Our dogs

Having just said that this blog is going to primarily focus on work/software stuff here’s a personal post

Anybody following me on Twitter or Facebook will know that over the last few months we’ve had some pretty significant changes in the Spender household. Here’s the full story.

We both grew up in and around families with dogs and have often talked about the time when we will be able to get some of our own. With us both working full time and living in a flat we never thought it practical or frankly fair. Then one day Lana came home from work…

It’s a long story for another time, but in short, we found ourselves with a dog which had been effectively surrendered into Lana’s care. The dog in question was a less then year old Jack Russell Terrier cross (with what we don’t know but we suspect some Corgi in there which would make her a Cojack!) We did the usual things you do with a stray/lost dog including a trip to the vets to check for a chip, posters, informing the Gardai and so on. After a week or so of convincing ourselves we could not possibly keep her we arranged for an animal rescue in Co. Wicklow to take her. On the day we took her down but couldn’t come to let her go. So it was that Lucy became part of the family!

This meant a number of adjustments to our lifestyle. Firstly we moved to a house with a garden. Luckily our lease was up shortly anyway and due to the market our new 3 bed house was significantly less rent than the flat! In addition, Lana quit her job and has subsequently found a better, part time position in nursing which offers us much more flexibility around being making sure that one or both of us are around for most of the time. It also meant I finally had the excuse to give up my 11 year old Mondeo for a nice nearly new Avensis estate.

The summer with Lucy was fantastic. She really became an integral part of the family and has charmed everybody who has met her. She has had her fair share of visits to the vet for allergies and the odd infection. Perhaps that may be why somebody decided they couldn’t cope with her because you would have to be mad to give up such a dog otherwise.

The plan once we were in a position to get dogs was to always get two so recently we began the search for a companion. The plan was to get a similar size and breed, but a male (of course we’ve had Lucy spayed) The plan was also to get a rescue dog. After much looking around, we found Jack:

Once again, he has settled in brilliantly and is getting along great with us all. Naturally there has been some jostling for position between him and Lucy (she is winning) and the occasional argument over food or toys but overall everything has been really good. it is great to see them literally bounce off each other and provide endless hours of amusement for both them and us!

New look, new focus

This blog has been horribly stagnant for a number of months now. There are lots of reasons why that might be: Twitter, work pressures, general lack of enthusiasm for blogging. Probably all of those and more.

Previously I’ve kept work-related posts to a minimum and tried to focus on more personal stuff. That’s going to change in an attempt to revitalize my blogging. As an IBM software developer there are often things that I need to be careful about mentioning in public and that will certainly remain the case. However there are a lot of IBMers publicly talking about their work and where it takes them and I don’t see why I can’t too.

So from now on you can expect to see much more about Lotus Connections and my work interests in general. One thought I’ve had is to do some periodic posts on aspects of WebSphere Application Server that Connections administrators may find useful. I’ve been a user of WAS for ten years and have both consulted on it as well as develop parts of it in the past so hopefully I can provide some hints and tips of value to those not so familiar with the application server.

However it won’t all be about Connections and WebSphere. I’ve a great interest in agile development and in particular Rational Team Concert so there will likely be the odd post about that, as well as other software engineering and social computing topics that take my fancy.

Of course, it won’t all be work and no play – there will still be occasional posts about a new toy, hobby, pursuit or other activity. I’ll make sure to use categories well so you can skip past the stuff you don’t want to read.

If you still have me in your feed reader then thanks for sticking around and let me know what you think.

Eve of the Four Peaks Challenge

This blog has remained very silent over the past few months. That’s been due to a combination of being incredibly busy working on Lotus Connections 2.5, which has been pretty much consuming my life, and also due to the fact that when I do get five spare minutes I tend to spend it updating Twitter, rather than composing long blog posts here.

