My iMac has 4 memory slots on the back with 2 occupied by 8GB RAM cards (i.e.16GB), and I am finding that in Lightroom and Photoshop they are reaching full capacity and slowing everything down. To order 2x 8 GB cards from Apple costs £360 and 2x 16GB cards are £720, however there is a third party seller on eBay who will sell the 2x 16GB compatible cards from one of the same manufacturers as Apple uses for £149.00. Do any computer geeks have any views on the risks of going for the cheaper option?

Place the photo upside down and put a strip of low tack masking tape across the top edge, about 2/3 width is usually enough, turn it over and lower the mat over it to align the photo with the cut-out. Gently press down for the tape to adhere, turn over and smooth the tape down firmly. Only using a short length of tape on one edge allows the photo paper to move otherwise after time it could buckle. The low tack tape means it can be carefully removed later without damaging the photo paper.

So today I have been giving my tree it’s beauty treatment. It’s a white birch and the bark peels away so it’s been looking like it had a bad case of after-holiday skin shedding, and peeling off the bark is strangely satisfying. The trouble is now the garden looks like it’s covered with waste paper.

By the seventies you probably have most things you NEED other than a Zimmer frame and stair lift! Given that photography is supposed to be good for your wellbeing (unless you watch lots of YouTube) you could argue it’s a need or otherwise just accept it’s time to get one or two things you want!

Thanks Gwyn, I bought the tablet hoping it would help with my day job designing in CAD software but as that requires many more right and left clicks as well as constant zooming and panning then it’s never going to work except for the very occasional freehand stuff. In Lightroom the only thing I have found it does better so far is the brush tool and of course pro photographers are using this far more extensively, hence their evangelistic enthusiasm. I have a version with finger responsive touch so it sits next to my mouse mat to access menus etc. Something else I have noticed is the buffer memory on my iMac maxes out after a while since using the tablet so it obviously has hungry software.

Well at least it has a nice box!

Everything I have seen on YouTube by photographers suggests that once you start with the Wacom tablet you never go back to a mouse. Well, It's been only an hour and I am ready to throw it in the bin! The two buttons on the pen, which can be set to right and left click as on a mouse, are way too small so I have to keep adjusting my grip to locate them and it's all just too damn fiddly. I am also spending more time using the keyboard with my left hand to select and enter commands which is more time consuming. At best it might be useful for certain functions so I could switch between the tablet and a mouse but that wasn't what it was bought for. Admittedly I haven't tailored the various functions yet so we shall see.

Well my Wacom tablet arrived today and so far it all looks fine, although Amazon said it had damaged packaging (hence the reduced price) it looks brand new and never been opened, so a bargain! For some reason you have to go through all your computer security settings and allow the tablet access which took a while but all now ok.

A Wacom tablet, coming next week. Last November the fingers of my right hand got squashed when the car boot closed when it should have opened, my own silly fault I had been messing with the soft close setting. Anyhow, no permanent damage I think but as I use a mouse all day the middle finger hasn't recovered fully yet and is still sore, seeing as it gets used for scrolling. So I have ordered a tablet in the hope that holding a smart pen will give it some relief; I was going for a medium size one from PC World but then found a pro version on Amazon for very little more (£207 against £289 or £325 elsewhere) from their "used - as new" warehouse with just damaged packaging apparently.

Does anyone use one of these? I suspect it will take a while to get into it as the mouse controls have become so ingrained my hand performs tasks without me even thinking about how it's done, but we shall see.

We never seem to keep wine for very long in the RobL household but this week I received a Majestic Wines selection box from a grateful client as well as the prize from our photo group, so enough to see us through the next few weeks. As my choice is usually from the bottom shelf at the Co-op I am looking forward to sampling them.