Taking photos since I was I about 6-7 - my father was mad on photography, and had his own darkroom. I used to help him with developing & printing, so silver halide and hypo are (probably literally) in my blood! Grew up with Prakticas, and bought my first modern/decent camera in 1988 (an Olympus OM20). Others soon followed and I ended up with OM4, OM2SP, and an OM10, plus about a dozen lenses, several flashguns and so on. Did semi-pro work with that kit, with pix regularly published in local press, magazines and guidebooks.

 

Moved house & job in 1995 and had no space for a darkroom, or reason to take pictures, and lost interest in photography apart from holiday snaps... My wife bought me a P&S Ricoh digital compact in 2004 and my interest was rekindled - especially when I found I could do the "processing" on my PC instead of reeking of chemicals. Flickr also made a huge difference, and gave me a reason to photograph as others could see and comment on my work.

 

I was effectively made redundant in Nov '06, and bought a DSLR (Olympus E500 kit). That got me back into photography proper, and I soon upgraded to an E510. I suffered a several-month enforced hiatus in early 2008 after falling down some stairs and breaking my (camera) wrist thanks to some inadequate signage and lighting in a London coffee shop. That also brought on the failure of my fledgling consultancy business and clinical depression. Once back in work and through the worst of the black dog, I found photography a support. Bought an E1 by PX'ing much of my redundant OM equipment, and acquired an E30 in 2009.

 

Tried doing a degree in photography through the Open College of the Arts, but the teaching style/ tutors didn't suit me (which was a surprise having gained an Honours Degree and Masters thru the Open University: I thought the OCA would be similar).

 

I was then one of the many photographers shafted by Olympus's decision to axe 4/3rds in favour of the new Micro 4/3rds standard. Having been stuffed up twice by Olympus, once with 35mm and then with 4/3rds, it is my intention to never have anything to do with the b******* ever again.

 

Severely disillusioned with photography (and having little time with work), I have been out of it for over 10 years, but some of the work I see on Instagram and Flickr makes me feel I want to try again and have invested in new Panasonic m4/3rds kit, on which at least I can use my old 4/3rds lenses with an adaptor. That, plus the camera on my Samsung phone (currently S20+ Ultra), gives me what I had always wanted (and got) from my old OM set-up: small size and weight, with quality performance.

 

Oh, and then Covid and lockdowns happened, and left little opportunity to get out and photograph, even if working in healthcare had left time. Once all of this is over, we'll see what happens...

 

Current kit (once a gearhead, always a gearhead):

 

Digital

Panasonic Lumix GX9 and GM1, Olympus E-PL6 converted for Infrared

Lumix 9, 12-32, 12-60, 14, 25 and 35-100 lenses, Olympus 9mm fisheye, 12, 70-300mm mk II, Laowa 6mm, Meike 3.5 and 6.5mm fisheye, Tamron 17mm with tilt/shift adaptor, Panasonic DMW-MA1 adaptor for 4/3rds, Mecablitz 26AF flash, Olympus FL-14 flash

 

Largely redundant E30/HLD4, E510 and E1/HLD2

ZD 7-14, 11-22, 14-54, 50-200, EC-14 teleconverter, Sigma 105 Macro, 135-400, 55-200

Konica Hexanon 40mm f1.8 (converted for Four Thirds)

FL50 flash

MF-1 OM-Four Thirds adaptor

Dandelion focus-confirm OM-4/3rds adaptor

 

Film

Olympus OM4 & OM2SP, OM Zuiko 50 f1.8 , 85 f2, 300 f4.5, Sigma 70-210, Tamron SP 500 f8 mirror, Tamron SP 2X teleconverter, Tamron 24 f2.5, Sirius 18-28 and 500 mirror, T32 and T20 flash

 

Other stuff

Cokin, Kood and Hi-Tech filters

Portaflash 336VM studio flash heads and accessories

Slik, Benbo & Manfrotto tripods/ monopods, Tenba, Tamrac, M-Rock & Crumpler bags, Op-Tech camera & tripod straps

 

Ricoh Caplio R1 /Vivitar slave flash

 

Software

Adobe Photoshop CC

Adobe Lightroom CC

LightZone

Raw Therapy

DxO9

Nik Collection 3

Silver Efex Pro