You know, I’ve come across many things on flickr that strike me as odd… strange images, strange people and strange groups but what exactly could you possibly get from passing off another flickrite’s work as your own. I mean, the comments and kudos you receive are for someone else’s work, what kind of a sad, lonely individual needs attention so badly that he or she would stoop so low and actually get something out of it.

I cite this example, the link will take you to a discussion in a particular group about just such an activity and another one here and yet another one here.

What bothers me greatly about this is the tacit support of the group admin for these activities. I mean, why? Why condone such stupid, pointless, idiotic, immature behaviour?

I’m not too bothered about the rights discussion here as that has already been thrashed out many times with the consensus being”If you don’t want it ripped off, don’t post it”. I’m actually more interested in the thinking of the perpetrator, the reasons behind it, a more psychological analysis of the activity rather than just the morality of it.

If the ‘collector’ attributed the images as a fan collecting favourite images and then made it clear that it was not his or her work then that’s one thing, but the passing off is what gets me, I really don’t understand it and would love to know more about the individual who does it.

Doesn’t it strike you as odd behaviour?

I wondered when this would happen.

According to photoinsider.net, it has been leaked to certain sections of the media that Canon and Nikon are on the verge of announcing to the SEC that they are going to merge their DSLR camera and DSLR photographic lens divisions. The leaked report also stated that the move would create a more viable enterprise more able to compete with the ever increasing market share poaching behemoths like Sony, Pentax and Olympus.

The leaked report also caused some speculation about the name of the new merged operation with some industry specialists suggesting that it would be ‘Cankon’, which should be acceptable to the majority of loyal supporters of each brand, although some suggest that it should be ‘Nikon’ as it used the ‘Nik’ from Nikon and the ‘On’ from Canon. Obviously those who suggested that were board members of Nikon US.

The future of Digital SLR photography is safe now in the hands of the two greatest names in the field. Sony’s advance will be halted on the beaches. They shall not pass, there will be no surrender. Lirpa Loof - VP Marketing, photoinsider.net

Once the proposed merger is announced, the plan will doubtless have to go before regulatory authorities for approval. What this means for end users is less obvious, could it mean that the combined group drops different models from each range (that is inevitable) or more likely, use Canon to develop the bodies and Nikon to develop the glass. Who knows, watch this space.

Read the leaked report here.

The Awakening of Billy Bibbit, originally uploaded by Stephen Macken.

Part of Rail Theatre Company’s publicity shots commission.

Nurse Ratched: Aren’t you ashamed?
Billy: No, I’m not.
[Applause from friends]
Nurse Ratched: You know Billy, what worries me is how your mother is going to
take this.
Billy: Um, um, well, y-y-y-you d-d-d-don’t have to t-t-t-tell her, Miss Ratched.
Nurse Ratched: I don’t have to tell her? Your mother and I are old friends. You
know that.
Billy: P-p-p-please d-d-don’t tell my m-m-m-mother.

Probably the pivotal scene in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is the suicide of Billy Bibbit.

McMurphy’s prostitute friend, Candy, takes Billy into a room, with much encouragement from the other patients and McMurphy, to awaken the man hidden inside the boy.

Dominated by his mother and by Nurse Ratched, Billy is a victim of his own lack of assertiveness and is an allegory for the emasculation of the male by powerful women.

Billy comes to a tragic end when his rebellion against the female authority in his life falls apart when Nurse Ratched threatens to tell his mother. Billy, a thirty-one year old boy, kills himself in a horrific fashion rather than face down his mother.

This event triggers a violent response from McMurphy who blames Nurse Ratched’s lack of human compassion for Billy’s death, leading to his lobotomy.

Capture an image of ‘The Life of the Gael’ and win up to £2000.The competition is for either colour or monochrome photographs depicting any aspect of life in the Scottish Gaidhealtachd or Irish Gaeltacht encapsulating the richness of the culture, heritage and community of these areas.

PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION RULES

The competition is for either colour or monochrome photographs depicting any aspect of life in the Scottish Gaidhealtachd or Irish Gaeltacht encapsulating the richness of the culture, heritage and community of these areas.

The competition is open to all amateur photographers. You do not need to be a resident of the Gaidhealtachd/Gaeltacht nor be a Gàidhlig/Gaeilge speaker to enter. However, each photo must be accompanied by a caption in either Gàidhlig or Gaeilge.

All entries must be in a digital format. To ensure sufficient resolution for exhibition display purposes photographs must be a minimum resolution of 2400 x 3000 pixels taken by a 5MP camera or higher.

Each photograph must be accompanied by a brief title or caption in Gàidhlig/Gaeilge.

Each entrant must fill in an online registration form on the Colmcille website. There is no limit to the number of images submitted per applicant but an entry form MUST be completed for each entrant.
Any participants without an entry form will be automatically disqualified.

It is the entrant’s responsibility to ensure that all the necessary permissions are obtained from people featured in a photograph. All photographs must be entirely the owner’s work.

Photographs must be submitted by Monday 1st September 2008.

Colmcille cannot accept responsibility for loss or delay to entries.

The winning entries will be chosen by judges appointed by Colmcille.

The judges’ decision is final. Winners will be notified by post, telephone or email and the prizes will be awarded at an all-expenses-paid trip to the prize-giving ceremony.

Details of the winners will be widely publicised.

Colmcille retains the right to use winning images for the future promotion of the organisation and shortlisted images for display in connection with the competition.

Colmcille will use selected images for promoting the event. Colmcille may publish a calendar and other merchandise in connection with this competition. Some of these items of merchandise may be reprinted. No fees will be payable for this or any future reprints of this merchandise but all photographers will retain full copyright of their images and will be credited for their work. This may be done in Gàidhlig, Gaeilge or English. This may include display on the Colmcille website, in a public exhibitions or other means.

Employees or Board Members of Colmcille or any members of their families are ineligible to enter.

Prize-winners may be required to supply a short description/explanation of their image and where/when it was taken for exhibition purposes.

Categories

There will be five prize-winners:

ADULT
First prize £2000
Second prize £750
Third prize £500

JUNIOR (under 16 on 01/09/08)
First prize £500
Second prize £250

Each prize-winner will also receive a framed copy of the Tìr Cholm Chille map.

To enter visit www.colmcille.net/photo-competition.html

Shots Magazine turns 100 (issues that is) with its next edition and to celebrate they are inviting subscribers, contributors and new subscribers and contributors to submit open themed images and testimonials for publication in this special edition.

If you are not familiar with Shots then it’s worth finding out more about the magazine.

The magazine has been published for over twenty years now and has a dedicated supporter base of enthusiastic professional and serious amateur subscribers and contributors. Diversity is the watch word of Shots as it always looks for images that are creative and personal. All levels of photographers both read and contribute to the mag and in my humble opinion, it’s one of the best independent photography publications out there.

Shots 99, themed Portraits, is available now.

Recommended

This may be of interest to those of you who are into nature and development/architecture photography. The winner of the first Real Photography Award has just been announced. The competition, an initiative of ING Real Estate, rewards photographers for excellence in those particular genres and the first prize of €50,000 has been given to Christian Schink from Germany. Schink won for a series of monochrome images that explored the Earth’s movement.

Other nominees included -

• Thomas Weinberger (Germany)
• Julian Faulhaber (Germany)
• Abelardo Morell (Cuba)
• Danwen Xing (China)
• Livia Corona Velazquez (Mexico)

A shortlist of 30 was whittled down from more than 650 entries with the 6 nominees then drawn from those. The judging panel consisted of some of photography and architecture’s leading lights and the success of this inaugural competition bodes well for its future. Competitions like this, aside from the bursary, create interest in the photographer’s work and can open many doors for those making the shortlist along with the obvious exposure the winner will receive.

Sorry for no post in the last few days but I was on a trip to London and speaking of which, cue the segue, the Photographer’s Gallery is well worth a visit.

