Earlier today I was followed on Twitter by someone calling themselves @ArchLeaks. I didn’t pay much attention to it until someone else retweeted them with the following Tweet.
Judging by their Twitter feed they appear to have been sending this message to anyone who seems to be in the Architecture industry in the UK. Bizarrely a large number of people seem to be retweeting it and trying to get more traffic to his or her site. I was going to mark as spam and block but thought I’d dig a little deeper.
Now the aim of the site seems to be to get people to write negative comments about their experiences of working at various high profile Architects offices. The name, and approach, seems to suggest a kind of Wikileaks type of site naming and shaming of offices. Their own strap line seems to be ‘We young Architects need this information pool here‘ as well as ‘Reveals the hidden beneath the studios‘.
I have to say I was completely aghast at seeing this. There’s so much wrong with it I don’t know where to start. There’s so many reasons someone might have a bad experience at an office – such as a clash of personalities, working under the wrong director or partner who has since moved on, the sheer pressure of the environment, wrong choice of office, the person is a bit up themselves and didn’t take direction or weren’t very good at their job etc etc. Of more concern are the chances for anonymous abuse as there is nothing to verify if anyone had actually worked there! Now if there was some journalistic integrity or a big story to break then maybe I would be interested but I don’t think this is what is in mind. Gossip and hearsay are not sound reasons to trash a firms reputation online.
Having said that I’ve had experiences in some offices that weren’t amazing, but I moved on and put it down to experience. They’re stories for the pub with close friends, not for broadcasting on the internet. These experiences are also probably entirely un-representative of those offices and I would say that others have really enjoyed working where I hadn’t. At the same time I do think that some students are cut a rough deal sometimes but this perpetuates the idea that Architecture is miserable and Architects are hard done by. It’s also playing up to every tiny bit of negativity in the industry. Instead of say engaging with the RIBA policy on pay and conditions or speaking to the ARB about setting minimum standards we have an anonymous source of info that amounts to online bitching.
I’d imagine that a few cease and desist letters will be on their way if this site ever gains any real momentum. Although where they address them to I don’t know as the owner seems to have spoofed their WHOIS information to a professional footballer in Turkey. Interesting.
Updated:
As if by magic I was alerted to this article on the Guardian today. Wonderful timing David, wonderful and thank you.
I had to drive up to the office earlier to collect my bike and cycle kit for a ride tomorrow – first time off road for a while. Nothing annoys me more than a rider without lights.
I mean I know cyclists get a bad rep and I mostly stand up for those as an avid rider but we really do need to give drivers a chance – by being visible! Driving in the dark is hard enough with pedestrians, cars, changing light conditions, wet weather etc but riding without lights is just stupid. Makes it impossible to see someone riding without them. Like this picture (shot whilst stationary at traffic lights). Can you spot him? At first glance probably not.
I found this little video on Twitter earlier from a variety of sources. It’s something I’ve been meaning to blog about for a while since developing and now selling my photographic services, but this video seems to sum it all up quite nicely. It’s amazing that people don’t seem to value the skills that you develop as a Photographer. There’s a comment that gets banded about when someone says “Wow, that camera takes amazing photos”, which is odd as you’d never say to a chef “wow that oven bakes amazing cakes”. But the other thing that also seems to wind me up is that so many people have DSLR that people think that anyone can take a good photo and to some extent that might be true. However I seem to have gone off on a bit of a tangent. This video sums up so many things about a relationship with a client, fortunately mine don’t seem to have this attitude but I’ve seen this type of thing many a time.
Read MoreToday’s prick of a van driver. Didn’t even shout at him. Just got his number took a few photos and sent this to EDF. Will they respond? I doubt it. Will probably just get the usual corporate bullshit back as usual.
Hi,
I’d like to make a complaint about one of your van drivers please. The registration of the van is L008 KNX. Two photos of the van and the driver are also enclosed.
I was cycling past Euston Station this morning going North along Eversholt Street. I clearly indicated to pull out into the centre of the and safely pass a van which was parked on the left hand side of the road. Your van driver decided to accelerate rapidly past me far too closely almost knocking me off and then proceed to completely swing the van in front of me completely blocking my path. I was trying to maintain a safe position on the road. This is the kind of thing I expect from dodgy builders not a reputable company such as EDF.
I don’t know if any of you at EDF ever cycle on the road but actions like this don’t really help. It’s intimidating and completely unnecessary. It’s also dangerous. It didn’t get your driver to his destination any quicker as he quickly got caught in traffic again and I passed him where I took these photos. He was later speeding along Camden High Street, which is a 20mph zone, to rush through an amber light.
