Maureen

321 International AV Festival Weekend - UK judging Your chance to view top quality International AV and all less than 3 minutes 21 seconds long. Come along to Aldbourne, Wiltshire, England on February 23rd for a full day of great AVs A very friendly group with a social event in the evening too (contact Maureen for details) and a chance to see even more AVs again on the Sunday February 24th when the Royal Photographic Society Audio Visual Distinctions Day is being held in the same venue. Great opportunity to have a full weekend of viewing top quality work and meeting the authors. Full details of the 321 Festival are available at http://www.ibateman.co.uk/321/ where you can now see Ian Bateman's fantastic intro sequence too ( will be viewed at much better quality on the day) Come along 10am - 4pm 23rd February 2008 tickets £8 and £10 February 24th RPS AV Distinctions - tickets to observe £10 at the door. More details contact MaureenATmaureenalbright.com www.digwessex.rps.org

Welcome back JPD Delighted you are well again and actively participating. Lovely show & thank you for sharing it with us. Love Maureen

We have been able to send out the information about the new IRIS-25 to lots of photographic magazines, websites and young people's publications. Now some of the UK Daily papers are interested in covering it. We have had interest from some youngsters but I am hoping for more response from colleges and schools. If you have any ideas how we could contact and interest them, please could you let me know? I am very grateful to those who have already responded to my requests. Please let me know also if you spot any news item in a website or news article somewhere. Just to let you know of some of the publicity the IRIS-25 and of course Pictures to Exe is receiving. So far UK interest has been shown by : the National Geographic Kids Magazine and they are going to feature IRIS-25 on their website and are also considering it for the magazine Step Ahead Magazine which is a high circulation (40,000) monthly that covers modern family life including health, education, what's happening in schools, competitions etc etc. It is circulated predominantly in Essex and is also distributed in school book bags in Essex junior schools, - teacher trade and student press contacted before Christmas. - 'children's' magazines (Sugar, Bliss, Shout etc) - education correspondents at National Newspapers. - Art of England Magazine is going to include IRIS-25 in the news section of the March issue (which comes out in February). It's a good publication to get into as it has a high circulation of 12,000 and is distributed internationally. Channel 4 there's an article about IRIS-25 running on Photography Blog. Here's the direct link:http://www.photographyblog.com/index.php/w..._for_under_25s/ the Photographic Society of New Zealand's publication Cameratalk (similar to the RPS Journal I imagine) is going to include new of IRIS-25 in the next issue homepage of Digital Photographer Magazine http://www.dphotographer.co.uk/ and in the In Focus News section I have been in to my local school and targeting the scout and guide groups too. Sent out e-mails to photographic departments, but still need lots more to contact. Thanks to all those who are helping, especially Igor. </FONT>

Happy Holidays and Wishing everyone at Wnsoft a very healthy, happy and prosperous New Year too. Hope you have a wonderful relaxing time. Sending those wishes to everyone on the Forum too, especially those I've met and also those we look forward to meeting in 2008. Igor's photograph is currently up on the new IRIS-25 web site at www.IRIS-25.rps.org on the Festival page. Igor has very kindly agreed to judge the young people's work in June. So we are looking forward to giving him a very big warm Welcome to Aldbourne, England. Maybe some of the other Forum members can also come along to meet him too. We still need everyone to promote this competition as much as possible and get young people involved with our Audio Visual photography. Happy New Year Everyone & special Get Well quickly Wishes to Ken too ! Love Maureen

Wishing you all A Very Happy Christmas Lots of health and time to create new sequences in 2008 Happy New Year Thank You also to everyone who has posted sequences to share with us, hints and tips to help, and all who freely give their time to help others on this super site. Special Thanks to Igor and everyone at Wnsoft for all their wonderful hard work and productions Love from Maureen & Robert We have posted two messages here http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=9633559258 and also here http://www.thecompassgroup.biz/merryxmas.swf

