CASE STUDY Paul Nicholls
Paul has been a press photographer for 20 years. Based just outside Gloucester, he works for local papers The Citizen and Gloucestershire Echo, part of the Northcliffe media group which also publishes the Daily Mail. His work has also scooped him a national press award. When we caught up with him he was on his seventh job of the day...
"The picture desk decides what I'm doing on a daily basis. The photographers typically work eight-hour days, which are split into three separate shifts. We do everything from royal visits to fêtes - the paper has to be filled.
"The job never fails to surprise me and that's what keeps me motivated. Admittedly, you do get some jobs that are rather uninspiring, but then you get some great jobs as well. I've been on a number of foreign trips and met plenty of celebrities and politicians.
"Sometimes you do simply turn up and shoot what's there. You're not going to get a member of the royal family to do much more than smile, but other times you have to take control to get some good pictures. I typically do between five and seven jobs a day so you haven't got the time to hang around. If nothing's happening, you have to make it happen then get the shots sent back quickly. It's an adrenaline rush every day, but stressful too, especially when you have to supply caption information and transmit images to the picture desk in a matter of minutes.
"I tend to travel light - I know so many press photographers who have back problems. I carry a Nikon D2H, 17-35mm and 70-200mm lenses and an SB800 flashgun. I also have a laptop to transmit shots and a 300mm that I keep in the car. Everything is shot as JPEGs - there's no need for Raw files.
"As well as getting shots in the local papers, our images are also sent to agencies and this has led to me getting plenty of shots in the nationals, which is a huge motivation. That, along with the fact that in 20 years I've never had the same day twice, is what keeps me doing it."
