The majority of national newspaper picture desks are using sophisticated asset management systems by Picdar that include automatic receipt of images by e-mail, web-based components and disaster recovery contingencies.

“On an average day,national newspaperpicture desks can be processing anything from 5,000 to 10,000 images,” says Clive Howes, a veteran photographer and picture editor who now works for Picdar. “If a major story breaks this number can double or treble. I know one national newspaper handled over 30,000 images in one day following the September 11 attacks in 2001.”

By comparison, the tools available to the Ministry of Defence news operations feeding images to the media are relatively basic – consisting primarily of ISDN distribution, posting images to the MOD website and the most sophisticated being an Army bulletin board.

“We’ve been looking to improve picture management for this operation, because it’s so important and we’re trying to get images out of a difficult place and in difficult circumstances,” MOD News Internet Officer David Stevens told PrintMedia Management. “The Royal Navy has the best facilities for getting images back because the major vessels have all the satellite and telephone facilities needed. The Aircraft carriers have two cameramen capturing photography and video.”

Livewire transmission via satellite is the preferred channel, or otherwise ISDN or even mobile or phone modem for stills. The Royal Airforce is in a similar situation in so much that they have well equipped bases.

The Army face the greatest challenge. They have two mobile news teams (MNTs) in the Gulf, one with each of the forward battle-groups. “They have two pairs of different Inmarsat systems with them linked to Mac G4 notebooks,” The Army’s Dennis Barnes told us. “And if you’re moving forward at 40 with the tanks you can’t just ask them to stop for half an hour to file video or stills. “Plus the teams have their own life support and weapon systems.

The difficulty is that they still have to be a soldier as well as carrying out the task of conveying what’s happening on the front line. We’re quite a close team as such. It’s a very small part of the Army and we know each other and each other’s families quite closely. We try to keep them happy and talk to the families. It’s really just a question of being professional,” says Barns.

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The Army picture-desk editor is Terry Champion. He told PrintMedia Management that he liaises with the MNTs in the field to coordinate specific picture requests as well as distributing images by ISDN to specific picture agencies, national and regional press. “We also have an internal bulletin board that can be accessed by the Press Association, Reuters and Getty Pictures for the US market. We still ISDN key images to make sure they’ve got them,” explains Champion. “Our teams are often the first camera teams into a situation.

We’re also aware that the regional press are not as well supported and we’ll often get images of servicemen and women back to their local newspaper. Plus we respond to requests for specific images if circumstances in the field allow.”

The limited capacity and resources of the MOD media teams explain why photographers have had to supply their own transmission facilities with control in the field by press officers influencing what can be sent back and when. It’s part of the terms of acceptance that photographers and editors sign up to. “Embargoes during sensitive operations mean we’re the only people with pictures at critical moments prior to units reaching their objectives,” admits Champion. This can be a point of frustration for press photographers who are not used to working under such restrictions. There is a small regional press corps that is coordinated by the Newspaper Society. “Regional newspapers can be an important support structure for the families and friends of troops who have been sent overseas, providing specific information about local units, as well as the broader national perspective,” said an MOD spokesman.

Several military units requested that their local newspaper should be positioned with them both because of their trust in the local newspaper, and the coverage that it would provide to their family and friends at home. “I’ve not been in a war situation before,” Western Daily Press photographer Jon Mills told PrintMedia Management via satellite phone from the Gulf where he is deployed with 42 Commando of the Royal Marines. “Following a brief embedding period at Camp Coyote in Kuwait we moved out with the troops. I’m equipped with a standard Nikon D1H digital camera, 2Gb flash card, a G4 Mac lap-top and satellite phone. “The transmission speed is relatively slow into a Telefinder user client bulletin board back in the UK at just 9.6 kbps, but file sizes are down to around 100Kb per picture. I’m running Photostation and Photoshop software on the laptop, keeping images down to 15cm along the longest dimension at 200 dpi compressed to a level 5 JPEG. We’re getting the pictures through successfully and into the paper so the families back home know what’s happening,” Mills reported.