About Chris Gregory

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I’m an enthusiastic amateur photographer who has come back to this enthralling hobby after long spells away from it because of work, family and other commitments.  However, cameras have always been a part of my family life and my wife and 3 adult sons are all keen digital photographers.

Sony Alpha A200

Since purchasing my Sony Alpha A200 DSLR in August 2008 I have become once again engrossed in the possibilities that the camera has to offer, and aware of my shortcomings as a photographer.  The aim of this blog is to document my journey as I discover more about what the camera can do and how I can use this knowledge to produce better images.  Along the way I hope to give encouragement to others who are in a similar place, and perhaps help them move along the path to discovering what to achieve with their photography and how they might achieve it.

My first foray into photography began with a Kodak Brownie 127 roll film camera when I was 10 years old.   At highschool I owned a budget “Empire Made” (Hong Kong) Halina 35X film camera, and then a Russian Zenit 3M 35mm film camera while at university. Many an evening was spent in my mother’s kitchen developing black and white negatives and turning them into prints using a simple homemade enlarger.  This was the first time where I felt both in control of the total process, and totally frustrated because I couldn’t achieve the results I wanted.

Kodak Brownie 127

Halina 35X

Zenit 3M

That seems to be a path followed by everyone who wants to take this hobby seriously.

Photographing in colour took some of this control away as I neither had the time nor money to get engrossed in colour processing, so my camera got put away as new challenges like work and marriage took over.

The opportunity to travel reignited my interest, but this time it was with movie – Super 8.  Story telling with movement was fun and I still have many reels of film documenting our travels in the 1970s which our children used to watch as they were growing up.  Later it was video that took over but after a succession of more up-to-date cameras I tired of seeing the world through a small viewfinder and feeling somewhat detached form what was happening around me.

Nikon F60

In 1998 I purchased a new Nikon F60 SLR with a Tamron 28-200mm zoom lens.  Photography at this time was for prints, mainly centred around family and travel.  The zoom lens provided versitility that I had only previously experienced with video cameras.  I enjoyed using this camera, but the advent of digital photography changed all that.

Digital photography has brought control back into my own hands.  Not only can I now capture images, I can control the production process as well – like back in the darkroom days.

Digital cameras owned prior to my current Sony Alpha A200 DSLR have been a Minolta Dimage A2 and a Panasonic DMC FZ7.

Konica Minolta Dimage A2

Panasonic Lumix DMC FZ7

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