Well, firstly I’m hoping for a new me for this year. I decided that I have gained far too much weight over the past couple of years, and have embarked on a fitness and exercise regime in order to shed some of it, as well as modifying my diet. I have missed a few days, but I do feel better when I’ve done my exercises. I am exercising to a Rosemary Conley DVD, as I find that a good mix of aerobic and toning with not too much pain. Some of the DVDs I have purchased are a little too vigorous for me, at least for now. Hopefully the pounds will start to drop off soon and I will be able to get into a few more items of clothing that I haven’t been able to wear in ages.

Unfortunately, the other day I was doing some floor exercises, rolled over to get on my front, felt a twinge in my ribs when it touched the carpet, and it’s been very difficult to move about or get comfortable since. I went to the doctors this morning, but there isn’t  a lot you can do for rib injuries other than rest. A bit of a problem, in that I have booked a photography course at Aspire on Wednesday and I am driving up tomorrow and staying overnight. I’ve strapped a bandage round for some support, and it is feeling a bit more comfortable at the moment, so fingers crossed…

Secondly, I’m hoping that my business is going to move forward with greater speed than it has been doing, hence my decision to take advantage of the opportunity to do this course, when it was presented to me by the manager of the company via a discussion on LinkedIn. Aspire is one of the country’s top photographic training companies, so I am hoping that this will really push my business forward. I’ve been trying to get my services and products sorted out, but there is still a bit of juggling to do with regard to getting a maximum return on my investment of time and money.

Before Christmas I did a couple more free shoots for members of my networking group, and I also had a booking for a session with a family of six plus two dogs. That has resulted in a nice sale of images, but only on DVD rather than wall prints, but it was a start. I’ve decided not to post the session images on here any longer, so if you want to see the latest news on my business please visit and bookmark Image and Light Photography. You can also subscribe to the news feed from there if you wish. I just thought that it would increase my site traffic a bit, and get me higher up in Google. I’d be grateful for some links to the site from your sites, too, if you don’t mind. I’ve closed off commenting for now, as I have been getting a lot of spam, so I am looking into how to prevent that. I have got comment moderation on, but the spam/moderate folder was constantly having to be emptied, so I decided to switch it off for now.

We had a little trip to Knaresborough just before Christmas. The craft fair organiser at my last fair had bought one of my images for a friend and we didn’t get the replacement inks for our printer in time, so I had to have it printed at a lab and we ended up delivering it to her home in Harrogate, as posting wouldn’t have got it there in time. We then went on for a little stroll round Knaresborough, as we had never been there before, and we were also in need of some fresh air and exercise. It was a sunny but cold day, but we managed a walk along the river to the castle and then a little stroll round the town centre.

I also did some close-ups of this interesting door to use as background textures

Some of the riverside houses were built into the rock face

The river from the castle walls

At New Year we visited our friends in Lincoln for a New Year’s Eve party at their village hall. It was a good evening, with plenty of food and drink. We had a table of ten, and we all contributed some food and drink, but there was rather a lot and much was wasted. I didn’t actually drink that much, as I had started to feel a little nauseous early on in the evening. Before setting off that morning I had a slight headache, and Keith felt a little off, so we can only assume that it was something we both ate the day before. After seeing in the New Year we wandered back to the house where the merriment continued, but I was very sick and and then had to go straight to bed. I woke briefly when Keith came to bed, about 3.30am apparently, and then went straight back to sleep.

No comment!

The following morning, we became acquainted with their new chickens.

So, that’s me all caught up with recent news, I think. I’m hoping I can move around a bit better tomorrow and that I can get through the course day without any difficulties. We are shooting children – not in a bad way, of course – so it might be a bit fast-paced.

I had some more IT issues, when I managed to download something that messed up my computer and had to spend a week getting advice from a tech site to get rid of it. Not easy, as the site is US-based and the replies have a bit of a delay due to time differences, but it got sorted in the end. It was a bit worrying, as at about the same time someone tried (or succeeded, not sure) to get into my Facebook account. Apparently there was no sign of a keylogger on my system (according to the logs I had to post), but it was quite scary. All this from clicking on an innocent-looking link to a photographer’s website, and this was on LinkedIn, which is a reputable site. Whether the poster’s site had been compromised, or whether they joined LinkedIn to cause mayhem, I don’t know. I can’t really remember the site now, as it all happened very quickly. So, be careful what you click on, however innocent it seems.

