Galway City Protests Against €100 Million Fish Farm Off The Aran Islands
Yesterday I took part in this protest against the extraordinarily ill-conceived and poorly thought out proposed 465 hectare salmon farm in the lee of the Aran Islands off of the West Coast of Ireland.
This farm poses a grave threat to the fragile ecosystem of the already much depleted salmon stocks of Ireland. I strongly believe that it is up to the people of Ireland to protect this habitat from the destruction which will be wrought if big business is allowed to exploit the fishing industry just like they did with the meat industry. Which has already suffered untold damage after the shame of the much publicised horse meat scandal.
The west of Ireland already continues to suffer the exploitation wrought by big business through the Corrib Gas Pipeline controversy. And so yet again it falls to people power to resist the destruction of our country in the face of politicians who don’t seem to give two fucks about selling our precious natural resources to the highest bidder, and to hell with the consequences for future generations.
Bord Iascaigh Mhara (BIM) is the Irish fisheries body that is supposed to protect Irish waters, yet it continuously misrepresents and withholds scientific data and lies to the Irish public about the well established risks posed by open water fish farms.
In order to avoid the obvious dangers of farmed salmon spreading lethal sea lice to our native wild salmon, the BIM proposes to use chemicals to kill parasites. Now it doesn’t take a genius to see the dangers of pumping yet more chemicals into our already damaged waters, yet the BIM doesn’t seem to be able to see the risks that anyone with half a brain can quite clearly perceive, and which scientific research has also proven beyond any reasonable doubt.
All that the BIM likes to shout about is the creation of jobs for the local economy. But I think that the Irish people have heard enough bullshit about job creation that never comes to pass from our politicians as they ravish our country to be rightly cynical about the chances of any actual new jobs ever transpiring.
When the fecal matter from millions of fish is washed into Irish seas, alongside parasites, chemicals, and god knows what else, and then goes on to ruin our pristine environment, kills our fishing industry, and damages our tourism industry beyond repair, then I’m quite certain that more jobs will be lost than could ever be created from such a deplorable misuse of our natural resources.
Local and national media as per usual seem to have little or no interest in reporting the dangers of this farm to the Irish people as well as largely ignoring this protest, and so I felt it that it was my duty to make my small contribution to making this a more widely discussed issue. The Irish Times reported about the protest yesterday here, yet they didn’t even deem the protest worthy of a photograph. The Galway independent reported about the protest here, and again didn’t bother adding a photograph of the protest and also reported that only 500 people attended the protest compared to the Irish Times report of 2,000 in attendance. Quite the discrepancy huh.
I’d say that the figure of 2,000 people was much closer to the mark, and I salute all those who arranged the protest, the few politicians who bothered to attend, the great speakers who spoke with such vigour, and each and every person who attended in order to assert their opposition to this wanton destruction of our local environment.
Fair play to all involved and let’s just hope that the people with the power to put a stop to this monstrous idea for a fish farm will start to listen to the will of the people before it’s too late.
Some of Prague’s Stranger Statues
Here’s just a limited selection of some of the many bizarre though quite fascinating statues that I came across on my trip to Prague in the Czech Republic a while back.
I don’t know whether the surreal nature of Prague’s public art is due to the influence of Czech surrealists such as Jan Svankmajer, or Franz Kafka. Or, perhaps it’s the result of the destruction wrought upon Czech art and architecture by the second world war that required such artistic reinvention. Maybe the Czechs choose not to celebrate historical figures through public effigies because of their country’s troubled period of communist rule that may have left them weary of hero worship after suffering the destructive state sponsored propaganda of fallen idols such as Stalin for so many years. Perhaps it’s simply the prevalence of mind altering drugs on the streets of Bohemia since the decrimalisation of drugs for personal use that has unleashed such a creative approach to enriching public spaces with artistic ingenuity.
Whatever the reason may be for Prague’s bevy of idiosyncratic street sculptures, I for one am all for it. Through a haze of cannabis smoke I trawled throughout the city of Prague constantly surprised and enthralled by the many surreal incursions into my day that these works of art provided me with.
Upon my return to Ireland, whilst trudging through the streets of Dublin I couldn’t help but feel short changed by the lack of invention of our own Irish artisits in their creation of public pieces of art. There are only so many grey statues of long dead war mongerers, or bronze casts of expatriate Irish writers that can be stomached before you start to question what the Irish are lacking in so sorely when it comes enriching public spaces.
I remember once reading the Czech writer Milan Kundera describing his Czech countrymen as “heretics” as a result of their lack of enthusiasm for religous or political doctrines and the simple pleasure that they take in living life to its fullest. As I stood in O’Connell Street in Dublin after my trip to Prague, I looked towards the GPO, the scene of Ireland’s greatest act of rebellion in 1916 which eventually led to our country’s independence. However, my view across the road to this historic building was partially obscured by the great phallic monstrosity that is the Millenium Spire quietly spunking its celtic tiger euro millions into the air. And I thought to myself, that perhaps there’s something that us conformist Irish could do with learning from these Czech herectics.
