Garage Sale: Get your URLs here.

A folder on my desktop serves as a repository for image files and links to urls that I want to post on this blog. This folder has been growing and, having an inclination towards tidiness, I felt that it was time for a clear-out. So here, for your entertainment, enjoyment and delectation are a few things that I wanted to point you in the direction of.

1. Dervla Murphy’s Travel Tips
My favourite travel author, a woman whose travels define the phrase “off-the-beaten-track”.

2. Waving goodbye to your civil liberties
Photographers working in London have long been aware that they are liable to police “Stop and Search” legislation, even though the employment of these rules seems somewhat arbitrary. However, other areas of the UK are also listed under the controversial Terrorism Act. Which areas? We’re not allowed to know. A request under the “Freedom of Information” act by the BJP for those areas to be disclosed has been rejected. Not only that but we’re not allowed even to know how many people have been questioned under “Stop and Search” rules. Because, of course, knowing such things would put our safety in jeopardy. Thank goodness the “Freedom of Information” act doesn’t actually give us freedom to information. [sarcasm: off]

3. Don McCullin: Supporting the freedom of the press
100 of McCullin’s iconic images in one volume, supporting the work of Reporters sans frontiéres and their efforts to secure freedom of the press in countries where such things cannot be guaranteed. Like the UK and USA?

4. Don McCullin audio interview
When they call Don McCullin one of Britain’s greatest living photographers I think they’re underselling the man and his work. But the fact that McCullin’s work has been inspirational to me has been well-documented so I’ll skip the intro and instead point you in the direction of the National Media Museum’s “In England” exhibition. McCullin’s images are certain to make you stop and stare – at least, that’s the effect they have on me. Where Cartier-Bresson’s “decisive moments” are frequently infused with humour, McCullin captures the flip-side of that coin, heart-wrenching moments. To me, he’s the “yin” to Cartier-Bresson’s “yang”. Both are inspirational photographers but their photography comes from very different places. Please take the time to download the 70-minute audio interview. It’s well worth it.

5. Photos by blind photographers
It’s a difficult thing to get your head around at first: photos by blind photographers. But if photography is about responding to your environment, if it’s about conveying something of the way you experience the world and if it’s about communicating that experience to others then photography is going to work just as well for all of us, no matter what our apparent disadvantages. I really like the idea of seeing a visual representation of how blind photographers interpret our world. Check it out.

6. Pink’s Travel Tips
Whilst you may not relish the idea of watching a video showing a man sticking his finger up his nose, it’s all in the cause of preventing yourself from getting sick when travelling, especially on long-haul flights where aircraft can apparently become a soup of germs and nasty things. There’s a lot of other tips here and they’re all useful.

7. Getting two bags on a flight as one carry-on
If you’re a regular traveller but not tuned into Flying With Fish’s web site then you’ve been missing out. Steven Frischling gives out great hints and tips for frequent flyers, including this post about how photographers can combine two bags into one and so get them both on board a flight as a carry-on. I’m about to start compiling a list of packing suggestions for our Bhutan Photo Tour and will be using Flying With Fish as one of my main resources.

8. Me! On Twitter
The number of people following my occasional 140 character-or-less comments, or “tweets”, on Twitter has risen to over 700 recently and if you want to join that merry band, you can follow me via www.twitter.com/gavingough and, perhaps more amusingly, with the Say Tweet gadget below.

That’s your lot for today. If you have any links to news items, travel tips or anything else that you think might be of interest to travelling photographers then feel free to add them in the comments below.

Posted on Monday, July 27th, 2009 at 10:31 pm. Filed under: Photography RSS 2.0 feed.