richardhobsonphotography.co.uk

I’ve just come across a great blog post about Table Planning. I’ve seen plenty of table plans in my time and quite often they are taken for granted. But who do you sit with who?

A quick quote

“Wedding planning can be fun but at times very stressful. I am sure, that for most couples, drawing up the table plan belongs to the stressful category. But remember there are no hard and fast rules you have to stick to, unless you want to of course. Today’s blog aims to give you tips and ideas to help you enjoy the whole experience and to hopefully make the whole process easier.”

Click the link to go to the blog page and find out all the details.

Have fun.

http://www.theweddinggenie.co.uk/inspiration/table-plans-made-easy/

Richard

http://www.richardhobsonphotography.co.uk

It’s an opportunity to have a photoshoot in various locations before you clean and put away your dress forever.

It actually doesn’t “trash” the dress. Usually it’s just getting a bit wet on the beach or a bit muddy at the most.

The trend started in america but it’s becoming more popular in the UK.

Imagine the locations around Wales we could use for some brilliant photographs.

It’s one of , if no the most, important day of your life. And you’d like to remember it with some great photographs that capture the day right?

That’s what we aim to do.

There are two main types of Wedding Photography that are the most common styles around.

The first is the traditional approach of posed photographs and portraiture. The second is Reportage, sometimes called candid or natural photography. The latter style relies on capturing solely the events as they transpire. The looks on peoples faces, the emotion, the progression of the day.

I don’t know the style the photographer was going for in this articles but whatever it was, he didn’t quite pull it off and made some basic mistakes in both the taking of and the post processing of the photographs before presenting them to the client.

Here’s the link to the article.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/132280/Our-wedding-day-pictures-disaster#

What really surprises me and indicated a complete lack of customer empathy and service is the fact that this ever got to court in the first place.

If the photographer was not competent then he shouldn’t have taken on the event. If he had concerns about the sub contractor who shot the video then he should not have employed him.

Faced with the results and unhappy customers the first thing should have been to discuss how he could put things right.

Stories like this always make me take a long hard think and look at how I do things.

Would we deliver a set of images to a client like that? No. We wouldn’t even take them in the first place. They wouldn’t make the first edit.

We make sure our clients know our style, which is a mixture of traditional and candid. We always show complete Wedding albums to prospective clients so that they can see the whole collection of photographs from the wedding.

We never “sub out” a function to another photographer. We just don’t want to take the risk which could ultimately ruin our reputation.

We check out locations before hand so we know where we’ll be so we don’t miss the important shots through the day.

Above all we put the customer first.

Richard

So some of the stuff below is not as pertinent as it is to PC users. But we should all take care!

I didn’t put the stuff below together but it is good advice!

10 ways you can protect your computer in 2009
With a growing number of cyber criminals trying to infiltrate computers by stealth, ESET have drawn up a list of sensible precautions that people should take to protect themselves and their machines in 2009. Simply following the below advise will substantially reduce the chances of a successful attack.

1. Disable Autorun in Windows: this facility is consistently exploited by criminals that use USB storage devices such as flash memory sticks and even digital photo frames, to infect computers.
2. Keep applications and Operating System (eg: Windows, MAC) components up-to-date with automatic updates and patches, and by regularly reviewing the vendors’ product update sections on their web sites.
3. Log on to the computer with an account that does not have “Administrator” privileges, to reduce the likelihood and severity of damage from self-installing malicious software.
4. Use different passwords for the computer and on-line services. Also practice changing passwords on a regular basis and avoid simple passwords, especially those that are easily guessed.
5. Do not trust unsolicited files or embedded links, even from friends. It’s easy to spoof email addresses, for instance, or to disguise a harmful link so that it looks like something quite different, whether it’s in email, chat or whatever.
6. Do not disclose sensitive information on public websites like FaceBook or LinkedIn. Even information that in itself is innocuous can be combined with other harmless information and used in social engineering attacks.
7. If sensitive information is stored on the hard drive, protect it with encryption and by regularly backing up your data to a separate disk and, where possible, a remote site or facility.
8. Do not expect antivirus alone to protect the computer. Use additional measures such as a personal firewall, antispam and anti-phishing toolbars. However, be aware that there is a lot of fake security software out there, and sometimes even the best protection might not protect as well as common sense and caution.
9. Do not connect to just any “free Wi-Fi” access point. It might be the “evil twin” of a legitimate access point, set up to intercept your logins and online transactions.
10. Do not use cracked/pirated software! These are easy avenues for introducing malware into, or exploiting weaknesses in a system. This also includes P2P (peer-to-peer) illegally distributed audio and video files.

