What is a biker

                                                      "riding a push bike doesn't make you a biker"

The above is a very valid quote from a young lad I know on Facebook who is himself into bikes it was his response to a profile picture I posted of myself with the UBAKA patch which was provided by a good friend and UBAKA member.

He is 100% right in that riding a bicycle doesn't make you a biker, however due to health issues an electric bicycle is what I choose to ride these days.

This does not mean that I am not still a biker, for many years I rode motorcycles, I spent more time skidding down the tarmac on my rear than I did with it on the seats of the bikes I've owned and came to the conclusion it was safer for all if I didn't ride any more.

In the past Twenty years I have been an active member and affiliate member of many Motorcycle clubs, Out of Touch Mcc, NHMA (national association for bikers with disabilities), Captives national (affiliated member), Bedford MAG (motorcycle action group) and more recently I am getting involved with UBAKA (Urban Bikers Against Kid Abuse) a very worthy cause.

I have also been to many bike rallies over the years, endured the embarrassment of being a rally virgin, contributed in the embarrassment of other rally virgins, partied till the sun came up.

Yet to me none of these things are what truly make a person a biker, by all means they all contribute to it but the one thing that always stood out to me about the people I came into contact with all over the country on my travels was FAMILY, being a biker is about brother and sisterhood, Comradery and respect.

I know many bikers, like myself, that no longer ride, whether this be for financial reasons, health or other valid reasons this doesn't make them any less a biker than the woman speeding past on a Kawazaki Ninja or the ageing harley rider you see cruising along or even the young lad on his 125cc learner bike. 

Being a biker is a way of life, for quite a few years i was out of the biking scene I tried to be something I wasn't but getting back in touch with my first ever club ( Out Of Touch Mcc) and a lot of my old club friends, made me remember what it was all about, once a biker, always a biker there is no escaping it if it is in your blood.

I could go on all day about all the fantastic people I have met and the lessons they taught me, the experiences I would never have known about let alone felt if I had not come into contact with bikers in the first place but this post is more about what being a biker means to me.

Yes I may not ride a motorcycle any more, but I am still a biker through and through.

Love Honour and Respect 

Pay to play on the streets?

For many years I traveled around the UK to various cities and towns, the way I survived was to use my talent as a guitarist to earn money to feed myself just as many other buskers have and still do, in later years the money I made went toward music and recording equipment and at one time I had a nice collection of old guitars and a fairly decent home studio all paid for by playing my acoustic guitar on the streets.

The money wasn't bad I have to admit on a good day I could make upto £40 on an average day £5-£10 but it wasn't the money that I did it for (except in the early days) I began to find myself gaining something much more satisfactory, a small sense of worth, seeing a smile on someones face or a small child dancing away as I played was much more of a payment then any cash that was thrown into my guitar case.

I never once asked for money, I did have a sign which stated what the money would be spent on and as such people were not under any obligation to give me anything, these days, with home recording being so inexpensive many buskers have taken to selling their own CD's while playing as an extra way to make a living from their music.

I discovered a young man by the name of Johnny Walker on Facebook, as a local-ish lad and a very talented and well known busker around Yorkshire I added him as a friend, I was soon astonished by the abusive way in which he had been treated whilst busking in a few cities by Council officials and police, If a license was required Johnny had paid for it and as such was legally allowed to busk, however as he had CD's available the Council officials were wanting to charge £40 for him to sell his music.

To get around this Johnny labelled his CD's in the box as available free or for people to make a donation of £7.99 if they so wished, this didn't seem to go down well with the big wigs at the Council and as such they revoked Johnny's license for busking in York.

This is yet another blatant attempt of someone wanting a piece of somebody elses pie that they had no input in baking, why should a musician pay an extra fee to sell his/her music while they play?, surely the fact that the public are getting FREE entertainment, often from very professional musicians, should be enough, most buskers don't make a lot of money from it, many do it as a means to survival, others do it purely for the love of performing.

With many live music venues closing down or charging bands to play the streets were the one place, the one haven away from the wolves who pray on musicians until now, and those wolves are no longer the dodgy manager or agent or venue owner, they now wear the guise of a Council official or Police officer.

Below is a video of Johnny Walker giving a speech today in York after having his busking license suspended.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFOPSd-x4-A&feature=youtu.be

And here is a link to his website where you can support the cause.

http://streetslive.org/


Also you can find Johnny on Facebook or at his personal website:

http://www.jonnywalker.co.uk/

https://www.facebook.com/JonnySongs

blame guns? mental health? why not just blame the killer!

