Just over a day to go!

Well, the exhibition has been fast approaching and it's felt like a lot of my spare time has been getting to grips with cutting mounts and framing photographs, sending out invites to friends and family and sorting out my greetings cards.

Finally they're all ready to go and tomorrow (Sunday) is set up day. I'm really looking forward to seeing my prints on display at the exhibition and also to welcoming everyone to the preview night on Monday.

For a while on Friday I didn't think the greetings cards were going to make it - the printer had a bit of a nightmare but at 8pm I received delivery of 8 of my 10 designs. The remaining two will have to be printed on Monday - hopefully!

I spent a lot of Friday night and Saturday packing them up with their matching envelopes and sliding them into their protective cellophane pouches but I'm really pleased with the final result.

Roll on Monday!

Competition news

I got some great news from my camera club tonight that one of my prints which was selected to go into the Harrow Camera Club Annual Exhibition and the Ron Wake Memorial Trophy towards the end of last season - story here, made it into the final 10 out of around 60-70 prints submitted!!

The photo was the one of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York that I took with my Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens. Unfortunately it didn't win the trophy but it did receive favourable comments which I'm really pleased about. Hopefully the external competition success will continue.

Back to reality - unfortunately

Well the holiday in Greece is finally over and it's a bit of a shame to be back here in the UK after a week of glorious sunshine and relaxation.

We went to Tsilivi on the island of Zakynthos and were pleasantly surprised by what we found. Our apartment for the week was set back up the hill from the main centre of Tsilivi and as a result was quiet and away from it all. It also had commanding views across the bay and up towards Kefalonia and the Greek mainland. The accommodation was really well presented and very clean.

Luckily we got the chance to explore the Island on a Jeep Safari day trip with Zante Insight. The off road trip took us to places that there was no way a hire car could get to, let alone find! There were photo opportunities around every corner from the stunning countryside, the small villages we passed through down to the rugged western coast.

We got a chance to see the famous shipwreck at Navagio Beach near Volímai. It is one of the top 5 most photographed beaches in the world and it was certainly easy to see why. The viewpoint is on a very precarious metal platform sticking out from the cliff edge - it only takes 4 people at a time and the cliff drops away vertically beneath you! The colours of the sea and the stunning view have given me some great shots - will get some posted up soon.

It never seems that a week is long enough but at least it left us with things to go back and see sometime. In the meantime, its back to the old routine again!

What is it they say about working with children and animals?!?

Well I managed to do both yesterday! I did a shoot for some friends in the morning - Lindsey, Steve and their baby - Emma. We had a good hour and a half or so getting a whole variety of shots of the family.

Straight after that I went and photographed Ben - a border collie cross. Ben is used to the cameras - he starred in a forthcoming information video that was being shot and his owner said that he was very well behaved and did exactly as he was told and when during the shoot.

On his home ground, he was also well behaved but seemed to want to spend more time rolling in the grass having his tummy stroked than having his picture taken! With a bit of perseverance and bribery in the form of Digestive biscuits, we were able to get a selection of good shots.

Have just got to sit down and run through all the processing now! I think I rattled off over 300 shots over the 2 shoots so it will take a bit of time editing out the ones that don't make the cut and then processing the ones that do into a variety of different formats and styles.

Still, it's all good experience! As far as the title of this post goes - I think I understand what was meant now!!! Only kidding!

Monitor calibrations

I've just received my Pantone Huey Pro monitor calibration hardware. I decided that it was time to get my monitor properly calibrated as I think I'd been relying on the Adobe Gamma setting a bit too long. Getting the monitor profiled correctly is the first step in ensuring that colours of prints come out exactly as they should. You've got to see the photo displaying correctly on your screen before you send it to be printed.

The Huey pro was a breeze to set up after cleaning the lcd screen first with the cleaning kit and installing the supplied software. The calibration process takes around 2 or 3 minutes and then lets you create a profile which can be saved and applied each time you use the pc.

The calibration hardware sits in it's stand by the screen and constantly monitors changes in ambient light in the room and adjusts the display accordingly.

I've only been using it for a day and just for viewing photos, it seems to make them more accurate to how I actually remember it when the photos were taken. I'll have to see how things go when it comes to getting round to editing some photos and the results that are achieved. Things are definitely looking promising so far though.

Nikon D300 has arrived!

Well after months of speculating, rumours on specs and general gossip, Nikon have launched their follow up to the well received D200 - the new D300. Nikon say it sits in between their pro and amateur range line up but initial reports give it a leaning definitely towards the pro feel.

Has the 2 year wait been worth it? Specifications include a 12.3 mega pixel sensor, 51 point auto-focus system, a 3 inch LCD screen on the back with 'Live view' along with a whole host of other improvements and additions.

A more detailed review can be read here on Digital Photography Review

My first impressions are that it looks fantastic - it shares pretty much the same body as the previous D200 model but is marginally lighter - though not on features! It would certainly be worth splashing the pennies, though at an RRP of £1,299 that's a lot of pennies!

The D300 is going to be available to buy from November, with detailed kit options available in September 2007.

Perhaps this will have an effect (downwards) on the prices of the D200's that are available at the moment but we'll have to wait and see.

Personally, I'm rather looking forward to seeing the new D300 in the flesh and giving it a try.

Time goes by!

Well it's certainly been a busy old month since the last post! I've been pretty busy with things and have a lot of photos to process. Managed to get up to Crosby to see Anthony Gormley's 'Another Palce' statues on the beach. They were certainly quite a sight - seeing 100 life size statues all facing out to sea in different positions on the beach. Got some good moody shots as the sun set with stormy skies approaching. Just need to sort out and tidy up the good shots.

I've also been to a wedding in the Lake District - first time up there for a few years. It was one of my wife's uni friends who got married and I managed to get a lot of great photos throughout the day. I got all of the photos processed in Photoshop and sent up to them before they got back from their honeymoon. I'd also taken the plunge and bought the Proshow Gold AV creation software and this gave me a chance to put it through it's paces and create a finished project. I was certainly very pleased with the end result and by the sounds of it so were the new happy couple - we got a message to say that she had cried throughout the whole DVD I'd created for them and it brought back all the happy memories. I hope that's a good sign!!!

Being in the Lake District gave me a good chance to get some photos while we were up there. Although the weather wasn't generally great, I did get some good shots at Stockghyll Force and down at Lake Windermere as well as a few other locations.

Here's a shot from Windermere:

A couple of weeks ago I also managed to get out on one of the camera club's summer walks to the Withey Beds Nature Reserve near Rickmansworth. Was really please I went along as it was well worth the trip. Got some great macro plant shots and even a stunning close up of a stag beetle with my Sigma 70mm f2.8 lens.

Last Saturday, Caroline, a friend of my wife's was over and the two of them were heading out for the night. She asked if I could take a couple of photos as she wanted a new Facebook profile photo. Not to waste an opportunity I put the Nikkor 50mm f1.8 lens on the camera and snapped away for a few minutes. I got a good selection of shots that I was able to play about with in Photoshop and give her a cd when they got back from their night out. Also had another go with Proshow Gold to good effect. Here is one fo the shots of Caroline:

All in all it's been a good but busy month.