Photography has always been a big part of my life.  I got my first box camera in 1971 and I would have to say it certainly was crude when it came to accuracy but small 110mm cameras were on the market soon.  Since I was quite young I could not afford a 35mm camera but to my surprise the small 110mm camera took great pictures and I was mostly impressed.  I took pictures of everything, taking pictures made me feel like I was on Safari or something, and there was no end to what I could do with the pictures when they came home from the developer.  One secret that I soon found was that it was easy to make friends as long as I had spare pictures to hand out to everyone, when I could afford to do that.  It took a short while but after a little collecting I had some scrapbooks with many photos and also plenty of spare loose pictures, and incredibly I still have some of the pictures I took as a child.  The thing about photos is they can really bring back memories from the times when you were having fun so when I had a camera my friends would come around more often.  Photography is also a friendly activity for everyone involved and most people will tell you openly free pictures is what they really like!  I usually use waterproof glossy paper because I never know when I'm going to take that one special picture I want to keep looking as like when it was first printed.

     Sometime around the age of 16 I bought myself a 35mm single lens reflex camera because I had a part-time job and then I could afford to purchase it.  I had saved some money but didn't really have an exact goal in mind until the new camera is what I ended up buying.  Yes, it was a beautiful looking Instrument sitting on that top shelf of the glass case in the camera shop, along with many others, and I could not pass up buying the Pentax 35mm SLR camera.  Having some experience I knew how to follow the instructions that came with the camera but I also went to the library and read all about how to take good pictures with it.  The SLR opened a whole new world of photography for me!  Taking pictures along a local bike trail was a favorite thing to do for me and sometimes I would walk a couple of miles and take pictures of the flowers, animals and other interesting nature there.  Most of the people that I met looked happy to live in our town in the country, and I though it always funny when their kids would walk by me making strange faces and trying to get me to photograph them.  At first I felt weird but soon I had met others who were doing the same thing as I and they had many valid excuses for what they were doing to get out of the house, getting away from the wife, walking the dog, exercising the kids, and of course to have a great hobby and do something that makes themselves feel good.  Now I use a Sony 5.5 megapixel camera and it sure was exciting to go digital.

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