Esther is a joy to photograph for no other reason than she just doesn’t seem to care or at least make an attempt at masking herself for the cameras.
Her actions and reactions are some of the most emotive I have ever witnessed, she is like a walking caricature…of herself.

There is a bit of a theme this week, as World Cup 2010 reaches the final stages, I thought it would be fitting to pick three multimedia slide shows that not only have the theme of football but when compared with one another reflect the diverse nature of any international event.

The first up dropped in my rss feed this morning – a thanks to Dr DJ Clark who wrote this post over on DSLR New Shooter about his recent project.
I’d never heard of The Twenty Ten project, but within seconds of reading I was impressed not only by the implementation of this ambitious project but the potential that this showed in allowing indigenous journalists and media gatherers to capture and tell the stories around an event as large as the World Cup.

It is vital that local’s are allowed the opportunity to get their teeth into the stories that effect their lives, however the fact is that the mainstream media will always bring a traveling circus along for the show – that, I believe, will never change. But through training (such as this project) and allowing for opportunity we will one day see a more diverse media, one that truly reflects the world we live in.
After ten minutes or so of flicking through the productions of Twenty Ten, I have to admit there wasn’t really any that jumped out at me, until I came across ‘In The Shadow of Green Point Stadium‘ by Samantha Reinders. From what I can gather from her website, Samanatha Reinders is a native South African who has a lot of experience in news photography and this certainly shows in her work. The imagery is beautiful.

Click to watch 'In the shadow of Green Point' by Samantha Reinders

Next up is a piece by fellow Brit Mike Lusmore, having briefly met Mike at an event in London, we used to work for the same news agency.
Mike has obviously used his local knowledge to pick a location and a story and run with it – simple. The imagery is spot on and does it’s job well in supporting the audio and the story (let’s face it pictures will never really do much more with a piece like this) and the audio is cracking. Brilliant piece – it puts a smile on my face every time I watch it, but that’s most likely the Bristolian accent

For the third and final piece this week I wanted to get something from the big news agencies/papers – ultimately to try and contrast the fact that the above two multimedia pieces have been created by freelancer’s.
Searching the websites of the usual suspects; AFP, Reuters etc… I had no luck. Plenty of world cup highlight galleries but no specific multimedia piece related to the world cup of any note.

I then came across ‘Shosholoza!’ by Christoph Balsiger/swissinfo.ch – this audio slideshow for me really encapsulates the feeling that the South African people are really enjoying hosting the event. I love the way the fans  singing the Shosholoza merge with what I believe is a traditional English football chant.
There is no speaking throughout, only singing, chanting, hooting and plenty of happy, smiling people – the atmosphere feels electric.

A little bit of this, a little bit of that. What is Multimedia?

This convergence of widely differing but related forms is what I think makes multimedia so special.

The downside of a ‘catch-all’ term such as multimedia is the fact that it is used (and rightly so) by so many different industries to describe their product.

For this reason, it is important to understand how I use the term ‘multimedia’ and how I believe that if used correctly it is a tool that yields great story-telling powers.

The type or source of that story is not important – whether a factual news piece for an international publication or a commercial multimedia production promoting an event or product. The fact is, multimedia has many uses and a great potential for anyone that is willing to give it a try.

The term multimedia and how I use it is also called many other names – here are a few; Audio Slideshow, Multimedia Slideshow, Photofilm, Multimedia presentation. When I use the term ‘multimedia’ – I mean all of the above.

So…what is a multimedia piece then?

Broken down in it’s simplest form a multimedia piece is the combination of some or all of the following; Photography, Audio and Video.
The above forms of content each have both advantages and dis-advantages, the key to a successful multimedia production is understanding and utilising the best of each one to create a piece.

My particular type of multimedia is based heavily around the still image, this is because photography is simply ‘my thing’ – having had a fantastic technical training in photography followed by years of experience, it would make sense that a multimedia piece by myself is hinged around the still photograph.

I often get asked the question by potential clients “why not just commission a video cameraman?” and my answer is almost always the same. Video has it’s advantages, there is no doubting that, however take for example a wedding video, even the bride and groom fast-forward ‘to the best bits’. With multimedia the unique combination of images and short, succinct video allows for a more direct approach to the story,  capturing and re-living the best bits in a tighter more powerful package.
Simply put, if video was a 5000 word written essay, a multimedia piece would be a bulleted list.

Going back to the three components of multimedia – when understanding out they all interact I find it best to visualise the finishing of a cake.

The stills and short snippets of video are the foundation of any piece (the sponge in the cake) – without them there would be no cake.
The quality of the photography and video also matters (think flour and eggs) – without a good foundation the piece is doomed and may never rise, sometimes the audio can ‘rescue’ a piece – but it is no compromise for top quality photography.
The audio is what pulls it all together (the cream or topping of choice) – without the audio a piece will fail and although having a (relatively) smaller input, it has, without doubt the largest effect on a finished piece. A cake simply wouldn’t be a cake without the sweet topping.

The audio plays a vital role – there is in fact a whole industry built around the creation of audio and sound engineering – most actions provoke a sound – from the click of a digital cameras pretend shutter, to the computer generated hum of an electric car engine, even the films and TV shows you watch have most likely had hours of work dedicated to the audio alone.
Take the puddle splash in ‘Zoe’ or the constant hum of the chocolate vat throughout ‘The Art of Chocolate’.
With audio, it is the little things that count.

When you correctly combine the three content forms of photography, audio and video the result can be astonishing, breathtaking even – that is multimedia.

Author John Corsellis for The Independent.

I’ve pulled out this small selection of portraits taken during the last couple of years for various newspapers, from The Daily Star to The Times these images speak volumes about me as a photographer and where I was at that time in my career.

It’s wonderful to know that I have developed and matured as a photographer, even now I feel it every time that I compose an image.

I was originally going to put these images to a fitting soundtrack, but thinking about it – during this time of my life, I was just venturing into the powerful world of multimedia and these images were after all created for fish and chip wrapping’s.

As much as I enjoy taking this kind of ‘posed’ portraiture – which seems to be the predominant style throughout the year, however I feel throughout 2010 i’ve found myself moving towards a much more reportage approach to my images.
This relatively new approach along with the adoption of multimedia has allowed me to capture and tell stories like never before and I guess that’s how we all improve, we never stop learning as photographers and there is no doubt that shooting the following types of portraiture usually with tight deadlines has allowed me to learn and ‘add another (very useful) string to my bow’.

If you have a spare hour, why not take a look at some old images? dust of the negs, plug in the hard drives – it’s truly amazing how much you will learn about yourself and where you are as a photographer.

Your tastes will change and your critique will toughen but ultimately you will become a better photographer – and let’s face it, that’s why we picked up a camera in the first place.

Faulty superman Jacob Lamb. The Daily Mail.

The Morpeth Floods 2008.

Afghanistan training exercise. Thetford.

Cambridge Universities first female Librarian in it's 600 year history. The Mirror.

Star Trek fan. The Daily Star.

Tom Curran - BBC Young Composer for The Guardian.

Child Fingerprinting. The Mail on Sunday.

The dog with it's own pub. The Sun.

Muslims pray in a Newmarket community centre.

Admittedly on the face of it this story seemed like a non-starter, let’s face it hundred’s of immigrant communities around the country are already struggling for space with the indigenous population.

The reason for the sudden increase in the Muslim population is solely down to the sport of horse racing. For several years now young Muslim men from the Indian sub-continent have come across to train as riders in the industry.
Ahsan Mohammed chairman of the Newmarket Mosque committee believes “the muslim community is set to explode when the wives and children of the young jockey’s become eligible to live here in the UK”.

Ahsan Mohammed - Chairman of Newmarket Mosque Committee.

When this story first appeared in the local newspaper, naturally the far-right felt compelled to jump on board, there websites and forums lighting up with scaremongering posts warning anyone without the intelligence not to listen that we were all doomed and we should prepare for a “re-run of 1960′s Bradford”.

Racism aside, there was a deeper story to be told, the very source of modern day horse racing directly descends from the Arabian breed. Through hundreds of years of war and trading between eastern and western cultures the Arab horse has come to represent the power and beauty of horse racing in the United Kingdom, for me it seems a quaint twist of irony that the very culture that brought The Sport of Kings to the world should not have a home in Newmarket – a quiet Suffolk town, widely regarded as the global centre for thoroughbred racing.

As a photographer from an editorial / news background I have always tried to capture the essence of a story in a single image, trying to come up with that image for this job was no easy task and I distinctly remember over a period of 2-3 days struggling with that task.

The Newmarket Muslim Community pray in a community centre room previously used for a 'Baby Yoga' class.

Rising early one morning in the hope of capturing the young Muslim riders on the arduous training slopes at Newmarket, I was busy away gathering audio and general views when I hit on the idea of getting a relatively tight shot of a rider in full racing regalia.
I will be the first to admit that the following shot was not intended, in fact it was only during the edit did the composition truly jump out at me.

That split second of time as the riders eyes were closed changes the feel of the image from one of frantic concentration to an almost peaceful, prayer like moment.

A Muslim horse rider appears to pray as he trains at Newmarket

Tipping Point – Newmarket Muslims from Matt Kirwan on Vimeo.