Following the recent tragic shooting at a school in Connecticut I've noticed a lot of posts on facebook from people with strong opinions on revoking the right to carry arms in the USA.

This tragedy has hit us all hard, none more so than the relatives of those innocent children and heroic teachers who gave their lives protecting the students they taught.

My thoughts are with them all at this difficult time and I am disgusted by some of the comments I have seen written on facebook regarding the events, one person even wrote a very nasty reply to someone's post blaming the shooters Autism as the reason for him committing this atrocious crime stating " These monsters need to be locked up.......all of them"

  
Yes it was a factor that the young man in question was mentally challenged, however I know many people who have been diagnosed with Autism and ADHD, yes some of them may be violent or aggressive but so can any "normal" person having a mental illness does not make a person a threat to society and neither does owning a gun.

It is also a factor that the Shooters mother owned weapons, it could be argued that if she hadn't owned the weapons this would never have happened, if gun laws weren't so lapse in the USA this wouldn't have happened, if all guns were destroyed and gun shops closed down this wouldn't have happened.

We can look far and wide and dig deep looking for answers and reasoning but when all is said and done it is the gun owners responsibility to keep their arms in a secure locked rifle cabinet or box and out of access to others in the household, prevention doesn't come from banning firearms, they will always be available on the black market, prevention comes from teaching our children the difference between right and wrong, respect for a firearm and perhaps stricter licensing in the USA.

Now as a Brit I know that any change in gun laws in the USA isn't of a concern to us as gun crime over here is minimal, this isn't because guns are not available, after all if you wanted to buy a firearm without a license it is simply a matter of finding the right people.

There are many LEGAL firearms owners in the UK and I know personally quite a few and have even spent some time at a shooting range with a small group of friends who have section 1 firearms certificates, and I thoroughly enjoyed the days activity shooting a couple of different calibre rifles at targets, my friend even brought along his 13 year old daughter to have a go for the first time and she too enjoyed herself.

I enjoyed it so much that I am even considering getting a license myself and a couple of rifles, one big difference between the UK and the USA is Automatic weapons are not allowed, to those who are not quite sure of the difference an Automatic weapon will shoot constant bursts (basically a machine gun in laymans terms) and hand guns have to be a certain barrel length (24 inches minimum I think is the correct length) so that the handgun can not be concealed.

many of these massacres and shootings that take place in America were done using Automatic weapons or Handguns (there will be exceptions) so perhaps the answer lies in limiting guns, Automatic rifles have no place in protection of the home, they have no place on a range or in hunting they are made for one purpose, Military.

Unfortunately as I mentioned before guns will always be available and the only prevention is knowledge and teaching the correct use of a gun for sport or hunting, if the person applying for a firearm has mental health medical problems obviously putting a gun in their hands would not be a great idea as they don't think like you or me in a logical sense, and as such are not able to understand the consequences of using a weapon, if you have someone with a mental health issue living on your premises, by all means don't keep any guns in the premises, keep them at a gun club or a secure lock up away from vulnerable people.

I am in no way defending the shooter for his actions but to put the blame on a gun or mental health is wrong no one knew this lad would do this, there are as many people murdered using household instruments (hammers, screwdrivers, kitchen knives) throughout the world should we ban and blame these when such a thing happens? tragedies happen there is no one to blame other than the thoughts and actions of one man (boy) no one will ever know his reasoning behind it all we can do is grieve for those who's lives he took and hope people learn from it so it doesn't happen again.

Working with Bands & Musician's

It has been quite a while since I updated here and also quite a while since I did any photography, times are hard in the financial climate we live in and business is slow unless you are willing to work for free, which of course none of us really want to do.

This brings me to the reason for this Blog entry, I saw a post on Facebook by a very talented photographer stating that a band were using his images without giving credit, now this is something I too have personally been a victim  of, and yes Victim is the correct terminology for this situation.

The said tog had agreed to supply the images he took of the band for free under the condition that his logo was displayed on the images used, and/or credit be given to him in the form of a note posted with the image on whatever site it was being used on.

This is a simple request by the tog and one I also use to protect my copyright ownership of the images I take,  yes that is right, if I take a photograph of a band I own the copyright to the images unless previously stated in a written or verbal contract.

