Who would have believed that I would allow nearly a year to go by between posts, well it would appear that I have. It has been very busy with events virtually every weekend, normally both days. 

I hadn't realized how long it's been since my last post.  Well it's been busy, sometimes profitable, sometimes interesting and sometimes both. I regret to say that there have been a few jobs which have been actual losses. A few of the losses were my fault, but in each case I have learned and thus I will be turning a few jobs away this coming year. Certainly I will not be covering any childrens' 5 a side football tournaments this year. Parwood Equestrian Centre is a new venue for us. We have worked there before but only when there has been an external hire, now we are working there a bit more and certainly the comments made by both the riders and the centre management are very complimentary. We were there yesterday, I thought is was exceedingly cold, but since it was bright, the images look great as can be seen from that above.

Well it has certainly been busy during the summer and yes it is now getting quiet, but there are still a few jobs out there to do.

Merrist Wood is a venue that that we covered for Bookham Riding Club at the beginning of the year. On Wednesday James said that he wanted to practice with a new lens thus would I like to go down there (and supply transport). To cut a long story short we ended up covering a clear round event which started at 17:00 and did not finish until 21:00, we did not set up printers instead I stood at the entrance and handed every competitor a card. I have to say that orders have been very good. James and I are back there next month to cover Bookham Riding Club again.

Normally James works for me, but during October I did a job for him down at Munstead. It was a hunter trial, they had over 200 entrants. It did get very busy and I ended up running around the field delivering memory cards to two photographers whilst James looked after the printing.

Readers may recall that I was looking at video, this is still a thought, certainly for dressage it would be useful for the rider to look at exactly what they did during a test. I have bid on a few cameras unsuccessfully, but it is the additional items that add up. As a colleague said to me both he and I demand too high a standard, I would not be happy unless I used a decent fluid head tripod and where there is music, a feed from the CD player rather than using a microphone, Of course the BBC and other media companies use a high viewpoint looking down into an arena thus a scaffold tower or "cherry picker" would be useful to give me the height. Finally of course I would want two cameras so that two different angles are covered, Having completed the filming, each test would need to be edited. I did put out a question to see what people would pay for such a service, the response was not exactly brilliant, my recollection is that only 4 people came back.

Been busy throughout the summer, and it is only now that things are slowing down. I still seem to live at Pachesham which is no bad thing since it's local, and the people are nice. 

We have done a few events away from Pachesham. The Alresford Agricultural Show is our biggest event, last year we had 5 photographers, a computer operator and a runner, this year due to staff changes, holidays and sickness we were down to 4 photographers and a computer operator, but having learned from last year, I think that we did a better job although the weather was certainly not as good.

Ewelme is a show that I was offered at short notice last year due a photographer deciding not to turn up, we could not do it then due to a prior booking but this year Sophie, Craig and I went. although the facilities were basic, we were under a gazebo and power came from an extension lead run from a nearby house, we did well and orders were actually bigger than at Alresford

Lands End Equestrian Centre Summer show was one that I was particularly looking forward to since their show in May had been such a success, unfortunately despite good advertising and careful selection of the date - schools back, but early enough for good weather, entries were considerably down. thus of course earnings were down, but it is a nice show with friendly people both organizing and competing.

Sparsholt ran a three day show jumping event which we covered, the first two days went well but Sunday we arrived in rain and I have to say that it rained for much of the day thus of course people went home as soon as possible rather than staying and looking at pictures.

One area which does distress me is the increase in theft. As I am sure readers will have noted when you view an image it has a copyright symbol and the website address, I am finding that a few people seem to think that is is reasonable to copy the image and upload it onto their Facebook or other social media site. One girl had the cheek to suggest that the image was not good enough to buy and another that she was going to buy it and inserted a wink symbol, sorry but under the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988 this is THEFT!

I WILL take action! 

I WILL send you an invoice!

I WILL put a comment that you have stolen it! 

With summer here work is getting busy. Unfortunately I've had a few problems with people going on holiday. Lucy the girl who first joined my back in 2013, finished school with no holidays booked and just a week or so later found herself travelling over much of the UK and Europe for the summer, thus she is not around when I want her. Georgie has left due to finding work in a local gastro pub/hotel prior to starting a foundation course down in Cornwall. Fortunately James has been around a fair bit and proved very useful since he is not only able to take shots but found the network easy to use.

