i-Documentary

Using the smartphone as a tool for documentary photography and other media

[i-documentary]

Brain illness spread by ticks has reached UK

Public Health England says it has found tick-borne encephalitis virus in ticks in the UK for the first time.

For all those photographers roaming the country side looking for that perfect landscape photos.

Tics are nasty so take care and keep out of dead braken as they like to wait there for the deer to come and bed down.

In my pack I carry a tick rinsed tool and some alcohol wipes in a little resealable bag that’s about 2x2 inches

Stay safe

[i-documentary]

Storm clouds moving in

[i-documentary]

i-Documentary turned 9 today!

[nevver]

Wild in the streets, Jill Freedman

[thepoliticalnoteboo1deac]

This Week in War. A Friday round-up of what happened and what’s been written in the world of war and military/security affairs this week. It’s a mix of news reports, policy briefs, blog posts and longform journalism. Subscribe here to receive this round-up by email.

A Ukrainian army helicopter was shot down by separatists on Thursday, killing 14. 

Ukrainian musicians respond to the unrest. 

Politico asks why we (the West) failed to listen to the fears of Eastern Europe.

Former military chief Abdul Fattah Al-Sisi has won in a landslide in Egypt’s presidential election.

Meftah Bouzid, editor of the Libyan weekly paper Burniq and critic of extremism, was gunned down and killed in the center of Benghazi.

On his visit to Palestine and Israel, the Pope invited Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas to pray for peace at the Vatican. Both accepted - and will meet on June 8th for the joint prayer.  

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas asked his prime minister Rami Hamdallah to form a unity government involving Hamas and Fatah.

40 hunger-striking Palestinian inmates were hospitalized after refusing food for a month — the total on strike is about 240, according to Israeli Prison Services. 

Faouzi Mohammed Ayoub, a Hezbollah senior operative on the FBI’s most wanted terrorist list, was reportedly killed fighting in Syria.

Syria will miss the June 30 deadline for chemical weapons eradicaton. 

A convoy of chemical weapons inspectors and UN staff were attacked on their way to investigate the reported site of a chlorine attack. All are reported to be safe and well. 

Jordan expelled the Syrian ambassador.

Syria’s financial losses during the first 3 years of the ongoing conflict have been tabulated at $144 billion (or 246% of the GDP in fixed prices in 2010).

Bahrain freed human rights activist Nabeel Rajab after two years in prison for organizing and taking part in illegal gatherings. 

The White House accidentally revealed the name of the CIA chief of station in Kabul by including it in a list of participants at a briefing sent to the media.

The Taliban has released 23 police officers kidnapped last week in northern Afghanistan.

All but 9800 American troops will be pulled from Afghanistan by the end of the year — and the rest will be out by the end of 2016.

The AP reports that the CIA drone program in Pakistan is winding down. 

AG Eric Holder has hinted that New York Times reporter James Risen, who has defied a subpoena in order to avoid discussing confidential sources in the case of Jeffrey Sterling, may not serve jail time. 

NBC aired a long interview with Edward Snowden — his first US television interview. It covered a range of subjects, from 9/11 to his former intelligence work, his opinions on the value of mass surveillance and whether he would come home (he would).

One of the most newsworthy moments in the interview was Snowden’s statement that counter to official claims, he had actually pursued channels inside the NSA to raise his concerns before taking more drastic action. The NSA responded by releasing an email from him to the Office of General Counsel that does not relate directly to the programs in question. It is important to note that simply because that email exists does not mean others do not. 

Former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke told Democracy Now! that the Bush administration’s actions in invading Iraq qualify, in his opinion, as war crimes. 

Ghaleb Nassar al-Bihani, a 35-year-old Yemeni inmate at Guantánamo Bay who has spent 12 years in detention without charge, has been approved for transfer (“as soon as practicable”). 

At the West Point commencement, President Obama outlined a conception of US foreign policy.

Reverse engineering D-Day technology. 

Mary Edwards Walker — the only woman ever to receive the Medal of Honor — was an incredibly cool lady.

German photographer Dietmar Eckell documents wartime relics decaying and being claimed by natural surroundings. 

Photo: Bambari, Central African Republic. A young boy stands in front of a barricade in a protest after French troops opened fire on protesters on May 22. Goran Tomasevic/Reuters.

