Pixsmiths Parga Picture to be Published

Yesterday I got the following e-mail from Bearport Publishing Company based in New York:

"I am writing to request the following high-resolution image from your collection.

SandySmith_3554230-Nekromanteio_vauults-Parga

Underground passage of the Nekromanteio in Parga Greece

The intended usage is as follows.
Interior Use
2055_Wretched Ruins
Estimated Publication date January 2010
Print Run: Under 10,000
North American Rights
English Language
If possible, please include the Book Title and job reference number 2055 on the delivery memo and invoice.

Please send the images directly to Bearport Publishing."
 
This was an image Pixsmiths had taken during a trip to Parga on the Greek mainland back in 2007 and was placed on a travel tip on Virtualtourist.com
 
Well I was happy enough to oblige - fortunately I still had the high-res jpeg image.
They were kind enough to pay  125 dollars to0. 
 
Pixsmiths will be donating this money towards a children's work in India which will be visited personally in January.

Pixsmiths Published in Schmap Maps

Our Butterfly picture from Chester Zoo was selected and published in the Schmap Map for Manchester :-))

Busy Autumn

Well its been a busy few weeks on the wedding photography front and glad that all albums are under way - a good mixture of coffee style albums and a large memador storybook album with its beautiful templates. One coffee book is at the printers shortly to be dispatched. The memador album is awaiting proofing with clients who have a CD posted of the wedding images album layouts posted to them in Sweden. Another album is also with clients for proofing - images on lightscribed CD have been sent and pdf of album layout sent via Yousendit.com - a very useful way to send large files over the internet. Bridegroom here is in Spain - guess we could be Pixsmiths International! Its been hard work but its been great fun putting the albums together, creating montages and getting great response from the happy couples.

After all this it will be time for our travels:
End of November we are off to La Palma, one of the smaller Canary Islands which has a touch of Madeira about its capital town. Our Silver wedding in March will see us lapping up the luxury of a Sandals resort in St Lucia followed by two weeks in May Island hopping in the Greek Cyclades from a base in Mykonos. So lots more to look forward to.

Wedding Album Kev and Elaine

Wedding of Kev...

By

Book Preview

All sorted and ready for printing. This was such a fun wedding, loved it!

Wedding Venue Knockaloe Bar & Restaurant

A recent wedding venue was at the OC Knockaloe Bar & Restaurant, formerly The Octel Sports & Social Club. Bridle Road, Bromborough. Not just a carvery and restaurant but function rooms have been refurbished to cater for wedding functions with attention to detail. Whether for all day or just evening receptions, Charlie the friendly daughter of Dave Anderson, owner & proprietor of the OC, is also a wedding co-ordinator and her experience and expertise in such events makes the day go smoothly not only for the bride and groom but also for others such as ourselves as photographers.

A decking area leads down to a grassy lawn - ideal for group and aerial shots. The function room easily held the wedding party of 50, capacity can be much more than this. It was beautifully decked out with table settings and covered chairs and in the evening coloured dimmer lights added to the ambience. A raised stage at one end is both ideal for DJ's, bands and photographers for overall room shots. Each time the room was checked personally by the Bride and Groom and we could also come in and record the scene.

Not only were we kept informed of timing of events we were need to photograph but we were also looked after with a delicious meal from the carvery as the bridal party were being served their desert. Staff were most friendly and helpful, thank you all so much! We hope they will be pleased with the pictures we have taken of the venue for them - they asked if they could purchase some - they will be placed on our web gallery for perusal shortly at photoboxgallery.com/pixsmiths

We are delighted to recommend wedding functions at the Knockaloe Bar and Restaurant.

Port Sunlight Weddings

Two weddings coming up - one this weekend and another early October, both in the delightful setting of the model workers village of Port Sunlight, the creation of William Hesketh Lever.
Differing styles, but both we are looking forward to very much.

This weekend its Kev and Elaine's special day with marriage ceremony at the popular Christ Church in Port Sunlight (3 weddings that day as usual during the summer Saturdays) followed by a reception with a Liverpool theme as they are keen Liverpool FC supporters - guess the colour scheme! The beautiful church is a Grade 2 listed building of red sandstone. The square tower houses a peal of 8 bells - the only United Reformed church in the country to do so.
The length of the church is 151 feet - and the photographer has to stand at the back (tripod and long fast lens will be the order of the day) but makes for some lovely photos with its leading floor tiles and beautiful stained glass windows.

