A Shot in the Dark, magazine layout MKII

After deciding that I was not happy with my previous layout, which had too much text and not enough emphasis on the images, I have produced a revised version of my magazine layout for my story on blind shooting. I believe that the layout is far more simple, with not too much text. Discuss. 

S

recent work for the newspaper...

Gyllyngvase Tennis Courts

This group of pensioners have been playing at Gyllyngvase Tennis Courts for over thirty years - since local resident Barbara Truswell founded the club. The courts - which are currently run by the Falmouth Beach Hotel - are available for public use. Now, however, there are fears of them being taken over by St. Michael's Hotel across the road, potentially putting it in to privatisation, meaning the end of the thirty-five-year-old club.

S

Joe Stinton: a shot in the dark

Last week I completed my story of Joe Stinton, a thirty-seven-year-old blind shooter from Helston, Cornwall. Joe shoots every Wednesday afternoon at Helston and District Rifle Club as part of the Cornwall Blind Association's club programme which started in 2002 (the club itself was originally set up in 1939, and is still used to this day for amateur shooters young and old).

Joe is an incredible man, and an extremely talented shooter; but he hasn't been blind from birth. As I found out upon the second time of meeting him, Joe had his sight for nearly thirty years prior to going blind. An unimaginable event, which took place in 1998, meant Joe would be rendered completely blind for the rest of his life.

Joe is both diabetic and wheat intolerant (two conditions which are often thought to go hand-in-hand). It was around the first anniversary of his marriage that he had a severe reaction to wheat, hospitalising Joe immediately. To help with the reaction - which saw Joe in a coma on the day of his anniversary - he was administered immunosuppressant drugs. However, whilst in most cases people with their immune systems down are required to stay quarantined in the hospital (for example after a kidney transplant), Joe was discharged, and allowed to walk free with a severely weakened immune system. It was then that Joe contracted septicaemia, a form of blood poisoning which, in severe cases, can result in blindness. Joe would never see again.

But he does not dwell on it, and is grateful for having "built up a good life" and "met some amazing people". "I have done a lot of things which I wouldn't have if I hadn't lost my site" said Joe of the fact that, apart from shooting, he has cycled tandem from John O'Groats to Land's End. 

Joe relies on a laser fixed to the gun's barrel  to 'see'. The laser points towards the target, resulting in a high pitched noise to be relayed to the headset; the higher the pitch, the closer he is pointing to the centre of the target. Once all his shots are fired, the target is pulled back to the Joe via the rope and pulley system for inspection.   

There are two disciplines in blind shooting: Supported and Unsupported. Quite self-explanatory, Supported shooting is with the use of a tripod and a chair; Unsupported is with neither. Of course, shooting unsupported is far harder, and only Joe and one other shooter at the club are skilled enough to do it. 

Joe's gun

Joe has been shooting since 1999, stopping only momentarily when his child was born. He has been selected twice to compete in the World Championships, and last Friday he competed, along with the rest of the Helston team (which consists of around eight other blind/visually impaired shooters), at the British Blind Shooting Championship in Wolverhampton.

Keith Busby is Joe's 'helper', guiding him only for manoeuvres which require more dexterity than average - for example: as he moves from the waiting room to the shooting range, loading the gun, and the initial aiming of the rifle.  

Helper Kieth Busby acts as Joe's eyes when initially aiming the gun towards the target. After that, it is all down to Joe.

Keith inspects Joe's target after a round of shooting.

A perfect score of fifty. Joe gets five shots before the round is over; the bullseye is worth ten points. During competition, however, the competitors only have two shots per target, with thirty targets to hit under timed conditions. 

This series of photographs will be edited down to just a five-picture story for my 'Fragile' assignment. My next assignment will be based around the idea of 'Touch'. 

S

seeing the blind...

Today I spent the afternoon at a visually impaired shooting session at Helston and District Rifle Club with Joe Stinton, a thirty-seven-year-old man who lives in Helston, a small town outside of Falmouth. Unlike the majority of the shooters present today, Joe is completely blind. Despite this, he has been shooting since 1999, stopping only momentarily when his child was born. He has been selected twice to compete in the World Championships, and on Friday he will be joining the rest of the Helston team to compete at the British Blind Shooting Championship in Wolverhampton.

Joe relies on a laser fixed to the gun's barrel  to 'see'. The laser points towards the target, resulting in a high pitched noise to be relayed to the headset; the higher the pitch, the closer he is pointing to the centre of the target. Once all his shots are fired, the target is pulled back to the Joe via the rope and pulley system for inspection.   

There are two disciplines in blind shooting: Supported and Unsupported. Quite self-explanatory, Supported shooting is with the use of a tripod and a chair; Unsupported is with neither. Of course, shooting unsupported is far harder, and only Joe and one other shooter at the club are skilled enough to do it. 

Helper Kieth Busby acts as Joe's eyes when initially aiming the gun towards the target. After that, it is all down to Joe.

A perfect score of fifty. Joe gets five shots before the round is over; the bullseye is worth ten points. During the competition this weekend, however, the competitors will only have two shots per target, with thirty targets to hit under timed conditions. 

Joe is surprisingly efficient at manoeuvring, and only needs help when traversing larger distances and attempting tasks which require more dexterity than average.  

Joe celebrated his thirty-seventh birthday two days ago.

This was a fascinating shoot to say the least, and I think Joe is a brilliant guy. He was more than happy for me to be there and we are meeting again next week, at which time I plan to capture more of his day-to-day life. 

S

beans, bacon and bowling clubs

Work has started to back up recently, and I find shoots, if not entire days, coming and going before I get a chance to write drivel about them on here. During this time I have returned with a new, more easily searched blog title of 'Samuel Moore | photographer'. Catchy, huh? So anyway, one such day which has been and gone was Saturday 4th February, when I was given two jobs to do for The Packet, Falmouth's daily digest of local news and events. 

The first of these jobs was at Budock Water, a quaintest of quaint villages which sits just half a mile from the monstrosity that is Falmouth's Brickland Industrial Estate. I made my way over there on my bicycle at 10am, being soaked by one of Cornwall's annoyingly frequent horizontal rain storms in the process, an occurrence which happens to me far too often.  

The villagers of Budock hold an annual 'Big Breakfast' in aid of the village-owned playing field. The event, which sees all manner of locals grace Budock Water village hall, consists of a, well, big breakfast. Two rashers of bacon, baked beans, sausages, grilled tomato and toast were on sale for the modest price of £3.50. Of course, being the photographer assigned to the job, I was offered a free breakfast by a wonderful woman named Sally. After considering the immoralities of eating on the job for about three seconds, I resolutely sat down at the nearest table and ploughed my way through a plate of the good stuff in about the same amount of time (my prowess in eating was duly noted by an old woman standing to my left). What made this success even more satisfying was that when the photographer form the West Briton finally showed his face, no such offer was made to him. Student 1, professional 0. 

As well as the food, stalls run by local villagers adorned the village hall, selling goods ranging from second-hand knick-knacks and cakes/pastries, to a man selling vegetables and  a blind woman selling pencils (?). Again, all proceeds went to the up-keeping of the village-owned playing field. 

The second job of the day - in equally horizontally-inclined rain - was at 8pm at the Falmouth Bowling Club, where cheques were being presented by Chairman Ron Rhedlyn. Cheques for £480 were given to the 2nd Falmouth All Saints Cub-Scouts, the Memories Cafe and the Falmouth Festival Fund which was represented by the Mayor of Falmouth... You know you've made it as a photojournalist when you're photographing mayors. The money was raised by the Falmouth Harmony Choir, who took charitable donations whilst carol singing on Christmas Eve.

 

S