I'm a home hobbyist with a passion for photography.

 

Back in another lifetime when I was a young teenager my parents ignited my love of photography when they bought me my first Single Lens Reflex camera - an Olympus OM-10. I shot mainly black and white which I developed and printed in a makeshift darkroom my dad built for us in our garage.

 

My last SLR was a Canon EOS-50e (film) which I last used somewhere around 1990.

 

In the early nineties I started early on with the digital revolution with my first real digital camera being a Nikon Coolpix 900 (which I absolutely loved – split bodied and a mighty 1.3 megapixels).

 

Since then I’d had a procession of pocket digitals including the Nikon Coolpix 995, Canon S2-IS and Panasonic Lumix TZ-15.

 

The Coolpix 995 (with interchangable lense additions – I have the 8mm fisheye, 24mm wide angle and 2x telephoto lenses) really introduced me to stiching panoramas in the early 2000’s.

 

My more recent compacts introduced me to the joys of an UltraZoom with 10x or more optical zoom lenses that went from reasonably wide to telephoto.

 

In the last few years however I’d been getting more and more disappointed with the quality of my images (clarity, sharpness) and the very limiting scope for creativity and the real struggle to limit depth of field (common to all small sensor digitals).

 

My heart was crying out for my early creative photographic roots and it was with great joy that I took the plunge and invested in my first Digital SLR at the end of 2009 - a Nikon D90 with the AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR II lens.

 

I realised up front that I was making some optical sacrifices in choosing the all in one travel lens – however my initial plan was to simply stick with the one lens and never change lenses.

 

Whilst I’ve been absolutely astounded by the quality of the shots I’ve been able to get and can wholeheartedly recommend this setup - the Gear Acquisition Syndrome has hit and I've now added a number of elements to my arsenal including:

 

* Tamron SP AF 90mm F/2.8 Di Macro (to try my hand at some macro work and for better portrait work)

* Nikon AF 50mm f1.8D (fast and cheap)

* Sigma 8-16mm F4.5-5.6 DC HSM (ultra wide angle lens)

* Nikon SB-600 Flash (because Joe McNally told me to :) )

* Manfrotto 190 PRO B Tripod (I already owned this - but with the 460MG Three Way Head)

* Manfrotto 488RC4 Midi Ball Head

 

I predominantly take portraits of children (three of them my own) and the activities they are engaged in in every day life. However what you see here on Flickr is predominantly my other shots which I manage to squeeze inbetween.

 

I'm still learning every day and am thoroughly enjoying the journey.