If you would like to receive this round-up as a weekly email, you can sign up through this form, or email me directly at [email protected].

[timelightbox]

Photo: Brendan Hoffman—Prime Collective for Getty Images

#LightBoxFF: Brendan Hoffman in Eastern Ukraine

This week on #LightBoxFF, TIME speaks with Moscow-based photographer Brendan Hoffman (@hoffmanbrendan) – co-founder of the photography collective, Prime – about using Instagram to document the recent unrest in Eastern Ukraine and the civilian life that endures amid the violence.

[beatyourselfup-deactivated20131]

Tired of filling out all your tags manually all the time? There are multiple solutions out there, but I’m going to focus on the one I use. It may not be as easy to setup, but I’ve found that it works better than any program out there and never requires an update or has browser compatibility...

[i-documentary]

Security Basics For Photojournalists and Journalists

Far too few journalists and photojournalists take this subject seriously enough.

The world has gone mad with kidnappings and the killing of media workers just trying to do their jobs. Some have been deliberately targeted and killed by criminal gangs or military.

It is also not just your security either, you may also be endangering those you have interviewed, photographed, your family or those you have networked with depending on who might want to know what!

Digital Security Basics For Journalists

  Hostile & Hazardous Environments

Then there is Hostile and Hazardous environments, protests may not seem to be too much of a threat to your personal safety, but they can change in an instant, skateboard helmets, goggles (eye protection from missiles and possibly tear gas or equivalent) respirator, first aid kit or Trauma kit (the latter to deal with gunshots) fire extinguisher and non flammable clothing (cottons instead of nylon) may also be needed

Conflict Zones

You may also need Ballistic protection in the way of body armour (bullets and blasts from IEDs or a plate carrier and the ballistic plates (protection from gunshots only) and helmet.

It is also a good idea to go on courses where you learn how to spot surveillance being carried out on you (often done before a kidnapping) and go an an escape and evasion course and carry some escape kit.

Note: Some items in a typical escape kit may be illegal in some countries or you may be classed as a spy - which could result in a long time in jail or execution so research and assess the risks

[did-you-know]

Source

[freedomisahumanright-deactivate]

Something that Brazilian women need

[hqcreations]

OMG … I am making this for myself! or at least alerting the ones I have

[gmsurvival-old]

Keep in mind, there’s N95 or carbon filters built in probably. Not sure how those would hold up in the wash.

[garyaustin]

I wonder what that WiFi can do/will do and whether it works from some sort of app like being able to post to tumblr?

[i-documentary]

Protesters being interviewed during the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland

One of my most useful apps is Snapseed partly because of the speed I can edit and adjust an image so it is optimised for the best presentation.

I try and avoid the fancy borders, grunge effects etc. though they do have their place, but that is just me being a purist

For Black and White images I do like the app Perfect B&W too but more on that later

[treedance]

If they’re not on your calendar mark it now:

The 2013 Google Journalism Fellowships: This 10-week, $7,500 fellowships is “aimed at undergraduate, graduate and journalism students interested in using technology to tell stories in new and dynamic ways. The Fellows will get the opportunity to...

[treedance]

It is estimated that 380 billion images were taken last year, most with a camera phone. A total of 300 million photos are uploaded on Facebook every month. Instagram is growing exponentially and had four billion photos uploaded as of July 2012. Almost everyone has a camera and is a photographer. Just as access to pens and paper hasn’t produced thousands of Shakespeares or Nabokovs, this explosion of camera phones doesn’t seem to have led to more Dorothea Langes or Henri Cartier-Bressons. But it has certainly led to many more images of what people ate at lunch… …The question is not so much whether this is a good thing for society (or a bad thing for photographers). It is happening, a billion times a day, and there is no going back. The question is: How does the photographic community harness this explosion of visual energy to expand its audience? This is what needs to be focused on.

James Estrin, New York Times Lens Blog. In an Age of Likes, Commonplace Images Prevail. (via futurejournalismproject)

[i-documentary]

[i-documentary]

Reflection on Society

[i-documentary]

News on the Weather

Village notice board covered in snow 2012

[i-documentary]

Abandoned Little Chef A38 Little Eaton

Recently the Little Chef closed down due to the company cutting back due to the recession. Now boarded up I think it will be interesting to watch and see what becomes of it