Photo Shoot with the Beautiful Mary Smith – January 26 2012

Mary Smith Los Angeles. CA

 

Mary Smith Los Angeles. CA

 

Looking South.

Los Angeles, from the Griffith Park Observatory.

Another statistic.

Road kill - Los Angeles 23 January 2012

A typical news photographers footwell.

New Toys!

I love the look and feel of the new Nikon V1 Mirror-less interchangeable lens camera. So I bought one.

I went for the V1 with the 10mm f2.8 plus the 10-30mm and 30-100mm lenses. Oh and the flash. It’s a really sweet little camera that gives amazing results, far better than it should give…

The New Nikon V1 mirror-less camera.

Mary And Joseph Accuses NOTW Of Phone Hacking. Exclusive by Nick Stern.

Couple accuses tabloid of hacking their phones and tracking donkey with GPS.

The leveson enquiry heard how news of the world journalist obtained “possibly illegal” information about the birth of their son – Jesus, prompting a war of words between the unmarried couple and the tabloid.

In a heated and sometime emotional testimony into press standards the couple told how News of the world journalists obtained Mary’s medical records in order prove she was a virgin. 

The couple’s comments were swiftly rejected by News International, marking a dramatic day that also saw Lord Justice Leveson hear evidence how the tabloid had placed a GPS tracking device on Joseph’s donkey so they could obtain the first exclusive photographs of the new born child.

Joseph told the hearing he tried to keep information about Mary’s pregnancy secret after the News of the World first speculated that she may be carrying his baby, despite claiming to be a virgin, saying “my overwhelming motive throughout this whole episode was to protect the mother and my child”.

The carpenter was followed by paparazzi, often chased for miles across desert.

Mary told the enquiry how her suspicions were raised when three wise men turned up at the stables bearing gifts, “They must have tracked us for miles to find out where Jesus was going to be born” the single mum claimed. News international also denied the three wise men were actually fake sheiks.

“You paparazzi scum!”

I’ve been a news photographer for nearly twenty years and during that time I’ve covered hundreds if not thousands of stories that have appeared in tabloid newspapers and magazines around the world.

I’m British and  been living and working in Los Angeles for the past four and a half years.

Like many news photographers out there my work consist of a healthy mix of celebrities  (I recently covered Prince Harry’s time in the US) to showbiz like the Beckhams and the death of Michael Jackson, recent features and hard news include the earthquakes in Haiti and Japan.

My career came out of an equal passion for photography and news. When I quit the security of a steady job as an electronic sales engineer back in the early 1990′s and handed back the company car, tie and pension I knew I was following the right path for me. It was more of a calling than a job.

It didn’t take for me long to realise which photographs would pay the highest bounty. A front page to the Times or Telegraph would pay maybe £500 if I was lucky where-as a front page and a double page spread inside a red top tabloid or a  glossy showbiz magazine would pay ten times that amount. It doesn’t take a business genius to realise which photos I should be chasing.

I quickly became a regular shifter at many of the national Daily and Sunday papers, including the Daily Mail, The News of the World and the Sun.

In 2000 I set up an agency, First News where I had a number of photographers working for me.

As a photographer or agency boss you have to  balance your output between work you are passionate about and work that pays the bills.

Jobs like catching James Boffey from Liverpool – a banned driver getting back behind the wheel of his car after killing a cyclist made the front page of the Daily Mail, it gave me great satisfaction actually nailing the scroat but hardly paid a fortune, or spending £2000 of my own money to investigate and photograph victims of people trafficking in Romania – a feature that never sold.

I’d worked on a number of stories in the United States and always felt I’d like to live there. In 2007 I got my visa and moved to Los Angeles where I  joined a celebrity news agency.

In early 2008 some news organizations focused their attention on me. Whilst working for the agency I took the decision to quit my job as I felt uneasy about the constant and reckless pursuit of the singer Britney Spears. At the time Spears appeared to be going through some kind of mental breakdown, shaving her head, driving on high speed late night runs through the Hollywood Hills, hotly pursued by the paparazzi. I felt it could end in the death of  Spears.

There was no story, the paparazzi’s pursuit of spears became the story.

The competition for the latest set of photos of Ms Spears was very hot, with hundreds of thousand of dollars being paid for a great exclusive the paps were ruthless. It wasn’t unknown for the paps to drive on the wrong side of the street and jump red lights. Stories of paps having their tyres slashed and cars attacked by the competition were not uncommon.

I stepped away from this madness.

I stepped away because like most news photographers out there whether working for a tabloid or a broadsheet like any sane person I looked at the actions of the paps and felt this clearly was not news photography. Someone was going to die.

