On July 25, 2000, I had returned to Paris after four weeks of covering the Tour de France and was in the office waiting for my flight back to my home base Nice. It was a quiet day for news and that afternoon I relaxed in the office.

Paris photographer Philippe Wojazer told me, “because it’s quiet, there isn’t any need for the two of us here, I’m going back to my place.” I remember seeing him take his motorbike helmet and then seeing a news flash that said, “Plane crash at Roissy.” The adrenaline was pumping in the office when a second news flash announced “It is a Concorde.”

Philippe told me to head to Roissy on a motorbike with a driver and he would stay at the office to receive my photos. On the way to Roissy, I could see a column of smoke in the distance. Immediately I realized the severity of the situation and the fact that it was a Concorde heightened the news value of the event. Quickly we arrived close to the crash site but it was already surrounded by police who had blocked access to the area and the surrounding two miles.

After a moment’s consideration I told the motorbike driver, “We are going to break the barrier.” And that is what we did, despite the reluctance of my driver. While passing them, two police officers tried to grab my shirt to stop us. Finally, we arrived at the field where the Concorde had crashed. There was a lot of smoke and until that moment I hadn’t realized that the Concorde had crashed into a hotel. After taking several general view pictures, I started to cross the field to get closer to the crash site. In the distance I could see police officers running towards me and I realized that I wouldn’t be able to continue to take pictures for long.

I saw the plane’s wheels and the firemen surrounding the plane. I turned around and saw the police were now practically on me. I had started to take pictures of the site. Quickly, I took out the disc from my camera and hid it before being detained by the police and escorted from the site.

I got my laptop back and immediately sent my photos to Philippe, who had stayed at the office. We were the first news organization to transmit pictures of the crash. I remember talking to my Swiss colleague, Ruben Sprich, who told me that we had made all the deadlines for the Swiss newspapers.

Moments later, Philippe called me and told me that he had found and bought a photograph of the crash taken by a plane spotter. It showed the Concorde with flames coming out of it shortly before the crash.

That photo appeared in newspapers around the world.

A bomb has killed at least 20 Shia pilgrims as they poured into Iraq's holy city of Kerbala.

Nicky Loh presents a series of time-lapse sequences of a solar power plant in Kaohsiung, Taiwan.

Asia’s Largest Solar Power Plant in Kaohsiung, Taiwan from Nicky Loh on Vimeo.

The first time lapse sequence was shot over a period of one hour at 1 frame every two seconds on a lens baby. I chose to use still photography to capture the time lapse over video as the movement of the panels was so small that a continuous one hour raw video file on the 5D MKII would have crashed my computer.

The second time lapse sequence featuring the overview of Kaohsiung City, used to illustrate a city gaining electricity, was shot over a 3 hour period, at 1 frame every 4 seconds, from inside a hotel with an overview of the city. Because the hotel room lights reflect on the glass panel of the hotel room window which I shot through, I had to sit in the dark for nearly two hours for the camera to finish snapping.

The Nigerian man accused of trying to blow up an airliner on Christmas Day has provided 'useful, actionable' intelligence to authorities.

Iran test-fired a domestically made satellite-carrier rocket on Wednesday, according to Iranian media.

Fifteen people have been injured after a shopping cart loaded with petrol cans and firecrackers exploded in a shopping mall on in Darwin.

China warned Barack Obama on Wednesday that a meeting between him and the Dalai Lama would further erode ties between the two powers.

Checking through the file this picture by Reuters Shanghai based photographer Aly Song really caught my eye and I needed to think why.

 A view shows a sinking cargo ship after it collided with a boat on Huangpu River in Shanghai February 1, 2010. Three sailors were  rescued from the accident, while further investigation is underway, according to local media. REUTERS/Aly Song

 

Why does this picture work so well when common sense tells me the worker in the foreground should block my view of the scene? Why don’t I feel that I want him to move so I can see the whole scene? Maybe it’s the way I am drawn into the picture by the strong sense of aerial perspective, the bold dark red of the helmet in the foreground, the point of focus, the harsh contrast of the diagonals thrown up by the stricken cargo ship and then through into the soft, misty and pale skyline of Shanghai.

 Or is it the classic grid like composition of the horizontal line of the waters edge and the vertical lines of the buildings that are both dissected by the triangular shapes of the cargo ship? What ever it is the eye suddenly snaps back to the subject, an overturned cargo ship slowly sinking in the murky waters of the Huangpu River.

I just have to know more. The caption tells me the cargo ship collided with a barge, three sailors were rescued and an investigation is underway.

 Have a look at the picture below without the worker – see what I mean?

 

Russell Boyce, Chief photographer Asia