Good Burgers and the Art of the Barbecue (and the Super Fun Summertime Shooters Eating Lottery Game)
For the ultimate burger I like to combine my steak with a burger patty. Mmmmm… double meaty.
Since we’re having the worst summer in living memory here in Ireland this year, for today, whilst I listen to the wind howl through my house and the pitter-patter of the unceasing rain ricocheting against my window. I thought that I’d cast my mind back to happier sunny times when the odd ray of sunshine occasionally peaked out from behind those ominous grey clouds that us Irish have become so accustomed to, and oh so sparingly, blessed me with the opportunity to stoke up a barbecue.
There are few culinary delights more satisfying than barbecued meat on a sunny day coupled with an ice cold bottle of beer, or a glass of chilled white wine to wash all that tastiness down. The reason that barbecued meat is so superior to your run of the day seared animal flesh is the overt presence of a much enjoyed, though little understood cooking proccess called the Maillard reaction.
Watch the Maillard reaction in action on those mini patties, alongside some parma ham and mozzarella melting on top. Very nice indeed.
Whenever I watch cooking programmes on TV (which is admittedly a lot), I’m often unreasonably annoyed by chefs constantly telling people to sear their meat to “seal in the flavours” (I’m the kind of pedant who cares about such things). Searing meat doesn’t actually seal in any flavours whatsoever, instead: (and I’m quoting Heston Blumenthal here)
“When protein-rich foods like meat are exposed to a high heat, amino acids begin to react with other compounds to create a huge range of different flavours. The characteristic roasted flavours of coffee, chocolate, bread crusts and pan-fried meat all come largely from such reactions, which are called Maillard reactions, after the French biochemist who first identified the process in the early part of the twentieth century.”
So there TV chefs! If you’ve gotten the opportunity to cook in front of millions on the telly, the very least that you can do for your viewers is stop misinforming them about the basic processes of cooking, thank you very much.
Alright, now that we’ve got the science and the ranting out of the way, let’s get to the barbecuing….
Watch how nicely pink that meat is on the interior. Now that’s how you barbeque a steak my friend.
I’m going to focus on barbecuing burgers today, because it ain’t all that hard, but by jove does it taste good. The tricky thing about barbequing, especially when you spend your time barbecuing on the cheap disposable charcoal barbecues that are all that I can afford, is that it’s so hard to have any idea if your meat is cooking evenly. Therefore, the wisest plan of action is to have your meat as thin, or with a small a surface area as possible, so that you don’t have to worry so much about the unevenness of the heat that’s distributed across your grill.
And so, the smart barbecuer should get thinly sliced or relatively small pieces of meat from their butcher if they want to avoid burnt exterior pieces of meat concealing raw meat within. If I’m doing a steak burger, I personally favour a relatively thinly sliced piece of sirloin (but not too thin if you want it bloody on the inside!) flipped over about every minute or so to keep an eye out for any exterior burning. After a couple of flips your steak such be nicely seared on the outside with nice pink tender meat within. Mmmmm….. taste those amino acids reacting with sugars. Nice.
Sliders- The future of barbecue?
If I’m doing burgers, after much trial and error, I’ve discovered that the really smart barbequer should make their patties as small as possible in order to get as much exterior meat exposed to that delicous charcoal flavour as possible, without leaving a lot of interior meat for the heat to penetrate. This way you’re not left with raw mince in the middle of your burger. So unless you’re a fan of steak tartare, or you’re the kind of risk taking personality that enjoys dicing with salmonella on a sunny day, then keep those patties small!
Turning your little patties into delicious slider mini burgers is guaranteed (not an actual guarantee (I’m not here to vouch for your culinary skills)) to turn out delicious for everyone involved. I bought my mini burger buns in Marks and Sparks, and encased each of my mouth-watering pieces of meat within, alongside a selection of complimentary condiments.
- The Super Fun Summertime Shooters Eating Lottery Game- The future of home entertainment? Most probably, yes….
This method of eating burgers also allows you to experience the excitement of playing the Super Fun Summertime Shooters Eating Lottery Game (the title may need some work). To play, simply add a different sample of each of your favourite condiments to each mini-burger and then carefully conceal your mischief by placing a bun atop. Do this with a different condiment to each of your mouthful sized morsels and ask a good friend to mix up the arrangement of the burgers on the plate whilst your back is turned. Then do the same for your friend while his back is turned. When you are both facing the burgers once again with your eyes wide open in anticipation of the feast that lays before you, it’s time for the fun to begin! Pick up a random burger and prepare for your taste buds to be tantalised by the delicousness of that tasty meat coupled with the mystery of an unexpected condiment within. You can literally spend minutes enjoying yourself in this manner. However, keep a keen eye out for the kind of joker who thinks it’s funny to put strawberry yoghurt on top of a perfectly good burger in pursuit of tomfoolery. Such renegade jokers should be banned from partaking in all future Super Fun Summertime Shooters Eating Lottery Games. Their loss. Some people….
Alright, I seem to have wandered slightly off track from my recipe and my humble celebration of the barbecued burger, so I’ll leave you all to get out into the sunshine and get cooking and tasting. Let me know how things turn out!
