thefreckles

Fabulous news! Thank you! Hope Bobby Tambling is still able to make it too as that line up has even tempted my father to come along with me. I had a poster of the 70/71 team on my bedroom wall for ages growing up as a kid so this has made very, very happy to say the least

Will he be doing a talk? If so, when will we know which day? It's a very long way to come but if Joe's going to do a talk (and, presumably, a photoshoot), it's very, very tempting. Will need to book overnight coach from London reasonably soon to get i) a seat and ii) a cheap fare which would make it affordable. Train's a no-no, especially if I want pics etc.!

That's probably what I'll do too. Like I said above, I didn't have time to do anything so far. But I remember my results from last year weren't really up my standard, so I may take the easy route right away. Thanks for confirming that at least that will work! Changing some of my pics to black and white does work but in some cases has managed make some look worse hmmmmmmm.................................. I think it probably depends on the quality of the original image. If you've got a bad image to start with, very little can save it. Have you tried playing with the greys and blacks as well as brightness, contrast etc.? Most black and white images can do with further tweaking rather than just a straght conversion. Do you use CS2 or above? If so, there are a number or very good filters (red, green, yellow etc.) as part of its black and white conversion process that can also make a big difference. Finally, is there a common theme with those that are looking worse? If so, perhaps someone here might have some ideas on how to help?

From 'Queen_Sindel' Jul 25 2010, 10:08 PM' For some reason LFCC lights are special. The setting I have on my camera works perfectly for all other indoor shots. But for LFCC it doesn't matter what I try, the pictures are yellowish. Yeah, same here. It took this year's for me to realise it wasn't me who had screwed up my settings as I had the same problems as the last two years here once again. After 3+ years, I now know the ins and outs and all the quirks of my camera and have encoutered no problems at the many, many other cons I have been to but Earls Court 2 is very 'special' in the French meaning of the word 'special' ::sighs:: I gave up with trying to correct 70% of my Being Human photos sans flash and just converted them to black & white instead. I got quite acceptable results doing that. Might be worth a try?

Have started to put my photos up from last weekend. First up pics from the Being Human talk. Still have a few more of my non-flash ones left to go up, including those from the Resonance part of the talk as well but I need to try and do a better job of correcting the white balace and removing the very strong colour cast. Will do others from Katee Sackhoff's, Wiliam B. Davis', the Dr Who and Lis Sladen's talks over the next week or so. Hope you like! The cast of Being Human

I found William B Davis a really charming guest and his talk was so interesting (could have easily listened to him for another hour). Showmasters, any chance of inviting him back once he has published his memoirs? I still have a few things I'd like signed and the memoirs, when published, would be added to the top of that list! Anyone else agree?

Yeah, I had mine with me too but it's not so mini and couldn't find anywhere decent to put it as I only had my telephoto lenses with me and they need a bit of distance to focus. I was using the grey panelling at the back but, boy, did it do funky things to the blues! Did not give good results I remember the same problem with this venue last year. I got around 10-12 decent flash shots of William, Lis and the Being Human cast but just the two of Katee (if I'm told to do something I will obey). Bah! She was the main reason I was there too and went both days. I use Olympus and the noise at high ISO is a problem but the light weight and brilliant glass in their lenses makes up for a lot, as does the four-thirds system (a 150mm lens actually gives 300mm in 35mm terms). Good thinking about using dedicated software though. I took the Olympus one off my computer as it was so slooooooooooooow and I like the workflow in Lightroom. I may re-install it and see if that helps. Thank you! In the 3 + years I have had this camera, it's only the third time I've had a problem. The first was because someone left on a projector and it shone right onto the guests all weekend The other time was at LFCC last year. Unless they bring in better, dedicated lighting for the talks (as some other events do), I guess we'll just have to make do. Hope it's better at Olympia in November! I've seen self-regulation most of the time over the years. Occasionally there's the odd thoughtless (or inexperienced) person but a gentle reminder at the start and as to why usually suffices. If it's still going on after 4 or 5 minutes then, yes, a reminder ought to be given but that 50-odd seconds was ludicrous. It possibly depends on the talk/guest though and how (in)experienced the audience are. If Katee'd asked for just a minute, then tell us it would be for a minute only. I'd much rather be told up front. Still, crew are only human and I guess they live and learn like the rest of us Just hope Showmasters take note of this though. Much rather know in advance etc.than receive a 'nasty' surprise like yesterday. And am still ROTFL over your flashing comment - glad you didn't change it

Suggestion. If your camera allows it change the white balance setting from auto. Manual setting would work best or try fluorescent, tungesten, or something else. Experiemnt prior to the talk and you should find a setting that should eliminate the colour cast issue I think they tend to stop it earlier than stated if there are a lot more flashes going off at once, i.e, dozens compared to a dozen. From the guest point of view it is blinding. If you ever get a chance just have a look behind you during this and you will see (or not ) the effect. I shoot RAW only so can change the white balance easily (and non-destructively). I pretty much shoot manual on everything all the time (have a dSLR). I turned to to Tungsten (the usual for these situations) but it was still really bad. Clicking on a grey point in Lightroom ended up being too strong on the blues so have had to do the best I can with a custom white balance. Big give away if it's the lighting are the glints in the eyes etc. If they are coloured ain't much you can do! Thanks for the tip though, hopefully it may help someone else! ::grins:: It honestly wasn't that bad with the flashes. I've been going to cons and signing events for many, many years and it was around normal. I've been subjected to a barrage of flashes myself so do know what it can be like. I just wonder if the person was worried she may forget and pre-empted things? That's when a watch would come in handy! Not someone I have ever seen make announcements before (not saying she hasn't done so, I just can't remember her). As myself and others have since mentioned, people are usually pretty good and will self-regulate. I can't see Katee's talk being worse than that for William Shatner It's just nice if we are warned upfront if it's not going to be the norm and/or any times given are then respected by crew.

Had mixed experiences. Some very good, some not so good. The good - the crew were generally great, with some really fabulous members. Nice to see very little power-hungry maniacs this year and things mostly ran quite smoothly. A big thank you to those that helped, those that smiled and/or chatted and those that apologised for not knowing the answer to our questions but still tried their very hardest to help. Much appreciated! - most fellow attendees. Very friendly and well-behaved. Made a nice change - David Nykl. A wonderful, charming guest and so appraochable. Thank you enormously for having him back over here. Such a shame there was no talk - thank you so much for getting William B. Davis over here too. Can't wait to read his memoirs. I do hope he can be tempted over here again. A charming and entertaining man. - the free talks. Really enjoyable with some great guests. Thanks for these! The not-so-good - I don't think much can be done but the lighting here is appalling! In the talk arena, all my photos without flash have a horrible colour cast and and glints in the eyes and reflections off the teeth are blue. Very horrible and such a shame. - the way the queues were managed for talks on Sunday. Saturday ran really smoothly with the hall being emptied each time but that was most certainly NOT the case on Sunday. Despite being there some 40 minutes early for the Katte Sackhoff talk and being sixth in the queue, there were already at least 30+ people in the hall when they let us in. For the Elizabeth Sladen talk it was even worse! I got there very early, was the first in the queue but when they let us into the hall the first two -three rows AFTER the Gold ticket holders area were full! That is just not fair on those that waited patiently for all that length of time having being promised that the hall would be emptied. If the hall is supposed to be emptied, then please make sure it is so. Crew just didn't seem to care - flash photography. If it is only going to be allowed for 50 seconds, then please tell us at the start. As usual, I expected 3-5 minutes of flash during Katee Sackhoff's talk. Indeed we were told flash photography would be allowed for the first few minutes only. Great! Enough time for me to grab a few shots. What we got was less than 50 seconds! I know this because I looked at the start and end times of the measly two I was able to take. If it is going to be that short, then tell us at the start! May grumble a bit at the time but at least we know what to expect. Most disappointing and very annoying! Especially as we were not told to stop at any of the other talks on either day and I think pretty much all of us sensibly self-regulated. - the seating for the Elizabeth Sladen talk. What the heck happened? Chairs were all over the place with rows being extended and then reduced. This meant that the chap in front of me was seated much further out to the side than me and really restricted my view despite having an aisle seat. Not helped when he kept arms out a lot of the time taking photos either. Could not see very well at all at times. All in all, I had a good time, though, and thank you to all who helped make it such a fun event! It was odd that it seemed both busier and yet less manic/crowded/full of queues than at previous events here. Very mysterious! What were they piping into the air vents or putting in the water???

Excellent news! At last a Chelsea guest at a show I can make :) And an excellent one at that, Bobby is a Chelsea legend. Thank you, Showmasters!

