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Photographing protests in the UK - assistance and input needed

well, may i suggest that you stop watching the tv and actually get out there and experience the damned things, so that you can begin to comment on them with any degree of insight? maybe?
I have been to plenty of protests in the past thanks, even involved in organising them as well. I have plenty enough insight - feel free to argue your case against anything I have posted. I have little experience of *photography* at protests, which is not the same thing.

As for "insight", you haven't actually said what people could do to avoid getting kettled at the climate camp apart from extremely vague platitudes. Apart from not having a climate camp and instead doing something entirely ifferent - ie not an option for a random on-the-day attendee - I am arguing that thre is little someone could do at the camp except be prepared for the kettle.

However discussing the specifics of this and playing some I'm-a-more-authentic-protestor-than-you point-scoring game is not the topic of this thread so I will leave it there, thanks. :)
 
I have been to plenty of protests in the past thanks, even involved in organising them as well. I have plenty enough insight - feel free to argue your case against anything I have posted. I have little experience of *photography* at protests, which is not the same thing.

As for "insight", you haven't actually said what people could do to avoid getting kettled at the climate camp apart from extremely vague platitudes. Apart from not having a climate camp and instead doing something entirely ifferent - ie not an option for a random on-the-day attendee - I am arguing that thre is little someone could do at the camp except be prepared for the kettle.

However discussing the specifics of this and playing some I'm-a-more-authentic-protestor-than-you point-scoring game is not the topic of this thread so I will leave it there, thanks. :)
.... :)
 
Thanks for the (on-topic) contributions, some of which were very useful. Cheers, folks.

I've added a few more paragraphs to the article, although I'm trying hard to keep it fairly short and sweet and not suffer 'scope creep.'

Tell me what you think!
 
Tactic I saw/heard about in NI (I was at a protest or two ;) )

Despite the cumbersome early model vid cams it seemed to me a v. good plan:

Team up.

If one of you is getting in to an altercation over the filming/shooting with a copper, the other can get the altercation on tape, either ostentatiously or surreptitiously.


This was done as a rehearsed move (a drill in Army speak) by Republicans at demos... the guy who was being, ahem, 'reasoned with' about handing over the camera shouted a set phrase - I seem to recall 'go 57!' - and suddenly there was another fella there filming the 'discussion'. I heard that on occasion there could be a 3rd and even a 4th - nowadays with so much cheap technology you could get a proper daisy chain going.

The very good points made earlier in the thread about the ins/outs of coppers deleting images and siezing or damaging cameras could be shown up in reality.

You need to rehearse things like that to make them work.
 
This was done as a rehearsed move (a drill in Army speak) by Republicans at demos... the guy who was being, ahem, 'reasoned with' about handing over the camera shouted a set phrase - I seem to recall 'go 57!' - and suddenly there was another fella there filming the 'discussion'. I heard that on occasion there could be a 3rd and even a 4th - nowadays with so much cheap technology you could get a proper daisy chain going.
I think that's a little outside of the remit for this guide, but I have just added this: "the more crappy you make the [camera] look, the less you are likely to attract unwanted attention from cops (obviously, its a different story if you're walking around with a full BBC pro crew)"

I've definitely noticed this at demos. Police don't like big flash cameras shoved in their faces, so I prefer to also take a compact camera if I'm going to be mixing it up.
 
Thanks for this, have asked people to pass it around. FYI Editor: There's a missing half-sentence though, not sure what the people 'may be doing....'

The police may be able to incarcerate protesters in cordons, but new mobile streaming technologies will make it a redundant gesture. The people may be
 
'You don't have a choice, you either go away now or you can spend the rest of your day in a cell, I'm giving you the option,' the senior police officer is seen telling press members.

To watch the entire video, shot by freelance photographer and videographer Jason Parkinson, head over to The Guardian here.
 
Why not? Plenty of people have no reason to hide their identity - they talk to journalists giving their real names and post their accounts of what happened and photos on their blogs. If someone had something to hide then obviously they wouldn't identify themselves, but there are a vast number of people who post up photos from demos and protests on their flickr accounts or on their blogs.

