Dating myself, the first camera I can remember taking photos with, was a Brownie Holiday Camera. I think that actually belonged to my brother. Imagine my excitement on a Christmas morning, opening up a brand new Kodak Brownie Starmite (introduced in 1960). I took photos of the local squirrels, neighbor’s cat or anything else that would sit still. Then it was a question of saving up enough allowance to have the photos printed. My parents recognized that taking photos was more than a passing whim. A wildlife photographer colleague of my father’s would say the secret to good photos was to “take a lot and make the subject big”. I’ve never forgotten that. Christmas of 1973, I received my first “real” camera – a Canon AE-1 SLR. I continued to shoot with that camera for 30+ years. My first exposure to the digital world was in 2002 on a live-aboard scuba diving trip. The instant gratification of knowing if an image was captured, along with the ability to delete many “fish butt pictures” became very appealing. But I wasn’t really quite sure if I wanted to go digital. Finally, in 2004, I purchased my first digital camera – a Canon Powershot A 70 complete with underwater housing for diving. Slick. I still took all of my above water photos with my AE-1 (had a great 70-210 telephoto lens). But that digital world was really peaking my interest. In 2006, I took the plunge and invested in a DSLR, a Canon XTi along with a 70-300 IS telephoto lens and never looked back. Funny how I could use the same film camera for over 30 years, but I’ve already upgraded camera and lenses since 2006. My most recent shots are taken with a Canon 7D Mark II and Canon lenses 24-105 and 100-400.