Re. the Being Human talk. Is it just going to be Aidan and Colin or will the others be there as well? The website blurb makes me think the former but you never know! Thank you in advance for any extra info :)

Any idea if he will be doing a talk and, if so, which day(s)? I need to plan my weekend and alter prior arrangements as I can't miss this! Thank you!

I've put my pictures up from the Friday Night Opening Ceremony on my website. And also the talk with Brian and Bam Bam from Saturday here. Am doing these in alphabetical order so hope to have David's Saturday talk pics up by the end of the week. Can't post any samples as this forum doesn't like the URLs of the individual pics, unfortunately

Mine finally arrived today after nearly a week with no post. I already knew my number as I'd bought mine at Chevron 7.3 but it's nice to have that confirmation in my hands Many thanks, Jola, for your hard work in getting these out to us, especially in such 'fun' weather conditions!

Have finally got round to posting all mine! The busy, colourful background didn't lend itself well to metering etc. and I had problems with a horrible colour cast for the most part but I did the best I could and removed as much as possible (hence being so late with these!) Hope you enjoy! Chevron 7.3 Photos

Woo Hoo! Thank you so much

First of all I am not saying I didn't have a good time, I did, it just wasn't a very good time and, tbh, the least enjoyable con I've ever been to over all the many years I've been to them. Things I didn't think worked so well: 1) Was dismayed to see we were back in that pokey room we were in for Eclipse 1 for the cocktail party. Far too small and cramped! It just does not work and was such a shame we were moved back into there. 2) The moving round of guests in the cocktail party seemed to take forever to organise. By the time we were told by a crew member we could join a group with Rainbow we had all of 15 seconds before his PA told him he had to leave! He was very good and gave us about an extra minute or so of his time but that was still disappointing, especially as he was the main reason for me booking a ticket for the con! Still, I got a spontaneous hug so that made up for a lot. 3) I understand you were trying to give us something 'extra' but the guest encounters in such large groups just did not work for me on any level. I was in the largest group there (they kept on having to find more chairs for us all) and this meant that on a couple of occasions I couldn't actually see the guest at all! In Corin's encounter it was particularly bad and both Corin and myself had to do a form of gymnastics when I asked him a couple of questions in order to see each other. Don't have that problem with the talks! I didn't feel they were that intimate at all and far prefer actual talk from them, although I did appreciate the chance to ask personal questions of the guests rather than have it so rigidly controlled as it is in the hall. On a semi-side note, I certainly hope that '25-30 per group' rule at cocktails parties doesn't become a standard thing for all ME cons as that would truly ruin it for me! Far too large a group, IMHO. And too restrictive, especially if you have quite a few friends who go to these and you book your tickets at different times. Also the Torri and Rainbow encounters both together in the main hall at the same time meant I had problems hearing what they had to say quite often and really struggled with them both, which was such a shame. 4) The quiz also didn't work for me - too long by far. Parts of it were definitely fun but also knowing that we had guest talk time cancelled for this was extremely annoying to say the least! 5) Not getting a Rainbow and Torri talk - I was really upset about that. I love the guest talks, it's why I go to these events and to have had so few over the whole weekend just left me feeling really, really cheated. 6) Not getting a Corin talk - as above. 7) Having everything finish over an hour early We could have had those two talks we missed out on. I presume there was a reason and it would have been nice if it could have been communicated to us, we're usually an understanding bunch! Would have meant a few of us feeling less upset over missing out on, for us, some of the more enjoyable aspects of going to these. 8) Me - for taking my camera out of my bag on Saturday evening before I went down to the party so missed out on getting Gladiator pics ::hits self on head hard:: Things I think worked well a - Fellow con-attendees! Really friendly, no pushing or shoving. Very polite behaviour as a rule at the cocktail party and no over-hogging of guests for the most part. I switched groups half way through as I wanted to initially catch up with some old friends and saw Torri with them, however when Torri came to my second group I discretely left as I had seen her before and I know one other person did the same in another group. Most people were really sensible, especially given the crowded space we were in. And queuing to go into the hall was very nicely done too! Far more pleasant memories this time than of certain other cons of late in this respect. b- Crew members! Very friendly and helpful on the whole. Rather than the odd two or three who always leave me feeling a little put out or who are distinctly unhelpful, I only had one incidence when I had to approach someone and was left feeling less happy and as if I was a massive inconvenience. Other than that I have to say the crew were delightful and such fun! They helped make the weekend and an enormous thank you goes out to them for all their hard work and smiles no matter the hour c - I truly, truly, truly appreciated the extra two or three minutes that we were given for flash photography this time. I think I truly love you all for that! A shame more people didn't self-regulate and had to be reminded but that extra minute or couple of minutes honestly made such an enormous difference to me and I wholeheartedly thank you from the bottom of my heart for that. The opportunity to get good photos is why I buy gold and that made me very happy indeed! Please can we be given the same length of time for Chevron 7.4? I'm only asking for an extra minute or so tops ::makes pleading eyes:: d - Big yay for the good lighting and the higher stage level again. Much, much appreciated too! e - Having ginormous schedules all over the place! f -The stellar work of Malcolm on the whole, especially for getting through us all in one morning! I got lovely photos that, overall, I am delighted with. Though being called 'Madam' makes me feel so old g -The DJ - nice mix of music - thank you so much for making the parties such fun for me and my friends Despite the large age gap between us all, we all loved what was played and danced to quite a bit of it indeed! h - Finally, the guests themselves! Such sports for playing at Gladiators, for hanging around on Saturday evening and for being so entertaining and accommodating and fun! Torri was as adorable as ever, Rainbow as fun and as charming (we did try to warn you in advance about his queues!), Corin really nice (and funny) and David...well, what can I say? I was going to give up on SGU but just won't be able to now. He was amazing and interesting and fun and funny and up there with the best guests I've ever had the pleasure and good luck to meet! Apologies for the length! And despite it being my least favourite con, I did still have quite a good time and enjoyed a good part of it so thank you once again.

