word press madness

I've been having a go with wordpress as an alternative blogging mechanism and have transferred the wedding photography blog to one which uses a photo blogging template.

http://weddingphotography-glasgow.com/blog/

I'm also working on some other sites as I've just bought a few domain names. I'll post these soon. Most exciting too is a new portrait photography website as we've decided to move into that area of work too. It's in devenlopment - haven't even got the price list in yet...

http://www.loumcgill.com/portraits

Here is one of my current favourites of the boy...

new blog launched

I've decided to keep a separate wedding photography blog so that any potential clients don't have to wade through lots of other stuff.

Go and take a look...

http://ithadtobeyouweddingphotography.blogspot.com/


This now means I have 4 websites and 2 blogs to maintain - perhaps I need to simplify my life; ))

I have recently revamped my websites. I have changed them around so that the wedding photography site is now a non-flash site which is more friendly for search engines. It has also gone from a black to white background which apparently brides prefer (so says someone in a SWPP (Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers) forum.

Wedding photography website:
www.ithadtobeyou.co.uk

Art photography website:
www.loumcgill.com

Fora anyone interested in the educational consultancy work and wants to see the CV then I'm at www.loumcgill.co.uk

weddings

I have started a wedding photography business - one of the most intense jobs you could try to do. The day is so important for the couple that you could really muck up if you failed to deliver. I am being very cautious about who I accept as clients though and am making sure that I feel I can deliver what they need. I focus on a 'reportage' style which aims to capture the story of the day and ends up with less than the usual forced poses and smiles.

There are so many great things about capturing a wedding day and I get such a massive buzz from doing it. You could say you are on a winner if you look at it really positively:

• most people at a wedding are feeling happy and your job is to capture this
  
• couples are usually 'in love' and therefore shine with this
• often clients become friends because they like your photography and your photography reflects you and the way you respond to them
• the competition don''t always reflect such a committed attitude or such high quality
• you can offer an alternative or different style
  

on the other hand

• it is a highly competative business and some established companies have excellent services
• the recession could have a very negative impact on a fledgling business

I have had some great feedback already and have got more bookings from some of my early weddings. My wedding books have been very successful and have already brought new clients to my door. The beauty of this is that they can already see the kind of approach, styles and outputs that you offer.

I have a wedding website called ithadtobeyou and I have a couple of books to view as well. One of the things I like about my website is the noir section where this photo is included. Other galleries include 'stylish' 'elegant' 'romantic' 'intimate' 'vintage' and another favourite 'lomo' where I include the toy camera wedding photos....

I like working for clients who are open to a range of photography and processing styles. I have also managed to get my partner to work with me as a second photographer which makes a great difference. I do all the front of house engaging work and all the photo processing, but to have two people recording the day is invaluable.

This is what one of my favourite couples said,,,

'Well, for us, it just had to be Lou and Tim!

Our wedding was the happiest day of our lives, and we feel so lucky that Lou and Tim were there to record it. In fact, they were as much a part of the day as any of our guests. The sheer style and outstanding quality of their work speaks for itself. What may not be apparent from the photographs, but which was every bit as important to us, was the care and individual attention bestowed on us before, during and after our wedding day. Their work surpassed our expectations in every respect, and we have an album of wonderful images to cherish along with our memories.'

reworkings

I was on the verge of starting a few new blogs - one for my photography, one for the home learning and one for my education consultancy work...

but wait a minute - that was the old lou (the librarian who wanted to classify and compartmentalise her life)...

so I've decided to stick with this one, tag like a demon and hope that the whole comes together...

I have spent the last few years banging on about an holistic approach to learning... so let's see if the pudding is good.

I mix all these aspects of my life together and each enriches the other - so this year I'm going to give it a try...

I'm not fully convinced yet (with serious control freakish tendancies) - a big part of me wants to add classification (of the faceted kind of course) and labels...

why am I taking this approach - well it's partly to do with the twitter discussions at james clay's blog

I'm of the lets mix it all up variety - yes I want to hear great brains thinking hard but I like to know that those great brains drink coffee, go shopping, and play bingo.

now I'd like to add a photo of me playing bingo but I haven't got one - yet... so I could show a photo of a coffee cup but I haven't got one - yet... so here is a fisheye lens lomo 35mm film shot of the window in my office...



and if you haven't got twitter yet - you are not alone but spend a day using twitterfox and you'll probably get it...

and if you do come along and follow me... but not in a stalking way of course...

revivings

here we are again. doing a mad catchup. so in short. finished job. didn't sell flat. still in glasgow. doing home learning. being an eLearning consultant and wedding photographer.

have been very busy. still not got back onto flickr. now have several websites for various compartments of my life. jump off point is www.loumcgill.co.uk

just published my first photography book (as opposed to wedding, party or Laurie book). it has a pic of my dad on the cover that I really like.

same horizon.d...

By Lou McGill

Book Preview

new beginnings

frozen in time

It feels like we are coming out of hibernation...

So much has happened that I don't have time to do write it all down, but I think we're coming back to the blogging and soon to the home education...

laurie is due to start secondary school this year and it has focussed our thoughts for a long time. I have spent hours looking for a school small enough to replicate his current small primary school in Govan. Shame we can't replicate the head teacher and her staff because he is still doing fantastically well at that school.

We are just not prepared to set him up to fail in a large secondary school where people have no concept of him and his needs. The fact that he is so high functioning means that people just do not see how differently his brain does work. He has also got much better at masking things (like when he doesn't understand the instructions, etc.) He just works it out himself eventually and quietly and then completes the task. He is desperate to start learning 'real' things. He wants academic challenge.

