Sorry for the last post, I think via Twitter a few people were edgy about the change of registration on the vehicle but it was honestly because of some law about posting registrations that we identified, and also a slight miscommunication between me and Dave (Chromasia), anyway it was simply a case that Dave had modified his plate, so i modified mine differently and then he changed his to mine by which time, it had all gone a bit Pete Tong

Aside from this, its been a strange week back, work has been a little disjointed with impending cutbacks, and I guess it was just a matter of time before it hits every level.

A weekend away was just what the doctor ordered, and I find time spent in this guys' company inspiring. I am sure lots of you would also. A technical genius, the guy sees life in histograms and dynamic range, and I see it in 16x9, with thirds.

I know strictly speaking I shouldn't do a 3 Image HDR portrait, as its a little over the top, but as it was of the man himself I guess DJN wouldn't mind my abusing the technique, just this once, I promise not to do it again............. csj

We spotted this shot (myself and Dave) at the end of a 3 or 4 mile walk in the rain, the light had dropped away and to be honest, conditions were lets say; less than ideal for image making, but here in lies the beauty of the unknown, and of post production, oh and a tripod.

Now I'm not spouting that this image is anything too special, but it was an attempt at the near impossible in terms of light, and I think it kinda works.

Sure I'm a little rusty on the old shutter at the moment, but thats life, and work etc etc, but I really do enjoy photography, so If I can still get a shot on a dark, pissy, windy day, then I must be doing something half right. Albeit I felt a right plonker when I went to take a shot and the self timer was on!, something Rodney would have been proud of!!!.....csj

On a side note, anyone who can remember back to the Crap Elvis post of last year, some good news!!!! , he made it around the world in his $30 Elvis Suit and had just completed the trip by appearing on stage at the "now" world famous Parkes Festival in Australia. If you want to see his exploits and the 25 Countries he visited, click through to www.crapelvis.com and check him out.... now he really is a plonker!, but funny.... csj

Sorry for not being overly pro-active on ID7 this last week or so, it's been hectic. The lab finally said good bye to the machine that whilst it was brilliant at what it did (I know I have 200 12"x16" prints to prove it) it was a financial noose around the neck of the lab. So in an attempt to re-brand and re-organise, we had a meeting last night that proved fruitful and revealed some truths about their business process to date. In their attempt to compete in an ever changing world, where people's attitudes towards imagery / photos and prints in general has gone from paper archiving to 'digital archiving' (of sorts) they have lost out and failed to evolve. The lab was (is) a little lack lustre; it needs a lift a new lick of paint and revived energy in the space.

We have wrestled with several ideas, and have now got a scale plan of the new layout, it looks good, and we just have to turn this idea into reality. It sounds distant as I sit here, but to be honest we have a good team lined up to pull this off, and with some muscle and backbreaking work we can get the place buzzing in a month or so.

We have already produced some test shots and played with our proposed studio workflow, which all in all seems to work nicely. A few technical hitches that are now solved with the lighting, and a lick of white paint later we should be ready to go upstairs. Here is the floor plan of the proposed i-printroom and its changed layout downstairs, and here is a link to the test shots both myself and Paul produced to get a flavour for the lighting.... they aren't fully finished, but it was more too see on the timing of a shoot as well as output the quality we could expect to play with....... it was really good fun........ csj