Yay! Just wanted to check :) I have some already but do have some holes in my collection and this is the perfect opportunity to fill them. Thanks, ME!

Good news! James is a nice guy. Will there be some of their books / audio books available from the dealers' room or do I need to hit Amazon or a bookshop sometime in the next 24 hours or so?

Oh great! Each time I look for Chelsea guests and you get Spurs or England or Spurs and the one time, the one time I cannot go (another event same weekend), you go and get not one but TWO Chelsea guests I'd love to meet. I think the only other time I remember there being other ex-Chelsea stars was on the one day I couldn't go over that weekend and that happened to be the day they were scheduled for (have a sneaky feeling it was 'Chopper' Harris again and someone else). I used to have such a crush on Kerry when I was younger and 'Chopper' is a true Chelsea legend ::sighs:: Was a bit bummed about missing the two B7 guests (I go to these for the sci-fi guests mainly) but am now really gutted. Bloomin' typical...Grrrrrrrr! Well done though, and perhaps they can be persuaded to attend again at a future date? Good sports guests are always tempting and the one time I ever got fangirly over someone at one of these was not one of my beloved film or tv stars but actually Jimmy Greaves, much to his amusement ::blushes::[

Oh, that would have been it! I didn't visit any stalls but did empty my bag whilst trying to fit my photoshoot pics in after collecting them. I was far more worried about not putting my bag on the table as we'd been told off for doing so earlier on (I was trying to put my camera away) and I'm not one for breaking any rules so had rested in on there for around 5 seconds to open it up and see what needed shifting out. Please do pass on my thanks to your siste-in-law as well. As I said before I am enormously grateful and you are both wonderful people! ::hugs::

As the title says, an enormous thank you to whoever found my purse on Saturday and handed it in. Whoever you are, you are a star! I didn't realise it was missing until Monday morning and rang Earls Court etc. but didn't think to contact Showmasters There wasn't much in it (some cards and bits) but it had a few people's e-mail addies and was of enormour sentimental value so thank you so much once again. And a big thank you to Jason et al. for taking the trouble to track me down (via my dentist). That was very thoughtful of you and much, much appreciated

Thank you! Glad it's not just me

If your ticket was posted (which it should have been if you ordered it before 29th May) then no, you won't get your postage money back. If for whatever reason, your ticket wasn't posted out then you would not have been charged the postage as far as I am aware. I don't know when specific tickets were posted as Kirstie was dealing with this and all the paperwork/information is with her. I didn't get a confirmation e-mail for my phototicket for Rachel but it is listed as being paid in my account on the shop. Is it okay to bring a copy of that and the card I used to pay for it? I've checked my spam filters, box, inbox etc and no sign of any e-mail Other e-mails from Showmasters have got through though. Hope that's okay! Edited to add: My order was processed on 2 June but I've just noticed I was charged for P&P. No urgency but it would be nice if that could be looked into once this is over and people have had a chance for a breather. Many thanks!

I'm still not able to get to the C15 site too