I’ve been thinking more about the type of image I’m after and I think I can expand this brief a little. I still want images of Irish people at work, but this could include people selling goods, e.g. a market or shop, a hospitality business (barmen, café hotels etc.), bus drivers, taxis, even general things like shopping and general social interaction. So you may have more luck finding images like that in your collections

For those of you who expressed an interest in shooting some new images for this (thank you!) the following info may be useful…

If you find someone willing to be photographed, try having them look natural, doesn’t have to be smiles! – thoughtful/serious is good too.

Very important to note that you will need a signed model release form if the photo is selected for use, I just can’t use a photo without it, if the person is identifiable in your shot. If you don’t have model release forms here is a link to a good example to base your own form on. I recommend you print a batch of model release forms and always have them in your gearbag anyway.

If your subjects are not identifiable then I will not need the model release, e.g. if they are too distant/underexposed/looking away from camera etc.

Finally here is a visual guide as to the layout I wish to fill on the website, ideally the text area should be reasonably clear and overall proportion as shown.

Easy, eh?

Feel free to post comments here if you have any questions, or reach me on Twitter: @davymac

I’m a keen photographer myself and I use both Flickr and Pix.ie to share my images. I have also had the pleasure of meeting many of the people I know from these Photo-sharing sites in the real world, I’ve had a lot of fun on some photowalks with my Flickr friends and am constantly impressed with the quality of photography from everyone.

So I was thinking that I could involve some of my contacts from the photo-sharing sites to help me find some images for using on this website I am working on. Unfortunately none of the photo-sharing sites allow any kind of commercial work on their sites, so I have set up groups purely for the purpose of getting in touch with suitable photographers who may want to supply some images for this project outside of the photo-sharing sites.

Brief for ‘Ireland at Work’ photos

We are searching for great images that show the citizens of Ireland in real working environments.

We will pay £45 GBP per each shot that we select for use on the website and you may submit several photos. We may use more than one photo from any one photographer.

All photos will be credited where they appear on the site, as follows:
Photo: (Your Name)

We are paying for use of these images and so require the rights to use them on our website, and printed matter, for a period of one year from time of issue. Other than these agreed rights copyright for the photos remains with the photographer. We reserve the right to edit or retouch the supplied images, if required, to best suit their display on the layout of our website.

Please note that these images will be used on a website promoting Ireland remaining in the European Union, so your images will be seen in support of that viewpoint.

Essential requirements (all must be met):

• We must have a copy of the model release, or written permission from the subject to use their photo for commercial purposes.
• Photo must show Republic of Ireland persons and locations.
• Persons must be shown in a working situation/environment
• Realistic people and situations
• Photos must be at least 1024px wide at 72dpi, but preferably larger
• Photos must be colour
• Supplied photo must not be watermarked

Desirable requirements (any one of these):

• Nature of work environment should be community-based, if possible (e.g. waste collection, milk delivery, bus driver etc.)
• Women at work
• People who are happy at their work (a positive looking image)
• Trades/labour/retail/engineering/farming images welcome
• Large engineering projects are welcome, but must clearly feature the people doing the actual work
• Photos should be landscape
• Photos should have a clear space (without any significant subject matter) on approx 1/3 of the overall image area on the right side

What we don’t want:
Landscape/scenic photos
Abstract images
Obviously posed shots

If you have any images you think may be of interest please get in touch (on or off the photo-sharing sites).

Here is the Flickr Group

Here is the Album on Pix.ie

Deadline?
- Of course there’s a deadline!
We will need to make our final selection of photos on Sunday 14th June, that’s 10 days from posting this message so if you want to submit any photos you need to get to it.

Thanks.

Such a project would involve several capable, and efficient, people with a diverse range of skills to complete this project in such a short space of time. They would also have to be prepared to work for free. The initial request for voluntary help came, as always these days, via my favourite network: Twitter. I saw the request on Wednesday last week and said yes immediately, I thought it was an inspiring project and, although I didn’t know Maryrose all that well in person (only met once at Belfast CreativeCamp) I follow her on Twitter – and I do find Twitter to be a pretty reliable reference in finding like-minded personalities. I knew I could work with Maryrose’s team so I offered to lend my help in designing the cover for the book, for the PDF download version and for the final printed copy.

Then the fun started! The project kicked-off like a wild west barn-raising party, such an energetic bunch of people, I’m so impressed with the effort and work of all involved here in accomplishing so much in such a short timeframe. Much of the team were freelance like myself, and had never even met, yet here we were operating swiftly and almost friction-less thanks to the organising skills of Maryrose and Basecamp. I’m a big fan of Basecamp, but my typical use is for longer span projects and fewer (known) people involved, really good to see how robust Basecamp is when under pressure like this, it really did keep the project moving.

I had early concepts for the design of the book cover planned by Friday and first visuals uploaded to Basecamp on Saturday, team members were dropping in to the project site during the weekend (freelance working hours – don’t you just love ‘em!) and the favourite idea was chosen Sunday night. I was pleased with the final choice, it was the strongest idea, nice clean graphics and all done with illustration and background texture – no stock photography needed. It was also a tricky brief to answer, we didn’t want to dwell on depressing images of losing a job, especially important as David’s book is all about the practical things you can do to improve your situation.

With unemployment scare stories becoming horribly repetitive nowadays it’s good to see such a positive, and practical, attitude in David’s book. I hope this book helps a lot of people deal with their situation, if they are unlucky enough to find themselves out of work.
You can still download a free PDF of the book until midnight tonight, after that it becomes a paid edition at €4.99 – with the paperback version to follow soon after. Be sure to checkout the website and the blog.

