I’m smart enough to appreciate just how much smarter than me my friends are. As I always say, talent recognizes genius. Talent should also recognize its own limits. I’ve reached that stage in my life when I’ve had to accept that I won’t be able to do the things I dreamt of doing when I was a kid, but, like a drummer in a heavy metal band, I still get to hang around occasionally with people who are doing them: getting published in Nature, inventing wonderful things, making the World a better place. I’ve now reset my sights on the modest aim of getting paid enough to take beautiful pictures that I can afford to keep a roof over my head. Stay tuned to see that target revised downward in the third quarter of 2007.

This brings me neatly to Blaise. Remember his work on Gutenberg and movable type? He’s married to Adrienne, author of one of the Nature papers. He recently sold out his start-up company to Microsoft and personally collected a large chunk of the eight-figure selling price (that’s eight figures whether you count it in US dollars or sterling). If, like me, you can’t get your head around the practical personal meaning of such sums, at least this video [requires Microsoft Media Player of course] might help you get your head round his latest brilliant creation.

On the subject of making money from photography, posting has been thin here lately because I have been on a small business course. It’s going to get thinner because I therefore have lots to catch up with, including the output of a job where I shot more rolls of film in one day than I’ve ever done before. Sorry, peeps.