Meet the Cafe Team!

[admin]

ADMINISTRATORS:

Hello Everyone!  What an honour it is to be able to tell you a little bit about myself.  I live in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, the “Royal City” of this country!  When I was a working person, I was a Safety Officer and Bus Driving Instructor/Examiner for many years.  I thoroughly enjoyed my work but now, I’m retired!  I have three children—two of whom were born in Northern Ireland many years ago and then my youngest was born here in Ontario.  I am a grandma to nine!

My late husband and I met in Toronto in 1960 when he came from Northern Ireland to study at Toronto Baptist Seminary as both of us, being Christians, wanted to serve God wherever He wanted us to go.  Over the years, my husband, although working in the secular field was a lay preacher and most Sundays would find him behind a pulpit in some church or out in the open on a street corner or in a park as an Open Air Campaigner Evangelist—until he became too ill to do this regularly and in 2001, he was promoted to glory.  I was now a widow.  

To fill my time and keep busy, I decided to start a couple of websites, one of which is Christian Photographers and the other is Photography Cafe!  My life may be changing again soon as well, as I contemplate a big change taking place!  I will keep you informed.

What a wonderful time we've had here at the Café since we started it.  I bought the domain name on January 28, 2005 and then the work started with Michael and Clive and I working behind the scenes building what we have here today and it was launched on March 1, 2005.  We had a major crash on September 17, 2006 when we lost absolutely everything and had to rebuild again and this we did in just about three days!  We just thank the wonderful members on this site for being so patient while we did this.  

We have a fantastic community here at the Cafe!  And I thank the marvelous (sometimes wacky and sometimes downright goofy) Team we have here who all work together continously behind the scenes--whether it is keeping new "books and articles" on the shelves of our Bookshelf, critiquing photos, posting the Cracker Shots, opening and closing competitions, helping those who are lost in
the Cafe "corridors", welcoming them, running challenges--to keep the site ticking away.  All are such important tasks.   We try to please everyone but as you know, this is an impossible task so we try to do what’s best for this site and its members.  We’ve had some wonderful happy times here at the Café with members marrying and sharing their photos of their special day with all of us and we have shared in the births of youngsters—grandchildren, siblings, and children of the members and, sadly to say, we have also shared some very, very sad times when we have had to say “Farewell” to some of our members who have passed away.    But as an online community, I must say that I’ve experienced none as close and as “family-orientated” as the Café community is.  Thank you for this.

I have always been interested in photography as a hobby and have owned many cameras from the Baby Brownie, many point and shoot and SLRs and now am happy to own the Nikon D80.

Thank you everyone, since you, the members of Photography Café, make this the best site on the internet and a wonderful place to call “home”.

Hi All!

I'm Clive.

I'm one of the original four creators and administrators of Photography Cafe.  My role is now one of background support.

I'm married to Karen, since 1981, and we have two kids, Andrew and Charmian.   I'm a retired professional fire fighter, and I now own and run a small but successful motorcycle training school.

I live in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, in the beautiful south west of England.

My main interests are biking and bike rallies, travelling, and website creation, which I do only as a hobby.

Hi Everyone!

I'm Colin Minton aka Chippy, a shy, retiring teetotaler and Morris Dancing enthusiast, given to collecting leather bound, hand tooled copies of Goon Show scripts.

I live within an enclosed, gated GM farming zone in Hertfordshire UK, which has occasional opportunities for free range walkies with the dog, Bramble.  I have been taking photographs for many years starting with the original Canonique pin-hole manual wet plate and brass bound mahogany apparatus, through to my current D20 camera.   obscura Daguerreotype albums held on flickr, youtube and in the CRO at Scotland Yard.

I’ve been married for an awful number of years (‘she who must be obeyed’ is a saint) and we have three children and (at the current count) six grandchildren.

