My early attempts at photography included Yashica, and Halina compacts before acquiring a Petri SLR with 50mm and 135mm lenses in the early 70s.
Having got the bug I moved on to Canon SLRs with AE1 and A1 bodies. These utilised a variety of lenses and one could say I was a keen amateur.

I built my own darkroom and played for hours with B&W as well as Cibachrome.
In 1978 I achieved a personal high when I won a national competition with TV Times!! The theme was ‘A moment in history’ and needed a picture with a funny title.
My ‘Arrest of Billy the Kid’ took first prize, which in those days had a value of £3000.
That was a lot of money then but I was well aware that this was not a serious photographic competition and so my achievement was not going to immortalise my photographic prowess or impress any real photographers! With a subsequent move of house in the mid 80s I lost my darkroom and with it my enthusiasm for taking pictures. It lay dormant until my retirement, which coincided with the arrival of serious digital and the ability to recreate a darkroom in a computer.

Since my joining the SCC at the end of 2006 I have rekindled my love of this hobby and begun to reacquire a little of the basics to try and emulate some of these wonderful photographers in this club. I currently use a Nikon D80 SLR with 18-135mm and 70-300mm lenses, which I am delighted with. I enjoy taking a variety of subjects and am still finding my feet with the operation of this outfit.

Having volunteered to be one of the print secretaries for the Southampton International, my current goal is to try and produce work, which might be accepted in next year’s competition. Well we can all dream can’t we!