographers, and to me it seemed like a very deliberate move.
When I started getting messages from people, that’s when I knew. At the time I didn’t really know that I had got a great shot, but when people started messaging me, that’s when I knew I’d got something good.
JS: I guess you never really know for sure until an image gets out there into the world.
HA: In the moment, all you’re thinking about is making sure everything’s right, that the exposure’s right, trying to predict where people might go so that you’re in the right position. There’s a lot of luck too.
JS: How long have you been doing press photography?
HA: I’ve been in London for two years now, but I was on staff at a national newspaper in Australia, and I’d been there for five years. So I’ve been doing it for about seven years.
JS: That’s quite some time! Are there any skills you’ve learned that you think are particularly important?
HA: Working in London is really different to working in Australia, and working at a newspaper is quite different to working for a newswire. You spend a lot of time on the street. But you also become a lot faster by doing a lot of hard news, and technically you learn a lot more because it’s really competitive. There are so many photographers in London, and you’ve really got to be on your game because there’s a lot to compare your stuff to. If you don’t get a great picture, people are going to see what else has been shot that day.
JS: There’s a standard you have to hit.
HA: Definitely. I was shocked at the number of photographers when I came here; I couldn’t believe it.
JS: Do you have your next assignment lined up?
HA: I just work day to day. I don’t have a project on the go; I take it as it comes and go where the news goes.
Hollie Adams is on Instagram as @hollieradams. The BPPA Assignments 2021 exhibition runs at Bargehouse London, Oxo Tower Wharf, London SE1 9PH, from August 27th to September 5th.
Thinking of starting a YouTube channel, or sharing videos of your exploits on Facebook, Instagram or another social media platform? Then you’ll want to pick up one of the best cameras for vloggers.
Welcome back to our vlogging kit series, where we run through some of the best cameras and other equipment that’s out there for prospective vloggers right now.
You may or may not have been tempted by the idea of vlogging before, but even if you’ve never considered it, we’d definitely recommend giving it some thought. Vlogging tends to demand less production value than other types of video, and as a professional working in stills or video, you already have a wealth of material to vlog about with a built-in audience. What kind of kit are you using for your shoots – what do you like about it, what do you wish were better? How do you approach different kinds of shoots and subjects? People are interested in this stuff, and being able to connect with them through vlogs is a great way to open up new opportunities and even potential revenue streams.
Today we’re taking a look at the Sony ZV-E10. Designed for creative vloggers who aspire to an artistic look, without the hassle. The ZV-E10 shoots 4K video at up to 30fps, unfortunately it doesn’t offer a 4K/60p mode for those creative vloggers who like to slow down their footage for cut-scenes. Still, you do get some of Sony’s latest autofocus smarts, including Real-time Tracking and Real-time Eye AF. These allow it to track a person around the frame and automatically keep them in focus.
The ZV-E10 is an interchangeable-lens vlog camera with over 60 lenses to inspire self-expression. Wide-angle lens options allow you to capture more of the locations or the natural backdrop, and bring your viewers along with you in a shared experience whilst creating dynamic footage. A fixed focal length lens will allow you to create a smooth, natural background blur that lets the subject stand out. It’s also useful when you want a brighter image in a dimly lit setting. Whilst a macro lens can get you closer to your subject, allowing you to capture the small details at a bigger size than with normal lenses and show off every glorious detail. Use a telephoto lens, to shoot far-off objects, scenery or action with clear detail, whether you’re vlogging while travelling or just shooting everyday life. Zooming in and out can also add an extra dynamic element to your story.
Let’s dig into its feature-set and find out why it’s designed for vlogging…
You can choose the lens that matches your style
Sony’s has an extensive range of E-mount lenses to help bring your vlog to the next level with stunning and unique imagery. Incorporate background scenery into your script with a wide-angle lens, or make the subject grab the viewer’s attention by using a fixed focal length lens with an artfully blurred background. Move in closer with a macro lens or pull in distant scenes with a telephoto lens.
A large-format image sensor for professional-quality images
The ZV-E10’s impressive images are the result of the camera’s large APS-C sized image sensor. Compared to a smartphone camera, the image sensor of the ZV-E10 is bigger, allowing for beautiful, professional-looking images with high resolution and intricate detail.
Designed for easy selfie and vlog shoots
Weighing in at just 364 grams the ZV-E10 is ready to hit the road with you whenever you’re ready to vlog. The side-opening vari-angle LCD screen makes it easy to take selfies and check your framing, even when you’re shooting from high or low positions, and the ergonomic grip is designed for a safe and stable hold.
4K video
The camera’s internal 4K video recordings are made using a full-pixel readout from the sensor. This means that the recorded footage has more visual data condensed into every frame, resulting in remarkably detailed video imagery.