So what have we done? Chipstead Riding Club organised 145 rounds of dressage in four arenas at Pachesham. Pachesham also had their own show-jumping event on simultaneously. Unfortunately one of my photographers went sick and thus since we were not actually booked to cover the jumping, we prioritised the dressage. The next day Juliet and I were on Thorney Island for jumping, that was a very small show finishing at 14:45. It was a nice day but since the ground was so hard the event was held indoors which was a shame. We've been down to Plumpton College 4 times covering horsey camps (and are due there again next week). Pachesham also held a one day event, these are always great to cover, the show jumping is not normally of a very high standard but is quite reasonable, but it's the cross country which produces the shots. Finally whilst James was away I covered a small show at Gasston Stables

Last Friday was at least partly a training session for John. Unfortunately people seem to think that with modern digital cameras one does not have to think, that may be true for snapshots taken by amateurs, but as a professional I think about what I am shooting and adjust my technique to match both the subject and the prevailing conditions, even then I am occasionally caught out, but fortunately that's very rare and since I can now see the image recorded on the back of the camera I can now remedy any problems before they become critical. It took much of the day but I think that it was worth the effort.

Sunday was at Warlingham & District Horse Club. This show had been rescheduled due to bad weather, unfortunately that had an adverse effect on the entries, but despite that the standard was excellent with the puissance going up to 1.65m. Is should say that the horse and rider combination looked like they could have gone even higher.

The only fly in the ointment since my last posting has been a two day event I was called on the do at relatively short notice. It was a move outside my normal field of equestrian events to 5-a- side football. It was a massive event with 6 pitches being played simultaneously and matches starting every 5 minutes continuously throughout the day. On Saturday there were 3 of us, Sophie and I taking shots and Carrie a new person being dropped in the deep end running the computer. Carrie had never used Lightroom before, but had downloaded a trial version and looked at it. She did very well loading images. Sophie did her usual and produced a nice set of images. On Sunday John joined us so that the photographers only had 2 pitches to cover instead of 3. Unfortunately despite our best efforts and over 8000 images, the people were not interested in the photos. As we left on Sunday I was considerably down, subsequent orders meant that I recovered the losses but I'm not sure whether £32.36 for 21 hours work is a good hourly rate, how does that compare to the minimum wage? Unfortunately the minimum wage does not apply to business owners, only their staff.

Fortunately most jobs are not like that, some are good and some are bad, a lot depends upon the weather, what rider wants to hang around and look at photos when they've been out competing getting cold and possibly very wet? They know that they've got the get their mount home, turn it out feed it, muck out the stable all before they can get a hot shower and into dry clothing.

On Carrie's second job I let her take all the shots, it was dressage at Pachesham, Carrie is a rider and thus knows what she as a rider will buy, with me operating the computer and running off prints we did very well. Another event where I ran the computers was over at Warlingham. This was again a fairly short notice booking, the event was actually sponsored by a rival, who could not attend for the entire day. Despite running the printer from a table placed under a tree, we again did very well and we are back there later this month. As I said earlier I ran the printer, this time with Sophie, Carrie and John taking shots.

The other event of note was Wimbledon Village Fair Horse Show. Since there is no power or shelter we are limited to merely taking shots and giving out cards for online orders. I do not normally like operating this way as the income is much lower, but this event seems to buck the trend and indeed orders are very good.

Not too much happened in the last 2 weeks of April just a few small dressage events, one was my local riding club Claygate and Esher RC who just did an afternoon competition and another was a very laid back competition at Langshot Equestrian Centre. I say laid back but this should not be confused with bad, rather they are very helpful to new and young riders giving them every encouragement. Finally there was a dressage and showjumping event over at Pachesham Equestrian Centre. For this last event I had another new guy with me James, since it was midweek I had intended to do it alone as virtually all my people are at school or college, however I had hurt my back the day before and decided that somebody else carrying the printer would be very useful. It was a small event but we covered it and by so doing helped the tack shop by bringing people to their door and earned a few pounds

