Weeknotes #16

I’m cheating a bit this week in writing these notes on Thursday and Saturday. Friday is Patterns Day and I’m gonna be a little busy taking photographs and listening to the amazing talks!

This week has been really positive. I’ve made cracking strides into the build of the client project. After two weeks of groundwork, we’re now motoring along! Most web projects feel a bit like a Keirin bike race; it’s the one in the Olympics where they follow a motorbike for a few laps, then go for a crazy sprint to the finish. You spend a lot of time slowly gathering pace and laying foundations and then BAM, you suddenly make swift progress. For the section I’m working on, I’ve hit that sprint phase - and it feels wonderful!

I was up in Birmingham to visit the client on Wednesday. I’m getting used to the journey; sure it’s a bit long and the pendolino are a bit sickness-inducing, but it’s pretty impressive to be able to do 10-5 in their office without an overnight stay.

Thursday night was the Patterns Day speaker’s dinner at Cin Cin - it was a lot of fun. Many bellini’s were drunk (by others) and much pasta was consumed (by me). It was the perfect pre-cursor to the conference on Friday. I was on photographic duties for the day. The Duke of York cinema is a tough venue to shoot in, what with it being a dark cinema, but I was pretty happy with the results. I went with the trusty 35mm 1.4 and 85mm 1.8 for the registration and breaks, and the 14-24mm 2.8 and 70-200mm 2.8 for the talks themselves.

Having not done conference photography like it before, and was really mindful to avoid being a distraction to the attendees and speakers. The aim was to get a handful of shots in the first minute with the telephoto, then a couple with the wide angle. I stayed in my seat and then put down the camera to enjoy the talk. The biggest problem was my laptop. The battery is aged, and there was no power by my seat. This left the generous 30 minute breaks to find power, get the shots edited and posted, and get outside to get some shots of the attendees chatting. Here’s a few shots from the event: