Dennis Owen is an Editor-in-Charge on the Reuters Global Pictures Desk in Singapore

This week saw a total Lunar Eclipse that was visible in many parts of North and South America and parts of eastern Asia. A Lunar Eclipse occurs when the Earth passes between the Sun and the Moon and the moon falls into the Earths shadow cone. When the Moon is fully in shadow, sunlight is refracted through earths shadow, the shorter wavelength blue light is filtered out and the longer wavelength red light passes through illuminating the Moon with faint reddish light. Global weather conditions will dictate on how bright the Moon appears.

The Global Pictures Desk saw contributions from many points making for an interesting file. Some efforts were more successful than others on a difficult subject to shoot.

The two biggest issues we saw were underexposed and/or out of focus images. The exposure change from the full moon to when it is fully eclipsed is about 12 stops.

Mario Anzuoni

Doug Murray

This low light level and the rotation of the earth puts a limit on how long your exposure can be before you start to get movement in image. From our experience about one second is the maximum. Shorter exposures will produce a much deeper red color but the Moon is too dark and too much noise becomes apparent when the image is toned.

Focusing on the fully eclipsed moon is very difficult. It is best not to rely on AF and manually pre-focus your lens when the Moon is still full and use that setting for when it is eclipsed.

Weather conditions where you are will also dictate what kind of pictures, if any, you can make. Obviously clear skies are best. Heavy cloud made for less than satisfying results.

Daniel Munoz

There has been quite a bit of discussion online about what color the moon is when it is in eclipse. Some viewers say that many pictures are too red and exaggerate the effect. The simplest way to ensure accurate color for these kinds of celestial events is to shoot with the cameras color balance set to Daylight.

Beyond the standard straight images we also received nice combos from Henry Romero and Richard Clement. These take some planning and are often used for educational purposes.

Henry Romero

Richard Clement
We didnt see any multiple image photos of the moon crossing the night sky as it went through the phases. Perhaps next time.

Digital cameras and clever software have liberated millions of people, conned for generations by indifferent holiday snap processing into believing that they always cropped off the feet and tops of the heads of their loved ones. Now everyone can make a sharp, well exposed picture, simply and inexpensively reproduce it using common domestic computer and printer equipment and cheaply and instantly disseminate it via the internet or mobile phone. Some of us have only ever known photography as digital and millions are coming to it for the first time through the ownership of mobile phones. A proliferation of websites host the results, pictures shot by my kids and their friends at a music festival last weekend were on the internet before the mud on their clothes was dry.

The potential practical, artistic and recreational applications are infinite and the ability of pictures to transcend linguistic and cultural barriers offers a thrilling prospect for the future as skills, and new techniques are developed and the technology is driven forward.

Millions of private citizens are now in possession of mass media communications technology with speed and range previously accessible only to global media organisations and the military, which brings us round to “citizen journalism” again.

In its simplest form it is the visual equivalent of the kind of ‘vox pop’ eyewitness contributions which have always accompanied radio and tv news reports. The news media are not ubiquitous and routinely seek local eyewitnesses and potential sources of stills and video from anyone at all on the spot be they amateur or professional. In the days of film, as young photographers arriving at the scene of a news story, we were always told to be on the look out for “punter pix”. One such was the picture of Concorde on fire over Paris, picked-up from Hungarian plane spotter Andreas Kisgergely. It didn’t matter that it was a huge pull of a small part of the original negative; it wasn’t even the best picture of the doomed aircraft, that was shot by a Japanese passenger on a plane waiting to take-off for Tokyo, but none of that mattered because for 24 hours as far as the world’s media were concerned Andreas Kisgergely’s picture was all there was and it played on front pages everywhere.

The first time I became truly aware of the universality of the cameraphone was when new elected Pope Benedict left the Conclave to visit his apartment just outside St Peter’s. All the media were there, photographers with long lenses standing on ladders and low walls ready to shoot over the heads of the public. What none of us had bargained for was that as soon as he appeared, every member of the waiting crowd raised their mobile phones above their heads to shoot what we used to call a “Hail Mary”, completely obliterating the view of most of the waiting pros.

