Rough Cuts Ltd Blog

I know how difficult it is to get a good shot at an event, this weekend, I was at an event where we took around 500 images in 2 and a half hours and 2/3 of these were not used. It's easier where there are more photographers 'camped' but this increases costs. Once ISO, Aperture and shutter have been set up, the 'camped' photographer can wait and capture images quickly and efficiently.  Here I was adjusting all of those settings on the fly for different light, poses and action shots (clarity over quick focus/fast shutter) a real challenge, but a rewarding one as the images we got, for the most part, I'm happy with. But there are a number of things I really dislike about current event photography set ups*. Firstly, the all round cost for participants and photographers. (*Ignoring the issue that a number of event photographers look like eyesores in tatty jeans, unkempt beards and old T-Shirts) . The session we ran was a specific photography afternoon, the cos

Rough Cuts make video content for others to enjoy. We also make commercial videos as well as videos for local schools that are creative and fun. You Tube is our number 1 sharing platform for these, we can create private videos, unlisted videos or public and we can choose whether it's ok or not ok to use copyrighted material. For anything commercial it really isn't ok. We respect that, it's part of our T&C's and with the exception of one client, for the most part, so do our customers. But occasionally, sometimes, for non-commercial videos, someone else's song has to be used. Case in point, in the week before last, I helped Ysgol Maesglas create a video. They raised over £200 for Children in Need and created a video to celebrate it in their school assembly. The song for Children in Need is Jamie Cullen's "Love is in the picture". For the video, the children held their drawings up in front of the camera and told us what they loved, for the most

People think 'techy' people are great with complicated processes and that we enjoy fixing problems. While that's pretty much 100% correct, we do prefer it when technology just does what it's supposed to. While the complicated problems do give us a challenge to overcome, on a day to day basis, when we're just trying to get work done, we prefer it when things are simple. Very simple. Where the skills come into their own is when we're looking for the easiest way to do something. Tomorrow I'll be working in a office which hasn't had a 'tech' visit or upgrade for a number of years. It's clearly been run on a budget, and at the time the best solution for 'sharing' might have been the Western Digital drive that they're using now. Sadly the network that they had has been decimated, and they're leaning on powerline adaptors for network access. Network access that is hampered by something electrical in the system which is causing one

Many people, myself included, were both excited and fearful of contactless payment. On the one hand buying a few spuds by simply wafting your card close to a terminal, is convenient, on the other hand, worryingly easy. Indeed it wasn't long before the media cottoned onto our fears and started feeding us stories of 'skimmers'; people with erroneous card payment devices like Square and iZettle, and people got worried. Having said that, here's the latest story (at the time of writing) from 9 hours ago. So the fear is not without justification. Companies have been selling NFC secure wallets, bags and purses, for some time so the signal won't emanate too far. So advancing this technology into smartphones would surely be more risky? Not at all. Because the NFC chips in Android phones sit dormant until they've been enabled. They're only enabled when your phone is unlocked. So skimming isn't possible. If your phone is in your back pocket (far more likely than

It may seem like a relatively simple statement. "Today, looks good for a flight". If a customer is waiting for drone work to be completed and it's the morning of the scheduled flight, or the drone pilot has turned up unexpected, they may reassure the client, by saying something along the lines of.... "Today, looks good for a flight". This would be the same of someone who is qualified, and a friend who 'flies drones'. But there is a huge difference between these statements when spoken by a qualified drone pilot and someone who isn't. If a qualified drone pilot says 'looks ok' what they actually means is .... They will have completed a site survey and found a location safe to take off from, within the limits laid down by law. It means they will know where the closest airfield is and have contact details for the local ATC, they will feel confident to alert them should anything relevant happen. They will have checked the wind spe

So I did decide to use the e-bike for work today. Didn't need much equipment, so the rucksack wasn't too heavy. It was 28c outside though, so I took a clean t shirt with me and showered before I set off. The journey to the local school is a mere mile, but although they're on a level with where I'm setting of from, there's a 375ft valley in between. Obviously getting down is no problem, but well hill is a steep climb. Despite this when I got to the top I took a detour to 'life on wheels', a cycling shop just outside Holywell up a further mile slog. The bike (and I) coped with this climb far easier though. I'd guess, on the step inclines I'm probably only achieving 4-5 mph, yet on the slow gradual inclines, it feels more like 10 mph. Anyhow, I made it, and bought myself a new lid. As I'm hoping to spend more time on the road, it seems like the site thing to do. Even if I did read some research earlier this week to suggest motorist give you less spa

