It’s been a busy Summer and although things have been quiet on the blog, it’s been quite the reverse in the office. I’ve been planning a lot of things to post up here so I’ll start rolling them out over the next few weeks and months (and it’s not all shameless publicity).
In the meantime with the schools back tomorrow we’ll be returning to normal office hours. So I’ll be here 9-10 and 2-3pm every day so that anyone can drop in without an appointment.
Outside those hours I’ll be here unless I need to be somewhere else. So it’s likely I will be in the office but it’s generally best to call and make an appointment to make sure.
That said I have a wedding booking this Friday (30th) so won’t be here at any stage that day.
I’ll be in Limerick all weekend from Friday with the swim team so anyone looking for prints before the end of the school hols needs to give me a buzz tomorrow. I’ll be back next week (once I get the chlorine out of my system!).
Also from next week I’ll be moving to summer hours which means office hours will move to 10-12am and I’ll be arranging appointments around those times where possible. As usual, if I’m not out at an appointment I’ll probably be in the gallery at other times during the day but it’s best to phone or text to check first – 087 683 8511.
OK so our bit of snow didn’t last that long. The kids threw a few snowballs on the way to school and then it was gone by lunchtime.
So I’ve had to gone back into the Archive to find something topical:
Snowboy – Jan 2010
Two side stories on this one:
We have a canvas print of this at home but I couldn’t find the file anywhere so I went back to the original Archive file for the RAW file and put it through Lightroom. What I find interesting is that second time around I didn’t do a whole lot more to the file than I did about 3 years ago when the picture was taken. I’m not a big Photoshopper: I try to get everything right in camera. All files get corrected: White Balance, Exposure and Tonal Adjustments. I will go at anything that distracts from the main subject – whether that’s controlling bright areas or cloning out odd things here and there. But that’s about it. The tools are better three years later but the aim is pretty much the same.
When I started the laptop this morning to pull this file off the Archive, it didn’t start first time and went into Recovery. A (long) time after it came back and I sighed with relief. But I got a slight fright. Everything in the office is backed up but I treat the laptop as something of a temporary store. But there probably are some things on there that aren’t fully protected (mainly personal stuff). Also the disc is pretty full. So today has become IT day with a series of backups and disc purges in place across both machines. Followed maybe by a little maintenance. Computers are great but you have to look after them!
News has got out about the new Gallery and Office. Thanks to everyone for their best wishes and offers of assistance.
In between the usual day job there’s been a lot of work gone into it over the last couple of weeks: a bit of DIY, a trip to Ikea, plenty of flat pack assembly and the slow and steady migration of the office up to the new site.
On Wednesday the guys turned up with the new sign to find the Mrs and Me painting the outside. The first good day outside in two weeks – or so we thought – plus a bit of indecision on the colour front meant that this was the first chance. So unfortunately we had to send them back with the sign until the painting was done.
It was a rough day weather-wise but it stayed dry until about 9pm. The gang swung by on the way home from a club and all was well. I even passed in the early hours on the way home from Barry’s and the paint was holding up in the rain.
But when we turned up next morning ready for more work, half the paint job was on the pavement! OMG! We cleaned up the path but now we’re stuck waiting for the weather to improve before we can paint and then the sign needs to go up.
Ironic for a location photographer who is rarely put off by the weather to be hung up like this.
But I spent my first day working down there processing pictures (waiting for the undercoat on the door to dry) and I’ve moved from being a little apprehensive to really wanting to get on with it.
Inside it looks good in there now: I have furniture, I have a sofa and a coffee machine. I’m getting the first batch of pictures for the walls on Tuesday.
So if you pass and the door is open do call in and say ‘Hi’. And say a short prayer for good weather so we can finish off the outside!
