Some of my dad's photos

[mick2me 3,033]

Could this be Waddington?

[Ayupmeducks 1,730]

Rob, I use an inexpensive software called Corel, Paintshop ProX3, I think they are up to about X6 now. But its user friendly, has many great features and is about the best photo editor on the market FOR IT'S PRICE..

Several years back I bought Photoshop, cost mega bucks!! Took me a while to learn all it's features too! But Paintshop is on par if not better than the copy of Paintshop I have.

Corel bought Adobi's competitor can't think of their name now, but the wife bought a photo editor software twelve years back, it was on par with Photoshop and just as expensive back then.

Paintshop is taken from that experience and has been improved, upgraded every year...

As I stated affordable, easy to use and has many useful features only found on mega bucks software.

There are tutorials on Youtube.

A great feature I love is the one to remove the unwanted tree or person by just using the selected tool, outline the object for removal and click...It produces an automated seamless removal.. It has to be seen to be believed, something that takes hours by hand.

[Trevor S 2,003]

Can confirm the Bloodhound missiles - the Newton RAF Base had two at the entrance to the base (one either side of the main gates) on Main Road.

Compo will confirm whether it is Newton or not but I do not think so.

[trevorthegasman 150]

The Old Market Square 1968 took me back to the Christmas scene every year as a child when the tree was delivered, was it from Norway? but the most exciting thing was the countdown on the front of the Evening Post leading up to Christmas.

The Radio Times with Christmas/Boxing day, here in Australia its 25 and 26 Dec just the same as everyday .

The picture of 7000 Britannia was also special,got to the York railway museum a few years ago and stood looking at" Millard" remembering train

-spotting at Grantham back in the 50s.....Enough...

[mercurydancer 1,104]

What is this Rocket?

I had an Airfix model of it as a kid.

Unknown RAF Base 1960s

https://flic.kr/p/mJP2Ys

Probably a Lincolnshire base?

That missile appears to be a mark 2 Bloodhound. Its definately a bloodhound BTW. The Bloodhound was not easily transportable so was used at strategically important bases. The last bloodhound was retired in 1991! The aircraft is either a NF 12 or NF 14 Meteor. A night fighter, hence the elongated nose.

These two factors lead to the conclusion that the airbase was RAF Coningsby

[mercurydancer 1,104]

The Old Market Square 1968 took me back to the Christmas scene every year as a child when the tree was delivered, was it from Norway? but the most exciting thing was the countdown on the front of the Evening Post leading up to Christmas.

The Radio Times with Christmas/Boxing day, here in Australia its 25 and 26 Dec just the same as everyday .

The picture of 7000 Britannia was also special,got to the York railway museum a few years ago and stood looking at" Millard" remembering train

-spotting at Grantham back in the 50s.....Enough...

Trevor

Last July the National railway museum at York had all the remaining A4 locos (including Mallard) up and running. Even into this year, the A4s were run between York and Shildon in Co Durham, often on the back lines (ie not the east coast line)

On my way to work one dismal morning, I saw an A4 on the most dismal piece of track in the north east - it goes through Middlesbrough - and the A66 goes alongside it. There was the Sir Nigel Greasley stopped. I diverted onto the Middlehaven site and just watched it. I was late for work by about 30 minutes. It was worth it

[edthefolkie 7]

Rob, I love the old slides. I thought "Blimey, they're good!" and then read that they were taken by a pro (your dad) using a Leica/Summicron so that explains it. Great stuff.

These slides are a valuable record - because they're colour apart from anything else. How many colour shots of the old Drury Hill have you seen? Especially as they're Kodachrome which doesn't fade or shift, unlike Ektachrome and Agfa. The only problem with Kodachrome-X and 64 is that they tend to give a magenta cast in shadows, unlike KII and K25.

Hope you don't mind me giving my experiences of scanning. I've been doing my old slides (back to 1965) for some years, frying my brain in the process. When other people start on this herculean task I advise them to either get them done professionally on a drum scanner - unfortunately this can be VERY expensive - or buy an Epson flatbed/second hand Nikon Coolscan. The little "scanners" which are sold by Lidl and everybody else are not actually line by line scanners at all - they are fairly low res digital cameras which don't do full justice to slides. Especially Kodachrome ones taken with a Leica!

