Giles interviewed on the Vobes Show

Yesterday was a fun day. After spending the morning taking care of a few things around the office, I made my way over to see Mr. Richard Vobes, who interviewed me on his online radio show, ready for airing today. I say 'interviewed' - actually, it was very much relaxed, with a feel more along the lines of a chat among friends.

For those who don't know of him, Richard is an award-winning internet broadcaster, multi-talented to say the least. He also happens to be an all-round nice chap. Regular readers may remember I spoke of him in this post a couple of months ago.

We discussed all manner of things throughout the course of our time together - including traditional & digital photography, the media, networking & online social networks, and a number of topical stories hitting the headlines. Oh, and as for me being referred to as 'Babbington'... bit of a long story!

So pour a cuppa, sit yourself down and enjoy an hour of laid-back, informal conversation. Simply by click here and the audio will open up in your chosen player.

As ever, I'd really like to hear your thoughts and comments. And for more of the Vobes, be sure to check out Richard's site.

GBP featured in Making Money magazine

As many of you know, I am a great believer in the use of networking as the fundamental basis of generating interest and activity in one's business. I am by no means an expert - no more so than the next active networker, at least - but I'd like to think I have built up some worthwhile knowledge which can be passed on to anyone interested in the topic.

In a roundabout way, it is thanks to networking that we came to be interviewed for the current issue of Making Money magazine here in the UK (cover date May 2009). The subject of the article: networking.

Some years ago, when I was at university, I got chatting to one of my lecturers. He was an active photographer and journalist, with a wealth of information readily available to be shared with any student willing to show the initiative. Well, me being me, I did just that - staying back after class, following up the topics discussed in tutorials and arranging further meetings as part of my post-grad activities (i.e. setting up in business).

In the course of our conversations, it transpired that my tutor actually lived not too far from my family home and I was invited to get in touch any time I needed advice. Long story cut short, I was building on this connection week-on-week and within months we were working together on a regular basis.

Why am I sharing this story? Well, in many ways networking is all about chance meetings. Sure, you can check out who might be at a particular meeting you wish to attend - you can even research them beforehand via their websites, blogs, Twitter feeds etc. But often, day-to-day networking really is about these chance meetings, a matter of being in the right place at the right time and simply making the effort to take those meetings one stage further.

The exciting thing about the process of networking is that you never know who you might bump into; in turn, you never know where such occasions might take you and you product/service.

Oh, and in case you missed the connection, the author of said Making Money article - my university lecturer who, thanks to our symbiotic working relationship has just put GBP in the minds of an estimated readership of 50,00.

If you have any questions about networking, feel free to email or drop a few lines in the comments section of this post, below.

Wired Magazine comes to UK

A quick public-service notification: Wired Magazine has finally been released in the UK.

I have been reading the US edition (launched in 1993) for some time now and it is without doubt one of my favourite regular reads. In American parlance, you could say it is my 'go-to' publication when I want to find out what's going on in the world of popular culture, technology and the people/developments who are shaping the future - and it has proven itself as a source of inspiration time and time again.

This post is not going to spread out into a review so I will keep it short and sweet simply saying that the superb-quality launch edition shapes the magazine up to be every bit as informative and pleasing to the eye as it's US counterpart. Not exactly a bargain at £3.99, but it is very much worth a read. And besides, when was the last time you found such a publication for under £3 on the news stands?

If web versions of magazines are more your thing, you should definitely check out the Wired UK website.

Mine is a WiFi world

Funny how we come to rely on things without realising, isn't it? Case in point - internet access.

Regular readers and subscribers will have noticed that the GBP Blog has been somewhat quiet in recent weeks; there is a very good reason for this. Well, several really. But most importantly is the fact that, due to an impressively disruptive combined-effort cock-up on the part of our phone line and broadband suppliers (let's not mention names, eh?), we have been without internet access for the best part of a month. I won't go into the messy details here, but if you see me around and really want to know, you might want to buy us a coffee because the story is a long one!

Getting back to the point, then... Without this service in the office, we have been lost and our productivity has dropped noticeably. Don't get me wrong - we've not been sat twiddling our thumbs, but not having internet (by default creating the need to venture forth from the office) has meant that our days have certainly been longer and more tiring. Clearly, we multi-task more than we know, conducting web-based activities whilst waiting for imaging processes to run their course - simply put, saving time and energy.

