Digital Prints – buy, buy, buy!

PhotographyBLOG reports that the growth of digital prints is accelerating at twice that of digital cameras. I’m not surprised really. So many more people have digital cameras these days that not all of them are computer geeks with huge collections of photos on their PCs. They want tangiable photos they can show their friends and family and don’t want to crowd around in front of a noisy, nasty computer.
When I eventually move into the new place (there’s always delays!) I’m going to get large format prints of some of my photos to hang around the house. Spectra Photo in town do 8″x6″ prints for 99¢. Anyone know a cheaper shop or site that supplies to the Irish market?

Misc Photo Stuff

Right, it’s late. Just back from another excellent gig and in need of sleep! Here’s what’s open in my browser tabs right now…

  • Photo of the Week on photo.net – amazing star trails and a dramatic foreground!
  • Practice Mutha, Practice – practice makes perfect!
  • I’m now listed on photoblogs.com
  • A review of Noise Ninja, and announcement of a free photo noise removal tool called Helicon. Neither has a native Linux version so I really need to get Wine working.

How to sort 16,000+ photos

If you work at Sports Illustrated and you’re covering a major sports event you’ll be very busy! This is a fascinating article showing a typical digital workflow in action! I thought I had a job to do with 350 photos but that’s peanuts compared to what these guys do!

Steve Fine is looking at two pictures every second. He’s been keeping up that pace, with frequent short interruptions, for over four hours, and he’ll keep it up for three more.

St. Patrick's Day Photos!

Here’s a few photos from the parade yesterday. I’m uploading more to an online gallery but that’ll take longer. I’ve narrowed down the images I want to display, but there’s still 88 of them there! That’s a lot of post processing in the GIMP to do! (Auto-colour correction, maybe crop, resize, unsharp-mask)
When the Chernobyl van and flat passed, the crowd cheered and clapped Adi Roche and the people on board! Not pictured here, but several members of the New York Fire Department were in the parade. As they passed, they were cheered and clapped as well which was great to see!

Post-processing: one-third of the job

It’s true. Taking a photograph is only one part of the final image. The rest is what you do afterwards, whether that’s in the dark room or on your computer. Andy Williams posted a couple of his photos, including the before and after shots. It’s amazing the difference that a few minutes in the GIMP will do to a photo! Then, you have to ask yourself, how much is too much?

Buying and Moving House in Ireland – Utilities

Part ??? of ??? – almost there!
I get the keys of the house on Friday so I’m quite excited at the prospect! There’s still a lot to be arranged, and transferring utilities is one of those jobs. I rang The ESB, Bord Gais, and Eircom earlier to find out how.

  • Using the 2003 02 area phone book I saw that the ESB had a number of phone numbers. Unfortunately the first sales number I tried went through to their emergency/fault line! Ring 1850 372 372 if you want to talk to a sales guy. I was kept on hold for less than a minute and told to get a meter reading on Friday, get a forwarding address, ring them again and the account will be transferred.
  • I rang Bord Gais then. The phone was answered immediately. A meter reading has to be done by the current owners, they should ring Bord Gais on Thursday or Friday with their new address, my payment details and the meter reading. Their phone number is 1850 426200.
  • Finally, I rang Eircom. I was kept on hold for a good 3 minutes. Different recorded voices came on from time to time saying there were delays, and sorry for holding, etc. I thought it was strange to have different people recording those messages but it’s probably cheaper than hiring more staff to man the phones. Anyway, story is much the same. They ring Eircom, give my name and payment details. Transfer of a phone account costs €12, and if I want a new number it’ll cost €24.59. Isn’t it strange how the ESB and Bord Gais can transfer an account for free? (or at least they never mentioned a cost, in which case, my apologies to Eircom!) Ring Eircom at 1901 and press 1 for a sales person.

Much Later … It’s much easier than that. The previous owners took meter readings, and rang the various utilities to transfer the bills over to their new address. Bord Gais and the ESB were informed of my moving in to their house, and I rang Eircom and got the phone line connected a few days later.

Shopping, Shopping, Shopping..

I wish I had left that “misc” entry in my budget. It would have covered all the small little house things I bought today! Now I’m way over budget!
Anyway, thank you Michelle and Conor for the help today. Both for carrying too many bags and boxes and for helping me choose the right set of knifes, right vacuum cleaner, furniture and the rest! I really had forgotten that kitchens need knifes, a tin opener, various types of cutlery and such! I’m really looking forward to moving in next week!
And after spending so much on the house, I felt the urge to splash out on a nice new pair of glasses for myself! Woohoo! 🙂

Time to hit the town! Have a good night!