Archive for March, 2010
Inverness Half Marathon
Mon Mar 15th - 10:41am
Yesterday was the Inverness Half Marathon. I went and covered it on spec, sending pics off to the papers regularly throughout the day, and staying right to the end to get pics of the 1st-place man and woman, along with plenty of info about both of them. Did a solid afternoon's work that I was very happy with.
Sadly our national papers have a reputation for not caring about the Highlands unless it's bad news, and they haven't done anything to change that reputation today. Despite over 1,100 people taking part in this race, and hundreds more turning up to watch, every single one of the national papers decided that nobody would be interested in reading about the race or seeing photos from it.
Sunday 14 March 2010: The start of the Inverness Half Marathon was signalled by members of the 105th Regiment Royal Artillery (volunteers) 212 (Highland) Battery E Troop from Arbroath, using a 105mm L118 lightgun.
Sunday 14 March 2010: Pictured are the 1st-place male and female runners in the Inverness Half Marathon. First male with a finishing time of 1h:8m:3s was 31-year-old Ben Livesey, a Nimrod navigator based at RAF Kinloss. Ben first ran and won the Inverness Half Marathon in 2006. He finished in 2nd place for the next three years, so this year he has reclaimed his crown. (Ben Livesey tel: *****) First female with a finishing time of 1h:20m:9s was 46-year-old Melissa Whyte, a staff nurse at Raigmore Hospital. This was Melissa's first time competing in the Inverness Half Marathon, although in 2009 she finished first in all three of a series of 10K races in Nairn, Elgin and Forres. She also took 1st place in another 10K race in Nairn last week. Her family is now encouraging her to take part in the London Marathon. (Melissa Whyte tel: *****)
Police: We know you’re right, so don’t pay the fine!
Wed Mar 10th - 10:39pm
Mind if I use my blog to have a whinge?
Okay so we're down in Glasgow for a few days. Naturally we're using sat-nav to get around, and that got us in trouble today in the city centre as it told us to turn left at a junction which sent us along a bus-only lane. We were then immediately stopped by the police and given a £30 fine.
According to the police officers there were two "clearly displayed" no-left-turn signs on the building opposite the junction, a thick white line down the middle of the road which "indicates that one side of the road is a bus lane", and the lane itself was "marked as a bus lane".
Here's the view from the junction:
After I went back and took that photo, I showed it to the police officers and they immediately accepted that there were no signs on the building opposite, there was no line in the middle of the road, and the bus lane itself wasn't marked in any way. They accepted that the only sign was the blue "bus only" sign facing down the hill, which is almost side-on when seen from the junction.
So presumably the fine could be cancelled?
Wrong! They had been told to come and hand out fines to anyone turning left at that junction, so that's what they had to do. But they both advised me not to pay the fine, saying that it was unlikely to ever go to court, and even if it did then I was likely to win if I used the photograph as evidence.
What a waste of time and police resources!
(There was actually a no-left-turn sign at the junction, but it was high up and further back than usual so I didn't even notice it when I first went back to take that photo. In fact it was so easy to miss that the police didn't even know it was there.)
As you can see from the next photo, other people made the same mistake:
In the 20 minutes or so that we were there, talking to the police and taking photos, I'd estimate that 9 out of every 10 drivers coming out of that junction turned left, came up the hill and got stopped by the police. Pretty clear evidence, I'd say, that the no-left-turn isn't clearly marked and therefore drivers shouldn't be fined for making an honest mistake.
What I'd like to know is: Once the police realised that the junction signage was inadequate, why did they continue to stop people and fine them?
And how many thousands of pounds in fines are being handed out every day on that one stretch of road, when the problem could be fixed simply by putting up a few signs where drivers might actually see them?
