Well after less than a month with iPower I have moved web hosts due to their unreliability. I am sure this isn't the way they are permanently but over the last week my site was down on a number of occasions for hours, and I have lost my confidence. I am very sorry for the inconvenience caused ... grrr. One of the interesting observations is that they weren't prepared to go into detail of what the technical issue was, just each time that "it was a router and it's now fixed". I guess companies do this due to being scared of looking bad, but left with no convincing information I was forced to move To View More >>

One of the incredible blessings of working in the Queensberry Group is the wonderful people we get to spend our time with, and few are more inspiring than Peter Haythornthwaite. [flickr]photo:3099049094[/flickr] I was sitting at the kitchen table about to take a photo of this wood pigeon when I got an email from Peter commenting on my blog. Amongst other things he said "I guess a natural 'other' would be small videos of family discoveries at the beach - your area, your 'forest' area, your Titirangi - why do you live there etc." The timing made me smile as this beautiful bird perfectly symbolizes To View More >>

Danny and I are in Germany at present, Cologne (Köln) to be specific, visiting the Photokina trade fair. It's been a whirlwind tour through Europe getting here. In 5 days we travelled through Las Angeles, London, Paris, Brussels, Amsterdam and Cologne. What an incredible week of contrasts. The cities, especially Paris and Amsterdam, were incredible, so romantic with their old world charm and architecture, but with unfortunate modern contrasts. If Mc Donalds down the road from Notre Dame wasn't enough, how about the accommodation we have in Cologne? This is a table in the restaurant. The place To View More >>

Ok ... Truth is, I'm not really sure what this is about. But I love the artistry in this sort of work ... powerful images and music, strangely moving in an odd sort of way. Hat tip to EpicGirl To View More >>

I saw my blog traffic jump by a huge amount yesterday, with most traffic coming from Stumbleupon, and I wondered how I could check who had reviewed me, and what they had said. I found a webpage on Stumbleupon that links to this information. It doesn't seem to be directly accessible from your user account but I found part of the answer in this post. You need to build a URL using a base URL of: http://www.stumbleupon.com/refer.php?url= plus the page URL, eg http://stephenbaugh.com/2008/09/the-guy-that-turns-her-light-off/ This means the full URL would be http://www.stumbleupon.com/refer.php?url=http://stephenbaugh.com/2008/09/the-guy-that-turns-her-light-off/ To View More >>

In business there are no magic bullets, but this idea is so powerful it certainly feels like magic. I ran into an old friend yesterday, and it reminded me of a series of seminars I ran a few years ago that contained a section on how to increase profits. Especially when times are tough, it's great to be able to break things down into some simple rules that allow you to know where to focus, so I'll share this very simple but powerful idea with you now. Gross Profit is calculated on an "averaged basis" as: (Total number of clients x Average number of visits per year x Average sale x Average margin) To View More >>

 Photo by Brett Harkness I just wrote about why I love photograph albums, but the story got a little long so I've edited it. I guess the truth is we love the industry, the books and just as importantly, we love design. Queensberry's love and focus on design is a story all by itself. Let's face it, though, some albums suck ... Sorry but they do. The book is cheap and plasticky, and no consideration is given to what photos are included. A great album is so much more. I'm not trying to turn this into a shameless plug, and I know quality is subjective, but I believe we produce the world's finest To View More >>

'Wake Up Cat' is by an English animator called Simon Tofield and it is actually called 'Cat Man Do'. He works for an animation company called Tandem Films. I think Simon must have met our cat Sabby as this is what we go through every morning with him ... To View More >>

Someone asked me the other day what Twitter is ... I swear my jaw almost dropped. So from the Twitter FAQ ... What is it? Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing? Bloggers can use it as a mini-blogging tool. Ok I must admit when I heard of it myself, there was a bit of a yawn and disinterest stuck around for quite a while ... but for some reason a month ago I decided to go have a more serious look ... and I must say, it is strangely addictive. LOL not that To View More >>

One of the things I like about myself is the ability to appreciate other peoples craft and skill. I came across this a number of months ago on youtube and found myself drawn into Takagi Masakatsu's moving paintings and the description of how he works. You have to admire someone not only blessed with great observation, but also the ability to recreate what he sees in a new medium. I liked his closing quote, in talking about seeing colour and light in the world ... "In a sense I am not expressing anything that is not already there" To View More >>