 A simple internet search shows the enormous number of committed and accomplished amateur photographers out there shooting wonderful pictures. It is them I would encourage to contribute timely pictures to the daily news and sports file. With good file sizes now possible on cameraphones there is no longer any excuse for those, “I wish I’d had a camera with me” moments.

Not everyone is going to win a coconut but everyone now has the potential do so.

On leaving the Arsenal versus Manchester City Premier League soccer match on Saturday I was approached by two Arsenal fans. They asked me my opinion of the game, which I gave them, adding that Manchester Citys Micah Richards was a future England captain. Before carrying on their inebriated way they asked me where I was going the next day. I told them to the Wales v France international rugby friendly.. Any chance we can carry your bags? Any chance indeed..well its a question all sports photographers have probably been asked a thousand times. No-one ever offers to carry my bags when I am doorstepping the Prime Minister in Downing Street or waiting in the rain to car shot a disgraced MP outside the House of Commons or when travelling on assignment to Iraq. But mention a sports event in any climate and you are immediately inundated with offers of help.
Being an wire agency photographer allows us the privilege of covering not only all the world’s hard news but also the world’s major sporting tournaments. Every one completely different but all sharing one similarity. Sometimes it is the culmination of everything that has gone before it. Sometimes it can happen half a dozen times in one match.The one defining moment that all sports photographers wait for, and the one that sums up the very core of every professional sportsperson’s being. Winning.

The following images are taken from a few of the major sporting events I have covered where I was lucky enough to be in the right spot when it mattered. Make no mistake that there is an awful lot of luck involved in some of these pictures. Sometimes we make our own luck but when we do find ourselves in the perfect spot, we rely on our news instincts to take over.

The first picture involve Chelsea’s golden boys Terry and Lampard  celebrating a goal during their defeat of Bayern Munich in a Champions League quarter final at Stamford Bridge. I can’t even begin to describe the amount of luck that was involved in getting this picture, but suffice to say I was very relieved I did. The second image shows Autralia celebrating their 1999 Cricket World Cup win at Lords. This picture was simply point, wait and shoot.

 The next two pictures highlight my two favourite title winning moments at Wimbledon. Croatia’s Goran Ivanisevic had climbed into the family box to greet his father who is sobbing into a spectator’s arms. That moment gave me goosebumps as I was shooting it, something that has never happened before or since. It probably had a lot to do with my having spent years watching Ivanisevic try and achieve his dream and at that moment I knew he had. It was such a privilege to have witnessed that moment that I knew for me nothing at Wimbledon again would ever better it. Nothing has, but Venus Williams celebratory moment was as pure a sporting moment as any I have ever seen.

Michael Owen’s celebration of his second of two goals in British football’s biggest stage, the FA Cup Final, again found me and not the other way round. The second picture shows the Police Football Team’s Ahmed Mnajed being congratulated after his side’s victory over rival side Al Zawra at the Al Zawra stadium in Baghdad. This match between Iraq’s top two teams is the first major sports event since the fall of President Saddam Hussein.

The moment surrounding this final picture probably gives me the most satisfaction in several ways. It was the culmination of an eight week tour spent following the England team in their pursuit of World Cup glory. Wilkinson’s World Cup winning kick was over in a second. It sealed England’s first World Cup triumph in any sport since 1966. It sealed the fate of the Australian team who were unable to prevent the inevitable. For the first time I thought not about the celebrating players, but about the impact this result would have on a million English rugby fans at home. That’s the power of sport. Definitely something worth celebrating.

The second in a series charting Editor in Charge Joachim Herrmann’s move from the Berlin bureau to Reuters global picture editing desk in Singapore.  

After exploring miles and miles of the islands shopping malls, I finally began my job as Editor-in-Charge on the Global Pictures Desk. Over the past few weeks I have observed colleagues working all three desk shifts, asked questions, searched for useful homepages and requested usernames and passwords, transferred data ata from Germany to Singapore. Oh man! All new, all different and hopefully I will remember everything.

But watching and learning from the six EiCs I have been shadowing is only the half of it. I feel ready now  and while I still have many questions about procedures and rules I have no hesitation about working with the pictures themselves! No matter where you are, Berlin or Singapore, working with pictures is the same all over and good fun to boot. Editing, cropping, tweaking and fine-tuning is the main part of our job on the desk.

