Write a personal blog on an earthquake where thousands have been killed. Spot the contradiction there... but here goes - how the earthquake in Sumatra affected me.

So usual drill (1) Get a call. (2) Pack my bags, too much, too little, unpack, repack - I know I'm missing something. (3) catch a flight - London, Doha, Kuala Lumpur, Padang. (4) Take pictures. (5) Transmit pictures. (6) Repeat (4) and (5).

Directly from the airport I go to the local earthquake-damaged hospital. I see a grandmother comforting the bravest nine-year-old girl suffering from two broken legs. She reminds me of another brave little girl, my eldest daughter, 10 years old. Heartbreaking.

From there, I head to a hotel where at least 100 are thought to have perished. The smell hits you straight away. You know when you are ill and you can't remember what its like to be well? The smell of death is similar to that. When you smell it you think you'll never smell anything nice again. It's distinctive and, of course, totally unpleasant.

Now how do you show death? Tough one. Although numbers are not yet confirmed hundreds if not thousands have lost their lives. A fundamental part of the story, no?

I do understand that people might not want to look at dead bodies as they munch their breakfast and read their paper or while they surf the net sipping on a semi-skimmed-decaf-mocha-cappuccino or whatever.
BUT our (my) job is to find ways of conveying the stark, tragic reality of what is happening here. The dead most obviously deserve the same respect the living do so, me, I go for details; hands, fingers, feet, hair, arms - elements that show the truth as subtly as possible. Things I find acceptable may not be to others. It turns out not all my editors agree with me on what is and what is not ok to show our global clients and readers. There is no right or wrong answer - just shades of gray in a world where nothing is black and white.

The evenings are spent crammed into a hotel room - last count eight sharing our space - very generously given to us by the owner who has moved himself and his family into the restaurant. There's the ever smiling Enny Nuraheni, Chief Photographer Indonesia, the unflappable Erik de Castro, Chief Photographer Philippines, the scarily young Nicky Loh from the Taiwan bureau, Dadang Tri from Jakarta and finally Crack Palinggi; who has not been seen for days as he sleeps rough covering the story through the eyes of remote villagers. Anyway, we have water, electricity, a semi-decent phone line and I always pack music. Coltrane and Davis waft through the air; I hope the other guys and girls like jazz.

A couple of days into the story, it's early morning and I'm hiking through the bush looking for a village which we hear has been completely destroyed by the quake. I'm hot but juiced and love the thrill of searching for the truth. Eight hours and maybe 15 miles later I've seen destruction on a biblical scale, I've stepped on something I can't mention and have fallen into mud bath up to my proverbials. Luckily my pathetic appearance cheers up the homeless locals who are happy to find a light hearted sight. Let's face it what's more amusing than a foreigner draped in cameras and looking like he's just done ten rounds with a wild boar fighting over a clump of mud?

Despite the mudslide destroying nearly all their village and maybe 300 of their neighbors losing their lives they all still take pity on me. I'm offered their precious water to clean up, I'm offered their scarce food, and a place to rest. Their generosity is simply heart warming.

The get-up, get-over-it and move-on way in which the people of Sumatra, who have lost so much, have dealt with this catastrophic earthquake will stay with me forever.

Reuters Sports Editor, Pictures, Greg Bos recalls covering the 1988 Lockerbie bombing in the following question and answer session.

What role were you in when the bombing happened?
I was working on the Reuters pictures desk at the time, but was also part of the rotation system we had - where photographers could go out and cover picture assignments.

How did you hear about it?
I was at home nursing a bad cold, when staff photographer colleague Nick Didlick called and asked if I could get up to Scotland asap. The company had arranged for a private plane to fly me and two text journalists from Stansted Airport to Carlisle on the Scottish border in the middle of the night. Meanwhile, Nick and fellow staffer Rob Taggert drove to Lockerbie through the night in the pool car with all the darkroom equipment. We arrived at Carlisle Airport at around 4:00 or 5:00am and I was told to stay put because a media helicopter was due to go up at dawn for aerial shots. I was the designated pool photographer on the first morning. However, it was a very foggy morning and I could not see any of the wreckage or the large crater. I remember the aerial pictures from the first morning were unusable. I was terribly disappointed after spending several hours in a freezing cold helicopter with blocked sinuses.