I've had a reply from Anccher about why there is no thumb throttle as advertised. Nancy is looking into it. I rarely go out on my old mountain bike, about once a month. I live at the top of a steep, steep long hill. So the prospect of ending every journey with either a long hard slog and agony, or, as is more often the case, humiliating defeat, is not an exciting prospect. However today I wanted to stretch the Ancheer's legs and see what it could do. The Groves River Dee Chester Last night my eldest daughter and I did 11 miles from just outside Chester near Sandycroft, down to the River Dee and back again. She has a normal mountain bike so, for the most part, I just used the Ancheer as a normal bike. We took it in turns on the way back to have a blast, so I got a real workout, as all 6 ft 1 of me struggled on a 14" bike! Today however, I was on my own, so I parked up, just south of Talacre and set 'record' on the Komoot App (I prefer this to Strava as it al

So yesterday I took delivery of a new toy. Honestly, I thought I'd been scammed. I bought this from ancheer.shop website. Which looks official, but when you dig deeper a number of things ring alarm bells. Their customer service email ends @gmail.com Their social media links (google+) goes through to someone call Bo kou! Their ONLY customer service number is in the US They're £100 cheaper than Amazon! Sounds too good to be true right? Yeah, even though I'd bought using Paypal, but my anxiety got the better of my and caused a few of those hot flushes and sleepless nights. But I needn't have worried as twelve days after I ordered it, from the Czech republic.... it arrived.  Here it is...... Overall it took me about an hour to build. The quality is much better than I'd expected. The front forks are adjustable which surprised me, and quite soft, but the recoil feels good. The hardest part was fitting the reflectors. I felt there was too much attache

I'm curently sat in a classroom looking at a Mac that has 15 minutes before it's finished downloading it's updates. After it's finished it'll need to reboot and install the updates, then I'll need to figure out a way to back up the old iPads, create a new blueprint, and add some new apps to them, based on several teachers feedback. Using a piece of software that was written a decade ago, that currently has 1.5 in iTunes. The computer has already been going for over half an hour, and that's after I'd hooked up the Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, which weren't happy about their master leaving them while it was off for repair. It's not rocket science, but it could frustrate a number of different people, especially considering the process isn't really obvious, indeed, I've found a help site via Google that should help me avoid erasing all of the iPads and losing all the network's settings, which is my main concern. Anything else is resolva

I was playing Watch Dogs 2 tonight. Single player, I thought. Logged into a new Ubisoft account when someone else showed up. Then he left. Some online games don't need PS plus. Somewhat baffled (as I don't have a PS plus subscription) I did a little digging. it seems there's lots of confusion and the general consensus is that it's only free to play games. With that in mind, and the fact watch dogs isn't 'free to play' (is a paid for title), I'm going to create a list, here, of games that do not require a PS plus subscription. If you find a title that can be played online without PS plus (or one listed below that can't be) please comment and I'll investigate and correct the list. In no particular order. Fortnite Watch dogs 2 World of tanks Racing Elder Scrolls online DC universe Blacklight retribution War thunder Loadout Paladins Warframe Planetside 2 Star trek online Table top racing

When things get really bad, there could be a number of things that someone might think. They might imagine things can't get any worse.  Might think that they're alone. They may struggle to find the motivation to carry on.  Sometimes they will just feel like they're achieving nothing or may feel completely lost, and as if there is no hope.  Sometimes everything will appear dark and grey, they may see no beauty in the world, but know, if they carry on, beauty could be just around the corner.  They might find themselves going round in circles, occasionally making little or no progress, yet at other times, they could find themselves flying.  Fighting new and old demons, sometimes they will lose, at other times they will overcome them.  To start with, these demons may cause fear, once defeated, they will feel more confident, the next time they rear their heads.  Success comes from dealing with the above and knowing that no matter how much, or how little progress is be

Originally published Feb 2016 --------------------------------------------------------- There has been some disturbing news reports out today regarding the safety of ROBLOX. It's described as a 'Minecraft-like' game where you can explore and create a place to live and meet new friends. Iain Morrison said he played it with his 8 year old Son for only 15 minutes before inappropriate messages started appearing on screen. This alerted me not only as a parent of two young girls, but also someone who works educating kids in online safety. And kids have asked me if I knew about the game, it's popularity can't be denied. After some investigating I have to admit, it does appear to be unsafe for children. Lets cut to the chase. I wouldn't let my kids roam free on it. Let me explain why. According to the company's parent guide, Roblox is safe for those under 12 because the chat is limited to just their friends. See below.... ​ ​ S M L XL  https://corp.

First up, before I start my rant, as a gaming machine, the PS4 is totally competent. With the exception of the tiny controllers, which took me a good week to adjust to (I suffered a considerable amount of pain first though) the machine can game well. I appreciate that I've left it a long time before committing to either Xbox or Playstation, but after a months use. I can honestly say, I've made a mistake. First up, I didn't just buy it as a gaming console. It's 2018, (ok 2017 when I bought it) and a games console should be able to sit comfortably in the middle of your home and connect all your media together; simply. If a machine has a function, (for example the abolity to play Blu-Ray and other media), I'd expect it to be able to do it competently. As well as having the ability to play amazing games it should be able to access your Network attached storage to play your music and video files and it should also integrate with the rest of your equipment to play any o