A History of My Photos

It has been 2 weeks again since my last post - I had a busy weekend last week out and about in the Peak District, as usual, so didn't get the chance to put any effort in and update you all. However, in the next week I have a few things coming up, so you may get an extra post or two to make up for last week! Hurray for you! 

So, coming up I have my first exhibition with the Physics and Astronomy Art group... it looks very good, with lots of people... except I found out late about this and am still waiting for my prints to be delivered. They have until Tuesday. I am worried. After this, on Friday, it is 'International Photograph Your Day' day - so I'll spend the whole day camera in hand, photographing every little detail. I took part in this for the 3 years from 2008-2010 but forgot all about it last year, so I'm quite excited for it to come round again!

Now, onto the topic of the day... how I got interested in photography...

My first memory of anything to do with a camera was a small book of my Grandma's which I loved when I was a wee lad - an Ansel Adams postcard book. It should have been obvious from this point that in 15 years time I'd be where I am now - with his calendar on my bedroom wall. Fortunately for me - I am now the proud owner of this (now somewhat worn) book.

At some point during primary school, I bought/was bought my first camera. All I really remember about it was that it was plastic and had a leopard built into it's outer casing... I know I took it on a school trip to Richmond Castle, and it would probably make an interesting blog post in itself - but unfortunately I think any evidence of this camera - and possibly the camera itself - remains in Richmond... I don't think I can afford a return train ticket right now just for the sake of this post. However, I hope that at some point I'll bring this up again and show you all some of my earliest photos - if they do still exist.

At this point, as far as I know, there was a 7 year gap in anything to do with taking photos - until I bought my first proper mobile phone at the grand old age of 17. This is still my only phone, a Motorola L6, 6 years later - and has a camera with the breathtaking resolution of... ... 0.3mp. So here are a few of the photos that came from that between 2006-07. You may spot that waterfalls feature heavily even back then - again I have always had a love/fascination of/with waterfalls and knew the names of the 10 tallest in the world from long before starting school.

From our walk up Snowdon

My first visit to Cray

Hardraw Force

The next camera I got my hands on was sharing the use of the family camera - a Medion 85173... which gave some pictures like this:

The view from above Redmire over Wensleydale to Penhill. This was on my birthday bike ride which took in Leyburn, Redmire, Grinton and Reeth... absolutely killed me in gale force winds over the tops!

It was not long after this that me and my brother, Dan, bought a Samsung Digimax S830 which is finally a step up to ~3MP... 

Dan - the giant, above Ingleborough

This is one of the first photos that made me realise I liked taking photos and that sometimes they were good - I loved the mood in this one, during a summer downpour.

My first frozen lake in York

It was whilst using this last camera that I realised - rather than just taking photos for the sake of memories (which had always been what I aimed for, knowing that a photograph will outlast any personal memory) - I could take them and enjoy them as pieces of art in and of themselves - so in 2008 (I think!) I upgraded to a Panasonic Lumix FS15 - which had a million features I had never seen before. It was amazing now really getting to experiment with light and textures and depth of field - things so basic yet so beyond my previous cameras.

My first walk out with this camera - what a day for it!

A view from our window, in York, at the sunset - quite spectacular.

My discovery of the Precentor's Court view of the  Minster - the best view.

Which brings me to the end... Next step = DSLR... which I think you have all seen plenty of from my various online accounts... 

Do let me know if any of you found this interesting, as I'll probably do a more in depth look at each year/camera/whatever in the future as there is obviously a lot more to say about 6 years of my life than can be summarised in one blog post - if anyone is interested that is...

Hopefully speak again soon, with all of my exciting news...