Recently we purchased a really cool tool to help Julie with her editing. The prime drive for getting this tool was improved workflow and ergonomics. One thing that is for certain the removal of the mouse from Julie’s workflow has had a very positive impact on the ergonomics at Julie’s workstation. The traditional mouse is not very good for Julie’s hands and using Quikeys takes the use of the mouse out of the equation most of the time she is editing. Just on that fact Quikeys is a winner in my mind. However, the ability to drive Lightroom and Photoshop with Quikeys has had a big impact upon Julie’s workflow. Ultimately the change to the Quikeys workflow has not reduced the time it takes for her to edit a wedding. Though when you compare what was done prior to Quikeys and now you will see that there is a big shift in the quality of output that Julie generates. Having Quikeys has opened up the possibilities in her workflow and resulted in our standard of product to improve.
Working with Dave Cheung at DQ studios (the home of Quikeys) through the purchase and installation has been great. Dave has been very responsive to issues which is particularly important for me as an international customer. So if you are looking at ways in which you can improve your editing effort Quikeys is a tool and workflow solution that will see you reach new levels of creativity.

Finding a wedding photographer can be really difficult and time consuming work. I remember when Julie and I got married. We were engaged in April and set the wedding day in December that year. We didn’t have the bonus of access to the web back then. I must admit that I don’t know how many photographers Julie researched but the one we selected was new to the area and had advertised in our local paper. Knowing the industry now, we were lucky to have a photographer available on the date we wanted. It is possible to get a photographer when your wedding date is close but that can limit your choices significantly.
Today has so many opportunities for customers to check out potential photographers without leaving home. Finding photographers through web searching generates so many options. I think wise photographers will provide pricing information so potential clients can shortlist providers in their budget range. I have found that with many of our clients they have been thankful that we have clearly articulated the prices and some clearly stated they would not meet with photographers who didn’t. The general feel was that they were either very expensive or had a deceptive pricing structure. I wouldn’t want to be tagged like that by prospective clients and lose that business due to lack of transparency.
Sample galleries demonstrating your work are a great benefit and I don’t know how photographers get by without a web presence these days. Modern customers want to be able to make a shortlist based on what they can see of different photographers’ work. This gives them greater confidence when they get to the interview stage. As a photographer it makes it easier as the time together is allowing them to establish if they are comfortable with you. The rapport you develop with a client in that meeting will make or break the deal if they are happy with what they have already seen of your work. I have found our strike rate at interview time is high because we have been transparent and given pricing, package details and sample work for people to see. We also have a blog for further info  that customers can view and check us out with.

I would be interested to hear people’s thoughts on the subject. Especially brides and grooms that have been through the process or even going through it now.

Here’s a image for your enjoyment and you can see more at our blog

The idea of spending money is an interesting concept. If you don’t have money to spend things can be very troublesome. If you do have it, life can still be troublesome. The choices that are available in the western world is mind bogling. Who do you spend that money on? Jesus told a story about a rich man who stored all his wealth in barns and didn’t share it, planning on creating more. God had diffrent ideas and he demanded the rich man make account for his life. The result wasn’t good especially as he ignored the begger sitting outside his house.
How are we to use our money? I don’t think God has problems with us having or spending money. He just wants us to act wisely with that money. Don’t hoard up stuff for your own gratification. Be willing and ready to use your money generously.
I enjoy spending money. Especially when it is gadgets. But it is important for me to be wise with my spending and not go beyond my means. A wife and three kids to look after takes priority over the thrill of a new gadget.

Well here I am typing a blog entry on my new phone. Being an engineer I certainly enjoy using gadgets. This is most definately the coolest gadget I have owned.
I do enjoy the ability to be able to post a blog or tweet practically anywhere. Given that fact I might actually up my blog entries.
Anyway my rice has cooked and I need to feed my wonderful family.
Here is a picture I don’t think I have shared here before.
God bless.

I had the joy of taking two my kids to roller skating today. Here at Gawler we have a great setup where the kids get a 1 hr lesson and then 2 hrs of free skating for $5.50.  Its great cheap fun and the kids actually enjoy it. They have been going for about nine weeks now and they have progressed very  well. So well that they are confident to try new things. 

There is price for trying new things and that is failure. It a part of life that we all must be aware of and be able to deal with. If you can’t deal with failure you will not succeed in life. You will life a unfulfilled life. Think of all the things you will miss out on because you are afraid of failing. I know I wouldn’t be living with these amazing kids and their beautiful mother if I didn’t overcome my fear of failure and let the opportunity to marry her slip past 15 years ago. 

Here some shots I have taken of my eldest working through failure. It was fun to watch and she had a good laugh about it. All shots are taken using the available light and widest aperture of F4. 

Attempt number two

My son driving around the rink.

He was having fun steering himself as he rolled. 

I was impressed with the noise quality of the 50D it is an improvement over our 30D and made these shots worthwhile without a flash.

