Welcome

Welcome to my blog!

My name is Stuart (though I prefer Stu), I live in Shildon, County Durham, England and I am married with two beautiful daughters.

I have a couple of hobbies, aside from spending time with my family, I am what is commonly termed a "Bus Spotter", though I have never found any attraction to collecting bus numbers! Rather, I am more interested in the actual vehicle, and through this, in 2002 I achived my lifetime ambition to become a bus driver and found employment with Arriva North Eastm based at Bishop Auckland depot. I still work there, though in 2006 I was promoted to a Leading Driver/Relief Traffic Officer, and I spend most of my worktime in the depot but still get to indulge in driving a bus in service occasionally.

My other main hobby developed from my interest in buses. I enjoy photography. I started to photograph buses, using a digital camera but then was tempted to use good old fashioned film. My wife bought me a second hand Olympus OM-10 SLR camera in 2008 for my birthday and I was very impressed with the results. Now, I also own a classic Olympus Trip 35 and I am about to become the owner of an Olympus XA rangefinder. I enjoy taking photos of my family and countryside, and I am starting to photograph buses with interesting scenery in the background. I still use a digital camera (a Kodak Z1485 14mp), but where I can, I prefer to use my film cameras. Digital is OK, but they lack the "realness" of a film picture.

So, this blog is going to showcase my work, I hope you find it interesting. I do have a fotopic site, but I'm currently in dispute with them and my site has been suspended :-( When it gets back online, I will provide a link from here.

Thats all for now....
Stu