We had a barbeque at my parent’s house on Saturday, the weather was beautiful and there were a few ice-cold beers consumed. This morning it feels like September, clear blue skies and very cold. It’s a real back-to-school day.
A long time ago (well, 5 or 6 years ago anyway) corporate anthems were all the rage in the world of the internets. Back then I worked for a computer games company called Infogrames. Infogrames was quite a big company at the time with offices in France and New York and was responsible for games like Unreal Tournament and Alone in the Dark…our studio however was in sunny Sheffield so we were that little bit removed from the corporate side of things. I still remember the day when we all received the company email announcing with pride that we now had our very own corporate anthem to stir our proud souls. It was a very funny scene as a studio of hairy programmers and geeky artists listened in stunned silence to what follows, which I found thanks to the wonders of Facebook, just click the little arrow but be warned, it’s stirring stuff:
**Geeky camera post alert**
This is the latest addition to my lens family which arrived today, a 28mm 1.8 from Canon. I’ve become a bit of a prime lens addict (sorry to go all geeky…a prime lens in case you don’t know is one that has a fixed focal length, so, in other words not a zoom). They’re just so much sharper and they make my lazy self actually think about where I need to be standing for different shots rather than relying on zooming. Plus you can get a very fast lens (1.8 in this case) for low light without breaking the bank. To get a zoom lens which allows you to shoot at f1.8 can cost into the thousands whereas this lens only set me back a few hundred from eBay.
I’ve been testing the new lens out on Eve (my long-suffering model) and so far I’m very happy with the results. My justification for buying it is that in a couple of weeks I’ve been asked to photograph a four day event for the Mayo County Enterprise Board. I’ve been told that the the four venues are quite dark hotel conference rooms and my preference is to avoid shooting with flash so this lens is going to come in very handy indeed:
A couple of people tagged me to do this eight things meme and it’s been sitting unfinished in WordPress for weeks. I can’t remember the rules and I won’t tag anyone (I don’t think there’s anyone left to tag) but here’s eight random things about me:
1. Ever since I saw The Glenn Miller story when I was very young, I’ve been madly in love with Jimmy Stewart. If any of his films come on I just have to drop everything and watch him. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve watched Harvey.
2. I spent a day as a bridal hairstyle model in Mexico in order to get some extra money. I was toe-curlingly awful at it and it still pains me to watch the video. I have heard that the videos were on sale all across South America at one point though so maybe I’m famous in Guatemala.
3. I’m terrified of anything that’s mouldy or rotting and my worst fear is to die of gangrene. Lovely eh? I think it might have come from hearing a story when I was very young about a friend’s aunt whose hand fell off while she was brushing her hair. I guess I was a little gullible.
4. I play the flute…at least I used to. I was a member of the Dublin Youth Orchestra when I was in school. I gave up because I would get such terrible stage fright.
5. I hate tea, coffee and alcohol and have never even had a drag of a cigarette. I’m such a rebel!
6. On the other hand, I used to be a bit of a tea-leaf. I remember shop-lifting for the first time when I can’t have been older than 7 or 8. I stopped abruptly when I was 12 and have never done it since…promise 🙂
7. I love playing online first-person shooters, in particular I’ve spent many an hour blasting away on Counter Strike, Soldier of Fortune and my favourite, Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. I get slagged about this hobby all the time but I don’t care. It’s escape and stress-relief all in one.
8. Hmm, last random fact…the first concert I went to (without parents…that doesn’t count because it was Wham! and that’s just not as cool) was U2’s Joshua Tree concert in the old Croke Park on the 27th of June 1987. I was 14 years old and I’m actually quite surprised I was allowed to go. I went with a group of friends but we got separated just before U2 came on and I spent the concert being protected by a big burly biker guy close to the front of the stage. It was probably the best concert of my life. The opening song was Where The Streets Have No Name, it starts off really quiet but as soon as the bass and drums kicked in the whole crowd erupted and started to jump up and down all together. I was so small I was lifted off my feet with them and it was terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time. Everytime I hear the opening bars I’m transported back.
This is the actual concert. I’m somewhere in that mass of bodies at the front right of the stage:
There’s a piece in today’s Irish Independent about using online applications for business featuring Annette Clancy, Krishna De, Jason Fried and me! When Marie Boran, the journalist who wrote the piece, got in touch with me I had to sit for a minute and think about whether I use many applications at all. I suppose I never made a conscious decision to conduct my business this way, it came along gradually. As problems presented themselves I went looking for solutions. As Annette says in the piece, I have to see an obvious use for something or else I won’t take it on either. I think Marie did a really good job of summarising some of the applications that are out there for small businesses but there were a few others specific to me that weren’t mentioned but that someone might find useful:
Flickr was the first obvious solution to the problem of hosting and showing photographs. I was already using it to show personal shots so it was a natural progression to set up different accounts to upload photographs for large events. If I am hired to photograph a seminar or workshop where many people need to see the photographs and download them I set up a dedicated Flickr account. To upload four days worth of photographs to my own site would soon eat up my bandwidth so Flickr is great for this. It’s not perfect…I can’t password protect it…it’s either public or can just be seen by those who join and become my “friends” which isn’t practical. However, while I’m on the lookout for other options, Flickr is a godsend.
Blueface solved the problems we had when Eircom didn’t seem to want us to have a landline. In the article it says that I use Skype which I do, but for most of my business these days I have Blueface. The reasons I don’t really use Skype for this is that we wanted an Irish landline number which Blueface gives us. Also for a flat fee of about €15 a month I get free UK and Ireland phonecalls and don’t have to pay any line rental! Our mobile phone bill is about half what it used to be.
And then of course there’s blogging. I was surprised to see no mention of it in the article although perhaps it might not be seen as an application in the same way as the other tools are. However the free WordPress software has given me a website where before I wouldn’t have had a clue how to get myself online, all I’ve had to pay for is the hosting cost and the domain name. I’m also experimenting with using blogging software to run my photography site, this means I can run a hacked photoblog template while I teach myself CSS.
So, I guess I do use quite a few online applications and I’m always on the lookout for others. As long as they help me to save time rather than waste it!