My first shift, morning shift gets me up at 0600 hrs. What an unfriendly time! After a short ride in a taxi, (cars are quite expensive here in Singapore and when compared to a German autobahn the speed limit here makes driving here seem no fun at al),  I arrived in the office to replace my colleague David after his nightshift. He and his team had handled lots of pictures from various points all over the world and cleared the backlog. What a good start!

 The four sub-editors faced a quiet morning shift. I attend the 0830 hrs morning news planning meeting with senior editors from text and television to discuss news coverage for the day, talk to colleagues at the desk, chat on the phone or instant messenger with colleagues all over the globe and all the other desk routine.

Getting local breakfast is a challenging for me I waive the offer to get some fish ball noodle soup it is a perfect time for an espresso. But for now definitely no fish balls.

After our team processed some 250 pictures colleagues say this is a quiet shift where on average the desk sends about 600 pictures -  we sent all pictures we received and hand over to the next team at 1500 hrs.

Now its time for something else…. not coffee and Black Forest Cherry Cake, now I want Beef Hor Fun beef with noodles!

And tomorrow I start again at 0700, maybe tomorrow I’ll try the Asian style breakfast. 

These pictures were some of those which moved through the desk on my shift:

- A painted model poses for photographers at an exhibition stand at the Games Convention 2007 fair in the eastern German city of Leipzig August 23, 2007. The Games convention, Europe’s leading fair for computer games, runs from August 22 to 26. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke (GERMANY)

- A Ultra Orthodox Jew takes a break during prayers as workers push a cart at the Western Wall (Wailing Wall) in Jerusalem’s old city, early morning August 23, 2007.   REUTERS/Yannis Behrakis (JERUSALEM)

- USA’s LeBron James celebrates with the team after they defeated Venezuela during the FIBA Americas regional qualifying basketball tournament to decide two berths for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, in Las Vegas, Nevada, August 22, 2007.  REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson  (UNITED STATES)

- Afghan girls watch the photographer in the city of Ghazni, southwest of Kabul August 23, 2007. REUTERS/Ahmad Masood (AFGHANISTAN)

As a 24 year old wannabe walking into the Reuters office in London for the first time in 1993 the only thing I knew was that I wanted to shoot pictures, I just wasn’t sure what kind. This was a whole new experience and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I didn’t even know what a news agency was, but what I did know was that if they took just one frame from my camera and put it on the wire, I would get paid. Over the following months I began to learn something else. What constitutes a news photograph. And by that I mean a picture that is so powerful it makes you gasp or gives you goosebumps.

Following the tragic deaths in a minibus crash of ten pupils and a teacher from a Roman Catholic High School in 1993, Dylan Martinez produced one such picture from his file. If ever a picture said a thousand words this is it.

Andre Camara’s picture of the devastation that was caused after two bombs exploded in London in 1993 is another.

Eric Camoin’s image of the French anti-terrorist forces moving into position on a hijacked Air France Airbus and successsfully liberating 160 passengers is another such image that made me look at it over and over again, imagining what must have happened once those forces stepped through the aircraft door.

Again Dylan Martinez’s harrowing pictures from the Genoa summit of the protestor in the last seconds of his life before being shot dead by a police officer have the same effect. Brutal, raw images that deliver a monumental impact every time you look at them.

But death, human suffering and destruction should not be considered the only ingredients in the makeup of a great news photograph. Take Russell Boyce’s picture of former British Prime Minister John Major or Kevin Lamarque’s picture of Conservative leadership contender Michael Portillo who having held the seat since 1984, lost to the man grinning behind him, Labour’s Stephen Twigg.

  Both these images have a different but nonetheless significant impact in that  they were both moments that passed in the blink of an eye which no-one would have seen had the photographer not captured them. The essential key to any great news picture.To me these are a few of the news pictures that graced the Reuters wire early and later on in my career and that have the same impact on me no matter when or how often I look at them. They are a constant reminder as to why I became a news photographer. These are not the pretty, beautifully lit and exquisitely framed photographs that we see in abundance on the wires now. These are the no frills, raw, rough edged, grainy, sometimes badly lit, soft or slightly over exposed images that deliver on all counts. Photographers working and producing in every imaginable situation and then some. These are news images that stand the testament of time and show the impact that photographers, who have the ability to catch these fleeting moments, weild with their cameras. It is little wonder that I wanted to immerse myself into this industry. The adrenalin rush is intoxicating.

