It didn’t take long this time to find a photograph that leapt off the screen. I had intended to select the one image from the Reuters daily file that knocks your socks off. The problem is I found two!

Of course Barack Obama’s speech at the Victory Column in Tiergarten Park in Berlin has to be a contender, for the subject matter if nothing else. But subject matter is not enough. Jim Young’s picture does the trick. It is not the conventional shot of a politician talking from a dais. The composition is pleasing on the eye; it contains, in a very simple way, all the elements necessary for a news picture and, despite the fact it is almost a silhouette, the figure of the U.S. presidential candidate is unmistakable.

The other photograph is an absolute winner, and much more of a silhouette. Of course animal pictures are always popular, but Radu Sigheti’s picture of a giraffe in Kenya, with birds sitting on it’s neck, is just a very simple and elegant image that speaks for itself.

There are a few sportsmen in Germany who will be remembered forever. Boris Becker, the great tennis hero; Franz Beckenbauer, one of the most elegant soccer players of all time; and of course, Michael Schumacher, the man who holds all Formula One records and decided to retire from Grand Prix racing two years ago.

But for a “pensioner”, Michael Schumacher lives a very busy life. Motorbike tests and races, parachuting and one of his biggest passions, playing football,  keep him very busy indeed! For several years he organized charity games with his team “Nationale Piloti” against VIP all-star teams ahead of the German Grand Prix at Hockenheim. Despite the fact that he is no longer involved in the race, he continues to lead his soccer team as captain onto the pitch.

During the past ten years I have covered seven or eight of these charity matches as a Reuters photographer. This year a dream came true.

Friends of mine at a local PR agency were asked to organize the event and to find a bespoke VIP all-star team including a couple of soccer players (former sport professionals, media people etc…) to support “Nationale Piloti”.

A few phone calls later, I found myself as substitute goalkeeper on the bench for Schumacher’s team,  along with Formula One drivers Nico Rossberg, Sebastian Vettel, Giancarlo Fisichella and ski racer Christian Gedhina. After getting a lift in a German national soccer team bus from Euro 2008 to the stadium containing more than 8,000 spectators, to face the VIP all-star team with players who, collectively, have played more than 2,500 German Bundesliga matches,  my heart was definitely pumping fast. Even faster than when I enter a stadium, with my photographic gear, to shoot a match for Reuters. Also, imagine the surprise on the faces of my colleagues - agency and newspaper photographers I have worked with for years - who, this time, were to take pictures of me playing for Schumacher’s team.

Above: Team picture of “Nationale Piloti” with Michael Schumacher (Front row 2ndL), Nico Rossberg (Back row 4thL) and Reuters photographer Kai Pfaffenbach (3rdR) - Photo by Reinhard Paul 

After a very warm welcome by the sporting heroes, a friend from a local amateur soccer team and myself warmed up, put on our match kit and watched the first half of the match from the substitutes bench. Early in the game, the goalkeeper from Schumacher’s team pulled a muscle in his leg. “Dottore Mario”, the Italian coach of “Nationale Piloti”, told me to get ready to replace him at half time, at the latest.

With heavy rain and slippery grass I was thinking “Oh my God, hopefully the Oliver Kahn gloves I use for this match will have the right grip”!

Above: German comedian Elton (L) demands a penalty. I complained about him diving - but he got the penalty and by a stroke of luck, scored! - Photo by REUTERS/Alex Grimm

Schumacher was running over the pitch like Michael Ballack, kilometer for kilometer, always ready to receive a pass and play the ball quickly. Christian Gedhina was not only a great skier in his days, he also played a brilliant game against former Frankfurt Bundesliga record holder Charly Koerbel (I suppose nobody will ever reach his 602 Bundesliga matches). And despite the fact that Formula One driver Sebastian Vettel is a very slim fellow, he has an incredible shot.

Above:  Ski racer Christian Ghedina (L) and me defend against former German Bundesliga player Ralf Weber (R) - Photo by REUTERS/Alex Grimm

In the end, the soccer VIP all-star team was too strong. After being 4-5 down at half-time, I conceded three more goals. One penalty; a header from a guy who has scored about 100 goals in the Bundesliga, and a shot I just couldn’t reach - I had no chance of saving these goals. We lost 6-8.  But I made a good proportion of nice saves in difficult weather conditions, which gave me a good, positive feeling despite the final result.

As a Reuters photographer specializing in soccer, this was an unmissable opportunity to participate in my second biggest passion. I have been an amateur goalkeeper for nearly 30 years, and this chance to play one important game with the really ‘big guys’ resulted in an unforgettable night! But this was a charity match, and undoubtedly the most significant result of the eveing was  the 30,000 Euros raised for a children’s aid project.

However, being very discreet, I am afraid that I cannot share my impressions of the subsequent player’s night ou, in this blog - but trust my word,  ’we had a great time with “our” team captain Michael Schumacher.’