Thursday sees us set off down to County Kerry to start the Focus Ireland Four Peaks Challenge. The actual walking starts off on Friday morning when we tackle Carauntoohill, the largest mountain in Ireland. That is followed by a 5-6 hour drive up to County Mayo. The following day we climb Mweelrea before another six hour journey up to Newcastle, Co. Down in Northern Ireland. Sunday morning sees an absurdly early start to climb Slieve Donard, before heading back down to County Wicklow to do Lugnaquilla on Sunday afternoon.

My training and preparation has been somewhat patchy thanks largely to the demands of work. I’ve deliberately not done any of the mountains we will be climbing, as part of the challenge for me is to do them for the first time. We did go out in January and got half way up Lug before I decided to turn around due to the horizontal blizzard and general white-out we faced! Other notable outings include a huge 23km trawl over four Wicklow mountain peaks which saw me get huge blisters after about an hour in and then struggle around the rest.

To be perfectly honest, I am not 100% confident of completing the whole challenge, but it will take a lot for me to give up at any point. Unless I am really, really slowing the team down I will carry on regardless. At the end of the day, in isolation, none of the walks are that physically challenging it is just putting them together and having all of the travelling in-between.

Talking of the travelling, that has been one of the major logistical nightmares of the challenge. The rules state we need two non-walking drivers for each car taken. That raised the issue of finding people who wanted to come along but not actually walk, as well as sorting out how many cars and who goes with who. In the end we are taking our car, and Lana is driving, along with a friend of one of the other climbers. The rest of the team are then in another car.

Unfortunately, the travel headache was further complicated by my car actually breaking down on our way back from a weekend in County Wexford on Monday. It has been fixed (alternator) but we now have to be up early on Thursday to drive down to Arklow to collect it, before coming back up to Dublin to then head off back down to Killarney! I think I’m going to up my recovery service membership just in case!

We’ve hit our sponsorship target, but if you wish to support us, and Focus Ireland, you can do so here.

Rip off Ireland – a simple example

Let’s assume for a moment you were in the market for a new car and live in Ireland. Let’s assume that you were certifiable, and actually wanted to buy a top of the range, brand-new Ford Mondeo (not that the Mondeo isn’t a great car, just that anybody buying one new versus used needs their head examined)

Let’s go onto Ford Ireland and spec it out. The rule is to choose the most expensive body style, model, paint and extras. We’re going to town here.

That’s a cool €50,125, not including delivery and related charges, apparently.

Now let’s go over to Ford UK and choose exactly the same thing… But hang on a second, it seems like there’s more choice of model and extras. Let’s stick to our plan and choose the best of everything:

£35,565 – a lot of money. But let’s convert that into Euros at the current mid-market rate: €39,666.82 Hmm…

Now let’s look at what your money buys you in the UK:

- A Titanium Sport X versus a Titanium S model
- A 2.5 litre petrol engine versus a 2.2 litre
- Full Alcantara leather versus part-leather
- DVD navigation with touch sensitive controls and USB
- Solar reflective windscreen versus (presumably) a non-solar reflecting one
- Privacy glass
- Sliding load floor
- Dog guard
- Multimedia DVD system
- Roof rails
- 6 CD external autochanger
- Keyless entry and keyless start.

No wonder I’m still happily driving around in my 11 year old Mondy!

Stereotypes

If the Germans are regarded as the people most likely to lay early morning claim sun loungers when on holiday, I hereby nominate the Irish as the people who absolutely must park as near to the entrance as humanly possible.

This whole Facebook Terms of Service thing

An interesting tweet appeared on my updates list just now:

I’ve loosely followed the whole thing about the recent change in Facebook terms of service, and the change back again. I read Mark Zuckerberg’s blog in response, and the one announcing the revert to the original terms. Overall I was impressed by the honesty and upfront nature of his response and admission that the legalese that their terms are written in is frankly insufficient for people to actually work out what on earth they meant.

The request above came from a good friend (why else would I have photos I took at their wedding) and I have honoured it. Not out of disgust at the actions of Facebook, but because I value a friendship more than I do the opportunity to make a point (that’s what this blog post is for instead!) I do however think it is a perfect example of the disjoint between people’s expectations of the ownership and privacy of content on the web, and the ways in which we currently try to encapsulate the rights associated with the various parties involved.