Real-time tracking can do the focusing work for you
The ZV-E10’s AI-driven13 Real-time Tracking is intuitive to use. Simply touch the monitor to indicate the subject you want to focus on and Real-time Tracking will take it from there, keeping a steady hold on the subject.
Background blur control
There’s no need for complicated manual adjustments – just press a single button to turn background blurring (bokeh) on and off. The button switches between a blurred, bokeh-rich background and a clearly focused one, skipping all the complex setting.
Designed for clear voice recording even outdoors
Equipped with a built-in Directional 3-Capsule Mic, the ZV-E10 records voices clearly even in crowded settings. It’s optimised to capture voices in front of the camera with fewer distracting ambient sounds, perfect for vlogging use. The ZV-E10 comes with a wind screen, allowing worry-free recording when shooting outside. The supplied wind screen can be easily attached to the Multi Interface to reduce noise in windy conditions.
Smooth and stable images even while walking
The ZV-E10 will help keep things smooth and steady when you’re on the move. Active Mode electronic image stabilisation delivers stable video footage with minimal shake and blur during hand-held recording, and it’s available even when the Product Showcase Setting is on.
Add special effects in-camera
You can switch up your colours to create a variety of artistic effects. Just change the Creative Style setting, or choose from seven different visual effects using Picture Effect mode, without any additional post-production.
Handle long shooting sessions without battery worries
When you’re shooting outdoors or anywhere without a power supply, you can rely on the camera’s battery to power up to 125 minutes of continuous movie shooting or up to 440 still images. The camera also supports external power through a USB Type-C connector, allowing an external mobile battery to further extend your recording time.
An ideal vlogging setup with the Sony ZV-E10
If you want to maximise the production value you get out of the Sony ZV-E10, then it’s worth thinking about the best accessories to use. It doesn’t have to be a massive outlay of cash – a few well-chosen accessories can make a massive difference in the quality of your videos, not to mention the ease of producing them, and luckily for you, we’ve picked out a ready-made list of the best ones around right now. While this list isn’t exhaustive, it also isn’t compulsory – even just a few of these will really see your vlogging improve.
So here’s what we reckon you should get:
– A good all-encompassing lens. You ideally don’t want to be faffing about changing lenses too often. We’d say something like the Sony 16-70mm f/4 will cover a solid focal range that should give you all the coverage you need for the vast majority of your vlogging.
– A good shotgun microphone. A no-brainer here for improving the sound quality of your videos – there’s a reason we recommend it in all of our vlogging blogs. A RØDE VideoMic will suit your purposes fantastically. For more audio control you can use the Sony XLR-K3M XLR adaptor kit, pictured above, with your choice of XLR microphone from shotgun mics to radio lavalier kits ideal for interviews.
– A fast, large-capacity SD card. You might be able to save some money here, as the ZV-E10 isn’t able to take advantage of UHS-II cards, a UHS-I SD card will do fine. Something from the SanDisk Extreme Pro range will suit you fine – the higher its capacity, the better.
– A stable tripod, ideally one with a head geared for video. Manfrotto, Vanguard, Camlink and Velbon all make great dedicated video tripods with smooth panning heads.
– Monitoring headphones to check your audio.
– A video light. Look at lights from Rotolight for a good self-contained system.
The Sony ZV-E10 isn’t perfect
The grip is way too small to use handheld with a big lens, as it’s too unwieldy to hold the lens while using the rear display to frame shots. We would recommend using a tripod, as well as for some long-exposure images. There’s no mode dial on the top; instead you’ll set the capture mode via the menu. You do get a shutter release at the top of the handgrip. The Sony ZV-E10 has a built-in electronic viewfinder for framing shots so if you need a camera with a viewfinder try the Sony A6100 or A6400. If you are looking for a run-and-gun video camera for quick pans then this might be the worst thing about the camera from a video point-of-view, and while it won’t affect many studio or static shooters, run-and-gun camera operators might not be ready for its jelly effect. The Sony ZV-E10’s 4K capture caps out at 25/30 fps, so if you want to slow down your footage without compromising on resolution, you’ll need to look elsewhere.
Dust spots on photos can lead to hours of extra editing. Sometimes there are motes of dust, oil spots, even fingerprints on a camera sensor. But how can you know before it’s too late?
Dust resting on your Mirrorless or DSLR cameras imaging sensor can show up as black spots or soft grey blobs on your images. Most frequently these UFOs (unidentified foreign objects) on the sensor show up in images with clear skies or plain backdrops when your lens is stopped down to f/8 and lower.
You can do a blue sky test but Blue skies are not always available in the UK. Luckily you can check your sensor quickly at home. Before any important assignment, project, holiday or wedding we recommend checking your sensor to see if it needs a clean. This could save you hours in editing afterwards.
