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http://atpblog.wordpress.com/ - Let
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Older Random musings, projects, hints and tips and other things we think friends of the site might like to hear about.
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5 December 2009 Site Developments and other marketing and communications
Time for a short update on what's going on here behind the scenes at atp with a quick taster of what's to come on this site over the coming weeks. You could think of this as some of our todo list!
Firstly, we've been very pleased by the response to our PayPal enabled galeries that allow direct online purchase from our website, with all payments handled by PayPal. As a result, we intend to upgrade most of our galleries to this format. As well as that we have extended the range of our high quality postcards and now have 9 stunning images available as postcards featuring Shetland landscape and wildlife - we plan to add these to the merchandise page soon so that you can buy them all online.
We have been involved in many projects over the past year that have resulted in many stunning new collections and individual images and will be bringing these to the site in the coming weeks. Just to tease you, there will be Shetland ponies, several new travel galleries, Illuminated glasshouses, classic cars, wildlife from Shetland and elsewhere, astronomy and a new portfolio gallery. That last one is a killer - just trying to select the images that we're most proud of is really difficult. As you might have gathered, our favourites gallery is a kind of half way house but of course it's our clients and customers favourites so is a bit of a cheat. We are also working on a new "Guest Photographers Gallery" showcasing the work of some of our fellow photographers.
Some of you will already be aware that Austin Taylor Photography now has a Wordpress blog, a Twitter feed and a Facebook page. We use these to provide information and updates about our photography, commissions and projects we're involved in and general marketing and promotion, all in addition to this website. The Twitter page is especially useful because it allows us to provide quick updates whilst on a photo shoot in the field or abroad. We have been pleased with feedback so far on these developments but are always pleeased to receive specific feedback or general comments, either through those pages or through the contact page on this site.
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4 November 2009 Clickimin Craft Fair 2009 is getting close!
It's now less than 10 days till the annual Shetland Arts and Crafts Fair at the Clickimin Centre in Lerwick. The official advert came through today at atp towers so I checked it was ok to post it here. "Of course" came the cheery reply, so here it is. Here at Austin Taylor Photography we're all geared up for a busy three days at the event and, as ever, hope we've got the right stock that people want to see. This will be our third year at the event, which we enjoy a lot - it's good to see so many friends at our stand and we always enjoy talking photographic techniques and opportunities. On top of that, we also manage to get a few special Christmas presents from some of the other craft producers on show at the event and this is also a plug for them too! Do come and see us if you can, otherwise you'll miss out.
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2 November 2009 Photographs of Tin Sheds!
As part of the Shetland Arts "Mirrie Dancers" project to light up buildings and other features during this coming Winter in Shetland I have been taking photographs of some tin sheds. First, a few days ago, it was Voe for the official launch party. As I said below the weather wasn't the best - but I managed to get a set of shots I was reasonably happy with. But a few days later, having studied my favourite weather page and the visible satellite pages, I gambled on the weather window being as good as forecast and set off for the couple of hour journey to Unst. All the way up and even when I arrived the weather still continued with the stong winds and blustery showers that had been a feature of the day. But then, as if by magic and almost exactly as forecast, the sky cleared and the so called "Frosty Moon" shone full. It was quite spooky, so soon after Halloween! I was able to get some great shots of the tin shed at Haroldswick, as well as the surrounding landscape, the Moon and a couple iof shots with Jupiter too.
On the way back from Unst I was able to stop off at Voe and get some more shots of the tin shed there, this time in much calmer conditions though, by this time there were a few rain showers again. All in all, though it made Monday a really long day, I had a great time tramping about doing what I enjoy.
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27 October 2009 Such a busy month!
It's been such a busy month that it's been difficult to fit everything in and, with Christmas approaching fast, the pressure has really been on to get things tied up and in place! On the photograph taking front there have been a few opportunities to photograph nearly all of the planets this month, especially since there were a number of very nice conjunctions (where two or more planets or the Moon move close to each other). Most of these involved early mornings (Mercury, Venus and Saturn with the Moon) though Mars and Jupiter, both with the Moon were evening events. We were also lucky enough to get some nice shots of Jupiter and its moons too.
Next, Austin Taylor Photography was appointed official Photographer for the Mirrie Dancers Winter Illuminations project, running right through the winter until March 2010 so, on 22 October it was off to Voe for the first launch party and lighting event. The night started off a bit wet, which meant that the raindrops scattered the lights somewhat but as the weather improved and the rain stopped the overall effect became clearer showing its true colours and originality of thought behind the concept. We're very much looking forward to seeing the other illuminations over the coming days and weeks.
Towards the end of the month the old Esplanade public toilets in Lerwick were demolished - not the most glamourous event to attend but we managed to snap off a few record shots for posterity - I'm told those toilets won awards in the past!
