A Photographers Yarn.

My earliest recollections of photography, are those associated with sitting at my grumpy grandparent’s house, leafing my way through copies of my uncle’s Amateur Photographer, including back issues from earlier times, in 1955.
So even then, and probably more subliminally than consciously, my aesthetic tastes and inclinations were being formed and affected by such old stalwarts as Lancelot Vining.
Even as far back as that I was being introduced to notions of composition, pattern and texture, though being more puzzled than inspired, by diagrams of pictures with arrows sweeping through them.
Even so long ago, I was fascinated by subjects that others thought worthy of note: shadowy tortured torsos; animals, from cutesy kittens to elegant equines; the steamy atmospherics of early morning expresses, arriving in smoggy mists at grimy stations; occasional treats in colour.
Even then, the cameras and processes intrigued me. My ambition to get a Leica 111g has been ameliorated to the extent that I will now settle for any Leica 11 or 111. But, though not a necessary tool, I will still have one, at some stage.
I have, however, acquired wealth beyond my infant imaginings, in that since the digital revolution, one of its major benefits to me has been the price decay on good film kit, so that I now have a good selection of slrs, and medium format cameras, and even a 5x4.
And I have, in my opinion the world's best digital SLR, in the form of a Canon 5D Mk 11.
So Cecil Beaton, with your poxy boxy Brownie, eat your heart out ! ! !
My first camera, in 1958, was a plastic eight-shilling VP Twin, from Woolworth’s which gave 16 pictures on 127 film.
My first film was developed under supervision by my older brother, who being a couple of years older than me had trod this path a little ahead of me, with a Coronet Viscount 828, and an Agiscope enlarger.
When I was 13, I worked as a teaboy on a building site during the summer holidays, and got enough money together to get a shiny new Adox Polo 35 mm.
This did well enough for me for a few years, interspersed with odd borrowings of half frame, until I got my first Practica. I loved them well, but wanted better, and so eventually, because of the waist level finder, I got Edixas, and odd novelty Russian stuff: Feds and Zorkis.
And thereafter Pentax K1000s, which I still use though not as often as I would like to.
My best ever lens in terms of contrast, sharpness and colour fidelity, was one of the standard 50mm f2s, on a now broken Zorki.
My subject matter over all these years varied, as it still does. I have always liked shooting things which have suggested to me some characteristic. Intelligence epitomised in the face of a Staffordshire Brindle, or sagacity in a wise old Labrador. Or strength, speed and grace in a horse at a jump. Or their mechanical or human equivalents.
I always liked interacting with people, and shooting them, from street stuff with my waist level Edixas, to more formal situations.
And best of all, in action: doing things. When thus occupied, the human animal is at its best; self consciousness abolished, replaced by concentration and effort.
I once, for a year or so, had a job title of enabler. This was entirely appropriate for me, as I have been a teacher and Scout Leader and parent, for more decades than I care to remember. As an ex PBT, (poxy blxxding teacher), and being of such disposition and altruism, I have always liked helping others to achieve their goals. In that connection I have helped, and continue to help others with my photography.




If I were to enunciate a series of ambitions in photography they would be: -

To continue to learn more about, and improve in
photography, art, philosophy, and psychology of aesthetics.
To continue assisting others with my photography,
To achieve some measure of recognition in photography.
To learn more of process, especially in colour printing.
To learn the skills of using large format cameras.
To photograph this city’s wonderful Victorian brickwork.
To photograph the statues and monuments of this city.
To continue shooting people doing things
To carry on doing band shoots.
To shoot some more models.
To get a Leica 11 or 111, and a medium format digital slr.
To relearn how to use medium format kit.
To learn effectively all that which I used to think I knew.
To learn effective darkroom practice.
To learn to use digital kit more effectively.

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