Cameras

I started my photography with a Kodak Instamatic camera.  No controls whatsoever, just point and shoot.  It allowed me to focus on composition and be very aware of the need for adequate light.  For too much light, such as in snow with bright sunshine, I shot through one of the lenses of my sunglasses.

My next camera was a Zenit E, a manual SLR made in the USSR at a price I could afford when I bought it from a second hand store.  I started shooting slide film as it was less expensive and more rewarding as I could do slide shows of my life's adventures.

After my Zenit failed from a salt water dunking, I bought a Pentax SF-1, an advanced SLR and continued to shoot slide film, though it was becoming harder to get them developed and a slide image was becoming more expensive than a print image.

When quality digital cameras became affordable, I bought a Nikon D100 and could now stop worrying about the cost I incurred every time I pressed the shutter button.

For my bicycle adventures, I bought an Olympus Stylus 850SW as it is shockproof, waterproof and can be used underwater.  The LCD viewfinder can be difficult to see in bright sunshine so I have to guess at the framing.

I can also take photos with my Samsung Galaxy S4 and have them automatically uploaded to a cloud server.  In bright sunshine, it can be hard to see what I am photographing.  The advantages of a smart-phone is that I always have a camera on hand for those moments when some beautiful image catches my eye.

Post Processing

As I use Linux for my computing needs, I use GIMP, the Linux equivalent to PhotoShop for any post processing, though I tend to try to get the framing, focus and exposure right at the time of shooting.  If I do some post processing it may be to crop the image better, adjust the white balance or rotate a photo so a sea horizon is properly level, useful when shooting from a moving boat.

I use Hugin for stitching images to create panoramas or wide angle shots.  The technology behind Hugin was created by researchers at the University of British Columbia and is used by NASA for stitching together images from the Mars Rovers and other space craft.

Phatch is used to batch process images for emailing or conversion to other formats.

I have a number of tools for processing RAW images, though I tend to shoot in JPEG format

Philosophy

I like photographing landscapes because I get the sense of the infinite and the desire to see what is "over there".  I also enjoy macro photography because I get the close up view that a child gets, but more importantly, it shows me the patterns, shapes or structure that nature continues to reveal.  Just like fractals.  Photographing animals, birds, insects are harder as they are often moving and often I just plain get lucky to snap a shot.  People are also difficult as they become self conscious when a lens is pointed at them and tend to pose.  Again, it is purely luck that I can capture that expression that fits the other elements in the image.

I see photography as another means of artistic communication, sharing my emotions with another human being by exposing them to what I have seen.  I always hope that my images can evoke a similar emotion, or at least as strong an emotion as the real life scene evoked in me.