Through the Lens - CLOSED

PIC FOR A PENGUIN

The Guardian have launched their second competition inviting readers to submit photographs to illustrate the covers of four Penguin Classics. Hell's Angles - Crime and Punishment - Mrs Dalloway - The Woman in White. It's a great idea and should give you the oppertunity to let your creative force run free. To find out more go to guardian.co.uk/reviewcompetition

BIRD OF PRAY

Two thirds of the picture is a swarm of small black abstract shapes in confusion. A falcon leads a wave of clear sky into the mass of birds in panic. This wonderful picture by Manuel Presti wins the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year award. The competition is organised by the National History Museum and BBC's Wildlife Magazine. The picture was selected from 17,000 entries and not a Photoshop in sight.

LANGER WITH A LATTE

There is a ritual I observe when I visit Cork city. I treat myself to a coffee in the English Market. I use it as a decompression chamber, so I can syncronise my pace to the rythem of the city and it's people. It takes about three quarters of an hour for the process to exercise the tension and return me to the world in human form. Now thanks to a new book, published by Collins Press, the convertion time may be reduced. Entitled Serving a City: The Story of Cork's English Market, the 264 page volume by brothers Diarmuid and Donal O'Driscoll traces the development of the oldest food market on the island from it's origins in 1788.

INDEPENDENT GIFT

lasy year Independent Newspapers donated it's photographic archive of more than 300,000 plates, negs and prints to the National Library. Of this valuable collection, 106 are now on display in the National Photographic Archive in Dublin's Temple Bar. This exhibition is a treat for all who love documentary photography and an appreciation of the camera in history. What happened to the Irish Press collection ?

XXXXs

Jerome Reilly in the Sunday Indo's Fifth Column takes a swipe at the Press Photographers Assocation of Ireland coming over "all lofty and high-minded" on their website (www.ppai.ie). Claiming to promote peace, understanding, truth and fairness through photography it prompted Jerome to respond. "Come off it lads! Any snapper Fifth Column has ever delt with always follows Hilaire Belloc's sage advice: "Be at the pains of putting down every single item of expenditure whatsoever every day which could possibly be twisted into a professional expense and remember to lump in all the doubtfuls". Ah, it takes me back to a time when a colleague, short of a few bob, would claim for the hire of a ladder to make a picture. But the prima donnas would claim for the hire of a boat to get to Ushers Island.

EYEWITNESS

A remarkable image is published in to day's Guardian newspaper. Photographer Dan Chung made the picture when he walked into a makeshift hospital in Muzaffarabad in Pakistan. Published across two pages in black and white, it shows a young girl lying on her side while a doctor operates on her head wound. Her eyes and lips are open, her hands and fingers are limp betraying no sign of pain or panic. Her face is peaceful, like a detail from a Caravaggio. The background is a blurr of activity as doctors operate on young children in the most primitive conditions. In the caption Dan says "I dont know the girl's name nor her age. As I watched, as she lay on the tressle table, they shaved her head and began stitching up the big wound. I hope she was unconscious when they did that. And i hope that she survived, though I can't say whether she did".

DISK TO DUST

Nigel Powell of The Sunday Times received this query from a worried reader. "Photos that i put on CDs four years ago have started to degrade". Is there any way around this? Nigel replys. The degradation of optical media is not given enough publicity. Discs do deteriorate, especially the cheaper type that often have thin coatings. My solution is to keep important material backed up on multiple media. So, for added protection- as well as storing photos on CDs - I have additional copies on DVD and on a 100GB external USB hard drive. ( try www.storagedepot.co.uk ).

RAY D'ARCY and US.

Ray D'Arcy and his team at TODAY FM are now faced with the delicious problem of editing 20,000 images for the Childline charity book US. Listeners to Ray's show responded with great enthusiasm on the shoot day and swamped the station with 15,000 pics from their camera phones followed by 5,000 shot on digital and print. "People loved the challange we gave them and the assignment discipline of shooting on one day made them see the wonders around them". Topics ranged from Saturday markets, sports, the new multicultural face of Ireland, hundreds of childrens happy faces and a young lady who acquired her first Prada bag. "One of the bonuses of the shoot was the personal stories and moments that were captured on the day". The book will be a square format designed by Dermot Heaslip and will be available in time for....... you know when.

THE CAMERA NEVER LIES

Eileen Battersby reporting for Monday's Irish Times from the Ballinasloe annual horse fair describes. "The darker side of Ballinasloe is the men and boys who ride terrified, sweating horses bare back all day long on a narrow strip of hard ground. This spectacle was disgusting. Even more offensive was the sight of young horses, including a yearling, harnessed to sulkies, while grown men sat on the seat of these little carriages and lashed the ponies to the screaming jeers of the male onlookers. All attempts by me to stop this were met with foul language and repeated lashes and pokes from their whips. What a beginning to World Animal Week".
In contrast award winning photographer Bryan O'Brien documented the fair with three images. A young girl resting on the back of her pony, a green rope entwined beside her hair. A head shot of man and horse and the reliable shot of man opening mouth of donkey to display his molars.

ENDURANCE

You have three weeks left to see the unique photography of James Hurley which forms the backbone of an exhibition in Dublin's Collins Barracks. Titled the Endurance the exhibition documents Sir Ernest Shackleton's legendary Antartic expedition in 1914. Highly reccomended. Note: The museum is closed only on Mondays and admission is free.