While I’m on the topic of social media, I have disabled my @digibirder Twitter account, due to constant follow requests from dubious accounts. I have now set up follows to some of the Twits from that account using my @imageandlight account, so I hope I haven’t missed anyone. I think it will be far simpler keeping one account. I hardly visited that old account anyway, other than to block the unwanted followers.

I did another free photoshoot a couple of weeks ago – for a relative of a member of my network group. This was two sisters, aged 11 and 3, and we managed to get a few shots in the garden, despite the fact that it was cold and late in the afternoon so not brilliant light. The little one was quite a poser!

Last weekend I shot a session for a family of six (five adults and a four-year-old) and two dogs. I am still in the process of editing these to show the family. I took a few images inside then we went into the garden for a few shots, but it was a bit cold and windy so that didn’t take too long. Indoors I used a flashgun on a stand with a reflective umbrella to spread the light, but on reflection (pun alert) I should have used it as a shoot-through to diffuse the light more. I’ll post them at a later date.

After the photo session, we drove over to see our friends in Lincoln, as we had been invited to stay overnight, and take part in a Christmas meal and quiz at a nearby village. The evening was very good, and especially so as we won the first prize in the quiz! The prize was four bottles of wine, which we shared between us. The following morning we relaxed a little before heading into Lincoln for the Christmas Market. I wanted to go last year, but it was cancelled due to the snow. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the photos I wanted as it was very busy and there wasn’t a spare bit of pavement to stand on. There was a one-way system in place so you had to mooch along at a very slow pace all round the market and it was very difficult to stop at some stalls due to the crowds. Then, of course, you were stuck till someone else decided to move on. Madness. We had arrived a little early, so by the time the light was ideal for photography we were knackered, so we headed back and started preparing dinner, watched a bit of telly and then headed home.

Yesterday we had a stall at a craft fair in Wetherby, and this time, don’t faint, we made back the stand fee and a bit extra. We sold a mounted image to one of the organisers wanting a Yorkshire Dales image for a friend who has just moved into that area, and then a large mounted image of a wild flower meadow. Oh, and two greetings cards. So, a successful day for a change. I have booked one more fair – same place, same organisers – in March, and that one is a craft/art exhibition, which is something new they are trying. I think if that one produces poor results I will call it a day on the fairs. Although I don’t quite know what to do with all the stock I have. I will probably have to try and sell the stuff on eBay or via my website. It’s been a lot of trouble and expense for very little return. I didn’t expect it to make a fortune, but it’s been dire. I suppose I lost the real purpose of the fairs, and that was as a vehicle to promote the portraiture business, but I didn’t do very well at local fairs (probably didn’t give it chance) and stupidly moved further afield, where it wasn’t practical to offer portrait sessions as the distance to travel would not make it worthwhile.

Anyway, things seem to be moving in the right direction now, after some false starts and hesitation on my part. I still have a long way to go, but at least I know what’s required – more practice, mainly.

Since my last post I have progressed a little on the business front. I did manage to get my first portrait session done, and then had another one booked with a member of my networking group. These two were just for the children of the members, but there are two other members wanting a session, and a relative of one of those has booked a session, which I am doing next weekend. And since announcing on Facebook and Twitter that I was offering free photoshoots in order to build my portfolio, I’ve had another enquiry for a family shoot of four adults, which will be in December.

The first session, with a very confident three-year-old, was a bit hit-and-miss as it was quite sunny, causing hard shadows – not the most flattering light. And the session was held in their small garden so there wasn’t really space to get a suitable background in the best light. Also had to watch out for the chickens running around! Anyway, at least I’ve made a start and I managed to assess what to do and what not to do for next time. Now that the first ones are in the bag I feel a bit more confident. It’s certainly different from shooting models on a workshop!

It was a little windy and she had very flyaway hair!

