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.

Winter time

Car driving on road, Finland
© Nathan Hulse

In the UK the winter is currently very mild. In other parts of the world it's business as usual. I've just returned from seeing family in Finland and took these pictures before going out visiting friends. In the UK, the country would probably grind to a halt when it snows. In Finland however it's business as usual.

Winter in Finland
© Nathan Hulse

Big Brother final 2011

I attended all but one of the Big Brother evictions in the latest series on channel 5. I was pleased to be covering them for Getty Images. When I first consider photography on a more series level, submitting to Getty Images was always one of my ambitions. Although I was hoping to submit to Getty Creative rather than editorial. Still, I achieved a goal.

Aaron Allard-Morgan
© Nat Jag

I can't admit to being a huge fan of Big Brother, I only watch it when I'm there at the house. I started to cover the evictions after the show had reached it's peak and started to lose ratings. The last series had poor ratings, however it must be pointed out that for channel 5, it was probably one of their shows getting higher viewing figures.

To the right is a wide angle shot of the winner Aaron walking out from the interview area. You can see the row of photographers at the top right. This was the first time I'm aware a winner was booed when they left the house.

I wonder how the Celebrity Big Brother will be, and if I'll get asked to cover that?

X Factor Childline Ball

Mary Byrne and Rebecca Ferguson
© Nathan J Hulse

An X factor childline ball was held last week (20th October 2011) at the Savoy hotel. "Great" I thought, a chance to photograph some of the most talked about people in the UK at the moment. Sadly, it was the most talked about people last year that I would get to photograph. In addition, it would only be two of them, Rebecca Ferguson and Mary Bryne. Remember them, I do, just. Also, present was Polly Woodward from the Gadget show, not a large name in the celebrity world, she is very attractive so worthwhile photographing. Also present were Esther Rantzen and Dermot O'Leary.

Big Brother first eviction

Tashie Jackson with host Brian Dowling is the first evicted
© Nat Jag

I'm lucky to be in the few that are covering Big Brother this season. Channel 5 only have limited space for press this season. However with the shows popularity dropping, the number of photographers would as well, even without the limited space imposed by the new outdoor set. I have also noticed the number in the audience seems to be lower this year. Perhaps they just don't have as many in, or not so many people want to be there on the 'live' eviction.

In addition to the standard shots, I try to get something a little different by capturing the whole scene. You can see the smaller audience with big gaps. Sadly the watermark covers the people in the picture. I'm sure you get the idea.

Big Brother ends as Big Brother Starts

Paddy Doherty leaving the house after winning Celebrity Big Brother
Host Brian Dowling waits to greet him.
© Nat Jag 

I was lucky enough to cover the final of Celebrity Big Brother. Thinking that was the end for the season, only to find out that a new non-celebrity Big Brother was due to start the following day. I was at the start of the new Big Brother for channel 5. With the snappers in a new position looking down made it good for some wide angle shots to capture the whole event. 

They are only allow in 10 sometimes 12 photographers. Many of the agencies that used to attend most weeks during the previous series were denied access this season. A shame. I think they look on the mail online to see which agency's pictures are used, forgetting to check the magazines as well. Still I was pleased to be able to cover the start and end of the recent series.

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.