Month: May 2017

Having purchased my Olympus OM-10, I embarked on a journey which still fascinates me to this day, although that journey has morphed in time, as you will find out much later…

The OM-10 came with a Manual Adapter. I was assured by the salesperson that this allowed me full Manual control. I was to find out later, that this was not true. My first lesson learnt as far as ‘gear’ was concerned…

I started to photograph all sorts of things. I remember driving out on a country road and seeing a small pile of rubbish on the side of the road and saw light reflecting off some beer bottles. I stopped, I photographed. Aiming the camera, I continued to photograph flowers, birds, buildings, insects, cars, people, parades, musical instruments and basically whatever came in front of my lens.

Books and magazines were my main sources of learning. Back in 1982 there was no Internet so the newsagent, bookstores and library were ‘our Internet’ if you like.

Early on I took prints and had them processed at the local camera store or chemist and they would take 1-3 days to be ready. Sounds strange now, in the Digital Age.

In 1983 I purchased an LPL 3310D Student Black & White Enlarger and jumped into this strange, but exciting world of Black and White developing and printing. My early attempts (I still have them) at photographing and developing black and white images were, in a word, woeful. I could really achieve a really good muddy grey…

Basically, I needed help but didn’t know where I might find it…and started to concentrate more on colour prints, taking a lot of different subjects, and enjoyed taking the camera on bush walks, to functions and continued finding things to photograph. By this time, I had added an Olympus OM-1n (a truly Manual camera) and some additional lenses to my bag, plus a tripod, filters etc.

This continued on until mid 1986 when I saw an ad for ‘Campbelltown Camera Club’ at the local Camera store.

In May 1986 I attended a couple of meetings and joined in June 1986 and my life changed forever…