Is it too much to ask for bands to respect the photographers work and leave the copyright watermark on the image or at the least state who took the photograph, especially if the tog did so for free, which brings me to my second point.

For the first year I was taking band photo's I did a lot of shoots for free under the impression this would get my name and my work known on the local music scene, although this was true and I am quite respected among the local music community it was also my biggest mistake when starting stageside photography.

Because I had done so many shoots for free this was now expected as the "norm" from promoters and bands alike, once you start charging work begins to dwindle, over the last two years I have had only a handful of shoots with bands who were willing to pay for my services and to these I say thank you and I thoroughly enjoyed working with you.

Now however it seems the end for Stageside is nigh, I see many posts from musicians and bands complaining about "pay to play" venues or stating what they provide and that they should be paid for providing their music and performance, and while I agree whole heartedly it makes me wonder if there is some double standards going on here, musicians rightly expect to be paid, yet they seem to want photographers to work for free? what makes their service any different to ours? or less valuable?.

After all, who's images do the bands use for press packs and promotion, t-shirts, posters and even album and EP covers? without promotion bands don't get anywhere and so your music is left being played to a handful of people, take a moment to think what a photographer is giving you when they do a photo shoot..

Firstly their time, like yours, is precious the hour or two they spend photographing you could be spent on promoting their own work or on a paid job.

The equipment a photographer uses is rarely cheap, we have to pay for this ourselves this often includes, the camera's (one as a back up), lenses, flash units, tripods, secure bag for carrying the equipment, among many other gadgets and filters etc none of which is paid for by the client.

Insurance is another out going for the photographer, we have to have insurance to cover theft, damage to equipment as well as public liability insurance to cover any accidents which may occur during a shoot (rare but things do happen) this is more money out of our pockets.

Transport, fuel costs to and from gigs or locations again comes out of our pockets long before we are paid for a shoot.

And of course there are other outgoings such as food and drink (we are human and need this) while on shoots, props, models all cost money (the latter can be used for free but for a professional look a paid model is preferable) .

We also have household bills and living expenses to cover, after all for most of us photography is our job, our lifeline to surviving.

So now you have an idea of what outgoings we as photographers have before we even get to a photo shoot, perhaps you will stop complaining about not getting paid for a gig and start putting your hands in your own pockets and paying photographers for their work if you have a right to be paid so do we.

New photo shoot concept.

it's been ages since I did anything photography wise, I've got some horror shoot concepts I'd like to have a go at but need some other creative minds to give their input and maybe provide help with make up and costumes. anyone fancy a little project? if you think you can help make these concepts a reality email me at stageside@live.co.uk

Creating an Artist.

I was just sat reading through my blog and as I read through the article I wrote about Artistic Imagination a realisation dawned on me.

We all have that one teacher from school that we remember, they were either the one that encouraged and nurtured your talent or they were the one who ridiculed you, who you really didn't like that much.

Myself and one of my best friends both went to the same high school, a few years apart, however we both have one teacher we remember in common, Mrs Sowerby the art teacher, now both myself and my friend are very creative and artistic people these days but the one thing Mrs Sowerby said to us both was that we would never be artists, I'm unsure if those were the exact words she used (it's a long time ago) but that was the general meaning of what she said to us, she ridiculed the work we had created, in my case a painting.

I think back now and yes perhaps the painting I had done wasn't conventional, the paint applied too heavy and thick, the wrong colours used ( I am colour blind) but surely isn't the point of art to create and use your own imagination?.

The realisation I came to today was that perhaps Mrs Sowerby did see our potential yet instead of praising it as you would in someone you know is good and you know has the motivation to pursue it, perhaps she saw that we weren't ready at that time and by ridiculing us what she actually did was give us an implanted thought process which never left, the thought that we can do it and we will prove her wrong.

In the years that have passed I have created many pieces of art in many formats, I have sold a good quantity of my work and it is admired by a fair amount of people, I am not a famous artist, nor do I make a substantial living from it, I still strive to create that one piece that will get me noticed by the right people, however I am an Artist in every sense of the word as is my friend.

I maybe wrong and the teacher did honestly think we were rubbish, but with me the mere memory of her saying I would never be an artist is what drives me forward to create along with the fact it is who I am no matter how I try to avoid or refuse it I need to create and that is how every true artist feels.

The Travellers Lament.

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