At the moment, the gallery is featuring the work of the shortlisted photographic artists in the Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2008, including the winner, Esko Männikkö;

• John Davies (UK)
• Jacob Holdt (Denmark)
• Esko Männikkö (Finland) The Winner
• Fazal Sheikh (USA)

The interesting thing I noticed about the finalists and their work was, not so much their differences, but rather their commonalities. Thematically, the judges were obviously keen on social commentary as three of the four finalist’s work is of that genre but what of the winner, there is little social commentary in the work of Esko Männikkö, as he says himself, he is a -

“photographer of fish, dogs, and old men.”

A humble resumé by the winner of this year’s Deutsche Börse Photography Prize 2008. Perhaps it is this very lack of a clear moral viewpoint that made the judges finally decide to award the prize to Esko, who knows? For me, all the finalist’s works were beautiful and some were quite moving, Fazal Sheikh’s work definitely the latter.

Esko’s work has to be viewed hung on the gallery wall to be fully appreciated as presentation is part of his appeal. The signature rustic frames and positioning playing a vital role in the appreciation of the work. The exhibition runs until the 6th of April.

Recommended

Well, I suppose I couldn’t let March 17th pass without a Paddy’s Day post to flickrholic. You are invited to the Virtual Irish Pub St. Paddy’s Day Piss Up any time on the 17th of March, and that’s the 17th of March in whatever time zone you happen to be in, so I think it’s going to be one very long piss up.

Here’s a gratuitous photo of a famous Paddy enjoying the national pastime. Happy Paddy’s day, Shane.

Photo credit - Photographer Unknown. Copyright - Unknown. Source - www.oneloudernyc.com

and another thing, how the hell are you supposed to find photo credit info on the net..? Note to self… future blog entry.

This is a gratuitous plug for a blog that made me laugh, and I’m still laughing, in fact this is the latest tragic post processing mess to hit the front page of Photoshop Disasters and I’m laughing at it as I type this!

According to the anonymous blogger and the equally anonymous contributor, it seems that in Korea, for some unknown reason, Sharon Stone had to have wet hair for the Basic Instinct 2 poster. So, a quick head swap and, hey presto! Except… funny, her hair, in the mirror, isn’t it a bit dry looking?

Enjoy, I know I have.

Recommended

Here’s one for you. Does the presence of the media influence events and therefore history?

This is a question that I have often wondered about in my career primarily because it has been my experience that, in certain situations, our very presence can effect the way events unfold. Have you ever wondered whether events would have played out differently if the cameras weren’t present? Would history have recorded something different to that recorded by the media?

I have a couple of examples from my own experience that might illustrate what I mean.

A number of years ago, an event was taking place in my home city. The event had been running annually from several years. Each year there were ‘incidents’ that got recorded third hand by the media, both local and national. This particular year, word got around that ‘the media’ would be at one of the areas where a small disturbance had occurred the previous year.

On arrival at the location, I noticed a large crowd of people milling about, not doing very much, just hanging around, as if waiting for something to happen. A little while later, the police presence at the location got noticeably larger. A few more minutes later, a couple of TV vans arrived and camera operators hoped out. Within a few minutes of that happening, a full scale riot was underway.

I’m not saying that there is a direct causal relationship between these particular events but there may have been.

Another example, probably a case of direct media influence on the event, was the story of a paedophile who was photographed leaving court after conviction. The image became iconic of a period of institutional abuse, by some clergy, of Irish children. The man in question was pictured glowering right down the lens of the camera in a very threatening manner. ‘So what, lots of perpetrators show no remorse after conviction?’ I hear you say, but this was different. The photographer in question had, just before he snapped, pulled the camera away from his face and shouted, ‘Hey, (the paedophile’s name), give us a kiss!’ The man reacted to the taunt and the photographer got his shot.

Was this ethical or was the convicted man fair game?

There are occasions when our presence influences events and the more media savvy the protagonists are, the more likely that the event will be manipulated by the fact that we are there to record ‘history as it happens.’

I’d love to hear your views, please feel free to comment.