I use an Epson V700 flatbed. I was quite happy with my old Epson 3170 until I was persuaded, in the pub of course, into upgrading by a friend who produces incredible results with one. Mind you, he is a perfectionist. The great advantage of the V700 is that it does 12 slides at a time instead of 4, so it's possible to watch TV & load the next 12 during the commercials. The supplied Epson Scan software does a reasonable job on magenta shifts etc - you just tick the "colour restoration" box. However it's a good idea to optimise slides after scanning using Photoshop CS, Elements (comes free with new Epson scanners) or Picasa, which is free from Google. And there are of course other good tools.

The V700 does speed up scanning considerably but it's only worth the expense IMHO if you have thousands of slides. It's currently around £500 but if you only want to do 4 at a time 3170s come up on Fleabay for about 50 quid. For a s/h Nikon Coolscan, the sky seems to be the limit, crazily.

Any other advice? Do not bin the slides after you've scanned them. Apart from anything else, good ones can be worth money. AND, only spend a couple of hours at a time on scanning, however you scan, otherwise you will start getting the headaches and finding yourself in a self inflicted timewarp. Bit like this forum really (ducks hastily).

[tomlinson 879]

Can confirm the Bloodhound missiles - the Newton RAF Base had two at the entrance to the base (one either side of the main gates) on Main Road.

Compo will confirm whether it is Newton or not but I do not think so.

When I was on a course at RAF Newton, there was a Bloodhound on a small grassed island near the guardroom. At one time or other, some wag set fire to the grass beneath the ram jets, giving the impression it had 'gone off' in the night. Caused the RAF police some concern. I think it was the air displays at Newton in the 50s that first gave me an interest in aircraft. Meteors were the new thing; Spitfires around in abundance; Sunderland flying boats and in the later years the Hunter, Supermarine Attacker and other new jets came to the fore. Truly a golden age of aviation! There was a Vulcan in one of the hangars; interesting when you think there was just a grassed runway there! Going off at a tangent, I was at Swanton Morley in the late 70s when it was revealed that the then chairman of MENSA was a corporal in the RAF police. I think it was about 3 weeks later that he left the force. Similarly, a guy named Larter, a Junior Technician, was selected to play rugby union for England. Shortly afterwards he was a Flying Officer in the clerical branch. A pair of related coincidences?

[Blondie 1,392]

Rob L.....................Some great photo's there, my dad always took loads of photo's of outings when we were kids, must look for them................Which Pit is it in the photo ? ............... Newstead Abbey brings back memories for me from back in the 1950's, we spent many a happy day out there in the summer.................I was bought up in Hucknall, we would catch the B8 Mansfield bus to the gates and would walk the long treck up the drive (family, friends, relatives) sometimes we would walk it through LinbyVillage, up the path by the school through the woods and into Newstead Abbey Grounds, we always sat under the same Big Tree between the Abbey and the Lake, had big picnics, played all day in the watersplash and then roamed around the gardens before we came back home, was a great day out........Same with outings to Trent Bridge in the summer, always with a picnic............Oh happy days........

[Rob.L 1,088]

#32

Ed, thanks. Unfortunately, in the ten years between my dad passing away and my acquiring them, the slides were stored in an unheated garage and damp took its toll. Many now have a cast on them, which I removed from the scans using Photoshop CS. I still have to sit down and scan the other 10,000 or so!

#34

Blondie,

It's Gedling Colliery, long since vanished.

As for Newstead Abbey, I had a stroll around there on 5th November. Some photos here -

[Blondie 1,392]

Rob L - Newstead Abbey has always been a great place........just luv the gardens.....................Is the White Lady Restuarant still there ?......

[Rob.L 1,088]

The White Lady closed in 2003, when the City Council refused to renew the lease.

http://www.white-lady.co.uk/

[LizzieM 9,507]

Fabulous photos at Newstead Abbey Rob, well done

[PeverilPeril 3,279]

Great photo retrieval Rob. I have a some of your dads photo's. Our wedding in 62 and about 10 bike racing shots 57/66.

[darkazana 1,736]

Great photos Rob. Just showed my husband the RAF one as he was in the RAF for quite a while, but couldn't place the base.

[Gibbo 04 188]

Wonderful photos Rob. I especially like the image of Drury Hill, so evocative.