Had all my back up wedding photo gear stolen out the back of my car. Thought I might die of rage (especially after speaking to the insurance company) but am still breathing. Deeply.

Walked that Applecross to Kenmore about a month ago but didn't think much of it TBH – bit of a long, not very rewarding slog. It was a pretty nasty day though and can imagine it being a bit better on a sunny day (and on a bike!). Lots of deer on the slopes.

HERE is a ride report from last year.

All worth it for that descent into Sligichan….

Cracking set of documentary pics – hats off. Just been off having a look at GF1s and like the look of them. They look much smaller and neater than my hulking Nikon lumps – almost Leica-like. May be tempted once I've paid off the creddly card…

Move on – I say that with no reservations, without knowing anything about you, and I would say it to anyone in similar circs.

IMHO.

I've tried a few over the years and always gone back to campingaz lanterns. The quality of the light is just so much more pleasant – it really does make a huge difference to be sitting in a warm glowing light as opposed to the surgical white light of LEDs.

IME you get two whole nights (perhaps 8-10 hours) of light out of a cheap (£1.50) canister.

+1

*weeps into pipe and leaks gently into slippers*

Don't know if this year old thread might be of any help;

HERE

Oh and twice hit a car when it was my fault. One stationary – on me paper round with a mahoosive reel to reel Reevox tape recorder in my bag (some fool had binned it). Lost control of my dad's 10 speed Claude Butler (his pride and joy) when the bag swung off my shoulder. Went over the roof of a parked car after fishtailing wildly at high speed.

Second one – car was moving but stopped very abruptly. I hit the back of his car and put a nasty little ding in his boot lid. The guy got out and couldn't apologise enough – got away lightly there – deffo my fault…

Also loads of near misses and crash avoidance manouvres here…

Only once been hit – a lady in a wee car approaching a massive open roundabout. I was already on the R/A in the left lane, going straight ahead. Made very definite eye contact as she approached but she just accelerated (!). Perhaps she had seen me but didn't want to stop?

I could tell a few seconds before it happened that she was going to hit me so was able to throw myself onto her bonnet. She still pretended that I was from a different dimension and didn't actually exist. She got all the way over the R/A, still doing about 40 mph, before acknowledging the fact that a guy in a yellow jacket was lying on her bonnet and hollering in a panic stricken fashion – the bike in the meantime had been pinged a good 10 – 12 meters into the centre of the junction.

She then did the obvious thing and slammed on the brakes, causing my good self to slide off at velocity and tumble a good distance over the tarmac. Stood up and shakily began to walk towards the car – the woman began driving off and I had to stand in front of the car. When she eventually pulled over, the first words out of her mouth were, "Where's yer f£ckin lights then?". It was mid afternoon and bright sunlight. She then wanted to know if my insurance was up to date!

Bike was totalled along with my trousers and £200 Berghaus jacket (they were expensive in them days!) but the Polis reckoned that without witnesses, and despite the obvious story told by the damage to car, bike and person, that it was blow for blow. Cr@p.

+1 tiger. I quite like a bit of seasick too, in smallish doses.

Cheap tents: wait for the first breath of wind 😐

We bought a Gelert four man tent (wasn't even that cheap) and used it about four times in the first year – always in nice summer weather. Took it car-camping up Sutherland / Assynt way a week or so back and it fell over in the middle of the night. It was blowing a light wind.

Upon closer inspection in the morning, three of the fibreglass poles had splintered along their full length and loads of stitching had given way, both on the inner and outer.

In future, I'll only buy super-cheap tents on the basis that they'll need replacing every season, or use my tiny wee expensive tents and cook in the rain.

Edric – that thing is a behemoth! 16 litres capacity in a saddlebag?! First pothole with that thing fully laden and it'll rip your saddle off 🙂

In Aberdeen it was "Chinner".

Oy Vey! This will run and run! Re selling 'files' as opposed to prints, well I do both (for weddings and events) and do fairly well out of both types of sale.

I just think well why miss out on a £2.50 sale of a web-sized pic at 72dpi?

+1 for photium. I've used them for many years and have tried a few others along the way. It's specifically aimed at photographers and is great if you're unwilling to learn html or, like me just want an easy to use interface which looks good.

Will, the owner is amazingly fast to respond to questions – I've asked him fairly obscure questions at four in the morning and had a polite, pleasant answer within minutes. He just doesn't seem to sleep.

Feel free to click my username to see the site.

Pap photographers can just rock up to someone's front door, ring the bell, and when they answer, unload a flashgun into their just-out-of-bed face and go publish it. As long as the front door in question is on public land (i.e., a normal road).

These days? A theft of bikes…..

Nah – no rights if the photo is taken on public land.

