I've always enjoyed taking photos but only ever point and shoot and never with a huge amount of thought. I went to Australia at the beginning of 2010 and took an early birthday present, a Canon IXUS 95, which was my first digital camera. I got a reputation and no doubt annoyed everyone in the vacinity by wanting to capture everything over the 2.5 weeks.

Early on in the holiday the camera was pinched by a gang of octogenarians on motorised scooters (seriously) and after the assistance of Adelaide's armed police, it was recovered.

The light in Australia was so good the photos couldn't help but be clear and vibrant and that's when I guess the seed was planted.

I continued to use the IXUS until I was getting some pretty hefty fringing affecting every shot and decided it was time to start researching DSLRs. Without bags of cash to splash I opted for Nikon's D3100 with kit 18-55 VR lens. It's a great camera for getting going and learning how various factors interact to affect exposure, though it wasn't long before I felt I could do with something with slightly more functionality, such as bracketing and a top-mounted panel for when shooting close to the ground. Well I'm still enjoying the D3100 and will continue to do so until I've got more to spend.

I'm not skilled by any means but enjoy shooting manually with an old Nikon E Series 50mm, along with a Zenit EM 35mm film and occasionally the D3100 18-55mm kit lens. The Zenit was an eBay bargain and came with a 50mm Helios lens and I've since got hold of the Helios 28mm which I've coupled to the D3100 using an adapter. The manual shooting is down to the D3100 not having a motor fitted within the body, so there are ocassions when a moment's missed when trying to get a crisp image, though I put it down to practice.

As most on Flickr, I imagine, I would like nothing more than to be able to take photography beyond the hobbiest frontier though there are so many Flickr users with far more talent than me, it's something I can only aspire to.

In the meantime, I'll continue to enjoy cutting my teeth and experimenting with the basic equipment I have. I definitely need lots of practice, having this morning ruined a Velvia 50 roll of 35mm trying to load the Zenit for the second time - didn't depress the shutter release and wound half the film, which when trying to wind back into the case, went too far and lost the end - prize idiot!

As for subject matter, I went out early on Sunday morning to capture the sunrise and I'm quite pleased with the result so perhaps that's something I'll continue to do (when I can get out of bed on a cold morning, that is) and see what comes out of it.

As a complete amateur, all critcism is welcome, whether good, bad or darn flaming ugly: hit me!

Update: December 2012

I ebayed my D3100 last month and bid on a D300 which I've been using for the last couple weeks. She's a beaut but now needs lenses :)