Condoleezza Rice visits Liverpool, protests ensue

cyKey · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:22

On Friday I was at the Stop the War protest in Liverpool for Condi Rice's visit. It was my first real war rally. I arrived at about 4:30ish, an hour before it started, so I could get a parking spot. There was already a line of police and about 40 protestors. I started getting some shots and testing out the conditions. Overcast skies, boo. So I put the flash on and experimented with the aperature. I wanted to try and capture the moody sky and the protestors to add to the drama. It was a good lesson in flash photography. I quickly learned that I should be using the flash whenever I'm outdoors just so I can compensate and get a balanced exposure. I know its obvious but when you don't do enough outdoor photography you forget these things. As you can probably tell this isn't exactly clever flash usage. Its a HDR styled image from 1 raw file. The settings I used were -1.2 exposure, 0 exposure and +1.2 exposure from Raw Shooter. I then used Photomatrix Pro to generate a HDR shot and tweaked the tones. Then I loaded it into Photoshop and applied some processing to it to get this final shot.

The second shot from the Condi Rice protest in Liverpool. I love this shot. Its got everything really. The tiny baby making eye contact with the viewer up to the dramatic sky behind the cathedral. I love the range that HDR processing gives you. Great detail in the photo from the ground to the sky.

This was a prop the protestors were using. I find it quite a moving shot. Just a coffin on the steps outside a cathedral. Makes you wonder what the hell is going on.

I believe this group of people were protesting about the Guantanamo Bay situation.

The group starting their march down Hope Street towards the Liverpool Philomonic Hall. There was a lot of activity around this. Photographers, reporters, camera men, and me. It was quite a rush to be in the thick of it. You always see these situations on the news and actually when they did show this on the news I saw myself. That was rather cool. You really don't have the time to compose the shot and check your settings. You kinda just have to shoot and hope. I'm sure the pro's there all had perfect settings and got great pictures.

cyKey · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:23

I'm not entirely sure of the significance of the doll in this photo. I'm sure you will notice from these shots that there were quite a few different messages the protesters were trying to get across.

An usual view of the aptly named Hope Street. Protestors hoping to make their voices heard as Condi Rice turns up for some performances at the Liverpool Philamonic.

One of the protestors rallying the crowd. This isn't a HDR shot. I tried it for fun but it didn't work.

Another non HDR shot. The crowd gathering on the steps by the cathedral. Really handy way of showing all the people and their banners.

cyKey · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:23

This shot gives you an idea of the amount of police that they had. 2 lines of police then a further line on horses. You can see why too as the crowd was quite vocal.

One of the more vocal protestors. She was wrapped in what looked like an American flag and was shouting various chants to get the crowd motivated. Some of the police found it funny and some of the time they went too far and had to be warned.

themask70 · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:25

First one's my favourite

Johnny|lucidcomposure · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:32

Numbers 1, 3 and 9 are really fantastic! I am supprised by the amount of events held in Liverpool. I wish I had access to more of this stuff.

cyKey · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:35

Fstop11 said:
Numbers 1, 3 and 9 are really fantastic! I am supprised by the amount of events held in Liverpool. I wish I had access to more of this stuff.

Capital of Culture n all that

I'm rather tempted in using one in the religion theme. Theres a church, a coffin, and stuff. Just not 100% sure.

Sleepyd · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:36

I only like the last one - that's great. There's something about the early ones (HDR) just dont to it for me - somehow that style doesn't suit the subject matter in my view.

cyKey · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:39

Sleepyd said:
I only like the last one - that's great. There's something about the early ones (HDR) just dont to it for me - somehow that style doesn't suit the subject matter in my view.

Fair enough

I was going for gritty, drama etc. I wanted the sky to be as powerful as the message.

divine` · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:39

That last one, are you stood the police side of the barrier, or just holding your camera out to take the snap?

dlh · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:40

All fantastic shots but 2, 10 and 11 stand out for me.

*edit* LOL just seen the bush sign in shot number 9

cyKey · 2 Apr 2006 at 21:51

divine_madness said:
That last one, are you stood the police side of the barrier, or just holding your camera out to take the snap?

I'm not that skilled in being able to get access to the police side of a protest with the most powerful woman in the world there

I just leaned over the barrier to get the shot. Took quite a few goes to get it just right. The flash kept getting blocked by the signs.

MrSix · 2 Apr 2006 at 22:43

I'm not sure what to make of these really.

