Valves...

After a fun packed week away I returned home on Saturday to find a package from a client at my backdoor, the FedEx driver had deemed it to be a safe spot to leave the package, well it was still there so enough of that. Inside were three sets of valves for radiators, all brushed steel and requiring simple shots on a black background. They were shot on a white background and cutout to give the best detail in the valves, as well as highlights I dropped in some strips of black card to add some contrast and show the shape of the valves to. The shots were e-mailed to the client on Monday night, approved this morning and the valves returned to my client by special delivery this afternoon. Lets hope the postman doesn't leave them at my clients backdoor...

Called a client this morning, just on the...

... off chance they might have some work knocking about. Result! A box of bit and pieces that need simple product shots, on grey and white backgrounds. Plus a new product... Wait for it... A wheelie bin lock! Yes, that's what I thought at first, but it seems lots of kids with nothing better to do than cause trouble find wheelie bins fascinating, almost irresistible. They can think of nothing better than tipping them over or opening them up and setting light to the contents. So this lock stops them opening the bin and it has a sensor alarm that goes off if someone tips it over. When the refuse collection operatives (bin men) come and empty the bins the lock opens when the bin is inverted, clever. Now to start photographing it, first I'll need a wheelie bin, ah, we still just have bin bags, though the council will be rolling wheelie bins out to us soon!

If you want to buy a particular camera...

... or lens, it looks like you might be out of luck! I've just been reading an article on pdn's blog about camera stores in the states not having stock of certain types and models of camera, the Canon 5D MkII, 7D and some Nikon models as well as popular lenses like the new Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8 VR II, are all unavailable. So I did a little bit of checking with a few stores here in the UK, same problem. It looks like the production levels in Japan have got a long way to go to meet the demand for these precious items, the tsunami has had an enormous effect on current production models, what kind of delays will it have on the next generation of Pro models that we've all been waiting for from Nikon and Canon?

http://www.pdnonline.com/pdn/gear/Photographers-Face-C-2936.shtml

A trip to the woods brings an unexpected...

... chance for a quick snap of my oldest lad. It was shot on my Canon 1Ds MkII with the 70-200 mm f4 L series lens, set at 150mm at f4.5 1/160 sec, though the file info says I'd got my 17-40 mm lens on, not sure what that's about! In photoshop I worked on the colour image then desaturated, lightened the eyes, then the face, but I wanted the eyes to draw you into the picture so I worked on them a little more darkening some parts and lightening others a little more. I like the shot, so does my wife, my son likes it, the police officer who came to talk about the action we wanted to take over our smashed car window liked it to, can't wait to show my Mum and Dad, must get printing now.

I've been wanting to...

... post on my blog for a couple of days, but like everyone else in the Blogger world it's been off-line for a few days. Now it's back, but I seem to have forgotten what I was going to blog about. Ho hum, next time.

I don't want to be a scene of crime...

... photographer, but I've taken on that mantle this week when a school kid threw a handful of stones down our road to try and hit another boy and managed to put stones through my neighbours and my car windows. I'm hoping that it'll all be resolved without resorting to the Police, though they've been informed (another statistic). The photographs are really for my insurance company, if I need them, as well as evidence for the police to use if the case goes further. I'm off to the school later today as the head teacher is very interested in the incident. I'm just relieved that my young boys weren't out in the garden playing when the stones cascaded down, the thought makes me cringe.

Anyone got a dust pan and brush?

It's alive...

Finally got the new site up and running, though I've just noticed that the about page just has a picture of me on it and nothing else, whoops! I'll have to put that right tonight as I've now got to head out into the lovely sunshine and take some photographs, it's a hard life...

Update: 05/05/2011
All sorted, about page has been populated, I do hope that's the right word!

Some new bits and pieces on the desk...

There have been a few resent changes to the equipment on my desk, a 20 inch Apple Cinema Display has replaced the old 17 inch screen and I've installed an Icy Box IB-111StUS2-Wh Docking Station. This is for the updating of the off site hard drives, which are usually stored at a top secret location (my Dad's house) for the reassurance of extra back up of all my data. The unit comes with USB 2.0 or eSATA connection, the eSATA being far faster and my obvious choice.

