"When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace." - Jimi Hendrix

"All you need is love." - John Lennon

I started out snapping with a Fujifilm Finepix A204, but after that stopped working I got my Dad's old Yashica TL Electro out of the loft and carried on from there. I like SLRs with the M42 mount - plenty of cameras and lenses available cheaply on eBay.

I've also tried a couple of rangefinders, but I think I'll stick to the SLRs. In 2012 I bought a Canon EOS 500D, and ever since it's been that and smartphone pics I'm afraid. The film cameras are semi-retired... 2012 also saw me stop using Flickr... But I'm back :)

Hopefully as I learn more the quality of my photos will improve. Otherwise I'll shamefully retire! It's been good learning the basics about composition, film speed, etc, and they should help me in getting those better shots. Photoshop's "Shadows & Highlights" adjuster helps a lot too! I've nothing against the digital editing of shots - anything to bring out the best in them!

I suppose ultimately if I'm happy with a picture then that's good enough for me, but the fact I want to upload stuff on here must mean I hope other people will enjoy my pics too. Hopefully. I hope.

Some photographers I admire:

Man Ray

Weegee

Lee Miller

Diane Arbus

Robert Altman

Alberto Korda

Lina Scheynius

Philippe Halsman