These are a great way to capture memories of before you are married. You can chose a location that is special to you both of you or base your shoot in a studio. You could involve your family or just have the two of you.

Whatever you decide it’s a great way to remember those “courting” days.

Here’s an example montage from a recent shoot.

I’ve just put a new video online showcasing some of the photo’s from a recent stock shoot.

You can see the entire stock portfolio at www.istockphoto.com/richhobson

If you want to be a model for stock or commission stock work then go to the stock section of my website at www.richardhobsonphotography.co.uk

Enjoy the video!

I’m pleased to announce that Richard Hobson Photography is now able to set up a viewing station system to allow you and your guests to view a preview of your Wedding Photographs at your Wedding Reception.

Here is the set up at a recent Wedding Reception at Maes Manor hotel in Blackwood, South Wales.

Using our event viewing screens guests can even select photographs to purchase on the night if they wish.

In addition to this we can also set up a photo booth where guests can have portraits taken which they can view on the system within minutes!

It really adds a sense of fun to the event.

We attended Fishguard show on 8th August 2009 taking photographs of as many of the classes exhibiting and competing as we could.

It was a fantastic day. The weather was great (I’m a little sunburnt).

A full gallery of images is online now at

www.richardhobsoneventphotography.co.uk

Click on the “your galleries” link to go the Galley.

Richard Hobson Event Photography can cover your Events for Free. We provide on site printing and Web Galleries enabling visitors, competitors and exhibitors to view or purchase photographs from the day.

We cover a whole host of different events such as

• Equestrian
• Agricultural
• Charity Balls
• Dinner Dances
• School Proms

We cover events across South Wales and the South West of the UK

Call us on 02920 860 100 or view details at our website.

www.richardhobsoneventphotography.co.uk

My Memory Card Backup Unit

If you’re after peace of mind for yourself or your client then a key area to ensure you have a contingency plan is that of digital files.

My thoughts have always been to have many cards rather than a couple of massive ones. So I carry a couple of 8GB, a few 4GB, a few 2GB and a few 1GB cards.

I then break down any assignment into key stages. Taking a Wedding shoot as an example.

• Bridal Preparation
• Church before ceremony
• During Ceremony
• After Ceremony
• Reception
• Evening Party

Each separate section gets it’s own memory card. After each section has been photographed the Memory card goes straight into a portable backup unit. It’s a simple device with a CF card slot and a built in 80GB hard drive. It has a screen to show the progress of the backup.

This ensures that within half an hour or so of each section there is two copies of each section of the day. I never re-format or re-use the CF cards during an assignment. Once backed up the CF Cards go in a pocket on my person. The backup unit stays with me too.

So actually I do use the unit. The part I haven’t had to use yet is transferring the files from it to the computer.

Once the CF cards are on the computer and backed up the small unit can be re-formatted. The CF cards don’t get formatted until the next job - giving plenty of time to ensure the copy and backup I have on the computer are reliable!

There are a couple of drawbacks. The device I use is quite slow - taking half an hour to backup a card is not out of the ordinary. But putting it in an inside pocket to do it’s job is fine.  Having an internal battery means it’s rechargeable but for a full days work you need to take the mains adapter. I have a 12 volt to mains converter in my van so that’s not a problem though. I must feature the converter too - it’s a great piece of kit and very useful.

More stuff I hope I don’t need soon!

Richard

www.richardhobsonphotography.co.uk

www.richardhobsoneventphotography.co.uk

I’ve just launched a new mini site to focus on Event Photography. I think it was getting lost on the main Richard Hobson Photography site.

Event photography is about being able to cover all types of events from School Prom’s to Charity Balls, Conferences, Award Nights, Dinner Dances, even Wedding Receptions.

We set up a mobile studio and print out the photographs on the night using top quality dye sublimation printers.

And best of all the attendance at your event is usually FREE !!

Check out the full details at

www.richardhobsoneventphotography.co.uk

Cheers all

Richard

www.richardhobsonphotography.co.uk