About

My interest in photography started around 22 years ago when I first read an article in the ‘Reader’s Digest’ about the SLR camera. Prior to that I had never heard of an SLR camera! I had seen people use them of course, but had no clue abut the SLR concept or what it meant. My only camera up to then had been an instamatic and I was never really inspired to shoot anything much with it. I never did like the puny viewfinder with the little brackets on the edges!

I don’t know why, but I was so enchanted with the idea that one could capture what one sees through the viewfinder that I knew I just had to get an SLR! I thought it would be great to have a picture of people showing the whole heads and legs. No more unintended but irrevocable beheadings or amputations of lower limbs.

My parents bought me my first SLR which was a second hand Canon T70. I will never forget my great excitement and the thrill I got when I saw my first set of photos! The camera had a 50mm lens on it and an extra telephoto zoom. I mainly took pictures of my elder son back then, who is now 23 years old. I could not believe the colours and the clarity!

I soon became quite hooked on photography and enrolled in a long-distance photography course. Sadly I never did finish the course because a series of setbacks started in my life back then which made it impossible for me to pursue my wonderful new hobby. So photography lay on the back burner for more than two decades until…

Around three years ago a friend of mine gave me a FinePix digicam. At first I totally ignored it, thinking it looked like a silly toy! One look through the viewfinder and I dismissed it. This was no SLR! However I soon had occasion to use it when I was trying my hand at selling on the internet. I needed digital pictures of items I was selling. This triggered my interest in digital photography and so I got myself a digital SLR and now I’m hooked again, not only on photography this time but also on post-processing.

I shoot plenty of shots of the same subject from different angles and different focal lengths. Sometimes I bracket my exposures. I use a Canon eos5d with various ‘L’ series zoom lenses and the camera’s dedicated flashgun. I use a tripod a lot of times. I am always adding little bits and pieces to my gear. A filter here, a remote release there, cleaning stuff etc etc.

Photography is bettering my life in many ways, and not just by teaching me to ‘keep my eyes open’. Through it I am making new like-minded friends with whom I can share this wonderful hobby, and for that I am very grateful.

I may be contacted at astridpardew@onvol.net