Howard Hughes

I still work in a photo lab but do the occasional bit of 'freelance' photoshop/editing work + sell the odd photo.

Not as fancy as your sailing boats, but I have an inflatable kayak/canoe... I guess it's my main hobby, I try to get out at least once a week, hopefully more in the summer when i'm not working. I really want to get a hard shell by then though. Here's a pic:

I use to race as well. Was great fun, often think about taking it up again, but it just got to expensive if you wanted to be competitive. I had: 1/10th scale electric buggy's - Losi XXX & Yokomo MX4 1/12 scale - Mardave ministock & Mardave V12 Hot Rod. Plus shed loads of different wound motors, batteries, speed controls, tyres, shock oils, springs and an obsession with graphite + blue trinity parts for my Losi! Going out racing at weekend's to regionals and the odd national are some of the best memories of my youth! Happy days.

I might go tomorrow, but I also want to go to the London boat show - both tomorrow, so better make my mind up soon.

I think James Toseland deserves it the most, as he is the only one that has actually won a title. Lewis will most likely win, and he deserves it as well.

Had a powercut at work all day... So now i'm "working" from home.

I have just bought a (cheapo) video camera and i'm the first to admit I dont have a clue what i'm doing, so I am hoping someone can help: When I play back what I have recorded on the camera it looks fine. Now I have uploaded it onto the computer and play it in media player/movie maker its really jerky (like the pause button is being pressed on and off every few seconds). Is it a camera or computer problem or am I doing something wrong? The file type is asf? I have tried converting it to both wma and avi (if this actually makes any difference?) and it's still jerky. The sound continues to play smoothly, its just the picture thats messing about. Any help really appreciated.

I'd love to see Jenson in a race winning car, he deserves it - he's a good driver, just never been in the right place at the right time. Be great if the rumour mill turns out to be correct for once and that he is signed up to mclaren next year. "Ferrari are the most important team in F1" - The politics/money are what ruins F1, its sad really. Max and Bernie are more interested in their pockets that the sport. Wouldn't suprise me if we hardly have any traditional circuits left on the calender soon, give it 10 years and most of the races will be held in the middle east/asia.

I can't believe it... Nick, they only showed Kimi in the press conference, good old itv as usual Ross Brawn???? He wasn't there (was he?) - on a years sabbatical, do you mean Jean Todt? Or did I miss something?

The great Kimi comment was at Brazil... And Kubica technically is not a rookie as he raced last year (replaced the GREAT Jacques Villeneave). Whilt on the subject of the up and coming: Id love to see a four way battle between Lewis Hamilton, Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica and Heikki Kovalainen - It won't be long untill these four will be the "men to beat". Not to forget Piquet Jnr (dont really like him much, seems a bit cocky considering he doesn't even have a race drive yet) but he is pretty talented. Funny how all the names are starting to repeat themselves from history again - be interesting to see if Bruno Senna makes it to F1.

Simple enough question /\ I hope Lewis wins it, be so nice to have a British champion after so long. I really hope Fernando Alonso doesn't win, just because of how he has behaved this year - I had always been a fan of Alonso (untill this year) success seems to have gone to his head a little to much - now he is as bad as M.Schumacher. Just hope Lewis doesn't get a strong penalty (if one at all) for using two sets of wet tyres in practice (What a stupid rule)!!! Otherwise its game over before the race has even started.

No, but I wish I was - they are such a good live band. Enjoy!

Realistic: I'd like to do a track day on my/a (future?) bike, have a go at flying a glider and go on a big motorbike trip. Unrealistic: Work as a motorsport photographer and go for a flight in a lancaster bomber.

Thanks! It looks like a pretty interesting job to do. Not sure if im 100% cut out for it though, some aspects I think "yeah, I could cope with that", and others im like "Ah... maybe not" Will have to have a good think about it. I really want to do something else from what I'm doing now, and the fire service was one thing that came to mind that fitted the on the job training/long term career criteria: Which I guess limits my options a bit...

I keep thinking about joining the fire service, looks interesting. Although i'm not really sure if im strong enough. I just really want a career change (without having to go back to college/uni). Is it quite hard to get into?

Did you go for the entire weekend? Was awesome. I really liked the BMW pitlane park, missed Mansell and Herbert do their demos but saw Sebastian Vettel do one. Few of the 460ish pics I got:

I work in a dodgy photo lab/studio, mostly working in the lab developing, printing and editing peoples pictures... Has its good and bad days (although mostly bad). Work 8.5 hrs plus a day with no proper break (unless im really really lucky) have to eat and work at the same time; which is fun when you are surrounded by chemicals... 5 days a week. And before I worked there, there were two people doing the job I now do on my own, so effectivley I am doing double the normal workload. And get paid peanuts for it as well... Hopefully all the hard work will pay off one day.

I do, to some extent... just not as much as I would like. I'm sure there are a few other people on here that do, although I cant remember who...

last nights wasnt as good as the others. but it was good enough to kill an hour of my time.

i think its pretty good, especially as im not normally into that kinda stuff. is sidehop the same guy that plays mikey in my family?

Photography > 80% of the money I make from doing photography related jobs (whether it be shooting, or post processing type work) goes back into investing in photography... that leaves me with very little disposable/leisure income (once you have included bills into the rest of that). And most of it isn't even the type of photography I want to be doing: although hopefully one day that will change and all this 'paying your dues' crap will be worth it.... If you go this route, good luck, but from experience you have to look at it as an all or nothing kind of situation. If you’re not sure about your career path... just study some useful/fairly general subjects so you can keep your options open for when you do know in the future.

I don't have a home set up thing like that, but i guess this is the closest thing: (not to scale)

Menu > Image Quality > then select NEF (RAW) - I think thats the right order (it'll be under the camera logo/picture on the left). You will need to make sure you download the Nikon D50 RAW plug-in if you intend to edit them in photoshop though... its on the adobe website somewhere.

Sort out what I want to do with my life/get a job that I like... & Make some friends/get a social life as I spend all my spare time on my own, which for someone my age just isn't right. Not sure how i'm going to go about doing either of those... (and i never stick to new years resolutions, but worth a try).