I had to postpone the second session due to bad weather, but the rescheduled date wasn’t a lot better. At least it wasn’t bright sunshine, but it would have helped to have had at least some direction of light. I think I need more practice on creating a direction of light when there isn’t any. It was a bit damp and dull, but we managed to find a corner of the park where some colourful autumn leaves had fallen. This was a three-year-old girl and her 18-month-old brother. The little boy was a bit hesitant, but soon cheered up when mum threw some leaves about.

Back at the house with some window light

I’ve decided to go ahead and offer the photo restoration services, so we’ve invested in a scanner and I am going to get on with scanning some of my old prints, negatives and slides. I bought an excellent book on various recovery techniques, so that should get me going.

Keith has been having some issues with his computer, with blue screens coming up and slow performance. I tried to scan the drive for errors and managed to get it going again, but this week there was another blue screen and it just would not boot up, even in safe mode. I tried a trick I read about on a forum some years ago, of putting the hard drive in the freezer for a few hours. I did this with a hard drive at work, and was advised to work quickly to get any important data backed up before it failed again once it warmed up. That drive continued for another two years. Unfortunately, Keith’s failed again a few hours later. A new hard drive might have been an option, but as happened with my machine a little while ago, the rest of the components were also quite old, so it’s like trying to make a silk purse from a sow’s ear. With that in mind, a trip to PC World resulted in a brand new shiny PC and monitor! I could have made one myself, but the price of components compared to ready-made these days make it hardly worthwhile, unless you really need to specify certain components. And it’s a question of time. With so much happening in our businesses now, we felt we just needed to get it sorted quickly.

So, that’s it for now.

When I arrived I was told by the organiser that there was to be only two of us on the workshop! They couldn’t cancel it as they had already cancelled another one recently and they can’t be seen to cancel too many. So myself and a chap named Dave had the tutor to ourselves for the day – and it was a fantastic day. I’m sure I wouldn’t have gained as much had there been the usual numbers there. The speaker and his wife had stayed overnight, SWPP had paid for the room hire, and they hired two models for the morning session, all for two people paying a bargain £80 for the day. So it was fairly informal and we had the chance to ask lots of questions and benefit from a personalised tutorial geared to our level of experience.

The morning was spent in the room learning studio lighting with the two models, then after lunch a real family arrived (related to the organiser) and we had the chance to take child and family portraits. We finished the day off with a discussion covering marketing, networking, pricing, etc, and finished much later than we should have, but the speaker was quite willing to help with anything we were asking.

The only downside was the room we were in. The hotel (Rothley Court Hotel) had their other conference rooms booked, so we had to go into the chapel, which had no heating whatsoever. When it came to the afternoon family shoot in the hotel grounds, it was actually warmer outside!

I was a little intrigued by the window being behind the roof trusses

Matt was quite serious and moody looking, so I thought this suited B&W

They knew each other, but are not a couple

E was not on her best behaviour

M was a little better, being older

Thought I’d try a B&W effect on this one

M was a more willing model

E just kept acting up

So, the afternoon was very helpful in learning how to deal with real children, rather than models. Which will stand me in good stead for tomorrow, when I have a session booked with a couple and their three-year-old daughter (if they confirm it’s still on). This will be my first ‘official’ portrait session, which I booked with a woman from a new networking group I joined. I offered a free shoot for network members and she took advantage of the offer. It’s all a bit up in the air at the moment, as I haven’t been able to contact her today to finalise the arrangements.

Keith has also been progressing with his framing. When he went on his framing course in Wales a few weeks ago, he was hoping to learn about framing various items of memorabilia, but the tutor was not experienced enough himself to teach that very well, and so it was really a bit of a waste of time and money. Since then, Keith has been researching and practising and has now worked out the best way to do this, and he has now managed to frame the football shirt and medals that his sister gave him to take to Wales. The shirt has been delivered back to them, as it belongs to their son, but Keith now has the medals, which were his father’s war medals. Both items needed a deep frame and so are very fiddly and time-consuming to do, but I think he has mastered this very well.

