What made you feel good today

[Hinfrance]

The first thing that needs to happen is that the UK, France, Spain and Germany lose their automatic right to be in the final. This year I think France and Germany would have made it anyway, but Spain would have struggled and the UK wouldn't had a prayer - maybe then the UK might up its game a little.

Last year's winner was a boy, this year's a girl. A couple of years back a Finnish heavy metal band won. The only things they all have in common are self penned songs, mass appeal, enthusiasm, entertainment value, and dare I say it, some talent. I don't think the Russian victory counts as that was pretty widely accepted to have been the result of some highly suspicious telephone voting.

Someone recently successful might swing it, but such is the degree of snobbery in UK music that I doubt you would get anyone widely known to do it.

Anyway, I had another music based feelgood experience this afternoon - a matinee performance by a classical music piano and cello duo called Duel at the local auditorium. Brilliant musicians and hilarious with it. You have to see two guys dressed in tails sitting either side of a cello, both playing it and using it as a drum kit, singing Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side to really appreciate it. The best €7 I've spent this year.

[Alfonso_Frisk]

WMMFGT ?
Well not just today but all week.
springwatch web cams
http://www.bbc.co.uk/springwatch/webcams/pop.shtml#1
Totaly hooked, especially with the Kestrels

RR
Alf

[Oldboy]

Quite agree with you Alf. Been watching the Spring-watch on the BBC, but not had time to view webcams, as I've just spent about 100 hours recovering photo files from a disk which was corrupted by raid setup. 

[krennon]

WMMFGT

My dad arriving from Devon yesterday he's got a job for one of his old customers (approx 40 5x4 transparencies + plus 20 negs) so he's staying with us for a few days and going back on Sat. Not seen him for ages so it's nice to see him  shame mum didn't come with him but she wanted to stay at home as they've just got the house back to themselves after having a couple of friends stay with them for a while.

[Hinfrance]

Many of you will have already seen this, especially the fanbois, but it made me laugh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwnsQpcNvpE

[Eileen]

Three things made me feel good today:

1. I had a great day out with Andrew and Irv. The Roof Garden in particular is a really special place. An acre and a half of garden with 60 mature trees and four resident flamingoes above a shop in the heart of London. Quite quite special. We will plan another visit this summer (the garden is open to the public by arrangement). It would be fine for you, Sandy, as there's a lift up to the roof and then it's all on the level with lots of places to sit down for a breather.

2. Getting ITOW.   Thanks Alan!  

3. My clients really like the wedding pictures I've shown them so far.   If you're interested check out my blog on the link below for the full story (it was quite eventful, all in all).

http://eileenrafferty.blogspot.com/2010/06/special-day.html

[Oldboy]

Three things made me feel good today:

1. I had a great day out with Andrew and Irv. The Roof Garden in particular is a really special place. An acre and a half of garden with 60 mature trees and four resident flamingoes above a shop in the heart of London. Quite quite special. We will plan another visit this summer (the garden is open to the public by arrangement). It would be fine for you, Sandy, as there's a lift up to the roof and then it's all on the level with lots of places to sit down for a breather.

2. Getting ITOW.   Thanks Alan!  

3. My clients really like the wedding pictures I've shown them so far.   If you're interested check out my blog on the link below for the full story (it was quite eventful, all in all).

http://eileenrafferty.blogspot.com/2010/06/special-day.html

Great series of photos and I like the Jackie shot because of the noise. 

[spinner]

It took a bit of fiddling, but I got Adobe Elements 8 up and running on a Linux box. I may be MS free within the year. 

[Sandy]

Just read the blog it sounds quite a interesting day with a lot of near misses. Glad it all came right in the end and the clients liked the photos

Sandy

[Just Dave]

Lovely set of wedding shots Eileen 

[Jonathan]

If you're interested check out my blog on the link below for the full story (it was quite eventful, all in all).

Wow yeah.  What a story.  Sounds like a baptism of fire.

Nice to see the pro using a D200.

FWIW you would have been better with a Nikon gun than a Quantum.  You can just wind the shutter speed up with a Nikon and watch it sync all the way to 1/4000s.

WMMFGT? Snow Leopard.  Like Leopard but faster.  One minor oddity with a complicated mail pickup but very smooth upgrade.

[jinky]

Nice one Eileen - great place to go and learn some more eh and some nice results 

WMMFG today. called the hotel I did some a shoot of last year to book a night stay in the summer and ended up being asked if I would shoot a special birthday party they are having next week with classical violinist, singers, hog roast and the works on their lawn in front of their beautiful old Georgian house that has won many awards from Conde Nast Johansen and the like. Ended up agreeing to trade a 2 night stay in the summer andmeal for the job and just being asked to enjoy myself there, with my wife, but get any "candids / arty shots" I can to record the event. Great stuff as that`s worth about £425 as a package 
Alison Moyert stayed there last week and some cartoonist from the Telegraph - and now they`ve got me. All we need is some sunshine though I think they have a marquee.

[Graham]

   Great set of pics Eileen.
                                  Blown sky, noise!? So what, there great pics full of personality and atmosphere.
                                          Graham.

[Eileen]

Good luck with Linux, Spin, and well done on your latest commission Paul. Glad your upgrade went smoothly J: Andrew was just telling us yesterday that Apple upgrades are very straightforward. Can't say the same of Windows.

Thanks all for your kind comments about the pictures. I really wanted to show their personalities and happiness Graham so am glad that comes across.

The pro had a D200 and used on-camera flash pointing straight forward with a stofen diffuser. He took loads of flash pictures in the church and I was really intrigued to see how they came out as the combination has the potential to produce harsh light. He told me he'd been a press tog in the UK and I didn't think you'd last very long in that job if you didn't consistently produce reasonable pictures. Anyway, I've seen them now and the church ones look OK: sometimes there are quite strong flash shadows and light fall-off but they don't overwhelm the pictures. Once we were in the open air the combination worked much better and he got some very nice pictures indeed of the bride and groom at the key photo site. So in the end we complemented each other quite nicely.

I know I could synch at high levels with Nikon flash but wasn't sure that the flash could output enough power at those settings. Didn't want to faff around with experiments and spoil the mood so just concentrated on the things that mattered (the couple) and did my best with the rest. I shall be practicing this weekend though if we get a nice sunny day.

[picsfor]

Three things made me feel good today:

1. I had a great day out with Andrew and Irv. The Roof Garden in particular is a really special place. An acre and a half of garden with 60 mature trees and four resident flamingoes above a shop in the heart of London. Quite quite special. We will plan another visit this summer (the garden is open to the public by arrangement). It would be fine for you, Sandy, as there's a lift up to the roof and then it's all on the level with lots of places to sit down for a breather.

2. Getting ITOW.    Thanks Alan! 

3. My clients really like the wedding pictures I've shown them so far.  If you're interested check out my blog on the link below for the full story (it was quite eventful, all in all).

http://eileenrafferty.blogspot.com/2010/06/special-day.html

Comment left on blog, but lovely shots. Knowing the full story made the blog and pics even better to read.