Simon's Blog

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

Phew that was painful.  I hate selecting the photographs for Wild Life Photography competition – I always think they are useless and have no chance.  With this competition, possibly one of the most prestigious in the field, I feel this doubly so.  This does have one advantage though – I have no expectations so should I be selected or even short-listed I will be really pleased.  Are well nothing ventured nothing gained.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

It is decision day tomorrow.  Which photographs will I submit for the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition?   I am still not sure but the pressure of time will help the process – thats the plan anyway.  Lets see.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

This is hard work.  I am used to it but you still have to be very ruthless – this can be very hard and perhaps you never get it right all the time – if you don’t you keep thousands, no tens of thousands of images you just will never use.  Oh the joys of 9 FPS!
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

This morning was fun – a strange kind of fun I know but fun nonetheless.  Now the reality check – just how good were the images I captured?   This was delayed by several hours this afternoon as we had a power cut – my god how we are slaves to electricity.  

I have just completed the first step – uploading 1800 plus images to the computer.  Now to import them into lightroom.  Perhaps after the evening meal I will be able to start working on them – my guess is that I will keep around 200.  Lets see.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini

Oh tish and poo I am trying to calibrate my monitor.   I should have done this an awful long time ago and well one thing lead to another and I didn’t do it.   Over the past few weeks I have become aware that my photographs have started to appear very dark.  This is in part because they are dark – I seem to be going through a dark, super saturated phase at the moment which doesn’t help.  However, I noticed on other people’s monitor that they were looking excessively dark so I decided to do the deed that I should have done months ago.

I installed the software, fine.  I then went to install the calibration monitor and nothing.  I downloaded new drivers but to no avail – it just wouldn’t work with Vista.   I had to calibrate the monitor manually, which is never an easy task, but I managed it anyway.

The results are impressive – guess what my photographs that were perfectly ok yesterday now look much darker than they should do.  I guess the morale of the story is keep on top of your chores and get hardware that is future proof.  This will no doubt bring a warm feeling to any Mac fanboys, you know who you are, who might be reading this – you don’t have this sort of problem with Macs – old hardware still works with new machines.
 

Simon Marchini LRPS

Web: http://WWW.simonmarchini.co.uk

Twitter: http://twitter.com/@simonmarchini