Bournemouth — Apr 17th 2012

Fifteen attendees were welcomed by organiser Alan Cox who started the meeting on a lighthearted note by showing a short video clip on how not to use your iPad in the kitchen: iPad Video (Mick had put this on the WAGs Discussions section). The Q&A session centred around Apple Mail and how to have iPhone/iPad emails stored on desktop machines using settings in Rules in Mail Preferences.

The first presentation was by local member Peter Shepheard who started with an overview of the wide range of digital cameras and lenses available today. Peter showed examples of images taken with 'entry level'  and 'advanced level' cameras as comparisons of the quality achievable. The pros and cons of various models were discussed and a useful link given for tutorials was: Colour tutorials  

Peter then took us through his workflow in Lightroom, importing images from a memory card into the "Library" database module. The ways of renaming images and keywording were demonstrated before moving to an in-depth look at the "Develop" module. Here Peter showed the enhancements possible on one of his images and how Photoshop or Elements could be used in conjunction with Lightroom. Possible output to the "Book" module was shown with an example of a 'Blurb' layout. Lightroom tutorials by Julieanne Kost were recommended by Peter: Lightroom tutorial


After the break for refreshments Mark Ford from Dorchester showed an alternative to iWeb for building your own website. Mark first pointed out that if you keep iWeb it will continue to work but another host will be needed when Apple terminates MobileMe. MacAce is one possibility starting at £49 per year: Macace hosting. A link for Apple support was given: Apple support for this. Another useful link was: Old Toad's tutorial

An in-depth look at the (free) Google Sites was then covered by Mark, using his own site online to demonstrate various features. Advantages/disadvantages were discussed including the limits for data storage. This could be overcome by linking extra Google sites and/or using Dropbox: Using Dropbox. Mark finished by showing how Google Analytics can be used on a website and gave the data for his own site. 

There was just time for a little more discussion on Mail before Alan closed the meeting with thanks to the two presenters, and saying that the May 15th meeting will offer insights into streaming video to a TV and iCloud.

Comments

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John Surtees said…

Having not attended the Bournemouth meetings for some time, it was nice to see some familiar friendly faces. Thanks to Peter and Mark for a couple of very interesting talks. By the way, is there still the possibility to get free parking? We left at 9.15 and the barriers were still down and we notice that there is now a charge from 10.00pm till morning.

Alan Cox said…

I too thought the talks were excellent and the whole atmosphere was very congenial. I'm afraid I cannot immediately answer the question about the parking charge, partly because I don't drive. My guess is that the Council or NCP is relying on motorists to help pay for its expenditure. I'll try and find out if there is any free parking near at hand.

Mick Burrell said…

the barrier was up when I left - after eating in the Italian, but I think it goes up at 9:30

Alan Cox said…

I've heard more or less the same from another attendee, so it looks like the choice is waiting around for the barrier to go up, or paying for parking or for an Italian meal. If I can find if there is any free parking elsewhere, I'll post it here.
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