May 2009 Archives

Speed is of the essence for press photographers.

If the job is breaking news, you need to get there quickly for obvious reasons. And then, of course, you need to get the image back to base as quick as possible, too.

I used to joke with Steve Shakeshaft - one of my extremely distinguished predecessors - that with an average exposure of 1/125 of a second for each shot he took, he'd probably only actually worked for a couple of hours during his entire career.

I think he took it as a joke, anyway - although I've never had a Christmas card from him.