I scratched a subsistence living as a management consultant in the City of London and was often paid by big companies to go away.   Formerly a failed industrial chemist in ICI, I saw service with the British Pilots Union with the distinction of being their first wide bodied official on narrow bodied pay.  I am currently in administrator on the Photography Café--thus allowing the owner to fill her legal employment quota of the elderly and intellectually disadvantaged.

Hello one and all

I'm Windsurf or Mike!

I started to get an interest in photography while I was a child from my dear old Dad.  He was a keen amateur photographer with his own darkroom, etc. and he gave me the bug.  But when I was 11 we moved from England to South Africa and the interest in photography was lost until I started work and then I bought myself a Canon AE-1 and haven't looked back since.

After the passing of Odette, my first wife, I moved to the USA where I was able to buy my first Digital SLR, the Canon Digital Rebel.  Since then I have bought a Canon 30D and various lenses.  I guess I’ll be a gunner always    The hobby comes and goes but I am always looking out for "That Perfect Shot" which, no doubt, I will never get, but there’s no harm in trying.

I live in Ohio and I am married to Charlotte now for 5 1/2 years and have started her on this maddening hobby of ours.

Mike Aka Windsurf

Now then lets go back in time a tad. Those who are older than me will remember and those who are younger will have to use your imagination...1976!
Snow in the winter and a heat wave in the summer! I was six and that was the year my Dad gave me his camera! It was aKodak Instamatic 233x!  
Please look
here... and you will see a picture of the camera and my first ever pictures.

Then later in my teens my Step Dad Bob, got me really into photography, and encouraged me to get an SLR, a real inspiration.
I have always enjoyed taking photos, so thank God for digital. I can now take as many as I like. I once went on a two week holiday and took 14 36 exposure films. It is an expensive business. I stick to the settings as my number dyslexia stops me from understanding F-stops. But that doesn't make me enjoy it any less.
I currently use a Fuji 600EXR, a really great little compact, which I take everywhere.

Obviously most of you will have found that I am a crazy English woman living in Norway. I moved here in November 1998, and it was the best thing I ever did for myself. I totally love it here and feel really at home. I am educated as an "Eksponerings designer".  Eksponering means "exposure" in Norwegian, and includes interior design and stands for fairs/exhibitions, shop planning, window display, in-store display and graphic design.

I am a creative person and amongst other things I love to paint. I also sew, I love making costumes and, of course wearing them, Ive been to a few costume partys.
I do look a bit of a loon sometimes but I enjoy it so much and I am not doing anyone any harm. It is all in good fun and there is photographic evidence, but of course I deny it.  

I also do woodwork, cook, and am a bit of a dab hand in Photo Shop and Illustrator. I have designed and made wedding invitations for my friends weddings.
I speak Norwegian fluently, and I also have a good understanding of Swedish.

On a personal note, I am married to Tony; he is English too and is still living in England. We are looking forward to him moving here.
He works as a computer engineer, and is totally fabulous, but I would say that!
I am very happy to say that I am married to my best friend.

We are expecting our first child in April 2012.

Jenny

I have been promising Pat I would write this since I became a mod, I did do a draft straight away but a photo of myself was also required and that be the cause of the delay. I have always loved being behind the lens but I am painfully camera shy and avoid being in front of it.  

I feel privileged to be a part of this wonderful site and was recently asked if I would like to join the admin team after spending the past year or so here helping out as part of a great team of moderators. I am at my happiest when I am able to help others so if you need help, fire away.

