Man Flu!

It's been a hard week so far, I started feeling a little under the weather on Sunday night, Monday was a little worse but by Tuesday I was feeling pretty awful, Wednesday was a right off and thankfully by Thursday I was on the mend. I am sure it was the worst case of flu that has ever been recorded but apparently "it was just a mild cold".

Sundays photo shoot was quite busy despite the bad weather, I had some lovely families round for photographs and so far the feedback has been excellent with loads of great comments. The fact that Christmas is looming means that people are looking for photographs to give as presents or put in cards and the orders are coming in thick and fast, trying to keep on top of them has been a challenge but I think I am hanging on. I cant put photographs from Sunday here because they all include children and the world has become slightly paranoid, I am sure most people really would not mind so if any of Sundays customers are reading this and they don't object to their photographs appearing here then please email me and let me know.

A couple of the older kids would make great models for my stock photography which I want to spend a little more time on next year, so again parents from Sunday, you may get a call from me regarding this! You can see my existing stock library at Alamy

 

  

Monday was spent processing and sorting through Jen and Andys Wedding Photographs, creating contact sheets and getting them off to the lab. They have just arrived back today so Jen, they will be with you Monday!

Tuesday was on the Photographs from Sunday there were over 400 to sort through and upload to individual web sites, because I was feeling ill it took longer and I had to finish it on Wednesday. I've been planning a trip to Spain which is purely business, I want to photograph the Jerez Horse Fair so Susan has given me a pass for 4 days of travel - all alone in Spain! You'll remember from my last post about Ryanair that I am now the proud owner of a Visa Electron card so I was able to buy my easyjet tickets with no charge - sorry Stelios.

Wednesday was a little selling, I was over at St Andrews seeing a potential new client, the meeting went well and it looks like there will be some business there in the future. Thursday was a continuation of the selling with a trip to Glasgow to see 2 potential commercial clients and a potential Wedding client, all meetings went well and I have some work to do for 1 of these clients in the next week or so and another job in January for the other one. The Wedding Meeting went well and hopefully I'll have another booking from that. All in all it was a good day, feeling a little better and a successful day. The evening was spent processing, sorting, cropping and generally tidying up photographs for clients then uploading them to the labs web space for prints. I worked solidly until 10.40 so I was knackered.

Today I am writing this blog using the free wifi in Braes, Perth Road Dundee as I have dropped Susans car in for new tyres and I'm getting my hair cut at 11.00 so I better go. Exciting stuff ehh!

Ryanair

We’re off to Spain in January for a break, Ryanair have started a route from Edinburgh to Malaga which is easier than Glasgow for us, also the times are better than the Easyjet flight. So, we tried to book 2 tickets, they are  quite cheap at £60 each return so I was happy. We expected to have to pay a Credit Card premium but we were not expecting a premium of around £4 per person per flight – an extra £16 on the fare.

 

 

I can’t believe that the banks charge Ryanair that sort of money for each card, in fact it must be a charge per transaction rather than each flight – what a con!

The only way to avoid this is to use a Visa Electron card, they have obviously chosen that card as almost nobody has one, well guess what Ryanair – I now have one, you’ll not be getting any more credit card fees from me.

Andy and Jen

Today I was in Farleyer House, Aberfeldy for Andy and Jens Wedding. It was a small intimate affair with only 19 adults and 15 children. Farleyer house can only just accommodate that number of people, it's a stunning venue but very small.

Jen and Andy are a lovely couple and welcomed me into the day like a member of the family, everyone was very friendly we got some great shots. Although I'd only met them twice before the Wedding I felt as though I had know them for ages. As usual I was far too early but I wasn't sure what the weather was doing, at least I had plenty of time to take photographs of the cake - which was lovely and made by Jens Mum!

The Registrar turned up and the whole Ceremony was over in 10 minutes. I got on with some formal shots but Andy and Jen were both slightly uncomfortable in fornt of the camera so we got that bit over with quickly and I set about capturing the fun and emotion of the day. I left just after they had sat down to eat.

450D

A few months back I bought a load of new kit, this included a Canon 450D which I wanted to use as a travel camera as it is quite small. I bought a Sigma lens to go with it. I'd never really used it before Tuesday when we went to Tentsmuir and I have to say I was slightly disappointed with the results. On close examination they were quite soft and grainy, even at 200iso. I examined this further and took some shots with expensive lenses, this was better but still not very good. I also took the same shots on a 5D (a much more expensive camera) and the difference was like night an day. I appreciate that the 5d is 3 times as much but I still feel that I should get a nice sharp image from the 450.

A chat with my supplier, Warehouse Express discovered that this might be a known problem (I guess the guy at Warehouse should not have said this) so he agreed to have it back and will return it to Canon - we'll see what the outcome is. If they say nothing is wrong then I'll be wanting a refund, if they say they will replace it then I'll be testing it thoroughly as soon as I get it.

