Today I photographed Dr. Hans Blix, former chief weapons inspector in Iraq for the UN, and now Chairman of the Weapons Of Mass Destruction Commission. A very dapper looking gent, he spoke continuously for about 1 hour, no uhm’s and eh’s and ah’s, and barely without drawing breath. An articulate man who knows his job. Very impressive. For some reason I’ve always wanted to photograph him, I’m not sure why, perhaps because he seems like a man with a reputable character trying to do his bit. Or perhaps because I remember a calm, good portrait of Dr. Blix taken in New York, in the UN building, by great snapper Tony Suau, (also here for Tony’s pics.)

Dr. Blix told a funny story as he finished his press conference…a woman had emailed him asking if she could name her cat after him, to which Blix replied he didn’t mind as long as the cat didn’t mind. The woman then wrote back saying the cat was now known as “Hans Blix, a weapon of mice destruction”…..cue laughter and hilarity from assembled journalists.

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Alamy Rank has been introduced it seems, and is causing dispair amongst photographers who place their work in the Alamy stock photo archive. The new Alamy Rank is supposed to weed out good images, well keyworded, and good sellers, and move these to the top of any search results pile, and at the same time relegate to the back of the pile any ol’ holiday photos someone has submitted, or images which are too similar, or badly keyworded. But photographers being photographers are never happy, we asked for something like this, and now we get it and now we’re not happy with it. Personally I don’t have an opinion on it as yet, it seems too early as Alamy Rank only began (we think) about early October. But the photographer email forums have been buzzing this week with consternation and worry. Here’s what the EPUK had to say about it…

Also whilst looking about on Alamy this morning I found they have an a Greenhouse Gas Reduction Programme. Interesting to read and good to see. If only more companies thought, and more importantly, acted, along the same lines.