My First Camera
I have been clearing my bedroom at mums over lockdown and have found so many things I had forgotten about.
I found my first camera.
A Nikon F65 which I bought when I was 19, a second year student of Media & Cultural Studies in Liverpool in 2003. I had always been mad about photography and so far had only had use of the old school family camera and a few cheap ones of my own.
I had just got my student loan in, and although it would just about cover the rent and the course fees I decided it was now time to invest in my first good camera. As I wasn’t too flush , I decided to check out the Cash Converters on the Dublin Road and had been calling in on Saturdays on my way to work in the coffee shop nearby. I had spotted it and really knew nothing about cameras, but it looked professional and was a good price so I thought it must be good. I am sure I would have asked the advice of the shopkeeper, who obviously would have just wanted it sold and said what I wanted to hear.
I was so happy to have my first camera, to feel like a real photographer, it just felt so right for me.
I took it everywhere with me, photographing the city and most importantly the gigs. I loved how people would move out of your way and let you get to the front of the gig when I had it around my neck. That may be the feeling that got me hooked. The camera instantly gave me ACCESS.
The problem of course being that this was a film manual SLR camera and I had no idea of the settings.
So each time I would excitedly go to pick up my prints from the printers I would usually be disappointed. I would have the exposures wrong and most of the 24 roll would hardly have a good photo in it.
I would be so frustrated each time, I would ask the printer if they knew what I was doing wrong. I was so determined to find out how to use it. We had modules on photography, but they were just theory and again I had no knowledge to found there.
I was so determined that I at one point looked up the photography course at Liverpool College and was thinking about dropping out of my degree to go study a photography course. Looking back, it wouldn't have been the worst decision I could have made.
I would scour the charity bookshops of the city and quickly bought up every book I found on Photography.
This was a time without easy access to the internet. A time that is hard to imagine now, but if I wanted to go online I would have to go into the university library and find a book a computer to work on. Even at that, there weren't great resources online either.
I just kept shooting anyway and hoping that each time I went to collect that I would have some of the photographs turn out ok. The daylight ones were ok, but the most important ones, which were the indoor gig photos were always terrible and it was killing me.
I then bought myself my first digital camera.
And although it didn't look as professional at least I knew that the photographs would come out ok. I had set the film SLR aside and worked on the digital one instead.
It’s hard to imagine now but I really couldn’t find anywhere or anyone at the time to help me with that camera. The advice I needed was simply to learn to understand aperture/ shutter speed, and maybe consider a flash for indoor gigs.
I never fully learned these skills until I started my first job as a newspaper photographer, where I totally threw myself into the deep end.
The outgoing photographer who was handing over to me, simply told me Aperture F.5.6 and Shutter speed 200 and you won't go far wrong. He also refused to teach me any camera skills.