How long did you stay at the site?
I stayed at Lockerbie over the Christmas holiday period - about two weeks. Nick and Rob left before me, and I was later joined by staff photographer colleague Russell Boyce. We were housed in a hotel just off the main highway. They had planned to close for the holidays, but stayed open to accommodate Reuters staff and several other journalists covering the story. Everyday we would go up to the main crash site out of town and take pictures from a small church yard across the road. I recall it was very cold standing there for hours, snapping off a few frames at a time, or when something happened. The large crater was either off limits to media for awhile, or did not produce any new imagery. I was lucky - having the color camera in hand - when I captured the rescue workers carrying a body bag and walking past the wreckage of the cockpit fuselage. I believe at the time most of the other photographers were shooting black and white film. This image was published on many front newspaper pages in the UK and around the world.

What camera equipment were you using?
It was Nikon cameras and black and white film in those days - with some color film for big stories. It was quite a juggling act shooting color in one camera and black and white in another as there was always the risk you would miss something important that needed to be recorded in color. I even shot half a roll of Ektachrome transparency film - protectively - in case something happened to the color negative film we were using. I also had the misfortune of accidentally breaking a bathroom sink while I was tapping the air bubbles out of a stainless steel film development tank. The hotel owner was not happy about it, but Reuters paid for a new sink.

How did you transmit pictures?
We had two-wire connections to the land line telephone in one of the bedrooms - in which the bathroom was converted into a darkroom - and filed pictures using a drum transmitter. We printed pictures on 8x10 paper using a custom easel that had a white space for adding a caption. The captions were typed on sticky back paper using a portable typewriter. A black and white picture took about 8 minutes. A color transmission - of three separations (cyan, magenta and yellow) took about 7-8 minutes per separation - thus nearly half an hour to move a color project as it was called then. If the transmitted color picture landed on the picture desk in London with hits, often the whole process had to be repeated in order get the separation targets correctly aligned. It was a long cumbersome process that could keep a photographer up all night if the phone lines were bad. We also had to process a lot of film for clients such as the Washington Post and the New York Post. This was known as a 'special request' and helped to generate a bit of extra revenue.

What was your emotional reaction to the disaster?
At first I was kind of detached from the whole thing - just concentrating on getting the right pictures to illustrate the story. But after I photographed a distraught and confused mother leaving a memorial church service holding the hands of several children and being monstered by a pack of Fleet Street photographers - then going to the site of the giant crater where the remains of some of the residents were never found - it really hit home what a terrible tragedy this was. In 1992 I visited the memorial plaque at the small church outside the village to pay my respects. The memories of covering the Lockerbie disaster are still with me today.

A woman looks at the main headstone in the Lockerbie disaster memorial garden at Dryfesdale cemetery in Lockerbie, Scotland December 18, 2008.  REUTERS/David Moir

The Saatchi Gallery in London, known for its role in launching conceptual Britart in the 1990s, is collaborating with Google to exhibit the work of winners of an international online photography prize competition.

More than 3,500 student photographers from around the world submitted images to try and win a chance to show their work at Saatchi, a trip to London, 5,000 pounds and to illustrate personalised iGoogle Internet homepages.

Public online voting begins Friday on the work of 36 shortlisted photographers from which the six finalists will be chosen for the week long Saatchi exhibit opening on June 24.

The overall winner will be selected from among the six by a panel of art critics and artists.

Shortlisted works include narrow, panoramic images of animals, toys, abstract designs and nature. Click on the links below to see slideshows:

Alexander Baych, EM Lyon, France

David and Thomas Favrod and Rousset, ECAL, Switzerland

Juan Camilo Caicedo Forero, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Columbia

Mikhail Simin, University of South Carolina

Will Ormerod, University of Central Lancashire

Sergei Varzin, State Marine Technical University of St. Petersburg, Russia

Ivelin Metodiev, University Of Portsmouth

Fleur Audet, University of New South Wales, Australia

Pigeons create controversy among city dwellers whether they are being pilloried as “rats with wings” or celebrated as endlessly feedable feathered friends.

