A letter from a former F1 fan

Dear Formula One

I wanted to explain why I have turned my back on you. It should come from me, I wouldn’t want to hurt your feelings by hearing it from someone else.

Since the turn of media events in 2011 concerning the combination of both News Corporation’s head in the sand involvement with phone hacking and their take over of half of the coverage from the BBC, the thought of giving Rupert Murdoch some of my hard earned cash to allegedly pass on to some seedy slimeball to spy on celebrities, brings bile to my throat.

I love you. The way your drama literally evolves with twists and turns of a race make my heart race. The problem I have now is that I have been spoiled with too much information. Sunday was our day together. The tv is on, the twin screen computer has the live lap feed and lap position chart. A glance at the split lap times reveals  that someone’s tyres have just gone off and if my calculations are correct, in 3 laps time we are going to have some action.

I am the person who when staying with friends and an early morning race is on, will sneak out of bed into the sitting room at 4am with headphones on to find my mistress, then sneak back to bed. After 30 minutes of sleep walk back into the sitting room with an artificially jaunty step and greet my hosts complimenting them on my comfortable bed.

I cannot share you with another though. Watching half of the same footage compressed down to a highlights show after having spent the day avoiding any broadcast media and having no other data all of a sudden feels a bit of a turn off. The adrenaline rush moment as the lights go out live on a race is not something that works for delayed output. I don’t do sloppy seconds.

I am so used to having a Sunday dinner with all the trimmings. If you suddenly said from now on there will be no gravy, stuffing or white sauce unless you pay someone that you don’t like a great deal of money, then I would investigate a different meal. Missing out on half of the product takes away the whole context of the season.

To be clear, I don’t blame the BBC. Their coverage in 2011 was fantastic and I salute them.

In my opinion, Bernie Ecclestone has done what may be good for the finances for you as a sport, but not for your lovers. I believe he has sadly sold us out.

I wish all the previous sponsors the very best, although I may not renew my Vodafone contract as they now mean nothing to me except a reminder of the broadcasters they are associated with.

So I thank you Formula One for the past 20 years, I’ve really enjoyed them.

But now we go our separate ways.

Goodbye my old lover.

Sam x

Vrooooom (cut to me off in the sunset with a new interest – any suggestions?)

Get your photo of the actual item.

Cut out the background.

Design a room with lamps, skirting board and complimentary furniture, which fits in to the same aspect as the base photograph.

Apply some textures to get the elements to blend into the background.

Put lighting into the room which fits in with the elements.

Add the original image.

To finish it off, add some subtle shadows to fit in with your lighting.

Activate and set the focal length to the distance  of the object you wish to be the centre of attention.

Position your lighting rig so it both highlights the object and gives a sense of depth.