What people can do

It's amazing what people can do with a little nudge in the right direction and the opportunity to do good.

A photography forum that I'm a member of had a fairly new recruit who is disabled. That's great, everone is welcome regardless of age, sex or ability. Now this chap had been dealt a bit of a triple whammy. He was disabled in a motorcycle accident, then suffered a stroke and as a result had become less keen to go out in public. His speech is impaired though improving all the time. He also has a wife and two children so life right now is not as easy as it is for most of us.

He was out one day taking pics with his stroke charity and smashed his camera. His insurance refused to pay because it was not at home. So the one thing that had gotten him out and about was denied him. That is until a certain serving Army photographer found out!

So we had a whip round last night to see what we could do about replacing that most valuable camera. This morning the whip round stands at £1500 and I'm sure there is more to come. We can get him a camera with a swivel screen that will allow more shooting opportunities. Changing lenses can be a problem for our friend so one 18-200mm lens has been specified so he doesn't have to!

Then one of our camera suppliers stepped in and offered all the equipment he needs and will give us a discount, allowing us to buy more. A special clamp and arm so he can mount it on his wheelchair instead of a tripod has been added to the list.Insurance for his camera has been suggested and people have been raiding drawers for extra batteries, chargers and memory cards.

It's going to be the most valuable camera on the forum because it's the one that J needs right now. It has brought a little photographic community on t'interweb together in a common purpose and that is to give a fellow photographer a lift when he needs it.

Rob Knight is the "Hard as nuts" complete softhead who is putting this together and it just shows how much of a caring side our armed services have despite the things they have to see and do. Rob, you are a softhead and a gent. :)

Survey time

A recent survey of wedding photographers showed that we don't actully spend our time sunning ourselves in between weddings. In the last couple of days I have donned various hats. IT manager, sales person, admin bod, fleet manager.....



I have visited a Bride and Groom and their respective parents, I have installed and backed up a new 1TB backup drive and installed a program that backs up any changes on my hard drive at a set time every day. I have booked my car in for a much overdue service and to have the aircon fixed before I melt! I have follow up calls to make, literature to send out. I have model shoots I'd like to do, a colleague coming to look over and discuss various albums and I did manage a little mini shoot with the RPS too. Not bad for a couple of days. I still managed to do the laundry, cut the grass, wash the cars and generally avoid any domestic crises.

So what DO we do when we are not swanning around?

More Animoto

Having another little play with Animoto today. I can see the use for this and although it may be better suited to portraits I thought I'd run a few wedding ones to see how they come out.

Like any other product though I am starting to think that you would almost have to shoot more images with that specific product in mind. With these kind of slidshows I'd probably like to shoot more tight head shots. Lots of practice required methinks.

New slide show that I've done for RebeccaAmy of her modelling for our boudoir sessions.

Hope you like it ;)

To matt or not to matt?

Up till now I have pretty much avoided matted albums, mainly because I had never produced one and I have always thought that anything you need to stick together is the remit of Blue Peter presenters rather than photographers. :)

But I have had rather a number of brides asking for matted albums so something had to change and that something had to be me. So I went to see the man who knows all about albums, Gordon at DPM Wallbank in Stalybridge. "Gordon, I need a matted album but it needs to be big and simple, like me!" With the expert on hand it was a very painless process and I am now the proud owner of a matted album.

All the prints were done at DSCL and today I put it together. Easy as pie actually and it has distinct advantages over digital in some respects.

One is that it is quick to do. A week to get the album and the prints are done in two days so I can do a really quick turn around. If I do make a mistake I only need to get one print redone and the entire album is not at risk. It's also big, heavy and looks good!

Gordon has also very kindly offered me the loan of a quite amazing album, it's huge! Called the Pano and it opens the way a laptop does. That means I can do really big prints without having to have a crease which always causes a problem so matter which manufacturer. So with another two wedding fayres booked I'll be grabbing a Pano :)

Four enquiries so far this week too, one album off to Italy and another advert sent to the brochure producer. Next up will be database and email integration. Interesting eh? ;)

Wedding fayre fun

Had a great day yesterday at the Llyndir Hall Hotel wedding fayre.
Great to meet some of the other suppliers and photographers. The dresses from Ashley's bridal box were stunning and the detail on them quite superb.

I'll do a proper write up later as I've not even downloaded the pics yet!

I have lots of information to send out to some lovely Brides to be which will be done by Wednesday. :)