And also click here to be taken to my photo store where you can buy these and many other stupendous examples of my food photography.
Cheers,
Feargal
Fun at The Galway Races 2012!
Yesterday I had the (dis)pleasure of attending the Galway Races 2012 courtesy of a free ticket that I got from Galway.com, so that I could take a few photos of the happy day.
I have to admit that it remains somewhat of a mystery to me how the Galway Races is considered to be the highlight of the summer for so many Galwegians.
Yesterday was Lady’s Day at the races, which meant that I bore witness to many Irish women exposing far more of themselves than could ever possibly be considered visually alluring to anyone but the most fool hardy fans of flashes of Irish pasty skin overspilling ill fitting dresses. These uneasy style afficianodoes then todder along upon unfeasibly large heels, to which the wearer has clearly not had the chance to become accustomed to wearing before at such high-faluting fashionable occasions as the races. Or in fact ever, judging by the amount of stumbling style icons that I encountered throughout the day.
That’s not to say that there weren’t a few well attired beauties amongst the maelstrom of ill adorned ladies, which I’ve done my very best to take a few shots of, though these were admittedly few and far between. Taking photos amongst the heaving drunken masses is also one hell of a challenge, especially coupled with the incessant rain that we’ve been damned with all summer long here in Galway.
However, Galway’s stubbornly maritime climate didn’t seem to dampen the spirits of all that many weather beaten Irish punters, whose sunny dispositions I jealously witnessed and then dutifully tried to document.
The races also appear to me to be the most utterly elitist gathering of people that takes place in Galway. The rich take helicopters in and sit in reserved booths sipping champagne and being waited on hand and foot, whilst the rest of the plebs take a bus that progresses through the infamously egregious Galway traffic at slower than walking speed in order to painfully soldier onwards to the course. Once they have the pleasure of eventually arriving at the races, they can then que like mistreated cattle for half an hour to get a cheeseburger that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemies, which is served alongside chips refried in dirty frying oil so many times that they now seem to have only a faint recollection of their time spent as a potato.
The taste of such culinary insults demands to be washed out by a pint of Guinness, which is served in a plastic cup that seems to magically evaporate to half its size on the sharp elbowed trip back to your square foot of standing position back outside in the rain.
A cantankerous young man I may well be, but I can think of a whole lot more fun ways to spend the day in Galway that doesn’t involve wringing every last cent out of my pocket for hospitality that could be bettered in Butlin’s holiday camp circa 1958.
And don’t get me started on those unfortunate race horses. I mean they say that they’re made for racing and that’s what they enjoy, but if that’s the case then why does it take up to ten men to man handle them in order to force them into a trap that they obviously have no wish to enter.
If forcing animals to do something they don’t want to do for our own enjoyment is considered a sport, then I think it’s about time I made my monkey tennis dreams a reality.
Anyways, here’s some of my photos of the day of people that seem to be having a lot more fun than I could ever possibly muster, and good luck to them, I certainly admire their unquenchably positive outlook!(in a way)
I’m now away for a quiet pint in the dark corner of an unassuming little pub far from the tourist trail, where I can escape the heaving throngs of these alien effervescent souls so hellbent on having fun, in order to wait for all these corporate sponsored summer festivities to draw to a close, so I can finally have my nice quiet miserable little city back.
Enjoy the rest of the races everyone else! Only 3 more days to go!
The Galway Market
For today’s post I thought that I’d offer my own little celebration of one of Galway city’s greatest institutions- The Market at St Nicholas’s Church every weekend.
Every Saturday the prospect of the finest falafel I’ve yet found, a tantalising chicken teriyaki roll, a delicately spiced vegetarian madras, or some enjoyably fattening fresh donuts, is more than enough to convince me to cut my Saturday lie-in short in order to proceed to fill my belly and my shopping bag with some of the delectables found at the Galway Market.
Sunshine is far from guaranteed, and I can’t say that the prices are all that cheap in fairness, but by heck it sure is nice to have somewhere to go and buy a nice piece of fresh fish, some organic vegetables, and a few nice pieces of fruit to turn into something a little extra special in the kitchen later.
Here’s a few shots of some of the produce and crafts on display that I hope that you’ll enjoy alongside some photos of the dishes that I’ve prepared using food that I’ve found at the market.
A feast for the eyes awaits I hope….
Blooming at the market’s florist…
A nice set of buns…
Vegetarian Madras and chappati…a warming antidote to the Galwegian climate….
Though admittedly not terribly attractive, I can assure you that the fresh fish is quite delicious…
A sea of strawberries announces the onset of another dubious Irish “summer”…
Though at least the chillies are hot…
Free holes with all donuts…
Get your rocks off at the market…
I can’t vouch for the geographical accuracy of this jigsaw, but it sure does look nice…
This is what I do with a prawn when I get it back to my studio…
And here’s some of that fresh fruit looking quite zesty…
My own Heston Blumenthal inspired Lemon Sole atop Galway Bay Prawns in a creamy white sauce- a good recipe to do justice to the fine fresh fish that I obtained at the market…
My Gordon Ramsay inspired Pan Fried Sea Trout and Fricasseed potatoes doesn’t taste half bad either….
