BLACK SPOTS. In the booklet circulating with the Area 20 Folio Secretary Ron Croad highlights the vast improvement in slide quality compared with earlier examples but also points out that some members slides, using the `simple` Sodium Thiosulphate fixer, suffer with black spots.

This, says Ron, is almost certainly due to the silver deposit on the bottle housing the solution which tends to flake away and subsequently sticks to the film. The solution, of course, is to discontinue using the old `Hypo` and move over to the Ammonium Thiosulphate.

Nick Williams, writing in the same booklet, confirms the problem but approaches the solution in a different way - simply by filtration, in fact. Nick says he finds the filter paper sold by Boots, intended for wine making, apparently, to be perfectly suitable for the purpose - though the solution needs to be forced through the paper with mild pressure.

Valuable advice with widely differing remedies ... you pays your money....

C.R.C. FORMULA DOES IT WORK! Ron also makes a vibrant point or two in support of the Club Formula when he refers to members using hybrid solutions - some parts from the Moorhouse formula then interspersed with the C.R.C. He points out that people with crude `letter balance` facilities for their weighing cannot expect to match the results that can be obtained with the Club mixes when absolute accuracy is possible.

As he says, the Moorhouse formula only works well with Fuji film: the C.R.C. Formula gets excellent results with ALL E.6 type emulsions... and is a revolution with Konica, a film costing around half the price of most others.

All of this I support without reservation. There are no snags, no worries and no dissapointments providing care is taken at the weighing & mixing stage and in the subsequent adjustments to the recommended pH values of the solutions: and, of course, due care is given to time and temperature during the actual processing procedure.

ALL OF THEM GONE!! One of the major talking points amongst members has been the absence of blue skies during this most disappointing summer. Certainly here on the East Coast the blue sky and white cloud have been singularly missing most of the time. On the South Coast, too, Tony Chuter reports much the same story, as does Treasurer, Colin Powell, out there in Shropshire, who describes the grey uninteresting skies of this past summer as death blow to the colour slide!

Down in the South East, though, the Pearles appear to have been reasonably lucky and Ron Croad seems to have had a grand holiday in the Yorkshire Dales where the skies were blue and the clouds powdery white. Bill Reid, though, appears to have provided the definitive answer during trips across country as a B.R. driver. "I have never known such diverse weather from one region to another" he says. "Rain in Bristol, a gale in the Midlands, sunshine in the East" He does, however, appears to have avoided any snow!

THE COLCHESTER JEWELS. Remember those jewels down in the South East? Major and Rita Pearle? And their In-Line Processor? Well the project has been re-designed - or perhaps more accurately - is subject to variation. But keep a stout heart for I am assured it will not be abandoned.

The point, apparently, is that the original In-Line Processor is now to be a Collapsed Helix. Please don't ask - at this time - just what is meant by a Collapsed Helix I just don't know! But from the rough sketch I have received it looks very much like an In-Line processor! But I am assured that the new design is more efficient and, what is more will now process different sizes of film whereas the original would have been restricted to 35mm. So we want to be patient and, like Mr. Asquith, `Wait and see`.

BACKGROUND TIP. Meantime this indomitable pair have developed a cunning, but simple arrangement photographing, in close-up, small objects or flowers etc. The set up consists of an empty drawer, painted black inside which is used as a background. The subject is lit by three daylight type Graphica tubes - one either side and the other just behind the subject. A large, stiff card, or similar is covered with kitchen foil to act as a reflector. The shot is taken through a hole in the reflector which effectively shields the lens from flare. The examples I have seen, using this set-up were of the succulent Epiphyllum flower - and truely the pictures were magnificent, truely!

WEDDINGS GALORE. The "Shoot The Bride" article by Bert Sanders in the last issue of the Newsletter evoked a few forgotten memories of my early days as a free-lance on weekly newspapers in the West Midlands.

Then, from 1931-1936, I was paid a reproduction fee of 5/- (25p) for each picture if used. Not all ever were! But for single column reproductions this was reduced to 2/6 (12½p) and half column 1/- (5p). As the glass plates - quarter plate - used then cost 2/6 per dozen it will be appreciated that some additional income was vital. So most Saturdays became hectic! I booked and covered weddings! Lots of weddings! As many as six during a Saturday was not uncommon. How did I manage six you ask? Well they had to be spaced out reasonably conveniently, of course. Preferably and thankfully, at least one and hopefully two in the morning, another couple with a time gap between, taken at the churches and finally a couple had to be satisfied with shots at the reception. There was no choice! Obviously careful planning was necessary but I honestly cannot remember ever missing a wedding appointment.

It was hectic - and hard work, for three of these five years I had only a push bike as transport! And that`s far from funny with a heavy leather case on ones` back, crammed with a plate camera and a couple of dozen glass plates in slides, a tripod and flash equipment.

All this was for an order which was usually only around 12/- (60p) a time. For the usual charge then was 1/- for a whole plate and 6/- (30p) for a dozen post cards. Whole plate, d/weight bromide commercial paper cost 10/4 per gross (52p). A wedding I attended last year covered, in colour, pulled in a fee of £250. It`s beyond my belief! But I saw the account!