Leon

after my discussion a few weeks ago about upgrading my gear I syumbled across a Canon 70-200 F4 L in cash generator of all places!

they were asking £329, I knocked them down to £300 on the phone, flew over there, tried it out in the shop, I instantly fell in love with it, the focusing is so fast!

to say I'm a happy bunny....  I nearly went for a 2nd hand Sigma 70-200 F2,8 but this was too good a deal to pass up.

all I need to do now is wait till april and upgrade my well used ageing Canon 1100D it's getting to be a pain being so slow!

Lone tree and no comment from Fuji?

Hi there.... sorry i have not been around much, I literally spent the last 3-4 months taking pictures of nothing but race cars, so I thought best not to post them up

things will be different this year, we are paying towards a pony for my daughter, bit like a horse share but my friend owns the stables where it lives, I'll get pictures next week.

leading to the subject of horses, last Sunday I took Meg to watch indoor horse jumping, there was a little girl there maybe 8-9 years old, the poor thing died this morning

unfortunately due to the very poor lighting even with an F4 70-200 (my new toy) I was having to use ISO6400, the pictures were shocking, but when the aunt of the little girl got in touch asking for copies I could not say no, as you read this the wonderful Robin is sat pulling his hair out trying to rescue the raw files for me (yes I have got used to shooting raw!!)

thanks robin I really appreciate it!

so over the next few weeks I'll get used to posting Horsey stuff rather than Horsepower (did you see what I did there?)  I also get to spend a lot of time in Huddersfield..... What's in huddersfield worth Photographing anyone? 

anyways, I'll be on a bit more now there's no Motorsport for a while

like this you mean?..... Media access at 3 sisters is very strict, ones with passes get about 6' closer than spectators, 

that makes the point of veiw a lot different to the other guys picture..

6 minutes ago, Richard said:

he needs to learn to spell and I would say the bottom one is yours

is that because it's far superior? ..... or did you see it on Facebook?

6 minutes ago, Ron said:

Well I am guessing number 1 is yours Leon but sounds as if you need to stay well clear of them if that is how they regard you. The guy who replied seems to be full of himself with his 5K of gear and how he has raised the standard, let them get on with it I would say.

Ron 

cheers Ron, the Bottom one is mine..

what do you reckon to this then?

I got in touch with some guys who run a drift team, they hav 12 toggers nationwide, the drift scene in the UK is gowing quickly.

there are track popping up all over the place, from old banger tracks to purpose built ones like Birmingham wheels.

some of these toggers were not quick enough posting pictures ect, so they were on the look out for someone from the manchester area just like me.

So I applied.. Nopayment, just good access and exposure across the web via social media, maybe even some pictures in Magazines and websites!!

over a few days I got chatting to the guy (im not bitching so I'll not mention any names) I was asked a few times to list the "gear you own" this worried me a little, 

as most of you know I have basic equipment, pretty much all of it has been purchased 2nd hand, below is the final message from the team photographic editor.

"Morning fella, had a long chat last night with ***** about yourself, come to the decision of we would like to wait till you've got your new camera and got to a few events next year and see what work you come up with if thats okay as i see your static , landscape stuff is awesome but the motion stuff isn't as good as we would like being motorsport is what we do, but i no this is likely to be the camera more than yourself hence we wanna see your stuff with the new camera and go from there. I only joined aw myself a year ago but have raised and set the standard of are work very high but i do i have nearly 5k worth of stuff which helps on quality. Im more than happy to try and help you where possibly if your at events or any questions please feel free to ask Dan p.s a couple of images ive done to show you the standard were aiming for "

I had mentioned that next year I hope to upgrade my camera and buy at least one fast lens.... He said within the conversation " I own 5k of gear"    

one of the photo's below is mine, and one is his example of the quality they need.... can you guess which is my sub standard picture?   he contradicts himself in there too

very frustrating

THE famous person from wigan?

Wigin.. Pie and pee wet....

Welcome Paul

oh she did greet people in the little tiny bar between the foyer and the function room..... never mind least I had the experience.  

Welcome along, there are a few "Yorkies" on here

remember the Portraits I did of the baby and toddler the other week, on the Green settee......

she's asked if I want to do her brothers WEDDING next year!!... the togger they had booked has cancelled and give the deposit back....

oh and thanks for all the kind comments, I'll post a couple of cake cutting pictures later

if I ad £5k spare I'd take my kids to Disney for a week

text fixed.. and I didnt post a picture

I agreed to do a wedding after party (they got married abroad) I was being paid by my friend Jenny who was a Bridesmaid.
things didn't really go that well, arranged to meet the bride half an hour before the do started at 7.30 PM. she didn't turn up for about 40 minutes, yes I know a bride's prerogative, the plan was to get some shots of her in the room before the rest of the guests turned up, the room must have cost a fortune to decorate!
she didn't plan on going into the room till they cut the cake and have the first dance. the DJ was very helpful keeping me in the loop for the photo's, the problem was the bride didn't want to cut the cake till the lady that made it was there to witness the cutting.... another hour later.... 
I felt really awkward, I'm not a shy person, tried my hardest to mingle so I could get shots of the guests having fun, trouble is people seemed to prefer the dreaded "Mobile picture"
so I'm walking round kind of butting in with people taking shots on hones, strange feeling.... 

am I just being a soft ass or is this how wedding receptions are these days?

I know I'm no wedding togger, I only agreed to do it for my friend Jenny.

I started a thread like this last year I think..

mine's pretty easy, I just need some spare time and money, I just want to wander round the very tip of scotland in my car and take Photo's of whatever I want too.

AND do the same round the Lake district.   and Iceland, the ice is some pictures looks amazing.

Did I mention Utah?

Guess there are many things I want to photograph....

Penington flash, Pengy's hide

eye, eye.... eye.... eye.... you get the picture

being an uneducated northern monkey, the nearest I get to a book is Google on my Galaxy tab

tis a cracker...

shared on my facebook..

I forgot about my 3 cats.... and my Gecko..... and my Rabbit...

http://www.digitalrev.com/product/canon-eos-760d-dslr-body/MTEwNDA2NA_A_A?googlebase=1&country=GB&gclid=Cj0KEQjwm4mwBRCni-ivmePYivkBEiQAdGkklnTpq_jdULEJa3K2k82RbeCcUU5Uoq2PUDl2neTUYkEaAowI8P8HAQ

hopefully, I'll be ordering one next year, I'm outgroing my 1100D now.. and I have necer had a NEW DSLR

good Luck Paul, you need to post on FB for people to share..

Leon, from Westhoughton

I'm 39 with 3 kids. Megan 14, Amber 12 and Ellis 9.

been with my lovely misses for 17 years, known her since school!

mad on cars!

used to be a very keen Mountain biker.

Hopefully will get the chance to move to the coast one day, somewhere near Croyde would be nice.

My step father was Egyptian, I love Cairo..

one day I really want to travel, jungles, beaches and Iceland.

if I ever won the Lottery, I would open a holiday place where under privileged families and families with disabled kids could get a holiday for free!!

my 1st and 2nd car was a MINI... proper BL mini's!

I once did a blind drive round a race track for guide dogs (my mother in law lost her sight at 18 due to RP.

can I have 11?   I HATE ALL APPLE PRODUCTS!!!!! with a passion (except the ones you eat, I like them, especially in CIDER!

we caught this little fella while in Devon, the seagulls were watching us so we made sure he was safe....