One of the most popular items I have on Flickr is my 540ez Mod set. I got a 2nd one, so I videoed the process of modding it. How could I pass up the change to rabbit on for 13 minutes?

Canon 540ez Flash Mod from Sean McCormack on Vimeo.

It’s been a hectic week, and despite promising a post for fellow SWPP members from a recent Paddy Casey gig, I still haven’t had time to process them.

Galleries (skip this if you’ve no interest in my coding!)
I’m in the process of beta test on LRB Portfolio for what may become version 2.0. On top of that, I’ve been using a coding structure that allows me to mix Lua and XSLT to create a Flash gallery that will work on both the Mac and PC platform, rather than just Mac.
Basically, I noticed that SlideShowPro was doing this mix successfully and mentioned it to Matthew Campagna. Matthew then created a new version of his TTG Simpleviewer Gallery using this coding technique. And I, er.., followed suit. It became painfully obvious that when creating a Flash gallery that Lightroom only previews the SWF file and ignores any HTML that is embedding it. In Matthew’s case, that’s not a problem, because Simpleviewer will fill the space, as will SlideShowPro. Mine on the other hand is designed to be embedded in HTML.
As if that wasn’t enough, I’ve also been working on a replacement HMTL gallery for Lightroom using Square thumbnails (cropped in CSS). I’ve a version that use a script to show the file floating over the grid ala Shadowbox/Lightbox, and one using strict HTML. Whether or not they see the light of day is another matter!

Shoots
As mentioned I’ve a bunch of live stuff to process and so I should really do that and add them here!

Aslan at Roisin Dubh

Paddy Casey at Roisin Dubh

I’m not one for Charity shooting, because people that work in a Charity organisation generally get paid. Of course there are volunteers that work for free, but I’m talking about core staff. The ads on TV for a charity organisation are paid for, so why shouldn’t I? That said I do give my time to projects where I choose to volunteer. So on Tuesday night I was standing up on a ladder for some promo shots for an upcoming charity concert/album, organised by local musician Don Phelan.

4 bands in one room?

With tight time and not a whole lot of interest in the venue, I got this quick shot for them. It’s not an award winner by any stretch, but will serve the purpose of letting people know who’s involved! The four bands here, from front to back are: Mugger Dave, Voodoo Fire, The Kanyu Tree and Without George.

This week also saw some work with a visiting English model for some personal work, which I may feature at a later date. Phew. Said I was busy!

While I did get an inkling last night on the SWPP forum, I got a call from Jon Jenkins this morning informing me that I had won the SWPP Family Portraiture and Groups award. Jon had volunteered to collect for me if I won anything (just in case-I’ve had a few golds during the year after all!). He’d forgotten about it until he heard my name called, and then his for collecting it! I’d love to have been there, but weekends are very busy at the moment. I’ll make time to go next year though, just for the networking!

Now that I know what the award is for, let me talk about the shot. This is a shot of local band Disconnect 4 (you can check them out on MySpace). Martin from Bar No. 8 kindly allowed us to shoot around the bar one evening. We did a number of different setups, but I really like this one because of the expressions. Bands against a wall are a bit cliched and I usually avoid it, but this just worked for me. This is a Strobist style shot, with a single shoot thru umbrella, from over my head to give some ‘butterfly light’. Nikon SB28, probably at 1/2 power, triggered with Skyports. Processing was done in Lightroom.

Posting has been sparse, because I’ve been busy!
I’ve just passed on the final versions of poster shots for singer Lucia Evans for her upcoming gig. It’s also the time of year for accounts, so I’ve catching up there a bit. My New Years resolution should really be to do a small bit everyday and not let it build up. I’m terrible for it, and doing it right would make life much easier. (Cue phone call to my accountant!)
I’ve also mocked up an addition to LRB Portfolio, the Cmotion Javascript scroller. It looks great, and is of course optional, so you can choose to use it or not. I’ve not published yet, because on reading the terms of usage on the site, I’m feel I’m in a grey area and need permission.
I ordered a Canon 5D MK II last week and I’m anxiously awaiting it! The prospect of using my 24-70 as a 24-70 again is great, along with the larger viewfinder! (Yes, I know there’s a whole raft of reasons to love it besides that!). It means I’ll be selling off a bunch of lenses too! I’ll still keep the 40D as backup. I’ll sell the 30D/17-85IS and get the 400d IR converted.

The SWPP conference is this week, but due to work commitments, I won’t be going unfortunately. I’m quite active over on the forums (but have more of a life than other posters there! You know who I mean Jinx!). The awards dinner is Sunday night, and while I did get quite a number of Golds during the year, we can only wait and see how I fared overall.

It’s time for a portfolio change too, so I’ll be doing some model work later in the month. Stylist wanted!

I’m making use of my free time early in the week to get stuff sorted at home. Such are the joys of recession!

It appears that Google are finally releasing their photo editing and management app, Picasa, for the Mac. Despite being a hardened Lightroom user, I’m still going to give this a go. I’m more than a little sketchy about granting rights for Google to use my photos in exchange for using their program, but this might not bother lot of my friends. See section 11 of the user license for more details.