Horse & Trap on Beach

Copying Photos from our Photo Library....

50 Years ago this week - We did photos of a John Barnes & Albert Franks (Scarborough FC Captain) on a Horse & Trap on Scarborough's South Bay beach, North Yorkshire.

Not sure what the photos were for, but most likely for a news or feature story of some kind for a local or national newspaper. 

It's really interesting digging out the photos we have within our photo library. We're going to be creating a Scarborough Photo Library web site in the coming months, where people will be able to search for jobs and people we have photographed through the years and be able to purchase photos. The photos will also be available to purchase for editorial usage too.

JOBS: Diary Entries

It's taken some time to input all the information from our diary entries into a searchable digital format. But a much bigger job will be scanning the negatives in order to product digital images. We will then need to edit, process and clean them up so they can be made available to buy.

NEGATIVES:  Old Black & White Negatives 120 & 35mm

ENVELOPES:  Packets of Negs

 Most of our Negatives in our archive are in old brown envelopes. We are soon getting a proper scanner to get decent scans of these negatives. The way we have been doing it so far is with an old Light box, a mask and an my little Fuji X10 set on Super Macro mode on a Tripod. Once the images are copied, I then invert the images in Photoshop and crop & edit them. But once we get our Scanner, we are hoping to get much better quality images.

Copying Setup: Fuji X10 on Super Macros setting.

Please share our story. And look out for our SCARBOROUGH PHOTO LIBRARY web site coming soon. In the mean time, we will be regularly be uploading basic scans from our archive photos each week. Showing what we were up to 50 years ago.  

These photos will be regularly shared on our Social Media sites such as....

Twitter - https://twitter.com/dobsonagency
LinkedIn - uk.linkedin.com/in/keithmeatheringham/
Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/UKPhotographer/

Dobson Agency Celebrate Half Century Milestone

Fifty Years of Photography.

A small Yorkshire photography business, the Dobson Agency.co.uk, is celebrating 50 years in business this month. The Scarborough based company is proud to be still documenting news & events for businesses and publications half a century on. 

According to they’re own records the company was created around November 1964 by the late Scarborough photographer Dennis Dobson (hence the name), a name which they have kept to this day.  

FOUNDER: The late photographer Dennis Dobson.

Fifty years on it's now run by Director and Photographer Keith Meatheringham.  Keith was born in Plymouth, Devon, but grew up in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.  ‘I moved to Scarborough over 20 years ago, he said - I guess I'm almost half Yorkshire now - Although I know a lot would disagree'.  

OWNER: Photographer/Director Keith Meatheringham.

   

Award winning photographer Keith said “I have had a real passion for photography from a young age and I’m really excited at the prospect of opening up the Dobson Agency’s 50 year photo library to others in the Scarborough and surrounding area via a new web site in the next few months.

Images & jobs will be able to be searched, with a scan and printing service being made available for anyone who wants to buy prints of interesting photos, scenes or even themselves or they’re loves ones from days gone by.

‘I came to work for the Agency back in 1994 and took it over around 10 years later’ said Keith. ‘The business has had to diversify slightly through the years, but our main source of income is providing creative photography for our many PR companies (Public Relations) and magazines all over the UK, as well as providing images for regional and national newspapers and other corporate and commercial clients too’.  ‘We would love to do more photography for local companies in the North & East Yorkshire areas too’.

Not only is Keith an active photographer himself covering Yorkshire and the North of England, but the business also has a network of over 100 photographers throughout the UK. Keith has had photos published in most of the National newspapers in mainland UK, as well as having images published in newspapers all over the world including the USA, Canada, Australia and Thailand and many more.  

COMING SOON:  Scarborough Photo Library.

Keith says ‘Editorial photography is the main part of the business and we must have covered over 16,000 jobs over the last 50 years with a photographic library containing over half a million images at least’. ‘Most is yet to be digitized, but we are making plans to start scanning in our archive of negatives dating back to the early 1960’s soon’. 

Keith announced ‘We are planning on using our social media platforms more to share our nostalgic images with others’. ‘We have already started sharing some of our historic photos from our earliest jobs back in 1964 and our plan is also to share regular ‘Fifty Years Ago This Week’ picture stories via our Twitter, Facebook and Blog etc’. 

