Behind the Lens

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​My first camera was a Brownie 127 which I received as a birthday gift when I was about 8 years old. Tucked away in the archives there are still a few old black and white pictures of family and friends taken with that camera.

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When I went into the army at age nineteen I bought a little Olympus PenEE Half Frame which gave me literally thousands of amazing pictures in the Namibian desert with no effort whatsoever. I kept all the film and had it developed and printed when I returned home after my training.

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The following year I bought an Asahi Pentax Spotmatic (Mainly because that is what Sam Haskins was using at the time - and I loved Cowboy Kate). I also bought a Paterson 35mm Developing Tank and a really cheap     B & W Enlarger which served me perfectly well right up until I passed it on to my daughter when she went to college some 28 years later.

 

I still have the Spotmatic (54 years on), but haven't used it for a while, preferring the forgiveness and freedom that my Nikon D750 DSLR affords me, allowing me to live in the moment and edit at my leisure.

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I have a few friends / acquaintances who are far better than I in a great many respects when it comes to the nitty gritty of photography and editing, but I am not sure that they have nearly as much fun with it as I do....... and the purpose of this site and my Photostay initiative is to pass that sense of satisfaction and the pleasure that can be derived from photography on to you.

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So .......... please come and join us here in Bathurst (The Centre of the Universe) at No.6 York Road, and spend a few days ruffling the early feathers of Camera and Composition knowledge - let's talk and take some really cool pictures together, and then relax over a good meal and a few glasses of wine and chat about what we learned during the day, and what we might want to try tomorrow.