Let’s look at a few facts:

1. The photos were taken by me at my friends wedding, at which I was a guest.
2. The wedding was held on private property – in this case a hotel.
3. The law says I own the copyright to the photos
4. Would I ever want to use them commercially, I would need to clear that with the owner of the private property they were taken on, and, if for non-editorial purposes, get releases from anybody in them (mainly my friends)

The trouble is that what the law says, and what people expect are two different things. My friend obviously believes he has a moral assertion over the photos, being as they are a record of what is one of the most important days of his life. I can’t reasonably argue with that, but the law doesn’t see it that way – they are mine to do with as I wish.

But let’s look at the other side of the picture, as that what’s under the microscope with regards to Facebook. Wanting to share my photos with my friend (and our mutual friends) I posted them onto Facebook. People liked them and that’s great. I could have posted them onto flickr, Smugmug, Picasa or even onto my own web site (actually, I did, and there’s a link to an album running right here in another of my blog posts…) By posting them to Facebook I placed a certain level of trust in Facebook to “do the right thing” with regards to the content I was asking them to store, and to distribute amongst my social network. Did I read the full T&Cs when I signed up? Did I heck. Did my friend? I wager not. Had I read them way back then, I would have seen this:

When you post User Content to the Site, you authorise and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide licence (with the right to sublicence) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorise sublicences of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the licence granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content. Facebook does not assert any ownership over your User Content; rather, as between us and you, subject to the rights granted to us in these Terms, you retain full ownership of all of your User Content and any intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights associated with your User Content.

Chase Jarvis, a world-renowned commercial photographer who uses Facebook to distribute content for PR and his fans has written a much better analysis of the old and new terms than I could, so I’m not going to go into detail about what that long paragraph contains, or the important change that was made, causing the uproar.

It may seem stupid that Facebook have such wordy, hard to understand terms, and indeed it seems that they go well beyond what would reasonably be needed for them to receive and permit the sharing on user generated content. In the past I have berated other organizations for similar wording, not least the BBC. However in those examples my concern has been about the use of such terminology as a way to sucker unsuspecting citizen journalists to give potentially timely and valuable content up freely, or as a competition only vaguely hiding an obvious rights-grab attempt. Indeed this blog carries a logo and link to the EPUK fair play campaign for citizen journalism for just this sort of thing.

So, the question is do I really think that Facebooks terms represent a realistic threat to my content? Are they *really* going to take what I share on Facebook and use it for profit, resell it to other organizations, or other such actions? In short, are Facebook evil? I don’t think so.

I have personal experience of what happens when the lawyers get involved between two parties wanting to do something logical and simple. I’ve seen this through my own work, spending months working with a third party, with code written and ready to go, waiting for the lawyers on both sides to argue over single clauses and being asked how such clauses affect the technology (normally not at all) What Facebook are guilty of (and admit to) is that they haven’t done a good enough job of turning the legal crap into understandable principals that you and I can make informed decisions on.

Regarding the change in terms (which basically removed the ability to revoke the licence you give them when you delete content – something I have now done with my photos of the wedding) I honestly believe that there is no realistic chance of Facebook ever asserting those rights granted in the way that people are reading into it. As Chase states, it is there to allow them to effectively share content amongst their user base. I’d also wager it is there to cover their arses should the fact that the massively distributed, non-normalized data store that sits behind Facebook doesn’t manage to delete the hundreds, possibly thousands of copies it stores of every photo, video or other piece of content you contribute.

The only unfortunate thing is that there is no filter between what they have to get their lawyers to draw up and what they present to their users. It makes no promises back to the user.

Let’s use an analogy. In the UK there is an organization called the Plain English Campaign. They award a crystal mark award to clearly written documents. It is common to see this mark on things like insurance documents. Over recent years, there has been a distinct attempt to make many forms of legal-related documentation more understandable and consumable by the lay-man, much of it driven by the initial work of this group. Their FAQ includes this:

Who are the worst offenders for gobbledygook?

