Paradoxically, I was never much good at art during my schooldays, partly because of uninspired teaching, and I've never been able to draw or paint, so photography became my personal art form. From the earliest days my subject matter was quite varied, although largely based around family and transport images. 40 years later I am shooting a wider range of material, but family and transport remain two of my core subjects.

In the mid-1970s I began to process my own black and white films and this continued until the early 1990s when I switched almost exclusively to colour film. Currently, around 50% of my output is still shot on film and I plan to continue using film cameras just as long as I can buy film stock and get it processed. Sadly, my experiences in recent years suggest that the film manufacturing and processing industries are actually helping to accelerate the demise of film just as much as the growth of digital photography. Click here to see my article on the subject.

Equipment and output
Over the years I have used a variety of cameras, shooting a mixture of negative and transparency film in different formats. My first camera, the simple Halina, featured only one shutter speed (I never did find out what that speed was - probably about 1/200 of a second) and three aperture settings; f8, f11 and f16. Unsurprisingly, the results from such a basic camera in the hands of a novice were somewhat variable, although I did manage to shoot some half-decent monochrome material.

My next camera was hardly a giant leap forward: a second-hand Kodak Instamatic 25 bought from a friend in 1969. Again, the results from an equally basic camera were somewhat mixed, although even the Instamatic turned out some reasonable images. In the very early 1970s I handled a 35mm single lens reflex (SLR) for the first time. It was a Russian-made Zenith B and the view through the lens was a major revelation compared to the cameras I had used until then. In April 1972 I acquired my own Zenith B for the princely sum of £32.42; substantially cheaper than the SLRs produced by mainstream manufacturers in Europe and Japan at that time. The 58mm f2 Helios standard lens had a manual diaphragm operated by a ring on the lens barrel and I wasted quite a few shots by forgetting to stop down. Despite its cheapness, the old Zenith wasn't a bad camera and the only real problem was that the Helios suffered badly from flare in certain conditions.

Several of my friends at that time were a little older than me and were also more advanced in terms of their photography. Some had two camera bodies so that they could alternate between negative and transparency film and it was not long before I too felt the need to augment and upgrade my kit. After looking at the market and reading some magazine reviews I settled on the (then) new Minolta SRT303 in June 1974. It came with a Rokkor 50mm f1.7 standard lens and cost substantially more than the Zenith, but it had an automatic diaphragm and a built-in match-needle light meter; for me another major advance. Unsurprisingly, I found the Minolta much more user-friendly than the heavier Zenith and it saw a fair amount of use. However, even though I have always taken care of my cameras, the Minolta didn't wear very well.

This unlikely Minolta/Zenith combo remained in use until 1979, when I became increasingly dissatisfied with the quality from 35mm. This eventually led to my investing in a Mamiya 645 outfit and, while the medium format gear was more difficult to lug around, the results more than made up for this inconvenience. I was still shooting some 35mm material - mainly Kodachrome - with the Minolta, but even this was usurped by a new Canon AE1 in 1982, thus beginning a strong relationship with Canon products that has lasted 27 years to date. The original AE1 was subsequently joined by further A and T series cameras and various FD lenses, initially ignoring the more fashionable EOS autofocus cameras and EF lenses that were being introduced. Even that situation changed in 2004, when I picked up a secondhand EOS600 and a couple of lenses just to see what all the fuss was about. As a result I now have a nice EF-based outfit which alternates with the older kit. So, for the moment I continue to use several different film cameras, both 35mm and medium format, alongside digital SLRs.

Current and future work
A major undertaking began in the Spring of 2002, when I set out to create a digital archive from all my film originals. After nearly eight years of sporadic work, I now have almost 50% of my collection available in digital form. In parallel, I have also made progress developing an image database which at present is lagging some way behind the scanning process. Wherever possible, I usually try to record details of each image I shoot at the time, but this sometimes gets in the way of creativity. For me, the important thing is getting the shot in the first place and then think about recording details if there's the opportunity.

Even after 40 years I still get a real buzz from photography and one of the reasons for setting up PhotoVectis is to share my enthusiasm and hard-won experience with others. Although I probably qualify as an advanced amateur, I'm still experimenting with different media and techniques, still making mistakes and still learning! I don't plan to have a guestbook on the site just yet, but if you enjoy your visit and want to offer some feedback, click here. Thanks for dropping in.