Marie Colvin, killed in action

Marie Colvin, The Sunday Times journalist, reported killed in the besieged Syrian city of Homs, was one tough woman, an old school war reporter who believed that her place was with those on the front line of the many conflicts she covered during a distinguished career.

I knew her remotely from phone conversations we had when covering the arms-to-Iraq story in the late 80s and early 90s. But it was only a few years ago in Antigua that I met her at a party held at the home of one of the Nicholson family who had established yacht chartering in the Caribbean.

Apart from the trade-mark black eye-patch, she was wearing a sarong and bikini top made from strips of torn blush-red spinnaker that had been destroyed in a yacht race that afternoon.

There'd been a lot of rum punch and gin going down and when a male party guest, a bit worse for wear,  came up to her and asked her if she'd come in fancy dress as a pirate, she replied, matter-of-factly: "No it was shrapnel from an RPG, took my eye out in Sri-Lanka."

The guest lurched off somewhere else without appearing to have understood a thing she'd said. We had a long chat and it seemed to me she had established for herself a good life, working a chunk of the year for the Sunday Times then taking off the rest of her time to enjoy herself.

But even at parties, the reporting instinct was never buried. One of the Nicholson family began to tell us about the great parties they'd had in the 1950s and 60s with people such as John F Kennedy, J Edgar Hoover and Marilyn Monroe in attendance. "The story of those parties is one that should be told," he said.

The hapless man then found himself on a patio couch wedged between two old fashioned hacks pumping him for information. She's the kind of journalist I would like to have been, but I didn't have the balls to put myself in harm's way the way she did. Yes, whatever is said or written about Marie Colvin in any of the obituaries you will read, one thing is indisputable - the lady had balls.

Out to lunch

When I started in journalism the hacks and the snappers were different breeds. We got on fine but there was little overlap. We reporters stood back while they took their shots or they stood back while we got our words;  or just occasionally in a longish interview the photographer might be crawling all over the interviewee, snapping away, making him feel important.

I've been a keen photographer a long time now and it's always struck me as pretty straightforward if you know how to frame a picture. I think some people think the same about writing. Well recently I've been doing a whole lot more photography and my respect for the professionals has grown. It's not at all easy, even with all the extras you get these days when taking digital images.

Yes, good digital cameras and processing software such as Photoshop have transformed the industry, but not necessarily for the better. For a start, the sheer numbers of people now taking good pictures has diluted the market for professionals. How the hell can you charge a decent rate when newspapers and magazines are drawing stock images at a fraction of the cost? Often these images are taken by people who believe it is reward enough just to be published somewhere.

It's no good saying that the amateurs don't know what they are doing since many of them do. But the amateurs usually stick to certain genres. They love landscapes or still lives or anything that is not going to be potentially controversial or that will earn them a sharp reprimand from people who don't care to have their picture taken.

Press photographers, on the other hand, have become hardened to taking shots of people. It's probably true to say that an easy way with people has always been the hallmark of a good press photographer. Much of that is born of competition. When there's you and two dozen others waiting around outside the High Court you can't afford to be shy about saying "Look this way".

I think that's why I admire candid shots so much. I know I'll never be very good at taking them. I'm just too damned shy. It's not so bad with family. I'll dragoon them and harry them in to co-operating. But that doesn't do it either. The knack is getting people to forget that the camera is there. That, truly, is a rare skill.

I've started processing my pictures more and I still have a lot to learn, but I'm sure of one thing about processing and that is: less is more. Too many people start using Photoshop and behave like kids in a toy box. It's good to play with the stuff available but it's important also to have a feel for what you are trying to achieve. I positively hate images where people have used a filter that produces dramatic clouds in scenes that you simply know are not the slightest bit dramatic. It's the photographic equivalent to hamming it up on stage.

But to criticise, I know, is to risk censure since photography, like art, is subjective. Once you have achieved the various technical requirements covering exposure, sharpness and depth of field you can soon be in to the wonderful world of filters and special effects.

I've featured two images here I took of snowdrops. One of them is unprocessed, as it came out of the camera. The other has been subjected to a couple of filters in the software and a few more tweaks. I'm sure you can guess which is which. The one with the yellow crocuses in the background (right) has been processed. It wasn't out of focus (or at least the snowdrops weren't) but I was trying to achieve something I hadn't done with the other - to get a glow from the flower.


