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A few weeks ago I went to see this year’s show from Richard Herring, ”What is love, anyway?” at The Lights in Andover. Although Richard didn’t think the show went down very well, I enjoyed it. It was a more thought-provoking and personal show than the previous ones I’ve seen, made all the more poignant as he had just got back from his honeymoon. There were some touching moments in the show, which was devoid of much of his usual bluster. It was a refreshing change for a comedian who specialises in playing myriad different versions of himself.

The following week I got a call from the Theatre Royal in Winchester, saying that there had been a return for Stewart Lee’s show. I had tried to book a few months ago but the show had already sold out, so went on the waiting list. Some poor so-and-so wasn’t able to go, so just one week after watching Richard Herring live I was watching the other half of the erstwhile comedy duo.

I’d not visited this theatre before. It’s an impressive space, not large but very ornate. The show was great, although it’s hard to explain why. Stewart’s style is confrontational and he deliberately divides the audience. The first ten minutes consisted of a stream of uncomfortable put-downs directed at a woman in the front row, who couldn’t work out how to turn her phone off. The material must have been used before but I still can’t work out if the whole thing was a set up.

I bought the Fist of Fun Series 1 DVD set after Richard’s show and he signed it. I remembered to take it to Stewart’s show too. So after seeing Herring and Lee, I can now watch Lee and Herring whenever I want.

OggCamp is an unconference, which means the people who come along determine what happens. The event is aimed at anyone with an interest in technology, creating and sharing. It’s a bit chaotic and a bit random but always a lot of fun. Last year there were people juggling with fire, people soldering circuit boards and some 3D printing going on.

There were also a lot of talks, on a range of subjects. As with last year, there will be a scheduled programme of speakers on the main stage and other rooms available for volunteered talks. I don’t know who is on the schedule yet, but I know there’s a lot of effort going in to finding some great speakers.

I’m not involved in organising this year’s event, having decided to concentrate on my wedding photography business, but I know it’s in safe hands with the rest of the team. And I’m going to do my best to be there. Last year, tickets were snapped up very quickly, so get one while you can!

Taking direct legal action against a domain or site that breaks the law feels legitimate, but getting ISPs to block access doesn’t. It takes the moral decision out of the hands of the individual. I don’t agree with the heavy handed actions of the media industry lobbying groups either, whose calculations always assume that everyone who downloads a movie illicitly both a) would have purchased it otherwise and b) hasn’t purchased it.

Some will point out that The Pirate Bay, and other sites like it, aren’t responsible for the files that are distributed through the site by their users. Or that torrent sites distribute links to legitimate content, like Ubuntu. However, it’s obvious that a significant proportion (if not the vast majority) of downloads available through The Pirate Bay facilitate the illicit redistribution of content. It’s a piece of cheap misdirection, akin to the second hand car salesman who proudly points to the only car on the forecourt that actually has an MOT as a shining example of his wares.

Others will say that it’s an inevitable consequence of market forces, of technology responding to consumer demand faster than the music and movie industries have. They will also point out that technological blocks can usually be circumvented easily by anyone with some know-how. I suspect that the ISPs know this too, but have to co-operate with the process. Blocking The Pirate Bay won’t have a massive effect, some other site will jump to prominence. But it’s a worrying glimpse into the future of Internet access in the UK.

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For a 1920s/1930s theme wedding, Helen and Jeff couldn’t have found a more perfect venue than the Gatsby in Berkhampstead. It originally opened in 1938 as a cinema and its foyer and dining hall are still resplendent in the original art deco fittings. A lot of effort had clearly been put into the details, with Jeff putting his skills as a graphic artist to good use creating versions of vintage film posters featuring the couple in place of the original artistes.

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The reception was a swinging affair, with live piano accompaniment and lots of Pimms!

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It was a very relaxed and fun day and I’m grateful to Helen and Jeff for letting me share it with them! You can see more on my wedding photography site.

I want a device onto which I can load a large number of images, sorted into albums, then run a slideshow with nice smooth transitions to show to prospective wedding photography clients. Let’s say that I had a couple of hundred images but would also want to be able to add new images or remove old ones fairly easily.

