Photography

OK so this is not a very serious hobby for me, I don't spend a lot of time or money on it, but I am interested in it and do enjoy it.

My photography roots are from my dad (who got them from his dad), he was always taking photos on family events and encouraged me to do so. I remember as a youngster, on many occasions, looking through slides which my grandfather had taken.

I got my first camera as a teen, a very basic 35mm, and liked to take photos of people, mainly family and holidays and outings, nothing serious.

I did hit the fringes of "serious" photography briefly at school and did some old style developing of film, which was very interesting during art lessons.

I like taking photos of people rather than arty or landscapes. I like to record events and seeing people growing up. I think a lot of our long term memories come from looking back at photos.

When on trips I like to take a camera and constantly annoy my family by taking lots of photos. In groups I am normally the one taking the pictures, which is why I am not in many photos, and in the same way that there are not many photos of my dad (although more recently the phone has become a big event recorder and, unluckily for everyone else, I have appeared in more photos).

I have recently brought an entry level Sony dslr camera, an a35, which has taken my photography as a hobby up a level. This mainly involves taking the camera off the auto setting and experimenting with aperture, shutter, exposure etc, with varying degrees of success.

I have a few friends who are into photography, a couple who do quite well as semi-professionals, and I spend some time chatting with them about photography.

Currently my main focus in photography is taking photos of my daughters basketball matches. This is quite challenging as a; it is fast moving and b; often the indoor lighting is very poor.

I have recently been on a photography big cats 'experience' where I got to photograph wild animals close up, which was pretty cool. It was a nice sunny day so we got some good shots of  mainly the big cats (lions and tigers) and also some other animals as well (monkeys, rhino's, penguins etc.).

As part of my event recording I produce a yearly photo book. I do this at the start of the year, putting the best photos of the previous year together into a printed photo book. As most of my pictures are of family and events this gives a good picture diary of the year

I also find printed gifts to be very good as personnel presents, not just framed pictures but books, mugs, t-shirts etc, so I spend a bit of time putting those together.

I am currently debating on whether to upgrade my camera or not, as I struggle with the basketball lighting conditions, but this is quite a big expense.