And finally there’s no finer way to embrace a rare glimpse of Irish sunshine by a barbequing a nice bit of steak from the market and piling it onto my own very special signature steak sandwich….
Well that’s about all I’ve got for you on the market I’m afraid, well done if you’ve managed to scroll down this far, I’m glad that I’ve managed to hold your attention. Let me know if you’ve got any queries about my photos or food, as I’m happy to share any of my recipes to anyone that’s interested (that is if anybody is interested).
Cheers for reading and hooray for the Galway Market; an example of capitalism at its least appalling, I’m sure you’ll agree.
A Seafood Supper Fit for a King (or Queen)
Today I thought that I’d mix up my photography a bit by including some of my photos of food alongside two delicious seafood recipes that I prepared last night to no small amount of acclaim from my fellow diner (if I do say so myself).
Here is my first course, which unfortunately due to extreme pangs of hunger, I didn’t have the time to photograph before demolishing. However, I did take a few moments to photograph the unfortunate crustacean before preparing and devouring it, and I can confirm that it was just as delicious as it was photogenic.
Galway Bay Prawns in a Creamy White Wine Sauce served with Irish Soda Bread. (serves 2)
Ingredients:
12 Galway Bay Prawns (They don’t have to be Galway Bay Prawns but they should be nice fresh prawns of a decent size, uncooked, and still in their shells)
One small tub of Double Cream
A cup of good quality stock (I personally used a muscat and saffron wine reduction that I got in the deli cause I’m a very lazy man)
A good splash of decent white wine
A small onion, or a couple of shallots finely chopped
A finely chopped clove or two of garlic according to your own personal taste
A teaspoon of mustard
Juice of a lemon
A good knob of butter
A bunch of parsley finely chopped
Method:
1. Fry off the onions gently in the butter until they are soft and beginning to colour.
2. Add the Garlic and fry for a minute or so.
3. Add the white wine to deglaze the pan and bring down its temperature.
4. Add the double cream and warm it on a gentle heat.
5. (top tip) At this stage I took the legs off of my prawns and added them to the double cream while it warmed up and the alcohol was burning off the wine in order to increase the fishy flavour of my sauce as I wasn’t using fish stock.
6. Add the prawns to the creamy sauce and leave to cook for about 5 mins.
7. Finally add the chopped parsley and squeeze in the lemon juice, salt, and pepper, to season the sauce to your own personal tastes.
8. Serve topped with lemon and a sprig of parsley alongside a couple of slices of good quality bread such as Irish brown soda bread to mop up all that lovely creamy sauce.
Some people may find it a bit fiddly taking the shells of the prawn at the table and getting their hands dirty (not me I love getting stuck in). In such cases you can simply remove the prawns from their shells before adding them to the sauce to cook, though you might also like to add the flavour of the discarded shells to the sauce by wrapping them in a j-cloth (a clean one mind) and adding them to the sauce to infuse whilst the prawns are cooking.
And voila, you should have a deliciously creamy and decadent start to your seafood supper. Be sure to retain some of that velvety flavoursome sauce for the next course because it lends itself perfectly as a deliciously fishy accompaniment for the following sea trout recipe.
Pan Fried Sea Trout on a Fricassee of Pancetta, Peas, and Potatoes.
I have to give credit to Gordon Ramsay and his own recipe for Pan-fried sea trout, peas & chorizo fricassee for inspiring this dish. He uses chorizo instead of pancetta and doesn’t add any sauce to his dish, though I always love a nice rich gravy and it seems a shame to waste all that creamy white wine sauce from those prawns.
Ingredients:
2 good sized fillets of fresh Sea Trout
A few slices of good quality pancetta
4 peeled and diced floury potatoes
A cup of frozen peas (optional)
A couple of cloves of garlic chopped finely
A cupful of good quality chicken stock
A knob of butter for frying
A lemon
Method:
1. For the fricassee, add the pancetta to a hot pan (there’s no need for oil as the ham should emit more than enough oil to cook with) fry until the fat starts to render and then add the potatoes and fry off for about 5 mins until the potatoes start to brown a little.
2. Next add the chicken stock and allow to simmer away until all of the liquid has evaporated from the potatoes which should take about 10 minutes. (if you decided to add the frozen peas for some colour and vitamins, which I do recommend, then add them about 2 mins before the end of cooking your potatoes.
3. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper to taste (remember that the pancetta and stock may already have made your potatoes salty enough though.)
4. After adding the stock to the potatoes, it is a good time to start frying off your fillets of sea-trout. First place your pan over a medium heat and add the butter when it’s hot.
5. Then add the sea-trout skin side down and leave it like that for about 5 mins until you can see the flesh beginning to turn from pink to opaque on the top of the fish.
6. Turn over the fish quickly just to finish off the pink area and and squeeze a lemon on top and then remove from the pan immediately.
7. Plate up the fish by laying it beside or on top of the potatoes and then pour over some of that rich creamy sauce that you reserved from the starter.