I am sure everyone will join me in sending Ken Cox our very best wishes and love for a very speedy recovery. Ken slipped on some ice and broke his left ankle. He didn't say if the ice was in a gin and tonic He says he won't be answering e-mails for a while but you can never keep a good man down for long ! Have a good rest and recover completely Ken. GET WELL SOON from us all Love Maureen & Robert & of course Fern

We are highly delighted that Igor has agreed to judge the new IRIS-25 competition and look forward to welcoming him to England in June. Thank You Igor. We also have another four excellent judges and some very good cash and other prizes for the young people taking part. I do hope this will be a trully International competition with entries from all over the world. Please encourage young people, schools and colleges in your areas to take part. Please also post the information on any other Photographic Forums you belong to. I am very grateful for all those who have already contacted schools and colleges in their locality, now we need the entries. Many Thanks Everyone, Wishing you all a Happy Christmas too, Love Maureen

I would also like to thank Igor for his help and generosity with this new project. I know some schools and colleges have already taken advantage of this generosity and I have very recenetly worked in a school with some children aged 8 to 11 years, who have quickly learnt how to use PTE and produced very simple stories with their pictures and either printed text or added their voices. I hope they will continue and send entries in to this competition. I would also like to thank all those friends who have sent me details of schools, colleges and contacts who I can send publicity about this new competition. I will be posting Igor my copy of the RPS Journal (magazine) so he can read the article for himself. I am hoping this competition will encourage young people from all over the world to enjoy digital audio visual photography. It is all taking up a great deal of my time so I am not very active in the Forum at present. I hope everyone will please circulate the information in your region and encourage young people to take part. Many thanks Maureen

Many Thanks to all who have replied and sent me details of local colleges, schools and other possible contact details. I hope everyone will try to get their children, grandchildren, local schools, young friends to take part. Igor has kindly agreed to be a judge. I would love to see lots more young people hooked on this wonderful hobby. Still busy trying to write articles for the UK magazines now. Thanks again, BW Maureen

I have several links to Pictures ToExe on my web sites. See: http://www.maureenalbright.com/digitalav.htm http://www.maureenalbright.com/pte-latest.htm http://www.digital-av.co.uk/software.htm http://www.digital-av.co.uk/pictures2exe.html also the new competition site for young people- http://www.iris-25.rps.org/links.htm Hope your recent publicity will bring in lots of new business Igor. You all deserve lots of success for all your hard work, Love Maureen

Hi Everyone, I am very keen to encourage young people to join us creating sequences. So I have been busy organising a brand new competition sponsored by the Royal Photographic Society. Any young person taking part does not need to join the RPS to participate and I hope we will have lots of entries from all over the World. Igor has very kindly agreed to be one of our judges and I now need to get this information distributed to as many outlets as possible to give any youngsters the chance to have time to create their entry and send it in. You may have young family members who'd like to try? Or maybe have a local school or college with a photography department? Please will you forward this and publicise it as much as possible among Photographers and any AV workers, who may also know of schools, colleges, family or young friends who may like to enter this brand new competition. I am anxious the information reaches as wide an audience as possible, especially Photography departments where young people are studying. Please help if you can. You may print it and place it in your local library or any outlet where young people may see it. I do need lots of help with the publicity. Many Thanks for your support, Best Wishes Maureen The Royal Photographic Society International Review of Images with Soundtrack for Under 25s IRIS -25 Organised by the Digital Imaging Group – Wessex A new competition organized to promote and encourage the interest and growth of digital Audio Visual photography among young people, as a creative discipline using still photographic images. Categories 1. Single author under 16 years old 2. Single author aged 16 to 24 years old 3. Group entry - by young people aged under 16 years 4. Group entry - by young people aged 16 - 24 years Schools or colleges are encouraged to submit group and/or individual entries from their students. Cash prizes for each category. A Special Prize will be awarded to for the school or college with the maximum number of entries The closing date for submissions : April 21 2008. To be judged : June 21 2008 at Aldbourne, Wiltshire, England Full details and application forms available on the web site at : www.iris-25.rps.org or from the Organiser: Maureen Albright ARPS Maureen@maureenalbright.com Treneer House, 6 Turnpike, Aldbourne, Wilts, SN8 2BZ, England

