Fotocourses Blog

Las Vegas

Fotocourses — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:54:37 +0000

Not long now until our big course to Las Vegas. We will be spending a couple of days in Vegas then off to Grand Canyon, Antelope Canyon, Monument Valley, Arches, Bryce Canyon and Zion before returning to Vegas. We may even get to to se the odd Elvis and Vegas Wedding. We will be putting up next hers dates shortly and I hope to be blogging during the trip. Check out the America link on our web site for news about the 2013 trip.

Fotocourses — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 09:46:45 +0000

For those of you interested in Motor Sport the annual Sunseeker rally is taking place on the 25th February. The event is great for photography with full details available from the web site http://www.rallyesunseeker.co.uk/. There is a motor fair and great spectating at Somerley park on the Saturday and a parade of vehicles on Poole Quay on the Friday.

For those of you interested in motor sport photography we run courses to the Goodwood festivals every year. Our course running at the Festival of Speed is now fully booked but there are a few places left on our Revival meeting day in September. Visit our web site www.fotocourses.co.uk and follow the Goodwood link to find out more.

New Notes

Fotocourses — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:53:01 +0000

Just been putting the finishing touches to the new course notes for Fotocourses. The notes have been written using the ibooks author software that I blogged about a few days ago and they look great. The new notes will come on a disc with ibook and pdf versions and are up to date with the latest cameras and software. We now have extensive course notes on Photoshop Elements, CS, Camera techique, Studio lighting and Wedding photography. The last 2 books have loads of tips and hints from our years as pro photographers so will be very useful for photographers wanting to turn pro.

If you want a copy of any of the books then all you have to do is book course!

Wedding Planner App

Fotocourses — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:51:20 +0000

Just finished the wedding fair at the BIC and winding down after my day on the stand. Not as busy as past shows but good quality enquiries and some nice bookings for 2012 and 2013.

The guys from Createful were showing off their new wedding planner app for the iPad. I saw the demo and loved the clean lines and usability of this app and expect it will prove popular with wedding couples planning their big day. The app is very new but worth a look on the app store. Visit their web site at www.createful.com or just type wedding planner in on the app store.

Our show offers will be around for a few more days so check out our wedding site www.forestsidephoto.co.uk

Wedding Fair at the BIC, Bournemouth

Fotocourses — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 10:32:38 +0000

We are exhibiting this weekend at the BIC in Bournemouth on stand S79. Come down and have a look at the albums we offer and our competitively priced packages which include Graphistudio albums. You can also take advantage of our show offer which is running for the next couple of days.

Weddingcourses.net

Fotocourses — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:53:54 +0000

We have just uploaded our new site weddingcourses.net which is linked into our main site fotocourses and offers a range of courses for the budding wedding or portrait photographer. These courses range from 1-2-1 training through to residential courses with an opportunity to build your portfolio. The courses have comprehensive notes available and the course content not only covers taking great photos but gives information on starting your own business in this competitive field – I have been taking wedding for over 16 years so have a great deal of experience. To find our more visit the web site or contact us.

ibooks Author

Fotocourses — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:52:38 +0000

Just been trying out a new free app from Apple. The app is called ibooks author and is available free from the app store. It allows you to create multi touch text books that work on the iPad or can be turned into pdf files. The books look great and have a simple drag and drop feature which let you use word or pages docs and you can add widgets to include interactive galleries etc. I have been creating the new course notes for our new wedding courses site and will be adapting the old notes form the fotocourses sites to freshen them up for 2012. Here is a link to the apple web site to see what the app can do http://www.apple.com/ibooks-author/

New York Panoramas

Fotocourses — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:40:27 +0000

We recently took a holiday to New York and I have uploaded some of my pictures on our

Facebook site. The link is http://www.facebook.com/pages/Fotocoursescouk/197244221001

All these images were stitched together using some free software called hugin and the software can be downloaded at:

http://hugin.sourceforge.net/

Check it out – it works on mac or pc and can be used to create some stunning images.

Kodak In Bankruptcy

Fotocourses — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:23:00 +0000

Its a sad day for photographers and the demise of Kodak symbolises the final nail in the coffin for film. Many of us will have grown up using kodak film and its a shame to see a company that was once a huge player now filing for bankruptcy. While Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection is not technically the end and many companies have come back to live another day (General Motors was a high profile company that filed Chapter 11) Kodak is different – they basically own a product that nobody really needs! I expect the makers of wax cylinders felt the same when vinyl records came out. Technology moves on and not always for the better but in this case digital images have so many advantages that film products are dead in the water. Even Kodak only believe there is a future for their digital printing business and that looks unlikely.

What a fall from the dizzy heights of the mid 90s when their share price was $93 and is now worth just around 40 cents. The company is said to owe 6.75 billion with only around 5.1 billion in assets. Kodak is a classic case of not seeing the writing on the wall and switching to digital earlier.

Will I miss them? no not really. In reality I have not taken a film image for the past 7 years but I have so many of my images on film that it is sad to see such a huge company and a household name fail so spectacularly.

My business has up to this point thrive because of the digital revolution and I hope it continues to do so. There was something about film that made it special to use but time marches on and the digital revolution is here to stay.

Goodwood Festival Of Speed – One space remaining

Fotocourses — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:15:07 +0000

This event always proved popular and this year is now exception. We have just one place available on the 2012 course. There are still places available on the Revival course in September. These course are great value for the motor sport enthusiasts at just £145 which includes the entrance fee.

Click on this link to visit the Goodwood Pages