I have been happily married to fellow member Angie since 1986 and we have two wonderful grown up daughters, born in 1989 & 1991.  By trade I am a Tool Design Engineer working primarily in the aircraft industry, currently working on Rolls Royce Jet engines. In 1997 I won a contract to go work at Boeing in Seattle, USA and we all spent a wonderful 13 months there only returning when all contractors were prematurely sent home due to a downturn in work. Washington State is a beautiful place and how I wish I’d had my current camera gear then.  I did have a Pentax SF7 film camera and used it regularly but I didn’t have quite the same passion then as I do now. It was early days of home pc’s and most of the shots I took were scanned onto floppy disc. I returned to Seattle in 2001 where I purchased my first digi camera, it was a Fuji Finepix 6900 Ultrazoom bought ‘cheap’ by mail order from New York for £750 (US$1200)  

Unfortunately ‘9-11’ happened whilst I was there on my own and the arrangements I had been making for my family to join me had to be abandoned with me returning home again shortly after. (Not a set of circumstances I would ever wish to encounter again....a very sad time indeed).

My first DSLR was a Canon 350D and what started out as a relatively inexpensive set of lens’s soon progressed onto the much less inexpensive Canon ‘L’ and Sigma ‘EX’ lenses for which I now have a second mortgage.   Then came the upgrade to my 5D and the annual subscription to the local chiropractor to fix my bad back acquired from humping all this gear around with me.

I have made many great new friends here on the Cafe and I look forward to making many more. I do have a good sense of humour but I'm not great at chatter and don't appear in the shoutbox very often so please don't think I am being stand-offish, I just like to blend into the background but still be part of everything.

Hi!

My name is Karen and I live in Bonnie Scotland.  I am a registered Child Minder and look after eleven children over a weekly period.  I am married with three daughters aged  22 , 21  and 16,

I first got into photography when I was young as my dad always encouraged me.  My first camera was a Kodak 126 and since then I have owned various models and currently own a Canon 5D Mark 2, Canon Rebel XTI and a Canon A640 Compact.  I don’t have a particular favourite subject and I will take photographs of anything that I think will make a good image.

I joined the Photography Café in January 2008 and have made some great friends since joining--even met a few in person.  I now feel that these are my friends for life.

I was honoured to be asked to become a Moderator on the Café where I now oversee and create the weekly “Kathys Coffee Counter”.  I hope I can do Kathy proud and continue in her footsteps but she is sure a hard act to follow!

Well that’s enough of little ol’ me, so to everyone who reads this, just enjoy the great things about the Photography Café and say “Hi!”  in the Shoutbox if you see me in there!

Karen

I’m Gareth Kitchener - born just over half a century ago in Hitchin, Hertfordshire.  I now live a short way over the Bedfordshire border in a small village about 9 miles from Hitchin - I haven’t moved far!  I’ve been married to Rosemary since 1982 and have one son, Robert who was born in 1992.  Rosemary and I are both season ticket holders at Luton Town FC. Luton’s nickname is “The Hatters” due to the history of hat making in the town and that’s why I use the name “Hatter” on the site.

As far as work is concerned, I’m a pensions technician.  I’ve been doing this since 1977, so I suppose I must enjoy it!  In 2009, after 32 years working for the same company, I finally became a “casualty” of one of the many re-organisations I’d lived through over the years, but it was good news in a way as I managed to wangle retirement on full pension from my 50th birthday!  After taking a few months off, I’m currently working as a pensions technician again for a different company!

I’ve been into Photography since 2002 when I realised that it was a way to do something useful with my computer.  Apart from the Kodak Instamatic I had as a kid, my first camera was a Canon Powershot G2, which is a 4 mega pixel compact. I still have it as a backup. Having started with digital, I then got myself some film cameras! I started with a completely manual Yashica SLR, which was really good for teaching myself about exposure. I then got a Canon 35mm SLR - an EOS 300V, before buying a digital SLR.  I’m currently using a Canon EOS 10D, which is now pretty ancient in digital camera terms.  I suppose I really ought to think about updating it but it still does what I want it to.