Our technicians clean camera check and clean sensors every day. We asked them the best way to check for dust on an imaging sensor.
Sensor Check Kit List
Your Camera
A 50mm f1.4 lens (ideally but any standard angle lens will do)
Tracing paper or diffusion gel
BlueTak
a light source or window (do not point your camera at the sun, it can damage cameras and lenses)
Image editing software eg. Photoshop Elements
Step 1: Make a blank light source
If you have a lightbox for art, viewing slides or negatives then you are ahead of the game, you can use the lightbox. If you don’t, you can make one easily: Just stick some tracing paper, or lighting diffusion gel to a window like below.
A simple light box: Some tracing paper stuck to a window.
Step 2: Camera Settings
We take a picture with the lens right up against our blank light source using these settings:
Put the lens flat against the lightbox or tracing paper, keep the camera pressed against the paper for the while exposure which might be ½ second on a gloomy day. We are making a shilouette of all the dust on our sensor. Since all the dust that affects your images is behind the lens it does not matter how your focus is set.
Keep the camera held up to the paper for the whole exposure.
Step 4: Review your image
Download your image to your computer and open your photo in an image editing software, we’re using photoshop. At first your sensor image should look like the one below. To start with the image should look grey and flat, often there is not much dust visible apart from the most serious marks. In the next step much more dust will be revealed.
Look closely some dust is already visible
Step 5: Image Adjustments – levels
Open up the histogram or levels adjustment tool (In Photoshop go to Image>Adjustments>Levels or on windows Ctrl + L, on a mac Command + L)
All the image information is in that central spike so bring the edge sliders (black point and white point) in to either side of the histogram to increase the contrast and highlight the dust.
Any dust on your sensor should appear clearly as visible black marks.
With the contrast raised the dust on the sensor is much more visible.
What to do next
Once you have identified whether or not there are marks on your sensor you will need to decide what to do next, should you clean the sensor yourself? Here are some options
Professional Sensor Cleaning
We can clean your imaging sensor in our London workshop or at our Leeds and Manchester service counters while you wait Monday to Friday. This gives you a really thorough clean not just of the sensor but of the whole camera and mirror box to reduce the risk of dust falling back onto the sensor after the clean. Find out more about our sensor cleaning service.
DIY Sensor Cleaning
Not for the faint of heart but also not impossible. If you identify there is dust on your images in the middle of a trip then there might be no service-centre nearby. If that’s the case we collected some tips for DIY sensor cleaning in an earlier tips and tricks sensor cleaning article.
Shoot at a wider aperture
We tested the sensor above at f/22 which creates a crisp silhouette of all the dust, oil spots, etc, on the imaging sensor. If we did that test with the lens at f/2.8 much less of the dust would show up. You could test your sensor at various apertures and decide to continue shooting if they are acceptable up to say f/5.6. Also if you are shooting subjects with busy backgrounds many spots will not show up clearly enough to notice.
Ultimately you decide what is best for you and what action will suit your next set of photographs.
The Canon RF 14-35mm f4L IS USM is a new L series zoom lens in the Canon RF range, with a little bit extra at the wide angle. The perfect compliment to the mirrorless EOS R system and a nice alternative to heavier f/2.8 zoom lenses.
The Canon RF 14-35mm f4 L IS USM, left, and a diagram showing the L series dust and moisture seals, right.
Versatile
Ideal for Architecture, Travel and landscape photography this lens adds an extra 2mm on the wide end vs it EF equivalent the EF 16-35mm f4L IS USM. 14mm provides a much wider angle of view than 16mm: 104° Vs 98° angle of view respectively.
Compact constant f4 aperture
It’s not just the extra-wide angle that makes this lens great for travel and every-day shooting. The f4.0 aperture has allowed a much more compact lens design than if this lens had been built as an f/2.8. The optics are smaller which reduces the weight and size of the lens. In case the F4 aperture is not bright enough to keep your shutter speeds high, the RF 14-35mm f4L IS USM has a 5.5 stop image stabilisation system which will give plenty of tolerance for shooting sharp images hand-held. The IS benefits increase to 7 stops when used with an EOS R system camera with IBIS.
Rugged L series design
Canon L lenses are famous in photography and for good reason. They have long set a benchmark for professional reliability and durability. The RF 14-35mm f4L IS USM lens is no different, pictured above is the weather and dust sealing points to keep you lens operating in challenging conditions. The lens also features a lens control ring that can be customised to adjust ISO, aperture or exposure compensation without taking a hand away from the lens.
Our sales team have years of experience helping photographers find the right kit for them. To pre-order contact our sales team on 0207 582 3294 or email us at sales@fixationuk.com The Canon RF 14-35mm f4L IS is £1,749
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