He used the same technology as the BBC use for weather forecasts – green or blue screens.

After watching the video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMIzR6GNAXw – use full screen mode) there are some give aways.

The cable from the tv set is not visible through the clear stand that holds the balls yet his trousers are visible when he walks behind the balls – suggests that the cable goes no where or more likely to pass through the green screen.

Derren is wearing all black which stops any “haze” caused by the green screen. In this instance I think he may have used a blue screen, look at the left hand side of the white base that holds the balls, note the blue tinge also look at the shiny reflection on his shoes – blue tinge.

Also watch Derren’s foot movements when he approaches the balls, he makes a lot of side step movements and sliding of feet – suggesting he is conscious of knocking or bumping into the screen behind him.

Finally note he didn’t guess the bonus ball – if he had there wouldn’t have been enough time to get all of the balls in place and set up.

Now I might be wrong, but this is possible and quite easy to do.

Basically, it is a competition where you take photographs of yourself on National Trust property or of National Trust property and upload them to the competition website www.pictureyourself.org.uk.

What a great idea I thought, so off I went to the website and as I went to register I clicked on the terms and conditions and couldn’t believe what I was reading.

Here are the terms and conditions of entry taken from https://pictureyourself.org.uk/terms.php

Your contributions

If you submit any material to us, you agree to grant The National Trust a perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide, non-exclusive licence to use your contribution in all media. This includes the right to copy, edit, publish, grant sub-licences and exercise all other copyright and publicity rights over the material. If you do not want to grant these rights, please do not submit your contribution to us.

You warrant that the materials you submit are original and that you have the right to grant the above licence. You waive all moral rights in the materials for the purposes above.

By submitting your contribution you acknowledge and confirm that all models used in your contribution have provided consent to have their images published on the www.nationaltrust.org.uk/pictureyourself website and to be used in further publications both online and offline in printed material.

By submitting my image I would give the NT full copyright and all rights relating to the photograph. This means that the NT could do what ever they wanted to do with the image. They could sell images onto a third party for hundreds or even thousands of pounds and I wouldn’t get a penny from it.

No professional photographer would ever sign away the copyright of their photograph. So why should the National Trust impose such conditions on the general public who haven’t got a clue about what the above extract means.

Imagine if somebody took a photograph of a complete stranger say a man holding hands with his mistress on a romantic getaway, (his wife thinks he is away on business), at a NT property and submitted it without understanding what “consent of model” means (after all model consent and model releases are terminology normally associated with professional photographers) and then suddenly that photograph appears in numerous magazines and journals. I wonder what comeback that complete stranger would have, after all the photograph was taken on private property and published without his consent – did he sign a model release form?

It would seem that the national trust may have been inspired by the previous owners of the domain name (http://www.windmillhillcityfarm.org.uk/projects.pictureyourself/pictureyourself.about.htm) – at least the previous owners recognised that the copyright stayed with the person who took the photograph.

One has to ask why do the NT need to have such terms and conditions. Their wording implies that the NT Trust want complete ownership of the images so they can do what they want with them without having to consider the person who took the image.

If you want to take a photograph on National Trust Property for commercial purposes, you have to PAY for every hour you are on their land, sign a contract and give them a percentage of any money you make from that photograph.

On the other hand, they are quite happy to take photographs from unsuspecting members of the public and strip away any rights the person who took the photograph normally has.

Here is the link to an article about the competition at the website of the PR company employed by the NT – http://www.bluecubeinteractive.com/work/picture-yourself-in-northern-ireland/

Also this is the link to the website of the professional photographer who is on the judging panel – it discusses what the different types of license they offer and what they mean: http://www.scenicireland.com/licence_info/

Something for you to think about, why were these onerous conditions buried in the middle of a number of paragraphs of terms relating to the use of the website. Why didn’t they get a page all of there own?

Interestingly ScenicIreland has many many images of National Trust properties on it as well, just do a search for Castle Ward and over 400 images are returned.

Finally I just love this quote from Maurica Lavery who is Marketing and Communications Manager with The National Trustthe – see the judges page (https://pictureyourself.org.uk/judges.php)

“I am really excited by the potential for great images that this competition will bring. Join in.”"

Most of the deals available are discounted rates for the room, not per person which makes it very cheap for a family visiting Northern Ireland. These cheap hotel deals are truly great value for money.

Take for example the Ramada Hotel Belfast, a 4 star hotel located just outside of Belfast City centre – you can get up to 67% off a double room that sleeps a family of 4. Price includes breakfast and the full use of all of the leisure facilities.

Check out all of the Cheap Hotels in Belfast that Accommodation Offers have.

You could not have imagined even if you had tried the consequences that unfolded during that afternoon. The recently completed underpass on the West link in Belfast filled up with water, the water overflowing the top of the safety walls, some 20 or so feet from the bottom of the submerged road below. 20 million gallons of water had filled the underpass, it was reported cars had been abanonded in the underpass as driver’s could not escape the torrent of water heading their way. It took 2 days for the fire brigade pump out the water.