We stayed on the Caravan Club site in Hawes, which is in Wensleydale (close to where we went for the day the other week), and it was in a very nice location on the edge of the village. Once we had set up the camper, we wandered into the village for some provisions, and then returned to relax before having our evening meal.

I had hoped for some nice sunrise and sunset images, but in the end I didn’t feel like rising early so we opted for just the sunsets. Having worked out where the sun would be setting, we walked around the local area to get into a good position. Unfortunately, there were some distant hills in the way, and the sky was too clear to give any good cloud colour. We returned to the campsite and went over to the facility block to wash the pots from our meal, but when we emerged from the washroom the sky had turned into a wonderful pinky hue! Unfortunately it was a bit too late, and dark, to get the gear ready again, so that one was missed.

When we camp in the summer, the daylight hours are much longer, and although we are tired, it just seems strange going to bed when there is still some light in the sky. However, now that the days are much shorter, it was going dark at about 7pm. Now that is too early to go to bed, but trying to read my book in the cosy camper was near impossible, as I was quite tired and kept nodding off. By about 8.30pm I was really struggling, so I decided I was just going to have to get ready for bed. Keith decided he was getting rather tired too, so by 9pm we were in bed, with lights out, ready for nodding off. Not unsurprisingly, it didn’t take long before I was fast asleep. What did surprise me was the time we woke up the following morning, which was around 7am. I had woken briefly during the night, changed position, and then fell asleep again straight away. I think it’s the best night’s sleep I’ve had in ages – certainly better than some nights at home in a large comfy bed. Anyway, that certainly put a stop to any thoughts of sunrise photos! Not that there would have been much colour, as the sky was a clear, cloudless blue.

We decided to walk from the campsite to Hardraw Force, a waterfall in a nearby village. In fact, it’s England’s highest unbroken waterfall, and access to it is through a pub in the village where you have to pay a small fee. On the way, there was a nice view back to the village of Hawes in the early(ish) light. The nice thing about the shorter days is that you still get long shadows even when it’s gone past the normal early morning and late evening ‘Golden Hours’ for photography. A little while ago I found a source of free presets to add to Lightroom and I downloaded one called Magic Hour Power, which gives a special effect to images taken during those Golden Hour times, so I thought I would give it a try on this image. The original, albeit also edited to some extent, is there for comparison.

With preset applied

As well as lugging my camera gear with me, I had also taken my tripod, as I knew it would be quite low-light conditions at the waterfall and I would not be able to hand-hold so easily, so with the heat and the sun beating down, I was a little frazzled by the time we arrived. It was a little cooler in the shade of the woodland, but then we were out in the open again for the return to the campsite.

A section of the Pennine Way going into Hardraw

Looking downstream from the falls

Another experiment in B&W

Looking back to Hardraw on the climb up to our return footpath

Towards the end, we did manage to cut the walk short, as I was almost ready to collapse by this time. Note to self: must get fitter. On this short cut, I spotted a good viewpoint for possible sunset images, so we drove back round later on in the evening – after our delicious barbecued sausages. However, with the skies being clear again, as you can see from the first two images from earlier in the day, there wasn’t really much of a sunset to shout about, even when enhanced with graduated neutral density filters.

After another good sleep, we had bacon and eggs for breakfast before heading off for a drive. It was still too warm to do another long walk so we decided to stick to short strolls from the car. First stop on the list was West Burton Falls, which is probably one of my favourite waterfalls. I have numerous images from previous visits, but I couldn’t resist taking more.

Magic Hour preset applied here

We then just did a bit of a tour round to see if we could spot any more potential images. I have a craft fair in December, and when I did the last fair, one of the organisers mentioned that she had a friend moving to Wensleydale and would like a photo of the area to give her as a gift, so it was with this in mind that I thought I would look for some nice scenic images. The Yorkshire Dales is known for the number of barns scattered throughout the area, so we were looking out for a viewpoint that would show this feature to good effect. Driving through the village of Aysgarth (also known for some nice waterfalls), we spotted a barn with freshly-painted red doors. We know it was fresh, as we passed this barn on the day we arrived at the campsite and we would certainly have noticed the colour had it been painted then.