In our experience, the legal profession and finance industries cause the most concern. Many companies have worked extremely hard to use plain English, but these industries will always be our main targets. Plain English is about language affecting ordinary people’s lives, and people have the right to get the information they need to make informed decisions about money and the law.

One example of improved communications thanks to such efforts can be found in the UK mortgage industry. Any mortgage product must have a Key Facts Illustration document that has two important purposes:

• To enable the consumer to carefully evaluate and consider the product before committing to it.
• To allow the consumer to effectively compare different products in the marketplace

The KFI is a clear, concise document outlining the most important points, in plain English. Now, what if Facebook’s terms were presented in this manner? Would I have read them? Yes. Would I have considered if I was happy with them before accepting? Yes. Would I understand the true intent behind them better? Almost definitely yes.

Now, what if we had a similar initiative for the web, for the world of social computing? Well maybe, just maybe this whole episode may provide the catalyst for that to happen. Recently I had the opportunity to speak with a couple of folks from dataportability.org At the time I wasn’t quite sure what to make of the organization or their goals, it seemed broad and lacking distinct focus, but one thing that did stand out was their desire to build a charter for the social web. It seems that now is the time to grasp the nettle and drive this forward and I really hope that their EULA and TOS task force can be the agent of change for this whole problem. Daniela’s and Elias’ blog posts give me a warm feeling that they just might head in the right direction with this. I hope Facebook jump on board.

An Spinc

First off, Happy New Year!

I started the year off with my first hill walk for a good few years – officially kicking off my preparations for the Four Peaks Challenge in June. Lana was working today, so I deliberately chose a very well marked and obvious trail up and along An Spinc in Glendalough seen as I’d be walking solo – my navigation skills need a bit of brushing up before I have any ideas of getting too adventurous on a solo walk. The route is the ‘white’ signed Spinc and Glenealo Valley described on this page.

This popular walk leads you through some of the most spectacular scenery in Co. Wicklow. (The name Spinc comes from the Irish ‘An Spinc’ and means ‘pointed hill’). The trail ascends steeply up by the Poulanass Waterfall before joining a boardwalk. More than 600 wooden steps lead you to a viewing point overlooking the Upper Lake. The boardwalk skirts the top of the cliffs before descending through blanket bog and heath into the picturesque Glenealo Valley, home to a large herd of deer. A rough track then leads you back down into Glendalough Valley.

Total length should have been about 9km, but the upper car park was not yet open when I arrived at 9am, so I had an extra 3km of flat walk from and back to the first car park. Weather was dry, about 3C and with the top of An Spinc in fog as I arrived. However the sun was trying to burn through and it didn’t look thick.

The walk is circular, and can be done in either direction. I chose the clockwise route, heading up past the Poulanass waterfall. This has a very steep ascent up onto the Spinc Ridge, most of which is along a boardwalk that starts with those 600 steps mentioned above! I found this tough going and it hit home that my fitness levels are really not what they used to be. I’ll certainly need to get in lots of miles and gym work before the Four Peaks. I’m pretty sure that Carrauntoohil won’t have a set to easy to walk on railway sleepers all the way up it! Once at the top however, the view was awesome (even in the fog) and I momentarily kicked myself for not bringing the camera (figured for my first walk I’d take as little weight as possible)

The rest of the ridge was fairly even, and also nicely devoid of people. I seemed to be the only person up early on New Years Day, can’t imagine why. I did gain some accompaniment from an eager Robin who followed me for a km or more, flitting up to me every time I paused. Unfortunately for him I had no food that he would like! On reaching the end of the ridge the descent down into the Valley took me through typical Irish bog, with lots of frozen water and a herd of deer, including stag, who seemed ambivalent to my presence as I walked not 30 yards away from them. Just after this encounter I met the first humans of the day coming the other way and the boardwalk gave way to a stone path leading down to the bridge crossing a river feeding into the Upper Lake. The bridge marked the turning point for home, with the descent following the river down into the valley. The going here was very rocky and a good test of my new Brasher Hillmaster GTX boots.

