Masked

So, it’s that festive time of the year which those of us who are working either dread, or look forward to in glee, knowing that alcohol will be flowing freely on company expenses and that it’s the one chance Mr. Finance might have to snog Miss HR and get away with it.

I was asked to take some snaps at an Xmas do – a workmate who did it last year is out of the country and asked if I could do it instead, so I thought why not? It’s something I’ve never really done before and it’s not really my style but I figured I may as well give it a go!

The guests were mostly men (due to the nature of their work). I took over 500 pictures Here are some of them.

Some of the guests as they were coming in..

I found these masks hilarious, although slightly creepy

This guy was so small, cute and bubbly – I talked to him later and I just wanted to pinch his cheeks!

There was a reindeer.

He really didn’t want me to take a picture of him. Things changed once he was drunk though. That’s something that was very apparent – people are so self-conscious until they start drinking. I’ve never been the only sober one amongst a group of tipsy party goers. It’s always amusing watching drunk people behave..well.. drunk.

This guy was pretty cool.

Converted to b&w.. just because. I’m going off on a tangent here, but recently I’ve really begun to find converting colour digi shots to b&w as looking so..fake. It’s absolutely nothing compared to shooting in b&w film. I’ve always known this but now it’s just become more apparent to me. I mean look at the shot – the tones seem so..blah. Yes, I could spend hours in GIMP (sorry to all you Photoshop lovers – I’m a GIMP girl) making it look ‘authentic’ but I’m not going to. I’m going to try and get in the habit of not converting to b&w. That’ll force me to use film more!

Some of the girlies – loved these masks.

Some men in kilts. One of them asked if I wanted him to lift his one up. I said sure and got my camera ready – I guess he got shy.

As I took this shot he shouted out ‘Fuck this company! I hate it!’

He wasn’t the only one who took a picture of me – some of them asked if they could have their picture with me, like Carmello.

He taught me some Italian swear words, which I promptly forgot.

This guy found my camera fascinating.

He asked if he could take a look so I let him. Note for future – never give a drunk person your camera. He started to take pictures and wouldn’t stop – it didn’t help that I had burst mode on.

I think he captured me at my best! Haha

This guy saw me take a picture of his bandmate and asked me whether he wasn’t pretty enough for me to take a picture of him, so I did, just to make him happy.

Notice the reflection of the flash there..very professional eh!

This man was so hilarious – I think I took the most pictures of him. He constantly cracked me up.

Yeehawww

He won an award for the best mask or something. I just noticed the Maggie Simpson mask in the background – full view it!

The lovely Laura – the only person I actually knew there prior to the event.

There was a piggy! It was a tad scary though to be honest..

This man with the pink tie – Ian – he was one of the first people to arrive and I wasn’t sure if he was a member of the venue staff so I asked him. He seemed pretty offended and I had to explain that if anything it was a compliment as all the staff seemed really smart! When I left he happened to be walking in the same direction and we had a nifty conversation. He forgave me I did have a drunk-looking shot of him, but he was a cool guy, so I thought I’d post a decent shot, just in case he reads this. Wouldn’t want to offend him again!

The hilarious guy again

and again

and again. I could have photographed him all night. Actually, I did.

This one asked me not to sell any pictures of him on Ebay. I told him it”ll be hard to resist..I mean..what a shot. That’s bound to make me some £££!

Then he asked me if I needed a ride home I think he was the one needing a ride home.

This guy was petrified of the camera. He asked me to pause before I took this picture. He took out that flask and then said he was ready.

This one asked me to take a picture of him as he posed. When he found out Carmello was in the background he got really annoyed at him, and moved over to a wall where he posed again. Then he went to the window and posed again.

I have so many other pictures but it’s a mission to trawl through 500 of them and then resize, edit, blah blah. It was a great experience though. It’s not what I’m used to; technically, I’d rarely use flash but I had no choice here. I’d also prefer focusing manually but that wasn’t really possible with the dim lighting.

I love talking to people, so that also made it easier, even if it felt a bit intimidating to begin with. One of the most important things I found was making people like you and making them want to be photographed. It was initially a bit odd as I was an outsider, and strangers can be very conscious and reluctant to let you take their picture, but once they were drunk (10 minutes later), the task was much easier

International Day of Human Rights

Global Day for Darfur – 10th December ’06

International Human Rights day was this year marked by worldwide protests at the ongoing human rights violations in the Sudanese region of Darfur.

The Global Day for Darfur focused on the widescale rape and sexual violence that has been perpetrated in this conflict.

Here in London, people first gathered near the Sudanese Embassy.

This guy was using his own blood on a placard of Sudan’s president, Omar Hasan al-Bashir.

I don’t think this idea worked as I wanted it to – you can’t really tell those are protestors in the reflection but I tried! At least 3 of the other camera crew people came to this area after I did, to try out the same thing ¬__¬ copy cats. Wonder if their shots turned out any better!

We then proceeded towards Downing Street.

I’m not sure who this woman was, but she reminded me of Michael Jackson

The girl on the left was great – really animated and loud.

Opposite Downing Street..

..they gave out rape alarms to people to let off simultaneously at midday to have a ‘minute’s noise’.

This was meant to represent the call for the international public to stop the mass rape of women and girls in Darfur.

They gave out earplugs as well to protect us from the noise.

These policemen were going for the subtle look.

BBC London presenter..whatever her name is

This was a pretty good protest, although it was a bit ironic that there weren’t many women in the crowd. I haven’t been to a dynamic one like this in quite a while – there was a good atmosphere and the protestors definitely made their voice heard. This wasn’t reflected in the media though.
The event wasn’t given much publicity at all. There was a BBC and Sky News crew present for a bit, but I don’t think much coverage was given, if at all.

It’s a shame really. People actively try to raise awareness on important issues of this sort, but their pleas often go unheard. If this protest had been related to Iraq, the media coverage would have been much more widespread.

Today the London Metro had nothing on the story, and the London Paper featured one measley shot with a tiny caption.

More info here.