The second is a hotel, civil ceremony, wedding for Michael and his Swedish bride Anneli at the art deco Leverhulme hotel. Evening do complete with Elvis impersonator so that should be fun.

The village of Port Sunlight is beautiful with its different styles of architecture and scenic locations of the Dell and fountain in front of the art gallery. Its a pity that mindless idiots vandalised the Hillsborough memorial as that was a favoured photo spot for our Liverpool fans.
Still plenty of photo opportunities and we look foward to the events.

Softly Softly Scenic Scladming

Just recently come back from an 11 day break hiking around the Dachstein in the Styria region of Austria. It was a fantastic break, some hard walks up and down hills but the views and apple strudels at the alpine huts were ample reward - actually, probably too much and undid all the good the walking had done!

We based ourselves in Schladming a former silver mining town but know well known in the sporting calendar for ski-ing, mountain biking and downhill golf. It has a pedestrianised centre with good selection of shops and cafes. They even have their own local brewery - Scladminger beer.

Since 2007 the area has a free summer card for guests staying more than 3 days in participating hotels. An incentive to draw in summer visitors , the card gives free access to hiking buses, gondolas, chairlifts, museums, swimming pools and bathing lakes....the list goes on. A whole host of activities for families too, from baking bread on a farm to guided glacier hikes, even childcare facilities. Can save a load of spending money.

Walking is mainly at intermediate to hard level with panorama loops for easier walks. The summer card enabled us to enjoy some wonderful walks up one valley, hiking over the top and dropping down to another valley where a hiking bus could be caught back to base. A great system. Best of all Schladming is still unspoilt , their approach to tourism is softly, softly. people come to enjoy the nature and sports, not to indulge is tacky touristic shops and long may it continue...so perhaps I'd better not shout too loud about its virtues....

Charity Art Mural

West Kirby has a striking new art mural in the town centre - situated on the corner of Dee Lane and Banks Road. A colourful mural of the marina is made up of smaller picture tiles, although from a distance it looks like a complete picture. Each painted square tile is a donation for a local charity - Claire House a hospice for children so a real worthy cause. A positive way to give, not only to the charity but also to local residents and visitors who can enjoy this colourful mural.

Polaroid Photoshop Actions

Tried out a couple of polaroid actions in photoshop this week.
First is an effective single polaroid fx action from the litlephotoshop - try it yourself its a free download. For this shot I combined with a skin softening action - also from littlephotoshop.



Secondly is a multiple polaroid action which I came across in one of the flickr posts, and originates from the digitaldarkroom.com

This action takes seconds to perform an action set which must have taken ages to set up originally. Again its a free download so have fun with this too. Simply load the action into actions folder of photoshop, click on the action, open the template psd which is provided and then open the image you want to use for this effect. Works best with larger file sizes.

The Marble Church

Many times as we travelled into North Wales we would pass this beautiful Marble church near St Asaph, so called due to its striking white dominance on the landscape when travelling the A55 North Wales Expressway. We always said, one day we must stop and have a look. Well that one day eventually arrived a couple of weeks ago on a bright sunny morning. I wished I had more than just my canon G9 - were were going hiking so were travelling light.

The marble church real name is St Margaret's Bodelwyddan - erected by Lady Willoughby de Broke in memory of her husband. She laid the foundation stone on 24 July 1856 and the new church designed by architect John Gibson was consecrated by the Bishop of St Asaph on 23 August 1860 after construction at a cost of £60,000. Formerly known as "the Pearl of the Vale", St Margaret's is now known as the Marble Church, not just for iys external appearance but also due to thirteen different kinds of marble in the interior. Now would love to do a wedding here!

To the west of the church is Kinmel Park, a former military camp used by Canadian troops during the First World War. The churchyard contains the graves of numerous victims of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-19 in the camp. On 4-5th March 1919 a riot occurred in the camp when the ship allocated to return the troops to Canada was diverted to carry food supplies to Russia, and five Canadian soldiers were killed in the disturbances and subsequently buried in St Margaret's churchyard - the graves and rose garden pose a poignant memorial for them all.

