History | Computer | PortfolioHistory | Computer | Portfolio
I have been using computers since 1975, our family has a long history with the photographic industry, plus I like gadgets, plus I enjoy taking good photographs. Has to be the recipe for a love affair with digital photography, wouldn't you say? You bet!
This section is just a start - we'll see if and when I get the inspiration to make it really helpful! There are the beginnings of some photo book reviews on the Books page too.
If you were looking for photographs of me for reproduction in publications, see my press photo page. If you'd like to license photographs for republication or would like prints, please contact me.
My first digital camera was a black & white Logitech Fotoman, an interesting device way ahead of its time. Imagine a narrow paperback book with a lens and you have the idea. It had rechargeable batteries, built-in flash memory sufficient for shooting the equivalent of a roll of film, connected to the serial port of the PC via a docking cradle/charger and was point-and-click simplicity itself to use.
Next came the Sony DSC-F1 colour camera. Good colour pictures from a camera the size of a pack of cards. It had a tilt-able lens, built-in flash memory storage and serial port connectivity.
Then came the Canon Digital IXUS. Excellent
pictures stored on removeable Compact Flash
cards. We still use this camera, it is a
delight - so easy to use, and the panorama
mode is just excellent. If we were shopping
now, we'd probably go for the Canon Powershot
S110 (US) or the S300 (US) for its ability to take video clips..
Most recently, I extravagantly got a Canon
EOS D-30 (US), a wonderful SLR that takes perfect pictures
and accepts all standard EOS SLR accessories.
I've spent quite some time on eBay and elsewhere
building up a good selection of accessories
and lenses and am now very satisifed with
the technology; you'll see me travelling
the world with a backpack full of interesting
gear. All I need now is to develop the necessary
skills and instincts to actually take good
pictures :-)
I'm still looking for my dream photo browser but for now am happy to settle for ThumbsPlus.
For editing and adjusting images, I love Adobe Photoshop Elements (US|UK). It gives most of the abilities of Photoshop 6 but only costs 10% of the price. There's a 30-day fully-functional trial version on the Adobe web site. If you get Elements, get a copy of "50 Fast Digital Photo Techniques" too, which was written specifically for Photoshop Elements and I have found really helpful - Amazon stock it (USA|UK).
We have a Minolta Dimage Scan Dual II transparency
scanner (US), which is letting us rediscover all those
years when I shot transparencies with my
Nikon. It takes both individual transparencies
and negatives so we are also able to recover
pictures we took as prints without needing
a print scanner too. It's something of a
luxury, I have to admit , probably not needed
by most people.
My Wacom Graphire USB tablet with pen &
mouse (US) is just great to use with Photoshop and
was nice and cheap. I've used a graphics
tablet for some years (I still have my serial-port
Wacom pen tablet if anyone wants it) and
it makes retouching photographs so much easier than just using a mouse. The Graphire
gives you a cordless pen and a cordless mouse
so it's compact and tidy. Hopefully they
will soon bundle it with Elements instead
of Photoshop LE which it comes with at the
moment.
Concerning computers, I have made sure that all the accessories are USB so that I can connect them to any of the systems to which I have access. I'm no operating system bigot; I'm happy to use whatever is pre-loaded on the nearest computer, as long as it works!
I maintain a portfolio of my best shots on ImageStation - feel free to take a look.It may not be full of professional pictures (yet) but there are quite a few that I am very fond of.
