Cerys Matthews plays the Union Chapel




The Union Chapel , what a perfect venue for an acoustic gig. The last time I was there it was for the marridge of my Uncle when I was a child (and the overwhelming memory from that was his brother dropping the ring very near a grate and it rolling away.

Well there were not such dramas last night as Cerys played with her small band. Her voice is so sweet and the acoustics of the hall just seemed to fit perfectly. I could have listened all night. However, I had a train to catch and pictures to file. I did manage to sit at the back for a couple of extra songs. Sometimes this job is wonderful.

Are competitions just a way for corporations to get free images?

The terms and conditions of a photographic competition were hi-lighted to me yesterday by another professional;

  • All entries must be photographs taken and owned by you.
  • By submitting your photographs to **** Cruise Lines, you are agreeing for us to publish your photographs at any time, in any publication or on-line, and in any capacity we choose.
  • By entering your photographs into this competition, you are then agreeing to transfer the copyright of such images to **** Cruise Lines
  • **** Cruise Lines reserves the right to modify any photographs submitted, such as amending colours, cropping or re-sizing.
  • The photographs should be limited to destinations visited by **** Cruise Lines, or of one of our ships.
  • **** Cruise Lines reserves the right to cancel the competition at any stage.
  • Entrants should ensure that, where relevant, they obtain consent for the photograph to be used from any people featured.
This is just an excerpt, take a look at their entry page here to see what you think. I do not think there is any way to take it other than “we want lots of free images of our ships which we will probably using in marketing saving us thousands of pounds in photographer fees over the next few years”.

Spandau at the O2

Last night it was off to the O2 for ’80s heartthrobs Spandau Ballet. Standing around waiting for the gig to start with records from that era being played made me feel old! (and when I realised that a few in the front rows were watching me walk up and down singing all the words, embarrassed).


They might not have performed together for about 20 years, but they did sound good and as you can see, they seemed to enjoy themselves..

Ribbons and Merriweather

I finished off the week of Saturday with 2 evening jobs…

The first was a lovely affair at The Dorchester; The Pink Ribbon Ball in aid of Breast Cancer. There was a quite short but nice VIP guest list which included Martine McCutcheon; her red dress really suited her and she looked really good.



After finishing there it was a quick dash up the Central Line to the Shepherds Bush Empire for Daniel Merriweather. He has a nice sound and I think the album (which I just purchased on the strength of this gig) does not do his voice justice. Nice “middle of the road” music (I guess he would not thank me for that)



Lil Speech…

Friday and I am having a day off shooting (as tonight is quite quiet) and back to work tomorrow.
This week we have had a Film Première and 2 music gigs.

Tuesday saw the The World Premiere of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. Not a huge guest list but those that did attend were very photogenic and great to work with. Lilly Cole was one attendee, wearing channel and looking fab.

Wednesday I went to “Scala” near London’s Kings Cross station. The “room” is a very interesting venue on a couple of levels and the atmosphere is great. I do not usually like this sort of music but I must say I did really enjoy this, even hanging around for a couple of additional numbers. The lighting was exceptionally difficult so I sneaked a couple of “flashed” shots near the end, just to make sure that I had some good, clear images. That said, the set of images I delivered I was particularly pleased with; delivering both monochrome and colour images;



After the enjoyment of Wednesday, Thursday was a failure. Due to, well, I am not sure what the cause was but half of the photographers for Lil Wayne’s gig last night at the HMV Apollo were left waiting at the meeting point; I was one of them and it was only jumping up and down as I heard the room come alive that I realised this. We did get in – late and so only had about one and a half songs. I’m going to be honest and say I was really glad of my ear-plugs. From this short time I delivered 15 shots (luckily the lighting made it easy).


What you can see in this set of images are the difference between the posed (and smouldering) and the timed performance images. With the Lily Cole image, it may be posed (by her) but it is still a performance; but only for the camera. With Speech, it is interesting; The colour image shows someone focused on the music and performance but what of the monochrome one? Is that pose just for my camera? What do you think? Finally Lil Wayne; no doubt here, this is 100% him and the crowd, nothing else matters….

Catching up

As I was so busy last week (and socially over the weekend), I have just got time to post some updates.


Firstly, the images from the Metro (posted below). The first is obvious, it is a nice shot, full of atmosphere and moment…


but the other image choice I find intresting. Yes, Deku is showing a typical “Air Guitar” pose, but is face is not that clear due to the back lighting, I really like this one…



The next day (I think), it was up to London for Paulo Nutini, an artist I really like. He can be a bit static on stage however so I was quote pleased with the images I got…


And something a little more different..

I’ll finish up with my coverage of the Labour Party conference (meets AvenueQ)…


Tired Tired Tired…

Only a quick posting as I sit down for a coffee. I will update you on the weeks events over the weekend. All I will say now is I have been very busy with far too many late nights.

I have a nice pair of photos in today’s Metro newspaper (below). I like it when I have images in The Metro as I always get a phone call or email from my partner to tell me, which means I actually get a tear sheet. (It’s impossible to check all the publications every day so usually I do not find out till a month or two later as I get a sales sheet through).

Thank for reading; more to follow…
J