About Me:
Hi, my name as you can guess by now is Mark Johns, and I live in a village near Ely in Cambridgeshire. I'm 21 years old and currently single at the time of writing :-) My favourite music is Underground Drum n Bass, I really like Goldie, Bailey, L Double and Flight. They're all good Artist's and DJ's.
My main interests in life are train spotting, computers, DnB and drinking beer. I am a keen railway photographer and you can always see me at Ely station with a camera! When I'm not out spotting in my spare time, I'll be on my computer working on this website. I have self taught myself many programming languages from websites and books. The main languages I can program in are:

• HTML
• Javascript
• PHP
• SQL
• Ms Dos & Batch Commands (Basic)
• Visual Basic
• A bit of C++

I use a program similar to Windows Notepad, but it's called Notespad and has many more powerfull features. I use Notespad for all my programming, I don't believe in using WYSIWYG's because of the amount of pointless coding that they insert, therefore making the pages/scripts bigger in size. I also think that you are only a true programmer if you can do it all by hand, which is what I do. It's good for debugging your coding aswell, because you know which variables/functions do what.
I also create my own graphics, as you can see the site layout was all created by me using Paintshop Pro. The logo at the top and top left, and the curvy page design were easily created. Some of the graphics can be basic but they achieve the effects and are small aswell taking less time to download.

You may all be wondering what I do for a living... I'm an Apprentice Heavy Vehicle Technician and I'm in the last part of the second year. I've only got another one and half years until I'm fully qualified! I work in Cambridge at Marshall's Airport Garage for DAF Trucks. I really enjoy work, it's good fun and the lads are a good laugh. I'll be going to Soundwell College in Bristol (Parkway Division for Transport Technology) every now and then(block release) so I can get some spotting in over there aswell. Below is a photo of me working on the railway for the OTPPG, I'm one of their CME's and we're currently restoring an old track machine.

The Website:
My website was first created back in 1998 as I was learning HTML coding, but wasn't published for over a year! It was only created because I wanted to learn HTML, and never really intended in publishing it.
It started life as a small site with just a gallery of photo's at Waterbeach and Cambridge (which are still there!), and a small page of links and an email form using the mailto tag. It's only after all the hard work and learning, that I took a look at it from a visitors view and saw the potential. I added another gallery of photo's taken at the North Norfolk Railway and thought about getting it online. I never actually got it online until I was at college, and during IT lessons I was searching for the best ISP/Host. I didn't really pay attention to IT lessons because I was past all that basic stuff like using Word, etc already. I'd been brought up using computers, I still remember my Dad's Commadore 64. Brilliant thing it was, the games were so good in them days :-)
Anyway, it wasn't until December 1999 that I decided now or never and signed up to Madasafish (A good free unlimited service). Later I signed up to Tripod as a mirror, and then ended up moving over to Tripod. My site went through a re-design and I managed to complete it in about 1 month. When the site moved over to Tripod, I learned PHP and SQL and started rebuilding the photo galleries so that instead of having hundreds of pages like "ely732.html", I had one page that would have a reference at the end of the URL like this: elyphoto.php?ID=732, and that page would look in the Ely table (in a database) for ref: 732 and would display the URL for the image and also the comment. I have made several scripts for the site over time, and they had to be updated to PHP. There are still a few knocking about waiting to be re-programmed into PHP.
The programs I use for creating my website are as follows:

• Ulead Photo Express
• Jasc Paint Shop Pro
• Notespad
• WS_FTP 95LE
• PHP
• MySQL
• IIS (Internet Information Services)

The reason why my computer has IIS (basically means it's a server), is so that I can test PHP and MySQL scripts on my server instead of uploading to the site all the time. It's easier for debugging reasons really.

My Tower:
Now here is where I tell you all that I love my computer(tower), because it's a brilliant workhorse. It could be on for hours/all day and not get bogged down. Oh, and I built it myself! I'll give you the tech info about my tower in a while, but first I just want to say that it's not the fastest computer that you can get now. These computer's seem to get better and faster every day, memory is getting better, faster, and cheaper as time passes. Even CPU's are the same. I might even update my motherboard sometime in the near future. My Dad taught me how to build computers because he studied the MCP and he's done the A+ course. One of my uncle's an MCSE and in charge of Networking computer's.
Anyway, here is the tech info for my tower:

• Intel Pentium 3 Processor
• 450MHz
• 192MB of RAM
• M$ Windows XP Professional
• 4GB HD
• 40GB HD (NEW)
• 56x CD-ROM Drive (NEW)
• 3.5" FD
• 100MB ZIP DRIVE

My Camera Equipment:
The camera's that I have used have been either digital or an SLR. But earlier photo's were taken on a compact.
The digital camera is a Sony DSC F1. It's good because you can take about 52 photo's but the quality is not too good and the zoom is fixed and very limited.
The other camera which is my pride and joy is an SLR that has been passed down in my family. It used to be my Grandad's, and he gave it to my Dad and now I have it. It's an Olympus OM10, 35mm with a standard Zuiko 50mm lens. I have also recently got a second-hand Sigma 200mm Macro Tele Zoom lens, which is very good. I just need to test it next time I go to Toton Bank :-) The photo's are very good quality, and better than digital but they do cost more to develop the films. But it's worth it and it's a very cheap hobby really, I can think of other hobbies that are more expensive (Model Helicopter's!). The films that I use are mainly Truprint 35mm 24exp ISO200 and 36exp ISO400. I do sometimes get TESCO premium ISO400 films aswell and they seem to be as good as Truprint. The cheaper TESCO 'Blue & White' films are a little grainy though, so I tend to steer clear.

UPDATE:- Just to let you all know, my camera got knicked back in December 2003 when it was in my car boot. The car got broken into outside my house and the theives (Gypo's) got lucky when they got into the boot. I was quite gutted about it cos I'd had 12 rolls of exposed film inside the flight case from back in the summer, etc. Will be getting a new SLR soon, when I can afford it :-(

Summary:
Anyway, that's enough about me and my Camera for now. I hope that this guide hasn't bored you and that you have found it interesting. Just remember that when taking photo's, number 1 rule is DON'T TRESSPASS! Be Safe Be Seen. Safety is more important than a good photo :-)
If you should ever feel the need to contact me, then you can do so by filling in this email form.