This is your life . . . so far

As a follow on from all the Wedding Books I produce, it has long been a project on the back burner to create a book of images of Hannah's life - so far. As the child has a busier social life than Sinead and I, we spent the afternoon (punctuated with Six Nations Rugby, of course) sorting through all and any old pictures as prints, negatives and even some NPC Polaroids - those in the know will know what they are! We found images we remembered and treasure and many we had forgotten and quickly amassed a scruffy pile of likely images for the book. I have volunteered Sinead for the next part as the analogue records have no dates attached and I will be relying on her wonderful memory for dates to bring some order to the unruly piles. My job to sort the digital images should be less traumatic thanks to meta data embedded in most images. Another interesting slant on this story is how Hannah's life straddles the Digital era and it will be an added challenge to compile and complete the book with a half and half mix from the two eras. All I can see at the moment is a mass of either flatbed or film scanning and as we all know scanning is up there as one of the most boring activities - almost as bad as accounting! As you can imagine this will be an "ongoing" project that will be fitted in where possible. Things will move quicker once we have everything as a digital file as the actual design doesn't take too long.

Spring has sprung . . .

What a beautiful morning in Northwest London and true to my word I was out there for the first proper ride in a few months. The temperature was perfect, not a breath of wind and most drivers behaved themselves! Completed my route in under the hour and am rearing to get out again tomorrow morning - especially as the weather looks set, fair. 

Following an ongoing mechanical issue with a rear sprocket - I can, without boring you with the details, report that this has been solved and all for £5! I obtained a spare part that was probably the last in existence and the lady that sold it to me didn't up the price for rarity value. Amazing as I would have paid well over the odds but all she wanted was the rrp! The freewheel lives for a little longer . . .

Tomorrow's ride will hopefully be a little longer and will take me out towards the Chalfonts without over doing things as I ease back into things.

A word about the pictures . . .

You have all seen blogs around the Internet where wonderfully precious photographers attempt to post an original image each day? If it happens, one is treated to multiple versions of the desk lamp or the backyard or even worse plants! I'll not be as unrealistic but what I hope will happen is that any and all images posted here will be personal images shot as and when they occur. I will keep commercial or wedding images separate but if you want to see reportage wedding photography at its best - please visit www.pauldawson.co.uk

There, shameless plug over! 

Back to the photography details . . . it seems that all images on this blog (apart from the Touch picture) were shot with the wonderful Ricoh GR Digital - an 8 Megapixel compact. Most images are single frames, whilst the carpark above and the Crete and Krakow pictures below right, are multi frame compositions, stitched together in Photoshop CS3's Photomerge. So good is Photomerge, I sold my aging but superb, Noblex Panoramic film camera when CS3 came out in Beta! That is a whole other story and something for another post . . . 

I love my iPod Touch!

I may be a little late to the party and the applause but, it has to be said, this is one cool, tiny, useful and drop dead gorgeous bit of kit! What a surprise on Christmas morning as I unwrapped what I thought was a bottle of Kouros Eau de Toilette. To be totally honest, this was probably the most perfect present - until the next perfect present, of course but you know what I mean!

As the inveterate fiddler that I am, it wasn't too long before I was screen deep trying to find out how to Jailbreak the Touch. This is a software hack that would allow one to run the iPhone applications and a host of third party software on the Touch but with the possibility of voiding any and all Apple warranties. It didn't take long and I had transformed a useful iPod to an indispensable handheld WiFi, multi media device that also played music! Then as always happens in the computer industry, Apple released an update that would allow one to install all of the above legally - for £12.99

Some users thought this was a total ripoff and others rolled over and paid the "big bucks" and I slapped the wad on the counter and coughed up. All worth it as there is much more in the pipeline towards the end of February - we will see.

One Great George Street

Saw a variation of the above panoramic on the World Wide Wait - so unfortunately cannot take full creative credit for the look but not too unlike the pd style! I can see a series of Flower panoramics in the very near future or moody landscapes or even the long lost project of shooting Lighthouses in rough weather in a 3:1 ratio - some winter . . . I'll have to continue the thought process and apply this to wedding images - there is something here, maybe big and canvas?

