Disaster averted!

Even someone as meticulously careful as me does it sometimes – I accidentally formatted a memory card that had photos that I had just taken! Thank goodness for file recovery software – I’ve tried several other programs before with mixed success (the ones I’d tried so far have difficulty recovering RAW files) but I just tried EASUS Data Recovery Wizard Professional and it worked faultlessly. Just one file was corrupt after recovery – amazing. I was lucky and got a copy of this software on a covermount disk but I see that it’s quite expensive. On the other hand, if you’ve just done what I did then I recommend this program, albeit on the basis of my first real test. Having said that, my usual software (SanDisk RescuePRO) could not extract the RAW files from the CF card – so it would have been worth it in this case. No photos this time because I’m still working on them!

Please choose your favourite image

*Update*
Image chosen! The frog got the most votes across all the places I canvassed opinion. It was a very last minute decision though because right until the end I was convinced the red ruin was the right one – but in the end it only got 9% of the votes so, although it has plenty of impact, I went for the most popular image across a range of audiences – just hope I’ve done the right thing converting it to B&W! Many thanks for all your comments.

I need your opinion! I’m trying to decide which photo to submit for an exhibition and the only guidance is that it will be in a grid with 99 other artworks, all will be 12″ x 12″ so it needs to be a strong image. Please leave a comment, either here or over at Austin Taylor Photography’s Facebook page. Many thanks!

This one got the most votes. It was a very last minute decision though because until about 2 hours ago I was convinced the red ruin was the right one – but it only got 9% of the votes so, although it has plenty of impact, I went for the most popular image across a range of audiences in the end – just hope I’ve done the right thing converting it to B&W! Many thanks for all your comments.

Face to face with a frog

The plan was to visit various places and people in Northmavine and walk over to the Grind o Da Navir. But the speed at which you make progress is inversely proportional to the number of folk participating and there were 4 of us so we didn’t get it all done but along the way we stopped to check on some Oysterplant, which was still in bloom and had a lovely time visiting Fiona at the Oily Muggie craft shop in Hillswick. After that we admired the view of the Drongs as we had lunch at Breiwick Cafe and then went to the Tangwick Haa Museum. Soon after leaving we happened upon this Lapwing chick, which was causing its parents some concern and then we saw a pair of Whimbrel, which was great.

Much later than planned we parked up at Eshaness lighthouse and set out for a shortish walk over to the broch and Hols o’ Scraada, where a cave collapse has left a chasm linked to the open sea by a 100-metre subterranean passage and there is a nice little waterfall at the other end below some long-abandoned clack mills. At one of the geos was a sizeable patch of Scot’s Lovage but the best part of the day was finding a little frog. At one point I came face to face with him, admittedly through my camera lens!

Flavour of Shetland

Just a quick note to say that Austin Taylor Photography will be on the Victoria Pier, Lerwick for the Flavour of Shetland with a fantastic range of mounted prints and postcards for sale from Thursday 17 to Sunday 20 June. We will have a range of new images in all our main sizes together with some new postcards to add to our range.

Please do pop along to browse and buy from our range, talk to us about any special requirements or commissions you may have in mind or just to have a chat about photography and equipment – we’ll be delighted to see you!

Just to tempt you, here are just a few images from our new range.

Northern white-tailed bumblebee at Kergord, Shetland

Old Kirk, Voe, Shetland

Beach at Burra Firth, Unst, Shetland

Fisherman and Dog, Spiggie, Shetland

Bearded Seal, Mid Yell, Shetland

Clickimin Broch, Lerwick, Shetland

Icy shore at Bridge of Walls, Shetland

Mousa Broch, Shetland

Busy January

January is turning into our busiest month with Mirrie Dancers photos ongoing; a successful trip to Aviemore to photograph the husky races at Glenmore Forest and a day trip to the Highland Wildlife Park at Kingcraig; and just about to enjoy Up Helly-Aa for a full day and night. So February is going to be busy processing several thousand images. As a taster of things to come, here is a couple of images.

Christmas Shopping!

Austin Taylor Photography is delighted to announce that we will have a stand in the special Christmas Craft area at Jacky’s Cards and Gifts in the run up to Christmas, for late night shopping Thursdays and Saturdays, on the following dates – 3, 5, 10, 12, 17 and 19 December. Please come and see us!

We will also have stands at the following venues

Tingwall Farmers Market – 5 December
Bixter Farmers Market – 16 December

A range of mounted prints is also on sale at Oliy Muggie craft shop in Hillswick from now until Christmas!

Last ordering dates for Christmas

We will endeavour to get orders completed and to you before Christmas safely and can arrange Special Delivery or post direct to the recipient in urgent cases – please contact us for details or to make arrangements. To have the best prospect of your gift arriving on time, online purchases should be completed by the following dates:

UK Delivery Prints, Mounted Prints – 14 December
UK Delivery Calendars, Postcards – 18 December

European delivery, all orders – 10 December
Worldwide delivery, all orders – 7 December

Personal customers are welcome to browse and collect until 23 December!

2010 Calendar

At last I’ve finally got around to uploading a couple of photos of my 2010 calendar. These have been available to buy online over at Austin Taylor Photography for some time – whilst there you can also see each of the 13 images I’ve included.

I’m absolutely delighted with the quality of the calendar, which is why I went back to the same printer again this year. It’s printed on a heavy silk paper with a 350gsm heavy card silk cover page. Even though printing costs rose sharply over the year I decided to again print it single sided on A3 landscape format, setting it apart from all other locally available calendars (as far as I know) and aiming for a distinct market. I decided against printing double sided, even though it would have lowered the cost slightly because I wanted to allow for the use of each of the images as stand alone images because I know that it will be sent to family and friends from Shetland in some far off places.

Clickimin Craft Fair 2009 is getting close

It’s now less than 10 days till the annual Shetland Arts and Crafts Fair at the Clickimin Centre in Lerwick. The official advert came through today at atp towers so I checked it was ok to post it here. “Of course” came the cheery reply, so here it is. Here at Austin Taylor Photography we’re all geared up for a busy three days at the event and, as ever, hope we’ve got the right stock that people want to see. This will be our third year at the event, which we enjoy a lot – it’s good to see so many friends at our stand and we always enjoy talking photographic techniques and opportunities. On top of that, we also manage to get a few special Christmas presents from some of the other craft producers on show at the event and this is also a plug for them too! Do come and see us if you can, otherwise you’ll miss out.

Shetland Arts and Crafts Association Craft Fair 2009 Advertisement

Such a busy month!

October has been such a busy month that it’s been difficult to fit everything in and, with Christmas approaching fast, the pressure has really been on to get things tied up and in place! On the photograph taking front there have been a few opportunities to photograph nearly all of the planets this month, especially since there were a number of very nice conjunctions (where two or more planets or the Moon move close to each other). Most of these involved early mornings (Mercury, Venus and Saturn with the Moon) though Mars and Jupiter, both with the Moon were evening events. We were also lucky enough to get some nice shots of Jupiter and its moons too.

Next, Austin Taylor Photography was appointed official Photographer for the Mirrie Dancers Winter Illuminations project, running right through the winter until March 2010 so, on 22 October it was off to Voe for the first launch party and lighting event. The night started off a bit wet, which meant that the raindrops scattered the lights somewhat but as the weather improved and the rain stopped the overall effect became clearer showing its true colours and originality of thought behind the concept. We’re very much looking forward to seeing the other illuminations over the coming days and weeks.

Towards the end of the month the old Esplanade public toilets in Lerwick were demolished – not the most glamourous event to attend but we managed to snap off a few record shots for posterity – I’m told those toilets won awards in the past!