I don’t think aviation law has really caught up with drones. The CAA simply apply the existing rules for radio controlled planes, which would be fine if drones didn’t also carry cameras. Even at 50m from your property, with a 4k camera you’re still going to see plenty. It’s no wonder people get more irate about that, than pavement parking. The latter doesn’t invade their valuable privacy.

If you want to pretty much guarantee seeing red squirrels (plural) then head to Eskrigg Nature Reserve (http://www.lockerbie-wildlife-trust.co.uk/) on the outskirts of Lockerbie. It’s free, a short walk from the car park, and take some nuts with you for the cute wee gingers ;)

Dino park is ok if the kids like it, expensive though.
Not if you’re an adult :lol:

No, that wasn’t me. There was a tall guy who was there all day, and a wee chap showed up later. Both were doing general video stuff too. I was just taking photies.

pigyn, this you?

Skelf-05525 by Kit Carruthers[/url], on Flickr

Ah that sucks. I didn’t ride it either, but one day soon!

Managed to get some photos of him too :)

Did you ride the track? Bike and/or clothing description and I’ll try and find a photo of you.

So who went along to the opening? I’ve probably got a photo of you somewhere amongst the 2000 I took there :lol:

More photos will be forthcoming, but meantime, anyone else see the community Bobby get air on his police bike?

Skelf-04703 by Kit Carruthers[/url], on Flickr

http://downforeveryoneorjustme.com/

Well, the latest budget is not good news for me, with duty set to rise by nearly 4% (apparently). Also, as a limited company hoping to attract shareholding investors, the taxable dividend allowance has dropped considerably :(

It can still be made to work, but a bit of a kick in the teeth nonetheless.

None of this is criticism, and I know nowt about distilling, good luck with the venture

Always good to have these things thrown at me as I’m sure to miss something!

Be careful to get what you need not what they want to give you, be careful to tightly define your needs and the required outputs

They work to my specification, in fact I emailed that to them today.

Who is doing the planning application? How are you planning to procure the kit, what form of contract, who is commissioning it?

I would read other micro distillery planning applications as they often tell you others mistakes and give you pointers
I am, most likely. There are a number of distilleries local to me and already looked through their applications. Also just been reading the local development plan. Should be pretty straightforward, but going to speak to various agencies before I make the application to make sure there’s no real issues. The HMRC licences are going to be the bigger ball-ache, I think.

No idea yet about procuring kit. Various options, both new and second hand, through the consultants or direct, UK or abroad. Will need to see what I have to buy before I start shopping!

With regards to waste you may need to bus it off site

I’m pretty confident that I won’t be generating anything requiring disposal by a specialist contractor. Again, I’m taking advice on that, though :)

Jon V and he’ll know, especially as i already primed him through LI

Just pinged him, many thanks!

There’s a guy here – Ed Dodson – who has retired as a manager but seems to do bits of distillery consultancy.

Hopefully he spots the thread, then!

willjones that’s fantastic, thanks! I don’t get access to the full reports, but the raw data and summaries are available. Cheers!

big_n_daft These are all valid points. The issues of energy, waste and engineering will be covered by a consultancy who specialise in distillery work. What I know at the moment is oil, soakaway and compost, and yes, respectively to those three points :)

As for working capital, aye, I need to factor that in and thanks for reminding me to do so. Route to market will likely be online sales, farmers markets, craft fairs and the like until I can secure some outlets (although that’ll reduce the profit margin considerably). Definitely will look at the export market too. Scottish booze does appear to hold a certain cache abroad.

No, that’s not the chap.

Had a LI message back from Alan W and he’s looking forward to talking to you.

Cheers dude. If I say I’ve been talking to a guy called ‘theotherjonv’ will he know who I’m talking about? :D

I mean, obviously we really want you to come and do a masters

I do feel a bit cheeky, actually. I’m sure most folk approaching HW looking for some help are already quite knowledgeable and hoping to fill a very specific knowledge gap. I, on the other hand, know **** all about distilling so I spent 2hrs with Annie asking all sorts of basic questions :lol: I probably should do the masters, but hey, I’m a doctor, I’m smart enough to pick it up as I go along, right….??? ;)

(You could let me know who she shares an office with – I was introduced to him as the guy who runs the distilling part of the course, but can’t mind his name. Cheers!)

Anyway, best of luck and let me know if I can help from a retail point of view.

Cheers Gav, popped an email over to you!

coming to the end of my Phd, ironically finding it harder to land work than before I started

Overqualified? Too specialised? That’s how I feel anyway, plus a reluctance to either go back to what I was doing, or suck it up in a graduate/low paid job. Good luck though ‘Dr’!

You should check out Walter Micklethwait.

Looks like someone who can’t sit still for 5 seconds :D

If it’s OK with you I’ll pass your details on to my mum

No worries, I get on well with mums! ;) I’ll pop along to the market tomorrow and have a nosey, cheers for the heads up. The Langholm cider lot are Waulkmill Cider. As much as I love cider, I hate to say it but I can’t stomach theirs! I was thinking about making cider at one point but sourcing local apples was going to be a problem (and pointless doing it otherwise). Vodka from milk sounds….interesting? I looked up Black Cow and it does sound amazing, so I’ll do a bit of research on that, thanks for the tip! If you’re ever passing through Dalton, drop me a line.

Thanks theotherjonv, I’ll drop him a line soon!

I believe most small gin distilleries are buying in alcohol in bulk and rectifying with their own botanicals. Kit and time is minimal, so yes, they can be done in a cupboard/shed pretty easily. Distilling from raw materials requires a fair bit of extra investment in fermentation and multiple distillations.