 If you are a wannabe out there reading this blog, maybe they will have a similar impact on you. In my humble opinion, these are as good as it gets. 

On numerous occasions I have turned on up an assignment and stood about scratching my head, trying to figure out how I am going to turn what I see in front of me into a picture. Not to say that the following technique is a gimmick. Far from it. If you try and pull this one off and get it wrong, it will, take my word for it, look abysmal. The use of shadows in pictures is not the first picture the wire photographer will shoot when turning up to an assignment, but if the light is right, and the light has definitely got to be right, it can turn an ordinary news conference, sporting situation, or political doorstep into an unusual picture. If pictures stand out and get noticed on the wire against the hundreds of others that are seen daily by the sub editors on the world’s picture desks,then half the battle is won. Graphic eye catching images always stand out, no matter how small the monitor’s thumbnail size.

Loathe as I am to fill a blog with my own pictures, here are a selection of photographs that I have taken in the last decade that hopefully illustrate the point.The first couple of sport pictures come from the beach volleyball at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. It was the first time the sport had been included unofficially in an Olympics and was set on Bondi beach The potential for pictures was huge and with the light at midday and sunset being equally effective for shadows, both these pictures were possible.

The next news picture involved a lengthy doorstep in Downing Street where the story also required a security picture.This was lit with television lights where every half hour the policeman would pace up and down the street, passing the door for a split second. This took many attempts before getting it right. The second picture was shot at a mass grave in Iraq where the shadow of the pointing hand was completetly fortuitous.

These three press conference pictures show Microsoft supremo Bill Gates, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak Britain’s then Chancellor Gordon Brown in action, lit again with daylight television lights.

All these are not to be confused with the final entertainment picture. This is Noel Gallagher of Oasis performing at the Brit Awards in London. This is a silhouette. And this is another story.

There is no doubt that some of our best conflict photojournalists are locals who have had the story thrust upon them. They are often highly sophisticated individuals who in happier times would be pursuing careers in business, teaching, law or whatever. They have the language, local knowledge and contacts, experience and street smarts to enable them to operate and survive. Anybody coming in from outside has to be able to at least match this with an equivalent contribution. In a conflict zone or a disaster area anyone who is not effectively reporting the story is in the way, an unnecessary drain on scarce resources and a potential threat to themselves and their colleagues.

No picture is worth a human life. The challenge is judging just how far to push the limits and still be able to go back and do it again the next day and the next. Even those operating in “embeds” should undertake basic hazardous environment and first aid training. Languages too are very, very useful. Even so too many clever, well prepared photojournalists without a reckless bone in their bodies have already died just doing their jobs.

Physical location is also important. Unless you have a local story which can provide you with a living there is no point in kidding yourself that you can live in the Scottish Highlands and commute to London for work. If the story and the market are in Tokyo, go to Tokyo.

In practical terms experience generally wins out over qualifications. Photographic qualifications may equip the wannabe with a structure on which to build a career but  equipment alone does not make a top flight professional news photographer. Qualifications are a guide but they are by no means a guarantee and it is the pictures that count.

The maintenance of high professional standards does not mean you have to sacrifice yourself on the altar of technology. Adapt. Embrace new technology, master it, exploit it. If you get bored, reinvent yourself and the rules by which you operate. Don’t be a one trick pony. If you have a style develop it and when there is nowhere else to go with it do something else, don’t stand still. Experiment, take risks with your pictures.
 
Don’t be a victim, be a consumer – consumers have rights, if you see media which use pictures badly then complain, threaten to withdraw your readership, better still offer to do better.

“Citizen journalism” isn’t a threat to professional news photography, it is just another potential source of images in an ever more image hungry world. I have no doubt that the business will continue to rationalise as stills from video becomes the norm for routine press conferences and the like but video does not tend to produce the same kind of interpretive images that still photographers do and as long as we have something unique to offer there will be a market for it.

Despite the doom and gloom this is a real and thriving business. Come on in, the water’s lovely!

A hundred questions raced through my mind as I sat in a taxi zigzagging through traffic towards what first reports described as a major disaster area, a rush-hour plane crash in downtown Sao Paulo.