 

Above: Me (R) having a chat with team captain Michael Schumacher after the match - Photo by Reinhard Paul

Above: Team captain Michael Schumacher is given one of three cheques for a children aid project - Photo by Reinhard Paul

Let me explain - because of course I don’t enjoy the misfortune of others.

In some respects the advent of new technology has been a backward step for photographers, for the simple reason that it is so boring and dull to look at. Politicians, and company results press conferences, have always presented a challenge to the creative photographer because they are often visually unexciting. But trying to find a hint of expression, when the financial markets head south these days, is a nightmare, because the computer screen has taken over the traditional trading floor.

Which is why it was such a pleasure to see Brendan McDermid’s photographs last week, of the floors of the New York Stock Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange, where traditional looking traders displayed traditional reactions, in a traditional setting.

Yes, new technology does have some advantages. No, there is no pleasure in seeing financial markets crash. But it’s just great to see a financial story illustrated with genuine emotion, and something that we, as human beings, can identify with.

Above - Traders work in the Oil Futures pit at the New York Mercantile Exchange in New York

Above - A trader works in the Oil Futures pit at the New York Mercantile Exchange in New York

Above - Traders work in the Oil Futures pit at the New York Mercantile Exchange in New York

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange

Africa Chief Photographer Radu Sigheti shows us some truly moving images depicting a family tragedy brought on by the famine in Ethiopia.

[ http://int1.fp.sandpiper.net/reuters42/2008/07/14/FINBARR%20HARLEY%20publish_to_web3/index.html ]

Photographer Finbarr O’Reilly takes us inside the opening of the Harley-Davidson museum in Milwaukee.

When looking through the daily file of photographs moved by Reuters to newspapers, magazines and web-sites around the world, it’s the breadth and quality that makes the biggest impression.

Having said that, there is usually one image that sticks and lingers in the mind. It might not be a news picture, or it might be an image that strikes a chord with me and nobody else.

But what is undeniable is the pleasure of being surprised by something unexpected.

Take this photograph of a Ferris wheel against a stormy evening sky, shot by Heino Kalis in Valencia last week.    

 

It’s not related to a story. It’s not a photograph of anything we haven’t seen before. But it is well observed. It is also very simple, very uncluttered and very effective.

I traveled to Cuzco to do a feature different from most news stories. This was to be a project of several days that would give me the chance to photograph in depth without the usual rush to file my pictures. The story was about vertical birthing in a public clinic on the poor outskirts of Cuzco.

Cuzco is a spectacular city full of Incan ruins and history, and it turned out that this was the week of Corpus Christi during which the Catholic faithful parade their saints in procession, under an impressive full moon.

Birthing is a subject capable of overwhelming anyone, even a photographer like me used to maintaining a distance from most subjects. It was impossible not to feel empathy towards these women who in their agony waited patiently alone for their turn to give birth, without taking anything to stop the pain.

The fact of me being a woman and a mother too was like an invitation into their world, even though I had never felt the same pain of birth that they were feeling. They always asked me if I had a child, and that opened the door for me.

On the second day of the story, an obstetrician named Guido told me that this was the night of a full moon, and that there would be many births so I should stay overnight. He was right. I was fortunate to witness four births that night. Just being there was a privilege, as well as an exhausting and hallucinating experience. These births are natural, without anesthesia. The pre-labor room, where the women endure the pains before actually giving birth, is really a chamber of terror in which the women scream out their pain, lying on the floor or pacing. They suffer, endure and survive in spite of not receiving anything for the pain.

They stand, the babies cry out as they are born, and the exhausted mothers make room for the next to take her turn.

Many times I just hung up my camera to console one of them and give her my hand during the contractions - things that I would normally never do…It was impossible not to.

The third woman of the night was Mary Luz, a 21-year-old single mother. The father of her baby had been killed in a traffic accident on Christmas day. This was her first child and she spent hours in the pre-labor room, crying and very nervous. In the labor room things became complicated when she tried to give birth standing, with great difficulty.

They tried lying her down on a bed to cut her perineum because she wouldn’t dilate enough to allow more than the head to be seen. Amidst an atmosphere of butchery, with the blunt instruments that wouldn’t cut and the lack of anesthesia, there was a blackout. The clinic had neither candles nor flashlights, not to mention a generator. Guido, the obstetrician, very calmly requested a light of any kind, even if it was from a cell phone.

Apart from Mary Luz and myself, inside the labor room there was the obstetrician, a male nurse and a woman nurse, and they didn’t have anything to light with. I took out my Blackberry and offered it to illuminate the mother. I tried to take pictures but there was too little light and the obstetrician couldn’t see to cut the perineum. I turned on the screen of my Canon 5D camera and I got as close as possible, offering just enough light for them to cut. I had been recruited. I spent the rest of the birth helping, following orders to aim the light here and there. Nothing worked for them to cut, not even the blunt scissors. The baby wouldn’t appear and the minutes seemed like hours. Mary Luz screamed and screamed. The blood meant nothing to me compared to the anxiety of wanting to see her baby born.