You should now have prepared two simple yet delicious seafood courses, which I’m sure any fish loving diner should enjoy immensely. As you may be able to see from my photos, I forgot to buy the bloody peas! As a result, my dish was a bit lacking in greenery. Although I tried to gloss over this by serving my fish with a sprig of parsley and slice of lemon, though next time I’ll certainly remember to add some veg.
At this stage I was far too lazy to start cooking a desert, so I bought some fresh Irish Strawberries that have just come into season and served them with a couple of scoops of ice-cream. Some fresh zesty seasonal fruit really finishes off such a rich meal quite nicely.
If anybody tries these recipes then please do let me know, cause food is a new passion of mine and this is my first food related post and I’d love to know if I should try making it a regular occurrence.
“There is no love sincerer than the love of food”. ~George Bernard Shaw
Citrus Splash
Here’s a shot that I took today in my little makeshift lightbox that I also spent the day making. I made my lightbox in a very slapdash fashion by cutting a decent sized cardboard box down the side and painting all the panels white. I’ve also got a hell of a lot of CFL lamps hanging around which are pretty handy for shaping the light just how I want it. And finally my most important purchase was a 400 watt halogen exterior light that is great for concentrating a hell of a lot of light on a specific point so that I can increase my shutter speeds and catch little details like droplets of water. I used a piece of plastic sheeting that I found lying around as a diffuser, and ta-da! A fairly functional studio for around the 50 euro mark. Not too shabby at all.
I created this shot because I’m doing a course in Photoshop at the minute, and judging from the views of my teacher and classmates I feel like the world has gotten to a point where people simply expect every polished looking shot to be created in post production. Photoshop is indeed a great tool for graphic design and creating digital art, but I don’t think that it’s even close to a necessity for good photography.
I hope that this shot, which came out of my camera just as you see it, shows that good photography can stand up on its own without the need to be manipulated on a computer screen. It took me many attempts to drop 3 slices of citrus fruits into a glass of water whilst trying to focus on the right point and click the shutter release at just the right moment to take this picture, but surely that’s the joy of photography isn’t it? Trying to crystalise a moment that lasts just 1/3000 of a second so that it may well end up outliving yourself, surely there’s no small amount of beauty in such a process.
Dali
Here’s a shot of one of the wonderful Dali sculptures that I came across in Barcelona, and that seem to be dotted throughout Spain at large. I’m often struck when travelling by how incomparably more interesting European public art is compared to the predictable statues of politicians and exiled writers that we Irish seem to enjoy erecting so very much.
And since I’m thinking about Dali today, I thought that I’d share one of my favourite photos ever. This is Dali’s “atomicus”. This amazing shot apparently took 28 attempts to get right, and as a result probably isn’t also going to be a cat lover’s favourite photograph. However, one can’t help but admire the bravado of Dali and the ingenuity of the photographer Philippe Halsman in nailing such a busy shot with so many elements to get just right.
The real magic of this shot for me is that it is a record of a specific moment in time back in 1948, in which 3 cats and a bucket of water were flying through the air, whilst Salvador Dali was jumping and his assistant held up a chair at the edge of the frame. This photo therefore has value as a document of a moment in time. This makes it an indexical photo that refers to a specific historical event. In modern times it’s hard to imagine anybody taking the time to create and execute such a shot instead of just designing it on a computer screen through Photoshop.
Photoshop creates iconic images that can represent a cat flying through the air, but because these images are created on a computer screen and are only a representation of an image that occurred in an artist’s mind rather than a record of an actual event in time, these are not photographs, but pieces of digital art.
So please do enjoy one of the greatest photographs ever created and ask yourself if such a photo was created in post production on an image processing programme could it ever possibly have the same impact?
Airbnb.com freelance photography assignment- an opportunity not worth taking
Today I thought that I’d change my usual solely photobased posting habits in order to tell followers of my blog and the world wide web at large of my experiences working as a freelance photographer for the popular travel accommodation site airbnb. These experiences were not good and since a lot of people who visit my blog may well be photographers themselves and might get scouted by airbnb to work for them just as I was, I thought I should let you know that I think it’s a thoroughly bad idea.
About 2 months ago now, a worker for airbnb saw my photos on this site and posted in my about section that airbnb would like to hire me for some freelance photographic assignments. I jumped at this opportunity to expand my portfolio, make a little pocket money, and see a little more of the countryside whilst on the job.
Right from the off this seemed like a great chance for me, and within hours of signing up, my dashboard was filled to capacity with 5 jobs around Galway city which could net me nearly 300 euros for a day’s work. Optimistic I know, but even if it took a month to take these pictures I’d have been happy to be making something off of my photography. As it turned out, these jobs had already been given to other photographers, I found this out after waiting for a couple of weeks and getting no response from hosts who apparently never needed photos of their listings taken, or messages from other hosts saying they’d already had their shots taken by somebody else.
After deleting all but one job from my formerly heaving dashboard, I was happy to at least to be able to try my hand at one job which also happened to take me out to a nice part of Galway out at Kinvara. This job was nearly 30 kilometers away though, and airbnb only give a travel allowance for 15 k, so I was immediately going to be out of pocket after getting the bus out, but what the hell I thought, the 50 euros will cover it and I’ll still have the experience anyhow.