I don't pretend to be a great photographer - there is an awful lot to learn - but I know my images are improving and it's not just the addition of processing. Sometimes these days I'm torn between the two - the need to write and the need to get out and take photographs. Joining the Blipfoto community has helped a lot. All kinds of people of varying degrees of competency and commitment, are going out and snapping away every day, whether using their top-of-the range digital SLRs or their iPhones. There is some real talent there and it confirms my long-held belief that lots of people, unable to express themselves creatively at work, have extraordinary talents but have simply never been given the opportunity to showcase or develop what they can do.

One woman on the site began painting and taking photographs after her retirement until she became assured enough and confident enough to describe herself as an artist. Sometimes you have to do that. Don't wait for others to say who you are. Tell them. So I'm telling you now if you want to know who I am, I'm a writer and a photographer who is well travelled, knows plenty about game angling and quite a bit about sailing. Oh no, he's the guy who writes about work and HR isn't he? Yes that's my pigeon hole. There's a sign on the hole that says: "Out for lunch."

Ninja Bear and Purple Teddy

Two new games from the brothers Donkin: the first is based on the idea that children need some protection at night from the monsters under the bed. How do they get it? Attentive parents? No, parents are poor at defeating monsters. For a start, they've forgotten they exist.

Those little kids need weapons-grade defences and who better to provide that than Ninja Bear and Purple Teddy? Child's play you think? Think again. Then think some more because this game will test your best efforts at lateral thinking.

For sure, children will enjoy it, but adults will find this testing too. the boys have included a whole set of different variables, introduced gradually until you get the hang of it before the real testing stuff begins. I love this game. John did the graphics, Rob the code and George had a role too doing the voice-overs. There's a fun theme tune too.

The second game will be familiar to any of you who have encountered Hambo. The new one is Hambo2: Hamtouchables featuring Hambo taking on gangsters. One of my favourite features is the credits page presented like that of a feature film. Rob did this one with RoboJam, his collaborator on many of his earlier games.

The games seem to going well just now for the boys although standards are climbing all the time and the market is growing increasingly sophisticated. Their multi-player game, Bad Eggs Online is still going well and they have just released a weapons pack upgrade which has brought yet more players to the site.

I have to keep off these games mosty of the time because they can be addictive but they have great play value and those games with a puzzle bent really stretch your problem-solving capacity.

The world of Flash Gaming is still not well known among those over a certain age and that's a pity because the best of it knocks the boring Nintendo brain training in to a cocked hat. The people who really need to wake up to the possibilities for marketing and site-promotion, using these games, are those running much of the corporate sector. Typically the response I get is: "Oh yes, Angry Birds, I've got that on my iPhone, play it in the loo at work."

But my biggest gripe is with Apple. I'll never warm to the iPad until it recognises Adobe Flash. It's not just games I can't play. I'm also denied the facility to watch many news clips such as those on the BBC website. This is all part of that damnable corporate winner-takes-all mentality. The world has changed. Whatever happened to the concept of symbiosis? If it works for clown fish and coral it should work for Apple too.

A month of pictures

Well that's January over. I feel as if I've been on a photography course the whole month, having taken hundreds of images, mostly while walking the dogs. Each day an image has been fed in to Blipfoto, a fun photography site set up for that very purpose.

In between I've been tackling some thorny bits in my novel and I'm a lot happier now, but I'm going to keep on revising a little longer.

At last we're getting some raw winter weather with maybe some snow this week. That would be good. It's been difficult over the past few days since Pippa, our Jack Russell has been in season - still is - and our 12-year-old Westie, Dougie, has shown that there's life in the old dog yet. He won't leave her alone. But then, she's just as bad. We really could do without a couple of randy dogs under our feet the whole time.




I'm not convinced he's up to it but we're taking no risks. If these dogs were people, he'd have been locked up - it's all too much and we'll be glad when it's over. We thought Dougie was on his last legs when we got the puppy in the spring but she seems to have done him the world of good. He's enjoying his walks again although we limit those now to about three miles maximum, while she can keep going all day. There's a lot of puffing and wheezing from the old lad now but, in spite of his age, he's not yet out for the count.

Still, he's too old and she's too young for us to be having any thoughts of breeding, even if it was possible. Jack Russell Westies? Perish the thought. Cute though.


I've been reviewing the images I took in January to feature my favourite three here sifted from this gallery.
The first is our cymbidium orchid, then there's a sculpture in Yorkshire Sculpture Park and finally one of my many salmon fly boxes below.