We went the "the Rhein in Flames" a few years ago Brian. It is a great spectacle and I have lots of slides somewhere I took there. Unfortunately the year we went the hillside caught fire, so they couldn't float the candles & make the Rhein on flames, as the fire brigade were too busy putting out the serious fire ! You should have a great time. Loved Hawk's fireworks pictures too. Busy getting prints done here for Exhibitions & organising some Internationals for next year.... Love M

Thank You and Congratulations Igor and your Team, Such a wonderful achievement and well worth the wait. Hope you will relax and celebrate your great success now Not only is PTE an outstanding, super programme, but it has also given rise to a terrific community of friendly people, always willing to help, advise and share with one another freely. Long may it continue. Love Maureen

Oh Dear Andrew! Hope no-one would pick a wife by marks for : looks (out of 5) sound (out of 5) ability to keep house (out of 5) intelligence (out of 5) driving ability (out of 5) timing (out of 5) Overall score & comment (out of 20) or maths ..........! I guess I would never have got out of the starting gate or tried to date anyone, been too worried what my score card read! This type of points system has been tried and rejected so many times, as it just won't work if we are looking at anything creative. Guess Picasso would score 0 with some and 5 with others as we are all so different. Many of these marks for aspects of cooking up a sequence have been said before both here and on other web sites ......... Thankfully we are all independant and like and dislike various things in life. C'est la vie! Adds the spice to our world. Remember that judging is only the personal preferences & opinions of the person on that day and also in those circumstances. Members here will view slideshows on different machines with very different sound cards & speakers and even with their own different hearing abilities. Always keep making work you personally enjoy. Barrie makes some good points, except he's quite wrong about " " Many have been accepted and even gained awards. What is not acceptable are burnt out highlights in prints or on screens. Unfortunately putting a white line around your work, you are putting a highlight around it, this then draws the eye to the bright white line and away from the content of what is happening in the main screen. Anything which distracts in this way also detracts from the viewer's concentration and enjoyment Nothing wrong with movement in AVs either. Best AV sequence with movement I've ever seen was "Mad World" (and still one of my big favourites) produced with PTE (in 2000/2001 I believe). Amazing how the audience gasp when it gets going! It was so way ahead of its time, it always had to have a top of the range computer to view it. Over 2,000 individual images shown in 7 minutes and yes it was AV not video. Unfortunately the authors didn't lock the images to the time line (not available to do when they created it) so you really have to have a specific computer set up to view it correctly. Movement - no problem in competitions or the RPS AV Group ........... So long as it is appropriate there is no problem. Unfortunately lots of PSG users use it so frequently and un-necessarily it can make the audience feels a bit sea sick. Most of the judges I know are very open minded about any movement. It is always the quality of the work which counts in the end and that's what will stand the test of time. Lots of AV authors (UK and abroad) can and do ask the RPS AV panel for their opinion of their work with a view to perhaps going for a distinction, if it is thought appropriate. This is perfectly OK, as long as the authors appreciates that the final assessment will be before a large panel of experienced experts. Individual panel members can point out the flaws and weaknesses, and of course the strengths of work. I think the most obvious flaw (and I'm as guilty as everyone else) is making slideshows too long. We all want to include our favourite shots and often we may be advised to cut many out. But this is itself already far too long! I'll get null points for getting my message over. Just avoid giving anything creative individual points. or Picasso may yet come back to haunt you ......... Love Maureen sorry have been out of the country again ! Well actually I'm not sorry, as it was so sunny and hot in Gibraltar and Spain .. out there photographing a wedding.

