"Sometimes I rhyme, sometimes I dont"

No picture today, becuase I need to moan.

As implied in the title of this post, sung by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco (easily the best band in the world), on 'Woodgrain', I have been out of sorts lately. I've had another birthday, terror, shock, yes, a big one.

But there's also been some trouble at work which has really put me back. Its affecting my photography, its affecting my sleep and its affecting this blog.

The story is so long that I cant tell it all here, but it relates to my pension payments which were supposed to go into my account since 2006. Turns out the money only left my bank account into, well, nothing.

When this was discovered, my salary was adjusted without asking me. Turns out that I am now NOT eligible for the new toughly-NUJ-negotiated-pay-rise plus three month back pay
that everybody else will benefit from. Only because I was paid back my own money that was lost due to company incompetence in the first place.

If any NUJ staff reads this, please advise. Jeez.

Lets have some fun with the photographer

On Friday evening I was doing a late job in a sports field down in Bromley, south east London. We'd been invited by a successful football academy and the kids we're doing their bit on the field. I was shooting the kids and waiting for the main attraction, West Ham United defender Anton Ferdinand, brother of Man Utd's Rio Ferdinand, who both are patrons for the academy, hailing as they do from south London.

Only one problem. Anton hadn't arrived. I waited an hour. Photographed the kids match. Then my 80-200 lens stopped focusing. Not good. It was getting very cold. Still no Anton. Premiership footballers are infamous for not showing up, especially on a Friday night with the season over.

After nearly two hours he finally showed up and I went about my business to set up a shot with him and some of the coaches as they were watching the game. Then I fell for the oldest trick in the book...

He asked me which paper I was from and as soon as he had eye contact with me he screamed - WATCH OUT, BALL COMING!!! and I scrambled for my life, covering my head and my camera, bracing myself for the thumping impact of a high velocity football to my head...alas, there was no ball near me, it was miles away. I'd been had. I don't think I've seen a bunch of grown men laugh so much in a long time, they were literally falling about. Safe to say that I looked like a twat, and they really enjoyed it!

Anyway, Anton is a good sport and gave me a photo session a little later, after Sky Sports had finished interviewing him. The result can be seen at the top of this post.