chrisp7091

Where is the nearest steam loco line, out of interest?

Cheers - they were just a couple of fun shots at Graves Park, but I thought the textures came through well. No - I havn't come across that collection of presets before. The presets I used came from x-equals.com. I modified them a bit to get a result I was happy with. Not sure it's that accurate in terms of a Kodachrome emulation. That film always looks to me to have a sort of warm or reddish colour cast. I still enjoyed the finished look, though.

Yes, you are quite right. Film or digital, the results can be awful. I think the thing I like about film is that things that can go wrong in unexpected ways, but this seems to add to the final result. I think the Lightroom presets I've been messing with do the same thing. Sometimes they work in an odd but interesting way, other times they just spoil the shot. I've not tried the DXO film pack, but it certainly looks interesting and a very comprehensive collection. I'd love to see any results other people have to show. Here are a couple more from today at Graves park. Took the kids up to see the animals, as it was an 'inset' day at school: Whaddya want: Kiss me quick:

Thanks. Really pleased you liked them. I think the settings I used look promising, so I'll have to try them on some more images.

Recently, I've been thinking that a lot of my digital shots look quite characterless. Technically, they are great - razor sharp and clear, but they lack the mood and 'feeling' I get when using film. I don't think post processing digital is a complete solution - that would be to only use film. I thought I'd give it a go though. Here are some images with Kodachrome presets applied in Lightroom. What do you think: All taken at Dam Flask nr Bradfield.

We have a bread maker that has a missing dough mixing blade. Is there anywhere I can take it that might stock replacement blades or be able to find one for me? We don't want to just sling it out. Cheers

I agree. Trouble is, people don't know when they are well off and will moan about almost anything. Go back to the generation who lived pre war and ask them what life was like before most of our social services kicked in. They will tell you what it was like to really suffer.

Again, this is the nature of a free market. It's not good - but its a jungle out there and this is the way things are. Its the same with energy firms who over charge because they have a captive audience or banks who treat our savings like monopoly money. Hand over that cash prior to work being done and you totally risk waving bye bye to it. You always need to bear this in mind when dealing with the situation. Give someone an inch and they will take a mile - be they customer or business.

In a way, we are all each other's enemies. Thats the nature of a free market with little regulation. It's every man for himself and you have to put yourself first. I fully sympathize with your position regarding customers who won't pay. When we had work done, we paid immediately in cash. I don't suppose there's any answer to this, but from my own corner, we've had so many issues with some of the building work we've had done that this has coloured my opinion of tradesmen for life. This is hard on the good people out there - and there are many of them. My own brother in law runs a double glazing business and is a quality workman. He never asks for cash up front though.

NEVER GIVE BUILDERS MONEY UP FRONT. Times may be hard, but your money is hard earned and once you hand it over to them, you are at the their mercy! I speak from experience. A quality builder like Bardon and Hall would not ask for you for this. They come highly recommended and they will not ask for the cash up front(I'm not associated with them, but they did some very good work for us). Also - whoever you use - check out previous clients to see if they are happy. Try and visit their homes and ask the owners if they were happy with the work done. Don't rely on just one person's opinion. Decent tradesmen should be able to provide a string of contacts for whom they delivered the goods. If not - don't touch them.

It's horrible. My mate knows someone who was manager of one of the Jacob's photo stores in Leeds. When that chain closed down, he moved to Jessops. Now this. Harsh. At least we have our own local stores still intact - Ron Harrisons and Sheffield Photographic. Are there any others in the city?

Yep - Saltburn is very nice. Maybe next Christmas we will stay there and treat the family to a hotel Christmas lunch:-)

A few photos from over Christmas. We stayed with the in laws in Redcar, which is where the industry is based and where the horrible Furby was unwrapped:

I have been referred by several people to the Epson P50. I've not seen the results myself, but am considering buying one. Photo quality is supposed to be pretty good. It's usually around 100-120 quid and there are plenty of compatible ink carts available for it. Hope that helps

A few shots from my recent walks in the local countryside. Comments Welcome.

Ooops sorry - posted twice in error. See my next post. How do I delete this?

I use a Nikon Coolscan 3. It's SCSI, but works fine using Vuescan software on a PC running windows XP. It's a good machine if you can find a used one in good nick. Hope that helps.

I've heard some good things about the Velbon Rexi L. Probably not the most fashionable name, but the reviews seems universally good. Anyone tried one of these? I keep meaning to try one myself.

Bit of a mixed bag. Some landscapes in the bad weather and a couple of shots of my kids from our works do. The big guns were deactivated, BTW:-). Turns out they love laser clay pigeon shooting and climbing 'The Foundry's' mobile wall.... Horizon line over the Strines: Big clouds near Rails road: Starlings all in a line: Big guns at the works do: My daredevil daughter at the top of The foundry's climbing wall: A bee looking for lunch:

Another from today. Lovely out in Castleton. This one on the way up to Peveril Castle. After, we had nice bacon butties in the little food outlet at the visitors centre. Smashing..... :-)

Here's one of my sister's new kittens. Very cute. Just hope they don't decimate the local wild bird population:

I think you might be right about the fading local accent. Pity.

PS - I thought The Arctic Monkey's sounded pretty good, too :-) Good to here a Sheffield band up there.

Well, in my opinion, all the volunteers did a fantastic job. I'm not really into things like the opening ceremony and wasn't really looking forward to it - but I though it was ACE! The family really enjoyed it and I ended up staying in front of the telly until the early hours watching it all, much to my surprise. I suspect a lot of people on this forum will reject the spectacle out of hand and complain about it being a waste of time and money. I already know what you guys will think to my post! But I loved every minute of it. Brilliant! Once again, full congratluations to everyone involved, especially the volunteers/members of the armed forces/any NHS staff involved! Whatever the cynics may say, plenty of other people out here think you are great.

I agree. Excellent work. Do you mind me asking how long you spend working on the images? I was also wondering where you get all the individual elemnts for your images from. The background wall from the image of the guy in the chair, or the spiral staircase in the image from your photostream, for example. Where do you find the original photogrpahic source material?