Stewart has put together a quick blog post about the third day and location of the tour – Manchester. It definitely sounded like the perfect way to spend a wonderfully sunny Sunday afternoon, and it seems like a lot of you agreed since Stewart had a great turnout. Cris, our very first tour pal, loved his day in Newcastle so much that he couldn’t resist coming back for more and – in a true Freedom Tour style – mini gate-crashed the Lawsons date to re-join Stewart for more Folio fun. Cris once again took the reins with the video, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he turns up again later on in the tour. It seems Stewart may have his very own roadie!
On Sunday morning I set off early from Glasgow for the 5 hour drive down to Manchester on another beautiful day. The roads were empty so we could have a leisurely cruise down to take in all the sights, and driving Van Outen is becoming a real pleasure. (In fact, I think I’m falling for her!)
When we finally rolled up at The March Hare, the real fun began. Pete and Laura Lawson were great to hang out with, and they happily chatted to everyone about anything photography. It seems that Pete fell in love with Van Outen too, he even posed with her for a few shots on the X-Pro1.
After showing off our new designer bags on the Glasgow video, everyone couldn’t wait to take a look and see them ‘in the flesh’. We think that they will be a great extra to our albums, and everyone wanted to know if they were available now – but you will all have to wait until I get back to Folio HQ to get your hands on them. The bags will be available as an upgrade when they are up on the store, to add a little something a little different to an album order. It will be exciting to see which designs are chosen for which types of albums!
Our new wooden presentation boxes also generated lots of interest. The box I have with me on tour is only a prototype though, so I’m sure everyone in Team Folio would love to hear any thoughts or feedback you have – after all, these boxes are for you guys!
We had a great turn-out yesterday. It seems that the warm weather, fine art albums, and fantastic photographers brought everyone out for the gorgeous Sunday afternoon. It felt more like a mid-summer garden party as I’m sure you can see from our video below.
Cris had some client shoots in Manchester, so as soon as they were done he stopped by to capture some more video and get some great shots of our model:
Cris’ shots of our model, Stacey, were taken using a Canon Mark II and a 50mm 1.4 lens.
I happily let Cris take over the video, since it meant that I could spend more time speaking to people. The fantastic turnout kept me very busy chatting to all our Folio friends, so I only had time to take a couple of images:
Here’s our Manchester Tour pals Pete and Laura, texting each other ;)
Check out Jon Lyons doing a great job answering questions about our albums! We think our customers are the best!
Here is Pete chilling out in Van Outen – I guess I’ve got some competition here ;)
I’ve had such an awesome time since setting off on tour on Friday. I can’t wait to see what is in store at Birmingham today!