The ability to easily get images from my camera to a backup device whilst shooting is something I’ve been looking for recently.

I know that I can connect the camera to the computer via USB or Firewire, but that limits my freedom of movement – not to mention creating a trip hazard that can damage both clients and equipment. I did consider the Canon wireless adaptor for my 1Ds Mk3 but at about £800 it was never a serious option.

In the summer of 2008 I was in Iowa, USA and came across a device called the Eye-Fi, an SD compatible wireless adaptor that would apparently solve my problems as it would allow me to upload images as I shot them directly to my laptop as well as store them locally in the camera – unfortunately it was not available in the UK and whilst I could buy it in the USA and take it home there was no type approval in the UK and no support available.

Now, however, it has got approval in the UK and I’ve just bought one – timely enough for me as I have recently been in the situation of shooting images at a Santa grotto and needed to show clients the images immediately so they could purchase them.

So, has it solved my problem – and does it actually work ???

Well yes it has and it certainly does work. I bought the Home Video version which has 4Gb of onboard storage and works with JPEG images only- perfect for the event type shooting I envisaged as I wanted to quickly get the images over to the laptop and in front of the client and without the need for complex editing or large sizes. 

Configuration of the device was easy and I had it working in about 5 minutes, took it out on location and away we went – worked pretty much without issue and pushed 12Mb JPEGs across the wireless network in only a few seconds each, pretty much had the images on screen by the time the client had got back from the grotto and in front of the desk. There were a couple of occasions where the card just didn’t want to release the images onto the network so I just stuck the Eye-Fi card into my card reader and the images shot straight into the designated directory immediately.

So was it a good choice to solve my problem – certainly yes

Should I have got the Professional version which supports RAW – no, I only need JPEG in event shoots

Does it have other uses – yes !!, it can upload via a wireless hotspot to Flickr or Facebook, so if you are shooting in urban settings you can usually get connected to a BTOpenzone or similar and have your images send immediately into your online gallery – handy if you fall foul of an over-zealous Policeman or Security Guard who wants you to delete perfectly innocent images taken in public places – however I’m sure that eventually someone will spot that ‘terrorist’ angle and have the functionality removed. At present though the ability to upload your images via the Internet is a very useful backup option and one which I will be exploring further (I live in a very rural environment so wireless hotspots are few and far between !!)

You can find out more about the Eye-Fi at Eye-Fi

Last Sunday (11th October) saw photographers around the World uniting to raise money to help find a cure for cancer, and I was one of the photographers who took part.

My shoot was a set of family lifestyle sessions which we held at Jonathan David’s coffee shop in Epworth, North Lincs which was kindly opened and staffed by David and Jo at their own expense to support what I was doing.

We opened for shooting at 10am and our first session actually started at 11am with Dylan & Dalton

Pictured here with their Dad.

Then we had the reluctant Hannah who turned up with her Mother, God-Mother and assorted relatives – filling the shop nicely !! Hannah was not having her picture taken, but we soon got her into the swing of things and had loads of fun with various combinations and permutations before we ended up with this one

After the family we had a 1 year old litle boy to shoot – he was quite excitable but understandably nervous – but I started off with him being held by his father and took a few pictures and then eventually he was happy to run around on his own which allowed me to get some lovely images

After this little boy we moved straight into a shoot with a baby – which was a completely different challenge and a baby doesn’t take direction or pose, has to be placed and arranged carefully – and doesn’t like being taken out into the cold to be shot in the nice light !!

But once again we were able to achieve some great results, here is baby Eva

Eva’s shoot was quite brief and then we had a small break – and then my own little bundle of energy arrived for his shoot, enter Josh !!

And despite me being a professional photographer, it’s not very often I get the chance to shoot Josh in a ‘real’ shoot so it was nice to be able to direct him and see how he would react to the setting etc. as you can see I think he enjoyed himself !!

Finally we had Jodie and Joseph. Jodie was raring to go the minute she arrived but Joseph was not at all sure and refused to have anything to do with me or the shoot – so we worked with Jodie on her own for quite a while capturing some beautiful images. eventually curiosity got the better of Joseph and he joined in to which enabled me to get a great set of brother/sister images as well as lovely solo shots – here we have Jodie

By now it was 4pm and time to call it a day – I was shattered as I normally only shoot a single session in a day so to manage 6 I think I did pretty well !! and we raised £120 into the bargain.

I now have to final edit all the images and upload them to the online gallery so the families can get to them

Bring on next years session