So, please have a look around and let me know what you think. What works for you? What doesn’t? Any comments and suggestions are very much welcome! Hope you enjoy the new look and check back soon as I’ve got a few new articles in the pipeline.

Also wanted to thank Joe Roback again for making the template (which can be found here) available.

58A Eliciting, publishing or communicating information about members of armed forces etc

(1) A person commits an offence who—

(a) elicits or attempts to elicit information about an individual who is or has been—

(i) a member of Her Majesty’s forces,

(ii) a member of any of the intelligence services, or

(iii) a constable,

which is of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism, or

(b) publishes or communicates any such information.

(2) It is a defence for a person charged with an offence under this section to prove that they had a reasonable excuse for their action.

So it’s an offence to take a picture of a constable if it’s of a kind likely to be useful to a terrorist. Now that - to me at least – is potentially very wide wide and, unfortunately, a completely subjective test. How do you decide what kind of photograph is likely to be useful to a terrorist?

There is a defence if you can show that you had a reasonable excuse for your action. Now, I’ve not read enough about the situations this defence is intended to cover (note that there is a similar defence contained in the Terrorism Act 2000) but I do wonder whether taking a photograph of an officer because - like me - you enjoy street photography or whether, as a photojournalist, you are documenting a story or event.

The Home Office have apparently stated that the new laws will not make it more likely that photographers will be stopped in the first place because (and this doesn’t really reassure me) the Terrorism Act 2000 already makes it an offence to “collect or make a record [which includes a photograph] of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”. This would also cover photographing a police officer.

I guess the problem for us photographers (not that I’ve ever had any problems with the police or members of the public for that matter) is that it gives the police another reason to be suspicious and question the motive behind people’s street photography.

However, I am reassured by the statement the Metropolitan Police issued to Amateur Photographer:

It is important to stress that the new offence is not intended to target or impede professional or amateur photographers, but rather to provide additional protection to front line personnel from possible terrorist attack.

Taking photographs of police officers would not – except in very exceptional circumstances – be covered by the new offence. For the new offence to be committed the information would have to raise a reasonable suspicion that it was intended to be used to provide practicable assistance to a terrorist.

Officers have been briefed on this issue and guidance on dealing with the media and photographers is available to them.

Hopefully the police will apply a commonsense approach when enforcing this legislation but only time will tell. 

The shot itself was taken at the square beside the National Galleries of Scotland – a popular spot for street performers during the festival. This man wasn’t part of festival though – just an onlooker who was really enjoying the music. I found him much more entertaining though so focused my shots on him!

The Edinburgh Festival is the biggest arts festival in the world so there is something there for everyone. There’s always a great atmosphere when the festival is on and perfect if you’re into street photography. I always try and get out at least a couple of times when the festival is on (it’s basically on for the whole of  August) but that’s not always possible. Looking forward to this year’s one!

As for the shot itself, it was taken on an exceptionally cold night on Times Square when I was there on holiday in November ‘08. It’s another example of when my trusty little SLR-ZOOM Gorillapod came in handy – I simply clamped it to the railings and waited for taxis to come by on either side of the road at the right time. Another night photography shoot when my gloves came in very handy (excuse the pun).

It’s one of my favourite shots from my trip, so I was really pleased to see that others like it too. I’m planning on putting a short New York travel report together (it’s one of the many things on my to-do list) but in the meantime you can check out my NY galleries in the travel section of my johnwaller.co.uk site.

I was becoming quite nervous that my files weren’t adequately backed up (I had a second hard drive which I manually backed up my files with but hadn’t done so for a very long time) so I thought it was time to take action. I bought two Maxtor OneTouch 4 Plus 1TB external hard drives which come with backup software which would allow me (with the touch of a button – do you see what they’ve done?) to back up one drive to the other. I was feeling very smug about myself and even thought that I would write a post here to tell all you bad people who don’t back up properly to mend your sorry ways.

So perhaps that’s why when I went to open my hard drive to copy over the files that I was presented with an alarming message telling me that my old LaCie hard drive was not formatted and asking if I would like to format it now. Even I knew that (a) that’s not a good message and (b) NO – I don’t want to format my hard drive with over 50,000 and 4 years of photographs on it!

Thankfully I didn’t panic and clicked “no”. I tried restarting my computer but again my hard drive wasn’t being recognised properly. That’s ok, I thought, it’ll be a problem with my computer – it’s a couple of years old and to be honest, I don’t treat it very well. Perhaps it’s just given up on me. So I tried plugging the hard drive into my laptop (which I’m much better at looking after) but unfortunately I was getting the same message.

At this point I got very, very scared – how was I supposed to try and recover my photos if I couldn’t even open the hard drive? Naturally I got my friend google to help me out and downloaded a few recovery programs to try and save the day. I found out how painfully slow these programs are at scanning your hard drive (about 6 hours) and in the meantime I was becoming more and more concerned at the number of forum posts I was reading where the authors weren’t being able to find a solution to the same problem.

The first two programs I tried cruelly teased me by looking as if they were finding files only at the last minute to tell me “Sorry, you’re stuffed”. I then stumbled across www.experts-exchange.com where some of its member were having identical issues to me. So I took them up on their 7 day free trial (which, incidentally, writing this article has reminded me to cancel) and noticed that a program – GetDataBack - was being recommended again and again. I forked out $40 for the program (a miniscule price to pay to get my photos back) and gave it a shot.