May proved to be a very busy month, The early bank holiday despite my back trouble I covered Pachesham's early show, this was quite busy with three rings in action most of the day, fortunately they were linked and thus I could walk through from one to the other. 2 days later I was back again with James covering another small dressage and showjumping event and then on Saturday I was there yet again, this last one was a pure showjumping event for juniors and was extremely busy. Sunday it was back to Thorney Island with Rogate and District Riding Club for showjumping, despite my best efforts I was on my own for that, it proved worthwhile as people stayed long after the event to come and look at pictures. the next Sunday it was back to Pachesham again, this time it was adults, a lot quieter, but nice. Lands Ends Equestrian Centre was our venue for the Spring Bank Holiday weekend, the Saturday with just James and the Sunday with both James and Craig. They were both very good days and we have already been booked for 2016 (we had already got the autumn show). In addition I was able to help Sparsholt Agricultural College, they had offered me their 4 day show but Lands End having already booked me took precedence. I was however able ot find them somebody to cover a second ring on Sunday. I have known Sophie as a rider for some years and knew that she was also a photographer, but I have never used her. She covered Sparsholt for me and the client was very happy. The images are also selling very well thus i am happy as well. The final weekend James and I were at Pachesham yet again on the Saturday for dressage and a farm in Shipley West Sussex for the Crawley and Horsham Pony Club Junior Show. Sundays weather was appalling, I don't think it stopped raining for more than an hour the entire time we were there and with high winds driving the rain into one's face it was very uncomfortable.

Not much to report this time well not long since my last post, but here it is.

Good Friday and Easter Sunday I was working, the first at Langshot Equestrian Centre for their monthly clear round, this lasted most of the day rather than just the evening as they normally do. Sunday I was at Gasston Stables, this is a new venue for me. I was told that since it was entries on the day it might be very small, well it wasn't large but there were enough people to make it worth my time. The image above is from Gasston Stables, it's certainly proved a hit on Facebook having been shared numerous times.

On these two jobs I had a new guy with me Craig. he proved to be very good, teaching me the shortcuts in Lightroom.

I did not have a job this weekend which proved to be very fortunate, I had the car serviced on Thursday and on Friday it broke down, this is not good, I am hoping that I will hear about it tomorrow, I'm hoping that it was the fault of the garage, but of course even if it is, they are unlikely to admit fault.

Gosh, it's been far too long since my last post. so what has happened? Well I have lost one of my staff permanently, he needed more work that I could give him, I've lost albeit temporarily, most of my other staff due to exams, but I've found a couple of new ones, one of whom is particularly good.

Job wise I've been working hard getting in new jobs, I confess that I have lost one, but since I've been working with them for 2 years they had now stopped buying pictures, thus the loss is not too great. I have picked up a few really big jobs (well big for me), which is nice. I am now working down at Sparsholt Agricultural College quite a bit which is nice. It is a long way, but the facilities are good, and everybody is really friendly.

A new year has started and I'm busy phoning around getting in as much work as I can. I've got 6 jobs in this week, two of which are two day jobs.

Back to what has happened since the last posting over 13 weeks ago, well there have been a few weeks with nothing on, but mostly I am pleased to say we have been busy. Unfortunately not every job has been profitable, two spring to mind, the first we got to the venue and I found that I had left all the cables behind, thus although we had the computers we could not set them up. We took photos and i put them on line but nothing sold. Fortunately the job was relatively close to home thus the mileage was low. The second job was a major failing, we traveled 127 miles, took 1200+ great shots, but not many people saw them on the day thus sales were down, so low in fact that despite post event sales I am significantly out of pocket, We are back there twice this month, we will have to change things significantly to avoid the same again.

With exams taking precedence for many of the crew I am about to start staff hunting again.

It's been nearly 12 weeks since my last post here and I have to say it's been a bit busy. The biggest event by far was the Alresford Show, a massive show with over 20,000 visitors. We needed everyone out for that as there were 5 rings with equestrian events, plus another 3 rings with farm animals. It went quite well, but we needed the after show sales to cover our costs.

Other events were a few shows over at LLJ Equestrian, Tadley and District Riding Club and a big National Schools Equestrian Association show jumping event at Berkshire College of Agriculture for St Gabriel's School.

I did unfortunately miss out on a few events due to clashes with existing bookings, and I suffered one double booking where since we arrived later than the other photographer (although still very early) we missed out. What was really disappointing was that I had been called up to cover an event at very short notice on the same day and had declined due to having already been booked. We have picked up three bookings for both this year and next where a photographer has been booked and cancelled thus leaving the organisers with a problem to find a replacement or where this year I was unable to accept a short notice booking, and the organisers have decided that we are reliable. One particular event springs to mind, we had been booked for an event which was cancelled due to bad weather, I scrambled round to find a replacement, we went to this small show and did really well, far better in fact than we would have done at the original event.