EDIT: Oh wait – actually, if it's for commercial useage, he'd have to get a model release.

My grandad's big old house on the shore in Edinburgh has a large contingent of urban foxes. There seem to be two or three seperate families – the garden is big enough for them to all play nicely most of the time.

They have no problem with sunbathing in the middle of the lawn for half the day, just lolling about and play fighting. They also wander through many of the neighbouring gardens and disappear off down the old railway line at the back of the house. Not very timid really.

They're not too keen on my dog though, as he tends to want to kill them – he's had at least two fights with the foxes and had a big, nasty cut over his eye after the last one. He's not a big dog – lurcher / terrier cross and he doesn't even have any b@lls left, poor chap, but he does like a pagger with Mr Fox.

I used to cover snowboarding and skiing events for the British Universities Snowsports Club (some of the pics still come up if you google my name in google images!).

You do find yourself just making sure that you definitely have at least one photo of everybody – if that means sitting in one place for an hour or so, then so be it.

I like to think though that most of the pics were at least interesting and I put a lot of thought and effort into (my) location, off camera lighting and technical considerations.

Occasionally, I've thought about getting into the mtb race market – I already take pics for a living and the subject matter is plenty interesting… Sounds like it may already be a saturated market though?

simonfbarnes – Member

a dog will run itself to death

next time pick a better designed pet

Chuckles 😆

Also at Tazzy's post…

BUMP!

How do you crucify a spastic?
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On a swastika.

What's better than throwing babies off a cliff?

Catching them with a pitchfork.

Was in Evans once to buy a cheapy bike for my old man. Based on that one experience I wouldn't go back or recommend it. Perhaps I was just very, very unlucky with the staff member and timing but the attitude of this guy left me with my jaw scraping the ground.

Not to mention a bike which was criminally unsafe despite an enforced hour long wait whilst they performed a safety check on the bike…

Pik n Mix – read my post above. Plus, you still have to pedal and can just turn the motor on / off whenever necessary.

Onza – after my (very limited) research sesh, you're not required to pass any tests and they don't need insurance / tax or anything else. They're not very quick though – less so if you don't assist by pedalling.

My pal who lives in Amsterdam very proudly put up a pic of her new electric cargo bike on Facebook the other day. Looked the balls and needless to say I was very jealous!

I started a thread a while back on here regarding an elecric bike for my old mum who lives on Skye and no longer has the energy to get to Portree and back. I was shocked by the lack of choice and giant price tags – I know Skye prolly has a fair bit less traffic than most city centres but agree that there must be an untapped market here.

I did wonder about the effects of a stroke…

Our family has had its fair share of unhinged types (no blood relations… I think) over the generations and without wishing to cause offence to anyone, there's a good reason that the general populace are afraid of those who don't fit comfortably into the system.

Their behaviour is erratic. I've watched a cousin pull his brother down the stairs by his hair during an 'episode', whilst screaming in such a way that I'm still a six year old boy right now, watching it happen on Xmas day 1979.

Those who SNAP are the scariest of all. No warning, no doctors' notes.

The local dry ski slope here in Sunderland is built on an old colliery site. About 10 years ago, the half kilometer lake on the site simply disappeared overnight into a large and scary looking crevice 😯

There's these for £69 with a 2nd pair free;

FUGLY

Used the company for a normal pair of specs with no problems – they also offer the option of trying them out for a while before buying.

"Here comes another f*cker!".

My LBS always has one in stock. I crashed it into a display of kids' bikes a few years back 😳

I don't remember it being all that hard to learn but I got my first uni when I was about 10 – would probably find it much harder as an adult.

You will fall off but I've never once hurt myself falling off a uni – you do tend to land on your feet.

I treated my Raleigh Grifter like a mountain bike until it died. I then had a Claude Butler 10 speed tourer which also got horribly abused.

First 'proper' mtb came from the police auctions – still had a U lock on it. A neon yellow Muddy Fox with tasteful neon pink paw prints all over it.

Took me about two weeks to bend the forks back – exactly what did for my Grifter 🙁

I've got one, can ride it, but rarely do. It'll come in handy for something one day I'm sure. Busked on a uni during the Edinburgh festival one year which does give you a bit of added flavour but gets a bit sketchy where space is at a premium…

Joe – I'm intrigued. What were the pots used for?

I am not here.

Aye the Mustard Seed's not bad and if it's sunny (unlikely) you might even get to sit out on the balcony. Just promise not to go to Harley's Bar (if it still exists). Worst. Food. Ever. And service. And everything's covered in a layer of minging, stale grease.

Link checked – you're actually a lot closer than I thought – will run it past the rest of the mob guys and see what the preference is, cheers.