I’m thrilled to have been part of this project, much thanks to Maryrose, David Jones, Rachel Early, David Duignan, Alex Gibson, Gordon Murray and Digiweb, great to ‘meet’ you all and keep in touch.

Good People, Good Work, Good Karma…

Good Grief!

If you want to use this image on your blog here is a collection of them at varying sizes in this zip file IBA-nominated-badges.zip.

Bon Chance!

Despite the good advice of promoting only one consistent avatar (and I do agree with that) I wanted to have a bit of fun with mine. After all my logo itself is intended as a witty play on my own physical appearance, so I thought to play around with it a bit on a temporary basis. I take my work seriously, but I don’t take myself too seriously.

I will point out though that these avatar variations were only used for my Twitter account. The Twitter environment is more fluid and faster moving than most other networks I know of, it is temporary by nature, so it’s a place where I feel more comfortable playing around with my public representation. Having said that I like taking some artistic licence with my icons and I may extend the variations to my email signatures too. Then I’ll have to make sure they are all synchronised, great, like I don’t have enough to do!

Now there’s a thought – why doesn’t someone come up with a cool web app that synchronises avatars across the various social networks? There’s a business opportunity for someone.

I had been thinking about designing a set of themed icons for a while and Halloween seemed like a good time to do it (I’m a fan of classic horror movies) and there are many iconic references that readily spring to mind. The challenge here was to break the reference down to the most basic graphic information so that the image survives the very small size for (in this case) a Twitter Avatar, also that it match the aesthetic of my own avatar, which was the starting point. The Halloween theme had a couple of exceptions, I created one icon as a tribute to the excellent radio drama of ‘War of the Worlds’, as performed by The Devious Theatre Company in Kilkenny, podcast of the show is available soon – check the Devious site for details. Although I’m not a native of Kilkenny I knew the show was coming up as I follow Ken McGuire in Twitter. The other was a Joker image, vaguely horror I guess, but I couldn’t resist making that one.

I certainly had fun designing these, it was a pleasant and creative break from my other ongoing projects. I typically created these icons in a very short timeframe as and when the inspiration struck, so they did not consume a great deal of my time. Thanks to all my Twitter followers who complimented me on the icons, feedback was great and the ratio of enjoyment gained, compared to effort applied, has been most rewarding.

You can see the full collection of avatars here.

So I went down this morning to witness the event, get my free T-shirt and see if the Apple Stores live up to their reputation. This was my first trip to an official store and, I must say, it did not disappoint.
Not so much the style of the store itself (although it does look terrific) not so much the location (they did get the best in Belfast) and not so much the hyper-excited staff (although they are knowledgeable and helpful).

No sir, the excitement for me is that finally, finally, having used Macs almost exclusively since they were first available here (sometime around 1983) I now have an ‘official’ Apple store to buy from, get repairs, training, decent advice and (not least) the opportunity to actually get my hands on the latest & greatest from Apple to help me properly evaluate the right kit before deciding to buy anything.

And, at last, a store that takes Apple kit seriously and doesn’t practically ‘apologise’ for having to sell it – or try and steer you to an (apparently) cheaper PC alternative (probably with a good staff sales commission this week!).

An end also to the frustration of visiting a local ‘Mac’ store only to find their stock levels of accessories/software are almost non-existent – the shopping excursion inevitably ending with the obligatory session back on a web store. In complete contrast the new Apple Belfast store displays an overwhelming range of Mac kit, software (some of which I’d not seen before) and accessories for iPods/iPhones etc. This is a veritable Aladdin’s Cave for the Mac faithful (Macolytes?) and I can see them make a lot of money on the accessories alone.

As for the launch event itself I must admit that the highly excited staff were quite entertaining (for probably all the wrong reasons to me) in their unfailing efforts to whip prospective customers in the queue (and themselves) into a frenzy. A bit OTT for me, though as a long-time Apple user it was excitement enough for me to see Apple’s first store open in Belfast anyway, something I thought would never happen.

So it was a launch morning filled with much excited whooping, cheering, high-fives, applause and thronging crowds… but luckily all tempered a bit with typical Belfast humour.

The long-suffering Apple faithful of Northern Ireland have been rewarded, nay blessed, with a shiny new temple to worship at – and donate to!

And I’ll be among the regulars, looking for a seat at the front, close to the altar.

It was also great to (briefly) meet up again with the usual suspects at various places in the queue. Later, in the melee inside the store, I bumped into many more friends, some of them not seen in years. All told a pretty enjoyable morning.

I took some shots of the launch this morning, now on my Flickr page

Good fun and, as always with those who are fired with enthusiasm for their work, some exciting projects under discussion. One such project is The Big Word Project

I chatted briefly to Lee from the project last night and so I thought I would throw my tuppence-worth in ($4 actually, luckily I have a short nickname) and buy my name:

This is a very interesting, and popular, project – already getting picked up on the web by many highly-regarded sites (such as one of my favourites: daringfireball ).

I wish them all the best with this and maybe you’d like to pay them a visit (and some dollars) and buy your own word.

Built by Kolbrener, a branding company

Our brief is to promote Northern Ireland as a leading resource in ‘best practice’ web for business, hence ‘Northern Ireland’s Digital Hub’.

But, as they say, “a picture’s worth a thousand words” – so go check out a few million word’s worth in the video.

Hmm, word’s worth – how poetic…

We’re using Brightcove to host the media file, will probably post to YouTube as well, in due course.