Hi from sunny England

[PBimages]

Hi there,

I presume this is where I bore you all to sleep!

So I will try and keep it short!

Currently i'm a HNC Photography student at West Bromwich Campus, Sandwell, England

Photography has always been a passion of mine since the age of 10, when I was 16 I had my own darkroom, but my family viewed photography as a hobby not a trade, so I trained as an Electrical/Electronic Design Engineer, but due to being made redundant recently I decided to concentrate more on my photography and hopefully change my career direction!

I am currently re-building my darkroom, I found that when I started on the course we were back to basics, loading film into a 35mm camera etc, then we moved onto processing film, by this point I was fast asleep and let the other students learn, while I slept in the corner of the colleges darkroom, but after a spate of illness, I have found myself falling behind with my studies, so to assist things I decided as I still had all of my equipment to re-build the darkroom.

As using the collages facility was not an option as it was an hours drive from here just to reach it!

One of the things I have to get done is a project on Large Format camera's, so I have obtained/borrowed a Toyo View 45E with the intent on buying the camera, so you may see me posting questions on this subject!

Well I thinks thats things pretty much upto date, if you wish to ask me any further questions please feel free to do so!

Regards

James Mason

[Pete Watkins]

James,
Welcome. I was in that photographic shop in Brownhills an hour or so ago looking for stuff he hasn't got. What he has got is a 4x5 monorail camera (might have been a Calumet) and some nice lenses. If you go in to look at the stuff get his prices so that you can compare them with similar stuff on The Bay. Also check the bellows, I didn't.
I've got a nice little 35mm enlarger that you can have for free, can't remember the make but it's got a colour head and a Shneider lens.
If you want it e-mail me on pete underscore watkins at hotmail dot com.
Best wishes,
Pete.

[PBimages]

What you actually admit that you went into Starlight Photography, you are a brave man!

I do actually know the owner, and had many a conversation with him but he gets me and anyone else who enters into his shop so down and depressed, that we feel like hurting ourselves!

I usually find his prices to be very expensive, I did however once obtain a bargain from him and that is my Bronica SQA!

I'll pop in there probably tomorrow now, as it's only about a five minute walk from where I live!

[Joanna Carter]

James, do you know about the UKLFPG forum ?

We're a great bunch of LF idiots and/or experts who get together around the UK from time to time and you would be welcome to join us. You might even find answers to your questions on our fora. www.lf-photo.org.uk/forum

[Pete Watkins]

Jim,
Yeah I went into Starlight totally on spec. I wanted to see if they had any chemicals that I wanted, they didn't. He's a bit of a miserable scroat (tried to sell me two scabby little hot lights for ten quid each, told him I'd think about it) but it seems that he knows nothing about LF. If you fancy the stuff that he has no idea what to do with make him an offer. Gotta be worth a try and the postage costs are nil.
Pete

[wfwhitaker]

What a great name! May we just call you Humbert?

[John Kasaian]

Welcome to the forum, James!

[Bill_1856]

I didn't realize there was a "sunny" England. Does it come once a century like Brigadoon?

[PBimages]

It was a bit tongue in cheek, I must admit but I do beleive yesterday was a decent day I recorded a high of 25 Degrees C, so that was officially our summer!

The issue with Starlight is that he is selling other peoples equipment, same as the previous owner did, and they set the prices not him... so it ends up with you telling him your best offer, he then phones them... it's a very long winded process!

Well the darkroom is practically built now, and I have just ordered some chemical from RK photographic, not sure if there prices are over the top but they seemed resonable for an initial purchase to get me started again!

http://www.thedarkroom.co.uk/

So all being wellI should be fully up and running next week!

So get ready for the "Please Help ME!!" Posts...

[PBimages]

James, do you know about the UKLFPG forum ?

We're a great bunch of LF idiots and/or experts who get together around the UK from time to time and you would be welcome to join us. You might even find answers to your questions on our fora. www.lf-photo.org.uk/forum

I have tried for the past few days to join, but the site freezes when I press submit, if I refresh the page I just get the registration page again with all my details deleted!