Well it's been a while since my last update - but that doesn't mean I've not had lots on though!
Hopefully you'll have seen some of my fireworks shots on the Facebook page - and I've added one below. It was great fun to experiment capturing the explosions - I'm not 100% happy with all the results, as I was a bit rushed setting up and the wind was blowing them towards me, but I've learnt a great deal about the best way to set up my camera next time (maybe New Year?)
As mentioned in the title, I've been upgrading some bits of my kit - not least my wheezy old iMac to a much newer Mac Mini. The migration has been quite long-winded, and the transfer of the huge number of images was at times emotional. Apple's own migration assistant was great at moving my user accounts and applications; but my movies, music, and of course my (and clients) photos proved to be a step too far! In the end I used an external drive to move them across in batches. Naturally this is a risky time for keeping files safe, so I made sure that there were at least 2 copies of the files (old iMac, the external drive and ultimately the new Mac) in case anything went wrong! Thankfully, all are now moved, and I'm enjoing the much speedier performance of the new machine!
I've also changed my 'long' lens, I had a very old (1988 vintage) 70-210mm zoom - it took wonderful pictures (like the Meerkat photos in my Nature gallery) but there were a couple of issues with it. It was quite big and heavy, due to the VERY solid construction, it would auto-focus with just one of my cameras, and it lacked vibration reduction technology (really useful in low light situations, like churches.) With a bit of eBay action, I've now got a newer 55-200mm lens with Nikon's VR built-in. It is also much lighter and auto-focuses with all my cameras.
The enquiries and bookings are still slowly coming in - but I've managed to squeeze in a slot for a good friend of mine to do an engagement shot in the Springtime next year. Really looking forward to doing something for my friends (especially as I'm going to be having fun at that wedding and not shooting it!)
I'll try to get my next update out a little quicker than this one! Thanks for reading.
Al.
