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Wet and knackered

Well, it was a very wet weekend in the Westfield and camping at the Eglinton Hot Road and Custom Car Show. But, the pictures were worth it at least.

..and the band played

and where's your number plate sir....?

...oh yes, there it is....

...no roof, no windows, no heating...and in this photo - no bonnet!

The office is finally taking shape and the new website is up and rocking.

Today I’m off to photograph a wee little man and his parents, so wish me luck.

Check out the photos on the new site: http://www.morayphotographics.com

At last! Online!

And the office no longer looks like a bombs hit it.

What office? I hear you ask. Well, Moray Photographics has moved in 7 Linkwood Place, Linkwood Industrial Estate, Elgin, IV30 1HZ. We are awaiting a phone line from BT….so until then we’re only contactable by mobile, website line to email and by emailing info@morayphotographics.com

Our new website is up and running at http://www.morayphotographics.com

Because we are often out and about its wise to phone for an appointment but we now have improved resources, access, parking, and a sense of general togetherness. Still the same professional service, in fact we’ve probably increased our productivity by having an Elgin location with fast internet access.

We are located above Baillie Brothers, not far from McDonalds (that is really bad news for my waistline…).

Well, its 5pm and time to go home. Wow, proper office hours too! Now I just have to convince some of my customers that phoning me at 10pm on Saturday when I’ve already opened a bottle of wine is NOT a good idea…

All change

Jan Crane Photography has now become part of Moray PhotoGraphics, so as well as offering a full photographic service we now offer a full design and print service too!

For wedding customers, you’ll not see the difference, except that we now have even more design options!

Business clients will now be able to access a one-stop-shop for all their publicity needs including; leaflets, brochures, company identity, web design and much much more.

Its all very exciting here on the Moray coast right now. The website is being redeveloped as we speak and soon you’ll be able to see our expanded services in all their glory. Until then, keep checking in for updates.

Thanks for your patience, its been one hell of a year!

Weddings 2010

Wedding bookings for 2010 and 2011 are filling up fast, but there are still some dates left.

Jan Crane Photography is therefore delighted to offer a 20% discount on selected packages for 2010.

For more information call Jan on 07976 873 753 or email us at

info@jancranephotography.com

Closure of studio

Due to a change in circumstances, the in-house studio service is currently unavailable and will remain so until further notice.

The mobile studio service continues as normal.

The contact details for Jan Crane Photography have also changed, and the website will be changed to reflect this as soon as possible. Until then, Jan can be contacted on 07976 873853. The email remains unchanged.

All current bookings are NOT affected and the full wedding service is available as per normal.

For any enquiries, please contact Jan on 07976 873853.

I’m sorry but I’m going to have a rant, again.

First it was Nikon with my £1000+ lens. Then my Nikon flashgun (an SB800) which had only been used on four occasions failed (two months out of warrantee of course) which meant I had to fork out £68 to get it fixed (thank heavens it was only £68) and now Nikon are messing about with their software!

Let me explain. I have just upgraded to a Mac. I am very happy with my new mac, except that I can’t put my Nikon Capture NX2 on it because its not compatible. Nikon have been ‘testing’ and ‘evaluating’ with Snow Leopard since the beginning of September. Now the problem is that all new macs ship with Snow Leopard on, which means you can’t do as Nikon kindly suggest and remain on the old Leopard until they sort their shit out.

Not that you’d want to hold up your entire system for one piece of shitty software in the first place of course. And the software isn’t great to start with. BUT, at least they give you a mac version AND a PC version on the same licence.

Adobe want to screw you for double the money. Here is the deal – if you buy a PC licence of Photoshop CS4 you can run it on your PC laptop and your PC desktop under one licence (but not with both copies open at the same time). If you buy a mac licence you can run it on your imac and your macbook under one licence (but again, not at the same time). BUT, if you have a PC desktop and a mac laptop you have to BUY two separate licences! So, you have to PAY TWICE! And we are only talking about £700 software here so we shouldn’t complain too much. BOLLOCKS. I am Sick to death of being ripped off like this. I am one person, who just happens to have two different platforms, I am doing nothing different to someone running two PCs after all PC only stands for personal computer and one of my personal computers happens to be a mac.

So, I have a lovely new mac and absolutely no sodding software for it! Well fucking great.

