Hi All
As can be seen by my membership date I have been mostly lurking, with the occasional post, for a while now.
When I was younger (about 10 or 11) I used to check out photography books from the local library but was never in a position to get a camera. I finally got my first SLR at the age of 40, an old Pentax ME with a couple of iffy lenses. Within a year I had changed to a Nikon system, then a TLR and then traded my 35mm gear in for a Hasselblad. I lived in South Africa for 18 years and whilst a beautiful country it wasn't the safest place to wander around with a camera. Most of my photographs were taken in the rest of the world as being a professional musician I was fortunate enough to travel to most continents and get paid for it.
After being the victims of 5 armed robberies my partner and I along with our two children decided to relocate back to the UK. Great, or so I thought, the chance to wander around the countryside and get into some serious photography. However finding a job, somewhere to live and two young girls (6 & 4) seriously curtailed my endeavours. This year we bought our first house and it has enough space for a darkroom. I've just bought another 35mm outfit, still got the TLRs' and have set up the enlargers ready for action. The enthusiasm is back if not all of the time that I'd like.
I'm sure I'll be bugging you guys for darkroom and developing tips and look forward to meeting some of the UK members (probably at the Ilford visit). Hopefully I'll eventually be able (I mean confident enough) to post some images of the windswept pennines on which I now live.
As can be seen by my membership date I have been mostly lurking, with the occasional post, for a while now.
When I was younger (about 10 or 11) I used to check out photography books from the local library but was never in a position to get a camera. I finally got my first SLR at the age of 40, an old Pentax ME with a couple of iffy lenses. Within a year I had changed to a Nikon system, then a TLR and then traded my 35mm gear in for a Hasselblad. I lived in South Africa for 18 years and whilst a beautiful country it wasn't the safest place to wander around with a camera. Most of my photographs were taken in the rest of the world as being a professional musician I was fortunate enough to travel to most continents and get paid for it.
After being the victims of 5 armed robberies my partner and I along with our two children decided to relocate back to the UK. Great, or so I thought, the chance to wander around the countryside and get into some serious photography. However finding a job, somewhere to live and two young girls (6 & 4) seriously curtailed my endeavours. This year we bought our first house and it has enough space for a darkroom. I've just bought another 35mm outfit, still got the TLRs' and have set up the enlargers ready for action. The enthusiasm is back if not all of the time that I'd like.
I'm sure I'll be bugging you guys for darkroom and developing tips and look forward to meeting some of the UK members (probably at the Ilford visit). Hopefully I'll eventually be able (I mean confident enough) to post some images of the windswept pennines on which I now live.
) you can easily pop along to: (there was a url link here which no longer exists) next year...
