The Home of Tom & Morven

Today James Field borrowed Morven and myself to practise his photography skills for a couple weddings coming up that he’s the photographer for. Morv and I had already been thinking about getting some professional photos done because the only photos we really have of the two of us together are taken at night in less than desirable conditions, are blurred, don’t seem to be framed correctly, or I just look ridiculous as per usual due to some random awkward stance. It was mutually beneficial for both James, Morv and I, although once we actually saw the photos he took of us there was no way I wasn’t going to reward him for his services.

The layout for the day was he took photos up at Mt Osmond overlooking Adelaide, and a couple locations in the city. All up he took 150 photos, 43 of which he decided were acceptable. From those 43, we picked our favourite 15, and he then spent time adjusting the light, contrast, etc. He even fixed up my double chin! I highly recommend James as your professional photographer for any occasion, but just make sure you pay him well because he deserves it! I’m sure he’ll smack the pants off the sort of prices other professional photographers would charge, and when you see the quality of work he’s done with Morv and I you’ll totally agree.

Click on the thumbnail below to go to a gallery of our favourite 15 photos he took on the day. In case family are reading this and want to print one of these photos, just let us know which one you’d like to print so I can send a much higher resolution file.

Having seen what can be done with a good digital camera (Canon 20D) that he uses, I’m inspired to sell my little slimline camera and upgrade to a digital SLR. I like the idea of being able to shoot in RAW, where the camera saves all the pixel and sensor data, and then using Adobe Photoshop to do the actual processing of the image rather than the little processor of the camera. If you have a powerful computer, and sophisticated software with much more advanced processing features, you’re only cheating yourself out of image quality if you don’t used it (other than the time it takes to learn the software, and actually perform it). At the end of the day, the way I see it is that I might as well shoot in RAW, use up some hard drive space, and not lock myself into a reduced quality of photo from that occasion for the rest of my life as eventually one day technology will be so much better, that processing of photos will only get better and easier. The only drawback is the fact that it’s more data to have to store.

This is a link to a video (July 2007: link has become inactive) given to my by Paul about a guy in the US who has inserted an RFID tag into his hand. It is 33 megabytes.

Summary of the video:

• You can insert an RFID chip into your hand.
• There is a high risk of problems with this procedure because it is pretty much an illegal procedure and you will have to get it done by a surgeon friend if you have one. However, the major risk is probably infection, which is hardly going to kill you. Nerve and ‘blood-transporting-tubes’ pinching would also be a possibility.
• It may take some fiddling around if you decide to insert it between your thumb and forefinger like the dude in the video.
• A book is coming out on Amazon in the near future if it isn’t already about things you can do with RFID tagging, whether it be in your hand or a sticker on the back of your watch.
• There is an email mailing list you can join that goes by the name ‘TAGGED’ or something like that.

RFID tagging and the things you can do has definitely been added to my list of things to do.