The team has grown considerably this year. In January it was just Lucy and myself, we then had Will join us, then his sister Lara and the in March we had an influx of three Aaron, Georgie and Juliet. Finally last month John came on board. Lottie, Lucy's little sister is likely to join us early next year as the dreaded exam season starts. Lottie and John will I think be a mainstay of the business until the end of May/early June. I have sent Will out on his own once, it was a local event, it went well although the printer got some dust in it and they found it impossible to remove, I came back and collected all the orders and sent them out over the next few days, the printer is now sitting next to me used to any order which come in direct to me me rather than via this site. Now I have the problem of deciding which image to put up for this entry.

Decided something completely different.

So what's been happening I here you ask? Well it's been quite busy, lets look at the diary, 

01/06/14, Tadley and District Riding Club having postponed their show jumping event from April due to weather and re-scheduled for 01/06 had to cancel the event because the fields were flooded yet again. I did manage to find a job down in the middle of nowhere with a very nice group of people the Crawley and Horsham Pony Club, it was their Junior show, since as I said it was the middle of nowhere, there was not power so I went alone and just took shots, they sold reasonably well and on the back of that I was invited to do their next show in August (provided that I take my radios again for them to use).

08/06/14 - Simply Shows event at Warren Barn Stables, nice and close, but not very well attended and sales I regret to say were poor. I was thinking that since we had also been booked for their show 06/07, I would see how it went and proceed from there, but more of that later.

15/06/14 - LLJ Equestrian, I was not hopeful of this event thinking that we had been there too much recently, but with Lucy manning the printers and Will and I taking shots, it went very well.

18/06/14 - Trip to Windsor for Photovision roadshow - a waste of time

21/06/14 - Wimbledon Village Fair Horse Show, no power so Georgie and I went an took shots, initially I was not impressed at sales but overall they went well, despite that fact that we left early as Georgie went down with sunstroke.

22/06/14 - We had originally arranged to go to LLJ, Equestrian but numbers for their dressage event were so low it was not worth going, instead Will and I went to Garth Hunt Pony Club Junior Show, no power so shots only. A very busy day although it did finish for us at least about 15:30. nice people again and sales are good.

29/06/14 - Two events today, Lara Georgie and I went over to LLJ Equestrian for showing which went quite well. Will and Aaron went to Claygate and Esher Riding Club dressage. Unfortunately the printer that I gave them got dust inside and they did not know how to clean it, but sales were good despite this, I merely had to reprint most of the stuff and send it on by post on Monday.

06/07/14 - If you have read from the top you will know that we had been booked for Simply Shows "Big" summer show. however I received an email 10 days before stating that they had no entries and that it was not worth my time going. I tried very hard to get a replacement job but failed until early Saturday evening, when it was suggested that we might go over to Lands End Equestrian Centre. We have been there before and I had been hoping to do their spring show but dates clashed and they found another photographer. Initially he had agreed to do the 6th but had not confirmed thus we were called back. What a day, very busy, lovely people and Lucy did her usual and sold lots of prints.

Let us look at the events in order:- 

13/04/14 - Tadley & District Riding Club dressage at Ashford hill, their first event of the year, it was small, but successful with good weather although we are always indoors at that venue.

19/04/14 - LLJ Equestrian Centre, this event was moved from the Sunday to the Saturday based on the weather forecast, it was our first visit to this venue and I must say that it went very well, with friendly people, responsive to our work.

26/04/14 - Belmoredean, our second visit and not good, unfortunately it is never as easy to work indoors with little natural light as it is outdoors and the images always suffer because of this, we will not return.

27/04/14 - Tadley and District Riding Club show - cancelled due to bad weather - ground flooded.

04-05/05/14 - A two day event at LLJ Equestrian, these went well although having more people could have helped. two photographers is not really enough when things get busy.

11/05/14 - Tadley & District Riding Club dressage at Ashford hill, their second event of the year, it was small, but successful with good weather although we are always indoors at that venue. Unfortunately it appears that we lost our banner there and despite emails anda visit, it can't be found.

18/05/14 - LLJ Equestrian yet again, we are getting into the swing of things there although we are seeing many of the same people again.

