Latest News
February 4th, 2010
The LoveCube™ is here at last. No, it is not dodgy but it will brighten up your photographs and look great at home after the shoot too. Details
The LoveCube™ is a studio prop that will look just as cool in the woods, on the beach, up the Eiffel Tower or in your home. It comes complete with a light fitting (removable) so that it can be used as an illuminated coffee table.
Twitter continues to amaze me. I’ve connected with 800 or so photographers now and it seems the tipping point has been reached. I recently tweeted that the Lovegrove Flash Brackets were back in stock and all the 23 we had were sold in about two hours. 26 more are due with us tomorrow (4th Feb) Phew! This was the first time that the key benefits of the social platform Twitter had resulted in a wide purchasing response for us. As with all exchanges there has to be a win/win, and because I follow those photographers who follow me they can direct message me and this is my free to use help line. So if you’ve got a question, you can DM me and I’ll DM a reply. Why not use Email, I hear you ask? Well, with Email I often get life stories, convoluted mitigating circumstances and a string of questions that take lots of time to answer. So they get left for a day or two or three until I have office time to respond. With Twitter, the questions come in at 140 characters or less and the answers are 140 characters or less too. So I can handle them as I go throughout the day. Twitter lends itself to straight talking, well considered communication – perfect. Follow me at www.twitter.com/damienlovegrove and I’ll follow you too. If 140 characters doesn’t do your question justice, pick up the phone. You’ll probably get through to Blaise but she can arrange for me to call you back at a mutually convenient time.
I hope you agree that the recent ProPhotoNut 1000 pixel wide makeover has simplified the look. I’m going to add to the wider sidebar look by increasing the image sizes in my posts to 600 pixels. ProPhotoNut is still free from commercial advertising but as you will see it has become more of a portal to the Consulting site than ever before. I’ll continue to provide and create valuable content free of charge as this relationship works very well for all of us.
The SWPP convention in London last month was a great success for us even though we were a bit cramped on our stand. The 3000 extra show visitors and our increased number of product lines have triggered some changes for 2011. At next years SWPP convention we will have a whole isle in the Champagne Suite with our friends from Keepsakes, Sandex and South West Photomounts. Oh, and thank you to the 250 people that got up early to see my 8am – 10am talks at the show. Your support was very much appreciated.
Focus On Imaging at the NEC is the biggest annual show of it’s kind in Europe and this year promises to be the best yet. Below is a visual for our stand. Exhibiting at a trade show or a wedding show employs exactly the same strategies but with different end products.
Lovegrove Consulting at Focus will be a multi zone operation to match our brand diversity. Do pop over, say hello, book a workshop place and buy something will be the subliminal call to action.
The Passion on the Streets of Amsterdam workshop (14th & 15th May) is now booking. After the success of my first workshops of their kind in Tuscany last October I decided to take the same workshop on the road and where better to start a passion shoot than in Amsterdam. The Details are here.
The details of my exclusive especially prepared evening talk for Warehouse Express at a top London Hotel in May are being finalised as I write, and once everything is arranged the tickets will become available on the Warehouse Express site. I’ll announce their availability on Twitter straight away.
If you fancy attending a one day seminar, I’ll be at Garderen in Holland on Sunday 16th May as a guest speaker of the DIPP. The event will be open to all photographers and details of where you can get tickets will follow.
I am in the process of putting together a choice of the two finest (imo) battery powered video light kits for photographers. Each one will have a high quality purpose made power supply, a high tech multi-stage charging system and a fabulous lamp head. The lamps will have different properties yet both are excellent. Why two choices? Well, why do we have Nikon and Canon? Because choice matters, and with kit this good you will soon find one that’s perfect for you. Details to follow soon.
That’s it for now. Please feel free to leave comments, ask questions and follow me on Twitter for late breaking news and the occasional bit of light banter.
Damien.
13 Comments Add your own
1. Chris Birchall | February 4th, 2010 at 12:45 am
Hi Damien.
Yes I like to look and feel of the website and certainly have no complaints about the content.
If I do have any criticism it would be that the text area is now just a touch too wide. Once you go over 500/550 pixels, text becomes more difficult to read. One sometimes has to hunt for the start of the next line after reaching the end of the previous line.