Today has been an active day for us. Started the day with the morning service at our new church. It has been great being able to enjoy church again and really get into the praise and worship. It isn’t Hillsong, but the team does a fantastic job leading the church and it is apparent the church is getting into the worship. That was followed up with a passionate message from Pastor Paul. He’s the Senior pastor of the church and it was the first time that Julie and I had the privilege  of sitting under his teaching. It was down to earth and direct. The passion flowed from him and impacted us in a big way. We left church with a very positive attitude. I am certainly very happy we found Salt Church. 

We had lunch and traveled to Rowland flats to Orlando Wines to check out their grounds and buildings for an upcoming wedding. It’s a Sunday and the service we received was great. Especially when the bridal couple aren’t paying to access their site. Look out for some pics on our PhotoGraft blog around the end of June from that place.

On the way back from the winery we had a little pit stop at a park in Lyndoch. This gave the kids a chance to spread their legs after spending a fair bit of time in the car. The camera was filled up with some test shots of the winery so I didn’t have much shots left to use. Though I didn’t want to waste the opportunity to get a photo of my beautiful wife Julie. In a rare opportunity when she wasn’t behind the camera I asked her to stop by a young tree and smile for the camera. Now I think she is just gorgeous! So I have included her photo to show you the source of my inspiration. 

It was Mother’s Day here in Australia today. Now in our family we are normally very slack at getting Mum some good presents. This year though we were more organised and the kids had made some jewellry during the week and we all took advantage of a Mum free time after roller skating to get to the shops and finalise our gift selections. Happy to say that we succeeded in finding useful and smile generating gifts for a very deserving mum. Julie is very important to us and we had great pleasure in making her happy. 

Not being able to get the photographer in front of the camera, I have resorted to taking a photo of one of the gifts she received. Hopefully we can keep it alive so it continues to create joy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For those of you who are interested this was a half second shot at f4.0 and 1250 iso taken hand held  resting on the table.  Processed in lightroom 2

Well it has been quite a while since I dropped a few words down on the blog. Things have been rather hectic for my family of late and there has been little time for me to put aside quality time to share any updates with you guys. Well what has been going on in my life? Lets see, we have been repainting our house. Taking the theme from old school country cottage to crisp colours and vibrant whites. It has been amazing watching the transformation of the feel of the house. I will say that this house is not large by any stretch of the imagination. English homes would compete for size rights here fortunately but we do have 2000m^2 of land to live on which helps prevent claustrophobia. Currently we are doing the girls room. White with a black feature wall. Let me make it clear that I have nothing to do with the colour selections except purchasing the paint. The girls wanted some really funky sort of design with zebra stripes and big polka dots. Thank God Julie intervened and laid down the law. Its looking really good and when we have finished it and got them back in their room it will be great.

Since we have had all this action going on I haven’t had much time for my own personal photography. It gets frustrating not being able to spend time refining skills and trying out new ideas. Times are quietening down as we head into winter so I’ll get some more time once the renovations have finished to take the camera places.

Surprisingly it has nearly been a whole year since we moved to Gawler and I still haven’t spent any time exploring the place for photo shoots. So that’s on my to do list: explore my town and find cool locations to shoot people. There is one cool spot which I have used. The park by the river is very nice with Morton Bay Fig trees lining the park and large bridge to shot under (just have to deconflict with the local outlaw artists). Hoping to update our business blog with some shots from there very soon.

After our move we have found a new church home at Salt Church in Evanston. We have found Salt very embracing and we look forward to getting to know people and making new friends.

Anyway that’s all folks until next time. Hopefully with some new photos!

 

The life and death of Jesus Christ has so much impact on this world today it is undeniable. The most obvious is the chasm that is growing between the believer and the unbeliever. The abundance of people who are so vehemently against christianity as if it is the cause of all their problems is so amazing. One cannot deny that there are people out there that have been emotionally injured by ‘christians’. Hey I am one of those. I’ve been exposed to people who forcefully tell you that you’re not good enough, you need more faith, you must do this and that to get closer to God. These people are not bad people they are just misguided and have been sold a mistruth about Jesus and are fervently trying their best to get to God too. 

Don’t worry these sort of people were around in the Apostle Paul’s time too. If you read his letters to the churches he spent a lot of his words correcting the errors of these teachings. Read the letter to the Galatians, it gets very clear what we are supposed to believe. 

Jesus paid the price on this day so many years ago. He said it was finished. He did all that was needed to do to set us free from our sinful heritage. There is only a need for us to recognise that we needed him to die for us and then believe we are forgiven. Then he will restore us to righteous living and we can enjoy all that he intends for us. It shouldn’t be a hard struggle to be a christian. However the greatest miracle in the world is for you to believe. The rest is already paid for.

 

Happy easter everyone

Just been having a look at some advice on keyword stuffing from MCP actions
This is quite interesting information that I wasn’t so aware of.