Here comes the weekend

End of another up and down week that has flown by. The weather seems to be settling into a more spring like pattern as it's beautifully sunny and not too cold with the same to continue over the weekend. I'm just about to pump the bike's tyres and maybe go for a (very) short test ride to the post box in preparation for a proper ride in the morning. I have various short 1hr routes of varying hilliness that I can choose from and for tomorrow Route D seems the favourite. I will cover just over 17 miles in just over the hour - not a cracking pace but I need to get back into things as the last proper ride was November! Readers in the UK will remember the rotten, wet weather that seemed to persist through the last few dark months - so no real surprise that I didn't venture out! Sinead has researched, chosen and paid the deposit for, our summer vacation in the South of France - nothing like being organised and one must be to get what you want, when you want. I am driving again this year and we will probably split the trip over the Friday and complete on the Saturday. We have driven tho the South in one hit before but it is an early start and a late finish and absolutely exhausting as I'm the sole driver so it is better to stop halfway. The theory is to take the Road Bike again and to get out for an hour or more in the morning, to avoid the heat, traffic (if there is any) and before the girls rise for the day. This worked really well last year in Italy as I got out a grand total of nine mornings out of thirteen. Having had a quick look at the surrounding terrain in France on Google Earth, it looks a little more challenging than Italy without being the foothills of the Pyrenees. The problem in Italy was as we were on the coast and a stone's throw from the beach, the roads were pancake flat and where things did start to rise they did so too violently for my legs and gears to cope with! Memories of Italy will be the encouragement to train and get into a routine and gain the necessary fitness before the holiday.

And it all starts tomorrow . . .

Surprises

Sometimes things arrive out of the blue and just before Christmas I received a Nokia mobile from O2 without warning - my name, my address but not my choice. Despite four calls, at my expense to explain and re-explain their mistake, almost two months on I still have the phone. Totally useless of course because as soon as one "plugs" the handset into any network - it will be blocked! No real surprise there - and to be completely honest, i just want shot of the thing and reclaim a little more office space. I have even tried to ascertain how long needs to elapse before I can claim the phone as mine and then I can dispose of it legally.

That was the disturbing surprise, whilst today brought a truly lovely surprise. As I waited for a much anticipated, watched via UPs, Wedding Book delivery, another delivery van pulled up and the driver approached the front door. I usually have a good idea of what deliveries are expected - either for Sinead or myself but this was totally out of the blue . . . A delivery from Oddbins, looks promising but still no clue to the sender, so no time to waste as I quickly opened the package. I was delighted to find that it was a boxed bottle of Famous Grouse Whisky and from a very happy couple whose wedding I shot last May and were equally delighted with their Wedding Book. Let's be honest, I get plenty of appreciative emails but not too many gifts, the last one being from the mother of a bride who turned up on the doorstep one Sunday afternoon with another bottle of Whiskey (note the correct Irish spelling!). Oh, I almost forgot, our neighbours gave me a bottle of Canadian Club Whiskey after I looked after their house for two weeks - so a lot of fire water sloshing around . . . Anyway, still in a state of semi shock after this afternoon's delivery, I immediately dash off a thank you email, still waiting for the wedding book delivery.

Just like clockwork, the tame UPS driver arrives and delivers the latest Print and Bind order. This is my second Print and Bind order and was delivered successfully and without any hitches. Gone are the uncertainties of design nuances being lost in translation and pdfs toing and froing from Italy. As all the design work is already sorted with the clients, all Italy is doing, is printing out the files . . . Seems simple enough but colour issues, density and sharpening seem to have all fallen into place, as well cracking the layout/artworking - not very scientific but correct and the results are great. Another order is almost ready to be delivered and will go later in the week, subject to final client approval. 

Now I have to decide what to do with the Whiskey - especially as I don't like and have never drunk the stuff!

Oldies but goldies . . .

Just back from a PR Shoot in South London that featured a group of Oldies! What a wonderful bunch of Senior Citizens - we would learn so much from these guys - if we listened!

Also interesting and challenging for me to shoot as two long tables were squeezed into just about enough space. Combine this with my lights, the subjects, their drivers and carers, Sharon and Sophie serving tea and everyone else - there wasn't much room to move! Again the SBs and Pocket Wizard combination came to the rescue - with three in one part/room and two in the other.

Exposures were good at 400 iso, 200th sec at f5. It all worked well and the lack of cables allowed me to squeeze between people and chairs to shoot a wide variety of images.

If there is one tip I can suggest  - is always be early . . . Sounds simple - but giving yourself that extra time to schmooze the client, offload the gear, park the car and still be in control of the clock, I feel is so important. In this case, I arrived at 130pm for a 3pm shoot - that 90 mins allowed me ample time to setup, test and to shoot still life images and other details all with control and an unflustered manner. So important with this shoot as so many people woud eventually be stuffed into such a small space!

Even the drive back from the deep South was relatively clear and stress free - I seem to be very lucky with traffic!