Another thought is that, given the sudden surprise of the new Nikons (mmm, Canon must be worried – better specs, lower prices than Canon equivalents) there is always the possibility Canon may need to re-evaluate their body pricing soon anyway.

Nikon could have them on the run unless Canon has a surprise of their own they can bring forward pdq.

The full frame I have is a nice camera and they are going at about £550 second hand now. Its a lovely friendly camera to use (that has nothing to do with the frame size, just as a nice design of object).

Maybe 2nd hand (any camera) is worth considering for a test run, then buy different later.

I have just replaced the shutter in my 5d – its the third shutter as it was a pro wedding camera in the past, then owned by a friend. It takes a lot of hammering and has been very very reliable. The shutters are designed to be replaced at around 100,000 shots though many go on beyond that. I have put about 10,000 images through it myself since purchase. It was £200 to replace the shutter but is worth it to me despite the age of the camera. The shutter did not fail but I knew it was beginning to wear so I sorted it.

If you look at older cameras at all, don’t be too put off by snobbery or comments about being old fashioned, old technology or rubbish back screens. As long as your histogram can be seen, you don’t really need much more detail. Its getting the exposure right and the overall framing, unless you do macro which is fiddly to focus. The 7d was bought new, but I often take the 5d instead just because its such a nice physical object and more relaxing to use than the 7. They both have their advantages. A lot of my lenses were 2nd hand, the oldest being as said, I believe about 25 and they have been great and reliable. Lots of web sites have good useful info but always be aware of gear snobs and those who have to have the latest. Good photos are in the glass and in the photographers head, not in the chequebook.
Good luck with your photos, its fun!

Info on 7d and photo samples can be found at the address below. Use the ‘search forum’ to find threads and picture examples of other canon cameras – they have a separate thread for almost everything! They also post real world images from loads of specific lenses so you can compare them.

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1154313&highlight=7d

I have a Canon 7d and a 5d (mark 1 aka 5Dc on forums). The first is a crop camera, the second a full frame.

I think it would help you to have some idea of what you want to take photos of.

If its slower moving, daylight stuff such as fine art, landscapes, close ups of flowers – getting a cheaper camera and a better range of glass/lenses is your best bet.

If you want to take photos of running kids, fast moving animals, sports or stuff in lower light the 7d will be more helpful. It has a better and faster focusing system than the camera bodies at a lower price. It also has a more robust shutter mechanism based on a miniature version of the more expensive full frame camera mechanisms. This gives it a high continuous shutter speed that will not trash the camera.

I have had many cameras over many years – film, digital, compact, SLR. I had to carry the manual around for the 7d for quite a bit as it has lots of options and its quite hard to memorise some of them. Dont let this put you off – it can be simplified and as you say you can grow into it. I am mainly mentioning this as I felt a bit overwhelmed by the camera to start despite being experienced – but it turned out lots of people have felt the same – so don’t let it intimidate you. You can always stick with ‘program mode’ or auto to start with.

I would have a word with your relative about advice on lenses – they are more important than camera bodies. I have several Canon EOS lenses over 15 years old, the oldest is I think 25 if I have read the date code correctly. I also have recent lenses but use them less as they are zooms and the sharpness of fixed focal length is better. If you buy good lenses they will follow your hobby over years as you wear out, upgrade or dump camera bodies along the way. Digital camera bodies are essentially disposable, lenses are for keeps so are worth the bigger financial investment.

Its too hard here to go into the advantages and reasons for lens selection. If you want to get serious about this I would say get a cheap ‘kit lens’ if you want a zoom, but for better learning I would say get a body on its own and the cheap 50mm 1.8. Its a good lens, it will teach you lots about depth of field, low light and will show you what a sharp lens can produce. Once you have seen sharp, you will not want to compromise. Once you know more, then splash out on nice glass. Its easy to be disappointed in cheap glass and blame yourself or the camera.

If you think there is any chance of ever moving to a full frame camera, steer clear of the EF-S lenses where possible and go for the EF mount as it will save you a lot of money and inconvenience later on.

Also check out Nikon, they have some very nice cameras just released in the last couple of weeks at very good prices.