I understand that HDR is a new novelty for you at the moment, much like your 10mm lens - but sometimes I wonder if it's appropriate to use them so frequently for every photographic opportunity that arises (for example, recently you've used the same equipment and processing techniques for both your car and this anti-war rally).

The photographs do what you say, conveying drama with the moody skies, however they also look very "same old, same old" with the post processing techniques.

I suppose my views are provoked by spending a lot of time recently looking at the work of Larry Burrows and seeing him capture drama and emotion in a true journalistic style, using fast black and white and colour film.

You may argue that this isn't vietnam and the subject isn't nearly as intense, but the basic principles still stand...sometimes it's better to keep it simple if you wish to convey the strongest message.

mrk · 2 Apr 2006 at 22:50

I dunno, without looking at who took the pics int his trhead you can instantly tell that cyk done them, they are his style through and through and that's what's important about a photographers images I think. They do have a gritty feel almost nocturnal but of course in daylight hours, it's the clouds that does it I think. Some of the semi colour semi mono ones are maybe a little too half and half but the rest work well on a more processed reportage level.

/me wonders when such things will take place in his town :/

cyKey · 2 Apr 2006 at 22:55

MrSix said:
I'm not sure what to make of these really.

I understand that HDR is a new novelty for you at the moment, much like your 10mm lens - but sometimes I wonder if it's appropriate to use them so frequently for every photographic opportunity that arises (for example, you've used the same equipment and processing techniques for both your car and an anti-war rally).

The photographs do what you say, conveying drama with the moody skies, however they also look very "same old, same old" with the post processing techniques.

I suppose this comes from spending a lot of time recently looking at the work of Larry Burrows and seeing him capture drama and emotion in a true journalistic style, using fast black and white and colour film.

You may argue that this isn't vietnam and the subject isn't nearly as intense, but the basic principles still stand...sometimes it's better to keep it simple if you wish to convey the strongest message.

But I didn't use the 10mm on everything, or HDR on everything. I wasn't the only one doing that either. There are similar shots on Getty using a wide angle lens to capture the people and the cathedral. I've only used this style twice in 3 days.

mrk said:
I dunno, without looking at who took the pics int his trhead you can instantly tell that cyk done them, they are his style through and through and that's what's important about a photographers images I think. They do have a gritty feel almost nocturnal but of course in daylight hours, it's the clouds that does it I think. Some of the semi colour semi mono ones are maybe a little too half and half but the rest work well on a more processed reportage level.

/me wonders when such things will take place in his town :/

I've always been trying to develop a style and I guess if you can spot it then something must be working

mrk · 2 Apr 2006 at 23:00

It's all cool when that happens but you will find as soon as you try to do something different for a change because you get tired of doing it the same way then everyone jumps on you like a £20 note strolling through the city centre on a saturday morning

MrSix · 2 Apr 2006 at 23:02

cyKey said:
But I didn't use the 10mm on everything, or HDR on everything. I wasn't the only one doing that either. There are similar shots on Getty using a wide angle lens to capture the people and the cathedral. I've only used this style twice in 3 days.

I said you've used it frequently, which you've said - twice in 3 days. You've also only posted up your photos on the two occasions that you've used it, not when you havn't.

You mention you weren't the only one using a wide angle lens as though i'm cricising you for doing so, which isn't my aim, I was suggesting that it would be good to get some variation - which admittedly you have done in a few of the shots, one of which is the one of the girl on the megaphone which stands out from the rest in my opinion.

If you wish to forge your own distinguishable style, why not learn to master the technical side of photography, learning how to effectively use flash or natural light and capturing your images in a way that sets you apart from the rest of the people who can take a mediocre shot, then post process it to hell and call it a 'good' photograph?

stuart38 · 2 Apr 2006 at 23:05

excellent pics mate - did you not get those sent into the papers? definitly has to be money to be made on them

oh and in defference to mrsix's comments I think the girl with the megaphone is the weak link in the set

MrSix · 2 Apr 2006 at 23:08

stuart38 said:
oh and in defference to mrsix's comments I think the girl with the megaphone is the weak link in the set

For what reasons?

mrk · 2 Apr 2006 at 23:08

Almost everyone processes their shots when shooting digital and the more higher up you go in the dslr body class the more processing that's needed at the end of the day, maybe not to such an extent but it's still needed. It's only mainly press photographers won don't give a damn about processing, that's *** job for the picture desk people ¬_¬

stuart38 · 2 Apr 2006 at 23:11

Its the only shot thats out of sync with the style cykey is achieving - and its a shot thats been been done to death since forever!