I had another marvellous, educational, entertaining and eventful SWPP convention this year.  The best bit about these annual pilgrimages of mine to Hammersmith is the people I meet there.  The list of lovely talented and like-minded individuals is so extensive, I’d be mad to attempt to name them all – particularly as I probably don’t know the names of everyone involved.  There’s a part of the brain that deals with reading music, learning multiple languages and remembering people’s names – that bit of my brain has been defective since birth and leaks pitifully every year.  There were LOTS of lovely people and they know who they are.

This year I assisted David Simm the Governor in his three workshops, Wedding Album Design Using Photoshop, Lighting & Posing and Multicultural Weddings.  These were unrehearsed and my primary role was to turn the pages on the various PowerPoint slideshows.

I also had time to visit the trade show.  Since my first SWPP convention I’ve stopped going to Focus each year – one trade show shopping trip per year is quite enough for me.  Now there’s an irony.  I first signed up as a SWPP member at Focus!

Bad bits?  I’m not fond of the venue, the Hammersmith Novotel, having shot conventions, Disability Capital and other events there since 1986.  Bar prices are obscene, don’t ask reception to call you an ambulance and for a convention dedicated to image making and aesthetics, it is one of the ugliest buildings on the planet.

Good bits?  My top three favourites would always include Michael Shilling, but as this is going on his Blog, to that would be too luvvy to write up what I think.  So the three I’ve picked below are there because they are ones whose services or products I’d happily endorse.

theimagefile

I have sung their praises before, but at the convention I had the opportunity to do a piece to camera for a marketing video for theimagefile www.theimagefile.com We needed several things from our provider when we moved over to theimagefile and they ticked every box.  eCommerce – ie selling our images online requires us to upload hi res images- that’s all.  Everything else including the thank you email is done automatically by theimagefile. I get a copy of that thank you with the details of what images have been purchased, the name, email and postal address of the client.

Their templates for web site construction are so simple to use I can do it myself.  When we first set up a web site the designer had to come back every time we wanted to upload images.  Things have moved on greatly since then and of course with software like wordpress (something else I’d be happy to endorse having seen Michael Shilling’s excellent site design at www.the2010project.com ) the potential to produce easy to use high quality web designs gets more and more reachable.

At last year’s SWPP convention, I upgraded our account to one with bells and whistles and then failed to do anything with it despite offers of support from theimagefile.  I mentioned this on a blog recently and they contacted me virtually by  return of post with this (verbatim) response.

We really appreciate the time taken to post your endorsement.

To rectify the final part [I’ve done nothing] please could [you] advise us a couple of available free times that would suit you to go through the web site functionality, it would be a pleasure diary time to go through the system with you to make sure you are making the most of the system and benefiting from your account.

I do get tired of old gits like me going on about the good old days.  Any of us hanker for things past because we were faster and less forgetful back then and seemed to do stuff tirelessly.  There’s so much I am grateful for when I look back.  I am writing this up on a computer that can connect me via video to anywhere in the world with a pc and a connection.  Despite their prevalence, computers are still owned only by a very privileged 2% of the world’s population however, so there’s still work to be done to balance the books.

So did the Good old days exist for me?  Well, the magic amongst the stench of the dark room (very often improvised in a submarine toilet at the start) was indeed surprisingly good.  Again mainly because of the people involved.  Almost everything else has got more accessible, but the “developed” world’s preoccupation with self interest, greed, celebrity and tedious trivial crap means that only fickle politicians will ever win elections.  Anyone who says what they’ll actually have to do in order to run the country would never get elected!  It’s not about what I can do for my country – it’s all about ME ME ME.  I really despair at the I’m alright Jack culture.

So with all this cynicism why bother?  I have been shooting weddings since 1981 and have loved every minute – even the hissing fit bridezilla moments are a great fun challenge because it’s a part of a job I love doing.  For those of you who can remember proper department stores with trained people specialising in various retail products (John Lewis still does this brilliantly) or the iron mongers who knew what bits you’d need to build a shed.  What we expected and got in these places was  , good customer services.  Which brings us nicely back to theimagefile.

Whenever I’ve called them up, there has been a real person to talk to and get things sorted without a fuss. They are only simple to use because someone explains it however.  I can only guess how many hours I have spent searching through a labyrinth of useless FAQ’s on the sites of other “service providers” over the years.  FAQ’s that are nowhere near what I wanted to ask.  The people at the end of the phone have so far been sincerely decent folk too, which makes business with them a joy for me.

Aaduki

Number two?  Aaduki http://www.aaduki.com/ Again, it’s the people who make it work.  If 30 years no claims discount was an available feature, I qualify for this on 27^th January 2011.  I’ve lost a few lens caps and had to repair a few bits and bobs (and hire kit to cover) but to such a small level that claiming would merely mean I paid the loss via my excess.

Prior to being with Aaduki each time I bought a new piece of kit, getting it added to the schedule was akin to pulling teeth.  I wasn’t covered for anywhere outside the UK and new for old came at a huge premium, despite my history of no claims.  On my renewal I noticed in the schedule that half of the kit listed was wrong and a telephone conversation with them confirmed my fears that I had not been covered for those specific (and expensive) bits for about 6 months.  Thankfully I hadn’t needed to claim as that would have been a really bad time to find out!

I therefore decided to change our insurers.  I wanted additional cover for our framing workshop (including public liability) and had a wedding booked in Turin that would need an extension on travel cover.  With these extra risks, I prepared myself for a steep hike in the premiums.  The dialogue with the sales guy from Aaduki was better than I had experienced in the previous decade with my former providers and what came as a huge shock was that I had been significantly overpaying my premiums to their predecessor.

As a somewhat laboured point already I have never had to make a claim and so by definition, I can’t write a direct observation of how Aaduki deal with their claims, but I did make a few enquiries on various forums for feedback from people who had made claims and the feedback was all highly positive – consistent with every communication I’ve had with them to date.

Bob Books

So my final choice?  Lots of the printers and album companies we have accounts with have provided a whole range of products from coffee table books via fridge magnets to wedding albums.  One company in particular seems to have the Michael Shilling factor though (Rising stars – keep up folks).  Bob Books seem to be doing more and more each time I view their site www.bobbooks.co.uk

With Bob Books I think the best is yet to come.  Remember where you heard it first.

So that’s my small contribution to Michael’s excellent 365 resource.  I hope it didn’t send you all to sleep.  Stay safe, stay true, stay strong  and if you’re good stay for dinner too.

In anticipation of the usual zero comments in feedback

Tim Hoy

Although I was a keen snapper as a child, it wasn’t until I was 21 that the professional element kicked in – virtually by accident, but the bug is still there almost 30 years and over 1 million images later.

Operating on the principle of a workers’ cooperative since the start, we now have 22 photographers on the “books”.

Website: www.tpsphoto.co.uk

Blog: tpsphotographers.blogspot.com/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/#!/tadhg.hoygriffiths