Sorry, this is a bit of a random batch of advice. I would check out these web sites for more info – they all do forums and kit reviews.

http://photo.net/community/%5B/url%5D
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/index.php?s=70254290452777cb93762ead638e9e99
http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/%5B/url%5D
http://www.dpreview.com/%5B/url%5D

And this is free to post on (you can join later if you wish)once you have your camera. Its based in Edinburgh I think but is multinational so you get photos from all over the world.
http://blipfoto.com/%5B/url%5D

I find it fascinating that:

Company directors and politicians ‘mislead’ Parliament /shareholders as if its all an accident – even when its clearly not.
Working and middle class are simply ‘liars’ if caught out.

Company directors and politicians ‘offer to resign’ if caught out
(& hounded enough by the papers). Such offer is often refused and they are praised.
Working and middle class are ‘sacked’ or ‘dismissed’. Being lesser people, I guess they don’t know how to write a resignation letter… shame as they may have been able to retain their job and be told how much the boss loves them!

🙂

Oh what a nice pic of the hallway cats.

CBT is about deep rooted issues – they go back looking for repeated behavior patterns and beliefs about yourself and life and examine how you respond to pressure/manipulation from the people around you. They give distance and perspective it can be hard to obtain by yourself.

My NHS therapist recommended this page for helpful info and worksheets.
http://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/

Lots of everyday people run into this problem. I have come to the conclusion that a bit like flu – you dont get it for years, think you are immune and then it gets you and you feel ‘It should not happen to someone like me’ 🙂 Its a tough phase of life, but it is just a phase and not the rest of your existence.

I choose to refuse drugs and went straight into NHS councelling. By chance I ended up with a couple of councellors as one sadly became long term sick and was replaced. This taught me that you need to find a councellor that fits with you – if something is not improving it does not mean CBT is not working, just that you and the councellor are not well enough matched.

When you get to councelling, dont hold back – tell them everything as the more you hide or feel uncomfortable, the more time you both waste on a wrong track or diagnosis. They have heard everything before and will not judge you.

I chose not to take medication because I think it is in some cases very very unproductive.

I know of 3 people who had long term unhappy situations in their lives. Their docs handed out anti depressants like sweets – of them are still are on medication after 5 years or more – but the relevant bit is their lives have not changed. Even when they have complained, the line is pretty mcuh ‘take this and go away’. One even found when they wanted to come off the doctor tried to force them to increase thier dose. These are people with unhappy life situations that needed to change, not with long term mental illness as such, which is a different thing and does need longer term meds.

I firmly believe that for some people (not everyone, depends on cause of your not feeling well) long term medication just makes it possible for a rubbish life to be just about tolerable – so they make no attempt to change personal circumstances that cause unhappiness and go on living exactly the same life, with it muffled out a bit by drugs. Its understandable as change is scary, other people may get angry as you are not ‘who they want you to be’ any more and don’t fit in with what suits them if you try to change. I am glad I decided not to take drugs myself as I believed it was easier to stay in touch with my changing feelings when in counseling.

Counseling can be hard. Often I would feel very depressed for 48 hours after a session. Keep going, its worth it. It does not stay like that. It is a place to be brave. When I started CBT the counselors were both very pleased I had refused drugs as they personally both thought that it was more progressive to sort things out without them if I was able to handle that.

Be aware that in a few cases (minority) there have been links to increased risk of depression and indeed suicide by people on anti depressants as it swings the wrong way for some people. If you feel worse you must tell the medics and make them take it seriously.

I would add, in case I sound too anti drugs that many people do find them short term helpful. I only mean to say make sure it is the choice you are comfortable with, don’t get railroaded into taking things because its the ‘accepted path’.

Over a year later I am unemployed now – but I can say with total honesty my life and how I feel about myself is better than it has been for years and years and I would not go back to the past even though money is tight and the future uncertain.

Hope you post again when they are a bit bigger. Fun to see them grow up.

Thanks so much for posting. I have never seen such young kittens before. Having a bad day and you/the kittens have cheered me up a lot.

