Heather Peattie
Member
Hello All! 
A friend of mine told me to have a look here and I liked what I saw.
This is the story of my photographic journey so far.
I have enduring childhood memories of my gran making us do things so she could take pictures of us, including acosting strangers in the street on Christmas Day to take a photo of the whole family (anything between 14 and 20 of us) outside the house. She had a Rollei which I only remember as "gran's big brown camera".
Moving on through the years, I owned several 35mm cameras such as a Konica pop (because it was red) Olympus trip and Canon sureshot. Then came the digital influx, and I eventually ended up with a Canon Ixus which I thought was brilliant. I had absolutely no idea of the technicalities of aperture/shutter speed/iso etc and only ever used auto mode.
A little more than 2 years ago a friend bought himself a DSLR and some lenses which made me think a lot more about taking nice pictures and after deciding that I "didn't want to be messing about with changing lenses" I bought myself a Panasonic Lumix FZ45 bridge camera in October 2010. What an eye-opener! To start with I still used auto mode but soon discovered I didn't get the results I was expecting so with a LOT of help and patience from Stephen I learnt about manual settings,and the immediate improvement was huge! Sadly I still failed to get the pictures I really wanted (at the time!) which was birds in flight and although I now had the knowledge, my equipment wasn't capable of producing what I wanted due to time lag. So within 5 months of buying the FZ45 I needed a new camera!
As Stephen had Nikon cameras and lenses, and was willing to let me try things out, the next logical step to take was to buy a Nikon DSLR. I ended up with a D40 and 18-55mm kit lens. The next time we went to the HCT, I was so chuffed that I knew what I was doing (sort of!) and got the best bird in flight I had ever taken. This, I now realise, was the start of the very expensive disease known Gear Aquisition Syndrome. A D90 and various lenses have been bought since and my photography has improved massively which is all thanks to Stephen's patience in explaining things to me so that I can understand them! I am now even considering LRPS as I am now more confident of my ability to take a decent picture.
........and now I have rediscovered the joys of film ,but in a totally different context to my previous experiences. I am fascinated by how these ancient pieces of equipment can produce such detailed and vibrant photographs when compared to my digital images! I currently have a selection of medium format and 35mm cameras which have had more use recently than my digital equipment. I have also learnt how to develop my own black and white films (not without a few mishaps!) and lucky for me Stephen develops our colour films. I have been experimenting with 6x6 and 6x9 formats in cameras from the 1930's to the 1960's and also 35mm in both colour and black and white and have been really pleased with the results so far.
I also now own a very old and battered Rolleiflex which I bought because of my memories of my gran, so for me, and I am sure others like me, the camera is certainly a "thing of the past" but is also very much a "thing of the future" too.
Thanks for reading the ramble and I am looking forward to joining in.
Heather
A friend of mine told me to have a look here and I liked what I saw.
This is the story of my photographic journey so far.
I have enduring childhood memories of my gran making us do things so she could take pictures of us, including acosting strangers in the street on Christmas Day to take a photo of the whole family (anything between 14 and 20 of us) outside the house. She had a Rollei which I only remember as "gran's big brown camera".
Moving on through the years, I owned several 35mm cameras such as a Konica pop (because it was red) Olympus trip and Canon sureshot. Then came the digital influx, and I eventually ended up with a Canon Ixus which I thought was brilliant. I had absolutely no idea of the technicalities of aperture/shutter speed/iso etc and only ever used auto mode.
A little more than 2 years ago a friend bought himself a DSLR and some lenses which made me think a lot more about taking nice pictures and after deciding that I "didn't want to be messing about with changing lenses" I bought myself a Panasonic Lumix FZ45 bridge camera in October 2010. What an eye-opener! To start with I still used auto mode but soon discovered I didn't get the results I was expecting so with a LOT of help and patience from Stephen I learnt about manual settings,and the immediate improvement was huge! Sadly I still failed to get the pictures I really wanted (at the time!) which was birds in flight and although I now had the knowledge, my equipment wasn't capable of producing what I wanted due to time lag. So within 5 months of buying the FZ45 I needed a new camera!
As Stephen had Nikon cameras and lenses, and was willing to let me try things out, the next logical step to take was to buy a Nikon DSLR. I ended up with a D40 and 18-55mm kit lens. The next time we went to the HCT, I was so chuffed that I knew what I was doing (sort of!) and got the best bird in flight I had ever taken. This, I now realise, was the start of the very expensive disease known Gear Aquisition Syndrome. A D90 and various lenses have been bought since and my photography has improved massively which is all thanks to Stephen's patience in explaining things to me so that I can understand them! I am now even considering LRPS as I am now more confident of my ability to take a decent picture.
........and now I have rediscovered the joys of film ,but in a totally different context to my previous experiences. I am fascinated by how these ancient pieces of equipment can produce such detailed and vibrant photographs when compared to my digital images! I currently have a selection of medium format and 35mm cameras which have had more use recently than my digital equipment. I have also learnt how to develop my own black and white films (not without a few mishaps!) and lucky for me Stephen develops our colour films. I have been experimenting with 6x6 and 6x9 formats in cameras from the 1930's to the 1960's and also 35mm in both colour and black and white and have been really pleased with the results so far.
I also now own a very old and battered Rolleiflex which I bought because of my memories of my gran, so for me, and I am sure others like me, the camera is certainly a "thing of the past" but is also very much a "thing of the future" too.
Thanks for reading the ramble and I am looking forward to joining in.
Heather