Through photographer Simon de Glanville’s pictures, viewers come eye-to-eye with the creatures.

Over the past 10 years, De Glanville has taken pictures of pigeons, squirrels and dogs for a project entitled “London Wildlife”. His favourite locations for photographing urban wildlife include London’s Peckham, Brixton and Chinatown neighbourhoods.

What is your opinion of pigeons? Do these pictures change your perspective on pigeons?

Access for foreign journalists to Asia's longest running civil war between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and government troops, is very tightly controlled by the Sri Lankan government. Getting near the front line area known as the 'No Fire Zone' is only possible with an officially sanctioned trip organized by the Ministry of Defence. Last Friday, April 24, I went on one.

The trip started at 3.30am, when I arrived at the military air base in Colombo. We went through 3 security checks, before boarding our plane at 6.30am. We flew north for about 30 minutes to a small airstrip at a place called Mankulam. From here, we boarded two Mi-8 helicopters. To avoid any ground fire, the choppers fly at maximum speed just above the height of the tallest trees, and when I say just, I mean scraping the leaves. This fast and furious ride lasted just 30 minutes to the town of Kilinochchi.

We had a quick briefing, and then we set off in a convoy of armored personnel carriers towards the front. The carrier that I got into was a very old, clunky thing of which there was not much evidence of suspension. The roads in the area had suffered 25 years of a civil war, and were in seriously bad condition. Myself and and a TV cameraman tried our best to grab pictures as we sped along at around 50 miles/h but we were being thrown around so much, even for me to get the camera up to my face and see through it, was near impossible. We held on the best we could, and I managed to get a few 'usable' frames of a scorched and destroyed landscape. Every single dwelling was either destroyed or uninhabitable. It reminded me of East Timor in 1999. Burnt out vehicles lined the road. What was most noticeable was the absence of people. There were simply no civilians anywhere.

After what seemed like hours, but was actually only one, we arrived at the destroyed town of Puttumatalan. Here we got into jeeps. The troops that were escorting us got noticeably nervous. They held their guns at the ready now, looking more alert and more intently into the coconut groves as we passed. We must be close now, I thought.

After about 20 minutes driving down a dirt road, we turned a bend. Suddenly, there were thousands of exhausted and weary looking civilians. They were being given small amounts of food and drink by the soldiers, but only enough to last them a day or so. This was when our escorts really started to hurry us. It seemed they didn’t want us to talk or view these civilians for too long, and after just 5 minutes, we were told to get back in the jeeps. Frantic calls were made on radios, and we were told we were now headed to the front.

In just under 10 minutes, we arrived at the place where just days earlier the Sri Lankan government soldiers had pushed their way through the LTTE defenses, leading to a mass exodus of civilians. Smoke billowed less than a mile away where, we were told, troops were continuing to fight. Being so close, our escort now numbered almost 100 heavily armed soldiers. We were severely exposed standing on a road that cut a path through the lagoon, but this was where we were allowed to stay the longest of any of the other stops.

For a full 30 minutes, we photographed and filmed what we saw around us. Clothes and rubbish lay scattered across the dry plain. While walking amongst all this, I found a packet of film negatives that showed mourners at a funeral. Sadly, it was rather an appropriate subject matter in such a place where so many had most likely died.

After driving back to the battalion headquarters, we were once again in an armored personal carrier, driving back to the helicopter landing area, with our driver narrowly missing 3 cows and even skidding off the road on one occasion. Once we boarded the helicopter, everything went so fast, and before we knew it, we were on our plane and heading back to Colombo. Stepping onto the runway, it dawned on me what I had just done. In a single day, I had been to the front line of a war in an area that is extremely difficult to reach and come back to civilization. I was exhausted and dripping with sweat, but what about the people trapped in the war zone? They didn’t get to fly back to the comforts of a city. They continued to endure the horrors of war in dire conditions and horrendous temperatures, with minimal food, water, medical aid or even shelter. What about those who got out, but had a long journey to a refugee camp ahead of them, with no clear idea when they can go back home. It reminded me of a book I finished reading a few months ago called ‘Dispatches’ by Michael Herr about his experiences as a correspondent during the Vietnam war, and how he found it strange flying in and out of war zones. I could see what he had meant a little more clearly now – just the craziness of it all.