Once reaching the lake, the rest of the walk was uneventful, and much more populated. Uneventful that is apart from the fact that I’d developed a nice pair of heel blisters thanks to the new boots. Hopefully it is just a breaking in thing, and not a sign that they will cause me problems. To be fair, it was probably not the best idea to do such a walk straight off in a new pair of boots, but there you go!

The preparation for the Four Peaks begins!

My guide to guest wedding photography

(17mm, f2.8, 1/25th, ISO 1600, Flash fired)

After getting married last year, we’ve been to no less than nine weddings as guests in 2008. Increasingly I’ve found these weddings to be the only time I get to really exercise my camera and (lack of) photography skills. Along the way I’ve picked up some tips, tricks and things to avoid when trying to take photos at weddings, and maybe others will find them useful.

Note: This blog post is not aimed at professional wedding photographers, or indeed enthusiastic amateurs who have been roped into being the cheap and cheerful ‘official’ photographer. This is for two good reasons. Firstly I am neither (and wouldn’t want to be) and secondly, there are literally thousands of such blog posts and forum discussions. They generally recommend: have redundancy in all your equipment, tonnes of memory cards and batteries, scout out locations and be assertive. But most of all – think very, very hard before agreeing to do it. Despite what your friends or family may say, they will have high expectations which you had better live up to.

So, instead, this post is about how to take good shots as a guest, not annoy or get in the way of the official ‘tog and most of all how to have fun whilst doing it.

Kit

• You have what you have. Don’t think about hiring stuff or buying something just for the occasion, unless you want it anyway that is
• Just take a body, two lenses max and a flash (if you have one) Keep it in a small, unobtrusive bag (e.g. a Lowe-Pro Slingshot, or Crumpler shoulder bag) leave your rucksack etc at home. You really don’t want to be carrying around a tonne of kit all day (and your other half/partner will get fed up with being handed off kit as well!) You shouldn’t look obtrusive. All the better if the bag is black as there is less chance of it standing out in other people’s photos.
• Don’t at all get tempted to take any kit that requires somebody else to help you, or requires you to work in close proximity to the wedding couple. Leave your nice reflector and tripod at home!
• As far as lenses go look to use a mid-range zoom or a fairly wide prime, and then a reasonable long zoom (e.g. 55-200/250 or 70-300) In general, the faster the lens the better as you will no doubt be in low light at some point. I use a Canon EF-S 17-55 f2.8 IS USM and an EF-S 55-250 F3.5-5.6 IS. I also take my EF 50mm f1.8 prime along just because it is so small and handy if things really get dark. I would kill for a 70-200 f2.8 L IS USM, and if I were a wedding pro I’d have one in a shot, but I’m not.
• Whilst you want two lenses, don’t get tempted to use two bodies. You will stand out too much (more on that later)

Preparation

• Sounds obvious, but charge your batteries (and buy fresh ones for your flash).
• Erm, that’s it. Always remember that you are first and foremost a guest of your hosts. Not taking photos in any official capacity. Your primary job is to celebrate with them and enjoy yourself. Go to the bar!

Before the ceremony

• Unless you are family you likely won’t be around for the preparations of the bride or groom so forget that. It’s the job of the pro. If you are a bridesmaid or groomsman – put the damn camera away, you have much more important things to do.
• Outside the church, before the ceremony feel free to get some informal shots of people. One thing you can excel at in a guest photographer role is candid shots. Stick on your telephoto and shoot from a distance. Get those nice expressions.

(55mm, f2.8, 1/100th, ISO 200, Flash fired)

• Make your way into the church in plenty of time and sit down like any other guest. Don’t get “official” and loiter at the back or front. Don’t take photos in the church or wedding room until such time as you are told it is ok. You can ask of course. If you are told no, then the answer is no – plain and simple. The pro will get these shots (and in artificial/low light, probably much better than you could hope for) In this case, pack the camera away/put it down and just enjoy the proceedings.
• If you can take photos, then do so only from where you sit. Don’t get up and walk around.