Thank You Igor and all the Team. Your hard work and talent is very much appreciated. I cannot at present start to use the new Beta as my computer is on holiday but I look forward to trying all the new features soon. Love Maureen

Delighted you are back on line. Hope everything goes well with the new site Dom Best Wishes Maureen

Hi Having my computers upgraded so little access to the Internet so not able to visit here often at present. Competition entries should be less than 12 minutes maximum. Often audiences and judges concentrate much better on shorter sequences. But it all depends on the quality of the work - 12 minutes can seem like two if you are totally absorbed in the subject and two minutes can seem like two hours if the content is very boring. Regarding the images. Some top prize winners (well deserved too) were created with graphic art, old photographs and images taken from the Internet. The application forms have a section where you are asked to state if you have used any images not your own. But you should certainly have obtained permission from the author where necessary. Judges (and audience) opinions will vary. A sequence shown at one venue successfully will sometimes not come across as well in another hall. Ambiance, acoustics, equipment, your own mood as a viewer ........... variety of reasons Never try to create anything creative to please others (unless they are paying you to reproduce their requests). Always produce something you are happy with as your own interpretation and work. Winning sequences in competitions usually show something of the author' s heart, soul and creativity. There are a very tiny minority of judges ( a dying breed I hope) who try to mark by points for images, points for sound, points for dissolves, points for story, points for original script, points for voice, points for neat handwriting........... I find all this method totally pointless and unrelated to life! We live by learning from our experiences seeing success and failure and being able to judge what is good and bad. Good judges will have lots of experience of seeing a wide range of work and can judge from their own experience. They will be open enough to see a top quality piece of work without resorting to a points chart and will accept there is no way you can travel back in time to take your own photographs of Titanic as she was or images from history. I would advise everyone to visit, if they can any AV Festivals, competitions or workshops. You'll not only learn new things, you'll find out what a helpful friendly bunch AV photographers are. Lots of AVs shown at these Festivals are not available to download on the Internet. .... totally agree with what Ian and Geoff said. The audience will become more absorbed and interested if they have to work hard and use their imagination to follow and enjoy the sequence. eg using modern photos turned sepia in Photoshop to give an impression of turning back the clock. Hope this helps. Just keep creating good AVs and enjoy the experience ....... Next RPS AV workshop in South Wales - May 20th Photoshop, Sound and PTE demos plus watching work from attendees. But lots more around the country and abroad too. BW Maureen

I have been away again and was delighted to find this special gift on my return. Many Thanks Igor & all your team. I look forward to testing it out tomorrow. Love Maureen

We are all maybe aware of Phishing but we should also be aware of pharming too.......... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharming I am having great "fun" .... I mean problems setting up a wireless router network here and after reading http://www.cs.indiana.edu/~atsow/mal-router/ I wonder if I should have bothered. Still haven't got it to work yet so Internet is hit & miss. Hope Dom's site is soon back up and running and very secure. Best wishes Maureen

Exciting news Igor. I am looking forward to the new release very much. Thank you all for your hard work. Love Maureen

So pleased you are making a good recovery. Take things slowly, relax and remember you are missed here on the Forum so Get Well ! We look forward to your return when you are feeling 100% better. With very best Wishes Maureen

So sorry to hear your bad news Dom Hope everything can be restored and it is all sorted for you very soon. Many Thanks for all the hard work and hours you put into helping so many people. Thanks also to Brian & others for their good advice. With very best wishes Maureen

So sorry to hear your bad news Jean-Pierre and I hope you will make a very quick and full recovery and return to us again soon. You are greatly missed. Take care and listen to all the advice of your doctors. Thanks to Cèlou for giving us all the latest news. With love and very best wishes Maureen

To order this excellent AV magazine you need only visit the web site ( www.avg.rps.org) of the RPS AV Group here. My web site www.digital-av.co.uk will be fullly updated with all events, results and other notes, etc when I return Promised all our Australian Av friends to put my Photoshop notes up there soon too. Meanwhile busy enjoying all the sunshine and delicious "bushtucker" Down Under ! Many Thanks to Ian and Gerard for putting the Adelaide results up on line while I am away. Love Maureen

No need to replicate the file path on the host computer. Simply place all the sequences and the menu in the same folder on the new computer. However when you create the menu button to open the new sequence with your menu program, you must delete everything within the inverted commas except the file name. Hope this is clear - no time to write more now. Having a great time Love Maureen PS Results of the Adelaide Australian AV festival will be available via Ian Bateman's web site!