With Bolton Castle visible in the background

Later, we went to take another look at Lady Hill (as photographed in my previous post), but didn’t really come away with anything spectacular, although the sky was a lot better than on the previous visit. We parked in a layby and ate our sandwiches, then walked a short way along the river to get closer, but did not see any real potential.

We then drove to the village of Bainbridge and called in to the tearoom for a scone and a pot of tea before heading back to the campsite.

On the campite there were signs of autumn showing, with several varieties of mushroom sprouting. Another camper was picking some of them for cooking. I overheard him telling someone else that they were safe, so I presumed he knew what he was doing. Behind our camper I found this little group against a tree (not sure if they’re edible or not), and I liked the backlighting from the late sunlight. I added some fill-light from a silver reflector to boost the shadow side.

Later that evening we went into Hawes for some fish and chips, then drove back to Bainbridge where earlier we had spotted a likely viewpoint for a sunset. Again the sky had been clear all day, so this was not as spectacular as I’d hoped for, but the colour was enhanced by the use of graduated neutral density filters.

Friday was again a very hot day, but we spent the morning packing up to come home and set off around midday, arriving home mid-afternoon after a very hot journey. All being well, we might get another chance to get away for a few days before packing up for the winter.

The framing shop is in Oldham, near Manchester, so we spent a while there and then headed up the motorway into the Rossendale valley. We used to live in this damp, dark place, in a village not far from Rawtenstall. We had a drive round and looked at a few familiar haunts, including where we used to live, and then stopped off for some lunch in a local pub – The Woolpack – not somewhere we had been before, but it looked nice enough, and the board outside said their home-made pies had won awards. So in we went, and we were not disappointed. Mine was a Guiness and Stilton pie with chips and mushy peas and was delicious. Keith ordered the steak and kidney, but when it turned up it was chicken curry! Someone had moved the pies on the shelf and mixed them up. They did get him the proper one and all was well. We got a free pot of tea for the inconvenience.

One reason for revisiting this area was to take a look at some strange art installations that have been erected in the past few years. There are four Panopticons in various locations around Lancashire, but we managed to visit two – the Halo near Haslingden and the Singing Ringing Tree near Burnley. It was a shame that the weather was not too good – in fact is was blowing a gale and felt like the middle of winter high up on those moors – but I managed to get some photos. I would have liked to have visited the Halo later in the evening, as it lights up at night. You can see some images of that via the links above. I will have to have another trip sometime when it’s a bit warmer.

The Singing Ringing Tree is made of hollow tubes which make weird noises in the wind – it was a bit spooky and I wouldn’t like to be there at night! It doesn’t light up, so it would be pointless anyway.

On Friday we went (yet again) into the Yorkshire Dales – Wensleydale to be precise. Again, the weather did not quite live up to the predictions, but then it hardly ever does when we venture out, seemingly! Still, I managed to get some decent shots, but nothing spectacular. The pub lunch we had was OK, but not as nice as the one we had a few days before. The weather did start to improve on the way home, but it was too late to do anything more, and we were shattered anyway, so we came straight home to relax.

The Halo – couldn’t really get it all in as there was a repair van parked right at one of the legs!

A very miserable and cold Lancashire day

Keith trying to play a tune!

Wensleydale

The sun did shine briefly – very briefly!

A rather featureless sky!

I looked at it in Firefox and had no problem seeing the ad or the comments. Keith is still having issues today, so it’s not a temporary issue. It seems that Internet Explorer might have some issue with these adverts, as I briefly saw an error message flag up before the page loaded. This is possibly due to some scripts in the ad. So, anyone viewing the blog in IE may not be able to leave comments, unless Keith’s issue is connected with some other problem.

I hadn’t noticed this ad before, as it does not appear when I am logged in to the blog, but I can definitely see it when not logged in. I thought it was a recent addition, and there are lots of recent comments regarding this on the WordPress forums, but some posts go back a couple of years, so it’s obviously been happening for some time. I have noticed a small banner ad occasionally, but these are huge square and obtrusive ads. The reasoning for the ads is, of course, for revenue, as they are providing these blogging platforms for free and have to pay for that somehow. I could pay a fee to remove the ads, but I have chosen not to take this option. WordPress say they only display these ads to a small percentage of viewers so it’s hard to tell how many people see them.