Ceremony

• In a lot of cases you will be told that photography is not allowed during the ceremony, and that maybe it will be at the end when the couple will pose. Respect this. On rare cases, you are free to take during the ceremony. In which case…
• DO NOT USE FLASH DURING THE CEREMONY. Do I need to repeat that? Even if allowed, it is obtrusive and spoils the moment. Dial up ISO1600 and your lowest f-stop and hope for the best.
• When the bride enters the church/room, be the only person who turns to the groom and captures their expression! Tip – he’s the one standing still!

(250mm, f5.6, 1/13th, ISO 1600, No flash)

• Don’t click away furiously during the ceremony. Sing when you have to sing, pray when you need to pray. You are a guest first and foremost, and it is respectful.
• Stick with your zoom and get close up emotion shots. Also look for opportunities that others may not see. Kids are especially good targets.

(179mm, f5.6, 1/30th, ISO 1600, No flash)

Recessional / after the ceremony

• Normally, usually after the signing of the register, there will be an opportunity for Auntie Marge and Co. to take their photos. Go wild here, but respect that others are doing so as well. Don’t direct, don’t impose. Get your wide lens or fast prime on and get up a bit closer. If you can use flash then do so to get nice catch-lights in their eyes.

(55mm, f2.8, 1/60th, ISO 200, Flash fired)

• Outside the church/room go crazy – this is your main opportunity. Get candids as people mingle, look for nice expressions. From my experience of our wedding, guests likely get better shots of the other guests than the official photographer. So this is your opportunity to impress. Get good coverage of the people there, don’t focus everything on the bride and groom.

(45mm, f2.8, 1/200th, ISO 100, Flash fired)

• This where you can direct a little. Get members of the family/groups of friends to pose for you, and get them looking into your lens. This is likely one of the only times you can (more on that later…)

Formal shots

• You all know the formal shots. This is your cue to be responsible and put down the camera. This should be solely the role of the pro. These are their “money” shots and the ones that they will be most focused on capturing. Your job is to be 100% guest here and not a photographer.
• DO NOT shoot over the pro’s shoulder, or follow them around at this time. At best you will end up with a set of copycat photos. At worst you will piss the pro off and they might start muttering words like “breach of contract” to the bride and groom. The pro is going to be aware of you and your DSLR on the day, and they no doubt have it all the time now. Respect the fact that they are being paid to do a job, and are the ones under pressure to deliver. Don’t get in the way of that. This can be particularly annoying when you distract the subjects and they end up looking into the wrong cameras. See the shot below for an unfortunate example and a lesson learnt (2nd from right)

(85mm, f4.0, 1/160th, ISO 200, No flash)

• If you want to, stick on a long lens and shoot from afar. By doing this you can get a different perspective whilst still capturing some nice shots of the couple. It also means you remain out of the way and won’t misdirect people’s attention.

(181mm, f5.0, 1/800th, ISO 100, No flash)

• Never, ever give direction to people at this stage. That is overstepping the mark by a big margin.

Wedding breakfast / speeches

• Sometimes the official photographer may not cover these, either because they are not contracted to, or just take a break. If so, you can take the opportunity to get some “exclusives” but again, remain as unobtrusive as possible. Keep your movement minimal and try to avoid flash. Again, your primary role is as a guest.
• You are normally indoors at this point, so high ISO, wide open is the order of the day. Use it to full effect to get good depth of field on shots (see the example below). If your camera produces lots of noise at high ISO (as my Canon 400D does) then black and white is your friend!

(47mm, f2.8, 1/40th, ISO 1600, Flash fired)

• The speeches offer great opportunity for candids. Single out family members and look for any opportunities to get shots that others may miss.

(55mm, f2.8, 1/10th, ISO 1600, Flash fired)

• At the risk of sounding boring, remember you are a guest – laugh and toast at the right time!

Evening / dancing

• The first dance normally signals the end of the official photographer’s duties. It should also be the end of your camera holding. Whilst it would be tempting to carry on and get some “exclusives”, there are a number of reasons why this is a bad idea: Disco lights can be a real pain (but also a creative opportunity), your friends and family are starting to get nicely drunk and so should you and finally, this is where people let their hair down and have fun – they don’t want a camera stuck in their face.
• By all means capture the first dance. However the combination of low light and movement is a tricky one. Take a machine gun approach and hope for the best. It’s the last time you should be shooting so make the most of it.

(55mm, f2.8, 1/25th, ISO 1600, Flash fired)

• At this stage of the evening, you may be tempted to download your photos and put together a quick slideshow. I did this once recently on the spur of the moment (I had my laptop in the hotel) It is an idea filled with good intentions, but you should only do it if agreed in advance with both the bride and groom, and most importantly the official photographer. They will not want to have people think the photos are theirs (which is an obvious conclusion to make as hopefully your photos look pretty good) So by all means do it, but agree it in advance. If you do, then you may want to shoot RAW+JPG (if you don’t shoot just JPG anyway) so that your quickly downloaded photos will at least have some white balance and sharpening applied.

After the day

• This is where you typically have a big advantage over the pro. They likely have other weddings to attend and process, whereas you probably only have the one. They need to take a lot of care in post processing whilst you can get some quick and dirty shots out quickly (with minimal white balance, crop, b&w conversion and sharpening) Their photos will likely take weeks to be ready whilst yours can be much quicker.
• People like to see shots quickly after the wedding, especially in this age of social networking. Normally the first ones to make it out are Cousin Sarah’s 2MP camera phone shots on Facebook. Consider yourself as in the role of press photographer needing to file early. Get your shots downloaded, processed and up as quickly as possible after the event (next day for instance) and then put them where they can be seen. Facebook is great as you can tag people and people can comment
• I take a two pronged approach. I stick them up on Facebook and also output a Flash based slideshow from Lightroom. Those on FB will find them quickly, and I send an email to the bride/groom and family/friends with the web address of the slideshow. Via either mechanism I only put up low res versions (e.g. 800px, 72dpi)
• Sometimes I put them up on a photo printing site as well (such as Photobox) where high res versions are uploaded. However I do not make this public, and only add people on request. I am not interested in stealing business from the official photographer. I only do this for family weddings.
• Never, ever consider selling your photographs. That way you really would be doing the official photographer a real dis-service. If somebody (e.g. family or the newlyweds) wants some of your photos then give them on a CD and let them print themselves.

Here are some example slideshows:

• Steve and Louise
• Richard and Alex
• Graham and Tiffany

General technical tips and comments

• Plan what lens you will likely need for situations and be prepared. With one body you are going to need to do the occasional lens change.
• Stick with what you know of your camera. It’s not the time to experiment. If you normally shoot in Program mode, then don’t start playing with other modes (unless the camera really can’t cope with the conditions)
• I tend to shoot in aperture priority as I value control of depth of field over all else. Therefore my flash gets used for fill and the camera always exposes the scene using available light. I rely on my relatively fast f2.8 lens and IS to get away with quite slow shutter speeds (often 1/15th for example). This give me the most natural photos, but does mean I am at the mercy of camera shake and subject movement. I often need to dial up the ISO very high for these reasons. On my 400D that means lots of noise and therefore lots of B&W conversions and Noise Ninja!
• I often forget to adjust ISO and find that some shots are unnecessarily noisy. I need to get better at keeping a constant check on my settings for each scene and not being afraid to make adjustments
• I always use a Stofen Omni-bounce and/or bounce flash rather than use direct flash to avoid nasty shadows and keep a natural look
• Not every shot should be taken at a height of 5ft. Get down low, and get up high. I’ve found that willingness to do this leads to some great shots (see the one at the top of this post and the one of the girls drinking orange as examples)

