In 1938 my father had what I thought (at the tender age of 8!) was a rather big and elaborate Kodak 116 Autographic camera. Very occasionally, under careful supervision, I was allowed to press the trigger and the resultant photograph intrigued me greatly. How could this magical picture, obtained at the press of a button, come about? The War meant no film so I amused myself making pictures by putting pieces of printing paper in the back and with very long exposures I could get temporary pictures of still objects. Later I found out how to make them permanent by fixing but they were still negatives of course. In 1946 I was given a Balda 120 by an uncle and with real film once more obtainable my life-long interest in photography began in earnest. I joined a local camera club whose President was the famous society photographer E. Chambre Hardman (his Liverpool house is now owned by the National Trust) who gave me considerable help and encouragement. Since then I have owned 28 different cameras, most of which I still have. When serious digital filming and processing became a reality about 5 years ago it opened up new possibilities and re-awakened my interest in photography which had been getting rather dulled after all those years. It also neatly matched one of my other interests; computers. I bought a Minolta A1 and I was away! My wife was delighted - it meant I could make friends with her again instead of being stuck in a darkroom for hours on end! After the Minolta I had a Sony R1, now followed by their A700Z, well supported by a Canon G7.

I am sometimes asked which of my cameras was “the best”. There’s no answer to that of course, but in amongst the various Leicas, Contaxes, Rolleiflexes and Hasselblads I’ve owned there is one I think never got the recognition it deserved. That was a Rolleiflex, not one of their famous twin-lens models, but the SL35, their 1969 entry into the consumer 35mm market. I’ve had four different models and they were all good, aided by the excellent Zeiss lenses they used. In my opinion they were in some ways better than the far more expensive Leica IIIF/Sonnar combination I once owned. That should ensure me being drummed out of the Leica Club!