Birthday Book

Finished the Birthday book for a friends 60th Birthday Party

Anna's 60th Bi...

By

Book Preview

Other Side of the Camera

Well it was the official re-opening of the West Kirby Marina today. A fair crowd gathered to see the local MP and head contractor, who took over the restoration project when the first company went bust, in the cutting of the ribbon ceremony. This was followed by a sail parade and a charity dragon boat taking to the water and other events during the day. The local BBC were there to film for the local news slot and yours truly managed to get themselves interviewed about how the lake had looked when under repair and what a big improvement it was now. I didn't expect to see it on TV as several people were interviewed but there I was on TV later on in the day on BBC North West News. People were ringing my mum to say her daughter was on TV!

It was fascinating to see all the preparation of shots and interviews with the dignitaries - The actual ribbon cutting was re-enacted with the councillor holding the cut ends together again - guess the press photographer wanted another angle!
The TV crew must have been there for at least 2 hours ...all that work with shot preparation and sound checks all edited down for approx one minute news slot.The TV report made a great job with using shots of the diggers at work in past weeks, shots of the new raised wall and also an aerial shot of the marina.

A sunny evening in West Kirby, ideal for a stroll around our marina.
For many weeks the wall has been under repair, just mud on the floor, smelly mud at that too, and diggers going up and down, creating odd reflections in areas of shallow water. Now open for walkers again and a delight to see what a great job had been made. The wall is much higher now so tidal waters should not wash over so much or when the wind blows the wrong way won't have to jump to avoid getting one's feet wet. The fresh paint and stone cladding to re-enforce the wall are a great improvement and makes it a pleasure to be able to have a sunset stroll around and enjoy our fabulous sunsets again.
The official re-opening is on Saturday with a sail parade in the morning - should be a colourful sight so will be out with the camera again. For now a couple of stroller shots against the light which give a nice monochromatic tone to the pictures.

Daytripping to Dolwyddelan

Dolwyddelan is situated in the Lledr Valley, North Wales. No wedding last Saturday so took the opportunity to enjoy the sunshine with a walk in this beautiful part of the Snowdonia National Park. area. Originally planned a lowish valley walk but a wrong turning at the beginning meant we steadily climbed the hill here. Not that it mattered the views towards Moel Siabod and the Snowdon Horseshoe were worthwhile.

Before we got started on the walk there was a wedding going on in the village in tits tiny welsh chapel, St. Gwyddelan's Church which dates from about 1500AD, so couldn't resist chatting with the photographer - she definitely didn't need a long lens for the church, must have been all of 3 rows deep! The bride lived just down the road and worked in the local pub where a small reception was held afterward. We had a coffee there after our walk and were also given some tea loaf left over from the function, very tasty and very kind. I guess we will return sometime to do the other walk.

Lightroom Training

Interested in Lightroom training? Then Photographic Academy of Welshot Imaging are meeting at the Anglesey Arms Hotel in Menai Bridge Wednesday 29th July at 6.30pm.
John Arnold from Photwalkthrough.com with be there for the evening and he will be running the entire session. John will be going through the Adobe Lightroom programme. He will be explaining about keywording, metadata, using Lightroom as an organisational tool, as well as showing how Lightroom can help process your images. The keywording and metadata will be of particular importance to academy members who submit to Welshot Imaging stock library.

Numbers are required for the buffet supper - stop for at about 8.15pm. The evening will end about 10.00 – 10.30 so making this evening of learning extremely great value for money.
Cost for Academy Members is £10.00 Non Academy Members is £20.00

Please contact lee Iggulden:
Director and Photographic Coordinator
Welshot Imaging Limited
Phone: +44 (0)1248 670 693
Mobile: 07765461324
www.welshotimaging.co.uk

Memador Wedding Album

Yesterday we had a parcel delivered we had been eagerly awaiting - not that it was overdue, it was about the expected delivery time. It was our Memador 16 x12 deluxe wedding demo album we had lovingly designed with their innovative creative album software - although also used our own layouts designed with Stu Litle's Storybook Designer album software. It came parcel force delivery from Jerusalem.