The worst are the sites that have text spanning the entire width of the screen.
I think the Love Cube is a brill idea. Might be looking at getting a couple of these after our studio refit.
Chris Birchall
aka the Hairy Photographer (TheHairyPhotog)
2. martin | February 4th, 2010 at 10:18 am
Hello Chris
Thanks for the feedback on the design. We didn’t change width of the text area, only the sidebar. Good point about readability and I hope we’ve got the balance about right for today’s screen resolutions.
Martin
3. Ben Roberts | February 4th, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Hi Damien
Fantastic new product “The LoveCube” – loved it when you showed it off for the first time at the Studio Lighting Workshop in Bristol back in Nov ‘08
Very interested in your recent announcement of the “battery powered video light kit” – when, when?!!
Best wishes
Ben
4. marc | February 5th, 2010 at 7:52 am
Hi Damien
Does the cube come flat packed for delivery?
Also, do they have a bottom panel or is it hollow?
Thanks
Marc
5. damien | February 5th, 2010 at 11:12 am
Hi Chris, Thanks for the feedback. I agree that the text can be difficult to follow when I write big chunks at a time. I’ll ask Martin if we can increase the line spacing in the CSS. That should do the trick.
Cheers, Damien.
6. damien | February 5th, 2010 at 11:16 am
Hi Ben, The video lights are being finalised and will be based around the Sachtler 100H head and the Lowel iLight. In both instances the packages are let down by power supplies or battery charger quality so I’m addressing both issues and aim to have perfect packages in time for Focus.
I am at the test and measure phase so please bear with me.
Cheers, Damien.
7. damien | February 5th, 2010 at 11:18 am
Hi Marc,
The LoveCube™ doesn’t come flat packed, it is a rigid cube with a bottom panel. The bottom panel is recessed and has a removable light fitting and a 90mm diameter hole to pop a Speedlight into.
The LoveCube™ is light enough to take to the beach, the woods or into the city
I hope that helps. Damien.
8. Chris | February 5th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
Hi Ben,
worth noting I’ll be using video and arri lighting on the next cherish the dress™ workshop in april so if you buy one at focus, check out our pictures for inspiration.
Best wishes
Chris H
9. Ben Roberts | February 5th, 2010 at 1:10 pm
Thanks both Damien & Chris for your replies.
Very exciting. Focus is not long away!
I hope you don’t mind me mentionioning but It would be nice if you could control the light with a dimable counterpart.
Also the system needs to be as lightweight as possible (would it be handheld or attached via the hourse shoe?).
Many thanks
Ben
10. Chris@enjoy | February 5th, 2010 at 3:16 pm
Damien – the new stand is erm… out-stand-ing!
Look forward to catching up with you at Focus.
11. Tara Taylor | February 6th, 2010 at 4:12 pm
Received my LoveCube yesterday – can’t wait to use it! Your Focus stand looks amazing, I am sure it will be even better for real.
12. damien | February 7th, 2010 at 12:19 am
Thanks Chris and Tara.
Hi Ben, Thanks for your interest in my battery lights.
Both the video lights I will be supplying in the first instance will have a flood and spot facility. When this is combined with barn doors (in a way that I will demonstrate on a free video clip) any degree of attenuation can be achieved without a shift in colour temperature. At least one of my lamps will be available with a dimmer but at an aditional cost.
There are no end of small camera top lights on the market that utilise LEDs or small halogen capsules usually up to 50w. Some even have dimmers like the ones supplied in Bescor kits at B&H. I am not interested in supplying these as they are not focusable and I have found them to be a bit too limiting for me.
The lights I will be supplying are pro focusing lamps designed to be held by another person or mounted on a stand. They will be 100w and come with a battery that will last well over half an hour, so they will be ideal for wedding shooters too.
I hope this helps.
Damien.
13. Ben Roberts | February 8th, 2010 at 10:17 am
Thank you Damien for your reply. I really appreciate your honesty from your experience with equipment. I will wait with anticipation until your product comes on the market and look forward to both yours and Chris demos.
Best wishes
Ben
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