I joined Hitchin Camera Club in 2002 and I’m now the competition secretary as well as running the website.
(Hitchin Camera Club)

I’ve been into computers for a long time now.  I started with Commodore computers in the early 80s and moved up from the Vic 20 to the Commodore 64 and Amiga, before getting my first PC (and Internet access) in 1997.  I made the move to a Mac last year and I can’t work out why I didn’t do it ages ago!  I currently use Apple’s Aperture to process my raw files, iPhoto  to organise them and Photoshop Elements 6 for advanced editing.  I’m a big fan of audio-visual presentations, which I do with Fotomagico or iMovie - although I’m eagerly awaiting the arrival of PicturesToExe on the Mac platform.

Gareth

Hi Everyone!

My name is Michael Eshom and my name showing on the site is “Oldiesmann”.   You can call me Michael or Oldiesmann—I answer to both!

I’m on Photography Café because this site chose to use the SMF forum software where I am a Lead Support Specialist and so I help Pat from time to time behind the scenes helping to keep this site humming along.  

Cincinnati, Ohio, USA is where I call home with my three cats and a dog and my parents and a sister.  I’m 25 years old and am currently studying in University as well as working in a job to help pay the university expenses as well as helping with the SMF site.

I’m hoping to get into photography more in the future so hoping to fill my albums in the gallery here at Photography Cafe.  I enjoy all kinds of music including Christian rock/metal/alternative, some Christian hip hop, classic rock, oldies, classic country.  I watch a lot of sports. My favorites are baseball, football (both pro and college) and college basketball, although I also like hockey and enjoy watching NASCAR.







Meet the Moderators and Consultants...

[admin]

MODERATORS and CONSULTANTS:

Hi, I'm Alan. "BigAl" by name but not that big in stature--the name comes as a result of a sequence on a telephone keypad (long story, don't ask).  

I am a retired Software Lecturer as well as having been a nurse and a fully qualified structural engineering draughtsman.  In my time I've co-authored a book on solving cryptic crosswords and written another on a unique Contract Bridge bidding system.

I first fell in love with photography in 1962 and got my own darkroom a few years later. The time constraints of work and the expense of getting a home together meant that photography and I had a long break. I got back into the hobby about 12 years ago but really embraced the hobby when digital came along.

I've been a member of the Photography Cafe Team for quite some while now and try to get myself noticed at least twice a day.

I suppose I'm the one you'll find hardest to please as I will always look for the weak parts of an image before I get to the good bits.  In all my comments, my aim is to get the best out of every member and to push people to try new ideas that will improve their work.  I get more of a buzz from one person making a great stride forward than I would from being awarded the Photo Of The Day.

This is a site I care passionately about because it is one of the few sites which has its members at heart and has a true family atmosphere. This is why I inject my daily dose of humour.

Hello!

I’ve been a moderator on here for quite a while now so it’s high time I introduced myself!

I’ve been married for 35 years to AlanM and we live in W. Yorkshire in the U.K.  We have two grown up children and two young granddaughters, Nicole and Chloe.

I joined Photography Cafe on September 19, 2006, 8:48 AM precisely and thoroughly enjoy my time on here.  I started taking photographs after my hubby bought the camera a couple of years ago that I now own.  He said to me, “Why don’t you have a go?  I’m sure you’d enjoy it!”  He now regrets those words as he never sees me as I’m always on here!

My camera is just a pure and simple Konika Minolta DimageZ2 and I will have a go at almost anything, sometimes successfully, others not so!  I particularly like finding something ordinary and everyday and trying to make a successful shot out of it.  I love macro too.  Before joining the Cafe I could never see the point of black and white photography but have now grown to love it!

I don’t use PhotoShop etc. but just have a simple editing suite as I like to try and take as good a shot as I can ‘in camera’. That’s not to say that I won’t improve a shot in some way if I think it needs it though.

I love receiving comments and critiques on my shots and the Gallery is for me a vital part of the Café life.

Hello Pekster, Peks or Rich here!

