My interest in photography goes back to some when around the age of 11, when I was given a Prinz camera for Christmas. Dad's old enlarger was brought down from the loft, dusted off and installed in the utility room. Much to mum's annoyance I always seemed to be "mucking around in the dark" when she wanted to put some washing in the machine!

The Prinz was eventually replaced by a Praktica Nova 1B, which unfortunately failed to survive a D of E expedition to Dartmoor as well as I did - the plastic bag I put it in let enough water in to do the damage and didn't let it out again. Rust is not conducive to reliable working of a camera. After a couple more Prakticas I moved up to an Olympus OM10 which served well for a few years until I took a break, principally because I no longer had access to a darkroom.

About three years ago, I discovered that my computer had the power to do this newfangled digital photography thing, so a scanner was purchased only to find the lenses for my Olympus both had stuck apertures. The cost of servicing wasn't far short of starting again, so I moved into the modern autofocus world, in the form of a Canon EOS-300 with several lenses. After putting a few films through the scanner the bug had hit with a vengeance!

Last year, I finally decided that I'd had enough of constantly feeding films into the scanner and having little enough time left over to do much with the results. After a couple of weeks research (including the bank manager's reaction) I went fully digital, purchasing a Canon EOS-D30 (the EOS-300 is now relegated to the role of a backup body) and various lens upgrades to suit my preferred subjects - flora & fauna, landscapes and close-ups. Indeed the only subject that doesn't interest me from behind a lens is people photography, although seeing other people's work in that line often does - strange that!

The only film I have used in the last year has been to test new acquisitions for my Olympus half-frame collection. I may have gone digital for my regular photography but, as far as I'm concerned, film is not dead - just resting!

Visit my website for more images: www.maddock.org.uk