Some years ago I did a City and Guilds photography course. It didn’t include any digital photography at all - digital was around alright, but hadn’t made it as far as the C&G syllabus, though they were thinking about introducing it. Being fairly resistant to new technology anyway, I wasn’t particularly interested in digital and couldn’t see that it would ever be as good as film (Ha!) so I bought a whole lot of equipment which is now pretty much redundant. I do still use my lovely Contax Aria from time to time, but I must admit I’ve been completely seduced by digital and now use a Canon digital SLR, my Other Half’s little compact Panasonic Lumix, and yes, I admit it, my phone.

It’s interesting to note that my mobile phone camera is almost identical to our very first digital compact camera and takes pretty decent snapshots. It’s slow though, which means your subject has to be pretty much motionless to get a truly sharp image. Still, many of the pictures you’ll see in this blog were taken with the phone, including the one of Johnny Depp at the Dead Man’s Chest premiere in London. It did help that the day was very hot and bright, of course.

Sadly, when the fibromyalgia hit, I could no longer contort myself into the positions needed to carry on a proper pursuit of photography. My particular interest was insects, and for that you need to be able to bend, lean, stretch, and do anything you can to get close enough to your subject - and you need to be able to hold very still for as long as it takes because macro lenses magnify the slightest movement, and I can’t do that anymore. I start to shake. I know I could use a tripod and remote release, and I do, on occasion, but I have less interest in capturing my subject and setting up a tank than I do in natural photography in situ. Also, my capacity for carrying equipment is very near to zero. Even the Canon on its own makes my neck and shoulders ache.

So these days I confine my photography pretty much to dogs and scenery - the easy stuff. It’s still fun, but basically it means that I’m just taking nice snaps, unlike the lady who runs the Vulture Cafe who takes some stunning pictures of wildlife, especially birds. She lives in America, so you’ll see pictures of some interesting stuff there.