I will pretty much answer to most things so just fire away    

I have been interested in photography for many years, having been first introduced and nurtured by mi dear old Dad.  I have had many different cameras over the years, ranging from an instamatic to a 35mm basic rangefinder to a Canon F1 ex-journalist camera, again from Dad who worked at a local newspaper. I went to digital about five years ago progressing from a basic VGA Resolution Casio to my Nikon D200 DSLR.

My favorite kind of photography is landscape as some of you may have realised. But I am not shy at trying new genres of the art either. We recently bought a Sigma Bigm,a 50-500mm lens this last twelve months and love it. This lens is great for getting those hard to reach places like behind the ears   and the odd bit of wildlife, of course.

We, “wendy woo” and myself, live in Rotherham, which is thankfully, quite near the Peak District, one of my favourite places to go and unwind. There is always something to shoot there.

My aim in this world is to inspire and help as many people as I can so if anyone needs a hand or just wants to chat just send a Personal Message to me.  I don't bite, contrary to popular belief !  

I also love astronomy, mountain biking, Single Malts (hmmm) eating, reading, climbing mountains and generally being outside in the wide open spaces.

Hi there!

My name is Ross Blakey and my moniker, RGBont, I made up to cover Red Green Blue of the digital colour spectrum but also happens to be my initials, and ont for Ontario, the province in which I reside.  I've lived in London, Ontario pretty well the majority of my life, actually 59 of the 62 years - three of those other years were up in Ottawa, Ontario (1971-1974) where I landed a job after finishing college.  I eventually ended back up in Fanshawe College where I remained for the next 31 years.

I retired in August 2005 from Fanshawe College as a programmer/analyst so basically have a computer background for most of my life.  Was a computer operator for the first three years then moved into the programming department.  But it was mainly on a big mainframe writing in Cobol and I didn't get a laptop until a year before I retired whilst taking advantage of payroll deductions to pay for it.   So worked mainly from a work station leaving all the updates to the systems technicians to solve any problems.  Course workstations were PC's and Microsoft was the desktop operating system.  Needless to say, I never had a PC at home but started out with a Mac classic, the little one unit that had a 5'" screen at the top and never looked back.  I bought an iBook G4 before I retired as noted above but now  a PowerBook G5 which I want to get working on.  Yeah, you know, more speed, more space and a bigger screen.

Well how long was I in photography.....  Seems to me when I got my first job after completing high school in 1965 I looked high and low at all cameras before settling on a Konica Auto-Reflex with half-frame capabilities, ie. a 36-exposure can me made to take 72 half-frame slides.  And yes most pictures taken then were done on slides with the odd film to make prints.  It was pretty much taking the odd pictures but nothing specific and for some reason that kind of went down the wayside. I did dabble a little bit on B&W developing and printing at home but never really got to make a 'darkroom' suitable to do it on a regular basis.   It was probably because I joined a coin club later that year, 1974, that it overtook my photography hobby.  I pretty much ended up taking pictures mostly of the coins I acquired for my collection.

But again, give or take a few years before I retired I started looking out for activities to do when I retired.  I took up wood carving and of course joined the London Camera Club.  The first couple years I sort of stood in the background but then started going out with the Wednesday Walkers when I retired and it has been full bore since then.   I can thank Pat for getting my going on the Photography Cafe, when she came down to one of the London Camera Club's meeting and distributed her business card.  Well, it has never been looking back since then!!  But yes, am still a member of the London Numismatic Society, my coin collecting somewhat not as high on the agenda due to the costs now to acquire those specimens that I'm missing in my collection.

I'm now the owner of a Nikon D300, still keeping my Nikon D50 which has done me well over the years.  When my Konica gave up it's shutter life oh so many years ago, I acquired a Nikon F75 to get back into film shooting but it was sure not too long when the Nikon 995 came out that started me onto the digital scene.  It's close-up capabilities and my coins were a perfect match!!!  Amazing what I paid for the 995 and what you can get now for less!!!  Since doing the Wednesday Walks I've taken quite a few pictures but still there is lots to learn, both photographically and post processing wise on the laptop.