The reason behind this particular flooding was that a nearby river burst its banks and caused a deluge of water to head towards the underpass. A once in a life time event.

Many parts of Northern Ireland were affected by the worse flooding in living memory. In Portadown the River Bann burst its banks and the flood planes rapidly contained the water and in many cases with only inches to go before it would have overflowed into surrounding residential areas.

Here is a picture showing the extent of the flooding across the meadows – it was taken from the access road down to Portadown rowing club.

Image Reproduced courtesy of Elevated Aspects Aerial Photography

Portadown golf club was also badly hit by the flooding and a number of the greens and fairways were under several feet of water.

It took about 4-5 days for the flood plains to drain back into the river. Hopefully there will not be another flood as large as that for many years to come.

It was a difficult building to photograph at ground level, but was perfect for elevated photography as it allowed the apple orchards infront and behind th eproperty to be included within the photograph. More importantly, I was able to include the Diamond Hill within the photograph. The hill is very important as it is the hill where Dan Winter and his fellow protestants gathered after Dan’s cottage was set fire to by the group of Irish Roman Catholics who had gathered on Faughart Hill.

You can see the photographs of Dan Winter’s Cottage at the Northern Ireland photographic stock library – AWeeClick.com

You can see all of the photos over at A Wee Click, unfortunately the racing had to be postponed shortly after the tragic death of Martin Finnegan, 29 and from Lusk in County Dublin, who died in the accident at Marlacoo Corner during the Supersport 600 race, shortly after 2pm.

Martin Finnegan (foreground)

The photograph above was taken at the chicane on the lap in which he crashed – the chicane is where John Donnan was killed in last year’s Tandragee event.

There are literally several hundred photographs to sort through, so over the next few days I will post the photographs up in the gallery at A Wee Click.com

Well now it is possible with a new kind of ground based aerial photography in Northern Ireland. The thing is it doesn’t use an aeroplane or helicopter to take the photographs, but a 26m mast mounted on a Land Rover. The camera is mounted on top of the mast and controlled from the ground.

The company that operate the system, Elevated Aspects Ltd  call it elevated photography or otherwise known as mast photography.

The results speak for themselves, the subject being photographed is captured in great detail whilst maintaing an aerial dimension.

Here is an example

 This is a photograph of Scarva Park which captures the whole park in one single photograph as well as the beautiful countryside beyond.

If you would like an elevated photograph of your house or property why not give Elevated Aspects a call on 028 3884 9187 for a free quote.

There is always one thing that you can be sure of in June and that is Father’s Day.

Why is it when it comes to getting a present for a dad it seems to always be the same things, some socks, some garden vouchers or another photo frame.

So I have looked around for some ideas and discovered that a really good idea would be a helium filled father’s day balloon. It is something different and would definitely put a smile on his face when he opens the box and up floats a balloon.

Of course you could always send something else like a nice bottle of whisky or something.

Anyway, I will have to wait and see what I get this year.

The year before last I traced part of my family tree. It was very interesting seeing how the men on my Father’s side seemed to marry women from the next village over. During 150 years they managed to stay within about 5 miles of the original homestead.

However on my Mother’s side it was completely different. The men on her side moved around quite a bit, but I eventually traced them back to a small market town.

Well I was looking around and by chance stumbled on a photograph somebody had placed online of one of my ancestor’s gravestone.

I thought this was quite interesting and looked around for more photographs, but couldn’t find any.

Now my wife is trying to trace her ancestors and I discovered a very interesting website for those people researching their family tree. It is called Ancestral Ulster a site offering to photograph key locations of ancestral heritage, like townlands,family homes, places of worship, gravestones.

You can even have a 360 degree virtual panoramic including an aerial panoramic which is an interactive 360 panoramic but taken from above up to 85 feet above the ground.

Tracing a family tree in Northern Ireland is a lot harder than we first thought. I managed to trace most of my ancestors through Ancestry.co.uk in a matter of hours. The records for Ireland including Ulster are due to go online later this year – so hopefully it will get easier.

The new design and layout for one of the oldest UK online balloon delivery websites is finally finished.

A brand new layout and feel to the website adds to the new concept behind this website. Originally Balloon In A Box was a website offering delivery of birthday balloons and balloons for other occasions, by post, but due to relocation to Northern Ireland they were no longer able to send balloons out directly.

A new concept had to be developed for the site and in 2007 the plan was hatched. BalloonInABox.co.uk was going to be a website that reviewed balloon delivery websites and rated them against a number of different criteria and award points accordingly.

After many years of selling balloon gifts online, we knew the industry inside out.

In April 2008 the new site was launched and the first reviews were completed for the top 10 companies that appear on Google and those that advertise using Google Adwords. The top balloon delivery company in the initial review was Bizzy Balloons/Balloon Monkey

New companies will be added regularly and the company that comes top of the table will have a selection of their balloons displayed on the website.