One of my favourite things in the world to do is take pictures, it’s in my blood.  There have always been cameras in my life. My grandfather is a collector, with upwards of twenty cameras. He still takes pictures almost every day, even though he is in his late nineties. He bought me my first camera, a little film point and shoot. It was a Canon, and took fabulous pictures.

When I was in my teens each member of my family had their own SLRs, split between fully manual Pentax and mostly-manual Minolta bodies. We all spent a small fortune on processing, but thankfully I worked in a camera store so there was a small discount. The prints weren’t free, but there were lots of them. I was still shooting my old X-370 a few years ago, but have gradually gone to a d-SLR, my Sony A-100.

In a roundabout way Sony bought Minolta a few years ago, so this keeps my true to my roots. Shooting in digital all the time made allowed me to step it up and take many more pictures and get more creative with the shots that I took, but it also made me a lazy photographer. I started relying on all these cool modes that the camera had, and sadly started relying on the “auto” modes for most shots.

This Spring I stepped up my picture taking, thanks in part to the Kids in the Capital ABC challenge and later my 365 project.  While both of these projects have challenged me and forced me to look differently at how I compose and take pictures, they left me wanting to work on my technical skills too.  So a good friend and I have enrolled in a class at a local photography school.  After two weeks of classes I am having so much fun!  I’d forgotten how much fun it is to play with my camera! Some of my recent manual shots: