{"id":3632,"date":"2021-02-01T10:37:43","date_gmt":"2021-02-01T10:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/toonsarah-travels.blog\/staging\/?p=3632"},"modified":"2021-03-18T11:28:54","modified_gmt":"2021-03-18T11:28:54","slug":"my-photography-journey-more-than-fifty-years-of-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/toonsarah-travels.blog\/staging\/my-photography-journey-more-than-fifty-years-of-images\/","title":{"rendered":"My photography journey: more than fifty years of images"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today, everyone is arguably a photographer, shooting images with their phone cameras almost every day. But when I started, as a child in the 1960s, photography was a hobby, and a relatively expensive one at that. Only the keenest photographers went on the journey from taking family snapshots to an obsession with getting the best from a camera, trying to create something both memorable and beautiful.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was one of those, so let me take you on my own photography journey for this week’s Lens-Artists challenge<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Early years<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

I got my first camera when I was nine years old, a gift from my parents. It was a Kodak Brownie Vecta just like this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Old
Kodak Brownie Vecta –
Photo from Creative Commons<\/a><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The first photos I took were at the model village in Eastbourne, which we used to visit regularly while staying with relatives there. I remember well Dad saying that I had a good eye. I think he simply meant that my shots were in focus and quite neatly composed; but his praise stuck with me and I was hooked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Black
Model village, Eastbourne, 1965 (my very first photo!)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Most of my photos were taken on family holidays and were really just snapshots. But I can see looking back through them that I was starting to develop a sense of location, posing family members against interesting or significant backgrounds. I still have my first photo album and I note that I took so few photos that it lasted me five years! In the back are a few of the wallets that were used to return processed snaps. The cost of having my B&W films developed in 1968 was 7\/2 (seven \u2018old\u2019 shillings and two pence \u2013 about 36p in decimal currency). By 1971 the UK had \u2018gone decimal\u2019 and the cost had gone up to 55p.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Black
By the sea in North Wales, 1969<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The 1970s<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Seeing my enthusiasm, a few years later my parents gave me my first 35 mm camera, a cheap \u2018auto everything\u2019 one from Boots. I started shooting colour slides; looking back through some of my early ones I find a mix of family snapshots and attempts at something more creative. I learned some of the \u2018rules\u2019 of photographic composition: using leading lines and frames to draw the viewer into my subject, the rule of thirds and so on.<\/p>\n\n\n