Final thoughts

As stated at the start, I find that weddings are often the best opportunity to practice and improve my photography nowadays. However, as should be clear, I try very hard to make sure that I enjoy and appreciate the real reason I am there. I have been honoured to attend the most special day in two people’s lives and I am not there to officially record it. That being said, there is no reason why you cannot learn from and improve from these opportunities. It is also important to remember that your photos do not need to be perfect. In fact, the type of environments and lighting you find at weddings can often be very challenging. Every time I’ve looked over my shots I have an initial wave of enthusiasm at the fantastic shots I’ve got, but then apply a more critical eye over them and spot the focusing errors, camera shake, bad exposure choices etc. All of this I learn from and get better over time. Remember that you are not on the hook to produce the stunning record of the day that every couple expects – that’s what the pro is paid for (and you get a new-found respect for the amount they charge, believe me!) Your shots just need to be good enough, and in every case I’ve received lovely compliments from people who didn’t expect to see “such professional” photos so soon after the wedding.

Of course, there is a huge gap between amateur guest photography and the real thing, and it is definitely something that I’d think very, very long and hard about if I were ever asked. I’d certainly be off to hire a 5D and that 70-200 f2.8 L IS!

(55mm, f5.0, 1/40th, ISO 1600, Flash fired)

Four Peaks Challenge

A group of us from work have signed up a team to take part in the Focus Ireland 2009 Four Peaks challenge.

The challenge involves climbing the highest peaks in the four provinces of Ireland, namely:

• Carrauntoohil (1039m, 3,406ft) in County Kerry, Munster
• Mweelrea (814m, 2,670ft) in County Mayo, Connaught
• Slieve Donard (850m, 2,786ft) in Ulster, Northern Ireland
• Lugnaquilla (925m, 3,035ft) in County Wicklow, Leinster

The catch? We have to do it in three days, and the total distance to get round to them all involves travelling over 800 miles!

The second challenge for me as the token Englishman in the team is to learn how to pronounce them all

Whilst I’ve done similarly silly things in the past (a three day, 30 mile trek around the Lake District, including Scafell Pike, Helvellyn and High Street) and a 5 day 100 mile walk from Brighton to Watford (ok, not exactly scaling any mountains on that one!) I’ve not done too much walking over the past five years. Therefore I’m itching for the excuse to get out training in the hills surrounding Dublin, which so been pretty much ignored since we moved over here.

The challenge takes place in June, so there’s plenty of time to get the miles in. There’s also plenty of time to get sponsorship in as well…

We aim to raise €4,500 for Focus Ireland – a charity that aims to help the homeless of Ireland. Needless to say, you can choose to give us a donation online (see how easy we make it) just by visiting here to sponsor our imaginatively titled team: Inspired By Mountains (geddit?)

Two cool tools for Apple (and other) order and delivery tracking

One of the most popular entries on this blog is “The ins and outs of Apple shipment and order tracking” However, that post is nearly two years old, and things move on.

We recently took advantage of the Apple Black Friday sales to order a new 13″ Macbook for Lana. Of course, this had me revisit that post and start tracking the status of the deliver. In this case it was a straightforward standard configuration with nothing else added onto the order, so it was processed as a Fast Ship (EMEA) order.

The Apple order status page and tracking links showed that UPS were the carrier. It took at least a day for their tracking system to show any details however. Checking back every now and then was annoying.

That led me to discover the awesome Delivery Status dashboard widget, and also the equally awesome Delivery Status Touch for the iPhone and iPod Touch, from JuneCloud. Both allow you to insert your order numbers/tracking numbers for a large variety of online shops and couriers including Apple, Amazon, UPS, TNT, Fedex, DHL and more. They will then show you the order/tracking status in a lovely UI. The dashboard widget also has Growl integration which is great as you don’t need to keep going into Dashboard to see if things have changed.

The iPhone/Touch app is available from the App Store and provides the same basic functionality, but also allows you to see the actual provider order/tracking page as well as showing you locations on a map. It can sync with the dashboard widget as well so you only need to enter the order or tracking numbers once.