So I am going to do this with him. We will be interpreting the term home education broadly to encompass a wide range of activities, both academic and practical. We will be doing solitary and social learning and sometimes it will be well structured (because he likes that) and other times we'll let our hair down a bit. Our home education won't just be happening in the home but it may include rearing chickens and growing some of our own food.

I can't wait....

We contemplated us both giving up our jobs and moving to Orkney (yes a bit drastic but very nearly happened last September but didn't work out). The plan is now for me to finish work in time to start the secondary education phase while Tim stays in his job. We'll sell the grand flat in Glasgow and downsize. We 're planning to move to the country (maybe in Argyll & Bute)...

I am going to try to make some money with a bit of elearning consultancy and my photography. I've been working on a new website and not had any time for flickr or the blogging. Maybe I can start to catch up again with my non work life!

the new photography website...

youtubings

yes another youtube photo montage...

it isn't going to change the world but hell - someone might see it and think just a little bit longer...

mummyings...

I took a photo today which captures the soul and the heart of my boy...

I cannnot stop looking at it...

I am in awe...

avengings

just because everything is going so well doesn't mean I have forgotten...

I will not stop fighting for the rights of people with autism to be understood

and I often feel like this...
nemesis

Nemesis, winged balancer of life,
dark-faced goddess, daughter of Justice
Mesomedes

treblings

OK

I know I should be in bed...

but Lozzie did some good work today

here is his most popular - he said it's probably because its colourful...

well it would stand out in my present photostream anyway.

Of course loads of fab folk on flickr have resonded already and he is very pleased..

hey thanks guys...

he did the photo, the manipulation and the mosaic while I made tea!!!

it's called the grid

we don't do very imaginative titles: )

recappings

I went away last week and it was so good not to worry and to be able to focus on work. I got back to a fantastic response....

most enthusiastic greeting was from hector the wonderdog, closely followed by the other two boys. seems they were all really pleased to have me back but had missed me too. they got on fine and had a good time.

good relief...

got lots of extra things to do at work - think I need it to help me focus - hope I can handle it but have developed a more organised approach which is helping...

boring work stuff though

let's have a photo...

it's called ruination - I've been feeling kind of dark and listening to old prog rock stuff and my photos seem dark but actually they are really positive and you may have to be in the same space to get that. some fab people on flickr also see the dark stuff in a positive light




but I have also been doing some dark photos of laurie and it seems that people really don't like children presented as other than happy and carefree and innocent

I can appreciate an innocent child shot as much as the rest but I really do strongly believe that we need to engage with the pain too - then we can appreciate the joy

here is one that I love but only my philosophical type contacts seem to like.

it's called all the other fish fear you


and has this quotation from a van der graaf generator song

so you live in the bottom of the sea and you kill all that come near you...
but you are very lonely, because all the othe fish fear you...
and you crave companionship and someone to call your own
because for the whole of your life you've been living alone.
Van der graaf generator
H to HE who am the only one, 1970

its june 2nd tomorrow and at 11.30 we find out if we have a diagnosis

I can't believe that we are half way through the year - I'm 45 next week

it deserves a celebration....

hdr-ings

I've been trying out high dynamic range (hdr) photos.

this is where you take 3 (or more) of the same shot (prefereably using a tripod) at different stops and then merge them in photoshop. Supposed to be better in photomatix but I haven't got that software.

anyway just trying it out - there's two ways you can go - make it look like a painting which can be very effective or try to make it look realistic which is what I'm doing. It is meant to leave a photo more like what the eye really sees. It is interesting but I like my photo's in the old fashioned way too.

Put one into a scoring group and it's going to die because it seems that people either love it or hate it but purist photograhers will probably hate it.

very interesting though

here are a couple - one in colour and one converted to b&w. I like the b&w one best.

stark


imaginatively titled hdr experiment


update on our lives ------

well the education service are coming round to look at our curriculum for home ed on tuesday. we're are all still exhausted but having a time of brief relief with only the odd outburst from Laurie when he can't wear his perfect favourite jumper because all the others itch too much. he refuses to wear short sleeved t-shirts now and I've just had to get rid of drawers full of things he can't wear due to his exagerated sensitivities.

he has a wobbler every time he doesn't understand anything such as a new word or a concept as he feels it is a major humiliation if he doesn't already know something.

we tread delicately at the moment, but the home ed is going well

we asked what he wants to learn about and he said: astonomy, macedonian history and the seleucid empire, german, italian and spanish!!! no challenge there then; )

beginings...

I started using flickr.com a week ago and my life has changed...

It has prompted me to finally get a blog started.

I also need a blog to record some reflections on elearning for an online course that I'm doing with Oxford Brookes University.

It is about time I did it as I've been banging on for some time now about how 'social software' is the key to enhancing elearning - as opposed to the 'lets put all our content on a VLE approach'. I've also made students do blogs to reflect on their learning so it's only fair that I should too.

So it's official - I'm part of a huge community of bloggers, and a huge community of people who want to put their photos on Flickr. Within Flickr I'm part of several smaller communities who have something in common. I like the Utata group as it acts as a salon in the traditional sense where people talk, play, experiment and learn. The Photodominos group is great as they post photos that connect with each other in some way - with some really interesting interpretations.

Have a look at my photos.

Here is a photo that I took at 3.00am this morning in Glasgow after a massive and sudden snowfall - that's how bad my addiction is...

It is called rear window and has been added to two film related photo pools - Dial H for Hitchcock and Let's talk film!