In this tech world, it is no stretch of the imagination to say that we cannot make do without the internet in our business - certainly, 95% of GBP's marketing endeavours are web based, for example the website, YouTube , Twitter and LinkedIn.

So when we get no connection, this spells potential disaster... or, rather it would do, were it not for the WiFi service available in many hotels, restaurants and cafés. If you have received any communications from us in recent weeks, including our newsletter, then these will have reached you thanks to this technology. The above picture shows my all-too-familiar coffee house 'workstation' set-up - an Asus Eee PC, BlackBerry and a nice cup of tea (well, you have to make the most of what's on offer!).

But this inconvenient need to use other people's facilities rather than our own is not all bad. There is an expression, something along the lines of 'out of necessity comes... something-or-other...' (answers on a post card please), which alludes to the fact that a change of circumstances generates fresh ideas, insights and positive developments. I have certainly found this to be true and as a result of my 'location office', I am now seriously considering making regular use of my net book (the Asus), a mobile broadband dongle and online cloud facilities to control such things as email, calendar and general marketing activities.

It's all food for thought.

OS Outdoors Show 2009

Yesterday saw another of my yearly trips up to the NEC, this time to visit the Ordnance Survey Outdoors Show. My reasons for going are two-fold: on the one hand, I am very keen on all things to do with the great outdoors and on the other, the show gives me a great opportunity to network and to catch up with people within such related industries. This year's event was slightly smaller, given that it only occupied one exhibition hall rather than two, as in previous years. That said, there was a steady flow of cash-ready visitors (what recession?!), but not so many that I couldn't have uninterrupted conversations with the people I was there to see.

So what does this have to do with the GBP Blog, and specifically the world of photography?

Well, as regular readers will know, I don't just write about photo-related matters. Rather, I like to share my thoughts about a wide range of issues, including anything which I feel might be of interest to fellow phtographers, business owners and the 'general public' readership.

I am pleased to say that, thanks to the co-operation of a number of exhibiting companies, I have arranged to produce a string of product and service reviews which I hope will be of interest to you. We will be looking at all sorts of things - everything from waterproof cases for your mobile/iphone/GPS, to luggage for your valuable camera equipment, online networking websites to accessories which will make your day-to-day activities just that little bit more comfortable.

To make sure you don't miss any of these features, you can get updates just as soon as the blog posts go live; either subscribe to the GBP Blog using one of the methods on the right here (via email is arguably the easiest and most popular way) or if you have a Twitter account, you can hook up here.

Oh, and if you have a product or service which you think would be of interest to our readers, please feel free to drop me a line and we'll see what we can do!

Now we Tweet!

If you are into the 'online community' way of things, you will no doubt have heard of Twitter. For those that don't know, this is another of the minute-by-minute, user-updatable sites out there. Think along the lines of Facebook, Beebo etc and you're not far off. The official blub reads:

"Twitter is a unique approach to communication and networking based on the simple concept of status. What are you doing? What are your friends doing - right now? With Twitter, you may answer this question over SMS [text messaging] or the Web and the responses are shared between contacts."

Well, the latest news in GBP's widening online network activities is that I have now joined up, and you can check out what I'm up to in several ways:

• Go straight to my Twitter page here, or...
• Follow the link over on the right (directs you to the same place, actually), or...
  
• Check out the 'Twitter Updates' section, again on the right-hand side of this page.

To keep things in perspective, I'll tell you now that I am not planning on sending tens of messages each day. At this point, the aim is 1 to 3 per day. Maybe more, maybe less - depends on my schedule. As and when the mood takes me, I'll be adding the odd picture along the way, too, just for a bit of fun.

So, I suppose the question is... do you Tweet? If the answer is yes, then why not hook up with me? This is how it all works, after all!

And if you're just curious to see what all the fuss is about... well, you have all the links you need to find out!

Simply effective product photography

Another little product shoot from earlier this month, a further example of how I like to keep things nice and simple. The products in question were a range of samples produced by a local firm of screenprinters, engravers and precision engineers. We have created images for this company in the past, and the purpose of this assignment was to show off the new line aimed at the medical profession.

One empty meeting room, one camera, two lights and a plain card background - that's all we needed in order to produce a set of simple yet effective pictures which can be dropped into the company's website, brochures and all manner of marketing material.

Here is a time-lapse video showing the process, from start to finish. Be sure to check out the selection of images at the end of the film: