In September 2021 we interviewed Bette Lynch about her work for ActionAid as part of Wex Photo Video’s #WomenInTheIndustry campaign to celebrate the success of female creatives who are working to change the way we see the world.
Bette is a photographic strategist, content lead and all-around advocate. In this inspiring interview we discuss Bette’s work with major organisations, using photography to tell untold stories in the most visually insightful way. We’ll discuss how she began her career, and offer advice to those looking to work in a similar field.
During this session, Bette will talk us through her creative processes inclusive of research, preparation and finalisation of projects/project approval.
Bette Lynch was talking to Tiffany Tangen. You can find out more about Bette’s work at twentynineagency.com/
Shot By Women, launching on International Women’s Day 2022, is a project dedicated to uplifting female press photographers and allowing them to gain recognition in the industry. It’s a new image library that women photographers around the world can sign up to, providing them with support and rights-managed distribution for their work.
Women photographers come together to support the launch of SHOTBYWOMEN – Worlds first ever stock library to house exclusively women-created content covering all areas of photography. Launching International Women’s Day 2022. www.shotbywomen.com
And it works on the other side of the fence too – providing busy picture editors and newsdesks with a resource they can use to quickly and easily find women and feminine-of-centre photographers, worldwide. Someone who understands just how valuable this could potentially be is Olivia Harris.
Olivia spent just under five years working in pictures for The Times, rising through the ranks to become Saturday Picture Editor. She worked with news photographers every day to break the biggest stories with unforgettable imagery, and has also worked to redress the gender balance in the newsroom by commissioning and championing women photographers.
Women and non-binary people are significantly more represented in news photography than they have been in the past – however, as demonstrated in data collected by Women Photograph, there is still a long way to go before reaching parity, with the majority of front-page bylines still going to men. Shot By Women and projects like it are putting in the vital work needed to make news photography more representative of everyone’s experiences. We spoke to Olivia to find out more about the project…
Fixation: Thanks for talking with us, Olivia. Can you tell us about Shot by Women and how it all came together?
Olivia Harris: About a year ago, I put out a call-out on my personal Instagram, saying that I would really like to increase the number of female contributors that we were using at The Times. I’d looked down our freelancers list and realised that almost everyone we were regularly using on news were men. And, while obviously the guys we were using were dependable and fantastic, I found that fact really depressing.
So, I put out this callout, and thought it probably wouldn’t get much traction, maybe a couple of dozen responses.
I got thousands of messages. I had to turn off notifications on my Instagram because it was going off every second! It was quite overwhelming, and took me literally months to go through, but it was one of the best things I’ve done. I just loved it – loved seeing the enthusiasm, and talking to female freelancers who were desperately trying to break into news, but finding it really difficult, finding it to be quite a closed-off environment.
Off the back of that, Tabatha Fireman, founder of Female Perspective, messaged me, saying she was launching Shot By Women. Covid had previously kind of put a stop to it ramping up, but over the past year Tabatha has really propelled it forward, and it’s launching on International Women’s Day.
The plan for Shot By Women is to bridge that gap. I was hearing so often in the messages I was receiving how difficult it was to contact people on the desks – and yeah, having worked on the desks, it’s hard enough to talk to people on other desks in the same building! Shot By Women will hopefully make it a lot easier for people on both sides – for photographers to get in contact, be commissioned, and have their archive used through the agency side of things. That will be an amazing resource for them, to make sure that their work is being seen.
And through an entirely female perspective. At the moment when you go to a standard agency – Getty, for example – you can’t filter by gender of photographer. It will be a completely new concept, and will hopefully encourage the desks to really think about the bylines that they’re using. And then on the other side of it, from the commissioning perspective, it will make it super-easy for desks to go to a bank of hopefully hundreds, maybe even thousands, of photographers who have signed up to Shot By Women, and know that they can speak to one of the team and get exactly what they need. To know that what they’re commissioning will be shot by a woman – which, unless you know someone specifically, you can’t really do at the moment.
Montage of images created by SHOTBYWOMEN contributing photographers.
Fixation: The world of press photography is still very male-dominated. Why do you think press photography specifically has been so slow to change in this regard?
Olivia: It’s sad that there are so, so few women photographers in comparison. I think it’s also the nature of it being so competitive – and The Times is a prime example of this. Once you find a photographer that is trustworthy, and will do exactly what you want, when you have a business job that comes in at 9AM, and needs shooting at 2PM that day, you have to just get it done. You’re conditioned by the pressure and the editors and the expectations.
It’s only when you have a little bit more time that you are able to introduce those new voices and perspectives into the paper. So it needs work on both sides, I think – for women to really shout and push themselves forward, and then also for desks to be way more conscious about who they’re commissioning, and to think about how we can maybe try and balance it out a little bit more. It’s so desperately needed.
Fixation: In the messages you received after your callout, were there any things that women photographers said that particularly stayed with you?
Olivia: The overwhelming thing that I took from it was just the enthusiasm and the gratitude. Everyone was just saying, “Oh my god, someone’s actually thinking about this, and wanting to change it.”
Working on the desk is unrelenting. It’s ridiculously long days, very high pressure. And I think it’s so easy to just keep going without stopping and thinking, “Okay, how can we change this and how can we make it better?” I’m not criticising anyone, because I was one of those people. But I think that was the main thing I received from the call-out was just everyone being like, “Thank you so much for wanting to change something.”
Fixation: This conversation has definitely made me reflect on what a difficult and demanding job being a Picture Editor sounds like it must be.
Olivia: The adrenaline keeps you running. If you’re picture editing, there is a standard of anywhere between a 12-hour and 14-hour day. You have to see everything, you have to be aware of everything, and you have to love it. You really, really have to love it.
Fixation: Something I wanted to touch on was also that you were recently a curator for the British Press Photographers’ Association Assignments 2021 exhibition. We spoke to a few of the selected photographers – Samir Hussein, who took that fantastic shot of Stormzy at the Brits, and Hollie Adams, who captured the moment of Dominic Cummings leaving Downing Street. What was that experience like for you?
Olivia: That has been the highlight of my career so far. I absolutely loved it. I have a lot of thanks to go to Hollie – she was, I think, one of the people that put me forward to be one of the curators. It was an absolutely phenomenal experience – I mean, it’s just the dream. You get given… I think it was nearly 2,000 photos, and you have to whittle it down to your top 20, and then a reserve top 20, because there are going to be duplicates between the curators.
I did my first edit, and managed to get a great selection .. of about 300 amazing photos, and I had to keep going and going and going. I had given myself a couple of days off – I requested that from my manager, because I really needed the time. By the end of it, I was going slightly doolally, looking at the same photos over and over again. But it was amazing, and it was so great to go to the exhibition – I think I went three or four times – and see the collection up on the walls. It was a really nice collection, and was so diverse.
Also, one of the highlights was meeting so many people. Working on the desk, I would speak to these people every day, or see their names in the feeds. But I hadn’t met any of them, ever. And so I was walking around the exhibition and constantly bumping into photographers and being like, “Oh, it’s you!”
I think it’s sad that there aren’t more opportunities to do that, because the relationships between photographers and desks are so important. I don’t think that they’re nurtured enough at all. And that kind of loops back to my call-out, because desks putting a bit more effort in and nurturing relationships with photographers – that’s how you get the most out of your commissions. And that’s how you get new voices in.
Olivia Harris was talking to Jon Stapley. You can find out more about Shot By Women at www.shotbywomen.com
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.
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