My only worry is that something inappropriate will appear, as has happened with some people. The ads are apparently relevant to certain keywords in the text, so I’d better be careful what I post!

Please note that any ads you see on this blog are placed here by WordPress.com. I have no connection to or financial interest in any of the promoted products and gain no income from any advertising displayed on this blog.

We both had a trip down to Northampton the other week, to take part in a free course offered by the framing supplier where Keith bought his latest equipment. This course was to learn about ways to protect images prior to framing them, namely to encapsulate them with see-through film, either using a hot press machine or a cold roller system. It was very interesting, and probably useful information, but the machines cost quite a lot, so it will have to wait for now.

We went down a day before the course, so that we wouldn’t have to get up too early for the long journey, and booked into a cheap hotel for the night. On the day we went down, there was a balloon festival and fair, so we went there prior to booking into the hotel. It was the final day of the festival, so a lot of the balloon owners had gone, leaving only the local groups. In the afternoon they had a ‘tethering’ where they inflate the balloons – sometimes in order to test them and dry them out – but they do not take off. There was due to be a flight that evening, but we didn’t go back, and it turned out that it was cancelled anyway. The highlight was the previous evening, when they have a ‘glow’ where all the balloons are lit up inside. I will have to try and get to one of those.

Keith also decided that he needed some more advanced training, and so booked on a course with a framer in north Wales. This was not cheap either, but it sounded as if he would learn a lot, including some business advice. He explained what he needed and the chap said that he could sort him out. It was a residential course which included bed and breakfast, and it was decided that he would need three days. I decided to go along for the ride, paying extra for my bed and breakfast cost, and took myself off to some local beauty spots to take photos while Keith was having his lessons.

As it turned out, the tutor did not really give Keith what he needed, and seemed to have his own ways to solve the framing issues, rather than passing on industry-standard knowledge. And he seemed to do everything the cheapest way rather than the correct way. His business advice was next to useless, as he had a way out of date pricing tool and basically just seems to pluck numbers out of the air for his framing customers. And on top of the cost of the course, he even has the cheek to charge extra for the materials used. I was asked if I wanted to have lunch (Keith’s was included in the price), which I did on two occasions, but they failed to inform me that it was an extra £5 per lunch, which we only discovered when we were handed the extras list when we checked out. So, Keith is not best pleased at the moment, and is drafting a long email to tell him what he thinks. Whether he’ll get any refund remains to be seen. He might also be placing a review on the sites where he advertises these courses. I think if you are a brand new framer and go away with six or eight basic frames, you might be reasonably happy, but he completely messed up trying to frame some of Keith’s dad’s medals, and was completely flustered by trying to frame a football shirt, having only ever done one himself. This never got done, and the medal framing is not complete, so Keith is having to learn how to do them both another way now.

We’ve currently got scaffolding being erected round the back of the house. The solar panel company are changing the panels for some more powerful ones, so that they get more money from the government scheme, and we get more solar power to use. Obviously there was some issue with the current panels not producing enough. Still, we have already made savings on electricity costs as compared with the same period last year, so hopefully we will save even more with the new panels.

Here are some images from the past few weeks.

Balloon Festival

This was a small balloon compared to some others

There wasn’t much wind, but they were still struggling

Then for the big one! This was tethered to three 4x4s to keep it from taking off

The top has these panels which are adjustable by the pilot when they want to descend

Didn’t stay up long before the decided to abandon the exercise

Wales

The weather was OK, but the skies were totally blank and grey for the most part. There were glimmers of brightness, but this didn’t last very long. However, I made the most of my trips out and hopefully have a few nice images.

Some blustery weather at Rhos-on-sea

A peaceful corner at Bodnant Gardens

And lots of colour

Llyn Crafnant, after a very hairy drive up a single-track road!

