How I started in photography

and why I'm still doing it

It's a pretty simple story really. When I was around eight years old (over 50 years ago now) my mother bought me my first camera as a gift. It was a Polaroid Swinger, made in the mid-60's. The Swinger was the first camera to use film that you had to "shake it like a Polaroid picture". I'd love to own another one of those beauties but sadly film production for them ceased many years ago.

Over the years I went through many different cameras including Kodak Instamatics, rangefinders, and eventually SLRs. Nowadays, I have a nice selection of cameras to use, from digital to large format film.

As a young bloke with a camera I was always being told off by my aunties for not taking proper pictures. They would be lining up all the family members to take those awkward looking family snaps; I'd be taking photos of the left over food, or the rubbish bin, or my feet. I really wish I still had some of those old photos. I do have a lot of shots that I took as a teen but most have been lost over the years.

Take proper photos, Anthony!

- My aunties still call me Anthony :)

1960's Polaroid Swinger 20

These days I have returned to film photography almost exclusively after having dabbled with digital for a few years. It was fun for a while but shooting with digital cameras really made me lose my love of photography. As someone that works at a computer all day I found absolutely no joy in digitally sorting and processing photos, even when I was happy with the results.

Eventually I bought the camera that I had always lusted after but could never afford back in the day, the Mamiya RZ67 Pro II. It was like flicking a switch. Instantly I was back in love with photography and the process of shooting, developing, and printing film. I can't imagine ever going back to primarily using a digital camera.