I am sick of being ripped off.

The same is true for Microsoft Office. I have a PC version. I can’t use it on my mac. I have to buy another copy.

No wonder people go off the rails.

I just don’t believe this. Nikon has, in spite of the launch of Mac OS 10.6 nearly two months ago now, failed to release an update for Capture NX2 so that it works on Snow Leopard.

You can install it. But you can’t open a NEF file with it. NEF files are not recognised. So, it’s about a much use as a chocolate teapot in a hurricane.

On top of that, my SB800 packed up after just three weddings but unfortunately two months out of the guarantee period. So, another £300 down the tubes then…

I really have had enough.

Hmmm, I found out something interesting this morning.

A lossless compressed NEF file is only lossless if its subsequently opened in Capture NX or Nikons own RAW processing software. If you open it using Adobe RAW it is a lossy compression.

Now, I don’t know how true this statement is BUT I have always used lossless compressed on my NEF files and have found that if I am not happy with the file I get from Adobe RAW then by using Capture NX I do get a better one, usually bigger. So, on that basis I would say that this statement is true. I thought it was all to do with the way that Capture NX dealt with the file during processing that resulted in a bigger save (as a TIFF) but it would appear that I am actually starting with a bigger file because of the way it deals with the NEF info and the decompression from the way the camera compresses.

This being the case, and because Capture NX is such a complete pain the arse to use, I have now switched off the compression of my RAW files on the cameras.

I will be running a couple of test images through both later on to see if I can actually prove this. I will post my results in due course.

I am also going to test the 12bit vs 14bit capture facility on the D700. As all images end up as 8bit for printing I have used 12bit capture and 16bit or 8bit processing depending on the required size and form of the final print.

But, thinking back to darkroom days and using 5×4 and 6×6 negs has made be question this. When I produced a 20″ print lets say, the result from the 5×4 was always better than the 6×6. This works in the same way as having a larger sensor (not more pixels). So a print from a full frame sensor will always be better than one from a DX sensor (well almost, its actually a bit more complicated than that but stay with me).

The film stock also made a difference – a ISO100 fine grain high quality film produced a better final range of tones than a cheapo one did.

Taking this point into the digital age the following should be true:

14bit capture should produce better images than 12bit – because you start with more information (or a better quality film stock)

A lower ISO produces a better image than a higher one – because it’s like grain, the smaller the better, and we know this is true because we’ve seen the results from the earlier D200 at high ISO compared to the newer D700 at the same high ISOs.

RAW produces a better (as in higher quality, more tones, less noise, more colours, and with more possible adjustments) image than a jpeg. This we also know if true.

So, add into the mix the option of capturing more bits (more information), and you should for optimum quality set the camera to 14bit capture, RAW, uncompressed.

But, is it so simple?

If your monitor cannot render the difference, and your printer outputs only 8bit files, and your commercial lab only takes sRGB not Adobe RGB or ProPhoto RGB then is there any point?

Well, I am beginning to suspect there is. Afterall, in the darkroom amongst the chemicals I was outputting two images onto the same piece size and make of paper using the same techniques and the same chemicals. Thus, I was behaving in the same way as my inkjet does now, yes?

But, when I started with a 5×4 I would always get a better result than with the 6×6 and that was always better than the 35mm etc.

Incidentally, some printers CAN output the 16bit files. So, there is again further argument for using the maximum file information.

Of course, you know what this all means don’t you? It means that really, to get the best quality possible, I need a nice shiny digital hassleblad with the 6×6 sensor! Well, if I become rich (and not necessarily famous) then I might.

But they are going to have to do something about improving their range of lenses – not to mention the prices! LOL

Tests to come.

Today is the third anniversary of my father’s death. I have not slept well. We still, three years on, don’t know what really happened to him. No-one has been held to account for his injury or his untimely death.

I have a theory, one I cannot prove but which fits the evidence far better than the whitewash presented at the inquest:

My father had ticklish feet. On that fate-full morning, towards the end of a hard night-shift, the staff went to dress him as per normal. As they put on his socks they tickled his feet and, unable to explain what was irritating him owing to his Alzheimer’s, he kicked out, probably as a reflex action.

Pergaps the person putting his socks on, grabbed his foot and pushed it away, resulting in the break to his hip. Perhaps when he kicked out he struck something and the resistance was enough to cause to the break? We don’t know.