At last the baby appeared and the first screams flooded the room. We could only hear the baby crying, against a background of darkness and silence. Then, with one hand I illuminated a nurse as she cleaned the baby, and with the other hand I gave light to the obstetrician as he removed the placenta. I was still helping.

Finally, others entered with candles and it looked like the Corpus Christi procession.

It would have made a wonderful photo, but I was still assisting the nurse with the baby and was barely able to take a couple of pictures before the lights came back on. That was when I realized that I was trembling and had my robe covered with blood. I remained next to the mother, consoling her as she cried while they stitched her up.

The blood was not an issue for me. I’ve seen a lot of blood related to death in my work, but this was a story full of life that reached deep into my soul.

The next day, after photographing a few more births, I went to the Cuzco Cathedral, an imposing ancient church, and went inside to find thousands of saints still illuminated from the previous night’s Corpus Christi celebration. I kneeled on a pew and when an un-tuned organ began to play along with a Quechua chorus, I covered my face and cried an ocean of tears.

I followed the mothers during the next few days and the story ended in their homes. These people gave me more than what I gave them. I had only planned to take pictures, but they invited me into their houses, gave me food and beverage, and had me hold their babies. I ended up the last afternoon sitting on the bedside of Viviana, conversing with her family and feeling as if I was in my own home.

It’s for stories like these that I became a photographer.

When I heard that a ferry with 865 passengers onboard had sunk in the waters off Sibuyen Island in the central Philippines during Typhoon Fengshen, I set about trying to get there. My best bet was to hitch a ride on a Philippine Airforce helicopter.

So at 05:30 I was at a Manila airforce base, hoping to accompany the first flight of the search and rescue operation. All I had were the clothes on my back, a laptop, a satellite phone and one camera body.

 

My other camera body had been also been casualty of Typhoon Fengshen when it hit Manila but I was concerned that they would bump me off the flight if I carried too much.

At 07:00, I was still on the ground but with no sign of the opposition I worried that maybe they had hired their own aircraft and were already ahead of me. However, shortly afterwards we were on our way to Sibuyan Island.

After an hour and a half of flying, we caughtour first sight of the capsized ferry, the MV Princess of the Stars. I immediately began shooting pictures, but when I had done I was struck by the realisation  that the ship was still full of the bodies of the victims.

We landed in a nearby town called San Fernando and before I began filing my pictures over the satphone I watched as the air force helicopter, the only form of transportation to the remote island, took off again. It was then that I realized I was the first agency photographer there.

A local guy told me that there had been four survivors and that they were staying at the municipal hall nearby. Their faces were covered in cuts and bruises - one described to me how he had jumped from the ferry and swum ashore, and how he had had to leave others behind for fear he too would drown. 

I was offered overnight accommodation in a home which still had electricity and running water.

Next day I hired a small boat to get closer to the stricken  ferry, saying silent prayers as the boatmen steered through enormous waves.  As we approached, Coast Guard rescue divers had just recovered two bodies. They were bloated - almost unrecognisable.

Back on the shore, relatives and spectators were beginning to gather. Some days later a priest said mass for the victims, from a tugboat and relatives of the victims remebered their loved-ones by throwing flowers into the ocean. It was impossible not to be moved by their anguish. 

On my fifth day, I returned to site and was surprised to find it empty. The coast guard commander called an emergency briefing and announced that the recovery of the bodies had been halted because there were toxic pesticides on board the sunken ship, which threatened the well-being of the divers. As soon as that news hit Manila I got a call from the bureau, instructing me to stay off the water.

I left later that day with the ferry still in its capsized position and hundreds of unrecovered bodies still floating beneath it.

It is deperately sad that yet another disaster in the Philippines should have claimed so many lives and I really struggle to imagine what the victims’ relatives must be going through.
 

Photographer Todd Korol provides an insight into the life of Chuckwagon drivers at the Calgary Stampede, an invite only rodeo that attracts some of the world’s best riders.

With the Olympics now only a month away the search for scene-setting images to tempt the visual palate has begun in earnest. From the Beijing file Henry Lee gives us this to kick start the week - Wei Shengchu, 58, a supporter of traditional Chinese medicine, poses for photos in front of Beijing Railway Station with his head covered with acupuncture needles depicting 205 national flags and an Olympic torch, 7, 2008. Local media reported that Wei wanted to express his good wishes for the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games as well as to promote traditional Chinese medicine. 

 

And it is all his own work, all 205 and something more substantial representing the Olympic flame, painstakingly inserted into his head to the obvious entertainment of passersby. 

 

Even in this low resolution the Stars and Stripes, the Swiss, French, Canadian, Brazilian and a host of other national flags, are fairly easily spotted but not the Union Jack. 

Maybe he just forgot it, or perhaps it occupies a place in the shade where the sun has finally set on the British Empire.