The printing quality is excellent. Half the album is in Matt and half in Gloss so clients can make up their own mind about choice of finish. The pages have a unique Lifetime system developed by Memador, based on acid free printing and layers of high quality lamination. These measures protect photos from the damages of time, moisture, fingerprints, colour fading and even from natural ageing, according to their blurb. Well the pages and print are excellent and have a lovely feel to them - you really can handle them without fear of spoiling them. Our demo album contains 82 sides - the ideal maximum for these albums and has substantial transparent pages at the beginning and end (optional) also with watermarked images on A range of covers can be used with these albums - we chose the modern art version with a textured canvas print on the front - looks really good and. We first saw these albums at the NEC focus event, earlier this year and feel this album really compliments the range that Pixsmiths can offer.

Photshop Goodies

Via our flick account have recently discovered this great blog site, COFFEESHOP, which is loaded with free goodies for photoshop and lightroom, such as page templates, textures - ideal for scrap-booking and photoshop actions and tutorials. A real handy site, one to dip into on a frequent basis to discover the latest goodies.

Well done to Rita for sharing her passion with everyone and making them available.

Upcoming Events

Pixsmiths have a busy couple of weekends coming up:

This week its a big birthday celebration. We are primed to take pictures of the guests (who are each bringing a poem, verse or quote for the birthday girl) and to then produce a book with the words and pictures. Love doing these type of books.

The following weekend we have a meeting with a Bride a nd Groom to discuss their photography requiremnets in more detail for their upcoming wedding and hopefully take some shots of them as we walk around the various venues and make sure they are comfortable with us and the cameras focused on them.

Tamron Test

OK had a play with the new Tamron 17-50 F2.8 lens.
Fairly happy with it, not quite as sharp as Nikon's "nifty fifty" it does produce a very nice bokeh and obviously has a wider range so more versatile than "zooming" with the legs!

Anyway here's a picture of some flowers (don't ask me the name but you can tell me if you wish!)

Simply Electronics

Good service hardly ever gets mentioned but a bad experience is posted everywhere it seems, so though it would be good to relate good ones:

Were possible I google about a companies service and reputation before buying products from them on-line. I did see some negative comments about Simply Electronics but also good ones so was a little nervous about ordering - a tamron 17-50 F2.8 lens, a handy fast lens.

I needn't have worried: Ordered at the weekend, dispatched on Monday and received Tuesday - complete with e-mails informing of progress of order and tracking facility.
Certainly no complaints and a good price s currently have 15% off tamron lens
Have tested the lens last night and will be using at a wedding very soon.

Wedding World

A montage I love to do is a globe of wedding pictures -coined "Wedding World".
Its a simple but different effect. Here's how its done:
I used picasa to collage 49 pictures to give a 7 x7 square (you could use Photoshop for this if you wish. In photoshop then use the spherize filter, merged layers>duplicated layer>eliptical marquee to create the globe shape> feathered (1)> Select>Inverse>Eyedropper - Chose White>large brush>brushed over corners.
There done!

Nikon 's Nifty Fifty

Been trying out the Nikon 50mm F1.8 lens - popularly known as the "nifty fifty". It was a bit weird using legs to move backwards and forwards as opposed to zooming in and out of a telephoto lens but the lens is pin sharp and the depth of field it can achieve is great - combined with the D90 with its low noise at high ISO it was terrific for inside churches where flash cannot be used. Loving this lens, it will be great for portrait and close up detail shots. It will be interesting to compare with another lens due for delivery - a sigma 17-50mmm F2.8 which will be great for the wedding work.

Pixsmiths Social Networks

Social networking is the in thing these days, it seems most people have Facebook accounts, have uploaded videos to Youtube and keep in touch by "Twittering".

Well Pixsmiths don't like to be left behind and as well as a Twitter account, and Facebook account we now have a Flickr account for photo sharing. The Flickr account has been used to upload photos for the Littlephotoshop challenges (although its been a while since had time to enter the weekly competition there) Flickr has also been an invaluable source for networking with like-minded groups to participate in and learn from the discussion forums about lenses, cameras and albums etc... - Wedding Albums and Layouts, UK, Wedding Photography and Wedding Photography Business are just some of the groups we are in. Another group is Shared Worship Background graphics - a sharing resource for worship media - I organise the graphic presentations at our local church so this is most useful.