What colour is Mum?

I have a very pale ginger cat and I am wondering if he was like the lighter shade ones when he was born. Only seen him as an adult as he is a rescue cat. Would love to have seen him as a kitten.

Awww, they are so sweet.

Well the general population is there to be used after all.

If you can raise a laugh for your finely financed pals at how easily they are fooled and used, all the better. 🙁

Royal row barge anyone? – with the rich sitting in it and the poor rowing. What a money wasting and perfect symbol of our times and representation of how the population is viewed from ‘above’.

I would particularly like to thank Monksie for his willingness to post and huge generosity in helping people understand this illness. Its very helpful to get info from your perspective.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much to all the kind people who have posted.

I will pass on as much of this as possible to the party in question.

Somewhere further up the post, people have mentioned the health care team and social services – I have been given to believe when ‘friend’ approached the hospital
(partner has been sectioned for several months now, they are not permitted to leave the premises unless accompanied and have to return at night)
to ask what friend should do given the partners spending and the partners access to laptops and phones the friend was told his partner had legal rights to retain both the laptop and the phone and therefore internet access – AND – that the financial situation was nothing to do with the hospital in any way and that it is ‘purely a family issue’ and the family would have to deal with it all in their own way with no hospital support. I have heard of no mention at all of the social services assisting in any way, but this is only information I have been told and is open to error as I am not in direct contact with the immediate people involved, but my housemate is.

ah, this could be reson for caution, friend may loose access to his own money
http://www.estatelegacyservices.co.uk/blog/enduring-power-of-attorney/losing-joint-funds-due-mental-incapacity/

Friend has be advised (I dont know who by) that you cannot block the finances of a mentally ill person.

I think perhaps the problem I am looking at is that the friend wont try to find out anything that might require decisive action becasue friend is afaid of ‘being caught’ even finding out how to protect himself. So friend is ducking the issue now to be ‘safe’ but risking long term disaster. I cant really change that outlook and I guess my housemate may not be able to either. Unless partner recovers fairly fast I think friend is going to be sunk.

Following on from earlier comments I just looked up the court of protection site and I canonnot see refereces to anyone but the permanently incapacitated, no immediate sign of info on those who are believed to be short term ill.

Ah I just did this search on Google
“joint bank accounts and metal illness”
and there is some possible useful info come up I am going to take a look at it.

I have to go out soon, so wont be here to reply – thanks lots to everyone who has posted so far, lots of encouraging ideas I will pass to my housemate so he can in turn mention them to friend.

I have passed on the contact details of Mind. I dont know if the friend can cope with approaching them. There is such fear of antagonising the partner more.

I wish the NHS was offereing more mental support to the friend as it seems to me there is also a mental wellbeing issue there, as well as for the partner.

Maybe I should email Mind and ask them. Its hard to know how much to directly interfere. Its one thing to ask for experience on here and somehow another to start asking authoritive bodies on behalf of someone I am not friends with myself.

If it looks too invasive, I think the friend might get angry with my housemate, as friend is under so much stress and so scared of loosing everything if they ‘cross’ the partner.

I suppose there is very little I can do to help, I just wish I could. I have offered to speak to the friend as I had a verbally abusive relationship with an ill person in my family and know what it is like to be screamed at and told you are disappointing and held in contempt. I feel so sorry for the friend – ‘loosing’ someone you love to mental illness is so despairing. Even though you know they are sick, they look normal, so its still difficult not to take contempt and anger personally even when knowing such behaviour is influenced by being not well.

Yes, I wondered that. I think the friend is afraid the partner will start divorce proceedings if this is done and the partner knows this result is not wanted by the friend, so it can be used as a control technique.

I have no idea if the partner ever stabilises, how they will review the present situation or if they will ever become the same person as during the marriage.

Its got so that the friend is afraid to visit the partner without someone else going as well.

Yes. The partner has older children who also live in the house. All these people will suffer hugely if there are unmanageable debts. I wonder if the friend will end up in a breakdown himself.

Josie Dew – brief biography page

About Me

CTC sites and outdoors web sites have contact lists to gather together people who are looking for companions to travel to places. If your daughter wishes to find company she could post there.