Will my taxi be able to get close enough to the crash? Will I have to hike the city’s dangerous streets with my camera gear? Will my cell phone connect to the Internet as thousands of people call their relatives? Are other photographers already at the site? What scenes of disaster and grieving will I encounter? Will my longest lens be long enough?

Amid all these thoughts, despite the screaming sirens and my urgency to arrive, my mind flashed back 15 years in time to a distant memory - a bus ride in Bolivia. That bus ride, along an Andean mountain track that is popularly known as the world’s most dangerous road, was the last time in memory that I traveled anywhere without carrying anxiety as part of my emotional baggage.

Then, I rode in a window seat of a rusty, 45-passenger bus with my head out the window observing the breathtaking scenery. I couldn’t help noticing how curious it was to watch the bus’ rear tire skirting the edge of the cliff and pushing stones into the green abyss as it rounded every tight curve of the winding road, a road not always wide enough for the bus I was in.

I sensed only curiosity. No fear. No thoughts of the consequences of a simple driver error, a loose boulder falling onto the roadbed or even brake failure.

One day soon after that ride I was called out, just as I was called to this tragedy in Sao Paulo, to photograph the crash of a bus identical to the one I had traveled in. It had slipped off the edge of that same mountain road and broken into pieces as it tumbled into the rocky jungle below.

The bodies and belongings of the 45 occupants were strewn all down the cliff face. Some hung from trees. Relatives arrived at the site in despair. Rescue workers brought the remains up from the gorge in a scene that I would soon learn was all too common along that perilous route.

That was the first accident story of my news career, and traveling has never felt the same since.
After that crash I returned many times to visit that spectacular part of Bolivia, but never again in a bus too wide for the road.

A few years later I covered my first plane crash in Uruguay. Again, I lost my serenity forever. Since then I have never flown without feeling a certain anxiety about what I had seen can happen to airplanes.

Today, several bus and plane crashes later, a disaster like this one in Sao Paulo is to me another grim reminder of what can happen to a relatively few, very unfortunate travelers.

The crash site I finally arrived at in Sao Paulo was one of devastation and disbelief. It was still too early for grief, but the following days were dominated by it.

I pity the distraught relatives of the 187 unsuspecting occupants of the TAM Airbus that ended in tragedy. As I return to the job of covering more routine news, they will relive that day relentlessly for years to come.

After photographing the accident that has since been labeled as Brazils worst-ever plane crash, I expect to feel maybe a little more anxiety the next time I step into a plane.

But whenever that happens the memory I will most likely recall, for better or for worse, is that of a serene bus ride along the worlds most dangerous road.

(credits from top: Rickey Rogers – photos 1, 2, 3, 5, 6; Paulo Whitaker – photo 4)

Some people say that radio has the best pictures, because the listener creates the visuals in his/her head. A still image leaves nothing to the imagination – or does it?
Of course there are many factors that create a compelling photograph, but there is a type of picture that can only be described as minimalist, because it gives just enough visual information for the viewer to create the rest of the scene in the imagination.  Basically, the photographer shows a detail that gives an impression of the whole. The picture entices us not with what we can see, but with what has been left out.

This might seem easy. For example, I could shoot a leaf lying on the floor with the aim of triggering an image of a tree in the viewers mind. But it doesnt quite work like that. For a start, a leaf lying by itself wouldnt trigger the image of a tree; there would need to be an extra factor. In addition these pictures rarely work unless there is a human element, however tenuous, to bring the picture to life.  Finally, the leaf picture would be very dull. The successful minimalist photograph needs to be a compelling photograph in its own right, through the elements contained within it or the composition.

Like many areas of photography there is no formula, because every situation is different. Success will rely on the photographers power of observation to spot  detail in a context that creates exactly the right links, giving the viewer a spark to fire the imagination.

Close up pictures of hands are often used to give an impression of the whole person or a situation, but wouldnt work with any old pair of hands. David Grays photograph, above, demonstrates this very well. A Chinese worker with his hands behind his back pauses while working on a railway link for next years Olympics. The gloves are so tattered, and his fingers so grimy, that they tell us how hard the man works and because he seems to be overdue a new pair of gloves we are given a clue about his working conditions.