24/05/14 - Having gone over to Ashford Hill to try and find my banner I dropped in on Lottie Crocker Horses who were having an open day, I stayed and took some shots to be used for advertising their new school.

25/05/14 - A great day (as usual) with Mid Surrey Pony Club, apart from anything else their location close to home means that  we can all have a lie in.

26/05/14 - Bookham Riding Club gymkhana, no power or shelter here so we just took shots to sell online. It rained, in fact I think that it only stopped raining for about 5 minutes in all the time we were there, nice shots despite that and plenty of Facebook hits, but they don't pay the bills so we do need to sell prints/downloads.

I have been using PMR446 radios at events (not dressage of course), just to avoid running back and forth quite so much. The radios that I used were quite old and although I'd replaced the rechargeable batteries, the batteries have run flat a couple of times so I have purchased some more radios. I did also get another two second-hand unit of exactly the same type for use when working at bigger events with more than one photographer. The new units are not new, but second-hand, they are much heavier duty units designed for commercial use, I've only got two, but I've made them talk to the old units so that I have a virtually a complete duplication.

The survey that I put out last week re increasing the size of prints and possibly doing video has received no response whatsoever, I think therefore that I've got the answer, stick with 8 x 6 ins prints and forget video.

I did two events last weekend, one was not good, there were just not enough entrants and I barely covered my expenses. The second was another goody with Mid Surrey Pony Club. I am sure that if both the forecast and the actual weather been better, we would have beaten the record set earlier in the year.

Last time I wrote it was a tale of woe, well, the printer is still faulty and I have lost loads of money, but the lens issue has moved on in unexpected ways. The Norwegian purchaser returned the lens, well he said it was my lens, but unfortunately the serial number did not match that shown on Jacobs invoice when they sold it to me. Ebay have refunded the guy's money and despite assurances appear to have done nothing. The post office have refunded my money based on the breakage and on being told about the fraud perpetrated by the purchaser, have told me to return their money if Ebay give me back the refund that they made. A generous offer, which leads me to recommend their service and insurance.

Based on comments received from clients and my own research in February I increased my prices from February, I am still considerably cheaper then most of the competition, but I feel happy charging what I do - £10.00 for one print and £18.00 for two (with discounts increasing with additional photos purchased). I now also offer low resolution downloads for social media use. Some questions that I've just put out on Facebook are in relation to possible changes to the service, offering 10 x 8 ins prints rather than the normal 8 or 9 x 6 ins, these would as normal be put into card mounts. I have just ordered another batch of mounts, these are from a new company, but appear at least to be of better quality and for the small increase in cost are well worth the expense.

1) The Mitsubishi printer the I purchased and sold on, was found to the be faulty and the dealer who was buying it from me in exchange for media has reduced the offer considerably.

2) I sold a lens on Ebay, I posted it off to Norway, it arrived apparently broken and not surprisingly the purchaser is expecting a refund. Fortunately I did purchase additional insurance, but have yet to hear from Royal Mail with regard to a claim.

3) I gave a flashgun to a friend, sent it off by courier, unfortunately I sent it to his old address and despite this, was signed for on the 15th. We have yet to see if he can recover it.

Having given all the bad news, the good news is that yesterdays job went quite well. South Oxfordshire Hunt South Pony Club show-jumping at Berkshire College of Agriculture. 145 rounds of show-jumping over some very tricky courses.

02/02/14 - Mid Surrey Pony Club dressage at Ebbisham Farm

09/02/14 = Thames Valley Riding Club Area show jumping at Berkshire College of Agriculture

15/02/14 - North Downs Riding Club dressage at Sands Farm Equitation Centre

16/02/14 - Royal Artillery Pony Club Show jumping at Sparsholt College

The 9th was a huge event with 20 teams of 4 adults and a few teams of children, each team did two rounds over different courses and those teams with clear rounds doing a jumpoff. We started late because the ambulance which is required on site at all times could not find the venue. but they managed to catch up and it went well, although it was so busy I did not have time to eat my sandwiches

The 15th was very small due to the flooding and people being unable to do any training, but despite that the people were interested in the images and sales were good.

The 16th was another busy day albeit not so long as the 9th.

In the meantime I have bought and sold (at a loss) a printer that was unsuitable and purchased it's replacement, thus I now have backup albeit I will not carry two printers around with me due to the weight.

