This is the first installment of what I plan as a regular event to talk about my photography, some insights (that hopefully will be helpful), camera usage, types of cameras, and my personal preferences and interests.
Let me start off by sharing how I got started. Way back when I was a teenager (now in my seventies) I bought a Kodak Instamatic that used the 126 cartridge film that you just dropped into the back of the camera and you were ready to go. It was pretty much goof proof. It had no adjustments or settings to worry with. I used that for a while and took some very uninspiring photos. Mostly family members birthday parties and a few other things that caught my interest (and now I have no idea what they were or what happened to the pictures).
As so often happens I was overcome by events. School work, basketball games, part time jobs and then college. Not really interested in photography for several years as I started a career in the financial industry and got married so there was little spare time and not much excess money! Then someone in the family gave me an old 35mm camera that he was going to discard. It was the type of camera that used a split screen viewfinder that you had to adjust the image so that the top half of your subject lined up with the bottom half. It did have settings for film speed and aperture adjustment but no lighting exposure help. I got lots of over and under exposed pictures until I got smart enough to buy a cheap exposure meter. I experimented with flowers and simple things for a couple of years and really gained some valuable experience. After that I discovered true SLR 35mm cameras, and that was great. More info about that to come in later posts.
I spent a lot of time taking pictures of my children as my family grew. That was fun and I would often have family picture nights that I used a projector and roll up screen to show off my work and to generally entertain everybody that was in attendance. Along with that I started to develop an interest in sunsets, beach scenes and flowers and my expertise improved greatly. Then I discovered interchangeable lenses and filters (what a new and interesting world!) In future posts I will share what brand of cameras and lenses that I have used in the past and what my favorites are now.
Spoiler alert, Cannon is my go to brand and I currently own three of them along with a few other things.
Check out some of the photos on my website and I will be posting again in the near future.