Preferring the Open Source option, I tried a couple of Android tablets including the Asus EeePad Transformer. Getting the images onto the device was easy: I just pushed a microSD card pre-loaded with the images into the appropriate slot. After waiting a minute or so, there they were in the gallery app. Unfortunately neither of the Android tablets I tried displayed images at a high enough quality. It’s not the resolution of the screens, but it seemed that the bit depth of the image was too low. It might have been something else, some automated image scaling perhaps or a limitation of the display, but it looked like old school bit depth problems.

My friend Alan kindly lent me an iPad. I’ve been impressed with the screen quality of iPads in the past. What I hadn’t tried to do before is get a large number of images onto an iPad. There’s no card slot on an iPad, you have to buy what is essentially an SD card reader (but Apple call a camera connection kit) for £25. Even then I’m not sure if you can copy the files off the card onto the iPad itself. If you don’t have one of those card readers (I don’t) you have to get your thinking hat on!

I tried downloading a zip file from a webserver, but Safari didn’t like that. I could save individual images from within Safari, but it’s not a great way to manage a couple of hundred photos! I tried Dropbox, but you can’t select all the images in a folder and save them out in one go. It’s one image at a time again. All the images end up in a single “Saved Photos” folder too, making managing them a bit of a pain.

Andy Stanford-Clark suggested I used an app called iZip to open zip files, which worked for smaller zip files through Dropbox or Safari. Finally, a solution of sorts! But it would be a lot of hassle to load new images this way.

Of course, I’m grateful to Alan for lending me his iPad, and I had a great time playing Where’s My Water, Tap the Frog and Angry Birds. But the Android tablets made it so much easier to perform a simple task than the Apple offering. It’s just a shame the display quality isn’t good enough on the Android tablets. Of course, I’m keen to see Ubuntu running on tablets soon. It’ll be interesting to see whether I run into the same rendering issues as I experienced with the Android ones.

As a client, you receive an e-mail with a link to the document.You don’t need an account, no registration is required. One click and you can read the document and add your signature. That’s done by uploading an image, drawing using their mouse or by typing directly. All three methods are legally binding here in the UK, the US and elsewhere. You then receive a copy of the contract in PDF format in your e-mail and another copy when I’ve signed the contract too.

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When I first looked into the site a year or so ago, when it was still quite shiny and new, there were a few minor problems with its terms & conditions. Most bothersome was a clause that meant that SignNow owned the rights to any documents you uploaded. The company were very helpful when I explained why that was a problem for me and fortunately the clause has been removed in more recent versions of the T&Cs.

It used to be possible to mark where on the document you wanted the other parties to sign, but that’s not the case in the newer version of the site. So it’s important to make sure that the document itself makes this clear. Also, It would be nice to be able to send copies of the same standard contract out to different parties, but it’s not too much of a burden to upload it each time.

If a client isn’t comfortable signing on-line then a traditional printed and posted contract is still an option. But if they are then it seems like a great way to be doing business.

I settled on Bibble and found it to be almost exactly what I was looking for. Although it’s not an open source application, it was supported on Ubuntu. Having developed a good working relationship with Bibble over the last year, I was a bit surprised when the people at Bibble Labs announced that they had been bought up by Corel. The Bibble software was going to morph into Aftershot Pro, a new offering from Corel.

One of the things that appealed about Bibble was the strong Linux community around it. Although not open source software itself, some of the plug-ins were. Bibble was quirky in places but I was able to do what I wanted, to build a large catalogue of images and work with them quickly. Fortunately Corel have announced that Linux will continue to be a supported platform.

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So far my experiences with Aftershot Pro have been positive. The interface is more polished and intuitive and the images it produces continue to be of a high quality. There is a small but growing number of plug-ins. It is shame that certain types of catalogue can’t be transferred into Aftershot from Bibble though.

I hope that Corel will continue to develop Aftershot Pro in the spirit in which Bibble was developed, and that it will continue to be a good choice for anyone wanting photographic workflow management on Ubuntu.

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Danny Hargreaves, who has worked on every episode of new Who, Blew Things Up right in front of us and made it snow indoors. Niell Gorton turned actress Raquel Cassidy into a fleshy ganger in 45 minutes. Producers, writers, directors, set and costume designers were all there, discussing how they make the show. The creative juggernaut that is Steven Moffat took part in two panels, ensuring nobody let slip something they shouldn’t and refusing to be drawn himself. The three stars of the show, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill, exhibited all the camaraderie that we’ve come to expect thanks to their appearances in the late, lamented Confidential.

