Now don't get me wrong, I love the warm sunny weather, but its topping 32 degrees in my office at the moment, and not only is it causing my Belkin 4 port USB hubs a bit of grief it's also playing havoc with my brain. So if this post goes a bit wayward, blame the weather!

My prints from SmugMug arrived this morning, and I'm really pleased. The quality of print is fantastic, and considering they've come from Atlanta, 7 days really isn't bad going at all. I think that's finally sold it for me, and I'll be moving my galleries over pronto.

Another trip into Manchester this morning, and I now reckon I have sufficient new stuff to update the calendar. Will be spending the rest of this afternoon and Monday morning prepping them, and then will get them sent off to the printers. Hopefully they'll have everything done by the time I get back from my hols.

I paid a visit to the chaps at Pro Film Direct on my way back to the ranch. I've got my first wedding tomorrow (ok it's my brother in law, but hey I wanna do it right don't I?) and I wanted to quiz them about off-camera flash set ups. I've seen Scott Kelby and others mention the Westcott setups amongst other kit, but it's all based State-side and shipping that kinda gear all the way over here won't be cheap. Calumet seem to be really quite pricey on the lower end stuff, but Rick at PFD came up trumps. As usual a quick visit to PFD never happens... we had a brew, played with a D700 (their first stock D700 arrived whilst I was there), and then got down to business with lighting. I've rented a Manfrotto light stand, a Bowens silver & white dual purpose umbrella and an umbrella adapter to mount the speedlight and pop the brollie through, all for the meagre price of 20 sovs. Rick and Steve even gave me a quick demo inside the store and outside in the sun. I also managed to get an ND10,000 77mm filter for an absolute song. I've been after one of these for a while - it'll knock off 13stops!! They really are a tremendous bunch there, and if you're ever in need of any kit, film or digital, used or new, try them first - 0161 273 3003 - Unit 1 Cariocca Business Park, Hellidai Close, Manchester. M12 4AH.

Share this post :