Spent Saturday evening doing a charity shoot at a local "Talent Show". It was a decent turnout and I think I took a passable set of photos that I'll upload to my website very soon for sharing with the participants. The challenge as always is getting a decent return for the effort (all 4 hours contorting myself into near impossible positions to get the best possible shots against the strobing stage lights, plus God knows how much longer of post-processing time) - not to line my pockets, but so when I donate the proceeds to the local charity it is of some significant value. Most people however find it hard to justify shelling out a token five quid for a 5 x 7 photo even if you inform them it is all for a charitable cause. It will be the first set of photos I use for fully promoting access to my website.

I spent Sunday setting up and playing with my Nikon R1C1 kit after the batteries for the components arrived during the week. I absolutely love it! Controlling 3 different Speedlights from the Commander mounted on my D3s and setting the output at different strengths while reviewing the output. It was a productive way to spend my Sunday afternoon, considering it was chucking down with rain anyway. I've used one of the results as the holding photo posted on my "About Me" page. I might just like it well enough to leave it permanent.

I resolved my problem with the Helicon Focus software with great help from the software developer himself (yes, no less!) trying out different configuration setups. Turns out it's a likely issue with the video card on my laptop - possibly outdated. As we established it works great with my camera on wifey's laptop and simply wasn't happy with mine, I eliminated the software as the possible cause. Great thing is, I'm getting an upgrade to my laptop during the week anyway and I'll set about re-installing it straightaway.

Unboxed and tried out my Lastolite Ezybox Speed-Lite Softbox only today. Even though I'd had it delivered since March 2012 along with my Elinchrom BXRi 500 To Go Set, the whole box and contents have stayed in the same place in my living room unopened since then. The Ezybox looked huge on my Speedlight! I just wonder how convenient it will be lugging that around with me on a social event.

Re my wireless D-Link cameras, I eventually settled for getting an electrician in to do the dirty job of running cables and mounting the cameras. Yes, I know - another 3-figure sum due to exchange hands on completion, like I don't have enough leaving my pocket already! Hopefully the guy does a decent job of it.

I keep talking about different things I'm trying with various pieces of kit and software but I'm not yet in a position to post them on the web. Need a bit of thought towards how I organise photos, getting my head around "Collections", "Sets" and "Galleries". Need to get it right first up as I know it will be a big headache having to reorganise them once the numbers start to rack up.

Hopefully when I get into a decent run with these blogs, I intend to post at least one picture I've taken during the week that sums up my activities. It's kinda challenging with a full time job to hold down as well but if I get stuck, I might just dig into my archives instead and fish out something.

One more task to conclude this evening before hitting the sack - Use Lightroom 3.6 to select photos to work on from last night's charity shoot. I've already done a little bit of weeding out as soon as I got home last night. Somehow, it's looking up to be yet another late night!

Cheerio...