Then there was the set tour. The actual TARDIS set. Where they film the show. They drove bus loads of fans down there, let us pull levers, twiddle knobs and stroke the doors. Not that I did that. *ahem* The working set, which we were repeatedly reminded would have lights and wires, is due to be dismantled for relocation to its new home in a new studio complex so they bravely let groups of geeks have a go at dismantling it first. We got to have tea in the famous Blue Box Cafe too, chatting to our tour guides who also happened to be engineers and extras on the show.

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I had my photograph taken with Karen Gillan, who looked stunning and seemed to be made entirely of long limbs. The security guard inspecting the bobble hat that another attendee had crocheted for her with a non-plussed look on his face was marvellous. Karen was very friendly and didn’t seem to mind having yet another fan putting their arm around her for the photo.

I finally got to meet Barnaby Edwards in person, and he gave me a big hug, which was lovely. All the crew were good humoured, professional and friendly the whole day. The event was very well planned and ran like clockwork. The process for distributing the photographs was the only thing that didn’t seem to be very well thought out. It involved the big burly security guards with their heavy welsh accents wandering around, trying to match the geek in the photograph with someone from the crowd.

It was also great to meet so many other podcasters in Eddie’s Diner (location for The Impossible Astronaut, you know), who were warm and welcoming.

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There are photographers who give their wedding photography clients very precise instructions about how to stand, where to look and how to hold themselves. I’m not one of them.

My clients are not professional models and it’s wrong to expect them to behave as if they are. People can look stiff and smiles seem forced if they are trying to hold their arm in just the right position, whilst smiling but still gazing into their partner’s eyes!

So, what do I do instead? I try to create an atmosphere where the clients feel comfortable, where they are able to feel relaxed and enjoy the experience of being photographed. Because that’s what it’s all about: Whether it’s a wedding day, engagement photo session or lifestyle shoot, you’re there to have a good time not to feel uncomfortable. Fortunately it’s been over a hundred years since neck braces were a necessary photographic accessory!

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How do I create this atmosphere? Well, firstly I have a great empathy with anyone who doesn’t like being photographed. For years I avoided it where possible, preferring to hide behind the camera. As I learnt more about photography, I got used to being photographed but I remember how it felt. I like to think I’m amiable and easy-going, and that helps put people at ease. I try to help clients have fun and laugh, but I don’t bombard people with cheesy jokes!

I don’t cajole people in to doing things they’re not comfortable with, although if something crazy springs to mind I’ll definitely suggest it. If the client is up for it, then great! If not then it’ll keep for another time. I create an opportunity for the clients to be themselves, to behave naturally within some broad instructions; asking them to walk down a path and come back, stand in a particular spot, that sort of thing. Getting the clients to help each other do something physical (climbing over a log, stand on a chair) is a great way to help get rid of self-consciousness. As their confidence grows, the photographs get better and better.

It’s a great feeling when a client who was a bit nervous or self-concious at the beginning of a photo session relaxes and starts enjoying themselves. I can see it happening in front of me. The result is a set of photographs that they love and that I’m proud of. Everyone wins.

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“You have to be on Pinterest!” said Amy, over a roast potato. “I’ll send you an invite.” I nodded sagely and pretended I knew what she was talking about. You see, Amy is social. Not just in the truest, most human sense of the word but in the geeky, web-2.0y, search engine oiling sense of the word. Amy told me how sharing images from around the web on virtual cork boards was a great way of collating inspiring images for yourself and others.

A few hours later an invite landed in my inbox. I signed up, followed some of my friends who were already using the site and created a handful of boards. You can find them and follow me if you wish. For the last couple of weeks I’ve been adding images from a variety of sources that I have found interesting. I’ve also added “pin” buttons to my wedding photography site and this blog so that others can share my images if they are grabbed by anything.

It’s a shame that there’s no easy way to pin images from the real world though as I often find images I like in magazines and books. It’s not always possible to find the photograph on-line and it’s certainly time consuming to try. Photographing photographs is messy and time consuming. The site also seems to be a bit controversial: I don’t mind people sharing low resolution versions of my photographs, and the site claims to credit and police issues where they arise, but there are other photographers who do. I even found a WordPress plugin designed to stop images from being pinned.

I’m still trying to figure out how best to use Pinterest though. Pin images I like, things that might inspire a personal project in the future? Or pin some of my favourite images of my own so that others can see and share them too? If you are using Pinterest, how do you use it? For business, or pleasure? Or both?