To cut a long story short, I did the job, enjoyed it, uploaded the photos sharpish, and then waited for a month to be told that my photos didn’t fit the bill and I’d have to reshoot the property. None of my queries since that rejection nearly 2 weeks ago have been replied to.
Working for airbnb has been a frustrating experience for me, leaving me as broke as when I began, alongside an unhappy client who has been waiting to have their listing photographed for months and who also doesn’t receive any response from airbnb to their queries.
I wrote this post so that anybody else in the same position as me two months ago, excited by the prospect of some freelance photography work, happy to sign a contract with airbnb which basically leaves them completely bereft of their rights as photographers, knows that it’s not such a great prospect as it seems, and learns from my lapses of judgement.
Here is a copy of my correspondence with airbnb just so that people can see how inept their communications really are.
Also, let me know if anybody else has any other experiences with airbnb, either good or bad, perhaps I was just unlucky, though I do doubt it.
As well, here are some of the shots that I took of the listing out at Kinvara, let me know if there’s something I’m missing and in fact they are terrible!
Dear whomever it concerns,
I am writing this letter to whomever it concerns, because I have no idea who is actually going to read this email and respond. Another of airbnb’s little quirks is that workers for your company don’t even deem it necessary to sign off on their correspondence and actually let me know who I’m addressing, but nonetheless I’ll persevere in speaking to an imagined receiver of this email.
Surely airbnb realise that if somebody sends me a message concerning my work that I should be able to speak to that person directly, instead of going round in circles sending emails to god knows who, but it seems clear that airbnb have no interest in making their photographer’s lives any easier, or even their own for that matter judging by how inept your company handles something as basic as giving a photographer and job and then paying them for it.
My work has just been rejected for a listing for the second time by the same person, yet I’ve got no facility to ask this person what they found wrong with my work. The person who seems to have rejected my work is an airbnb auditor called Schidume. On the 21st of March, 7 working days after I had uploaded my shoot, I finally got a response from this auditor. In airbnb’s own photography manual it says that photographers will be paid within 2-5 business days of a photographer uploading their work. Why can airbnb not meet the very standards they themselves set in their photography manual? Also why do they set themselves standards they can’t keep to and don’t refer to, nor apologise for the fact they are breaking their agreement with me.
In this message Schidume writes: Some of these images are a bit too dark. It is better for Airbnb’s purposes if our photographers error on the side of overexposure, utilizing as much natural light as possible. That way, the images will always be bright, clean and inviting. Please lighten these images up and resubmit so that we may pay you promptly.
Strange I thought to myself, airbnb asking photographer’s to overexpose their photos, which goes against my training as a photographer, but you’re the boss I said to myself as I then re-edited my photos to meet airbnb’s standards.
Surely now I can finally get paid I thought, having done exactly as airbnb asked me to do.
I then waited another week to get another rejection email from this mysterious Schidume auditor.
Here is what he now wrote to me, which seemed bizarrely different from what I was told the week before:
Hi Feargal, After taking a second look at this shoot, I’m sorry but I cannot accept it. The angles that you shot just don’t tell me much about the space. What kind of lens are you using? The images are too tight and this place looks quite spacious. I need to ask that you go back and re-shoot. Please take a look at this:http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/361793 I was the photographer for this listing. I’m using a 10-20mm lens and a standard 18-55mm lens for some of the closer shots. I did not use a flash, all natural lighting, with a combination of indoor lighting. All the windows were open . That way I didn’t relay on a flash, and I didn’t have to use my tripod either. This is what I’m expecting to see from all of our photographers. It looks like this place had a pretty nice amount of natural light, so it really shouldn’t be a problem. Verify you focus/sharpness and take multiple shots. For the shoot I’m showing you, I took about 80 images. They were not all great, but that way you will have options. I understand that not places will look ideal, but here are some things to take in consideration: exposure, color balance, sharpness, composition. Make sure that all the windows are open, turn on all the lights, make sure your horizon lines are straight. We don’t really want images of the exterior, unless there’s something special about it. Thanks! I really hope this helps you have more successful shoots. Trust me, I don’t like rejecting shoots Thanks! Shidume
Now I feel quite certain that whoever is reading this email on behalf of airbnb can discern that there is no logical link between these two messages that I’ve received from this enigmatic Schidume character. The first photos were fine, but a little too dark, make them lighter and you’ll get paid is what he said in his first critique of my images. Yet now that he’s taken a second look he can see that now all the angles are wrong and that my photos are now useless and that I have to reshoot the entire listing.
Please do explain to me how the same images can metamorphose themselves according to the whims of Schidume. Either the photos were wrong to begin with and this Schidume fellow wasted another few hours of my life by directing me to tinker with photos that he didn’t want to begin with. Or else, this character Schidume doesn’t really know his arse from his elbow when it comes to photography and doesn’t even have the skills in auditing to at least be consistent in his criticism and rejection of good photographic work.
