W.T.F. Utter nonsense.

Mark – beautiful photos mate! But less is more 🙂

Had a photoshoot with a Husky yesterday – lovely dog. I’m so used to seeing massive Alaskan Malamutes being walked on harnesses round here that it came as a bit of a surprise seeing a proper Husky again – slim and svelte; athletic looking I suppose.

From any chemist – they’re usually behind the counter.

@Saxon Rider, I had dry skin on my hips and arms, so was at the GP’s two or three times with that. Whenever I mentioned, ‘down there’ they imsisted it was the same thing, and told me to lather myself in some extra-powerful aquaeous cream type stuff (like a goose-fat moisturiser).

That always made it worse but was too scared to book an appointment especially for my nether regions, so just grinned and bore it.

The one-shot Canesten stuff shouldn’t do you any harm (IANAD) and may well sort you right out. But don’t just take one – I started on one pill and saw a slight improvement for a few days, then it came back. So I nipped out and bought another three, which I had all at the same time. Stopped it dead.

I put up with this for a couple of years – too embarrased to go to the doctor… Eventually, after a bit of furtive internetting, I got myself three of those one-shot Canesten pills (well, the chemist’s own brand, half price equivalent) and necked them all at once.

Cleared up in 24 hours and never returned. After TWO YEARS of pain and itchiness. Brilliant!

You can spend a fair bit less, and just plug an external HD into each computer once a week. But must admit, I’m interested in the whole wi-fi aspect. Wouldn’t that involve compressing files and losing info (photos…).

Fair enough – the cheese moves and those without the nose to smell it and follow it starve! Only tonight I saw a whole gallery of websized images (watermarked, natch) on a client’s Facebook page. She had a cost-price shoot for her pampered pooch – my hope was that she’d come back and buy some prints / products. She didn’t – she got her web-savvy son to nick the images from my website 🙁

They’re all right-click protected, but only in a very basic way.

Given that this thread has gone so badly OT….

Got to agree (mostly) with timc here. Clients occasionally ask me why I charge so much for one day’s work (as a wedding photographer). It’s almost impossible to make them understand the underlying costs; time – my time – it must be worth something; going back and forth to the client’s house to discuss their upcoming nuptials, returning after the wedding to discuss album choices, a whole day of editing their images, followed by another whole day of processing them.

Time. Again. The time it takes to market my business; Facebook, registering with every single bridal directory, networking, album design, dealing with emails from not just the client, but also their families. Hours spent Googling for the best suppliers of clamshell tins for my clients’ DVDs or perhaps local wedding fairs.

Time; my time. Five years in uni and college learning my craft, followed by another year of carting photographers’ bags about and making tea. Time.

And that’s all before I’ve spent a penny on advertising, hardware (£1000s worth of gear), software, computers, suits, transport, sample albums, education (by Thor that was the dear bit), websites, insurance, ad infinitum, ad nauseum.

djglover – Member
I must say you are rather amateurish when it comes to complaining. Similar thing happened to me. It took one email to as many members of the board and senior management cc’ing bbc watchdog and ofcom for me to get an apologeitc phone call and a full refund a couple of days later.

10 / 10 for being a patronising scrat-end 😉 But there is a lot of truth in this. There really is no point in speaking to call centre monkeys (or more commonly with PF the lady at the front desk who also makes the tea.

Googling for depot managers’ contact details, CCing in a few consumer rights organisations and best of all, pointing them all at your recent blog post (laying out all the facts) works the best.

I had a recent problem with some calendar printing, wrote THIS BLOG POST and had a call from the MD the same afternoon promising delivery this week (fingers crossed).

This thread would make much more sense if folk gave their age before posting, as the general train of thought seems to be that kids get much more these days. But looking at the lists above, I’m not sure if that’s true… (38 for the record).

My biggest presents were things like technical Lego sets. Most pressies were second hand – Action men, Scaelextric, Raleigh Pavemaster repainted the same colour as the outside of the house with leftover paint 🙂 ).

One year, with no prompting, I got a brand new Grifter XL – I genuinely couldn’t believe it was for me, and wouldn’t touch it for nearly a full half hour!

Full size filing cabinet here, but then I do run a small business from home….

Musta blinked 😐

Ta! Worth knowing. Been meaning to upgrade the laptop for a couple of years. Running 32 bit Vista with 2x1GB of RAM, Photoshop CS5 Lightroom 3 and an album design prog, so it all sucks up the memory!

Slight hijack, but always wondered if expensive memory is better than the cheaper stuff? Do you get what you pay for?

Yes! Things like this show me the world is still on track (crack?)!

Spooky Woods in December, at 11.00 on a starless night (artist’s impression).

Lulz.

I’ve ridden into the twilight hours at GT quite a few times now – trying to squeeze every last minute of riding out of the daylight. Would have to agree that with GT specifically in mind, riding in the woods quickly becomes nigh on impossible without lights, no matter how well you know the route.