‘Surprisingly, we have already had two people interested in buying photos that we have only just shared this week - one person who wants to buy a photo we have of his Dad and we have even had a former Miss World (1964) Ann Sidney contact us interested in photos we have of her too’! ‘This is all in the first week of sharing our archive material’.  ‘So it’s all quite exciting’.  ‘The jobs and photos we have on file are so interesting and we will have thousands of people’s family members on film’.  

OUT OF THIS WORLD:  Miss World 1964 Ann Sidney

A good majority of the photographs they have on file will be news and events in the Yorkshire coast areas including Scarborough, Whitby, Bridlington and surrounding towns and villages. However, they also have hundreds of photos of celebrities, politicians and performers as well as local celebrities, councillors and local business people too. Other photos include Yorkshire cricket & Scarborough FC matches, and also thousands more social interest photographs of general views, seaside, village and street scenes and local interest stories involving local people and businesses through the years.  

BORO:  Scarborough FC Team 1964

 The Dobson Agency can be contacted at www.dobsonagecy.co.uk and our Twitter account is @dobsonagency 

End

Berlin Wall - Unseen Photos from 1990

Photographer Keith Meatheringham shares previously unseen images taken shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

The date was 21^st July 1990 only months after they had announced that the Berlin Wall was to be brought down, and I was in Berlin and truly in my element, surrounded by the aftermath of the fall of the Wall.

I was a young 20 year-old photographer from Cirencester, Gloucestershire and I was in the early stages of my photography career.  I was having my first real foreign adventure and with my trusty Nikon FM2 I was eager to capture the atmosphere and document this historic occasion myself. I had seen all the news reports and newspaper stories months earlier and it was now my turn to witness it too first hand.

I had travelled over with some friends to attend the Roger Waters ‘The Wall’ concert which had been organised to commemorate this historic achievement and while I was there I was determined to take as much of it in as I could. It was such an amazing news story and I remember there being people from all over the world there, all wanting to take in the scenes for themselves. 

Everywhere I looked there were men, women and children breaking up pieces of the wall.  Some seeking out their own little memento from their trip and others clearly doing it more for commercial reasons, selling pieces of the wall and other artefacts to the ever increasing amount of tourists flocking into the city.

The Berlin Wall was built in 1961 by the East German communist government to prevent its fellow citizens from fleeing the country. The amount of East Germans leaving for the economic prosperity and political freedom of the west was continually escalating and was in turn undermining the government.

The Berlin Wall consisted mainly of concrete with electric fences, vehicle barriers and an area called the "death strip" which was patrolled by the border guards - this is the area in which most of my photos were taken. 

The Berlin Wall divided Berlin right down the middle and sadly split up family and friends. It became a symbol of totalitarianism around the world. It remained for 28 years until its demise in Nov 1989. It was headline news around the world and former Pink Floyd singer and bassist Roger Waters decided to celebrate the occasion by organising ‘The Wall’ concert right in the heart of Berlin itself.  

The concert was staged on the vacant land between Potsdamer Platz and the famous Brandenburg Gate, a location that was part of the former "no-man's land" of the Berlin Wall. The show had an original sell-out crowd of over 350,000 spectators, but shortly before the beginning of the performance the gates had been opened to allow another 100,000 people in to watch.

Twenty five years on and to mark the anniversary of the fall of the Wall, I decided to dig out my old negatives and copy them so I could share them with others. I’ve been a press photographer for more than 25 years now and after digging the negatives out and editing the scanned images, I noticed that one of the buildings in the some of the photos is the Axel Springer head office - I realised that years after taking the photos I had in fact sold many photos to the Axel Springer group, who are a major publishing company in Germany. 

The photos you see have never been published before and so are until now unseen images.

I now live in Scarborough, North Yorkshire with my wife and two sons. And I will never forget my trip to Berlin that year. 