Another 6 hours later and it found all of my files! Success! What a reflief to know that I hadn’t lost them forever. I honestly couldn’t imagine what I would have done if I had lost all of those photographs. At one point I was seriously considering just jacking the whole photography thing in I was that disconsolate.

I’ve now got a copy of all of my photos on one of my 1TB drives with a complete backup on the other 1TB drive. I’ll also make sure that I backup everytime I upload new photos so that I’ll know that if one of my drives fail again I’ll have a complete copy elsewhere.

I know it’s still not the most sophisticated backup plan but it’ll do for now. I’m sure you are all much smarter than me and already have a backup plan in action, but if not, please get one!

I don’t think you can really argue with the statement which was issued by the Government (see below). It doesn’t really say much but the important point that it does address is that photography in public places is not, in itself, unlawful. The real problem that many photographers seem to have with this issue is that it’s up to the police to decide whether the photographer’s actions are going further than simply taking a picture and instead constitutes a separate offence. But then again, that’s their job.

Here’s the petition that was submitted:

“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to clarify the laws surrounding photography in public places.”

Details of Petition:

“Through history, we have documented the world around us, whether through written word, art or photography. Photography in particular has provided fantastic insights into the past and present, and is a hobby enjoyed by millions of people worldwide. But today, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to take photos of our surroundings, particularly in cities like London. In recent years, the price divide between professional and consumer equipment has blurred, and it’s quite common these days to see amateurs and hobbyists carrying around tripods, SLR cameras and a backpack full of equipment. Yet, we are constantly harrassed by security guards and police officers in the name of preventing terrorism. They seem to be operating under a different interpretation of the law to the rest of us, believing that somehow the length of your lens, or size of your camera is relevant. We would like clarification by the goverment on the law regarding photography of buildings and landmarks from public locations.”

And here’s what the Government had to say:

“Thank you for your e-petition asking for clarification of the law on photography in public places.

There are no legal restrictions on photography in public places. However, the law applies to photographers as it does to anybody else in a public place. So there may be situations in which the taking of photographs may cause or lead to public order situations, inflame an already tense situation, or raise security considerations. Additionally, the police may require a person to move on in order to prevent a breach of the peace, to avoid a public order situation, or for the person’s own safety or welfare, or for the safety and welfare of others.

Each situation will be different and it would be an operational matter for the police officer concerned as to what action if any should be taken in respect of those taking photographs. Anybody with a concern about a specific incident should raise the matter with the Chief Constable of the relevant force.”

If I’m honest (and I’m sure – well, I know – I’m not the only one who does this), the main reason I enter the Photofriday challenges is to generate more traffic on my blog. Lets face it, I need all the help I can get and Photofriday is a great way to get new visitors in.

Now I’m finding myself wondering why I want more visitors. It’s not because I want to see my images have a heap of comments underneath them, although that would be nice. And I’d like to think that I’m not so insecure about my abilities as a photographer (which shoudn’t be confused as a statement that I’m happy with my abilities) that I need constant reassurance from people that I am capable of taking a “wow, nice shot!” (perhaps the most oveused – and unhelpful – comment on the internet?). If I wanted my photoblog to be full of these comments, I’d only have to leave similar comments on a host of other blogs and I’m sure the compliments would be returned, whether justified by the image or not.

So now I feel like I should apologise again – for not commenting more on other people’s shots. I do frequent a few photography forums and provide some (hopefully useful) comments on shots that are posted there but I’m not so good at trawling the net to find, and comment on, other people’s blogs. Although I do try to keep up to date with my favourite sites using Google Reader. My main reason (excuse?) for not being as vocal in cyberspace is that I simply don’t find myself with enough time (which explains why I am writing this at 1am on a work night!). If I do find myself home at a reasonable time then more often than not the lure of the sofa coupled with some rubbish TV often proves to be a temptation I cannot resist. Spending time with my girl is nice too…

I guess the main reason I try to bring people to my site is to justify to myself the time I spend updating it. I’ll never stop taking photographs, that’s for sure. But there’s no point in posting images if nobody is looking at them. You wouldn’t put on an exhibition and then not advertise it, would you?

I should probably start by explaining why I’ve put this site together since I already have a photoblog and a portfolio site and it might seem a bit excessive having three separate photography websites now. Well, perhaps it is excessive and I just like to keep myself busy but I do feel that they each have (and will continue to have) quite distinct purposes. My portfolio site has been alive in various different forms for a number of years now and essentially showcases my favourite work whereas my photoblog was created as a means of keeping me clicking away as much as possible (which, overall, has worked!).

My photoblog, which is powered by pixelpost, is very much set up to show off my photographs with the image descriptions being a secondary (perhaps incidental?) function. I do really enjoy writing about my photography – whether it’s explaining what technique I used to capture an image or how I achieved a particular result in photoshop – but feel that it’s perhaps lost on my current photoblog. It’s also so much easier to put posts together using wordpress, which powers this site. Hopefully then the three sites can sit comfortably with each other.

So there we go – hopefully I’ve justified (to myself more than anyone) why I’ve spent my time putting this site together and I’m really hoping that as it grows it will be a useful resource for some of you out there. Just about everything I’ve learned about photography has come from people on the web sharing their knowledge on sites such as dpreview and fujimugs so I know how helpful things like these can be.

I receive quite a lot of emails asking me about particular photos or processing techniques, so if there’s anything you’d like to know about please drop me an email and I’ll try and put something on here to cover it.