Photo Galleries

Introduction

I've been dabbling in photography on and off since I was 11 years old. I started out fascinated with the darkroom and developing. (Simple black and white, course.... what pre-teen in the early 1970's could afford to play with color processing?)

In my late teens and 20s, I would occasionally get the urge to be creative, and photography was my means. It came in fits and starts. I got the occasional good photo. By now I had an SLR, and had given up on the darkroom.

Then my interest in photography morphed into a means to record my life experiences.... "Snapshots", to use the pejorative team. You know.... family photos, photos of the kids, vacation photos, that sort of thing. Most of these were taken with my second SLR, an Olympus OM-2S.

After 30+ years, of dabbling, I've collected half a cupboard full of slides and negatives. My favorites include:

• Photos documenting my rocketry hobby, both model and high-power
• Photos from a 10-day guided hike in the Yukon, near Kluane national park. The hike was specifically for photography, and was led by Mike Beedell, a professional wilderness photographer.
• Photos from the bicycle touring trips taken with my wife. We did these on own own, just traveling from day to day:
  • 5 weeks in Scotland and England
  • Our honeymoon, which was 10 days cycling in Vermont
  • 3 weeks in Holland, were our 18 month old daughter came along, being towed in a trailer
• Photos taken during a 3 year ex-pat assignment in the UK. We lived north of London, and took the opportunity to take frequent vacations, traveling mostly within the UK.

During all this time, I never had much in the way of equipment. An SLR, a tripod, and small flash, and single 35mm-70mm lens. C'est tout!

Enter Digital Photography

I have done very little photography for the last 7 years. Partly just not interested, and partly frustrated by the marginal cost of film and processing, and by my lack of equipment. Being a mediocre photographer, I need to take a lot of photos to get one I like. I also wanted to be able to experiment, to take lots of photos to try to improve my technique and composition. The fact that it cost me $.50 (or whatever) every time I pushed the shutter, really made me hesitant to take pictures and experiment.

Having had my darkroom experience in the distant past, I also wanted some control over my pictures after they had been taken..

When I started thinking about taking up photography again, it seemed that "going digital" was the answer. In the last couple of years, the price/performance of digital cameras has improved to the point where they met my buying criteria, so I finally dived in!

I've captured my impressions in digital experiences.I started being really enthusiastic about my point and shoot Canon Powershot S45. After using it for a year and a half, I now recognize better the limitations of point-and-shoot cameras over Single Lens Reflex (SLRs).

More information about my camera, a Canon Powershot S45, my daughter's camera, a Nikon 2100, and why I choose them can be found in my camera.