Box Brownie Camera

A Late Starter

When I was about eight, my late grandmother gave me a Box Brownie. Actually a Box Brownie Junior No 2 – as you can see, I still have it. Getting this kick started my foray into photo taking. For some talented individuals, this would have been a pivotal moment where they became hooked and later forged an illustrious and successful career in photo journalism. Unfortunately … not me. I never quite got the hang of it. I would rattle off a black and white film of twelve pictures, all at my father’s expense, none of which were going anywhere but the bin.

Using a variety of cameras this disappointment was to mark most of my picture taking through the seventies, eighties and nineties. I am sure many of us remember the days of excitedly buying a fixed ISO film of thirty-six photos, taking care to snap a picture only when we “knew” it would be a good one and then trying to hide the disappointment of finding only one or two worthwhile pictures coming back from the developers. And it wasn’t cheap either.

The problem was that, unlike my father, I had no skill and no idea what made a good photo. Beyond the rule of thirds, it never occurred to me that there was a science or art of photography.

Then, in the 2000’s came the advent of digital cameras. For the amateurs, the quality was initially not much to shout about. And it took a good few years before the quality was even close to good enough to start competing with film. But all of a sudden, the cost dropped dramatically. There was no film cost and you only printed the good stuff. In recent years these advances have changed the landscape of photography completely. And also my love of it.

I can now take as many pictures as I have space for and using my ratio of two or so good ones for every thirty-six, I find that I have started to build up a portfolio of photos I quite like. Moreover, with the advent of great post-processing software such as Photoshop and Lightroom, I have been able to rescue those “for the bin” pictures and increase my success ratio. Sadly, this has only “happened” to me in the last two or three years. I feel that only now, have I have finally “got it”.

So this is my website, where I share a random selection of what I consider to be my better successes . Your view may vary!

error: Like to use my images? Please use the contact page. I don\'t bite!
error: