Ben Web
Too Southern for the North
Floral Wallpaper
Aug 20th
Shaun needed some quick photos for his portfolio. There were taken in his front room, utilising the floral wallpaper there. One flash head was used to camera right with natural fill from the left (my second flash head stopped working as we started the shoot!).
Luke on a Sunny Sunday Afternoon
Jun 15th
I took these photographs of my friend Luke on a sunny Sunday afternoon at the end of May. He wanted the shots for his own personal use, and they came out rather well.
After the shoot, Luke made Jamaican Jerk Chicken and we drank fizzy wine while the sun came down.
A Big Change – Becoming Self Employed
May 22nd
After working silly hours for the last few years, in an effort to satisfy the demands of my day job as well as the needs of my part-time business, I’ve finally bitten the bullet and decided to take the business full-time. Not that I’m earning enough to really be able to afford it yet, nor because it’s a safe bet, but purely because I’m ready to take the business to the next level and just can’t do so while my focus is split between two, very different roles.
I made the decision whilst on holiday in Spain earlier this month (thanks to Henry for listening). Being removed from working all the time gave me a chance to think through the situation properly, and make some decisions about where I want to go from here.
I’m really looking forward to the challenge and, although I’m a little scared of the difficulties that lie ahead, I’m optimistic about the future and know I’m making the right decision.
So, I’m currently working my notice at the day job and am getting ready for kicking-off properly with the business expansion. The next few months are going to be hard work and I expect, also provide some very interesting experiences.
Hopefully I can pull in enough pennies to pay the bills and keep myself fed while building the business. If not, does anyone know if the Red Cross do parcels for budding entrepreneurs?
Wish me luck 
Lib Dems for 2010?
Apr 14th
For the first time in my life I’m wavering away from voting Labour in a national election: there’s been too must dishonesty in politics in recent years and I no longer trust Labour like I once did. The Conservatives certainly haven’t come-off any better and I’ve not voted for them previously as their values just don’t match with mine.
The remaining party is, of course, the Liberal Democrats but am I really considering voting for a party just because I dislike them the least? Well, no: they actually appear to have spent a lot of time working-out how to improve our country and their would-be chancellor Vince Cable really seems to know his salt.
This is the first election in living memory that people are not automatically saying that “a vote for the Lib Dems is a wasted vote”. Maybe we could actually see a radical and positive change in our government.
Like me, you may as of yet be undecided and I urge you to visit the Liberal Democrats’ manifesto and consider a party that has now become serious candidate for our potential future:
What are your thoughts?
Cloudy Day in Manchester (More of Kyle)
Mar 30th
Yet more photos of Kyle, you can tell I like him
This time we prowled the streets of Manchester on a cloudy day, complete with speedlite, lighting stand and brolly to add some punch to the pics.
Studio shots with Charlotte
Mar 27th
Here are some shots taken on John Clements’ studio lighting course at Calumet in Manchester today.
The course was interesting and gave a good overview of some useful lighting techniques. The model’s name is Charlotte:
A Walk in Castlefield, Manchester.
Jan 31st
I’m just home from a sunny morning’s walk around Castlefield. Although bitterly cold, it was a beautiful morning and Sam, Dunkan and I took the opportunity to get some photos.
Here are my favourites:
Ben’s gone all WordPress
Jan 23rd
With being a .NET person, I’ve persevered with BlogEngine for a couple of years but have always been disappointed with its functionality; which possibly explains why I’ve not posted much in the last year.
After hearing so many good things about WordPress, mostly from the guys over at AI Digital on their Internet Marketing Podcast, I’ve decided to make the switch.
So here I am, an hour or so after install and I’m running a blog with infinitely better looks (thank you Digital Nature) and functionality with very little effort at all. WordPress has even been happy to import all by old blog data via RSS, though I had to manually get old comments in.
This of course forces the question, why the hell haven’t I done this before?