So yes, been on the Photography Cafe since September 2006, and enjoy the camaraderie and jokes that get flying around now and then.  I also take the view that there is the sharing of photos that people would otherwise not see.  It is just like so not like collecting dust in your photo album that you never seem to show anyone.  Course though I have a few slides sitting in trays that have never seen the light of day these past few or more years.

Well guess enough said or I'll be writing a book.   Hope to enjoy many more years upcoming on the Cafe site and get the camera out to take those potential POTD pictures.



Ross

1947-2013

Hi, I'm Belinda (busybee) Berry. I'm should be retired but I think I'm busier than ever!

My interest in photography started when I was given a Brownie 127 for my 8th birthday, then an Instamatic when I was 11. Pa was keen but not very knowledgeable and once even had a stereo camera. When I left school I bought myself a Zenith SLR body and a 2nd hand Pentax 105mm lens and I learned to develop and enlarge in a friend’s darkroom. Later Pa got tired of struggling with the controls of an SLR and gave me his Konica and lenses. I studied fashion and textiles at art school in London and my early working life included being a knitwear designer and a location caterer.

Fast forward to 1983 when I met Graham, an award winning film and TV cameraman with a lifetime of experience in stills. I became a software designer and had a career in the telecoms industry with Nortel Networks, until retiring from a senior management role early in 2000 so that we could sell up and go sailing. Selling up included going to a car boot sale and flogging my cameras. At that time we went digital and had a Nikon Coolpix 950 -  1Mb (which cost something like a dollar per pixel…). I had a lot of fun doing our website to document our travels, but nearly always got Graham to take the pictures.

We sold the boat in 2006 and now live in rural France with 3 cats and 4 chickens. We have guest accommodation for summer holiday rentals and run “Images of France” photography courses. Graham is course director and tutor and I’m the facilitator and cook and help out with the software in the digital darkroom. I find the enthusiasm of photographers very infectious and love being surrounded by them!

After years of taking snapshots, it was Graham’s encouragement and my passion for gardening that really kicked off my renewed interest in photography a couple of years ago. With the arrival of a Canon 5D Mk I, he suggested I use the 350D, especially with the 100mm macro lens, to photograph my garden. Now the macro lives in my camera bag and he has to ask if he wants to use it….

I consider myself an enthusiastic amateur and am working on creating my own style. I’m lucky to be part of a group who get to exhibit their work locally twice a year. I am also active on Flickr and love to give and receive comments, but I really like the special friendly atmosphere of the Photography Cafe and am very pleased to have been asked to join the team.

Hi, my name is Zoot, aka David, and I started taking an interest in photography at a young age, progressing through various film cameras and developing my own films until the digital age dawned and I bought a Sanyo Digicam, one of the first digital cameras, which boasted about half a megapixel!  I then moved to the Olympus Camedia C-920 for a few years until the Olympus Camedia C-5050 was released (I still have and use this one occasionally!).  I currently use an Olympus E-500 with 17-45 mm, 40-150 mm and 70-300 mm lenses and am looking to buy the E-1 and the E-3 bodies.  I enjoy photography and am still learning.  I am happy to contort my body into all sorts of strange positions in order to get a shot!

Until about four years ago, I was an Adult Education Tutor, teaching candle making, card and craft courses, Microsoft Office applications from beginner to advanced, and the A+ course to overseas students.  Since then I been working in Debt Collection and Customer Services.

I have looked at other photography sites, and this is by far the best I've come across, so I'll be around for a while!  


I am known as Zoot because I play the tenor saxophone, but no-one seems to have a name for players of the flute, which I also do!

[admin]

More moderators and consultants below

[printsofwales]

Hi guys. Nice to see you all.

May I be the first to compliment you on the fantastic job you all do. 

We, all to often, are quick to criticize but forget to praise.

Brilliant job guys ... keep it going.   