Don’t get me wrong, I still cover celebrity news stories and photograph them on a regular basis, but there are ways of doing things. I don’t hound them with a short zoom lens twelve inches from their nose, I don’t chase them, jumping red lights and driving on the wrong side of the road like a fox being hunted by hounds. The public have a huge appetite for celebrity news and photographs, this will never change, you only need to look at any news-stand to see that vast numbers of glossies fighting for the hard earn cash of its readers, not to mention the thousands of celebrity websites that are now  financially trying to justify their existence.

I’ve watched with interest the Leveson enquiry, and the blanket condemnation of all tabloid news photographers. The news photographers have had no opportunity to reply to the allegations.

Like many genuine news photographers out there I’ve been offended by many of the allegations leveled at us during the enquiry, often by people who fight for every column inch they can get.

In the world of news photography there are a small element who take unreasonable steps to obtain a sellable photograph. Sometimes attempting to incite a reaction in their subject, other times pursuing the subject relentlessly without a news agenda, just in hope getting a sellable frame and earn some money from that days snapping. There are of course a number of agencies that encourage this, their only concern is to get a photograph that sells.

A clear distinction must be made between this group and the large majority of news photographers. We do not spit on subjects, bang on their cars, approach their children, jump red lights, chase at high speed or manipulate photographs. We are there as impartial observers to observe and record in a dignified manner and in a manner that no reasonable celebrity or member of the public could have an  issue with.

What is equally concerning is how the industry itself doesn’t differentiate between the good the bad and the ugly. How many times do we see TV images of ‘the paparazzi’ as they always call us chasing a celebrity? Let’s not forget that the reason we are seeing those TV images is because the TV camera was plotted besides us and to see a broadsheet this week use a photograph of what is clearly a designated press pen and refer to the photographers inside it as ‘paparazzi’, it would appear we need to enlighten even our own picture desks as to what a ‘paparazzi’ is.

The work of the ruthless paparazzi and the agencies that encourage their behavior in order to maximize their income must be condemned.  And the work of many hundreds of responsible news photographers must be recognized as work far removed from the small minority.

Nick Stern is a freelance news photographers based in Los Angeles, California.

www.nickstern.com

You are not Banksy

A photographer has recreated the work of the world’s most elusive graffiti artist Banksy.
British-born Nick Stern, who is now based in Los Angeles, spent months meticulously gathering and making props for this thought-provoking series of images in order to capture Banksy’s controversial art through film.
The images recreate eight of Banksy’s iconic images, including the gay kissing cops, Jesus with shopping bags and the Mona Lisa with an RPG.
“I have always been intrigued by Banksy’s work and thought it would be fascinating to try and recreate some of his most famous images on camera, “ told Stern.
“It was a lot of work as I wanted to make sure every photo was an accurate representation, but the final results were worth it.
“For weeks leading up to each of the shoots I scoured Ebay to find props such as Jesus’s ring of thorns and the police helmets and even made some of them, like the RPG, myself.
“I just hope Banksy likes what I have done.”
Regarded as Britain’s answer to Andy Warhol, art critics have long admired the work of the undercover graffiti artist.
And Hollywood stars such as Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have splashed out six figure sums to have his politically charged stencils on the walls of their million dollar homes.
In January of 2007 a wall defaced by his spray can sold for £208,100 and he is regarded as one of the world’s most elusive criminals.
Few know his real identity and he rarely grants interviews.
His work was first seen around Bristol in the 1990s and since then his satirical images which demonstrate his contempt for government have appeared at locations ranging from Westminster to the Israeli West Bank Barrier.

ALL IMAGES ©NICK STERN

Click on images for a slideshow.

UK injunctions to silence the worlds Media?

Various celebrities are using injunctions (gagging orders) obtained in UK courts to prevent the media revealing stories about their private lives including extra marital affairs.

With media lawyers charging around £1000 ($1600) per hour and barristers charging £2500 ($4000) this route of privacy is generally only open to the very wealthy, and resulting in boosting the already swelling bank accounts of the lawyers.

This may silence the UK newspapers, radio and TV but whistle blowers have resorted to twitter to spread the stories.

A British footballer has now issued legal proceedings against twitter. see here. after around 30,000 people identified him, and details of his affair on the social networking site.

Even a Spanish Newspaper has publicly revealed the name of a shamed soccer star.

Now UK Judges are seeking to extend the powers of the UK courts world-wide.

By the same standards, if a UK news organization publishes an unfavorable story about say Kim Jong-il, can a North Korean court imprison the editor or even order his death, or if an American magazine publishes a photo of a girl in a bikini can an Islamic court sentence the publisher to death for obscenity…

APPLE CEO – Steve Jobs has 6 weeks to live.

National Enquirer 17 Feb 2010 - No explanation necessary.