This blog is intended to present photos from my collection which I find particularly memorable, beautiful or interesting.
I started photography when I was about 5 with a gift from my parents of a small Kodak camera that accepted 110 film cartridges. A few years later it was upgraded to another Kodak that took 126 film cartridges. Then a range of Pentax MG bodies kindly lent by my father. Finally an accident with one of his Pentax ME’s prompted a gift of my own Pentax MG. With a fixed 50 lens I spent much time moving myself around to frame things properly. This was a great learning process that eventually lead me to a love of zoom lenses.
During this time I was the photographer for my school and then photographer for my university college magazine. These two jobs gave me some freedom as film and development costs were not my problem. I could experiment with photography to a greater extent than with my measly teenagers budget.
The greatest step came when I needed to make the most important choice between camera brands. I wanted to buy lenses that would last and that I could use on future bodies and so I really had to stick with one brand or another. For some reason I can’t remember I came down to Nikon or Canon. Canon had a wider range of lenses but Nikon had a greater reputation. A friend who was an accomplished professional was a stoic Canon user and that swayed me to chose Canon in the end. The EOS 5 served me very well for the next 12 years with a 50mm 1.4 Canon and a 28-135mm IS Canon lens.
After 2005 I used the EOS 5 less and less as film development became more difficult and I only developed the film to scan directly. The EOS 5D was released and I waited for it to drop in price, it never really did. The EOS 5D seemed good but not really exceptional compared with other SLR’s and the rapidly advancing compact market. What I really wanted was a full frame sensor that was a step above the compact market. I wanted to keep my old lenses all of which would have had strange focal lengths with an APC size sensor.
On my trip to Japan in 2009 with my brother, I was finally ready for the next step in photography. Canon had released the best camera in the world… the new 5D Mark II. Nearly two years later I still appreciate it as much as when it was new. The only disappointment was my 28-135mm lens which had served me for so long in desert sand, cities grime and pouring rain, it just wasn’t good enough. Canon serviced it for me in Paris but aside from making a strange new noise whilst focusing, it produced images that are too soft at both ends of the zoom.
Current lenses are the Canon L 24-105 F4 and 50 F1.2.
Today I am gradually scanning old slides and negatives and my photography is centered around family. When I do get out I prefer landscapes and the life of insects, flowers and plants.
Alex Sanderson