Grizedale Grizzly’s back on, on the 12th of July for anyone that’s interested.

Rage against the machine – Bombtrack.

Pixlr, either the download version or the online. Both are pretty good.

Depends what it is. I post mostly general stuff that’s just images, song lyrics, stuff like that, that aren’t there to provoke discussion. If they do, it’s unintentional but welcomed.

Unless…

The ‘discussion’ is just someone either posting self-aggrandizing bullocks for their own benefit or simply being confrontational for the sake of argument. Then, the posts get deleted or, for repeated sinners, they get blocked.

Big ‘archer’ in the Old School competition, National Student Rodeo 2015, Holme Pierrepont, Nottingham.

I keep going back and re-reading things, 20-odd years after I first started, and picking up on references that bypassed me as a child. The mark of a classic, I think.

A sad day. Never met him, but the Discworld was practically a second home for much of my childhood. Got hooked on the Bromeliad trilogy in primary school, then Carpet People, the Johnny Maxwell trilogy and then Discworld.

Rest In Peace, Sir Terry. I hope Roundworld Death is as nice a chap as his Disc counterpart.

Look up ‘Dazzle Camouflage’, maybe?

Seen in a couple of public loos, particularly those ones where the cubicle door stops 6″ from the floor:

“BEWARE THE DREADED LIMBO DANCER…”

Yes please. Drop me an email address (mine’s in my profile) and I’ll sort out payment.

What molgrips said.

Also, IS can effect quality if you’re moving, ie, shooting from a vehicle or even panning with a subject.

No advice, really, but when I got back into running in 2011 (with a Janathon – running every single day in January) my gait changed without any concious effort. I went from a ‘normal’ heel-strike to a mid/forefoot strike without thinking about it or forcing myself to change – the only concious part was thinking “this doesn’t hurt as much as it used to”.

I’m of the opinion that that ‘natural’ change made it easier and less injurious than trying to force myself to run a certain way. As aracer put it, there’s nothing inherently “poor form” about heel striking, but you may find that you adapt as you go on.

You’re lucky, I had three families to deal with. Bride’s parents divorced when she was quite young, so two sets of family shots and all the associated politics to deal with…

Molgrips – as I said, I was in the same boat as you earlier in the year.

I got the ‘why bother, get them to fork out for a professional’ questions on another forum when I asked for some wedding photography tips. Mainly from people who shoot a lot of weddings and, as far as I could tell, didn’t want any more competition. Thing was, it was pretty much the same situation: A good friend who couldn’t afford a professional wedding photographer and was willing to risk an important part of their big day taking a pretty big chance on me. That put the stress on, but talking to them, getting an idea of what they wanted, letting them know that I was happy to do it but working out of my comfort zone, etc. really helped. They’d both seen my sports shooting before, liked my style, and were more than happy for me to set my own agenda for the day.

I don’t know anything about your photographic skills, so apologies if any of this sounds really patronising. The biggest tips I got from the first wedding I ever shot:

– Scout the venue as much as you can. If you can be there for the rehearsal, brilliant.
– Talk to the celebrant in advance about where you can and can’t stand, move, be during the ceremony, and whether you can use flash in the church/venue.
– Get a shooting list from the bride of what they want by way of Formals. That helps stop family politics getting in the way of your shots.
– Have an ‘assistant’ or nobble one of the Ushers/Bridesmaids into helping you locate and arrange family members in formal shots.
– Don’t leave your camera bag in shot (my only mistake, and only in one, non-crucial shot… Still kicking myself about that one.)
– Pack a shedload of spares – camera batteries, flash batteries, memory cards etc. My camera bag weighed a ton, but I used nearly everything I carried.
– Have backups of EVERYTHING. I carry two camera bodies which take pairs of memory cards (Nikon D7000). I had one memory card glitch/corrupt on me. Fortunately, the paired setup means I didn’t lose anything.
– Have some snacks in your camera bag. It can be a long day, and champagne goes straight to your head.
– 99.9% of the time, the unexpected shots work out better than the planned ones. If you’re used to shooting sport stuff you’ve probably got good at shooting things that happen pretty quickly and you don’t get a second chance at. That’s a wedding, really.

Lens how is a good start, but might be more difficult for you on Olympus bodies. High ISO and a fast lens works well, I hired a Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 for the last wedding I did and it was stunning. I’ve ended up in the same boat as you (again) so will be taking the same to the next one.

The accessory bracket isn’t that necessary, going back to your original post.

Too much meat in the banger.
I had that issue so had to have my pencil sharpened.

Me too. Had it done when I was 11, but if a shock a week before Christmas, but ho hum…

Or go in the middle – Manitou Tower is 48mm offset.

