A quick intro

[Morri246]

Greetings all you young people - in a couple of weeks time I hit 80 years and have already been informed that I will be getting an extra 25p in my pension. Perhaps time to consider a Hasselblad with a digital back! I am married with two children (Steve who has fled to Canada and Kate who is intent on moving to Wales - was it something I said?). Knowing my age, it will not be surprising to know that my first camera was a Box Brownie bought in a NAAFI store in 1950 - this was while living with my parents in Benghazi, Libya. Probably lucky to have returned to the UK in 1952. While working as a technician at Reading University I spent 1 day a week doing photography for the academic staff - mainly really interesting subjects like dark grey fossilised leaves in even darker rock! Early in my married life "played about" with Mamiya, Minolta, Edixamat, Pentax and other film cameras but only retained the Pentax and Minolta cameras. Three or four years ago I was hit with a severe spinal condition (crumbling and getting worse) and this has meant giving up metal detecting through being unable to stand unsupported for more than a few minutes. By sitting in my car and wearing a harness, I hope to continue photography but it may well end up with just indoor work - I have always been fascinated by macro. Time I stopped rambling on, Dave

[MJ224]

Re: A quick intro

Hi Dave, a very warm welcome. I did a 3 month job in Tripoli, and was very glad to leave (1978 ish). Good luck with the macro's, and we look forward to seeing some of your photos.


Mark j...

[wornish]

Re: A quick intro

Welcome Dave from another Dave.
Look forward to seeing your pics.

[Jim Ford]

Re: A quick intro

Welcome Dave!

I'll be hitting the big eight zero next year, so it looks like I can look forward to an extra 25p!

Jim

[Graham_of_Rainham]

Re: A quick intro

Hello and welcome to the forum.

[pdk42]

Re: A quick intro

Welcome Dave. So which Olympus camera are you planning on buying with your extra 25p/wk

[maccabeej]

Re: A quick intro

Greetings all you young people - in a couple of weeks time I hit 80 years and have already been informed that I will be getting an extra 25p in my pension. Perhaps time to consider a Hasselblad with a digital back! I am married with two children (Steve who has fled to Canada and Kate who is intent on moving to Wales - was it something I said?). Knowing my age, it will not be surprising to know that my first camera was a Box Brownie bought in a NAAFI store in 1950 - this was while living with my parents in Benghazi, Libya. Probably lucky to have returned to the UK in 1952. While working as a technician at Reading University I spent 1 day a week doing photography for the academic staff - mainly really interesting subjects like dark grey fossilised leaves in even darker rock! Early in my married life "played about" with Mamiya, Minolta, Edixamat, Pentax and other film cameras but only retained the Pentax and Minolta cameras. Three or four years ago I was hit with a severe spinal condition (crumbling and getting worse) and this has meant giving up metal detecting through being unable to stand unsupported for more than a few minutes. By sitting in my car and wearing a harness, I hope to continue photography but it may well end up with just indoor work - I have always been fascinated by macro. Time I stopped rambling on, Dave

Welcome Dave. I am only approaching the tender age of 68 but my first camera was a Kodak Cresta Brownie also bought in Benghazi! I was there from 58-60, not an army brat but my best friend was. Parents were a member of the sailing club.

[Phill D]

Re: A quick intro

Welcome to the forum Dave. My Dad spent some time in Benghazi during the war. Never been there myself but always wanted to. Love to see some pictures if you have any.

[OM USer]

Re: A quick intro

A warm welcome Dave.

[MikeOxon]

Re: A quick intro

Greetings all you young people...............

It's nice to be called 'young' although I'm not too many years behind you.



My wife is a keen gardener and provides a continuous stream of plants for me to record in my table-top 'studio'. You don't mention which camera you use now, but those Olympus models with 'stacking' are great for macro work on subjects like flowers, which can have quite a lot of 'depth' to cover.

[shenstone]

Re: A quick intro

Kate who is intent on moving to Wales - was it something I said?).

No kate probably just has a love of the "Warm and damp" as needed to create the green, green grass we have around here:-)

While working as a technician at Reading University I spent 1 day a week doing photography for the academic staff - mainly really interesting subjects like dark grey fossilised leaves in even darker rock!

When you come to visit Kate in Wales (if its the South) then try and come to one of our fossil bash's when we provide about 1/2 a ton of grey shale, tack hammers, gloves and goggles

You could join in if you want or just marvel at how a swarm of 3-10 year olds can reduce that to dust in a couple of hours... mostly with us trying to say ... "oooo that's a nice leaf.... well it was" :-)


Regards
Andy

[Morri246]

Re: A quick intro

Thanks for all the 'warm welcome" comments together with varied thoughts and reminiscences. Normally, I would respond to posts as they came in but my wife had a sudden attack by a "kidney stone" and I have only just got home from Basingstoke A&E who, fortunately, were able to sort her out!

A fair few of you had experience of Benghazi where I was a 12*year old in about 40 English families. With nothing to do most of the day, apart from swimming in the Med. and going to the Army Kinema, my main hobby was salvaging "bits" from the Army dumps (this was only a few years after the end of WW2). It was this, coupled with being brought up in Sandhurst village (near the Royal Military College) and visits to Aldershot (Home of the British Army) that eventually saw me becoming, and remaining, a serious collector of British medals and decorations (I'll stop there so as not to be boring!). Given time, I will sort out a few photographs (poor quality of Benghazi taken on my Box Brownie) plus, hopefully, somewhat better ones (taken on the OMD-EM1) leaning towards my metal detecting days. Dave