Conwy Falls near Betws-y-coed

Saw plenty of this alien invasive Himalayan balsam everywhere

Found this stone circle in Llanrwst, but it dates from 1951, erected for an eisteddfod

On a detour to an ancient chapel, a mother peahen came to the car with her five chicks, hoping for some scraps no doubt, which I didn’t have, but they hung around the car for some time

The falls at Betws-y-coed

Snowdon in the mist – to the left of the peak you can see

The following day in better weather

Swallow Falls near Betws-y-coed

The river running down from the falls – decided to try some black and white

Swallow Falls from another viewpoint

Reflections in Llynnau Mymbyr near Plas Y Brenin Mountain Centre

Peaks of Snowdonia over Llynnau Mymbyr

Llyn Gwynant from the Snowdon viewpoint

I haven’t really done much else over the past few weeks, but we did go up to York to take a look at a craft fair at the venue where I was due to go in November for two days. We spoke to a chap we’ve seen at a couple of other fairs, and he was at the one we did in Harrogate the previous week. He wasn’t doing much better at York, possibly due to the location of the venue, and so we’ve made the decision to cancel that one. I didn’t want to spend almost £100 and get very little sales again – it was too much of a risk in our current financial situation. I will still do the one in Wetherby in December – that’s only one day and a lot cheaper, and being nearer to Christmas we might just be lucky and get some good sales.

The priority really has to be getting started with my main objective – taking portraits and other commissions – so with that in mind, I have booked onto a couple more workshops in the next month or two. Keith has also decided to do another course, and is booked into a one-to-one with a framer in Wales, so we’re off there in a couple of weeks. They do bed and breakfast as well, so it will be a nice little break. I’ll go off taking some photos while Keith has his lessons. The course involves more advanced framing jobs, and also some business and marketing. Hopefully we’ll both then be raring to go.

Apart from the trip to York, we haven’t really moved very much, but we did have a little jaunt up to the Yorkshire Dales last week. I wasn’t actually feeling too good, but needed to get out for some fresh air. Keith had to call and collect some mountboard first, so we stopped off there and then carried on into the Dales. We were intending to fit in another location later, but I had had enough by mid-afternoon so we drove home. I didn’t really have a lot of enthusiasm, so I only took half a dozen images all day. At least we noted down some interesting locations for future reference. I need to get some images of that area ready for the fair in December.

So, here’s some random images from the last few weeks.

Semer Water – Wensleydale, the largest natural lake in Yorkshire

River Ouse, York

The Shambles, York

York Minster

The Rose Window, York Minster

Had a bit of a play with the macro lens in the garden – Alchemilla Mollis leaf with raindrops

I had been thinking of restoring old photos as one of the services I offer, but at the moment I don’t have a scanner so I’m unable to practise on my own images, but I asked permission and managed to have a bit of a play with some old images belonging to Pete that he posted on his blog a little while ago. I didn’t take too long with these, but with a bit more practice I’m sure I’ll get it a lot better.

Corrected white balance, cloned out a few spots and then sharpened

Repaired cracks using clone tool and healing tool, white balance, sharpen

Cloned out some spots and the strange light effect along the top, white balance, sharpen. For the final image I added an Action for PS Elements that I downloaded which is supposed to add some ‘pop’ to colour portrait images, but here I think it gives a nice sepia-type effect – hope you like them, Pete

I did intend the craft fairs to be an outlet for promoting portrait work, but this also has not produced the desired effect, mainly due to the fact that we moved away from local events to those a little further afield, and so it was not practical to offer portrait services in a place that would take me the best part of an hour to get to. Anyway, towards the end of Sunday, when we had sold the grand total of one greetings card (sold ten cards on Saturday – woo-hoo!), a woman approached the stall and started talking to us. She soon mentioned that she was a professional photographer in business together with her husband taking portraits and weddings, and she proceeded to pass on lots of advice about what to do, where to go, who to approach, etc., much of which we had already thought of. But she did say that I should concentrate and build on the landscape photography, and commented that I obviously had the talent in that area, and to forget portraits. Now, this is all well and good, but I have read that landscape photography is a hard way to earn a living, and most other landscape photographers do have other strings to their bows, like running workshops, writing books, etc., and there are so many landscape photographers trying to make a living from their work that it is hard to get a foothold in this area unless you really stand out from the rest, which I don’t.

