ABOUT US

Carol and Barry have been involved with photography for almost 30 years and this web site evolved from their association with photography over the past 6-8 years. Barry began writing step by step tutorials for Digital PhotoFX, now Digital Photo from when that magazine was first launched. That had to be curtailed a few years ago when Carol and Barry moved to the City of Ely in Cambridgeshire.

Barry's commute to London each day to work used up most of the time he used to spend writing for Digital Photo. Sadly, it soon became a little too much trying to hold down demanding full time employment, while being committed to Digital Photo. Incidentally Barry's full time employment was not connected to Photography in any way, which has surprised a number of people who just assumed that it was.

In August 2006 Barry retired from the work that he had done for the past 30 years on London's Buses. As Operations Director for two London Companies he felt the time was right to concentrate on other things. This retirement at 57 has allowed Barry to do spend more time on photography, but he says that he has no intention of swapping a job for a job.

The early retirement was to allow Barry and Carol to do their own thing and put more into their tutorials and this web site, but also to enjoy life and their leisure time.

 

 

Carol and Barry have built up quite an experience in photography dating back to film, development and darkroom work, through to Audio Visual using twin projectors and now into digital of course. Their work has been 100% digital using Canon SLR digital cameras for many years now.

Barry is the author of a book called The Photographers Guide to Digital Photography, based on Photoshop Elements, which has been updated from the original Elements 2, up through versions 3 and 4. Barry had plans to write a book on digital AV, but publishers are wary about such a venture until the software widely used becomes available for the Mac operating system.

With more time on his hands Barry accepted the invitation to do some writing for Photography Monthly and also Professional Photographer magazines on a freelance basis. Why those magazines? because Will Cheung asked him at a time when he then had the time and the idea appealed to him.

Barry has continued to record movie tutorials and the Beckham Digital DVD Catalogue is growing all the time. Many older titles are now in the process of being updated. Software doesn't stand still and at the time of writing there are many new developments.

Photoshop CS-3 is due for release very soon, Lightroom has just been released. Photoshop Elements 5 was recently launched and we are awaiting the launch of the new slide show software from wnsoft.com PicturesToExe 5 deluxe.

Barry and Carol's aim is to continue to produce more movie tutorials on DVD, but they are also committed to that one to one personal touch, giving full support and above all retaining good quality recordings that not only educate but inspire too. High quality video files are huge, but with DVD's readily available 4.7 gig of video can be squeezed onto a DVD. That equates to about 3-4 hours of high quality video recordings.

Lectures

Check them out before you go on the menus to the left. Barry continues to give talks at Camera Club evening meetings, but favors to full day approach. He says that there is not quite enough time in the average club evening to cover the subjects at the pace he would like. However, the talks seem to be appreciated and the requests to return to do more come in regularly.

Barry also does small group talks with 4 people and one to one tuition when requested. Details can be found on the menus to the left.

 

 

 

The Future (updated 1st Jan 2008)

We have now jumped through most of the hoops to allow emigration to Australia. We have been allocated a case officer and through her, police checks and medicals have been done and are already in Australia.

Our medicals do need to be passed by immigration, but that should now be a formality. We are not suffering from any issues that should prevent our application being successful.

My daughter has been to an interview that is all about assurity of support and we have had to pay the Australian Government $14,000 for that support. This money is held for 10 years and is used if we make any claims on the Australian welfare system. This is not likely to be the case and we will get that money back in 10 years, with interest. We have never claimed a penny in the UK for 57 years so we are not likely to start now.

Its a pity the UK government don't do something like this for anyone who wants to immigrate into the UK. Its a fair and reasonable policy if you ask me. If you have not paid a penny into a countries system, why should you immediately be able to claim support and take money out.

The latest opinions are that we could have our Visas as early as the end of January 2008 and then the house needs to be sold. We are getting ready for that now.

We will be settling somewhere around Brisbane, probably on the Sunshine coast between Brisbane and Noosa. We don't have any great wish to be right on the coast, but we would like to be within cycling distance or a short car ride.

The Beckham Digital Web site and small business will travel with us, but plans are being made for tutorial discs ordered in the UK to be sent from the UK via our son who lives in the South East. You may have to go to xe.com to convert Australian Dollars to Pounds, but that will not be too difficult.

I have already been asked to talk at a major event in June around the Brisbane area, but I doubt that will be possible. I have given talks to two Clubs in Australia during a 5 week holiday in 2005/6.

Plans for the immediate future are to get fit and healthy after a lifetime of sitting behind a desk. I always said when I retired that I would use a part of the 3 hours daily traveling time I used to spend getting to and from work to exercise and get fit. Since August 2006 that is exactly what I have done, swimming 2000 mtrs 3-4 times a week and cycling 10-14 miles around the lanes and towpaths of Ely on other days. Apart from falling off the bike late in 2006 and breaking a rib, its working. (ouch)

We have continued to take bookings from clubs up to around June 2008, but we cannot make any UK plans after that as we will be in the hands of the Australian Immigration Service.

Our plans are to settle quickly in Australia and purchase a house with enough room for a large computer room. We must get the essential of life sorted first. They are a house, a PC and then Photoshop, is there anything else?