That said, there’s no way I would have said anything – entirely up to them to judge the risks.

See also….

Impressive stuff there! And to think I used to get stick from the wife for having photographic chemicals knocking around…. Will show her this thread next time the darkroom gets set up 😉

I kind of like them because I get paid handsomely to produce visual impact assessment photography for the developers once or twice a year 🙂 Couple of months hanging around in the mountains waiting for decent visibility, all expenses paid, all day hikes miles from anywhere – dog loves it too!

I pulled one of those out of my scalp at the end of a Welsh cycling trip. It wasn’t pea sized though – more like a smallish popcorn kernel. Mine was the result of washing with nothing but cheap soap (no shampoo) for three weeks and resting my head on a minging old travel pillow I suspect.

Managed to completely disgust my wife and her friend by trying to cut it open on the station platform with my swissy.

These are January – sorry 😉

Oh – yeah saw that and really, really enjoyed it. Reminded me there’s another way of life if I ever need it! Made me want to up and off with nothing but a knife and a $20 bill.

EARTHLINGS Narrated by Joaquin Pheonix, but don’t let that put you off. Full length film and very watchable. It’ll make you question the shoes on your feet, the wool on your back and the meat on your plate. If you’re not donating to PETA after watching, in floods of guilty tears then either you’re SBZ or there’s something up with you.

Too kind…. but for a certain fee, it can be arranged 😀 Or you could just take a holiday in Elgol – there’s an amazing holiday house right on the hill above the bay, with huge glass picture windows. If I’m ever rich enough, I’m going to hire it for a month and hope for a decent sunrise / set.

That black bag ^^^ looks like part of a gimp outfit 🙂

Weekend away sounds like the best bet. Failing that, and given the time of year, perhaps a Muckynutz mini-mudguard (especially given that you’re doing the maintenance and it stops crud getting at the lower headset bearings) or a pair of riding glasses?

EDIT: Oh wait – trail hound puppy!

Cheers! That round rock has been shot by all the landscape greats – they got better weather though… Strangely, when I showed the photo to my Mum (who lives on Skye) she told me my Grandad had shot it back in the 50s!

Thought I’d uploaded these already but seems not. All taken on Skye in October – locations include Elgol and Neist Point.

Has he stuck his face in a bucket of engine oil? 😀 Handsome fella!

Sorry – just found another – more guitary than bikey though…

Very early 90s I think, but still had 80s hair 🙂

Saw that on telly the other day. Great story with a very sad and unexpected end to it.

I can vouch for Photobox’s calendars being very, very good in comparison to the cheaper ones – we had one done for the inlaws a few years ago.

There’s a huge thread on this subject on the Moneysavingexpert forum, with all the current offers and discounts. My own personal recommendation would be anywhere but PRINTERPIX (my blog post about how awful their customer service is).

bencooper – all my plates are the rectangular ones. The big ****-off screw is held in place on the reverse of the plate by a pingf*ckit.

Those pingf*ckitt clips mentioned by Cougar on page one are the weak link in Manfrotto tripod systems. They hold the tripod plate threaded thingmy onto the camera, and when they bend and fail, they leave your £1000 camera in a rocky puddle.

TJ + a million. And Elfin was right – we’re tired and this is as emotive a subject as anyone could bring up.

That said, my Grandad was at the forefront of promoting Scottish business during the 60s – 70s, culminating in the huge hydro-electric projects in the Scottish Highlands. Thatcher was instrumental in getting these enterprises up and running. These days, taking these developments as a seperate entity, she might be applauded for her forward thinking, environmentally aware attitude, not to mention the employment opportunities for the local communities.

Beyond all that, I’ve lived in the North East of England for eight years now and have worked with many of those for whom the miners’ strikes were a reality, rather than something to yawn at on the news, or read a bit about in ‘The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole’.

I have friends whose parents were arrested for cutting down telegraph poles to heat their houses.

She was a destructive force for the main part but had her eye on the bigger picture, at all and any cost. I am so not about to invoke Godwins’ law and am off to bed also.

I’ve been a couple of weeks late every year for as long as I can remember. The first time, it was nearly a month over and I sweated in the Post Office queue, wondering if they’d call the police…. But no, she just back-dated it without blinking.

Just don’t get done for DUI before tomorrow 🙂

The depressing bits are depressing.

The trick is not to live in those bits.

I find myself wondering how I got here (NE England) and wondering when I can go back (Scotland).

Had I been born here, I’d probably like it a little better and I mean absolutely no offence to the fine people of the region. But with 40 million worth of cuts in the local health trust (that’s JUST ONE TRUST!), the highest unemployment rate per head in the UK, public service facilities being wound down and businesses floundering, I can’t see a very bright (immediate) future for the region 🙁