Day-to-Day: "Random Notes"
1. I just noticed that Amazon offers delivery to British Forces, wherever they happen to be. You just enter their name, company, etc and the package will go to wherever they happen to be. Apparently this is certainly not the same for US troopers.
2. My aspirations for Beltane 2008 are fluctuating between highs and lows...
Frustratingly; all of the most advanced photographers from last year may not be there next time around. Some now have families, others may be traveling, etc. Even more frustrating has been my difficulty in finding new ones. If I end up with a bunch of beginner to intermediate photographers then my life will be a tad stressful.
I am reasonably confident that we will have a better gender balance this year. I have found it much easier to recruit female photographers since after Beltane 2007 than I had before. I would not say that the split will be equal but it will certainly be more gender-balanced than is the status-quo amongst the photography crowd.
My old PC is now in place at the Beltane Office, as a training computer for post-processing (mainly RAW workflow and noise repair). Allowing me to use their office as a base was a much-needed sign of support from the committee.
Another major stumbling point for us will be "other media people" - videographers and press photographers. At last Beltane, a series of miscommunications resulted in the field largely being left up to us, as no press photographers were given special access. However; at Samhuinn there was a small army of other media people, who were all given special access. This meant that my photographers spent the night falling over the other media people, many of whom were disorganised and ill-prepared. It is my intention that their numbers should be strictly limited, same as ours are.
3. Christmas was not a disaster!!!! I decided that I would put my full effort into getting presents, and I think that paid off somewhat. Basically; I got a lot of smallish food-type presents from a wide range of places, and added to that a few key presents for different people. My old dSLR (and 17-70 lens) is now on permanent loan to my parents, so one of my presents to them was a couple of okay-ish memory cards, heh.
4. My own presents back were fine - trousers which don't have holes in them, an inflatable matress for camping, and some good olde money. However I did sneak in an ultra-fast memory card, plus a HD projector and hybrid-HD DVD player. My part-justification for the projector is that I can show my photos on it (my camera even has a HDMI socket). I also need to get a pair of semi-shoe-boots, as both my boots and work shoes are worn out.
5. I am on Facebook (here). I joined because there were a lot of Beltane people there, and they kept nabbing my photos. Now I can put my own photos up there. I have looked for everyone I know there but if I have missed you, please feel free to say hello.
2. My aspirations for Beltane 2008 are fluctuating between highs and lows...
Frustratingly; all of the most advanced photographers from last year may not be there next time around. Some now have families, others may be traveling, etc. Even more frustrating has been my difficulty in finding new ones. If I end up with a bunch of beginner to intermediate photographers then my life will be a tad stressful.
I am reasonably confident that we will have a better gender balance this year. I have found it much easier to recruit female photographers since after Beltane 2007 than I had before. I would not say that the split will be equal but it will certainly be more gender-balanced than is the status-quo amongst the photography crowd.
My old PC is now in place at the Beltane Office, as a training computer for post-processing (mainly RAW workflow and noise repair). Allowing me to use their office as a base was a much-needed sign of support from the committee.
Another major stumbling point for us will be "other media people" - videographers and press photographers. At last Beltane, a series of miscommunications resulted in the field largely being left up to us, as no press photographers were given special access. However; at Samhuinn there was a small army of other media people, who were all given special access. This meant that my photographers spent the night falling over the other media people, many of whom were disorganised and ill-prepared. It is my intention that their numbers should be strictly limited, same as ours are.
3. Christmas was not a disaster!!!! I decided that I would put my full effort into getting presents, and I think that paid off somewhat. Basically; I got a lot of smallish food-type presents from a wide range of places, and added to that a few key presents for different people. My old dSLR (and 17-70 lens) is now on permanent loan to my parents, so one of my presents to them was a couple of okay-ish memory cards, heh.
4. My own presents back were fine - trousers which don't have holes in them, an inflatable matress for camping, and some good olde money. However I did sneak in an ultra-fast memory card, plus a HD projector and hybrid-HD DVD player. My part-justification for the projector is that I can show my photos on it (my camera even has a HDMI socket). I also need to get a pair of semi-shoe-boots, as both my boots and work shoes are worn out.
5. I am on Facebook (here). I joined because there were a lot of Beltane people there, and they kept nabbing my photos. Now I can put my own photos up there. I have looked for everyone I know there but if I have missed you, please feel free to say hello.