By Keith Meatheringham
Freelance Photographer
Dobson Agency

END

Fellow PHOTOGRAPHERS....... Indemnity & Copyright within Client Contracts. If you ever get asked to do any photography for Holiday Lettings - I would first suggest you make sure you read the contract very well! And consult your insurance company first. The fee isn't great, but they expect you to sign over the copyright & full IP rights of your images, and in return they expect you to indemnify them against any legal or court action against themselves in the event of any misuse of the images on their own sites. Basically they will own the images, but should someone sue or take legal action for any reason over the use of the images on their own web site's the Photographer is the one who takes the hit (This is if you sign the Contract - I thought better of it). Please pass on to any other photographers you know. These contracts are beginning to become more popular - But ONLY if photographers are stupid enough to sign them! I was nearly one of them, but please resist. Many thanks Keith

Stop43.org.uk: Stop confiscation of your property and Human Rights in the UK Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Stop43.org.uk: Stop confiscation of your property and Human Rights in the UK Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill

Press Photographers Association to have their say at Leveson Inquiry - TOMORROW.

Here’s a date for your diary: Tuesday the 7^th of February. “Why?” I hear you ask, well it is the day when The BPPA will finally get to appear before the Leveson Inquiry into the culture, practice & ethics of the press.

See More here....

BPPA Gets its say at Leveson Inquiry

My Own Leveson Inquiry BLOG...

fleet street fox: Cheeky monkeys.

fleet street fox: Cheeky monkeys.: THERE are a group of people without whom not a single newspaper would ever be produced. They are regarded as the very worst denizens of Fl...

FleetStreetBlues: A letter to Lord Leveson

FleetStreetBlues: A letter to Lord Leveson: Dear Lord Justice Leveson, A few weeks ago, a senior journalism academic suggested that FleetStreetBlues should submit written evidence to...

Press Photographers being Labelled PAPS. WRONG!

LEVESON INQUIRY: I would like to point out the difference between PAPS & News Photographers. Thanks to poor journalism on TV & with Celeb's failing to make the clear distinction between Paparazzi & News/Press Photographers when giving evidence, this has lead too all photographers unfortunately been labelled Paparazzi! Unfortunately the word Paparazzi has now been tarnished so much that even some of the proper PAPS must get fed up.  

I’m A Press Photographer & Very Proud Of It - By Edmond Terakopian (Photojournalist).

There is an ever growing band of out of control 'Paparazzi' photographers (Freelance/or Agency staff) on our streets who are managing to give News Photographers/Photojournalists like myself and other photographers a bad name. And if we are not careful legitimate photographers could lose the right to document our countries history & news through the medium of photography for ever. We live in a Free Democratic Country & have the freedom of the Press, We cannot let these this happen!

There are many Sub Categories within Photography, one of which is Paparazzi, and some of these Paps are honest working and very good showbiz photographers. But we need to rid our streets of some of these low paid amateurs who are taken on with what appears to be one rule only - Get the photo which makes the most money! Unfortunately this fuel is fed by the public who seem to demand these images by buying this garbage.

There are occasions when News Photographers are asked to photograph Celebrity's, of course, but only when there is a new worthy angle and/or good reason. I find it disgusting that some of these 'paps' are happy with hounding & stalking celebs 24/7. This is NOT journalism!

I yearn for the day when the Newspapers will be full of stories about real people again, not this unhealthy demand for Celebrity's.  Please pass feel FREE to comment and pass this on to all you know. Keith Meatheringham (Press Photographer). 

Other Related Links...

The Leveson Inquiry - Leon Neal (Press Photographer)

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=4206029 

Journalism.co.uk

Follow me on TWITTER

Wish List Dash with Jon Bentley

I have been commissioned by one of my clients to capture four Wish List Dash Competitions in London, Stratford, Birmingham & Bristol in the last two weeks. The Client was Curry’s & PC World and they wanted me to capture their Wish List Dash give aways, where four stores were giving away up to £1000 worth of goods to the winning Wish List entry. Customers were asked to write down 5 different items in store with a combined total of no more than £1000.

The winning entrant would be picked at random by the Gadget Shows Jon Bentley (Pictured Below) who was in store at each location.

 

Pictured Jon Bentley of the Gadget Show on Channel 5.

Below are some of my pictures on Flikr from the four different locations....