The Icy Box unit has quite a small footprint and is extremely easy to use during my weekly Monday back up of all data to a eSATA 1.5 TB drive, that my Dad drops off in the morning and takes away later the same day. The drives travel in these Icy Box plastic cases (below) which keep them safe from dust and moisture.

The iPhone 4 , pictured below, has a pair of external batteries, I got these just incase the phone battery died out on location, one travels in my camera bag, the other usually accompanies my iPad.

The film cameras on the windowsill are all still in use, the Rolleicord and Canon EOS 1N more than the Nikon FM, which has gathered a bit of dust and needs a damned good clean, on well out with the canned air.

05/2012: A quick update on the Icy Box Docking Station... Never! Never! Ever! Let a three year old into your office, he will fill the Icy Box Docking Station with whatever is to hand, compact flash cards, money, blu-tac, a Polo mint, and a pencil sharpener. Suffice to say the Icy Box docking Station has not taken well to these non hard drive intruders and has given up the ghost. My three year old son still finds it funny, but he doesn't understand the meaning of 'I've spent your college money' yet.

New website tantalisingly close...

So after a lot of time spent relearning Dreamweaver I've finally got the new website working, at least it works fine in dreamweaver and reviewing it in Safari. So soon it'll go live, with it yet another marketing push to attract attention to the site.

There are a lot of similarities with the old site, but this one now centres properly when you open the page, I'm still using a slightly panoramic image, though I'm working on a different portfolio using small image buttons to lead to larger images, when I've got that working how I'd like it to that will go live, though that might be a while yet.

I'm hoping to go live with the new site next week, the marketing should be printed by then to, so I imagine I'll be buying a big block of postage stamps real soon. I've still got the keywording to finish, a very important part of the whole project and I'm waiting for a few testimonials to turn up.

And I'd just like to say...

... hello to everyone out there in blogging land, I've got really interested in audience stats recently. I'm not sure exactly why as I don't seem to be getting any work through the ramblings I write on this blog, but it's interesting to see where the readers are coming from, I'd especially like to say hello to the guys or girls in Iran who seem to like what I'm blabbering on about, and are moving their country up the audience location tables and are neck and neck with the USA this week. I find that rather amusing.

Oh and Brazil, you're trailing this week, as my old teacher use to say 'You could do better!'

Upgraded the iPhone...

Finally got my upgrade to the Apple iPhone4, I got my old 3G about two months before the iPhone4 came out, the 3GS was available, but I didn't need video, I just needed a phone. So just how wrong can you be? This little piece of technology is going to be invaluable, I've just down loaded a time lapse video app and I'm already thinking of ideas to use it on. I've already played with the Facetime feature, but I think looking up the nose of a client whilst in conversation might not be such a good idea. So now it's time to play with the phone and figure out just what a difference it's going to make to my working day, if it's anything like the difference the iPhone3G made it's going to be great. Oh you can guarantee now I've got the iPhone4 the iPhone5 will hit the streets in a month or two!

Always find someone to hold the QP card...

QP cards are great, simple to use and always give you a good head start for working on raw images in photoshop, the only thing you have to do is find someone to hold them for your initial shot.

I got mine from Colour Confidence, link below, other purveyors of quality grey and colour charts are available.

https://shop.colourconfidence.com/product.php/1822/qp-card-101/31981539ed87c3d176ed0620084f94b4

A working weekend...

This weekend hasn't been the greatest I can remember, Saturday was lovely, the sun was shining, it was warm, and I was stuck in a room shooting paper, plastic and hesian bags for a catalogue. Okay I shouldn't moan it's work and that isn't so easy to come by these days. So whilst I filled, arranged and shot the bags, my wife kept my two boys entertained, gardening and playing football.

Sunday, Mothering Sunday no less, a time of cards, flowers and chocolates, started well, my wife was really happy with her hand made cards off the boys, her eyes lit up when they presented her with a big box of Maltesers too. I still had a few shots to do so whilst my wife took the boys to see her mum I continued shooting. This took longer than I'd anticipated and before I knew it the wife was home and wanting to go out for the family walk we'd discussed before she'd left.

I finally got the job wrapped and packed, we got our walk, down to the park so the kids could have a good play on the swings, slides and roundabouts, and on the way back the heavens opened and we got a good soaking.

Sometimes being self-employed ain't so good, you have to balance work and home life, but it's difficult when you have a deadline for a job, even if it mean working on Mothers Day.