Fujifilm has just announced the winner of their 2008 Student Awards.

We heartily congratulate mature student David Wala, from Newcastle College, on his win and certainly wish him well with his future career.

Let’s hope he makes the most of the publicity surrounding this competition, because his prize was quite frankly, crap.

The organizers seemed to think that the honour of winning was prize enough. The following is a quote from Fujifilm’s press release:

“This year’s Awards were run in conjunction with Penguin Books and the brief was to provide a cover for the re-issued version of Ralph Ellison’s 1952 masterpiece, Invisible Man. David’s winning image will now grace the cover when the book is released as part of Penguin’s Modern Classics series. In addition to this amazing prize, David has been named as Fujifilm Student Photographer of the Year 2008. He also collects £200 of Fujifilm Professional film, a library of 100 Penguin Classics titles and a copy of the book, ‘Seven Hundred Penguins’.”

Now, let’s put this into perspective. A professional photographer would expect to receive up to £ 1410 in Royalties for having a photograph featured on the cover of a book such as this. This is the figure generated by picture agency Alamy’s cost calculator for 10 year world wide rights on hardback and paperback sales of up to 500,000 copies. The amount would potentially be more if the image was commissioned and shot to a brief, as is effectively the case here.

What did David receive? £200 worth of film. That’s retail value. The ex factory cost to Fujifilm would be less than half that amount. Plus 101 books he may or may not have the inclination to read!

Not a bad deal for Penguin who would also have had to pay thousands in advertising costs for the same amount of publicity.

Not a bad deal for Fujifilm either. Nearly 1,000 entries were submitted to the competition each taken on Fujifilm Professional film. So that’s at least a thousand rolls of film sold to the students compared to the 300 they gave away to the runners-up.

But it gets worse…

And this is were the exploitation of student’s creativity is really going on. Part of the competition’s terms and conditions state:

“Copyright remains the property of the photographer at all times but each entrant grants Fujifilm UK Ltd a non-exclusive, sub-licensable perpetual, royalty-free, world-wide licence to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, translate, publish, distribute and display any entry submitted as part of this competition in any format now known or later developed. Each entrant acknowledges that the Promoter may sub-license the rights in an entry to Penguin Books Ltd for use as part of a book cover and in any related advertising or publicity materials. If you do not want to grant these rights, please do not enter this competition.“

The sections in red, by the way, were marked by me to highlight the implications of accepting these terms. I’ll bet the majority of these students entered this competition without even reading the fine print.

What this means in real terms is that Penguin now have a library of 1,000 original creative images that they can plunder free of charge for the covers of any future titles they might publish. And believe me, there is some good work in there, as can be seen from the very small selection below:

Fujifilm have announced the continuation of their tie-in with Penguin Books, who have selected ‘Silent Spring’ by Rachel Carson for next year’s competition and will invite students to provide them with yet another royalty-free pot of golden images.

The 2009 Fujifilm Student Awards is due to be launched in September. I would strongly urge students not to take part unless this clause is dropped from the rules.

If you feel strongly enough about this blatant exploitation of our young talent, let the promoters know via their website.

Yes, my lovely wife sure knows how to make an aging would-be (some would say “has-been”) rock star happy.

Seriously. I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday treat (at least not one I could write about here ).

My lady and I drove to the city that I’ve fallen in love with all over again, through Hunt’s Cross, which held so many fond childhood memories, past the John Lennon Airport with it’s huge sign aptly subtitled “above us only sky” and on to Speak. To be specific - Speak Hall - set in its beautifully manicured gardens on the banks of the Mersey.

But today we hadn’t come to partake of this magnificent Tudor mansion’s historical charms. We were a mere stone’s throw from the place that was the birth of the Mersey Sound and we were here to take a magical mystery tour to Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields and to the childhood homes of two of the twentieth century’s most prolific songwriters, name of John and Paul.

We needn’t have arrived early - but I’m glad we did. The tours were running late due to technical problems, so we had time for a nosh in Speak Hall’s restaurant. Nothing posh, but bloody good - and precisely what you’d have been eating in Liverpool during olden times.

The main course choices were Scouse Pie and Pan Haggerty. Being veggies we chose the latter and it was the nicest cheese, onion and potato pie I’ve tasted. The Wet Nelly was a new one to me, a citrus sweet northern version of one of the traditional English bread-based puddings. Hmm delicious. And all washed down with a bottle of Curiosity Cola. Give the National Trust their due… when they take you back in time, they do it in style.

Fully sated we boarded the mini bus to John Lennon’s former home, Mendips, on Menlove Avenue, where an extremely knowledgeable custodian gave us a full and frank potted history of when John met Paul, and how they used to practise their faltering early compositions in the tiny front room. The house had been restored to its former glory after being donated to the trust by Yoko Ono in 2003. When it first opened to the public, Paul McCartney had apparently told the custodian they used to practice singing in the front inner porch because of the fantastic acoustics. We each of us today took the opportunity to follow suit.

