It’s a ‘GEM’ of a photograph – by Tony Leadbitter
As most members are well aware I have been taking photos for the Glamorgan Gem, the Vales local newspaper for the last ten years. It started in quite a small way with occasional pictures on film using my canon EOS, Canon T70 or even my little Olympus MJU. In those days the films were processed by a local mini Lab and the resultant 6 x 4 prints submitted to the editor for selection purposes.
When the Gem started printing in colour, the half and full page spreads started to appear and I converted to Digital. Shortly after the newspaper went digital and their staff reporters were issued with digital cameras as well.
Today they have three full time staff reporters plus an editor and an editorial director. Many of their other staff also act as part time reporters and take many competent digital photographs. To supplement their own staff they also have four photographers on call to cover the very many events taking place in the Vale at any one time.
Ian Dixon normally looks after the Eastern Vale whilst Glyn Evans tended to look after the Western Side. The middle Vale including Cowbridge and Llantwit Major was generally covered by Heather March and myself. There were no hard lines of demarcation and we often overlapped into each others territories subject to who was available at the time. Heather with her roles as Deputy Lord Lieutenant and Civic Dignitary was often involved in the events to be covered but usually had her Canon EOS 350D close at hand in case I could not make it. She is a very competent photographer and a pleasure to work with on some of the larger shoots.
Ian and Glyn are both very good professional photographers and help to maintain the high standard of photography in the Gem. In fact Glyn is hoping to join the Vale Club at some point in the future. At the moment he is covering the many events that I used to and hope to again in the future. It is a very busy time at the moment and will be until after Christmas.
The Gem are very keen to use Photos provided by members of Clubs such as ours and have already published many pictures submitted by our members as well as members of other clubs. They are very ethical in their approach to news gathering and try not to embarrass any individuals. As with any local paper they do like lots of pictures of people and especially children as well as important members of the community.
Over the next few months I will be including a selection of hopefully topical photographs which I have taken in the past together with notes about them.
Tony Leadbitter