So what do you do when the TV and radio news are all telling you not to travel, and then you receive a group SMS from your company saying stay at home?

Well it's the worse snow storm to hit London in 18 years and all you want to do is get out there and shoot it.

I get to my car and as I am wiping the snow off it I look up at the window and see my kids looking at more snow than they have seen in their lives. I watch their little faces light up as it dawns on them that all this snow means only one thing -- NO SCHOOL. Now let's face it, that's just about as good as it gets.

As I head into the office I start to call the guys. I know Darren Staples has a long journey to Cambridge and want to make sure he's on his way. I call him at 6:30 a.m. and he's already there, left his house before 4 a.m. to make sure he beat the weather. The same thing happens as I call the London team, they are dressed to impress in all-weather gear and in situ and already taking pictures.

So everyone's juiced and riding the wave.

Not sure if it's because I spent four years living and working in Rome but as I drive into town all I can think of is this beautiful golden statue of Saint Paul covered in snow. Luckily for me everyone else had better ideas. The pick of the crop is London staffer Toby Melville's beautiful view showing Big Ben through snow covered trees.

Now I know its only snow but the Brits, pretty much like every nation I know, are obsessed with the weather. We like to see the funny side as we watch society crumble -- no buses, no trains, no schools, no ambulances, no shops open, restaurants closing early, West End shows cancelled, etc..

Twelve hours later I'm heading home and I get a call from the office saying The Times is going to use Toby's picture on the front page and that newspaper websites are all full of our material.

Looking at the newspapers on Tuesday morning it's great to see them use our pictures to show their readers around the world what London looks like under a picturesque snow blanket.

A weekly selection of some of the best pictures taken by our photographers in Britain, selected by our visuals editors.

Manchester City’s Robinho gestures during a match against Newcastle United in Manchester January 28, 2009. The Premier League star, Britain’s most expensive footballer, denied any wrongdoing or criminality after his arrest over allegations of serious sexual assault.  REUTERS/Nigel Roddis

An installation entitled “Tehran Prostitutes” by Shirin Fakhim is seen at The Saatchi Gallery in west London January 28, 2009. The installation forms part of a forthcoming exhibition entitled New Art From The Middle East. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Prime Minister Gordon Brown watches apprentices during his visit to a construction skills academy in Glasgow, January 23, 2009. REUTERS/David Moir

A man stands with a brightly coloured umbrella in Portsmouth, January 28, 2009. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

Alex Kapranos (C), Paul Thomson (L) and Bob Hardy of rock band Franz Ferdinand perform for fans at a record store, to promote their new album, in London January 26, 2009. REUTERS/Andrew Winning

Swimmers prepare to participate in the opening ceremony of the UK Cold Water Swimming Championships at Tooting Bec Lido in London January 24, 2009. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty

A game of poker is reflected in the sunglasses of player Chris Elliot at the World Series of Poker Europe competition at the Empire Casino in London October 1, 2008. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

A selection of the week’s best images from Britain.  Click here if you would like to see it as a slideshow.

U.S. actor Mickey Rourke arrives for the UK premiere of his film “The Wrestler” at Leicester Square in London on January 5, 2009. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

Police examine the car of Manchester United’s Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo after it crashed in a tunnel near Manchester Airport on January 8, 2009. Ronaldo was not injured after crashing his Ferrari into a barrier in a tunnel beneath the runways. REUTERS/Phil Noble

People stand outside a shop displaying a ’sale’ sign on Oxford Street in London on January 1, 2009. REUTERS/Kieran Doherty

A police officer walks across a sea of shoes after demonstrators threw shoes near Downing Street during a protest against the Israeli attacks on Gaza at Trafalgar Square in London on January 3, 2009. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

