About Me
I began this hobby/art form of photography back in 2001, when in a Media English class we had a unit on photography. During that I got my first taste of black and white film, SLR cameras, and darkrooms. So when I was out on a garage sale run, I found for five dollars a Minolta Hi-Matic 7s, a wonderful little rangefinder.
The camera proved very useful until 2004, when at another sale I picked up for twenty a Minolta SRT-102, a 1973 SLR, all manual, built like a tank, and had a shutter sound like nothing I’ve heard before, or since.
Equipped with a 50mm, 200mm, and a 28-100mm lens, I began my journey. The first four rolls of film I put through the camera, I got four good shots, one per roll. That’s when I discovered Henry’s, and their used equipment counter. I managed to expand my lens selection. I also began collecting various other cameras including a Pentax ME and ME Super, a Zenit-B, Kodak Hawkeye Flash, and various others. My next major upgrade was with a Minolta X-7a. My aim was to continue using Minolta gear, even purchasing my first Digital, a Dimage Z2. But then, Sony bought Minolta…and I really didn’t like the Alpha as a camera. So that’s when I moved to Nikon. The F80 was my first purchase, it along with a Panasonic Lumix FZ7 was my kit for a few years before finally upgrading to a D70s.
Currently I operate using a Nikon D300 and a large selection of Nikon and two non-Nikon (Sigma) lenses. The two lenses I find I use the most are my 17-55 and 70-200 these rather large lenses are perfect for photojournalism, and portrait work. I still use my primes especially for beauty and fashion when I have a large space to work in, but often it’s rather close quarters, where the zooms make for a handy thing.
When it comes to people there are two that stand out in my mind as the ones that inspired me. The first was Steve Keane, the teacher of that Media English Course, who taught me the basics, and gave me the drive to keep improving my skill and my eye. The second was Rob Ellis, someone whom I met at PYPS Labour Day 1999, he ran around the event, and events after that with his Canon Rebel SLR taking photos of everything and everyone. It was he that inspired me to do that at both PYPS and my daily life. I never leave home without a camera, weather it’s my D300 or my simple G7, it’s always there, always ready to shoot.