Hi from Philip Schubert from Perth in Western Australia

Since obtaining my first camera, a "Baby Emila" that cost 3/6d in 1959, I have held a low key, but continuing interest in photography. My first role of film, a Kodak 126 Verichromepan B&W film, cost more than the camera, and yielded 12 prints. I still have many of them, complete with flare from light leaking into the camera. See some shots here.

A long series of cameras followed.

In 1963 a Kodak Instamatic 100, complete with pop up flash, with AG-1 flash bulbs which was a real attraction and a novelty, although the flash build each cost nearly as much as a film. A great little camera with a good lens, but limited settings.

  If I remember correctly the difference was 1/90th sec shutter speed or 1/45th shutter speed with the built in flash unit "popped" up, and used 25 ASA or 64 ASA high speed film.

Light was always a problem, and Kodachrome colour slides were the order of the day, even though each film with developing cost once again the initial cost of the camera and was a two week wait for development.

In 1967 a secondhand Yashica Lynx 5000 35mm rangefinder camera was the next purchase. A great leap forward in quality an creative capability with f1.8 -22 lens and shutter speed up to 1/1000th second, complete with a built in CDs cell light meter, external shoe mounted flash, bit still with those horrendously expensive flash bulbs. Details of this camera can be found here

In 1970 my first SLR heralded a new level of interest. After a wonderful trade in on the trusty Yashica, I became for $105 became the proud owner of a Hanimax Practica Super TTL SLR, that boasted an amazing  F1.8 Meyer Oriston lens, AND a built in light meter with needle visible in the viewfinder.

Gone also were the days of guesswork when taking photos at close range and range finder focus settings. I still have this camera along with a fixed 200 Tameron zoom lens purchased secondhand for $45A. They all still work, but unlike modern cameras require a lot of hard work and judgment to produce results that a modern digital camera produces as a matter of course.

This was followed by a Minolta SRT-303b 135mm SLR camera (approx $330A - very large sum in 1977), which I also still have and occasionally use. Recently I have won several photo competitions with prints from this camera that I have scanned, from the original negatives, colour corrected, cropped and reprinted. Some of these prints can be seen in the photo galleries on this site.

My 1st digital was a Sony Mavica Digital camera ($1200A) that recorded 640 x 480 images to 1.44mb floppy disks.

Two years ago I purchased a Fujifilm S602 Digital camera with a 3.2 native megapixel resolution and starting clicking away in earnest. Some of the results of that photography are also included in the galleries on this site.

After winning a number of photographic prizes at the Bindoon Agricultural Show and an inspirational light and audio evening by prize winning WA Landscape photographer "Nick Melodonis" my interest grew, and now I regularly are looking for a photo opportunity.

I occasionally use a Canon 300D Digital camera when seeking a specific result, however my best images seem to come straight off the camera without enhancement

I hope you enjoy the results.