A duck walks across a frozen lake in the Sence Valley on January 6, 2009. REUTERS/Darren Staples

Woolworths employees embrace as they wait for the last shoppers to leave the building on the final trading day of a store in Edinburgh on January 6, 2009. REUTERS/David Moir

Prince William delivers a speech in west London January 8, 2009. REUTERS/Toby Melville

Saturday: A worker changes a sign in the window of the Woolworths store in Ashby de la Zouch in central England on December 27, 2008. Woolworths collapsed into administration in November and its administrators said earlier in December that all its stores would close by Jan. 5, with the loss of 27,000 jobs, unless a last-minute buyer could be found. REUTERS/Darren Staples

Sunday: A pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a muddy boot during a protest near the Israeli Embassy in London on December 28, 2008, against the Israeli strikes on Gaza. REUTERS/Luke MacGregor

Monday: A busker warms his hands outside a shop offering price discounts in Loughborough, central England on December 29, 2008. As many as 600,000 people could lose their jobs in Britain next year, making 2009 the worst year for unemployment since 1991, personnel experts warned on Monday. REUTERS/Darren Staples

Tuesday: Aston Villa’s Ashley Young (L) crosses the ball which led to a Hull City own goal during their Premier League soccer match in Hull on December 30, 2008. REUTERS/Nigel Roddis . (No online/Internet usage of this picture without a license from the Football Data Co Ltd. For licence enquiries please ring 0 207 864 9000.)

Wednesday: A woman walks through Victoria Park during heavy fog in Leicester in central England on December 31, 2008. REUTERS/Darren Staples

Thursday: Fireworks explode behind Big Ben on the Houses of Parliament in London during a pyrotechnic show to celebrate the New Year on January 1, 2009.  REUTERS/Stephen Hird

Friday: People view properties advertised for sale in the window of an estate agent in west London January 2, 2009. House prices in Britain fell by a bigger-than expected 2.2 percent in December for an annual drop of 16.2 percent, the country’s biggest mortgage lender Halifax said on Friday. REUTERS/Stephen Hird

Wednesday: A homeless man sits outside the entrance to Green Park Tube Station in central London on Christmas Eve, while a man and a woman kiss goodbye after a shopping trip. There was yet more evidence this week that the world’s economies are limping into the new year,  with Britain contracting more sharply than first thought and further signs that the U.S. economy is in a sharp decline. REUTERS/Andrew Parson

Tuesday: A homeless man has his hair cut at the charity Crisis UK temporary day centre for the homeless at a school in London. Crisis UK opens its doors to the homeless over the festive period from 23 until 30 December. A survey for Crisis suggests nearly one in 10 people are struggling to keep up with rent or mortgage payments, and the charity fears there will be a surge in homelessness in 2009. REUTERS/Luke McGregor

Monday: A framed portrait of Oscar Wilde is seen with a lot label as it sits amongst other photographs at London’s Cafe Royal. Lots from the historic establishment that is due to be redeveloped into a luxury hotel will be auctioned on January 20, 2009. REUTERS/Andrew Winning

Sunday: Mourners stand together during the Lockerbie air disaster twentieth anniversary service in the memorial garden at Dryfesdale cemetery.  Sunday marked the twentieth anniversary of the bombing over Lockerbie of a Pan Am jumbo jet flying from London to New York that killed 270 people. REUTERS/David Moir

Saturday: Shoppers walk past reduced price Santa hats on the last weekend before Christmas in Oxford Street, central London. REUTERS/Andrew Parsons

Friday: Cast members from The Royal Opera perform during a rehearsal of ‘Turandot’ at The Royal Opera House in central London. Puccini’s classic piece runs over the festive period and throughout January at the Covent Garden venue.  REUTERS/Toby Melville

Thursday: A woman walks past a shop in central London displaying a sign that says “It is your patriotic duty” to shop. Data shows that online shoppers are behind an unexpected rise in retail sales in November. But record high government borrowing and shrinking mortgage lending underline the scale of the country’s economic downturn. REUTERS/ Eddie Keogh