This second email seems to me a completely generic message layout for rejecting photos also, it doesn’t address any specific issues with my photos whatsoever. It says “the angles that I shot don’t tell me much about the space” How exactly is this the case? can airbnb provide me with some examples of these bad angles? Airbnb direct photographers to shoot into corners, which is exactly what I did, landscape aspect? check. Wide angle lens? check etc. etc. Schidume even has the cheek to tell me that the place looks spacious. Schidume hasn’t actually seen this listing presumably, so how does he know it looks spacious? I guess my photographs are the only way that he could tell how somewhere looks? therefore my photos make the place look spacious, so what in the world is he complaining about?!?!
Some of the rooms in the listing where in fact very small, for some shots of the bedroom i actually had to go outside and shoot through the window to make the place look more spacious, but of course Schidume knows better than me or the people who own the listing about how it looks and how it should be shot. Throughout my shoot I engaged with the hosts and asked them what aspects they would like to show off in their place and I even give them a quick preview of some of the shots that I was taking. They seemed very happy with how my photos were showing off their space, why is it that airbnb seem to know better than the photographer and the owner of a listing regarding how it should look?
Schidume also provides a link that shows off some of his great photographic work presumably as aspirational material to failed photographers like myself. This is the link that he provides -:http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/361793.
Most of these photos are quite good and showcase the listing quite well, though they are all very much over exposed. There are shots in this group though, which as a photographer I find downright offensive. There are shots included in this set of photos that are quite obviously stitches of two different photos placed together at odd and confusing angles. There is a shot of the bathrrom and one of the bedroom that are edited and stuck together in this erratic manner which tells the photographs’ viewers nothing about the actual place and is in fact utterly confusing. Are airbnb saying that this is how I should take my photos, stick together two photos shot at different angles in order to get paid? Schidume then goes onto give me a beginner’s lesson in what a photograph is and how I might go about taking it. At this stage he is talking in utter irrelevancies, “use natural light and a tripod” “make sure your images are sharp” he says. Why do i have to be told this, none of these were highlighting as issues in the 25 plus shots that i submitted so why in the email that explains why my photos got rejected is this person going off in such tangents?? Schidume took 80 shots for this shoot. Well done Schidume, I took over 100 for mine and spent over 2 hours photographing this host’s listing. I could still make use of these images and resubmit photos that are to airbnb’s tastes, but I don’t even believe that airbnb knows what the hell they are looking for from their photographers. And if they do know, it doesn’t excuse the fact they are appallingly bad at communicating these requirements to their photographers. Schidume also questions what lens I used etc? Well surely Schidume can look at the icc profile embedded into each of my pictures if he is curious about how I took any of my shots? I actually shot all the photographs of this listing at a minimum of 18mm wide angled. If this wasn’t wide enough for airbnb and they prefer super wide photography then they should make it a requirement for photographers before they photograph a listing and not after. I followed all of airbnbs guidelines and manuals in order to shoot this job who they wanted it be shot. I see no way that I have broken my contract or taken substandard shots. I therefore demand to be paid for the many hours that I have already put into this job.
The rejection email that I received is just another in a long list of quite bizarre and utterly confusing requests and statements that I’ve received from Airbnb since I was scouted by your company over a month ago. Right from when I received 5 jobs into my dashboard almost immediately only to find out that they’d all actually been given out to other photographers already when I emailed the hosts, I knew that airbnb is not an efficient nor trustworthy company. Then when I kept receiving jobs into my dashboard from places as far away as Cork- a 3 hour drive away, then I knew this freelance gig wasn’t as great as it seemed. All these elements display hopeless inefficiencies in communication within airbnb that makes it look like the right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing and that it’s not even really worthwhile for myself trying to communicate with your company at the end of the day, cause you don’t even seem to know how to talk amongst yourselves.
All that I demand is that I get paid for the freelance work that I’ve done with airbnb until a satisfactory reason is given why I shouldn’t be paid.
If airbnb refuse to fairly pay me for the work that I carried out for your company, then I shall give the hosts the photos that they deserve anyhow after being screwed around for a month by your company. I shall also badmouth your company and your freelance assignments through the vehicles of my popular photoblog and website and the many other photographic communities than I am a member of. I shall do this so that any prospective airbnb photographer similar to myself one month ago, googling airbnb after I was approached approached with work, shall know the true hazards of working for your company and they won’t make the same mistakes that I did in trying to carry out good work for you and actually hoping to get paid for the pleasure.
Regards,
Feargal Norton
——————————————————————————–
Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2012 09:45:58 -0400
Subject: Re: rejected submission
From: photography@airbnb.com
To: feargal_norton@hotmail.com
Hi Feargal,
If both jobs are back in your accepted section, this means that both were rejected. They came back into Accepted at different times because they were reviewed and rejected at different times. You should have a rejection email for both. Please check your spam folder.
I did not reject the jobs so I do not know exactly why they were rejected. You mentioned the auditor said the photos were too dark. You also mention the number of photos. We require at least 10, so 20 for each is sufficient.
You will be paid 50 euros + travel for each.
