Hi Everyone.    Geoff has invited me to contibute here. I’ve not done anything like this before so hopefully what I have to say won’t bore you.

I don’t have a lot of camera know how, but really enjoy taking photo’s. My camera goes everywhere with me. A basic digital Kodak Easyshare. It’s either in my handbag when I go to work or shopping, in the “bumbag” that straps around my waist when walking or bike riding and the remainder of the time it’s within easy reach around the yard when I’m pottering in the garden.

At aged around 10 an old friend of my Mum gave me a Box Brownie. I can’t remember too much about it and didn’t have it for very long as another friend of my parents gave me money to buy myself a more modern one. In return I had to give him the Box Brownie. (It was pretty old even then)

How can a kid that age refuse the offer of buying something new? The camera I replaced it with took teeny weeny pictures about an inch square. Somewhere along the line I must have replaced it because I have a small collection of black and white photos of my sister, brother and school friends that are a little larger than an inch. These days I just about need a magnifying glass to see them.

Then in later years when family started to become important again (well, everyone knows that we as teenagers are more important than anyone else!) It’s been photo’s of the children from babies to the age they are now. Family Christmas get togethers and beach camping trips.

My kids are now in their mid twenties to early thirties and they still cringe when they see me coming with the camera. My husband, well what can I say, whenever he see’s me taking out the photo albums to show family or friends, his comments are “UH OH, not the photo albums AGAIN!”

I’m sure most of us use our cameras for the memories that we will look back on however many years down the track. And it really is interesting for us all, looking back over the years. Seeing the kids grow and all their achievements. Sporting prowess, school balls, First boyfriends/girlfriends, Graduation. Of our first home purchase, starting from scratch. Pictures of the house with no garden or permanant structures, pictures of jobs in progress, the finished result. It’s our past in pictures.

Once the Kids left home I had more time for the garden and things that interested me. I live in a rural area on the south coast of Western Australia. Neighbours on one side and bush surrounding the back and other side of the house. So these days I spend a lot of my spare time when I’m not at work  taking pictures of the frogs, lizards and birds that inhabit my garden, as well as the garden each season from year to year. I try close ups of flowers that work sometimes and then I have a good feeling of a job well done.

Since buying my digital camera a couple of years ago I have a collection of over 13,000 pictures on my computer, sadly a lot of those are quite poor shots.  But I’m loathe to delete them because they are part of what has happened in my garden over time. It’s amazing just how much things change over the space of a year. Again, it’s the past shown in pictures.

I would love to be able take photos that look amazing and professional. But then again, I’m more than satisfied with what I’ve done so far. And I know one day in the future I’ll have that bigger and better camera and have the experience to help make it all work for me.