Also as mentioned, ask your daughter to enquire on their forums about experiences. She may well have read up already if she is keen to go.

She could also seek the advice of the British foreign office or the tourist boards/government offices of the counties in question.

Its very sad if you bully your daughter or treat her like owned property though – to make her look after YOUR fears and dependence. Yes, talk to her about risks and benefits of travel. But don’t undermine her. Don’t act like you own her. “Let her” is an appalling phrase to use about someone who has been an adult for many years – how would you feel if you were treated like property? A child is not property and your girl is no longer even a child.

The unfortunate thing about loving anyone is that it is full of risks and fears – but you cant cage people because of that or none of us would ever be able to even leave the house.

Josie Dew – this woman has biked the world on her own – try her many books – they are dully written but never the less, she has gone great distances and survived quite well – as did Ann Mustoe who also wrote many books. One retired, one very young. Both were happy with their choice to bike alone for thousands of miles.

Give your girl advice, self belief and respect. Don’t give her the responsibility for your fears.

Bradley Stoke is curiously popular given it is bleak, miserable and was the biggest housing estate in Europe at one time – not a good thing. If you like Tesco Bradley Stoke is great – one huge one that owns the whole shopping centre and even the local corner shop is… a Tesco mini. Yate town is now owned by Tescos too. This area of the UK seems a stronghold for them 🙁

Surprised someone recommended Greenbank though. Its popular with people short of money, which is harmless but a bit dispiriting seeing there are so many all in the same position (lots of my collegues on low pay used to live there – as one said “so many of us from this company live there because we are poor”. I used to visit a friend there and she used to worry about the drug dealers trading openly in her local streets and had her car number plates nicked for criminal use and worried about vandalism a lot of the time. It was good for prostitutes though as I used to pass loads of them looking thin and ill hanging around on the large road, border of Greenbank and Eastville of an evening. That was 3 or 4 years back, so they may have a new location by now. I hated driving past them, it was sad and pitiful to see them as most of them looked ill and cold and you want people to have better lives than that.

Lots of nice bits of Bristol though and also nice dormitory towns on the outskirts. Renting is expensive though.

No, no auto mail checkers. I log in, check, log out. My accounts don’t feed into any mail forwarder/notifier of any kind.

I do run NoScript and Ghostery as general blockers, but they run all the time so if they were influencing the logging out, would they not prevent proper exit every time instead of frequently?

I expect Graham is right, but I would still like to be able to log out… at least in theory… whenever I try.

Has it occurred to you that some inner hidden part of you does not want to work in this type of job any more and you are sabotaging it without realising you are doing it?

You seem to be doing fine in areas that can be checked by yourself and others – applications, trial runs etc but when there is no chance for anyone to point out errors (yourself or someone else helping you)and help you correct them, you are not following through.

I realise it may be just stress as interviews can be horrid, but maybe there is something else in life that’s the real issue? Sometimes what we think we want, are conditioned to want or what we have sought to achieve for a very long time turns out not to be what we want at all, and that can be tough to come to terms with. Just a thought.

We have 4 cats, 3 long hairs, 1 short hair.
The longhairs all spend as much time in the south facing conservatory/lean to greenhouse as possible getting sun and heat.

Most sunny days its between 80 and 120 degrees in there even with the vents open – I cant cope with that heat. They love it and lounge about looking like roadkill. Vets say that cats can cope up to about 126 degrees before they have to take on extra water to deal with the start of panting.

The shorthaired cat hates sun and heat and either stays in the house or lies around under bushes in the shade during the day. He does his active life after dark.

I conclude from this warm weather behavior and also how they cope in winter, that long haired cats can deal with big extremes of temperature much better than shorthairs.

I suspect the additional fur acts as insulation against both cold and heat – that it takes a lot of heat for it to pass through the fur to the actual cat.

As long as they have plenty of water available at all times and a choice of indoors/long grass/bushes to lie under if too warm, they will cope with any heat better than you do and that unless your vet advises otherwise, they may get more problems if their fur is shaved.