This was a replacement for the camera that was damaged when we were travelling through Europe earlier this year and readers of my previous blog (http://ourbigtriproundeurope.blogspot.com) will remember that thanks to our dog Ben my last camera ended up in the river. If I am not satisfied with the Canon then I don't know what I will go for next.

Days Off

I am gradually figuring out that it's difficult to distinguish between days at work and days off. Today was a day off, Susan had a day off so I decided I would too. We took the dogs for a run on Tentsmuir for a couple of hours then we went for a nice lunch. On the way back we did a bot of shopping then I had to head back to Dundee to see a couple about a Wedding next June.

Venture - No More?

Many Photographers have a dislike of Venture (www.thisisventure.com), the Professional Photography news groups are full of people moaning about how much they charge and how much money they seem to be making. I, however, look at this slightly differently. Venture came along and took a pretty old and tired section of the Photography market, they fine tuned it, made it better and massively increased the value of high class family portraiture photography. Personally, I have a great deal of respect for Venture for what they have done. Other Photographers have 2 choices, they can carry on moaning about what Venture are doing or they can join the band wagon. What Venture do, technically, is not difficult and any Photographer with a few thousand pounds of Studio equipment, space and a modicum of technical ability can easily create these type of photographs. And, they can do it it a fraction of the price and still make good money.

Whether Venture are justified in charging the prices they do is a question that can only be judged by the clients. And that brings me to my point, Perth Venture is no more, they shut down in the last few months and all business has been transferred to Aberdeen. So far as I know Edinburgh and Glasgow are still trading as normal. Now, this might be due to the Credit Crunch or it might be just the fact that people dont want to pay hundreds of pounds for a print any more, or, it might be because people like me have come along and are doing it as well as them and charging less for it - who knows. Personally, I'd have thought that Perth and its surrounding area would have been a great place to open a Venture Studio but obviously not.

Odd Email
I've just received an annomous email through my web site which must be from another Photographer, it reads:

You're ruining the industry as well as your business offering your clients the copyright of their images.

Now, this email is blank and unsigned so I cant enter into serious debate with this person about the merits or other wise of offering Copyright Free Wedding Photography but I do feel that it suits my business well, I'm pretty busy so that would suggest that clients are happy with it too. I understand why Photographers want to hang onto the copyright as it means they can sell on loads of prints at a vastly inflated price, dont get me wrong, there is a time and place for hanging on to the copyright, I just don't feel that it is for Wedding Photography. I like to treat people the way I'd like to be treated myself and I'd be pretty hacked off paying someone over £500 for a days work then having to go to them every time I need another print. In addition to that there is the practical point, some of my clients come from Abroad and they don't want the hassles of me shipping prints and albums round the globe, they would rather obtain them locally. Also, as people get more skilled in digital technology then they would obviously like to put together their own albums, create web sites and make their own prints - who are we to stop them.

So, if Mr or Mrs annomous wants to have a serious discussion then please do get in touch but this time dont be afraid to leave your email.

First Real Post

It's been an interesting week, Sunday was the first of my studio sessions in Blairgowrie rugby club, it was not quite as busy as I'd hoped but we did 7 family portraits and the feedback has been excellent so I'd call that a success. Monday started with a meeting at Aerovision IT in Cupar my web site people, we made a few minor tweaks to the site them it went live. I have to say that I'm really pleased with the results and I must say a HUGE thank you to Ian at Limehouse Design and Danny at Aerovision IT for the effort and commitment they made to the task, it's a great site and they both worked very hard. I'd have absolutely no hesitation in recommending them to anyone needing Graphic Design or Web site Construction.

  

 

 

 

 

Monday afternoon was in Perthshire for a Nursery Session, it was very busy with loads of Children and families, the pics are on line now and the feedback I have had so far has been very good. It's a long hard afternoon but it passes very quickly.

Tuesday morning was spent Processing and uploading the photographs from Sunday then it was back to Perthshire for the second day of the Nursery sessions. Not quite so busy this time but that meant I could spend longer with each family.

Wednesday was spent at my PC processing and uploading the photographs to various web sites, a boring and repetitive task but it has to be done. At least I had time to walk the dogs for a couple of hours round the woods. In the afternoon I went to my Mothers to help get her new kitchen back to normal 

Thursday was through to Glasgow for some business portraiture for a Housing Association client, I had to go to 2 separate venues and in total I photographed around 50 people. The day had a bad start, I loaded the  gear into my car then found it would not start. The boot had been unlocked all night which meant the little light had been on and drained the battery. Thankfully one of our neighbours came to my rescue and gave me a jump start. The job went to plan with no hassles at all.

Friday was back to processing and uploading pictures from last week, the print orders are starting to come through now so thats good.