Did I mention Sir Paul? Next stop was the McCartney’s childhood home, 20 Forthlin Road, a couple of miles away in a less salubrious area of Allerton. And having joked en-route about expecting Sir Paul to have a nice cup of tea ready for us, I alighted from the mini bus to be greeted by… Paul McCartney!

Okay, after rubbing my eyes and taking a long hard look, I realised it wasn’t actually Sir Paul himself - but I tell you, had John Halliday not been gainfully employed as custodian of 20 Forthlin Road, he could make a very good living as a Beatle look-alike. No only that, he had the same mannerisms and even sounded like his multi-millionaire alter ego.

The former factory worker informed me he still couldn’t believe his luck being paid to live the house of his childhood hero and spend his days talking Beatle talk.

The framed photographs taken by Paul’s younger brother Mike McCartney, vouched for the authenticity of the trust’s restoration program.

Jayne even got to sit upon the former Beatle’s throne, having missed the sign for the new visitor’s toilet on the next outhouse along. When she emerged, to the surprise of one elderly lady queueing for the real toilet, Jayne told her she hoped she hadn’t flushed away any historical …erm …deposits, the poor lady couldn’t stop laughing at the thought and almost wet herself on the spot! She was still giggling as we all got back on the mini bus for the return trip.

It was a lovely day. It brought back fond memories of the time I was an Executioner, tinged with a little regret that I never actually met the Beatles when I played the Cavern, the Iron Door and other landmark venues back in the sixties. Although I didn’t appreciate the significance at the time, I am so glad I lived through that area. Jayne, bless her, missed it of course. She was knocking out a beat with a rattle on the side of her pram in Hyton whilst I was a mile or two down the road rattling the Cavern’s foundations with my bass guitar.

Happy days!

The Beatles tours are run from Speak Hall Wednesday to Sunday and Bank Holidays from April to October,
at 10.00, 10.50, 14.30 and 15.20. Please note there is no direct access to these properties by car or foot. You can book tickets via www.nationaltrust.org.uk/beatles or telephone 0151 427 7231.
Prices: Adult £15.00, Child £3.00, NT Member Adult £7.00

It really is a great day out!

When Rob Wilding isn’t renovating Valkswagen campers vans, he’s wearing them! Of all the guys in the 2008 Cheeky Chappies Calendar, everyone reckons Rob’s smile is the cheekiest of them all!

After all that rain yesterday, you’d have expected the rock festival to have been a complete washout.

However, there was no chance of last night’s event ever degenerating into a communal mud bath, because this was the first outdoor festival to be held indoors!

The summer of love has come to Liverpool’s Royal Court Theatre in the form of Jim Cartwright’s play Eight Miles High. The whole theatre was transformed into a farmer’s field. All of the theatre staff - and many of the audience too - were dressed in Caftans and had flowers in their hair. The set was magnificent, with the grassy stage extending right into the auditorium so that those occupying the front rows were actually sitting on the grass, picnic style, as the whole audience effectively became part of the show as festival-goers.

This is a play about the music, the hippies, the free love and flower power of the sixties.

My favourite of the whole evening was the Beatles number “A Day in the Life”. I never did get to know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall - but at least now I know how many actors it takes to fill the Royal Court.

This extremely talented cast performed a whole raft of iconic numbers from the days of Sargent Pepper, with a good sprinkling of Hendrix, Dylan and the like, thrown in for good measure!

They gelled like a rock band who had been performing together forever. They produced a sound every bit as good as any band I have seen playing live - in fact better than many! Remarkable when you consider they are a bunch of actors brought together a few short weeks ago to rehearse for this play.

They were all great. Paul Broughton (remember Eddie Banks in Brookside) portrayed a very convincing Hell’s Angel. For me though, the star of the show was Royal Court regular Andrew Schofield (pictured) who played the archetype hippy. Yeh! Far-out maaan!

Last night was the first performance of the play’s month-long run. It is a unique experience not to be missed. Do make sure you get to see this show before it ends on August 16th. It is fan-bloody-tastic!

Update:  See the last nigh review in “comments” (below)

I’m not too sure that my lovely wife Jayne would approve but I must admit that under normal circumstances I would quite happily fantasise over the prospect of sharing a sauna with her and Kylie.

Last night was no kinky threesome however. There were at least 18,998 other people crammed in there with us and the “sauna” in question was the much overrated Manchester Evening News Arena.

Sadly, the Kylie X 2008 concert was completely ruined by the venue’s oppressive heat and diabolical sound quality.

Don’t get me wrong, what her lungs produced was pure Kylie - and what they were wrapped in was, of course, as delightful as ever. But oh dear… her much heralded new band sounded like a recently-formed group of teenage wannabes bent on blowing out the windows at their local village hall!

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not averse to loud music per se, but what they delivered last night was a distorted mess that completely drowned out the voice of our diminutive, delectable iconic Aussie heartthrob.

