Feeling proper bleery eyed this morning. It was the first night of my new college course last night, so I had to record the Champions League game to watch on my return.After falling asleep half way through the first half, I had to rewind about an hour and ended up going to bed after 1. Wouldn't have been too bad, if the baby hadn't woken up before 6, but hey sleep is for wimps, huh?

Anyway, am just back from family hols to the Lakes. It never ceases to amaze me what a glorious place this is, and how lucky we are to have such scenery on our doorstep. We stayed in a villa overlooking Ullswater and I managed to get a few dawn shoots in. Put the 'blad through its paces and am very very pleased with it. Although I am a tad disappointed that I didn't have time to pop into PFD before I went as I wanted to rent a 40mm lens. The 80, though it is a very useful lens, is not quite wide enough for proper 'scapes. So I think I will have to keep my eye on Ebay and see what pops up. Favourites from here are:

Just before I went away, I managed to get a Durst enlarger and associated equipment from Ebay for a song, but I am stuck with where to use it at the moment. Neither do I have a decent neg scanner, so nothing to show here from the 'blad. However also took the D70s and my arsenal of lenses with me, so I've got a few jpgs on here to show. I've also almost managed to catch up with my backlog of processing. There are some shots from Manchester's Gay Pride Parade last month, some images shot after the Sunderland game earlier this month at Old Trafford just before sunset which have turned out better than expected and a photograph I made near Alderley Edge one evening which I'm also quite pleased with.

On a sad note, I feel I have to mention the sad loss of Colin McRae. The guy and his dad have long been heroes of mine, being fellow countrymen and all that. Colin was a legend and an outstanding rally driver. After the loss of Richard Burns, and now Colin the rallying fraternity in the UK have lost 2 very respected competitors.

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