Whinge over 
Kilted skiing at Cairngorm Mountain
Sat Mar 6th - 4:24pm
Congratulations to everyone who took part in the kilted skiing record attempt at Cairngorm Mountain this morning. I really enjoyed being there to see 235 skiers and snowboarders of all ages, sizes and species (yes!) doing the righteous kilt thing in style. There was a great atmosphere and it was well organised, especially having the pipers and drummer leading the procession down to the finish line.
Read about it on the BBC and STV news sites.
So I’ll be needing a press card then…
Sat Mar 6th - 1:41am
Working in the Highlands, which is a huge area with a small population, you don't really need a press card. Most of the police know all the photographers and so long as you behave yourself, which we all do, there's never any problem.
Today I was covering a fire at a furniture store in Grantown, after receiving the usual media alert from the police press office. There was only one other photographer there and we were both playing by the rules, only going where the police allowed us to go and not getting in the way at all. As far as I'm aware, neither of us did anything wrong and there was no reason for any police officer to object to us being there.
Then up walked Inspector Attitude and confronted me. He was immediately combative. This is how the conversation went:
Him: Are you press?
Me: I am, yes.
Him: Show me your credentials.
Me: I'm freelance. I don't have credentials.
Him: You don't have any ID at all?
Me: I've got ID, I just don't have press credentials because I'm freelance.
Him: (Taking hold of me and pushing me.) Don't give me any of your nonsense.
Me: Excuse me?
At which point someone started talking to him on his radio and he left me alone. Later on he came over to where both myself and the other photographer were standing, and asked us to move even further back, but he was polite that time.
I've known for as long as I've been in this business that British press cards are effectively worthless because anyone can get one, whether they're press or not, so I've never bothered getting one. Plus I've only ever been asked for a press card once before, and that time was also by a policeman with an aggressive attitude who was trying to be obstructive.
Two times is two times too many though. Probably best if I just get the silly card and show it to any policeman daft enough to think it means something. If it lets me get on with my job without wasting time on stupid arguments then I guess it will be worth it. I just hope I don't have to pay some astronomical "membership fee" to whichever 'gatekeeper' I end up getting it from.
Anyway, even with the hassles, I got all the pics I wanted. (I should point out that the policeman in the first pic isn't the one who confronted me. This guy was friendly and polite, as the police nearly always are.)
Sport Relief bike ride and Carrbridge loco removal
Tue Mar 2nd - 3:25pm
Yesterday was insane. On Sunday night at 8pm I got a booking for a job in John O'Groats, over 160 miles away, and I had to be there for 8am. The job was covering the start of the Sport Relief celebrity bike ride.
The agency that I was covering the event for supplies photos to a lot of celebrity magazines and tabloid newspapers, so I tried to get photos that those publications would be interested in, such as this shot of David Walliams signing autographs:
Current media darling Miranda Hart:
And some gratuitous butt shots of Davina McCall:
Fearne Cotton kept a low profile and I didn't see her come out to mingle with the crowd at all, so there wasn't much opportunity for good pics of her:
Local school kids had turned out in force to give their support, so once the celebs had set off I got a group shot of the kids to send to the local paper:
So that was the John O'Groats job done.
On the way home I headed for the scene of a road accident near Invergordon, but it had been cleared up by the time I got there. I stopped in Inverness for a couple of hours to do a bit of shopping, then continued south.
And by pure luck, the time spent in Inverness meant that I reached Carrbridge just as the derailed locomotive was being taken away by road. I did a U-turn on the A9, headed back to the first layby, grabbed my camera and ran back along the A9 to get some shots of the loco and the queues of traffic. Maybe there's a good reason for the timing, but I thought it was quite bizarre that the loco was being moved at 5pm when it would surely cause a lot of inconvnience to motorists.
It was a very long day. I got home at about 6:30pm, sent the loco pics off to the papers, had a quick bite to eat, and sat on the settee for a game of Grand Theft Auto. I woke up 2 hours later, still sitting upright on the settee. I'd pretty much been running on adrenaline for the past 24 hours. Went to bed and slept for 11 hours.
Would happily do the same again tomorrow
