My little venture out! (Picture heavyish!)

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Well I did say like a week or so ago whether anyone would be interested in a diary of me going to London with a truck driver who offered me to go with him down to London for the day for a change of scenery. Well today, I finally got the chance to go out to London. And not every trip goes as planned not with me especially :laughing: :laughing:

My mode of transport isn’t the biggest of motors but it does the job and certainly sounds the part. Pulls well too!

Plan of action today, was to be up for 2 and out the door for 3:20 so Steve could pick me up to take me down to the yard. Well I didn’t get home last night until 11:30pm as I was out at the girlfriends house and I didn’t manage to get home until 11:30. I had my alarm set so that’s that or so I thought.

I was awoken this morning by a phone call from Steve asking where I was, I looked at my alarm clock and my words of OH ■■■■! Asked him to give me five minutes to get sorted as my alarm didn’t go off and I’ll be out the door. Top bloke he is said it’s fine and waited for me, I don’t think I could have made anymore noise than I did so not knowing whether I’ve ■■■■■■ anyone off this morning in the house I don’t know yet as my house is free at the moment and I left my phone at home but I haven’t got any nasty texts or emails from anyone so I can’t of been that bad!! :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

So got down to the yard, going the long way round as the crossings were down as bloody usual trains holding up everything :imp: :imp: :imp: Steve pulled the truck out as the gap between the fence and the passenger side was near enough nil and me being a fat ■■■■ there was no way I was going to try squeezing in :open_mouth: :open_mouth: I got in and Steve pulled out of the yard and got out to close the gates to the yard. And the first picture of the day not so good I’m afraid as my camera doesn’t like the dark too much :slight_smile:

We get on the road and we see a sign for the A1 being shut, Steve wasn’t sure whether the sign was to be believed and whether it would be open by the time we get to Grantham or not so it was a case of worry about it when we get there. Anyway going past Doncaster I got the camera out and started taking snaps, and unfortunately not all at the beginning are good as they are rather blury so I apologize ahead of time :smiley: and I hang my head in shame as I managed to get a few snaps for you Eddie Stobart fans :blush: :blush:
















But as luck would have it, the A1 was shut in Grantham so Steve went down to see if he can get back on the A1 further down hoping it wasn’t shut all the way down.



Come on driver today would be nice!!! :grimacing: :grimacing:

So through Grantham we go, right through the town centre and thankfully it’s still early morning at around 5-5:30 so next to no traffic but working traffic and a few plonker truck drivers, trying to get back onto the A1 down south, as you do :slight_smile:








It was a bit like playing follow the leader with these two drivers :laughing: :smiley: :grimacing:

Went down a couple of bumpy roads which made pictures very blury and nearly flung out my seat, thank god for seat belts :open_mouth:





So we are finally back on the A1 and plain sailing, Waheyy!!! :grimacing: :grimacing: :grimacing:


Or maybe not :unamused: :unamused: :unamused:

So Steve literally stopped to ask the blokes in the Mercedes that had the road blocked off how long it would be until the road was going to be open again, Not the best of ideas personally in my opinion :open_mouth: :open_mouth: :open_mouth: but needs must and gave me chance to get pictures of the trucks getting on the A1 the opposite direction :smiley: :smiley:

So on the move again we get down the road where Steve pulls in again not even 5 minutes down the road to look at his map and again another picture to be taken :grimacing: :grimacing:

Back on the road I saw this merc but I didn’t get the full thing just part of it, or from a mate of Steve’s mercs are ‘Hitlers Revenge’ :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

Going down the road to get on our way to London we happen to bump into this Boots driver, who’s holding everyone up.

Looks like he found the low bridge sign :open_mouth:






Stay tuned for the next segment, I’m going for a little snooze as I am bloody knackered :grimacing: :grimacing: I am sorry for the blury shots but I have nothing to hide and you can kind of fathem out what trucks they are :grimacing: :grimacing: Hope you enjoy the diary so far as this is my first attempt at it :smiley: :smiley:

Cheers

Jonny :sunglasses:

2

Yeah, morning shots like that can be a problem. High ISO and wide aperture ISTR, so f/2.8 and ISO 400 upwards. Although some of your shots did look a bit grainy which I think is due to the camera/sensor size.

BTDT so only really take fots at night/low light with tripod/fixed targets :wink:

If you’ve got a Windows Mobile Pocket PC I’d reccomend G-alarm (I think - Need to check) which plays an MP3 and also vibrates. You need to then run a quiz to shut the fu… [zb] up! :wink:

3

Saratoga:
Yeah, morning shots like that can be a problem. High ISO and wide aperture ISTR, so f/2.8 and ISO 400 upwards. Although some of your shots did look a bit grainy which I think is due to the camera/sensor size.

BTDT so only really take fots at night/low light with tripod/fixed targets :wink:

If you’ve got a Windows Mobile Pocket PC I’d reccomend G-alarm (I think - Need to check) which plays an MP3 and also vibrates. You need to then run a quiz to shut the fu… [zb] up! :wink:

Explain that in idiot terms :unamused: :unamused: Someone that isn’t that intelligent such as myself gets confused easily :grimacing: :grimacing:

Cheers

Jonny :sunglasses:

4

So I’ve had a bit of sleep I can do a second part to this diary thing :smiley:

So we get onto the A15 heading for London, and something I saw today that was quite unusual was an 8 wheel foden tractor unit pulling a flat bed. Something I’ve never seen before maybe if anyone has any information on it :smiley: :smiley:




So unfortunately, I am unable to get any pictures as it is prohibited and I am not wanting to get into trouble so camera away, loaded, had breakfast and cup of coffee (No milk 2 sugar :wink: ) and had 45 minutes off. Then back on the road again we go nothing too bad just a simple trip back :smiley: :smiley:




Mr Bean’s Mrs Maybe :wink: :smiley: :grimacing:






I believe there was a member on here who was looking to find what the Maritime curtainsiders looked like, well I have seen about 8 of them today




I have the final bit to come yet when we came back and got tipped. Unfortunately I couldn’t get the pictures I wanted to get of the old shunters in the Plasmor yard in Heck, :cry: :cry: :cry: Camera died on me so I couldn’t get them unfortunately.

