In the developing world, it doesn’t work like that. There’s millions of people out there with reversible eye conditions who simply can’t get the help they need. This is where Sightsavers come in. They help millions of people with potentially blinding conditions. Last year alone, they helped 3.7 millions people.

My recent trip to the opticians has really brought home what my eyesight means to me. Without it I couldn’t appreciate photography and I’d probably have to give up my job. There are a few blind photographers out there, but I’m not sure I’m cut out to be one of them. Helen and I were married a couple of years ago, and we still bring out our wedding photographs to look at every now and again. I couldn’t imagine what life would be like if I had wedding photographs that I’d never be able to look at again.

I’m not here to ask you for money. I’m here to ask you to just think about what your eyesight means to you and how much easy access we have in the developing world to treatments. I know a number of professional photographers read this blog – think about your livelihood. Think about not being able to see another photograph ever again.

In order to show my support for Sightsavers International and the work they do, I’ve decided to team up with some friends to undertake the Three Peaks Challenge in June. If you don’t know what the challenge entails, its basically climbing three mountains in under 24 hours (including travelling between them!). Until about two weeks ago, I’d never even seen a mountain before so its a massive undertaking for me.

If you’d like to know how our training is going, and how we’re progressing on the day itself, we’ve got a website set up at www.geeksandpeaks.com. I’ll be sure to take some photos for you all.

It’s sometimes the case that when a couple arrive they can feel self concious – especially if they’re not used to being in front of a camera, but all we want to do is capture the love you feel for each other in pictures, and when you’re relaxed and remember that, we get some beautiful results.

Now what to do with these beautiful photos? Yes the purpose was to practice but that doesn’t mean the photos should be dismissed or overshadowed by the wedding photos (which would be remembered with fuller emotion). To use them to their full potential our Elite wedding package includes a Guest Book (also available as an addition to other packages). This is a hand bound and hard backed book that photos from the engagement shoot, and a number of white pages for your wedding guests to write on.

It’s obviously possible to just buy a note book for your guests to fill, but these memory-provoking photo Guest Books are so much more personal, and so much nicer to just have around the house, on the coffee table etc.

If you’d like more information on Engagement Shoots, Guest Books, or any other of our services, we’d love to hear from you.

Hope you’re enjoying this lovely weather!

Helen x

You’ve probably seen the tweets on Twitter, or the (not so) subtle hints on Facebook… but I’m pleased to announce that we have our very own iPhone application available to purchase from the Apple App Store.

Second Shootr is an iPhone/iPod Touch application for professional wedding photographers. It has just one goal: to help photographers do what they do best…take awesome photos! Second Shootr helps professional wedding photographers to organise the wedding day so that their minds are free to concentrate on capturing those lasting memories.

A brief run-down of Second Shootr’s features:

• Store important client information – Names, addresses, phone numbers, websites etc.
• Store key details about the wedding itself – Ceremony/Reception locations, wedding theme etc.
• Capture and contact key members of the wedding party – Store contact details for the vicar, or the best man.
• Know where to be and at what time – Store key events and their location.
• Plan and tick-off your photos – plan those must-have photos, use photos from your iPhone camera or library as a reference and then tick them off when you’re done.
• Remember all your kit, every time – check your kit out as you leave the studio, then check it back in when you’re packing up.
• Remember everything you need to do before, during and after the wedding – Second Shootr will list your to-do items, just tick them off when done.
• Customise Second Shootr to your business requirements.
  

Second Shootr is available in the Apple App Store right now and is available for all models of iPhone and iPod Touch (as long as you’re running OS 3.0).

If you’d like more information, as well as further screenshots and an instructional video, head to www.secondshootr.com or go straight to the app store to purchase it:

If you want to know the latest updates and information about Second Shootr, head to the blog: blog.secondshootr.com

Why should I care? I’m a client, not a wedding photographer.

True, you may not be interested in buying Second Shootr, but you can be safe in the knowledge that Plinkk Photography is leading the way in wedding photography and wedding photography technologies, so much so that we are investing very large sums of money into helping other wedding photographers play catchup! You can be certain that we have every detail of your day logged and at our fingertips – We’ve already used Second Shootr out on weddings, and we will continue to do so.

Jason is a prolific photography blogger based all the way in the USA. He’s been writing online for over 7 years now, mostly discussing photography and Photoshop techniques as well as building up an online community.

All this experience means that Jason knows what he’s talking about when he says “Tim Collins, of Plinkk Photography, and his wife Helen do some awesome work in the field of engagement/wedding/event photography. In a genre that can so easily fall into a very formulaic portfolio of images, Tim and Helen have an eye for creating something truly unique.”

We are flattered by the attention from across the pond and would like to take the opportunity to thank Jason for his kind words.

Until now, when our clients wants to purchase photographs they had to look through all their photographs online, scribble down the name of the ones they liked, and then get in touch with us to order their prints/albums/canvasses etc. This is how most photographers in the area operate… its slow… its not fun… it sucks.

We’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty and we’re rolling out a state-of-the-art proofing system. You or your friends and family can log on to the site, take your time choosing your favourite photos, and then take your time again ordering the prints you want. You can instantly change colour images into black and white or sepia and you can choose the order that images appear in your album.

As soon as you press the ‘buy now’ button, you’ll be sent a confirmation email. We’ll email you every step of the way too, we’ll confirm when payment has been received and of course when your goodies are ready for you to take home. If you’ve forgotten what the last email said, there’s an online order tracking facility.

All this new shinyness links in with our fancy slideshow software too. When you’re looking at a slideshow of your images, and you see a photograph you’d like to buy, you just click the little shopping trolly and it’ll blast you through to our proofing system. You can’t get much better than that!

If you book a wedding with us, you can now run through your final images face to face with us, or you can pop open a bottle of wine, fire up the intertubes and get clicking! Its that simple!

Click here to try it out. Enter the passcode ‘sample‘ to get going.

For special offers or to watch our every move, follow us on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook:

Since we started Plinkk, we haven’t really been happy with the way we present our images to our clients online. Our current solution is OK, but it relies on your computer screen being a certain size, and it involves a lot of clicking.

So, from today, we’ve got a new way of showing off our photos. We’ll be using some fancy-pants slideshow software. The software does some clever stuff behind the scenes to make sure that you are presented with the biggest image that will fit your screen, whatever your screen size. It also allows you to share your images with your friends and family.

There are a couple of other features, but we won’t bore you with the details…you really have to see it for yourself. We’ve yet to find another photographer in Hampshire who present your images so clearly online.

We decided that the most fitting way to show off our software is to show you some new photographs of our 2009 Sample Elite Wedding Album. Click the image below to enjoy.

Our Elite Albums are the finest quality handmade, hard backed book our suppliers make, available in square or landscape format with shaped wooden binding and heaviest weight 250gsm leaves. Each Elite album is protected by a dust jacket and comes in a black linen-texture presentation box. They are available up to 40 x 29 cm in size – resulting in a beautiful album filled with the day’s memories. We’re proud to be able to show off our 2009 sample album. If you’d like to see the album in person, please contact us, or leave a comment and we’ll get in touch with you.

We have one more awesome announcement due soon, so stay tuned!

For special offers or to watch our every move, follow us on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook:

If you want to get hold of us in the meantime, feel free to call, email or use Facebook/Twitter to get in touch.

For special offers or to watch our every move, follow us on Twitter, or become a fan on Facebook: