Gloucestershire Portrait Photographer » Photography Chat

iPhone App – Photography – ToonPaint

Dave — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:00:31 +0000

You’ve got to love the Apps on the iPhone .

This latest one is a simple 1 step process to take any existing photo, or take one there & then, & convert it into a cartoon.

The iPhone application in question is ToonPaint

So a quick play produced the following examples from some of my portraits :-

& then with a quick bit of painting within the App you can get this effect :-

iPhone Apps

All good fun

Gloucestershire Portrait Photographer – Favourite Photos from 2009

Dave — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:27:32 +0000

2009 was a great year where I was lucky enough to photograph some wonderful people, plus even had time to shoot some landscapes. I’ve chosen a small selection below.

If you have a favourite please feel free to add a comment at the end.

So here goes ……….

#1 – Isobel

#2 – Ashleigh

#3 – Mum & Daughter

#4 – Remembrance Sunday

#5 -Witley Court

#6 – Mark

#7 – Suzi

#8 – Ger

Cheltenham Portrait Photographer

#9 – Karl

#10 – Hannah

#11 – Sensual

OK lets save some money !

Dave — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 17:15:44 +0000

OK this is off topic, but during hard times it’s always good to share any ways to save money.

Well here’s my advice, based on getting over £800 cash back last year

Firstly register at TopCashBack site here :- http://www.topcashback.co.uk/ref/cashbacklink . It’s free to join & you only need to enter your email address.

Now everytime you go to order something online, or book hotels, go to Topcashback site & search for that vendor. You’ll see exactly how much cashback you can get & then follow the link to the site accordingly.

For example this afternoon I needed to book some tickets on Eurotunnel & found via this cashback site there was 4% cashback. 10 secs to get some cashback

Now if you really want to get some big bucks back then do the following:-

For your electric, gas, house insurance & car insurance go to your favourite price comparison site.
Do your search & make a note of the top 3 for each. DO NOT FOLLOW THEIR LINKS to the relevant sites though, otherwise they get the cashback !!
Instead now pop over to Cashback site and search for your top 3 companies & see what cashback they are giving.
Choose the ones that give you the cheapest price (incl cashback) & follow link to their sites.
It’s as simple as that. In a few days you should see the cashback recognised on your account & you can then have the money transferred to your account within the next few months.

Recently I have got £130 cashback by switching electric & gas to Scottish Power, £35 cashback on House contents insurance, £45 cashback on car insurance, 3% back on a Plasma TV from Currys, 4% from Jessops etc etc.

Give it a go & start reaping the rewards !!

Anyway with the money I saved last year I might treat myself to a new lens now

Kodak Zi8 Sample video at 60 frames per second

Dave — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:12:41 +0000

I love the simplicity of my £130 HD Video camera, the Kodak Zi8. Not only does it shoot at 1080p, if you drop to 720P there is a mode to shoot at 60 fps. With the snow on the ground today, it was too good an opportunity to miss testing the 60fps, by taking the dogs for a walk.

Here are the results played back at 1/5th speed (warning HD so you need decent bandwidth or just hit “pause” for a while).
I have to say I’m impressed with the results.

Confessions of a Photographer

Dave — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:47:15 +0000

A satirical video by Joe McNally, confessing to some of those sins of photography. Now say a dozen Hail Marys

All shot with Nikon D3S

Gloucestershire Photographer – How to add a Welcome page to Facebook

Dave — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 09:59:48 +0000

I’ve been asked by several people how I managed to add a “WELCOME” page / tab to my Gloucestershire Portrait Photographer Biz page on Facebook. Well a welcome page is key to your Business page on Facebook, as the saying goes “1st impressions count” !

If you want to see the Welcome page for Gloucestershire Portrait Photographer in full, then go to Facebook & in the search box enter …. wait for it …. Gloucestershire Portrait Photographer

Anyway I digress, here are the steps you need to take to add a Welcome page to facebook, or any other kind of page you want. Click here for

1 :- You really want to use HTML for your Welcome page, so add the Facebook App Static FBML

2 :- Following the above link, click the “Add to my page” link.

3 :- Back on your Business page from the wall page, you should see option to “Edit Page” (top left) . Click this

4 :- Page down options until you get to “Static FBML”. Click the pencil top right & choose “edit”

5 :- You will now be shown a box for your page title, plus main content area. Don’t enter anything yet, as there appears to be a bug with the software

6: – The bug seems to be related to creating you 1st page….. it doesn’t show on your Facebook. Instead click “Add another FBML box” at bottom

7:- The new page called “FBML 1″ will be added to list at bottom of page. Click “edit” against it

8:- Now, enter title for your page …eg “Welcome” & the enter your html for main content. Save your content

9:- Now to add your page to a tab. Go back to Step 4 , & this time against Static FBML choose “Application Settings”, & click “add” against tab.

10:- Go back to your main page & add the tab “Welcome”. Re-order tabs as you see fit

11:- Final step if you want “Welcome” page to be landing page for all visitors. Go back to Step 4 & choose “Wall settings”

12:- Choose “Default Landing Tab” as “Welcome”

There you have it. A pretty simple process to add a professional look & feel to your Facebook Biz page

If you found this of use , please feel free to pass on link to others. In addition please consider becoming a fan of my facebook Business page, to ensure you stay up to date with tips & tricks I share there.

Cheers, Dave

Gloucestershire Portrait Photographer – New Marketing Theme

Dave — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 19:21:39 +0000

Working on a new marketing theme, along this line. My daughter was kind enough to pose for all of 5 secs for the shot before getting bored

gloucestershire-portrait-photographer

Bowens LiteBook Q2 2009

Dave — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:59:01 +0000

Bowens LiteBook

Latest free Lighting magazine, that can be viewed online, from Bowens. Although it’s obviously Bowen orientated, there is lots of sound advice for anyone interested in Studio Lighting

Contents :-

Pro:File:-Steve Collinson: From heavyweight boxer to hot fashion photographer.
If you build it they will come:-Ian Shipley on building a studio from scratch from cowshed to commercial success.
Pro:File:-Adam Scott. The world through a plastic lens…
Top of the Class:- Zemamnesh Campbell on ‘Combining Cultures’.
Your Space:- Burlison Photography – why ‘Image is Everything’.
Reflexions & Image Anatomy:- Sarah Louise Johnson learns the photographers mantra – the hard way.
Hough To:- Christian Hough’s ‘snooty’ guide to hard light.

Previous Editions / All Bowens Litebooks below

Will an expensive camera improve my Photography ?

Dave — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:59:47 +0000

It’s the question I hear all the time. Well as an experiment instead of shooting with £3K worth of camera & lens, this following shoot was taken with a £100 second hand Fuji S9500. My thanks to Gemma and her two daughters (Rebecca and Jessica) for being such great models.

View some more shots here

Bowens LiteBook Q1 2009

Dave — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 19:13:23 +0000

Bowens LiteBook

Latest free Lighting magazine, that can be viewed online, from Bowens.

Although it’s obviously Bowen orientated, there is lots of sound advice for anyone interested in Studio Lighting.

Click on the image to open magazine