Welshot Wedding Workshop

Sun 17th May - enjoying a mini-break in Anglesey and a wedding workshop courtesy of Welshot Imaging was an enjoyable birthday treat.

Even having done several weddings before it was great to have the chance to learn new techniques with lighting and poses. A master class from Flintshire photographer, Mike Williams, took us through all the stages of a wedding, sharing secrets of poses and then giving the group ample opportunity to have a go too. The bride and groom models were very accommodating!

The sun made a welcome appearance in the afternoon and we were able to get some lovely shots in the beautiful setting on the Menai straits at the Gazelle Hotel, Glyn Garth in Anglesey.

A fun interactive workshop, well worth it.

A Blurb Book for our visit to Sicily

Sicily March 2009

By Pixsmiths

Book Preview

Click on book preview above for a look!

UPDATE 20th May 2009
Have recently received printed copy of this book - the printing is superb and overall very pleased, well packaged, took about 10 days to arrive, as expected. The large format of this book will ideally suit our lower end of wedding coffee table books - lower end of our range of wedding album options but still great quality wise.

Unfortunately one page was slightly stuck to the adjacent one and tore th print in a small area.
Customer services promptly sorted this out (requested images to be sent of damage so didn't have to return as with other companies) and another copy is the post.

Wilson Trophy Finale

An exciting race finish this afternoon for the Wilson Trophy - a best of five between Larchmont from the USA in the blue sailed dinghies and West Kirby in the grey sails.
CONGRATULATIONS to the home team, West Kirby Hawks taking it to the wire in a 3-2 win on a bitingly cold windy day for the spectators. Just about managed to keep the hands from shaking to take some pics. See a selection in the gallery.

Wilson Trophy 2009

The diamond edition of the Wilson Trophy competition, a decider for the 2009 British Open Team Racing Championships , takes place this weekend on West Kirby Marina.Its a prestigious international dinghy team racing event, people from all over the world arrive - especially noticed a large influx from New York to watch one of 3 teams from the USA.



It a colourful and chaotic looking spectacle with 42 teams comprising 252 sailors ; around 300 individual races are sailed in West Kirby's Sailing Clubs 24 evenly matched Firefly dinghies and 26 highly experienced umpires deliver instant on-the-water justice to the competitors.

The large marina with its position in the Dee estuary provides ideal weather conditions. Its a shame that the lake wall is currently closesd for repairs - and now the maintenace company has gone bust - but still able to get plenty of shots from the promenade. Its the round robin knock out day day, fast and furious races...who will win...we will have to wait ands see

Photography Forum

There are so many photography forums on the web .....many excellent ...but just wanted to share a two or three I am involved in.

First forum signed up for was photography4allforum a friendly site for photography lovers of all abilities and any type of camera. They have challenges to join in with and a real friendly group - several meet up have been arranged, unfortunately haven't managed one yet.

Nearer to home a smaller forum - Wirral Photography Forum - some members of which are in the above forum. Many galleries are for local photographs but other areas are also included. Have managed to meet up with people from this group - easier as close to home. We have collaborated on a photographic project for Shotwick village. The church in the village is most interesting and we were granted access to the tower and to watch the bell ringers. A portfolio of our work was given to the residents at their annual BBQ (to be left in the church) and was much appreciated.

Stuart Little - an expert in photoshop training, supported by excellent video tutorials and photoshop actions has an excellent site - thelittlephotoshop. The challenges and video tutorials here have been instrumental for improving photography technique and photoshop skills.
His action kits have also been invaluable in speeding up digital workflow and designing wedding albums - i wouldn't be without them now. Weekly and monthly challenges to get involved with too - always something new to learn and plenty of friendly members always willing to help as with the other forums mentioned. Check out the website for all sorts of goodies. In particular his latest product THE BIG PICTURE is a 4 DVD set jammed packed with tutorial and techniques on how to shoot, edit and retouch like a Pro. An invaluable asset when you think of the price of photography seminars - and the DVD can be played and paused at your own pace as you try the techniques for yourself. Its going to be holiday "reading" whilst away and I can devote some time to it.

There are many other forums you may know about - but there is only so much time to devote to them but joining one or two is so much fun and the creativity gained is great. So get involved and increase your skill levels and make new friends.