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24 August 2009 New - Unexpected - Twitter Followers
Jon Oringer, Founder/ CEO Shutterstock Images
(http://twitter.com/jonoringer and http://www.shutterstock.com/) is now following
me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/austintaylorpho). Initially, I thought this is
great because it means my site is getting noticed and one or more of my
strategies is paying off. I checked it
out and he definitely seems to be who he claims to be and, of course, Shutterstock
is definitely who it claims to be - a very big microstock company (i.e. it
sells photos Royalty Free (RF) on a subscription model).
On the other hand, I don't sell images RF, microstock or otherwise. All my images are Rights Managed (RM) - for
those that don't know, basically RM means you buy a licence to use the image
for a defined purpose, if you want to use it again another licence must be
negotiated. RF, on the other hand means that you buy rights to use the image
anyway you like. Both models have their supporters and I'm not one of those who
says one or other is wrong - one thing is clear, a RM image can be made RF at
any time but once RF, it can never go back to being RM.
I don't normally shoot for stock unless on commission, because of the way I
work - but that doesn't mean I don't have stock images. I shall watch how, or
if, this story develops.
I'd welcome any thoughts - go to my contact page and drop me an e-mail.
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10 August 2009 Adobe Lightroom 2 error message: "Assertion failed!" message
I had accepted the default option in Lightroom to backup my Catalog file every week; Lightroom sometimes crashed and corrupted the Catalog file, especially in earlier versions so I though this was a good idea. I also update a backup of all my photos and related files onto a separate hard disk evry few days - these two strategies are fine for established Catalogs that are subject to modest change over time but not sufficient for newly created Catalogs with many thousands of new images from a new shoot or commission such as the one created after our recent trip to China.
Over a period of about 10 days I reviewed, sorted, numbered, keyworded, captioned, graded, corrected, cropped, exported, resized, watermarked and assembled into web galleries a representative selection of images for disply in the Travel Gallery of the website. During the export of the second of 6 web galleries Lightroom suddenly and unexpectedly closed; even Dr Watson failed to offer error reporting. When I tried to restart Lightroom it displayed the "assertion failed!" message twice and refused to open the Catalog I had been working on. It happily opened other Catalogs.
I checked my backup, which opened fine but, even though it was only 2 or 3 days old almost half of the work I had put in wasn't there. I restarted Lightroom and then rebooted the computer, all to no avail. As a last resort I decided to create a new Catalog and see if it would import the data and files from the corrupt one - luckliy that worked so here's what I did, in case anyone else suffers a similar disaster.
1. Backup the corrupted Catalog file
2. Open any viable Catalog and choose "New Catalog..." from the "File" menu; name the Catalog
3. After Lightroom reopens choose "Import from Catalog..." from the "File" menu; choose the corrupted Catalog file (file type = .lrcat)
4. Choose your options in the dialog box and wait while it imports your images and metadata
5. Your Catalog should be re-created as it was before the crash - this could take several hours for a large database
As a final precaution, I have now set Lightroom to backup every time it starts on Catalogs that I'm working on to minimise the time between the last backup and the next possible failure.
Choose "Catalog settings..." | "Backup catalog" the "Edit" menu
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20 February 2008 Compass Points
Do you need to overlay compass points on your map to see where the sun rises at your local horizon? Then you need to print my "Simple Compass" onto a transparent (OHP) sheet. A note of caution - this device isn't designed to be accurate and must not be used for navigation purposes!
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18 February 2008 How to Batch Process in Photoshop Elements 2
Following a request from a regular visitor to the website I created detailed step by step instructions on how to batch process a bunch of images to a smaller size so that you can e-mail them without crashing somebody's server.
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10 August 2007 Project ZELK
I
suddenly got a notion to re-create a picture I originally painted
over 30 years ago. It's no masterpiece but it'll give me something
to do when I've got some spare time! Click on the link or
the picture to see more details.
Project ZELK
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2 September 2006 Panorama Stitching Programs Comparison
I am keen on the creation of panoramic images and photomerges. In order to pursue this interest I compared about 13 programs that are widely available, ranging from free to costing several hundred UK pounds. The results were very interesting and I compiled a spreadsheet of my (not particularly scientific) test results. From this work I concluded that the best program for creating panoramas is PtGui.
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14 October 2005 Palmtop GPS on a Psion 5mx without using a car!
This one's just for fun! The Psion 5mx is the best PDA (personal organiser) ever made, bar none. Sadly Psion stopped making them a few years ago but, many enthusiasts and practically minded persons, such as I, still use one on a daily basis. Some time ago I decided to see if I could use the Palmtop GPS receiver with the 5mx as a purely handheld device. The Palmtop GPS receiver is designed to be used in a car and is powered from the car's cigar lighter/ accessory socket - it too was discontinued a number of years ago but it is well-known as a reliable device. Read my article to see how I got on.
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