Wish List Dash, a set on Flickr.

You can Enter the Wish List online Competition below...
Currys Wish List - Win £10,000 prizes & more

Bear Face Cheek

On Visiting Bury, Greater Manchester today, for a client of mine, I created this image of two Bears getting friendly at a Build-A-Bear Workshop shop opening and charity event....

Pudsey Bear is pictured getting friendly with 'Pawlette' (Build-A-Bear Workshop Bear)

I was commissioned to cover the opening of Build-A-Bear Workshop in Bury, Greater Manchester.

Hotel Photography

I was commissioned this week to do some photography for The Brooklands Hotel in Scarborough.

They wanted some quality photos for a new brochure and their exsisting web site.

The shoot took me 5 hours and I was very happy with my results, as were the Hotel too.

Anybody want their Hotel Photographing please give me a call on 01723 860770 or 07802 530583.

The Brooklands Hotel

Old Character

While doing some Hotel Photographs in Scarborough today, this Old Gent was dropped off.

I couldn't resist in firing off one frame of him walking towards me.

Looks like he has lost a Leg at some point.

Bet he is a real character and has many a story to tell.

Blipfoto - My Photo of the Day

Photographing Pearl Lowe

I was commissioned by one of my clients this week to do some photography for a Wallpaper Company Feature on the home of fashion designer Pearl Lowe in Frome, Somerset.

They were producing a vodcast at the former Singer-Song Writers home and needed various photos of the filming and room shots showing the wallpaper.

Pearl is married to Danny Goffey, the drummer of rock group 'Supergrass'.

York Minster in the Evening Mist

It had been a Beautiful day all day today, until I got back to North Yorkshire.

After working in Frome, Somerset all day photographing Fashion Designer & Former singer-song writer Pearl Lowe for a Wallpaper Design Company. I travelled back home to Yorkshire.

When I got back to York it started raining and there was a really thick evening mist around the City.

I first stopped to do some photographs of the sunset and then photographed the misty fields with York Minster in the distance.

Blipfoto - Picture of the day.

Grump Competition Winner George Dale

Yorkshire Grumps do battle at the annual "Grump" competition.

Grump Competition Winner George Dale (76) of Newby, Scarborough.

The contest has been held for the past three years at the village of Scalby, near Scarborough, in North Yorkshire.

Participants are invited to moan for one minute during the knock-out rounds, with their rants judged based on the laughs and cheers of the audience.

The winning moaner George Dale received a special trophy and the honour of being the grumpiest person in the community.

Scarborough Evening News
Blipfoto - My Photo of the Day
York Evening Press
Yorkshire Coast Radio
BBC North Yorkshire

HARRY POTTER FAN CREATES WORLD’S LARGEST ‘SPOT THE DIFFERENCE’

Boarded a Helicopter yesterday for a Photo Call at York Maze. Story Below...

HARRY POTTER FAN CREATES WORLD’S LARGEST ‘SPOT THE DIFFERENCE’

A Yorkshire farmer has created the World’s largest spot the difference competition as a tribute to Harry Potter.

Farmer Tom Pearcy has carefully cut out two portraits of the boy wizard in his crop of maize plants at his field near York. With some subtle differences between the two images it creates the world’s largest spot the difference competition.

At over 50m in diameter each head is also believed to be the largest image of Daniel Radcliffe ever created. The images have been painstakingly carved out of over 1 million living maize plants. The 10km of pathways form an intricate maze for visitors to explore. York Maze is the largest maize maze in Europe and one of the largest in the world.

Tom Pearcy’s previous incredible maze designs have included a Spitfire, Astronaut, the Statue of Liberty and the Flying Scotsman.

Says Tom Pearcy, “I’m a big fan of Harry Potter and the release of the final film this summer marks the end of an era. I wanted to do something imaginative to say farewell to Harry, so creating the biggest image of him ever made and making it a spot the difference competition seemed like an interesting way to do that.

York Maze opens to visitors on Saturday 16 July and will be open every day until Sunday 4 September. www.yorkmaze.co.uk.

Thanks to Anna Gowthorpe (PA) for photo of me in the Helicopter.