Andy

[Plossl]

Well done all you Admin/Mods keep up the good work
Really pleased to be a member of the best site on the net 

[leo]

Well this was an interesting read. This is a great idea I feel I know you all a lot better now. Thankyou for taking the time to tell us all about yourselves and I think you should all give yourselves a pat on the back for all your hard work in keeping this site the fantastic site it is and a site which it is a pleasure to be a member of

[Pat]

Thank you so much for taking the time to read all about us! 

[BigAl]

Well this was an interesting read. This is a great idea I feel I know you all a lot better now. Thankyou for taking the time to tell us all about yourselves and I think you should all give yourselves a pat on the back for all your hard work in keeping this site the fantastic site it is and a site which it is a pleasure to be a member of

Give ourselves a pat on the back?  We had a Pat on our backs to write it in the first place!   

[JohnSingleton]

Well this was an interesting read. This is a great idea I feel I know you all a lot better now. Thankyou for taking the time to tell us all about yourselves and I think you should all give yourselves a pat on the back for all your hard work in keeping this site the fantastic site it is and a site which it is a pleasure to be a member of

Give ourselves a pat on the back?  We had a Pat on our backs to write it in the first place!   

[leo]

Well this was an interesting read. This is a great idea I feel I know you all a lot better now. Thankyou for taking the time to tell us all about yourselves and I think you should all give yourselves a pat on the back for all your hard work in keeping this site the fantastic site it is and a site which it is a pleasure to be a member of

Give ourselves a pat on the back?  We had a Pat on our backs to write it in the first place!   

Nice to see you all do as you are told         

[Roy]

"Pat" is always on somebody's back!

[shinenlite]

All this "Pat" stuff must be a "guy thing" cause us girls get along just fine.....
We LOVE Pat!! 
(and no,  she doesn't pay us to say so) 

[carole]

Really loved getting to know you all! I've been a member since the beginning of Cafe but sorry to say I'm a spasmodic poster...... so many other interests to indulge in.

Big Al, fancy you writing a system for Contract Bridge, I'm a Bridge nut from way back ( way way way back if I'm truthful) Precision being my favoured system. What is yours called?

You all do a great job on here, many thanks.

[Harry7mc]

Hi Pat, have been reading the 'Team's profile', what a great lot you seem to be, all the work put in to give us a cracking site.

I was talking to 'Big Al', who I have invited to visit me, and he said you may be able to help.
 My last two uploads are intended for  'Where are you' Rob tells me they were moved to my album-they are there- can you put one or both into the right place for me as I wish to give Tynemouth a Boost!
Thank you.
'Al' hopes to come to Norhumberland soon & I will show him the ' Tripod Holes' that 'Anna' uses from time to time along with other places known & not so well known
 Best wishes
Harry Hann

[Pat]

Oh, dear...

Harry, I'm so sorry but I never saw this post of yours till now and while I was away at the weekend, the competition was opened for voting. 

I so hope that you'll enter our next one?

[Chocky]

I think you are terrific bunch and you all work very hard and that this is a really great site. 

[Norm T]

Hello there, I'm a good friend of Pat S who suggeted I stop in here. Well Pat -- Here I am. We live in Florida now but when it warms up my wife and I head for Michigan. 
Maybe someone can tell me where my 3 pictures went? If you see a loose Hawk he's mine.

[Pat]

Hi Norm!

I think all of your photos are safely in your albums now.

Great to see you here my good friend!

Make sure you see the messages HERE Norm!

[diamondskier]

My heartfelt thanks to all of you.  I know its been said many times, but the Cafe really is the best photography site on the net.  I tell everyone I know about it.  I have never seen such a friendly site.  I continue to learn and get better and it's all because of you and your willingness to share and give thoughtful criticism.  Thanks for sharing your stories!

[bikemad]

Finally got the chance to read all the write ups about you guys n gals. Thank you to you all for all the hardwork you put in.