Anyway, we chatted for some time, and she took some details and said she would keep in touch. The following day I had an email from her with more advice. Having looked at my new website, she concluded that my people photographs are not very good. Well, I knew that, but I was hoping that a bit more practice would help. She also mentioned that our stand was not that well set-up, and that we were also in a bad position, with a large window behind us – something I will mention for my next fairs. We need to look at the contents of the stand, and position the best work more prominently. It was a bit difficult as we only had a 6ft stall, but I have booked a larger one for the next fair, so we will be able to spread out the framed photos a bit more. We are also going to make the framed work more consistent, perhaps using only white mountboard and a simple black frame. I may even ditch the greetings cards and concentrate on getting a more cohesive collection of framed and just mounted images together. Essentially, we really need to make more effort to get things right before November.

On the subject of framing, Keith has been getting more and more disheartened with the results of his venture. Although many of the frames have been very good, it’s taken too long to get it right and he’s had lots of wastage. So he decided to get some professional equipment, and ditch the hobby-framer stuff he bought from the school of framing where he did his course. He did some research and we ended up driving down to Northampton the other week to take a look at a framing supplies place that has second-hand equipment as well as new stuff. We had demos of the equipment, but came away empty-handed to think about it. After a bit more playing with the equipment we already have, it was decided that the mount-cutter was OK, and that the best thing to start with would be just the underpinner. So we drove down again a couple of days later to pick that up (a new machine), but when we arrived the chap mentioned that he had just finished the refurb of a second-hand frame guillotine and it was there in front of us, and it was ready to go – he was certainly a good salesman! – so Keith decided to go ahead.

Keith and the salesman eventually managed to get both these very heavy machines into the back of the car, and somehow Keith and I managed to get them out again once we arrived home! The guillotine is cast iron and weighs about 90kg. The underpinner is rather lighter, thank goodness. The wheelbarrow came in handy to get things into the house and they are all set up now. The difference in the finish of the frame is amazing. So Keith now feels more confident that he can produce a good job for his customers, once the jobs start rolling in!

His first job, although with the old equipment, was four prints to frame for our friends, which have turned out very well. Keith actually wants to do them again, but our friends are happy with them and don’t want him to waste the materials.

The new equipment in the workshop (dining room)

I’ve also been getting some new equipment. As Keith did not need to upgrade the mount-cutter, it was decided that I should have a new computer. After spending the best part of a week trying to get my old machine into shape, it did sound as if the hard drive was on its last legs, as I predicted in my last post. Instead of being quicker, having had a complete reinstall, it was actually much slower, and the hard drive light was staying on a lot of the time – never a good sign. It was really struggling, and I could hardly use Lightroom and Photoshop Elements – the very things I would be using the most. I suppose I could have simply bought a new hard drive, but the rest of the system is about three years old, so everything would still be running at the speed of the oldest components.

I could have bought all the components and built my own computer, but ready-built computers do not work out that much more than self-build these days, so I decided to save time and get a ready-made one. It’s a Dell machine and it’s no slouch when it comes to processing power and memory. The only issue is that it has Windows 7, so I am also trying to get my head around that, having been a Windows XP user for quite some time. It’s slowly sinking in, and I actually quite like some of the different features. It’s certainly much better than Vista, which I promptly took off our laptop and ‘downgraded’ back to XP.

The main change is that it does not have Outlook Express, but I think there is a way to get all my old OE messages onto the current offering, which is Windows Live Mail. I can also combine my web-mail accounts into this programme, apparently, keeping everything in one place. Need to figure that one out.

In all this mayhem, I did manage to get my new website updated, although it is still a work-in-progress, but at least I now have something there, albeit quite basic at the moment.

I hope to be out taking more photos this week, if the weather behaves, as I need to get more images suitable for the craft fairs, and that are taken in the area surrounding the location of the fair. So that means a trip to the North York Moors for the York fair, and the Yorkshire Dales for the Wetherby fair. This will hopefully make the images more saleable to both locals and tourists.