I’m sorry you are receiving far away jobs. This is a bug that we have right now, and we’re working on it as fast as possible. In the meantime, please decline any jobs that are too far away.
I hope this clears everything up.
On Wed, Mar 28, 2012 at 7:14 AM, Feargal Norton wrote:
Hi,
I think my question is pretty clear really. I took pictures of one residency for airbnb out at Crannagh, Kinvara, Co. Galway. This consisted of accepting two different jobs for one residential listing from airbnb, a job listing the double bedroom, and another job listing the en-suite in the same building. I treated them as two different jobs and took about 20 pictures of each listing. I then uploaded two separate sets of pictures for each. Only one set of these pictures was apparently rejected though for being too dark, and I’m not sure what happened to the other set of photos. When I was rejected there is only one job in my completed jobs section listed as completed but rejected, so I only had the option of reuploading for one job, whereas I had uploaded for two. Now the listing is back as two different jobs in my accepted jobs section, can’t you see how this seems strange?
I want airbnb to make it clear whether they want 20 pictures of one listing for the job, or if they want 40 for the two listing, and whether I am going to get paid 100 euros for my work or 50. I don’t see how I can make myself much clearer, and I really think airbnb should be making life a lot easier for their freelance photographers.
I have been given jobs that have been sent to many different photographers at once already, when I was led to believe a job is only sent to one photographer at a time, though hosts have told me this very much was not the case. I have also been given jobs offers from all over the country, instead of my local area. I’ve had jobs sent to me for Cork city which is a 3 hour drive away, as well as two others that have been over 50 miles away. A 15 dollar allowance simply doesn’t cover such trips, so I’m not interested in these jobs.
So please clarify these issues for me, so I can upload the pictures that I have taken already for airbnb, and perhaps in the future even take some more.
Regards,
Feargal Norton
——————————————————————————–
Date: Tue, 27 Mar 2012 11:00:04 -0400
Subject: Re: rejected submission
From: photography@airbnb.com
To: feargal_norton@hotmail.com
Hi Feargal,
25 photos is just the right amount for each listing.
Sounds like both listings were rejected because the auditor wants you to edit them. So, please edit and resubmit.
I’m afraid I’m not clear on what you are confused about. If you can clarify a bit more, I should be able to assist better.
On Mon, Mar 26, 2012 at 9:19 AM, Feargal Norton wrote:
Hi,
I’ve just been told that my images for my job photographing a listing at Kinvara, Co. Galway have been rejected for being too dark. This is fine, and if airbnb think so I can resubmit them looking a little bit brighter without much of a problem. However, I’m confused as to how airbnb are sending me this job and how I’m supposed to respond. I accepted this listing as two different jobs, taking two different sets of pictures of different rooms. This added up to about 25 pictures submitted for the 2 different listings, however, when the job was rejected it went back to one job listing, and now it’s back in my accepted jobs, it’s back to two different listings again.
Can you explain what the meaning of this is, and how I am supposed to approach photographing and uploading listings when airbnb seem to keep confusing what a job entails?
I would like to know how many photographs I am expected to upload and how many jobs I am actually supposed to carry out so I can successfully complete my work as a freelance photographer for airbnb.
Regards,
Feargal Norton
——————————————————————————–
From: feargal_norton@hotmail.com
To: photography@airbnb.com
Subject: getting paid
Date: Tue, 20 Mar 2012 13:15:47 +0000
Hi,
I was just wondering why I haven’t been paid for the completed jobs that I have done for air bnb despite having uploaded pictures more than 5 days ago?
Regards,
Feargal Norton
Some more exalted leaps from Blackrock diving board
At certain times of the year in Galway, when the short wet days of winter and spring begin to give way to the long wet days of summer. Rare days of sunshine do occasionally occur that allow us Galwegians to imagine what it might be like to live in a country that actually experiences a significant rise in temperatures during the summertime.
To help enjoy the precious doses of vitamin D that such glimpses of sunlight provide to the inhabitants of Galway, there appears to be three main components that allow the proper enjoyment of any spring sunshine. Firstly, a can of warm beer, or a strong cider, seems essential to any outdoor activity that takes place under direct sunlight for any significant period of time. Secondly, one must always persevere to expose as much luminescent ivory white skin to as dangerous a level of uv exposure as humanly possible, this is in order to lend an alluringly exotic aspect to your appearance, which should endure until your skin stops peeling. Thirdly, there’s little or nothing that makes an Irish man or woman feel more alive than jumping from a significant height into a bracingly cold reservoir of water placed at a much lower height.
Thankfully, all these essential elements to a pleasurable day in the sun in Galway, and a whole lot more besides converge at Blackrock diving board every summer. It’s a great place to see hordes of salmon fleshed locals perform effervescent belly flops to jeers of derision from whooping masses of people, or to perform great acrobatic feats to the hushed cheers of begrudging onlookers.
Here’s my testament to the these brave souls who queue up come rain, hail, or shine,(well probably not the first two, but definitely when it’s sunny) in order to plunge into the icy depths of the Atlantic Ocean just for kicks. I don’t envy you, though I do tip my hat to your adrenaline seeking endeavours, and say cheers for the photos.