The last part I will put it up when the rest of my pictures are uploaded tomorrow. I hope all enjoy sorry, I apologize if it’s boring and not so interesting but this is my first attempt at a diary :laughing: :laughing:

Cheers

Jonny :sunglasses:

5

deepingdirect.com/

roadtransport.com/blogs/big- … s-fro.html

roadtransport.com/blogs/big- … ted-a.html

Here’s your 8 wheeler tractor units, Jonny :grimacing:

6

I thought you were a photographerâ– â– ?

Christ knows what you will be like when you get a licence!

ISO is a bit basic for photography… bit like a gear stick or even a door handle or steering wheel.

Can you remove your lense?

7

OTSS:
I thought you were a photographerâ– â– ?

Christ knows what you will be like when you get a licence!

ISO is a bit basic for photography… bit like a gear stick or even a door handle or steering wheel.

Can you remove your lense?

I don’t get too into the whole depth of the cameras and lenses etc. So long as it takes a decent picture and I can print it out at good quality then so be it :slight_smile: :slight_smile:

I’m new to the world of photography, christ I’ve not gone in depth this year all I’ve done is learn the ‘basics’ somethings catch on quicker than the other :unamused: :unamused: :unamused:

I personally can’t wait to get driving, working a camera and driving a truck is two completely different things. Half of the people who work behind a desk I wouldnt trust with a van let alone a truck !!! :open_mouth:

And if it isn’t obvious I’m tired and knackered :unamused: :unamused:

Cheers

Jonny :sunglasses:

8

OTSS:
I thought you were a photographerâ– â– ?

Christ knows what you will be like when you get a licence!

ISO is a bit basic for photography… bit like a gear stick or even a door handle or steering wheel.

Can you remove your lense?

And when will we see your picture diary then :unamused:

9

absolutely nothing wrong with those pictures there again i do have an appointment with specsavers :smiley: :smiley:

thanks for the warning about it been picture heavy though :smiley: :smiley:

10

billybigrig:
http://www.deepingdirect.com/

roadtransport.com/blogs/big- … s-fro.html

roadtransport.com/blogs/big- … ted-a.html

Here’s your 8 wheeler tractor units, Jonny :grimacing:

Cheers for that mate :grimacing: :grimacing: :grimacing: A few good reads there :smiley: :grimacing:

Sure did look the part :smiley:

11

4whatitsworth:
And when will we see your picture diary then :unamused:

As a waggon driver, you probably already have at some point in years gone by when you bought your daily paper, front pages for a few Nationals… now I just deliver the rolls.

I can rope and sheet as well, daily.

No ■■■■ taking now but Jonny if you want help with your pics, give me a shout by PM and I’ll be happy to help.

12

Low light photography is a challenge!

By adjusting the ISO, aperture and holding the camera steady and planning on what photo you take can make the difference between a good shot and, er, others.

I do tend to have more precise requirements with my photos and I do prefer them to be sharp and in focus. I learnt many years ago that the ‘bridge’ camera or the ‘point and shoot’ cameras are not suitable for the photography I wanted to do and ended up with a DSLR.

I do agree that terms like ‘f stop’ and ‘ISO’ are basic requirements of photography though.

A friend took an NVQ level 3 course in ‘Photography’ and all they taught him to do was how to fill in the paperwork, what evidence to provide etc etc.

For example. In your image: img830.imageshack.us/img830/4017/1002854.jpg you can see it is a bit blurred and the other thing you can see is a term called ‘grainy’. That is where the ISO setting on the camera has been used to boost the sensitivity and it has gone too far, or reached it’s maximum. That camera doesn’t have image stabilisation, under whatever name they use.

From the information about your camera I see it has such facilities as ‘blur reduction facility’. One way of doing that is turning up the ISO. I would recommend in switching off the ‘digital zoom’ as well as trying to take photos at the lowest number of aperture, ie f/2.8, f/3.5 etc although most of yours were at f/4.5 or there abouts.

Your camera review:

imaging-resource.com/PRODS/C913/C913A.HTM
dpreview.net/products/kodak/ … kodak_c913

By comparison the following link is my camera, it cost close to £600 when I bought the first body back in about 2005 and £120 when I bought a second body last October. It supports interchangable lenses yet is a tad larger than what you’re used too :wink:

dpreview.com/news/0507/05071 … xxum5d.asp

Photography is a learning curve and sometimes you’ll feel like you’re hitting a brick wall!

13

I actually live near Saratoga … just thought I’d mention that :laughing:

14

Pat Hasler:
I actually live near Saratoga … just thought I’d mention that :laughing:

Thanks Pat :wink: However, in this case Jonnytruckfest lives closer to me than you do, what with you being across the pond :wink:

15

Few good pictures there mate. Ex Tom and jerry from clitheroe
that motor is it still on the tippers??