I spoke to A Man Who Knows. His reply,

Righto, I’ll prioritise that one then, thanks :)

Good luck, keep us informed on here or post a facebook link.

Cheers, if it comes to it then there’ll be a Facebook page set up!

Ooof, £12m for Ardgowan! My budget’s about 1% of that :lol:

Guerrilla advertising?

Only if it was Monkey Shoulder.

James – Creatomatic? I think we found a couple of your Nerf bullets stuck to the windows of the Corner House Hotel the other night :D

D&G council were big on supporting and publicising local food (and drink) production. So aside from planning and licensing see what promotion and business support might be available.

They still are. A website recently launched to promote food and drink in the region: The Dumfries & Galloway Food Trail[/url] However, there’s not much financial support for setting up the business. According to Business Gateway anyway. There are certainly places opening up round here, including whisky, gin, beer and cider so I’m hoping that this will slot in there too and make it a region to visit if you want fine craft booze.

are you in touch with Alan Wolstenholme, chairman of the craft distillers assoc?

I’m a member of the LinkedIn group, and have spoken to Prof. Annie Hill who helped set it up. But not spoken to him directly yet! It’s on my to-do list :) How do you know him?

Focus on one thing and one thing alone. I know a lot of ex-photographers, I cant recommend that as a line of business.

Not something I ever wanted to do, and I won’t be pursuing it much longer!

The gin/whisky business model has become a popular way of generating revenue while waiting for whisky to mature. I want to explore a different way of doing it, hoping indeed as scotroutes suggests to use local botanics. I have to think hard about whether to have a shop/cafe as part of the business. We are on a quiet country road without much passing trade, and in an area where small local businesses do struggle.

HH, you could literally crash test it if you come visit for some biking too?

I was thinking about it, aye! Been a long while since I photographed any mountainbikes :D

Want to drop me an email? Kit@KitCarruthersPhotography.com

But all went into it as a hobby and to indulge in their passion rather than to make any serious money and were just aiming to cover costs and hopefully earn a bit of extra beer money.

This appears to be the case in many circumstances (anecdotally anyway). If you sit and do a rough business plan and look at what all your costs would be, and therefore what your profits might look like, I’d imagine that it won’t be particularly favourable as a career change.

yourguitarhero I was literally just looking at those photos on the Skelf FB page and wondering who took them :D

Shot in August, processed today.

Agata by Kit Carruthers[/url], on Flickr

The tractor I drive barely manages above 25mph, generates barely any mud on the road owing to the lack of tread on the tyres, and our hedgerows are maintained by the council ;)

Crohn’s here, but no surgery. I have inflamed perianal skin which has historically stopped me from riding. That and not being sure about being any significant distance from a loo, as well as the tiredness. I’m sure that’s all familiar to you guys! I only managed one ride last year, and I see this year being similar. Mostly just lost the mojo, not sure I’ll get it back again. Am very grateful though to not have had major surgery (only for a fistula) so otherwise I’m in relatively good nick!

Photoshop is for winners 8)

geetee split toning can be a bit hit and miss in LR. It’s very eary to overdo it! I prefer to do any colour grading in PS. However, this is one I got ‘right’ in LR.

Alex by Kit Carruthers[/url], on Flickr

Last time I was in hospital, it was to have my meat ‘n’ two veg photographed by the medical photographer. Bit weird, to say the least, but I don’t even think about my dignity any more as it’s all gone :lol:

If anyone clicks on the link can they view the photo at different sizes?

Yes, by going to the download button under the image.

JohnClimber, I started by asking a couple of friends if they’d be interested in having their portraits taken. With a couple of sets of images I then enlisted models through a couple of Facebook groups, and eventually PurplePort. Virtually all of my subjects have been professional models, aspiring models or aspiring actors. Generally they’ve needed little direction, but sometimes they do if something doesn’t quite look right. I don’t have a very creative imagination for that kind of thing, I just let them get on with it. I’ve only paid one person and while I don’t regret it, that money could’ve been better spent elsewhere. Flipside is that I’ve never been paid for portrait work.

Thanks Greg and DrJ! And congrats to Ewan. Happy New Year!

Edinburgh Hogmanay Fireworks by Kit Carruthers[/url], on Flickr

Not a single photo, and definitely not from the past month, but these are all the models I photographed over the year. My first ever year shooting portraiture. You might not like them, but I’m proud of doing something that at the start of the year was completely contrary to my usual style. It’s been an interesting photography year. See you in 2017!

All of my 2016 models by Kit Carruthers[/url], on Flickr

Nothing bike related because I don’t ride bikes any more :/

More here anyway: Kit on Instagram[/url]

Zero problems with my Xbox (however long I had that) and nearly 10 flawless years with my 360 so far. But yeah, ALL of their consoles are shite etc. ;)

The EXIF data is not shown Tim, at least it’s not viewable to me.

Interesting to hear that you used a flash, though! Have you cropped them much too? I’d love to get into wildlife photography, but I have neither the patience or the cash!

I think I would do everything I could to try and talk someone out of asking me!

I’d been approached a couple of times before Huw and Cath did, but turned them down because they were strangers. I felt much more comfortable doing it for good friends, but obviously with the caveat that it was my first time, etc. The fact that they were so relaxed about it really helped, but it was still stressful.

I think those who do it professionally either just love weddings, or thrive under those stressful conditions. Neither apply to me, but if people want to pay me to do more, then I’d consider it!