I have also been on the phone drumming up business for later in the year. So far results have been reasonable with on average 4 bookings a month. I could of course do with a few more, another couple of hundred would be nice

In addition I have moved from taking photos and giving out cards to on site printing, together with multiple viewing stations. this has meant that I now go out with a crew (normally just one girl - Lucy) and have had to set up protocols and systems to ensure that everything works efficiently. Finally, subject to having a good mobile signal I have introduced card payments. Unfortunately I've not been able to put it in action as the unit only arrived in time for the Tadley and District Christmas event and the signal was not good enough for it to work, but I am hopeful that it will increase sales still further.

This site still remains a window on my work and sales have been reasonable such that it is still worthwhile retaining the site. If nothing else the ability to let the printers deal with the payment and send out prints direct is very good. There has been only one complaint and that was resolved very quickly and the client is now a happy one  - not just a satisfied one.

Earlier today I spent time phoning around the different event organisers trying to fill my diary for the coming year. I was gratified when having given my name I received the response - "Oh you're the photographer" so my name has certainly got around. I like to think that I offer a good service with reasonable prices. All I need now is for 2014 to take off and business go through the roof.

Since the last entry I have covered Claygate and Esher Riding for indoor jumping. That required me to go up to 2500iso to get any kind of decent shutter speed. Lottie Crocker where we had a complete computer failure, I stayed on although Lucy got her mother to collect her. Step Aside Dressage down in Sussex. Katie Price was one of the competitors and did a very good test. Finally Last Sunday we were at Parwood Equestrian Centre for Bookham Riding Club.

I have just heard that my computer has been fixed, it was the power supply which had an intermittent fault, I assume that problem was the cold as it only really went wrong where there was no heating ie Lottie’s place and here on Monday.

Just one more job before Christmas Tadley Riding Club over at Ashford Hill near Basingstoke.

The idea is that thin clients are very small and thus easy to transport and need very little power which keeps my overall power needs as low as possible. There have, I regret to say, been a number of problems, mainly due to PC-One which imports the images and drives the printer failing to recognise PC-Two and thus storing the photos becomes impossible. I believe that I've got around the problem by completely disabling the firewall. Yes I know that in theory that is dangerous, but since none of the units is connected to the internet, I can't see it being a problem unless of course Will or my cameras has a virus in them.

Yesterday was the third time that we've used the system and the second time of using thin clients, (the first time we used three full size computers), and I have to say that it worked well.

So what photos have I taken since the last update.

13/10/13 - Tadley & District Riding Club's championship dressage show, we were due to do two rings, but the rain was so heavy that we just covered the indoor one.

20/10/13 - Enborne Equestrian Centre - a small show which I confess did not really go well, partly due to the lack of numbers, my guess is that although there were a number of classes, the total number of riders was less than 20, and thus print sales were low.

27/10/13 - A disaster, we got there set up the computers and then we had a major failure with the BIOS on PC-One failing, although we could have stayed, we could not show any images and thus we came home, lots of miles with no income.

03/11/13 - Hursley & Hambledon Hunt Hunter Trial, we had a few minor computer problems which I managed to solve by rewriting the index page using windows notepad, we were delayed by this, but the images look good and sales, although down on what had I hoped, were reasonable on the day and during the following week very reasonable.

10/11/13 - Bookham Riding Club dressage at Parwood Equestrian Centre - The computers behaved themselves, I got lots of shots, and we made some sales, and best of all it was close to home.

Next week I'm actually in Claygate, if it were not for the amount of kit that I need I'd walk there.

So what's been happening? Quite a lot actually.

1) I bought two more computers so that I can operate the existing unit to run the printer and have the others as viewing stations. A friend of mine suggested that networking the units would be difficult, in fact it was really easy. so easy in fact that I have set it up so that I could have four computers all networked together, one running Windows XP (that lovely stable operating system loved by all who used it), one running Windows Vista (so bad that I reported Microsoft for selling a product unfit for purpose) and two running Windows 7, which after a few problems is running very smoothly.

2) I designed my own sales software system using web galleries for viewing and Adobe Lightroom to drive the printer.

3) I wrote the index pages and home pages that I loaded onto each PC, thus forming an index to view different classes at any event covered.

4) Lucy and I did Priory court otherwise known as Lottie Crocker Horses for their indoor show jumping.

5) Will covered for Lucy when Esher & District Riding Club cancelled their event and the replacement at Enborne Equestrian Centre over near Reading was impossible for Lucy to do, starting as it did very early in the morning.

