Duncy H

In the bike shop I work at on a zero hour contract (as good as unemployed now how I see it) they’ve not really done anything beyond encouraging people to wash their hands. I was today working with an over 60 bloke with diabetes who has an older partner with health issues at home with lots of customers waltzing through the door at free will. I today got asked to work next week but refused to unless they change the way they operate but they aren’t willing to listen or change. They’ve taken a lot of money this week from sales which to me shows they’re more concerned about what profit they can capitalise on rather than peoples health and well-being. Should I go in and work tomorrow afternoon and try and enforce change or refuse to show up to work? In this current situation I believe if we have the ability to do something then it is really our responsibility to do something about it.

Because it does spread the virus? I went riding yesterday and I crossed paths with a couple of groups, they were all very close and on narrow single track going the other way it would be impossible to avoid close contact. Same goes for walkers, places I barely see anyone at all are absolutely rammed. Also all these people now doing outdoorsy things how many are going to go out and get injured? That is not needed right now. I understand why they’ve banned it, it might be more ideal to force people to ride individually though.

These are strange times. Theres definitely a strange atmosphere everywhere here, as much as some people are being awful I believe it’s brought out a lot of goodness as well as people being more compassionate for one another. For me I have the double whammy of being self employed as my primary income and a zero hour contract bike shop job. I don’t believe I’ll be receiving any emails soon to book work in, marketing budgets appear to have been put on hold for now. Luckily I just managed to finish a big job in March in time. I was also imminently going to be moving to Canada permanently, but my visa will likely be delayed now and that’s not going to be easy to move over and find desirable work now. I’ve not seen my partner who’s there since November and now have no clue when we’ll be allowed to see each other. In the grand scheme of things I believe I’m relatively lucky, there’s people that’ll be in far worse situations than me and I don’t have too many financial commitments. I’ve offered my bike mechanic skills to friends and the local community to encourage people to isolate in the great outdoors on their bikes and boost their mental health. I’d like to do some more helping where I can, anyone got any good ideas for that?

I’m up for a day out with the camera again. Can’t guarantee I’ll attend though as I’m not sure exactly when I’m moving my life to Canada just yet.

My Trek Slash that I've been rocking for a while now. I've half put it up for sale if anyone would be interested. It's been a fantastic bike but I'm actually fancying the idea of downgrading.

https://duncanhaguephotography.com/blog/2019/4/24/canon-eos-r-my-thoughts I've been shooting with Canon's new Mirrorless EOS R for a few months now if anyone would like to take in my thoughts on it.

Some recent snaps, really been enjoying shooting a whole lot more recently.

I’m intrigued by what’s going on with that Alfa front wing, if that’s the design style they’ve gone with it’ll be interesting to know the thoughts behind it. Excited to see how the season develops. Should we put down some T-F predictions to look back on at the end of the season? Winner gets some T-F stickers.

A job became available that I really wanted that was for a great little shop, I filled 99% of the criteria and it would be perfect for me. The communication was good then I had an interview and I just didn’t get a very good vibe. I think I did everything best as I could on my part but I think essentially there is a lot of strong competition and applicants so I’m not confident at all that I’m going to get it. I’ve really struggled to find good work since I returned to the U.K. having been messed around by a few companies and some bad luck. I hope this isn’t another to add to the list.

It’s an 04 147 ti that I exchanged just £300 for. Picked it up today and been for a blast and I’m incredibly pleased with it. Think I’ve got myself an absolute bargain it’s drives brilliantly and does not need anything major doing to it beyond a service.

I've bought myself and my mrs an Alfa Romeo incredibly cheap. Am I insane or mental?

I've got myself a DJI Mavic Pro and it has been fantastic when I used it. I've witnessed first hand people receiving cheap copies as gifts and the quality is just plain awful, I've seen them flown once when received then never used again. Just an utter waste of money. The mavic pro is great thanks to its portability and ease of use, it's also relatively small and quiet compared to others. As it happens I had just vaguely put mine up for sale today, I got a bit scared by the legislation, paperwork and insurance you need now if you're making money from it and as I'm trying to turn professional I thought I'd rather invest the money into my DSLR kit and remove temptation.

I've only done a few hundred miles on my GX 12 speed setup and it has been great so far. Does as it should really, I have heard some people saying it can be a bit problematic and clunky at times but for the most part it's pretty reliable and solid. I don't think it's fully necessary though, get the front chain ring size correct and 11 speed is more than adequate and would fulfil my needs perfectly if I had it. I'd say just get the stuff you can get the best deal on, you can't go far wrong but getting the chainring size right is critical. I see so many people barely using the smaller cogs on the rear yet they have a big ass chainring and end up spoiling the lower end.

I've recently just been trying to get more involved in the local scene, photographing more often and networking with more people. This job came about from someone I've recently been working with gaining a new sponsor who requires some media content. I have been told about folks shooting races and posting on roots and rain, I am tempted to give a few a try but I'd approach it in a more creative way rather than standing in the same spot all day with a tripod getting the same shot. Mostly though it's been a case of putting myself out there a bit more. Maybe we should shoot together sometime.

Pretty sure you’re on the right track there. Standards are a real pain in the arse.

