JohnGreyTurner's photostream  

First off, please RESPECT THE APPLIED LICENSE. Within the terms of the license you may link to my stream content. IF your website carries ANY advertising, please DO NOT LINK !!!!

You can now find me on Facebook (with all the 'young' people :)) ) and I'm giving Twitter a try @JohnGreyTurner

My friends call me 'JayTee' or JT - whichever :) I take snaps of railways. That's really all you need to know .... but if you wish, here's some more background.

In my 50's and have been taking photographs (generally of railways) since borrowing a Kodak Brownie 44a for a trip to the West Riding railway sheds in the mid60's. I can never admit to being very good, but as a record of the day I did OK. Progressing through my dad's Voigtlander Vito CL, my first saved paypackets went on a Pentax Spotmatic 500 (1971) and on returning from 6months in Belize, I blatted my saved wages on a Canon AE1 (1977). I also had a Mamiya C3 for a while. Nothing much then, except for occasionally borrowing my uncles Yashicas, until splashing out on a Canon EOS350D in 2007 and I now run a 40D. I used to lust after a Leica or Canon A1 (or even a Pentax 6x7 or a 'Blad) and would spend hours drooling over a copy of the latest Wallace Heaton Catalogue.

I'm not imaginative enough to call myself a photographer, never mind a 'Railway Photographer' - how pretentious is that unless someone makes their primary living photographing railways. And I have screwed up many times - torn film sprocket holes meant I missed the last of regular passenger steam traction at Crewe, using colour film with a 2x yellow filter (oops) meant I never really got to capture the EM2s at Wath, making a total hash of a mate's wedding who was trying to save a few bob. I hated the developing and printing bit - never could quite get it right. Digital for me has been a god-send (sorry Arctic Corsair et al) - but for me it's true. As I say whilst I respect the arty photography, mine is purely for recording a point in time on a specific day. I have many railway books and of course greatly admire (and revere) the work of Eric Treacy, Les Nixon et al.

Some of the photos you will see are salvaged negatives from years ago which never actually got printed. These have been solarised using a Jessop Slide Copier and PSP. Unfortunately the 1.6 cropping factor of the Canon 350D means that some of the context may be lost.

Note: Oct 2009 - I have a much better scanner now (Epson Perfection 4490 Photo) - The Jessop has been confined to the 'File 13' of history - so you WILL see, over time, that quite a few of my earlier scans will be replaced.

Anyway, all the photos I post here will be MINE ie taken by me (unless, and very rarely, specifically credited to someone else, or photographs associated with old family members) - if you enjoy them, great - if not, well that's great too - just goes to show we all have different tastes and we should respect that. And I promise NOT to inflate my page views by logging in as someone else and running a daily slideshow. Also I don't elicit views by 'begging' people to 'Pleease come and see my updated photos'. I don't PLUG! Anyone is welcome to come and look and engage and contribute and if there's something they want to see they'll find it by the tags or through Google/Yahoo or a search engine.

I promise I won't post more than 1 photograph per locomotive per session unless it is with good reason ie I won't show an approaching train shot 5 times as it does so - how annoying can that be??

It would be great if I could say that they were all taken from public vantage points (public footpaths, bridges etc) or with express permission. Sadly I cannot as some of the very earlier ones from my teens were taken when bunking 50B Dairycoates until I was tigged by the BTP while cabbing 42954 and spent a very unpleasant 3 weeks while waiting for the knock on the door and getting a good tongue-lashing from my dad. The knock never came but I never bunked again. Everything from that time onward ARE taken from public vantage points. Big up to www.trainspots.co.uk.

I would like to give a Big Up to all those contributors to the Railway Gen groups who post advance warnings of interesting workings. Thank You all :)

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24 May 2009 - Up the Tigers !!!! We're going up :)

May 2009 - We're STAYING UP! - and I'm going to be a Grandad :)

17 Nov 2009 - I AM a Grandad - Dylan Lucas Turner born today at 17:20 - 7lb 15oz. Well done Kate (I think John had something to do with it) :)

April 2010 Tigers are down :((