Beamish Museum or Tanfield Railway aren't too far for any of us. Almost on Barrie's doorstep in fact..
Last time we had a Pentax meet up at Beamish Fatspider came up from Leeds and Neil arrived hot foot from the Barnsley area.
David

Pentax User Forum member Bill Ward gave a fantastic night of photography at Ashington, Camera Club last night when he entertained a packed audience with a marvelous show of his superb images. Bill was guest speaker at the Northumberland camera club which invited other camera enthusiasts from across the North East to attend the show.
I went along with Barrie Forbes from Durham Photographic Society and met up with other forum members Alan Wennington, (Blythman) from Blyth Camera Club, and Stan Fraser (Tyronet) who is a member of the Ashington Camera Club.
Newcastle-born Bill, who is a Pentax ambassador, talked of his passion for photography forming a backdrop for his acting career which includes roles in various TV soaps, including Coronation Street and Emmerdale and live stage.
The pictures he showed demonstrated his sensitive approach to landscape photography and included samples of his trade mark ICM (in camera movement) work.
It was an inspiring night of photography.

Weekly competition 504 'People performing'
It's sort of a portrait competition but one where the subject or subjects are performing. For instance there's so many 'events' now where photographers can grab eye catching pictures of people doing a wide variety interesting shows. The Whitby Goths, Edinburgh Fringe, music festivals, war re-enactments, fancy dress parades, village events, city parades ...... the list is endless and I hope it encourages a wide range of interpretations of colourful (and black and white) characters.
The rules are simple: pictures must be taken on Pentax/Ricoh cameras or their related clones although the lens can be of any make that fits your camera.
The winner doesn't get a prize, he or she sets the following week's topic and judges and comments on the entries. Deadline midnight on Sunday March 12 British time.

Excellent photography, particularly the night shots. You found some fascinating view points for these.
David

My Pentaxes (K3, K5 and K30) are so clever they go out and take pictures on their own while I sit in the coffee shop eating bacon sarnies.
David

Plus membership has worked for me. Twice my DA*50-135mm lens SDM failed and twice I had it repaired by Johnsons at a discounted price because I was a Plus member. Then just over a year ago the focussing on my DA*200mm lens went wonky and Johnsons also repaired that at a Plus Membership discount. It wasn't the SDM this time but something to do with the electronic circuitry. Don't ask, I'm not technical.
Did I dump the lenses or go and buy another? No because its cheaper to repair them than buy a new one. Did I dump Pentax? No because these sort of problems can happen to any make of camera at any time.
I've had the DA*50-135mm for around nine years and its been well used - and now its still going strong. and giving me good results.
The DA*200 has since been traded in against a DFA*70-200 not because there was anything wrong with it after it was repaired, , quite the opposite, but because I needed more flexibility from a zoom.
David

That was one competition well worth winning Nigel.
David

Lovely detail and image quality in all of these Gary - and also full of human interest.
David

Fascinating set of images with so much detail. I can see owls, gargoils and all sorts of wonderful shapes and textures.
David

Excellent.
David