Sicily Trip

Well it was a lovely wedding anniversary break in Sicily at the end of March. Impressed with BA who we flew with this time - we were able to choose our seats on line and print off our boarding pass within 24 hours of the flight which meant we could cut down the time spent at the airport.....there was still time to pick up a lovely new Nikon D90 at tax free prices though, saving £100 on the normal retail price. A great way to start an anniversary!
The weather was fine and the views were beautiful, even from the approach into Catania we flew over Mount Etna still heavily snow covered from the good winter they had. The classical shot from the ground from the amphitheatre in Taormina our base for 5 nights was just as rewarding.
We enjoyed some short walks around the hilltop village of Castemola above Taormina and a walk down from the castle on another hill above. Cities we visited included Messina and a last day in Catania. Plenty of photographic opportunities means loads of pictures to sort!

Welshot imaging

Well it was a long day with a trip out to Menai Bridge on Anglesey for an open day with Welshot imaging - a fairly new photographic academy team aimed at educating and supporting photographers. We had met the team at Focus purely by chance on the way out and learnt about this 1 day taster session of what they offer.

In the morning we had short seminars on
Lightroom digital workflow - John Arnold from http://www.photowalkthrough.com/ - so glad I have Stu's big picture now with all those Lightroom tutorials on it. The quick overview on this session really gave me an insight into the concept of Lightroom and its dynamic collections.
How not to get arrested - James Mather, Solicitor
Why you need insurance - Nik Stewert - a really entertaining look at the pitflls of no insurance
How tax advice can save you money- Sharon Horsley Anglesey Accounting
Earn money with Magazines - Will Cheung FRPS, former editor of Photography Monthly

Time for some buffet lunch and a chance to chat

Afternoon Modules were of a "round robin" where small groups went from one session to another - a taster of what fuller courses might be like.

Learn to take great “Urban” portraits with a difference
An introduction to mains flash photography
How to shoot weddings like a Pro
Make prints to be proud of to sell / hang on walls
Take amazing shots with your flashgun
Getting creative with your composition
Can you solve my insurance problems?
How you can make £750 a night with Event Photography
A day in the life of an image retoucher
How can YOU capture the perfect wildlife image

Some of the above were practical and involved shooting urban models and wedding models.
John Arnold took the creative composition section - he had us walk 15 paces from him and then stop and take just 5 images, and then choose what we considered the best and then he and the rest of the group could critique them f so wished. A great practical, interactive way of making you stop and think about composition before snapping away.

Will Cheung also took the portrait mains flash photography and was very practical in.

In all a great educational and fun day out - and for just a tenner (really just to cover food and coffee costs) it was a bargain too.

Focus Visit

Last week we went to Focus at the NEC Birmingham. This was our third annual visit and a good time to catch up with latest photography products and seminars. We drooled over the top end full frame Nikon cameras and took advantage of a seminar giving top tips for travel photography - useful for our upcoming trips to Sicily and Turkey.

We saw a lovely bespoke digital album supplied by albummaker.co.uk that will be a good addition to our clients range, we shall be making a sample one up with the special offer that was on offer.
Not as many bargains to be had this year - must be the current economic climate.

Best of all it was chance to meet up with friends from thelittlephotoshop forum. Lovely to sit down with a cup of coffee and have a friendly chat and to get some good advice. We look forward to meeting our friends again soon in the real world.

On the way out of Focus we fortuitously met a couple from North Wales who organise a photo agency - Welshotimaging Imaging. We shall be attending their open day at the beginning of April to get a taster of the courses that they run and to hopefully do some networking.

Next year Focus will be held in March - hopefully better deals and and hopefully more from the forum to hook up with.

Domain Name

Well we are just re-launching our new photography website and have been through the process of re-branding with new domain name. Its taken a few days deciding on a name - an important decision. Had to be something snappy and memorable - not easy with a popular name like Smith!

After much searching and being disappointed with many favourite options already taken we next decided on picsmiths but then soon changed to the more modern spelling of PIXSMITHS. Its a sort of play on words pixels being the tool of our trade in digital photography and also we hope you will pick us for your wedding or travel photography requirements. So our new upcoming site is pixsmiths.co.uk