Its true, people fake all sorts of ‘I’m OK’.

“make more sense to close for two days during the week”
Yep. Just take your kids out of school for 2 days every working week of the year so you can get to spend some time with them – as your employer now makes you work all weekend and the present employment situation means you cant get another job very easily. That’ll work, no probs.

“Don’t get a job in retail if you aren’t a fan of working weekends – simples”
Yep, just turn down the only job you have been offered in the last 4 months and loose all your benefits – that one works too.

A lot of people in this thread don’t seem to have noticed the national unemployment issue or the vast numbers of people loosing their jobs / terrified of loosing their jobs.

If people can’t manage to organise themselves go shopping within the hours already available I am surprised they can find their own front door without assistance.

Tape over it. Seems like the only way to be sure at the moment.
Feeling spied on 24 hours a day by almost every marketing company or the government security cameras and now this… gets tiresome doesn’t it.

Maybe the question here is not really about dying, but about
– what your belief in the after life is?
– what you think you will miss out on in this life if you die?
I dont know your answers, but it might help you to look at them. I can give you some of my own, my personl views on my death:

I am very fortunate in that I have no gods and no belief in an afterlife. I also enjoy sleeping. To me, being dead is something to look forward to in many ways, when my life is done. No one can hurt you again, there will be no pain or fear or hunger, loss or grief. To me that is a wonderful state and I find it very comforting when I have lost creatures and people I love – to know that they have gone somewhere utterly safe from harm of any sort.

What would I miss from this life? Well lots of things – but things I would escape from would potentially be pain, loss, a difficult old age, long term illness, right wing politics, wars, people and animals suffering and there being little I can do about it. There are plenty of things I would be more than glad to see the back of.

Fast deaths are also kinder to your loved ones – so think of dying suddenly as a gift to them as watching someone die slowly and not being able to help them is really really not fun.

Having seen a few people die very very slowly – one dehydrating and starving to death through illness – I can think of no end better than a sudden one. Our neighbour died suddenly walking along a lane chatting to my mum. The guy just collapsed and died in the road. He really liked my mum, liked the countryside, it was a nice day. He was fine 5 minutes before. Great way to go. No time to be afraid or to worry, just like turning off a light switch and heading into a lovely sleep. Could it get any better than that?

George cross also looks a bit ‘First Aid Centre’.
Though at this rate with the budget coming up, we may have more need of receiving it than giving it 🙂

Well, I am not generally into sport, so have low awareness of sporting events and their timing.

Actually if the flag did phase out, I guess in turn it would mess up some other countries flags as I think the Union flag is included in parts of some of them?

I wonder if England would still try to retain being called ‘United Kingdom’ or ‘Great Britain’ as they are union related names as well, and I guess as much belonging to Scotland as any other bit?

chewkw – cut straight to an image of a crumpled beer can for the working classes and a pound sign for the bankers? 🙂

I did not make this up – its a logical conclusion if Scotland leave the Union. Must any thought be ‘made up’ if its not mentioned in the newspapers first? Scotland leaving has been much debated of late. I see no reason why Wales would not go for independence if Scotland does.
Either way, I cant see how anyone can go on using the Union flag if there ends up being no union. The flag cannot be seen as owned by England alone. Its whole point is as a representation of union.

The thought came to mind as I saw an interpretation of the flag on a building yesterday. It just crossed my mind that it might not be around much longer.

I dont fancy the George flag (given I live in England I presume thats what would become my national flag). I would be happy to dump the national anthem though, if there was a chance of getting shot of it. Egotistical and depressing sounding music/song.

From the licensing site, bold bits are highlighted by me not them:

“You need to be covered by a valid TV Licence if you watch or record TV as it’s being broadcast. This includes the use of devices such as a computer, laptop, mobile phone or DVD/video recorder.”

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/%5B/url%5D

There is no longer any statement about it being illegal to own a TV itself without a licence.

Not worried, I really don’t have anything to hide. I have always been happy to contribute to the BBC and people who duck their license fees have always annoyed me – I don’t see why I should pay higher license fees to subsidise cheaters who then boast how clever they are. Equipment breakage has co-coincided with declining quality of signal where I live (trees growing, high building works), too many reality and lifestyle TV shows and my loosing my job so being shorter on money. I will buy a new license if/when I take TV up again.