I would like to think that EDF have a policy in place to educate their drivers about courtesy to other road users, particularly cyclists. It would also be good to remind your drivers, this one in particular, that vans consist of a couple of tons of metal which poses a real danger to cyclists who aren’t wrapped in such a protective shell. I would like to know how you intend to resolve this and prevent this driver causing injury or even loss of life through his actions.
I also happen to be a customer of EDF at present although I may reconsider that depending on your response.
Fingers crossed. The auto response from EDF doesn’t look too promising though.
Thank you for your email. Should your mail require a response, we will endeavour to provide this and update your account within 10 working days.
This story is good though.
Read MoreWhilst Peckham Rye is being dug up I found what I thought to be a little detour to avoid the road works and take me onto a quieter road. Unfortunately not. It seems to have placed me on the most dangerous roundabout I’ve ever had the misfortune to use. If you click on the map below it’ll take you to the street view version of it. You can clearly see the drivers going East not giving way correctly on the roundabout (the transit and grey 4×4). I take the route of the red car and have almost been hit a couple of times. When asking the driver if they saw me I’ve had some pretty shocking responses, one proceeded to ram me with her car and drive up on the kerb, one apologised for almost killing me and the other had their passenger get out and try and beat me up. I’d report them to the police but I’ve got little hope of them doing anything about it really. They’re just not interested in cycling related issues. They are interested in giving tickets out at red lights and raising revenue though.
Read MoreI occasionally get emails from people wanting to use images I’ve posted to my Fickr account. I set all of my images with a Creative Commons license so that anyone can use them on blog, publications etc so long as they’re not for profit. I don’t see any problem with that as they’re mostly just for fun. Some of these emails are asking to use the images in books which publishers are putting together. I’ve donated a few mountainbike shots so far and usually they agree to send you a free copy of the book – I’ve never received any copies of these free books however.
The latest email came a few months ago though and I’m starting to think some of these people are out to take the piss really. The image in question is below – a picture of a tap which looks a bit like a face. The initial email asked to use the images, so I said “sure no problem”.
However with these muppets, the problem is that they haven’t actually chosen your image yet, they want you submit your image for consideration. Heres the email from the good people at Lark Books
Thank you for writing back—we’re so pleased that you’re interested in Focus: Found Faces, which is scheduled for publication in March 2011. If you’d like to include your photograph/s for consideration in the project, I’ll need to receive the following by March 19th: 1. Your completed Entry Form via e-mail. Please resend in doc format; not as a pdf.
2. Your signed and dated Photo License Agreement via email. A scan with your original signature is preferred; if this isn’t possible, send a hardcopy to me in the mail at the address below and drop me a line so I know when to expect it.
3. Your photo/s. Please let me know if it’s available for download from Flickr. If it isn’t, you will need to place it on our FTP site, saved as a 300 dpi jpg. Ask me to send you instructions on uploading to our FTP site if it isn’t available for download.
So I’m GIVING you an image for FREE for you to make money out of and you want me to fill out all these forms on the off chance that I might get selected? Are you fucking shitting me? How about you choose the images you want to use and then make people fill out the forms and go through the hassle.
It really does take the piss. Needless to say I’m not quite as interested in licensing my images to people like this anymore no matter how crappy the image.
Edit: Gary just pointed me to two books on their site providing advice on running a successful photography business. How ironic!
Read MoreJust waited 45 mins to get a taxi and now I don’t have my keys. No locking up the office, no getting home. Best find somewhere good to lie down til the morning.
Read MoreHaving spent 5 years at Uni in Portsmouth I shouldn’t really expect too much of the admin or accounts department in such an institution but the sheer uselessness of Kingston University has exceeded all expectations. Not content with trying to charge me £600 for deferring the course when the big flood happened they’re now demanding £1000 for un-paid fees! As usual it’s impossible to find anyone who knows what the fuck is going on.
Thank god I never have to go through any of these institutions ever again!
Since I got the Nikon D70 around 18 months ago I’ve been using BibblePro for all my RAW processing needs. It took a while to get used to it and it certainly has it’s quirks to say the least. However I’ve stuck with it hoping that the new version 5 sorts it all out. The thing is that version 5 has been promised for as long as I’ve been using it and has all but turned into vapourware as far as I can tell. I’ve also got sick of seeing this message on my machine.
So, no more BibblePro for me as I’m going to give Adobe Lightroom a try. Hopefully it will be a little bit more stable.
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