Caroline Monks Party

Nicola McLean
© Nathan Hulse

I would guess many people would say "Who is Caroline Monk". She is Cancer survivor and hosted a party to celebrate the women involved in her cancer makeover campaign. She is also a PR and is involved amongst others the mercury prize awards. I did attend (as a photographer) a previous party of her's which was so well attended by celebrities, it was possible the same could happen on this occasion. Luckily it didn't and a few turned up, including Nicola Mclean who was recently in Celebrity Big Brother.

My Flash cable decided to stop working, I could only use the flash mounted on the top hot shoe, which tends to leave a horrible shadow in the background. On the link above, are my pictures, plus those from another photographer, you can see my pictures are slightly brighter, but also have the shadow in the background right.

Albelli vs Blurb books comparison

Both book covers

I recently ordered a book on Blurb.com, then a few months later a similar book from Albelli.co.uk. A friend asked how they compared with each other, so here are my few observations and conclusions. The books weren't ordered as a comparison, therefore wasn't intended as a direct comparison. Both were hardback with printed covers, Blurb book ordered with extra cost luster pages, while the Albelli one wasn't. I couldn't use Albelli's software on my mac as I have an older operating system, their online book creation software worked for my simple book design in this instance. 

The print quality of both books is perfectly acceptable for me and the colours matched as close as possible to those displayed on my colour corrected monitor. The first observation is that the cover pictures, which was an extra cost option for both are different. The extra cost with blurb is approx £8.00 and £4.00 with albelli on the book sizes I ordered. With the Albelli book the cover is glossy, while the blurb book is matte (glossy on their softcovers).

While the blurb book was ordered with luster pages as an extra cost option, it's also an extra cost with albelli at 15-20p per page depending on book size. The Albelli book pages were as glossy as the blurb book. The pages in the blurb are thicker, which you can see by the advertised paper weight.

Albelli Book binding

Blurb Book Binding

The other observation is the inside front cover of both book. In the blurb book you can see the stitching, while the albelli book is covered up. On a closer inspection the pages are glued or similar in the albelli book. I did have more pages in the blurb one, there may be a cut off point when they switch to stitching as I have another smaller blurb book which is glued.

Is one better than the other? Should you choose one over the other? I don't think so, they both offer slightly different book sizes. I will continue to use blurb.com for my annual personal portfolio that I have started doing, even if just to keep the sizes consistent. Albelli.co.uk will suffice my other book needs. If you want to be able to offer your books to the public for sale, then blurb is you option as they are the only company that I'm aware of that offer this service. I have used apples book service, via Aperture software, also available via iPhoto. I wasn't so impressed with the quality of that book. Whoever you may use, it's great to look at pictures on pages of a book, rather than on the screen. It's much easier to hand round to other people to look at as well.

Let me know how you get on with your books.

Law and order on Alamy

Council Chambers or Court Room
© Nathan J Hulse

Well, not quite as the title of this post suggests. More a picture council chambers, that is sometimes used as a court room for film sets. Law and order does prevail in these places, with many decisions being made.

Since the beginning of the year I have noticed that gekko images has been "Closed for re-development work" and still is. Not a good way to see images if no one can access the site. Although my link to log in still works. I have managed to block all my images from being sold, if anyone is able to buy images through the site. Gradually I shall be moving my collection to other picture libraries I use, Alamy seems to be the obvious choice for most of them. I just have to find the original files from my own records.

My stock collection with Alamy is becoming a miss-match of various subjects rather than a specialist style I was hoping to concentrate on.

Amy Winehouse - 1983-2011 - rest in peace

Amy Winehouse July 2010
© Nathan Hulse

Like many others I have been shocked and saddened by the news of singer Amy Winehouse death. I only got a chance to photograph her as a paparazzi twice, the final time thanks to photographer Danny Martindale who told me she was at the Prince Charles Cinema in Leicester Square in London. Where Amy was, there were likely many paparazzi about. Sometimes getting a clean picture wasn't easy. This picture seemed to sum up Amy's personality (that I knew about) quite well. One last drag on the cigarette before getting in her waiting car.

A sad loss to the music world. I often wonder if we are best to remember people in their prime, rather than in old age and they were great once. Amy was still great. Consider Buddy Holly, we only know the keen rock n roller vs Elvis whom many remember for being over weight, rather than the fresh faced rock n roller. Anyway, enough of my rambling.

Recycling on Alamy - latest additions

Recycling Wheeled bins ready for delivery to residents
© Nathan J Hulse 

In my local area the refuse collection is changing which means new wheely bins or wheeled bins. Not being one to miss a photo opportunity I noticed all the bins being lined up in the street and being made ready for collection. I thought this could make for a useful picture. A little different from my normal subjects, now available via my collection on alamy.com.

Katie Waissel at the Mayfair and Nicola Roberts at Radio 1

Katie Waissel in London
© Nathan J Hulse

It has been really quiet for me recently, which means I have to be a little more pro-active. Thursday 2nd June was one such day I decided to do just that. I met a friend in London first, then headed to The Mayfair hotel. Always a popular place for celebrities to stay. I had about an hour to kill before looking at something else I had information about. Within a few moments of me arriving I saw Katie Waissel. Katie was in X-Factor 2010. I had previously taken her picture during the x factor live tour. She then left about 30 minutes later. Jedward were also staying at the Mayfair, even though I saw them, I wasn't quite so interested about taking their picture. Although some hysterical girls in the area where over the moon to see the twins. I also left to go and check out something else.

Nicola Roberts at Radio 1
© Nathan J Hulse

As I mentioned already, I had information that Nicola Roberts from Girls Aloud was due to be at BBC Radio 1 for the debut airing of her new single 'Beat of My Drum'. I've not heard it yet myself. Many seem to like it. A slightly longer wait at Radio 1 for Nicola, she looked great and signed for all her fans waiting to see her.

Blue perform at 1000th Thriller Live musical

Blue perform at Thriller Live
© Nathan J Hulse

26th May 2011 was the 1000th performance of Thriller Live. I've been a fan of Michael Jackson for some years. A chance to see some of this show was a real bonus for me. Blue were due to perform "Man in the Mirror" and I was one of a few photographers allowed to photograph this. A live performance and no miming, a rare thing perhaps these days.

I only had my 17-40 wide angle lens with me, luckily I was close to the stage. Shots only processing in Aperture 3, no photo manipulation. All shot between  iso 1000-1250.