About ten days ago I was one of the speakers at a very interesting event organised by Redeye, Chetham's Library and The University of Bolton. The event was entitled as the First UK Symposium on Photography, was held at Chetham's in Manchester and had a strong cast list of speakers - especially from the news and editorial sector of our industry. My small part was as one of two panelists in a discussion about press photography in the UK. My colleague Pete Jenkins led off with an honest and sobering resume of the changes in the industry over the last twenty or so years and then it was my turn.

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It's very useful to be able to kill two birds with one stone - especially when you have a limited amount of time. I have been very busy this month and blogging time has ben limited. I had intended to carry on my review of the ERQ and maybe post a new technique piece as well. I was sent on a job the other day that allows me to do both.

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It's a bit of a weird way to do a review but here is another bit of the Elinchrom Ranger Quadra (ERQ) review. Rather frustratingly, most of the images that I'm doing with the new kit are for clients who would rather I didn't show the world the pictures before they get a chance to publish them. Most of the magazines that I'm currently working for have a one or two month lead time and that means a long wait to show off those pictures.

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A couple of months ago my colleague Dillon Bryden called me and asked if I would be a member of the Jury judging the news sections of this year's Press Photographers' Year competition. I have judged competitions before and was very nervous about getting involved. Passions run high. Arguments between judges are often heated and I'm not good at confrontation. Despite my very strong reservations I said "yes" and found myself in a room with my four fellow jurors on a Tuesday morning at the beginning of June. My fellow jurors were Brian Harris, Roger Hutchings, Terry Richards and Homer Sykes - all superb photographers and all heroes of mine.

We had several categories to get through in one day and the PPY team worked amazingly hard to put slide shows and hard copies in front of us - in between breakfast, lunch and dinner. We looked, we discussed, we argued, we fell out and made up and we made a lot of decisions. Few were unanimous but all were eventually supported by the jury. The results get published once the sports jury have done their work and we have all voted on an overall best picture.

Being a jury member is, without doubt, an honour. It is also a responsibility and it's something that I wouldn't want to do too often. I am really looking forward to the exhibition at the Royal National Theatre in London and I would strongly reccommend that you get down there if you are in the UK.

British press photography is very strong. The standard of the images accross the board was high and the great sadness is that there isn't enough room in our newspapers and magazines or on the walls of the Royal National Theatre to show off the work. I'd like to offer my congratulations those who took the winning pictures (even if they don't know who they are yet). To those whose photographs weren't chosen all I can say is that there was an amazing choice and that I really enjoyed seeing your work.

I have an admission to make... I love shooting portraits on cloudy days around concrete buildings with urban skylines. There, I've said it. As a photographer I find brutal architecture and grey winter days both challenging and creatively stimulating. Combine the two and you have a blank canvas for interesting images - as long as you have a cooperative subject.

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I posted the news on this blog couple of weeks ago that I had finally got my hands on the new Elinchrom Ranger Quadra kit and that I'd get around to doing a mini review soon. It's been really frustrating that all of the jobs that I have done with it have been for clients that want exclusivity on the images until well after they have used them. Because of this, I'm having to restrict myself to generalising about the kit rather than actually showing images. Did I mention that this is frustrating!

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27.05.2009 | 15:50 BST | My Elinchrom Ranger Quadra's have arrived...

20.05.2008 | 13:12 BST | Why dg28?

20.05.2009 | 11:30 BST | Folio work under way

During the week I went to a one day seminar event run by the National Union of Journalists for photographers to discuss the state of our industry, hear presentations about marketing ourselves, protecting ourselves and each other during public order breakdown siutuations, the state of changes to copyright and privacy laws and to network with our colleagues. I got a great deal from the day but the single most compelling presentation was by Nick McGowan-Lowe - a photographer based in Stirling who does more for his fellow professionals than anyone else that I know - about effective photographer websites. He listed a number of tests that you can apply to your own site to see if it is as well structured and user friendly as it could be. When I tested my own folio site, it failed almost every test. If you get a chance to hear Nick speak, grab it with both hands.

As it's the week of Chelsea Flower Show, I thought that I'd talk about this quick portrait for Micheal Palmer - a garden designer who has been working his magic at my home. He has been talking to my wife and I for a few months now to get the design right and finally we got the garden planted last week. I had promised to shoot a nice portrait of Mike in the garden and I plan to have another go on a nicer day but I thought that this would make an interesting technique example of what you can do on a dull evening if you use the right light.

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13.05.2009 | 23:10 BST | Strobist social

Earlier this evening I went to a social event organised by the London Strobist Meetup group. I've mentioned these guys and girls before and their dedication to getting out there and shooting interesting pictures with small battery powered flash units is remarkable. I was there as their guest - in fact, their guest speaker. I was delighted to be able to do just over an hour talking about myself, my thought processes and a few techie and equipment related things too. It seemed to go down well and the Q&A at the end opened up with the one question that I can almost put money on being asked... What does dg28 mean? That my friends is something that only ever reveal in person, although know that the answer has been posted on another blog.

I wanted to mention this evening for two reasons. The first is to encourage interested photographers - be they newly minted amateurs or experienced professionals to get involved in these kinds of groups.