VAN MAN WINS DARKROOM AT FOCUS

• Van Man Wins Darkroom at Focus! – Full-time mobile home live-aboard, portrait photographer Stewart Wall, won a free copy of ExpressDigital DARKROOM Professional software on the www.photomart.co.uk stand at FOCUS on Imaging last month. Online photo supplies company www.photomart.co.uk has always been a favourite with the UK's legion of mobile van-based photographers, and it's great that this year one of them walked away with a top prize! [expand story >>>] Stewart is a portrait photographer who lives aboard his motorhome full-time with his partner Shona and their daughter Jessica. He won his prize by entering the business card draw that www.photomart.co.uk ran on their FOCUS on Imaging stand. He has posted a message about his win on one of the motorhome forums. Congratulations, Stewart! (Hey, why not come to the ExpressDigital Training Day in London on March 27 ? The ticket price is refundable to anyone who already owns the software, or buys it reasonably soon after the training.) Related Stories: photoweek/2007/09/photographers-van photoweek/2007/09/vans-fitted-for-power photoweek/2007/09/marine-batteries [add comment]

FOCUS ON IMAGING REALLY ROCKED!

• Focus On Imaging Really Rocked! – The FOCUS on Imaging show really rocked for the team from Photomart this year – and for all their many guests from ExpressDigital, Mitsubishi, Olmec, Sony, and PxlSoft, amongst others.

The multi-faceted www.photomart.co.uk stand was the biggest ever this year, and was like a chocolate box of surprises for imaging professionals. Walking round it, you were presented with the latest in id card printing, high-end album production, modern digital minilabs, dye-sub printing, and many other meaty and juicy solutions. – Professional and commercial imaging really is alive and kicking at FOCUS still! [expand story >>>]

From pretty much wherever you stood in the exhibition halls for FOCUS on Imaging at the NEC this year you could see the famous www.photomart.co.uk "P" logo towering above the ceilings of the many other stands at the show. And whenever the photographer Keith Trainor stepped forward to demonstrate greenscreen shooting, and started speaking through his head-set, the already busy stand drew even further crowds in front of it. Keith's model was dressed as a pirate, and worked hard throughout the show.



The success was all very gratifying for www.photomart.co.uk staff, and a great reward for all the hard work they put into the show. The company's Sales team reported strong interest on all fronts, and they were very happy with the footfall through the stand. [add comment]

JUST OUTA FOCUS!

• Just Outa FOCUS? – An interesting feature of the marketing for this year's FOCUS on Imaging show was the use of the Justin Focus character. This was effective, but we're guessing some of you will have missed the most creative (and probably most expensive) aspects of it, the 'viral' videos. If you did miss them, you can still find them on YouTube. [expand story >>>]

One of our semi-favourites is the good-in-parts but overly long (and somewhat confused) "Blow Off" – a reference to Michelangelo Antonioni's 1960's swinging London movie, "Blow Up" (see classic clip below).



OK, Justin has got a propellor – but didn't "Blow Up" star David Hemmings, not Michael Caine? – Oh yeah! Work Me Baby! WORK Me![add comment]

FOCUS ON IMAGING UNDER WAY NOW!

• Focus On Imaging UNDER WAY NOW! – The FOCUS on Imaging show at the NEC got underway on Sunday and continues till Wednesday! Photomart are waiting for you on stand M-2 with exciting new things to show, including: • the new paper-based dye sub printer from SONY, the UP-DR200; • a great fun demonstration of ExpressDigital DARKROOM software by Keith Trainor (using a professional model); • some fabulous deals from Mitsubishi; • the unique DIGITRANS premium hand-bound album equipment; • and of course all the latest DOLI minilabs; [expand story >>>]

www.photomart.co.uk have their biggest stand ever for you to visit at FOCUS on Imaging this week – 100 square metres of the latest in event photography solutions, photo lab solutions and photo studio equipment. It's a great fun place to visit too. The company have set up a background and studio lights for you to take photographs of our pirate model, or get your photograph taken with her and come away with a print, instantly!

Anne Bonny was the most famous woman pirate in history. Born around 1698 in Ireland, but brought up in America, she embarked on her career in piracy when she met Captain Calico Jack in a bar, and left her husband for him.



Aboard Captain Jack's ship The Revenge, she adopted the clothing of the crew. She met another woman pirate there, Mary Read, and the pair became close, fighting side by side and bearing their children together. After the capture of The Revenge by lawful authorities, Captain Jack was hanged, Mary Read died in gaol, but the imprisoned Anne Bonny just disappeared from the record... till she turned up on the www.photomart.co.uk stand at FOCUS on Imaging this week! [add comment]