I am mostly curious, as civil liberties seem to be changing lots these days, what the rules are for TV people demanding to search the house. It was never an issue for me but its caused me to wonder now. Anyone got any links to a legal statement about house entry?

Has it occurred to no one that the husband may be the person who posted the picture and the wife does not know he put it in the public domain?

Or

They both know its there, cos going public is something they get a kick out of?

Thanks, but I can only pay by credit card as I don’t want to start a paypal account.

Anyone else know how things stand with chainreaction these days?

Lets face it, the brother is not fussed if his immediate family attends, he is more interested in the extended family or the image of marrying abroad, or perhaps into getting away from his family for the wedding.

You don’t have weddings in expensive and difficult to get to places if you have any true desire for your immediate friends and family to be able to be there, unless the people concerned are all very well off and you know the cost / travel to obscure places / inconvenience will not hit them in any way. The fact he has chosen somewhere in the middle of nowhere in addition to being abroad underlines his disinterest in people being able to attend the wedding even more.

Seems to me the problem is not your wife’s dilemma on whether to go but the fact that her brother does not care if she is there at all, or what penalty she and her family have to make to please a brother who is indifferent to her and her financial/family situation. If he is well off, has he offered to financially help anyone get there? Has he chosen a location where there are plenty of places to stay and therefore people can get at least good room rates and easy transport to the area.

Seems to me its a bit of a kick in the face to your wife and anyone else who is not well heeled in his family and I would not bother going just due to his clear indifference to her and others in her position.

If he was close to her, why would he do this? If he is not emotionally close, why bother to go?

I think historically people always produce more low quality stuff than high end. There are relatively few famous paintings, books, furniture, musical instruments that are viewed with high regard over time, compared to how many of these things would actually have been widely produced.

Quality old films get shown on TV because some of the more rubbish stuff just gets lost in time, as with books.

However having said that, I think we lack variety these days. The studio system would nurture a star and run their career for decades to gain very long spanning profits – so quality older actresses and actors would be found or included in plots or had them written for them – leading to a bigger variety of ages, scenarios, plots and role models than I think we get now.

Also fear of financial loss is a problem. Studios and stars would turn out multiple films per year. Stars worked pretty continuously, none of this one film per year or less stuff. It gave more room to experiment as the films were cheaper to make and one failure in a bunch of 10 was not the end of the world, but it is if you only make a single film per year.

This has lead to the ‘security blanket’ attitude of
– Grasping at novelty and the new (awe the viewer with technical effects and use their curiosity to get them to any old film, no worries about a plot)
– Remake good films (usually a failure, repeating perfection is pointless and no one tries to improve a bad film even if there is scope)
– Pander to male audiences/movie exec egos by always pairing old men with young women and generally showing little interest in non-youth, non older male audiences
– Use focus groups and then change film plots to fit the broadest common denominator that can be obtained ( with emphasis on youth and older males).

I think cinemas are not helping at the moment, as the admission prices are absurd, so the audience is trapped into not taking risks as well as the studios – so more quirky films loose out even more as its too risky to spend £40 upward taking a family to an unfamiliar film. £8-£11 quid for one adult ticket (the price of one or more DVDs which you can repeat show or lend to friends).

Price means no hope of taking a family and getting kids into the cinema habit.

I used to go on my own at least 4 or 5 times per month, did that for many years. Last 2 years not been at all as the ticket prices are no longer affordable and I don’t even have a family to keep.

Cinema/multiplexes – an industry killing the best of itself off.

I went to a lecture once on adventure travels. Two blokes who I think were from Thornbury Glos (I could be mis-remembering) had bought an old bus. They did it up over several months and at a lot of cost to be a very classy mobile home. The talk was photos and info about thier tour around Europe with it and what fun they had.

By the time I had heard the talk, they had already sold it on as they felt they had ‘been there, done that’ and I believe they made a profit on the purchase and outfitting.