It's been a busy few weeks since my last entry (although I do update the Polopower facebook page as well). Having covered Wimbledon Pony Club camp on the 1st August I moved onto Langshot Equestrian Centre on the on the 18th and Chiddingfold Pony Club on the 22nd, finishing the month at Lands End Equestrian Centre for their show on the 31st August and 1st September. I had assistance from Lucy on the 18th August and 1st September and again her work was invaluable in increasing revenue through printing on site.

On the 8th September we went to Fairoak Grange to cover Tadley and District Riding Club dressage event, they had 103 entries which made it the biggest show we have covered. In fact it was so big that I got another photographer in to do the second ring that was operating outside. We did have some printing problems late on in the day, but we managed to sort them out in time to give everyone their prints before they left.

Last week I did covered an equestrian event in Plumpton. I used a girl Lucy to do the printing and well let's just say it worked very well, I will be using her whenever possible. Apart from anything else, she picked up Adobe Lightroom so quickly and was able to run off prints really well. It helped that she also rides and was therefore able to converse with the clients in a language that they understood. Having said I would use Lucy whenever I could. I could not use her on Thursday when I did Wimbledon Pony Club, as she was busy. Instead, I uploaded the images onto Zenfolio and they have sold reasonably well.

Last night I was in Hursley in Hampshire covering a point to point for Hursley and Hambledon Hunt. These images were processed today and uploaded.

These last few weeks have been really busy, Sunday 23rd I was at Elstead for their summer show. The day was quite busy although it did finish about 3:00 pm. Whilst there I et up with a couple of girls from Chiddingfold Pony Club who I photographed at Tweseldown Racecourse last year when they were on summer camp. The next week I was over at Priory Court for indoor jumping. I confess that I was not really looking forward to working indoors, but despite the early part of the day being very slack, it soon picked up with the overall standard being quite high. I followed that by going to Leatherhead  on the 7th July for Bookham Riding Club, that was a hot day but fortunately for me it finished fairly early. The pictures came out well and seem to be selling which is always a plus. 

This last Sunday I covered a very warm set of dressage tests for Tadley & District Riding Club over at Ashford Grange. They had an enormous list of competitors fortunately a few cancelled otherwise it would have still been going at 7:00 pm having started at 08:30 in the morning. Everyone who competed seemed to enjoy themselves and orders have been coming in.

The last few weeks have been busy, 1st/2nd June I was at Lands End Equestrian Centre. I got the booking on Friday night and I confess that at the time I decided that I was unfit to do it, but Saturday morning I felt a lot better and went over. The Saturday was a fun day for the younger riders but Sunday was more competitive with the last event being a puissance where the jump went up to 1.5m.

The next weekend I spent Sunday at Ham, not that I took many shots I was pre-occupied talking to a guest. I am about to upload the images, not exactly brilliant being over a week late.

This last Sunday I was at Fairoak Grange again covering their dressage. I was also there getting rid of a lens that I had sold on EBay, the guy only bid on the basis that he could collect it on the Sunday and fortunately it was fairly close to him. The shots look good despite the poor weather, these shots being more saleable went up that night and Monday morning.

Yesterday I covered the inaugural event for Claygate and Esher Riding Club. It was a fun ride around the woods and commonland  here in Esher. The mayor turned out to support them since the ride was in aid of his official charity. I had intended to go to Ham after, but the riders were quite slow so I ran out of time. Instead I got back and uploaded more images. The organisers seem happy with the results, we willl have to see what happens later in the season.

I spent this afternoon at Ham Polo Club for the first play of the season. It was very pleasant with good weather for a change. It would appear that I'm going to be spending more time in the Reading area since Tadley Riding Club seem to like me around, all I need to do is to get a few more of them to buy images.

I have to say that BT Infinity has certainly increased my upload speed, 100 images now only takes 25 minutes which is great.

Having finished at Clappers Farm I went on to Priory Court as they have jumping on the last Sunday of every month. Lottie with whom I had been in contact had told me that their arena was very dark, well they did not have much lighting, but with the number of skylights there is enough to work by so I may well be back for the 30th June.

The images for Sunday were all processed last night and uploaded, I had 2 orders in even before they were all up, and I'm hoping for some more over the next few days.