While there was a body to examine he was never diagnosed with any degenerative bone disorder, he had never broken anything before. Of course, after he’d been cremated the NHS suddenly found some ‘evidence’ of osteoporosis and this was disclosed as a shock revelation at the inquest by the doctor who appeared to have been assigned to take the fall.

As he screamed in pain it was decided to move him to the bed to help take weight from the affected area, and that is how he ended up in bed, half dressed and in pain.

It sure fits the evidence better than this presented scenario that a man who had never fallen, had suddenly had a fall so severe as to brake his hip socket. Especially when there was NO EVIDENCE that he had fallen in the way of bruises to ANY part of his body after the incident and lord knows the nurses kept looking for them, and so did my mother.

For a man who was physically fit, who never shuffled or used any aids to walk, who would simply get up unaided and follow you about if you asked him, it makes a whole lot more sense that the rubbish presented at the whitewash (I refuse to call it an inquest because it wasn’t – it was a whitewash).

Even IF, and I don’t personally believe it, he did have osteoporosis, my argument for what happened is still more feasible than the explanation presented at the inquest. If fact, it actually makes it more likely as it would have taken much less force to inflict the injury and simply pushing his foot away could then have quite easily resulted in the damage caused. Of course, people involved in elderly care, should realise the possible fraility of their patients bodies.

There was never any evidence he fell, just a speculation. No-one claimed to have ever see him fall at any point in the time he with the NHS or afterwards, and everyone admitted he had never fallen before. No-one could explain who it would be possible for a man who had fallen, and injured his hip to the extent his leg had to be surgically lowered and placed into traction, could then have (unaided) got back up and returned to his bed. The theory presented at the whitewash makes no sense.

My theory does.

After months spent on the ward in the regular hospital he was moved, during one of the hottest summers on record, to a nursing home miles from where the family could keep and eye on him.

In pain and unable to communicate his confusion, frustration or fear, he was left in his room during the height of the that summer without water. Unable to feed himself he clawed at his food with his bare hands, there was evidence of this when my mother went to visit him. The chair seat was covered in the remains of several dinners and his nails were caked in grime which she had to clean out.

There was no water in the room on any occasion that she managed to get relatives to take her the long uncomfortable journey to visit him.

Unable to get to water as he couldn’t walk now thanks to his injury, and unable to communicate what he needed, shouting from his room to a world that didn’t care, he succumbed to emaciation and dehydration siz weeks after he was taken there. Rushed into hospital where the A&E staff described just that, and were shocked to find he had come from a care home, too late to save him.

The A&E doctor said he could usually bring them back but for my father it was too late. They pumped him full of fluids but the damage was done and he died.

Yes, the inquest was right in respect that the hip injury did not directly kill him. DIRECTLY being the operative word here. It was afterall over six months between the injury and his death. He had been fine on the normal hospital ward where my mother paid, almost without fail, daily visits to him. Where she helped to feed him and where the nursing staff were used to helping him.

The care home’s incompetence was demonstrated again by the fact that when we did finally get to the inquest every single one of the original staff who were at the care home at the time of his death no longer worked there. Did they all leave? Were they sick of what they saw there? Or were they fired?

The care home’s incompetence was demonstrated again, when they billed my family for my families contributions towards his room and food etc for over a month after his death. They didn’t even know he had died!

And again when it came to light that the cheque mum had sent for his hair cuts and personal care had gone missing, never cashed.

Would the outcome be different if the police hadn’t taken weeks to bother to interview the people who were there the morning he was injured? Maybe.

Would the outcome be different if the police had bothered to interview anyone from the care home before they disappeared? Possibly, the inquest throught it possible because it was adjerned so this could happen. But it was almost a year down the line and the staff that were found gave almost identical responses that basically said nothing at all.

I suppose that all of them had no only left but moved house as well. Otherwise, they would have been contactable at their home addresses which would have been held in the personel files of the care home head office. Or did no-one look there?

We don’t know.

We have not forgotten my father, or what the system did to him.

We will not forget, and we will continue to strive for answers.

Just a quick note to those who came here via a search engine – this is NOT my main site, this is only my blog.

Please take a moment to read, if it takes your fancy, then redirect yourselves to:

www.jancranephotography.com

Thank you.

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