What annoyed you today?

[Hinfrance]

He hit me as I made a right turn, I was already part of the way around the corner. He hit me with such force that he lifted my car from the road. That was the first hit. Then it hit me again. He tried to make me sign the insurance form as knock for knock. I told him what he might do with that idea.

The good news is that front end of his tank is so badly damaged it might be a write off.

[Oldboy]

The good news is that front end of his tank is so badly damaged it might be a write off.

That must make you feel good. 

[jinky]

Sorry to hear that H.Some real prats about. Hope it all goes through smoothly in your favour as these insurance dealings can be a bugger. Hope he doesn`t go on trying for knock for knock. Happened to me years ago when someone pulled out of a parking spot without looking straight in front of me. Told me they would take the blame as clearly theirs then changed their story and my dumb insurance company agreed on a knock for knock. I had NCD protection but it galled me that they were able to share the blame!!!

[Hinfrance]

I think the insurers tend to do anything for a quiet life, but I reckon the repairs to mine will be a bit pricey as it's basically the panels on the whole of one side that will need replacing, along with the rear bumper and some work on the rear suspension. Maybe that will give them the incentive to argue the toss with the other company.

[Hinfrance]

Just had a call from the insurance assessor. Our car is a write off. The lowlife in the 4x4 hit it so hard the chassis is twisted and together with the entire side being stuffed in it's not an economical repair. It had four brand new tyres, new front disks and pads, new headlights and hardly any miles on it. To say I am livid is a bit of an understatement. Off car shopping again then . . . after we have tried to get a good deal out of the insurance company for the write off value.

[jinky]

Sorry to hear that Howard. Tough when you are the innocent party!

[donoreo]

That really sucks.  Sorry to hear that.  Look on the upside, new car.  Is it time for a mid-life crisis and get a sports car?  

[Hinfrance]

That really sucks.  Sorry to hear that.  Look on the upside, new car.  Is it time for a mid-life crisis and get a sports car?  

Cheers for that, but I've already got a tuned C5 'Vette - my weekend toy after I trashed my last bike In a gravelled curve.

Early days Paul, we'll have to wait for the full report and see where we go from here.

[wavemachine]

Entered our village flower festival photo competition yesterday, two of my entries were chucked out as being manipulated the first was a black & white conversion, the second was for the topic of water movement where the judges decided it was manipulated because it has milky water effect. I didn't get to talk to the judges who are a husband and wife of the local camera club.

I was peeved about the water one though as it was not manipulated it was shot with an ND filter to slow the shutter speed down (unless they call that in camera manipulation), what did really annoy me was the winner was a very overdone HDR image errrm is that not manipulated?

The intersting thing was though that a member of another local camera club (submitted 2 HDR images for 2 topics) got two firsts and a lady who knows the judges at a personal level also got 2 x firsts. Also there was nothing in the rules about having a manipulated image in fact all the rules stated was Prints max size A4, unmounted or mounted on card but they had a theme of Macro/Manipulated which is where they derived the rule from.

There is even more to this but you get the gist I am sure, it turns out they have used the same judges for years so I respectfully suggested they ought to change judges in all the village festival categories to try and get more transparent judgement on entries from Jam to photography and funny enough seemed there had been similar issues in quite a few areas.

I even overheard a woman in the afternoon saying DaveM who the hell is this DaveM as I did manage to get one first and two thirds! Definately something not right there, I am by no means a bad looser but I do like things to be fair!

[Reinardina]

How lovely to see you here Dave!

Sad story about the village comp.

One thing immediately springs to mind: if you can't beat them join them!

You could then try to change the system from within, or win everything. Your choice!

[wavemachine]

You mean the camera club?

In which case it is a no, I went to a few sessions 4 years ago and well I will just say it wasn't for me;)

[Reinardina]

You mean the camera club?

In which case it is a no, I went to a few sessions 4 years ago and well I will just say it wasn't for me;)

And I suppose the jam is judged by the WI, so you can't go there either. Pity.

But you've got a year to think of some ploy to 'wake them up.'  Try a shockingly manipulated shot or something similar next year, see if that works.

Good luck!

[SimonW]

I always enter our local flower and vegetable show's photo comp. Their rules say a specified theme, max 6x4" "snapshot". I take a suitable shot once the theme is published, and don't edit it at all. Sometimes other entries are obviously several years old, and/or heavily edited. I've never won. Perhaps I'm biased but I almost never agree with the judges choice and sometimes (not by any means always) think mine was the best shot. Doesn't bother me really, but I 'd enjoy discusing it with the judges sometime.

[spinner]

Spent an afternoon last week cleaning the camera and sensor, I thought. Went to a local Scottish Festival yesterday and shot about 200 photos.
Went to process them today and discovered all of them are saturated with dirt spots. As well as being mightily miffed and completely baffled where
the dirt spots came from. The inside of the camera looks clean, took some test shots with a different lens and the spots are in those photos too, so it
is the camera.

[Matthew]

The Trolley Zombies in Tesco......raise my blood pressure every time...