This type of image doesnt necessarily need a human body part to actually be in the picture. In Lee Celanos picture above, showing the shadow of democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama at a public meeting, we cant see the man himself, but because he is holding a microphone  it is immediatley clear that he is addressing an audience .  The atmosphere is increased by the distorting effect on his hand by the curtain, as it appears to creep tantalisingly towards the hand of the secret service agent, which itself is a detail to further fire the imagination.

Shadows tend to be a recurring theme in this type of photograph. Brian Snyders photograph shows a youngster using dance to develop self-esteem, creative expression and imagination. The image is reinforced by the leg dropping in from the top of the picture, and the two elements work together to help us create our own picture of the part of the scene that falls outside the frame of the photograph.

Damir Sagoljs photograph of a US soldier patrolling in Baghdad doesnt need additional information as the shadow is so detailed. The seemingly deserted street works with the shadow and effectively conveys a sinister atmosphere. This gives us an impression of the fear felt on those streets, whether it is felt by the soldier or the local people. This impression is much more powerful for being left to our imagination. Also note the composition, and the way the eye is drawn from the right of the picture to the left by the direction of the weapon and the white barriers.

Sometimes the familiarity of the person in the picture is essential for us to make sense of it, such as this photograph by Jessica Rinaldi, showing a silhouette of a figure we instantly recognize as Tiger Woods. But the story is told by the body language, which suggest that Woods is not having a good day. The shaft of the club adds the finishing touch to the image.

The image above by Yannis Behrakis, of Israeli security forces taking cover behind their shields during clashes in the West Bank city of Hebron, would have been a meaningless still life picture of shields if it wasnt for the hand, introducing the human element into the picture and bringing it to life. But the hand makes the picture appear forlorn, and we are left to draw our own conclusions about what is happening out of sight below the transparent part of the shield.

This photograph by Pascal Lauener, of a beach volleyball game between the US and South Africa, is nothing more than three hands and a ball. But because of the positioning of the hands and fingers, and the straining muscles, we know that the players are competing ferociously and its easy to imagine the action taking place beneath the hands.

Finally, as an exception to the human element rule, this well observed and well shot photograph by Darren Staples,  of the helmets belonging to members of the Indian cricket team sitting on the field during the fourth day of the second test match against England,  gives very little away, and leaves so much to our imagination.  Are the players having a break? Why did they place their helmets in a line?

I recently took up a position as Senior Photographer based in Beijing, China after 12 years in Sydney, Australia. Here are some of my first impressions.

The first thing is the sky isn’t quite so blue. In fact, it’s not even near a shade of blue. The smog on the first five days I was here was amazing. The closest thing I have experienced similar to these conditions was in 2001 when Sydney had its last extreme bush fire season, and the whole city was covered in a thick, smoky haze. But that was when there were over 100 fires burning in and around Sydney, this was a normal Beijing day. Though I must say so far, most likely due to the fresh, Aussie lungs that I possess, I have no breathing problems to report.

Secondly, there a just a few more photographers competing for the best angle. For example, the first thing I covered was the spectacular one-year countdown celebrations in Tiananmen Square. There would have been nearly 200 photographers and television crews trying to cover this, in an area that normally I would have seen reserved for about 60 people. With the humid, high temperatures, being so closely packed does tend to make it a little uncomfortable, especially after 5 hours.

And thirdly, the Chinese authorities love accreditation forms. Almost every event, and when I say almost I mean 99.9 percent of all events that are press related, requires an accreditation pass. This means that forward planning is essential, and turning up on the day without any groundwork will mean a nice, uniformed man will put his hand to your camera and say something very loudly.

Having said all this, however, it has been extremely interesting and eye-opening. Impressions formed of a country looking in from the outside can be vastly different from the actual reality of what occurs. I have encountered a fantastic sense of humor that I hope to understand better when I can speak a little more Mandarin, as my favorite thing to do when visiting a country is to strike up a conversation with taxi drivers. You always find out what’s going on through these very often extremely interesting people (the last taxi driver I spoke to was a 4th-year medical student from Uganda who was making some extra cash driving a taxi on the weekends).

So, I must quickly get back to filling in my press card form, temporary resident form, air freight cargo form, Olympic test events accreditation forms, car license form, real estate application form, mobile phone application form, medical examination form, office security card form, etc etc etc……………