Kylie darling: please sack your sound engineer. We really had no way of telling good your band was through all the distortion

And my message to the MEN Arena: (definitely NOT a darling of mine): Sort out your acoustics …and your air-conditioning …and your seating …and your car parking and…

Better still, knock the whole place down and build a proper arena geared more to customer experience than money-grabbing jam-packing.  And as far as the over-steep upper tiers are concerned, the only customers who might actually enjoy the experience of scaling these would be seasoned rock climbers!

The MEN should take a lead from Liverpool’s excellent new Echo Arena and Glasgow’s equally brilliant SECC.

Biggest doesn’t necessarily mean Best!

EDIT: check out the comments…

Everybody seems to be sixty these days!

Hah! ten years ago, I recall saying the same thing about people being fifty. That’s the way it goes, I suppose. You buy a Volkswagen and everybody seems to be driving one!

Anyway, my mate Patrick earned his bus pass and B&Q discount card this weekend. He’d had fifty guests at his fiftieth and was going to attempt to gather sixty for this do, then seventy in ten years time, and so on. Until, that is, I reminded him of the principles of the inverse square law!

All in all, we had a great day at the Faleur’s. Great company. Lovely food. and the weather even gave us a break just long enough to enjoy the magnificent buffet lunch in the garden.

Photoshop came to the rescue as far as his birthday card was concerned (out with last week’s sexagenarian and in with this week’s) and for his birthday present we went to Zimmers R Us. No-one, but no-one should ever expect a “normal” birthday present from the Birchalls!

Thanks for a great day Patrick & Liz. We’re off now to spend the evening with a forty year old who’s very close to my heart - name of Kylie

PS: Did I mention that Patrick is a pretty mean photographer? Check out his website

Oooooh! Spooooky!!

Bringing up the LL15 1BE location on Multi Map reveals that we are being watched!

The aerial image (courtesy of Microsoft Earth) shows the car park and roundabout top right, with Market Street running down to centre bottom.

Our studio is marked with the red arrow - and there, centre left, just next door to the Ambulance Station in School Lane, is a chisel-featured bloke keeping a beady eye on us!

My mate Mike is sixty today! ~~ “HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIKE”!

As another poor photographer, he’ll understand that I couldn’t afford to buy him a card. In any case, they simply don’t do one that says: “Congratulations - you can now get an extra 10% at B&Q” !!

I knew I had a shot of him taken at my daughter’s wedding last year - so it was into Photoshop’s Extract filter to remove all evidence of the camera and tripod he was operating and of course, the background.

My own B&Q discount card (yes yes, I’m ancient too!) was scanned and added to the picture. Luckily, only a little bit of pixel pushing was required to make it look like he was actually gripping the card, and little drop-shadow under the hand for added realism.

Rather than drive to our nearest B&Q, a Google Image Search turned up a suitable new background.  Originally used to promote a new B&Q store, the shot was too sharp.   So I duplicated the layer and applied a decent amount of  Gaussian blur.  Then a layer mask was added and filled with a black to white gradient to blend the sharp image with the blurred version to realistically impart the shallow depth of focus you would expect in this type of scene.  Little touches like this all help to avoid the “cardboard cut-out” effect when replacing a background.

The “eye candy” picture is a publicity shot of American actress Molly Simm sitting in a rusty old wheelbarrow. Someone had made this into a mock B&Q advert, which has been kicking around the Internet for the past year or so.

A little added wording and “voila” - the card was complete. All in less than an hour.

Hmmm…. Come to think of it: That was an hour of “work” time, so all in all, it turned out to be quite an expensive Birthday card!

I hope the old fart appreciates it!

As a former press photographer I am quite used to seeing pictures designed to shock, to invoke thought, to stir up the emotions. Heck! I used to take them!

As a portrait photographer, however, I find myself judging pictures on their artistic merit, on their technical competence, and on whether or not they have “worked” as a portrait.  I ask myself: if I were the parent of a child in the portrait - would I be proud to hang it on the wall?

These two portraits were on the website of an American family portrait photographer. Now I should point out that prior to seeing these two images, I was pretty impressed with the standard of this person’s portrait photography. These, however, left me feeling very uncomfortable indeed. Maybe it’s a Feng Shui thing? I don’t know. I just know I don’t like them. Ironic really, when you consider that as a press photographer ANY picture that made you look twice, or that made you think about the subject, would have been adjudged a roaring success.

These shots give me the same feeling one gets when standing close to the edge of a very steep drop. Furthermore, do they give out the message to any other kids who might view them - especially if they were on the wall of a family friend - that it is okay to go and play down on the railway tracks?

So what do you reckon? Am I getting carried away? What do YOU think? Use the Comments link at the bottom of the page - That’s what it’s there for!

…has officially been awarded my “Best Blog Title” award 2008!

The Blog’s Dollocks is well worth a visit too, as it’s all about a not-too-bad football team!