I’ve had a real bad time finding good work since I got back to the U.K. which had made me try doing my own thing. I’ve actually been making a serious effort towards focusing on cycling specific photography and yesterday I got my first paid mtb media job booked. Not a big one but I felt like it was a good milestone.

Would you still go down the direct sales route after your troubles you’ve had? I’ll share my thoughts (I work in the trade and see what goes wrong and how companies deal with it. -Trek - Remedy or Slash depending on your preference of wheelsize, the slash is an enduro charger where as the remedy is a bit more of a trail machine. Good after sales service from trek. Mid-low value for money -Santa Cruz - Nomad or Bronson, Id pick the Bronson of the two. Playful poppy geometry and linkage design. Good after sales. Lower value for money spec wise. Hold their value well. Would advise not to purchase Hightower as new version is likely imminent. -Specialized - Stumpy or Enduro. Stumpy is a great all rounder and lots of variations of it and the enduro a bit more of a heavy hitter, very refined machines. Cool SWAT door feature is neat. Middle ground value for money to spec ratio. Very good after sales care. -Whyte - Seem to be highly rated, various options travel wise. Have seen some have trouble with wearing through bearings like there’s no tomorrow. Middle in terms of value for money. Not the prettiest. -Scott - Well made, various options but gimmicky twin loc system. Expensive. Can not comment on after sales as not seen any come back. -Cannondale, worth keeping an eye on as there should be some new interesting bikes in the pipeline. Well made. Mid in terms of value. Will have a cool factor soon now they’ve got a good team of guys. These are my experiences of what I sell or are involved with, not saying you should or shouldn’t go for any of these in particular. I actually ride a 2019 Trek Slash 9.8 after having a mk 3 nomad. It’s quite a stiff bike but it loves to absolutely charge and munch up what’s in front of it. I think I’m about half way into fully dialling it in and haven’t unlocked its full potential yet. It is a big 29er bike but I can still pop and hop gaps when needed on it. Hope that helps you in some way.

I really enjoyed that, especially the second part, it managed to perk me up a bit from my man flu.

I feel like these type of bike shops (brick and mortar chain bike shops) are doomed to fail. I work in a similar style place at the moment and can see the shortcomings. I believe the key is to either run an efficient online store or to run an independently owned brick and mortar shop where you choose to cover one area and do that area well. With Evans style they’re stuck in limbo of not being locally owned by passionate people who know what their local audience want or they have people sat in offices miles and miles away deciding for them what they should or shouldn’t sell based on some squewed maths from data they have. These stores generally aren’t competitive on prices nor have stock on hand to be immediately effective. The model of the stores also means the genuinely worthwhile productive staff don’t hang around and end up employing young kids that are cheap but aren’t too knowledgable and taint their image. I think these stores try to do too much also, for example walk into an Evans store and they’ll have every style of road bike, every mountain bike, every hybrid, every commuter, kids bike, bmx bike etc trying to cram into one shop but it means in those particular areas there isn’t much of a quality range to chose from. I do believe there is a place brick and mortar bike shops but this particular style is doomed to fail. I could go on all day about this but I need to head out.

I would say so, I’m the opposite to you, never really got to grips with photoshop. Lightroom is still a very powerful capable programme and I do all my editing with that. It’s pretty easy to use too.

I've been using a Macbook Pro for quite a while now for similar scenario, mine's from 2013 and was the most basic Pro Retina at the time, I think it has 128gb and 8gb ram. I'm sure they're probably a step up from that now. I really like my Macbook it has been great for what I do and the screen quality is great, it copes fine with Lightroom and has managed Photoshop before but I don't really use that anymore. Most of my software usage is through Lightroom. I have my catalog on external hard drives. Usually having a day or twos worth of photos before moving them over to the external hard drive. It's a bit of a pain but I think realistically no matter what size your laptop hard drive it's going to end up being a similar scenario having to move it to external hard drive. I don't have much experience with any other laptops so can't advise on that front but if you go down the Macbook route I would go for something a few specs up from what I have now if I was to purchase again anytime soon just so I know it would definitely be capable for whatever I could throw at it in future.

If my memory is correct you’ve been using a 550d as your workhorse? From experience I’ve had using a 550d and 7d the sensor is the same so produces pretty much the same image quality, just that the 7d has slightly better build quality, was a bit faster FPS and a few more settings/buttons available for use. In in terms of image quality though I can’t see it being a significant upgrade over your 550d? Although I’m out of touch with 7d prices now I can imagine them being pretty good value.

I’m parting ways with my Canon 50mm F/1.2 if anyone here happens to be interested. I have access to a sigma 50mm art so no point having both anymore. I was interested in considering the New Eos R mirrorless then saw the price of the lenses for it. Not anymore.

I’m a bit out of the loop with cars in the U.K. as I’ve lived in the land of maple syrup and poutine for the last three years. I’m in need of a car that me and the girlfriend can share a bit. Luckily I have use of my dads nice new Peugeot estate for going adventuring in and throwing bikes in and I plan to commute a bunch by bike so not limited to what will and won’t work really. Budget is the tight one, close to or around £1000+ would be preferable and something that’s not going to break down every time there’s a week in the month. Mx5 and Clio 172 came to mind but I’m open to suggestions if anyone has ideas or anyone here has something they have seen or might be selling?

I don’t have a trials bike these days but would be happy to meet in or around Sheffield and hang out at a ride and shoot some pics.