leyton.org

It’s very easy to criticise, much harder to compliment. Certainly when we’ve felt somewhat under siege at times with incompetent companies doing work in our house and leaving us high and dry (here), or going to restaurants and leaving nonplussed about the experience (here and here), letting off some steam on this website is a useful exercise.

It’s not all negatives though. We were happy with our plumber, enjoyed eating in Miso, Ichiban and - of course - my all time favourite noodle bar Chi Noodle - who have had a major facelift and it’s improved further still. The sooner they open up in Glasgow, the more complete my life will be

So, whilst I do sometimes feel a bit bad about getting negative about places (especially if my google pagerank puts my site higher than theirs), there is - I think - a lot more positive writing up going on on this site than negatives.

I wanted to further that with a non-foody recommendation, and that’s going to hopefully be of interest to Glasgwegian (and Scottish) photographers. If you’ve not already been to Quiggs, then you’re missing out on the best photography shop in town. I was in there this morning hoping to get my Nikon D70 cleaned, and my film camera serviced.

It’s the Achilles heel of Digital SLR’s in that the CCD is behind the reflex mirror and none, as far as I am aware, have any sort of anti-dust system. That means dust can get on the CCD itself, resulting in flecks on pictures (particularly small aperture pictures) that can’t easily be removed with a simple clean (more here). So Quiggs had previously offered to use their high-pressure blower to clean it. And clean it they did. For the grand price of £0. Nadda. Marvellous.

I also wanted to get my film SLR serviced. I’ve not used it in ages, and it’s over 10 years old now, and had the shutter jam on me in San Francisco a few years back, ruining what would otherwise have been some pretty stunning pictures of the park and Yosemite national park. But a quick look, and a bit of a play, and they gave it a bit of a clean, and said it didn’t need anything. It was in excellent enough condition. My jam was probably my touching it when changing the film, not anything systemic.

So, I stocked up on new film and a new 1Gb Compact Flash, and a new battery for my film SLR. Grand total of about £45 of business. But most of all, the extremely friendly, helpful advise, and the aversion to charging me to do simple or unnecessary things, meant that I walked out of there (briefly; I was barely out of the door when I realise I’d left my new purchases on the counter!) feeling that it’s the best photography shop in Glasgow, and one of the best I’ve been to.

Jessops are the high-street shop most people will be familiar with. But I find it a bit too ‘Dixony’. Too many glass displays, too many ensuited assistants who are too keen to push a sale on you, much less have a passion for photography. The guy I dealt with in Quiggs was friendly, affable and knowledgeable. Sure, Parnie street is a bit off the beaten track, but it’s a nice little spot none the less, and we often park in the Kings Street carpark, so not that far out of our way.

So, go check them out: Quiggs of Glasgow - www.quiggs.co.uk. An excellent shop that deserves to continue for doing everything a photography enthusiast could want, so well.