On Wednesday I'm due to get BT Infinity. Despite their comments, I am not concerned about the download speed, it's uploading that concerns me, if I could get an upload speed the same as me current download I'd be a happy man. Certainly it will make my life easier, last night was not bad since I had less than 200 images but when I have 400+ then it takes forever and I like to be at least semi awake to check on what is happening.

In theory at least I'm there next Saturday as well for a eventers challenge but due to lask of entries it may well be cancelled. I am back with Tadley and District Riding Club on the Sunday, this is an event which was postponed earlier in the month, they have got both dressage and show jumping. It will be outdoors so hopefully we will have sunshine and warm weather.

Sunday I was at Mid Surrey Pony Club Eventers Challenge. I had been booked at very short notice - Thursday afternoon. Although the day started very cold, the event was outdoors and the light was reasonable. There were plenty of entrants booked and quite a few late entrants in addition thus I got plenty of shots. I do need however to learn to not try and cover too many jumps, stick to a few and GET CLOSER! Having said that there are some nice results and again I uploaded them In fact I have only just finished the upload since with the file size that I am using it takes 12 hours plus.

Overall the day went well although due to the bad weather there were a number of withdrawals and "no shows". I had two problems, one cold, despite wearing 4 layers up top and three below I was not hot, and my hands, feet and face got so cold. The other problem was light, there were lights in the arena, but I had to wind up the iso far higher than I wanted and even then at times I was working on a shutter speed of 1/25th when I really need to be 1/125th, I was working with a "fast" lens virtually wide open to try and get the shutter speed up. The result of all this is that many of the images are not a crisp as I would like, more "pictorial" and pretty than an accurate record of the horse and riders.

I am still awaiting a response from a few other people, mainly the Pony Club people who are organising both shows and/or summer camps. It would appear at least from one respondant, that the recession has really hit hard. People who I would not have thought would be affected are having to cut back on their recreation, thus there will be a knock on effect for me. We will have to hope that the quality of my work shines out and that people will "splash the cash" and keep me in business 

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The weather here has been really cold and with the snow I took the opportunity of going out and shooting some landscapes, I've uploaded these and they are available for purchase. I decided that small images are not really worthwhile and therefore for these shots the smallest size is 15 x 12 ins. They go up to 48 x 36ins, this size is quite expensive, not that I'm getting a lot, it's the cost of the materials! If you like what you see please let me know I might be encouraged to shoot some more.

Yesterday I was at Ham Polo Club. The weather was apart from a very brief moment glorious, for the brief moment we had rain, the very fine stuff which gets you wet extremely quickly, we also had high winds during the rain which I must confess was most unpleasant. Overall the polo was good and I finally managed to organise the prize giving such that I could get some decent shots, you know the type, two people side by side both hands on the trophy looking at the camera, it's about as unrealistic as you can get, but, it does please sponsors showing them up in a good light. The images have been uploaded, this time I have seperated the matches giving each their own gallery, it should help people find their own shots.

The polo season will end in a few weeks and that will be it. I could I suppose follow arena polo, but with winter comes low light levels and, although the horses don't move at the same speed as on grass, the mallet does move quickly, as do the riders' heads and limbs, thus getting decent images is a matter of luck. My local arena is at Epsom and worse still, is indoors, it is lit, but not very well, certainly not like the big events which are televised.

I'm still waiting to hear about a horse show that is coming up. I did email them about going along and I received an email stating that my offer had been passed on. I will give them a chase later today.

The images do look good but unfortunately they have not sold well, I believe that some of the girls went in and right clicked the images and saved them since due to being so tired, I had forgotten to put a copyright sign across them, that will teach me to me more careful.

Sunday I went to polo at Ham, the first match was fine but the second, an american tournament was so slow, there were so many infringements and the whistle was continuously. One guy was interested in the shots and I gave him a card. When I got back I uploaded the images, which again took some time, but I did remember to copyright them before getting into bed.

Not knowing the course at all I walked around and eventually found the waterjump which I had been assured was a good place. I took loads of shots then walked back for a very good lunch with the last of the groups. After lunch there were just two groups to cover so I followed one group until they got to the water, then stayed there and waited for the second. Finally I came back with them and drove home.

There were over 300 images which needed to be "processed" then uploaded onto my site. I eventually finished about 01:00, having started at 08:30, that worked out at a 16.5 hour day. I'm due back on Tuesday for another go at them, we will have to see how the images sell.