Christmas and updates

Yep Christmas deadlines are as follows:
Final orders for christmas - to absolutely guarantee things - please order
1. Framed items, Mugs and gift items (like cards!) before the 10th of december
2. Prints before the 16th of december
3. Digital files on or before the 22nd of December

My No repeat gift guarantee - if you buy a digital file as a present for someone from now until christmas - and it's already been bought before (in any format) - we'll do our best to tell you and you can choose any other from the current online library. (and if we don't spot it - don't get mad, just let us know and we can sort out a different one with you !). (This doesn't apply if you order print orders as it all starts to cost too much with the Printers)

We promise we will do our absolute best to clear everything as soon as possible - but we do have to rely on our printers and the post office - and both receive heavy demand over this period. The sooner - the better - is the motto here !

The office will be closed from 23rd of December to the 30th, orders will be processed as best as possible through this time, but emails may not get actioned until afterwards. We will do our best to deal with any "Urgent - my life is at stake" emails, we have even worked christmas day in the past to help out...

Archive Hunts: We are getting through the archive requests as best as possible - but admit we are behind and need to get a shift on for Christmas. Please bear with us - it takes up a lot of time and computer resources to scan through our databanks (that's over 6Tb and growing) to get your images back online. Images are online for three months - please please get them whilst they are hot ! If you do have an archive request - then race name, year (exact date is better) and race number is what we need please.

Local Shopping in Hurstpierpoint - Thusday evening - 3rd of December:
All the latest information is here: http://hurst-village.co.uk/

If you are in the Mid-Sussex area and fancy a bit of traditional village christmas present shopping and atmosphere - then Hurstpierpoint is the place to be. Mulled wine, mince pies, childrens fancy dress, christmas lights, brass bands and lots more will be on the high street from 5:30pm, with all the shops open until late and the High Street closed to traffic. (Parking is in Trinity Road as usual). Here's a little taster from last years: http://animoto.com/play/U2nloSrTm83RpGvwF7r1qA#

Some website improvements and updates:
1. The addthis.com - share links shown above a large image preview - has been fixed for the "more" option. For some reason the code wasn't taking the right URL, but it is now! Apologies to those that found that - it's all working great - except the facebook addthis link - because facebook tries to take a copy of the image for their online preview - so that gets blocked - but the link still works.

2. Thumbnail watermarks - are all the vogue from now on. Repeated copyright theft unfortunately prompted this extra layer on the images. They don't look toooo bad, we would prefer not to have had to, but - what else could we do ? Suggestions please.

3. Slightly improved order confirmation emails - it kept truncating the "by email" bit when people ordered digital files (by email), causing people to ask - how exactly will I get this ! I also removed the link back to the image, which for some reason only ever works for administrators now. No point in providing a dead link, so the image reference number is shown instead, with a note on what it's for and how to use it.

4. The blog and news page has been updated - you'll see our "best of the tweets" on the right hand column. We subscribe to a lot of event organisers and race related information sources on twitter, so if we see anything of particular relevance, we set it as a favourite and it appears on the feed on the right... We also subscribe to a lot of rss information pages and other sources, and absolutely everything is put into a single RSS feed - this is at the bottom of the blog page, or just click here: RSS of SSP friends Feed you might find it handy.

5. Tweeting and following. Apologies if I've recently "unfollowed" you from @UkSportPhotos (or should that be "lost you?") - it would have been because you are not a public publisher - it was probably a private tweet, and as such I didn't want to run the risk of republishing you onto the blog automatically. So I will have instead re-followed (found ?) you on my individual - non-work -twitter account - @antbliss. Quite what the difference is between private and public in the world of twitters I'm not sure, but I thought some due dilligence on this was in order as you probably don't want 2000 strangers to be force fed the news about a stray ginger cat in the house just because we were following you !?

6. New products - Pesonalised Magazine covers. We're in the final steps of teaming up with Personalised Magazine covers to provide really bespoke gifts for people. You choose the image, answer a few questions and they do the rest. The price will be at a slight discount over you ordering the bits all separately - so it will be interesting to see how you like them.

and Finally... I think that's the lot, it just remains for me to say a BIG THANK YOU to all of you for your support, help and custom through the year. We are nearing 8 years of running the business with nearly two years of that being full time. Without you all, it would not be possible. So BIG HUGS AND an even BIGGER THANK YOU !

Anthony, Sally, Jessica and the team of photographers - Mike, Mick, Triss, Dave, Ian, Ralph, Alison, Charles, Claire, Ben, Patrick, Josie and sometimes Darren and Dan too...