Bournemouth — Apr 15th 2008

Numbers slightly down, but still a good turn out - Michael showed some unexpected strengths and capabilities in that old warhorse Sticky Notes, proved that a magnifying glass could be a necessity when using the free application Cocoa Booklet to make a four-page booklet from a document with A4 pages - printed, incidentally (and this is the strength of the application) in the right order for a folded document - either that or a little more experimentation with the program,, and finally what Onyx does to clean up your Mac.

The highlight of the evening however was a presentation by Chas Wilshere, who had kindly and bravely, driven down from the far side of London to give the first presentation in the occasional series 'How I use my Mac' Chas is a partner in The Pressmen- a business that supplies fake paparazzi to parties and corporate events, and the requirements are strict - CD's of the photos taken are supplied to the client as swiftly as possible - on the night of the party. And given that hundreds of photographs are taken that is a major undertaking. The edited photos are subsequently sent to a web-site - courtesy of Photobox, from where copies may be ordered by customers, and also where Photobooks can be made for the client. Finally a video of clips is made for the Pressmen's web site. Also Chas has the Pressmen's web site to keep up to date.The software used comprises iView Media Pro to organise the photos, GoLive to design the web site, Photoshop CS3 (using Actions from Guy Gowan) to edit photos and to speed batch alterations, Toast to burn the CDs, iMovie to edit the videos and finally extensions in Firefox to establish the Pressmen's rankings in Google. His equipment is in the form of a Powerbook G4, and a Canon 5D together with an amazingly swift Firewire 800 card reader from Scandisk. A very interesting and stimulating presentation. Anyone interested in seeing the finished product can go to www.Pressmen.co.uk.

And so to coffee and food at that welcome Italian restaurant - now a firmly established part of the Bournemouth meetings.

Comments

Page 1

John Surtees said…

Another very enjoyable meeting. - Thanks Michael. Plus a round of applause and many thanks to Chas Wilshere for taking the trouble to travel down from London, for what was a most eye-opening and entertaining presentation.

Roy Rainford said…

I agree with John & being interested in photography I found it particularly interesting. What a difference between being a pro earning a living with photography & doing it as a hobby. However Chas seems to enjoy his business activities. The value of Macs & digital imaging came across strongly.
Page 1