Digital Photography

I have worked in photography since I was a teenager, that's more than 40 years ago and long before personal computers or digital photography were even dreamed of.

So, I can claim a good eye for a picture and I am able to produce decent photographs for publication purposes - especially for newspapers, magazines and web sites.

I learned my craft as a photojournalist, working where I was allowed to shoot pictures as well as writing news stories or articles to go with them. (See Hong Kong News Reporter for details.)

I also spent two years studying photography at Filton Technical College, Gloucestershire, in the U.K. 1969-1970, when I lived in Bristol. The photography course involved using 4x5 inch studio cameras, as well as 35mm cameras.

Back in those days the 120 roll film camera shooting 12x 2 1/4 inch square images was officially a "miniature" camera, and most publications refused to handle 35mm transparencies because they were too easily lost or damaged during the old platemaking processes. 4 x 5 inch transparencies were preferred for magazine use.

We still worked mostly in black and white in those days, but I did develop my own colour negatives and make my own enlargements with a Durst enlarger with its 3-dial colour head. And I had a Durst RCP-20 print processor, which was basically a lightproof plastic box with three temperature-controlled chemical baths inside. The exposed but undeveloped colour print paper was drawn inside by two rubber rollers, and dipped through the chemicals in turn. A damp-dry developed enlargement would pop out of the far side of the machine a few minutes later, ready to be thoroughly washed in lukewarm running water and then dried. 

I also experimented with various colour transparency types including Kodak Ektachrome film and a couple of wierd ones. I also used Ilford's Cibachrome process to make colour prints from colour slides. Temperature control in the darkroom had to be very strict, but the results were good and far cheaper than using a "pro" laboratory.

My cameras of choice had always been Asahi Pentax SLRs, and I stuck with them through the late 60s and 70s, only changing to Nikon after I came to Australia in 1976.

I still shot photos with my SLRs during the 80s and 90s, but I also learned to enjoy the freedom of smaller compact 35mm cameras with the convenience of built-in flash and autofocus... things we take for granted nowadays.

I only got rid of my film cameras in 1997 when I purchased my first digital camera, a little Canon model. Since then I have used and owned several digital cameras, and I would never go back to film and wet darkrooms ever again. Digital photography makes life so much more fast and efficient.