It might be more useful to list the circumstances where your photos might get you in trouble, to illustrate the point you are making.

well two reasons one is obviously that they can easiley identify you, which may make it harder for you to get shots next time as you may turn up on a list somewhere which then means if they decide to prosicute under an outirght abuse of the anti terrorism laws, which even though in all likelihood would fail in court would and does tied you up and "give" reason to confiscate camera's etc.

the other is that they may simply phone up the host and say take it down all of it which will include all your other photos...

other things don't assume you are protected behind the lens. if at all possible have a 'wingman' so that you aren't caught out.

if possible set your camera to burst mode which shoots a series of shots in quick sucession. often when something kicks off it'll be the chain of events which is important to document one or two shots of someone being attacked by police or other forces is all very news week but a sucession of photos showing an attack is evidence of an assult.

if at all possible get acredditation, news card, press card, someones local rag to say you are freelace for them through to you grans knitting circles quarterly newsletter. it won't help when being phyiscally assualted however you can use it to prevent loss of equipment cards etc by saying you have acredditation.

if at all possilbe join the NUJ or local photographic union.

wear protective head gear, frontline shooting will often involved you getting klonked on the head regardless of intention on either site as when you are chimping behind a camera your head will usually be below others head height in sudden movements of people regardless of whether it's protestors or police your head will get knocked about.

if you are using slr type kit over compacts or mobile then consider investing in some camera armour. rubberised protective shell for your kit which will provide you with an extra level of protection (but not infailable they will kill your camera if they can).

Learn the law verbatium. what can you film where can you film etc and have the number of someone you can call in the event of arrest.

work out what you are there to do are you on a demo taking photos taking photos of a demo or recording images for use as possible evidence.

place yourself in the demo according to which of those you are intending to do.

Get camera insurance cos it fell off the coffee table at home unless of course you're face has been splashed across the tv and net ;)

when you arrive at a slow or slowing part of the demo take some shots of your surroudings which are in the general direction of possible confrontation points and keep these as the begining shots of the card. this helps if you are asked to show people your shots and you think they may ask you to delete it, when asked scroll forwards on your camera to the first of these images which is in that general direction. show them this with nothing in it which is incriminating.

If your camera has a setting disable review/preview on the screen again if someone asks press the review button whilst telling them it's broken and show them it's broken.

---------

Getting images out of places.

memory cards are more important than kit. if they are looking like they are going to take the camera take the memory card out this is also where a 'wingman' can be useful hand the card to them and get them to scarper into the crowd.

if you can afford it wifi transmitter to a hard drive elsewhere (could be on your 'wingman')

there are ways to bury photos in ipods and disablling laptops with protected hidden files partition hard drives etc which can protect your images.
 
I do far to much protest-football photography, to understand much of what has been said here, i allways take another person, allways have a vid-mobile and a shit point n shoot, i like a certan make of mobile phone due to there sd card capcity and when time i will allways upload by ftp to a remote server any images by said phone..

The info here is not much i could disagree with, and even ive learnt a few nifty little tricks, a thought would be to get all this toghther, then pdf it, also do it as a download.

This page is now bookmarked, in time ill copy some of the info into open office, but one is shit at getting info like this toghther if there is anyone who feels like the task it would be of use..

Plus also people writeing about there own experance how it worked for them section would of use, if this happens ill write something, i can not add enough haveing a friend with you who is good at photography has proven to be very much of use.
 
Good point on the data recovery.

Maybe mention taking an extra battery at the same time as taking an extra card - that counts for phones too, particularly if you're emailing a lot of pictures/video, which can eat up your battery life.
The wind-up chargers are getting better. I have a pull string one, which has a fitting for the major makes of phone and a mini-USB so it does for the phone, camera and SatNav in emergencies. It also has a cigarette-lighter adapter which will fit all your future phones, so very good value all-in-all.

http://www.millets.co.uk/travel/travel-essentials/product/118950.html
 
running a firewire cable from a video camera to a portable DV recorder in your coat pocket would ensure having a backup copy of footage should your camera get taken off you...
 
Come to something when people feel the need to publish guides about things that are completely legal. Depressing.

Next week ... how to legally cross the road.
 
In order to increase the evidential value of your photos/video should they be used in court:

1. Set the clock on your camera accurately and include an accurate public clock (e.g. at a railway station) in a picture to show that you have done so.
2. Take a couple of wide angle context shots to show the location.
3. Don't delete any pictures, even if they are crap.
4. When you get home, copy all your pictures directly from the cards unaltered to CD or DVD and finalise/close the disk.
5. Write a brief statement, signed and dated, stating what you have done (i.e. nothing!)
with the images on the disks.

Points 3 to 5 were part of draft Home Office guidelines on digital photographic evidence, I guess the current guidelines are similar. The idea is that the CD or DVD becomes the equivalent of a "negative".

To lend as much credibility to your pictures as possible, keep everything - the apparently unimportant/uninteresting images taken before and after an incident might help confirm the evidence and might support someone else's better pictures.

Good advice. If you really want to go the whole hog some burning software gives you the opportunity to print a log of the task you've just done. It looks like gibberish, but increases the strength of your chain of evidence. (It basically shows tha you've burned the pics straight from the card at a particular time with no monkey business)
 
However, in some circumstances, the police may be authorised to confiscate your film or memory cards as evidence but they are still not authorised to delete any images.

Im pretty sure they're only allowed to confiscate a legal item if they have a warrant to do so.....

I do believe they are allowed to ask for a copy, but there is no legal obligation to do so unless it is counted as evidence for an open case.

This might give you some good info too.

on youtube....... we had a big debate about police harrassment of photographers on the AVForums, and darren pollard was someone who was consistently brought up.

Hope that all helps :)
 
Hello!

We at the OpenWatch project develop technology for this kind of thing! Our website is here:
http://openwatch.net/

We have produced an Android app which secretly records video and audio, then uploads it to our anonymous servers so that we can publish the data!

Please include us on your list of protesting tools!
R
 
I was thinking about taking my D200 on saturday...... what comeback have i got if the met do confiscate it/smash it? Can I claim the money for replacement if smashed? Or will i get it back if confiscated?

Thats what bothers me more than anything camera wise.......
 
Hello!

We at the OpenWatch project develop technology for this kind of thing! Our website is here:
http://openwatch.net/

We have produced an Android app which secretly records video and audio, then uploads it to our anonymous servers so that we can publish the data!

Please include us on your list of protesting tools!
R
:hmm:
 
I was thinking about taking my D200 on saturday...... what comeback have i got if the met do confiscate it/smash it? Can I claim the money for replacement if smashed? Or will i get it back if confiscated?
Unless you're wielding it above your head like a medieval ball and chain I can't think why the Met would want to smash up your camera or confiscate it.

We have produced an Android app which secretly records video and audio, then uploads it to our anonymous servers so that we can publish the data!

Please include us on your list of protesting tools!
R
Let me just double check what it is you're doing, and I'll add it shortly if it's cool. :)
 
I was thinking about taking my D200 on saturday...... what comeback have i got if the met do confiscate it/smash it? Can I claim the money for replacement if smashed? Or will i get it back if confiscated?

Thats what bothers me more than anything camera wise.......

unsure. you can claim for damages i think, as they gave me a form after g20 when my video camera got damged. never pursued it tho.

other than that i've taken my d80 to the G20 and the student protests with no damage sustained. and there are usually loads of slr's on display.

can't see why they'd want to confiscate it unless they thought it was used to bludgeon someone or something.
 
Image stabilisation

Action shots, shots where you are panning, zooming, running or being hit often turn out blurry. Anyone got any recommendations or tried one of these:

HD-helmet-hero.jpeg


http://gopro.com/
 
I was thinking about taking my D200 on saturday...... what comeback have i got if the met do confiscate it/smash it? Can I claim the money for replacement if smashed? Or will i get it back if confiscated?

Thats what bothers me more than anything camera wise.......

Hiya
Only downside is that most insurance policies have an exclusion for riots/civil disorder etc. (My business insurance says that if I get caught up in anything, I have to be running away from it - then a claim's ok. If I go to specifically photograph a protest & it turns ugly, then it's not covered)

If the Met confiscate your camera, you should get a receipt for it & it'd have to contain something that's potential evidence (I would have thought) ...

Though, that said, Brighton Police did grab someones camera phone & leg it at the last ENA march in Brighton in August last year - there was fair amount of chatter about that afterwards & a complaint was made - not sure of the outcome of that though. Might be something more up to date if you do some googling

I do know that several photographers had cameras targetted & damaged at the Dec 9th protest last year - baton thumps
 
Ill probably take it i think...

If i spend my life thinking 'What if.....?' when it comes to my camera ill never actually take any photos.

Im not intending on getting twatted by a baton, so that will apply to my camera too.....
 
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