I’ll be at the back (as in probably riding sweep for it) and on either Crossmarks or Ardents, depending how dry it is.

Odd that it’s the BCD that’s the issue, it’s normally the middle ring tabs that cause the problems. Shimano changed their cranks from 90mm to 88mm ID a while back, So aftermarket rings will be baggy on Shimano cranks but should fit.

It will happen when you least expect it to, and when you least need it to. Such is the way of the Laws of Sod.

Both times a mech’s gone on me has been late on in a race: 4am at Sleepless and 85km into a 100km MTB-O event. Both times were pretty much user error combined with environmental factors (mud and bits of tree) as well, so not so much ‘component failure’ as ‘somewhat exceeded design spec limitations’. I’ve never had a shifter fail, but a freewheel went on the first climb of another MTB-O event. I don’t think there’s any way of second guessing it, unless you inspect vigorously for fatigue marks and check the internals of your shifters after every ride.

If you’ve only had the bike 18 months, unless you’re putting massive mileage on it, you shouldn’t be having bits ‘fail’ left right and centre.

Yup, plot as scatter. You can still plot series, but it’ll be a darn sight simpler that way.

AWOLNATION – Sail ? Used on shedloads of stuff

I sold my Marin Indian Fire Trail on to a mate, after it had been through several different usages with me (original with threaded headset and Manitou 2 forks, updated with AHead and Marz MXCs, singlespeed, slicked up with P2s, back to the MXCs). He’s now completely stripped, serviced and rebuilt it twice as well, the frame is still awesome.

Love it. Only done the Rhenigidale loop and those zig-zags the other way round, but it’s awesome country. Nice one :)

Shepherds Cafe. Great place.

Pounds per Square Amp

I’m going to European Court of Human Rights to get bald fat blokes reclassified as an ethnic group

Lip up, fatty.

Might not be 3 clicks for a triple, some of the shifters have a ‘trim’ position to stop the cage rubbing in certain positions. One to watch if you’re tuning it up.

Also yes, sounds like the BB spindle is too short.

Rather Be Cycling’s ‘Adventure X’ events? 40- to 60-odd mile CX/mtb rides, the one in Wales was very good fun. Not that techy but enjoyable long days out, there’s one in Galloway and one in the Lakes left in the series: http://www.ratherbecyclingevents.co.uk/

Went to the Italian in Leeds for an office Christmas dinner a couple of years back.

It was nothing special.

Not done the Monster Miles (will probably be working at it!) but rode as a backmark for the Rhinog Raptor event a few weeks back. Great fun, really nice course, some hard climbs and some fun-if-twitchy-on-a-cross-bike descents. I’d have been better off on my MTB simply because I lacked the legs for my CX bike gearing on those climbs, but it’s definitely more of a cross thing than MTB. The most techy bits in Wales were the Coed y Brenin blue-grade trail.

Can I suggest that if you don’t like it, you boycott Red Bull and Playboy?

Never really bought Playboy, and it was a bit too high class a mag to be found in the hedgerows when I was younger…

It’s more about what they represent in the video – “objects” rather than people capable of something themselves. I very much appreciate women (!) but I recognise they are slightly more than their breast size…

As do (I hope/suspect) 99% of the people on here. But…

If the ladies in question were being forced into being ‘objectified’, I would agree with you. But they’re not, they *choose* to pose for Playboy, to be Bunnies – if you like to look at it that way, to objectify themselves.

I don’t see any foul play in looking at a woman who has chosen to put herself in a position which says “look at me”. What are we to do, pander to the wishes of the woman who wants to be viewed and admired, or pander to the wishes of those who say we shouldn’t be admiring them?

(Edit: Not denying the tackiness, by the way. Just highlighting the element of choice)

none of us know what it is or isn’t going to show

well there’s been a number of stills on Danny Mac’s twitter feed.[/quote]

Fair enough, I wasn’t aware of that – I don’t use Twitter!

*you* might not leave it very far behind – that doesn’t exactly count for us *all*…

Sorry Rachel, but to play Devil’s Advocate – *you* might be outraged, but that also doesn’t exactly count for us *all*…

It’s just another venue, and until the video comes out none of us know what it is or isn’t going to show.

Excellent, thank you chaps, just the kind of feedback I was looking for.

Awesome. Well done the winner and runners-up, and most of all fantastic work Evie and Dan :)

As the old adage goes, “if it flies, floats or fornicates, always rent it”

I can’t say I do that, but I’ve found the least stressful way to live with my other half is simply not to live with her. Been together 8 years, we have our own houses, we each spend plenty of time to ourselves as well as time with each other, we have a good relationship.