Aged 14-40 something, I worked in ‘imaging’ mostly, give or take _

That’s it in a nutshell ………the last period of time I was full time freelancing was digital so I’ll concentrate on the film years here ……………….

When the lads at school were playing football at lunchtime I was learning how to print in the school darkroom, thanks to a wonderful teacher who had a passion for Photography, saw that in me and encouraged me. Forever grateful _

I didn’t have the space at home, and my parents didn’t have the money to make a darkroom at home, so I had to go jet a job to further my interest - so I did at a local camera shop. It was normal for kids to work part time then, it was how we learned to be in a workplace …and I did well in all my grades and exams too.

There was only one well known local Photographer in my local town at that time, and I was too young to work with him, and he was not very friendly to be frank. The guy at the local camera shop was really impressed I’d looked for a job, and nice, so that was my first Saturday job. That went on to be my first job _

The first thing I was taught was how to load film into customers cameras. 35mm was and always has been the dominant film medium, though back then I would be fitting 110, 126 cartridges, Disc Film (ironically as it was invented to make it so anyone could fit it
themselves), 127 and 620 (which disappeared only to reborn years later), 120 in older folding cameras (most 120 film purchasers were pretty clued up and using TLRS / other 6x6, the 645 120’s got more popular later on) ……………..

The shelves were full of Green, Blue and Yellow boxes, Kodak's dominance declining to Fuji, Konica and Agfa holding a good share of the market and making great films (Kodak were not progressive - their reps used to turn up like the ‘Men In Black’ with a surly arrogance) Years later I did actually cry when Kodachrome finished - which used a unique process not E-6 compatible like most transparency films. Kodachrome was probably the first truly stable colour transparency film.

A minilab arrived and I learned c41 machine processing, and printing, and naturally found myself in the darkroom developing customers black and white films, and then copying old photographs, sepia toning to match originals, learning dodging and burning. Cool toning, and all that groovy stuff where I likely breathed in a fair amount of probably now-banned chemistry ! I had a great boss and he OK’d me using the darkroom in evenings for my own stuff.

My parents moved and I went with them (I was still pretty young) and then worked with a guy who used to work for Nikon in Canada and USA and was previously involved with Series E Nikon lens’s (honestly I can’t recall if design or testing) He had just bought a camera shop off a local guy about to retire, an ex POW who used to sometimes cry when he thought about the Japanese and German cameras he was now selling to make his living _

Being a bit keen, I moved to London for a while, working for a well known ‘ larger than life character’ in the world of big chain camera shops, who was a main dealer for a particularly expensive brand of camera, best known for their rangefinder models.

The end of my retail career was the happiest place for me in the world of camera shops, I was already establishing myself as a freelancer by then but spent part of my week at a well known second hand specialist with an electic bunch of camera geeks, many of whom are now sadly deceased. They shared the building with a repairer, and here I really learned about which cameras are problem cameras, and which are not, and saw inside most at some point ! Of course spares for most film cameras are now long gone, so many repairs are from cannibalising a body already part failed for one reason or another, hence pushing prices up as demand increases and availability decreases.

I’ve pointed my camera at most everything that ever needs or wants photographing over the years. Lots of stuff that was once just normal to shoot would probably send some people into a bit of a breakdown now looking back !! Look at an 80s/90s pop video or TV program to see how much change has taken place. Running about coastal hotels with an Olympus Half Frame camera and a belt mounted Wet Pack Battery, Early Metz Hammerhead Flash in teams of ‘Grockle’ Photographers are both days I look back on with with joy, and wonder how I survived. This was while still being an FE student (I went back to education, I’ve done that a few times), before my freelancing career became more refined and business like.

I worked my way through all the fields of social photography (People) and undertook a fair amount of commercial work too. I shot arts and crafts books with slide film (always tricky to get hands to look human coloured) with slightly scary Bowens hi glide mono blocs, I shot hundreds if not thousands of Weddings (several countries). I photographed for magazines from time to time, wrote a piece for a local glossy county magazine, was published in a Sunday supplement (I’d supplied some PR images to a helpful local Hotel where I did a lot of work) Bear in mind I’d had my first local newspaper front pager at age 15 from memory, I was never looking for fame, just liked taking photos. (The TV now ask for local scene pics, and people send them in - work for free - amazing, I used to get paid for that kinda stuff) !

As digital rolled in - which happened in processing way before digital capture, (films were scanned rather than illuminated like in early labs / mini labs) through the popular Noritsu, then often Fuji Labs and big Durst Printers, of course my work changed, and I was one of the first Photographers to use Dye Sublimation Events Printing on-site in the digital era.

Some of the early digital professional cameras were so bad with things like focusing errors I had to focus on someone's nose, then eye ,then ear to see which one would be right and useable, and when sent back to the makers they would say ‘all working within parameters’ - !!! (Some of those early cameras used film-designed bodies with the chip basically held across the film gate with glorified sellotape) !

I remember so many massive changes through my film Photography era, it’s not fair (and possibly litigation inviting to write about people I’ve photographed ) so I’ll mention a few significant events. Mid-80s onwards - Minolta 7000 - first AF SLR, Live Aid, Polaroid successfully suing Kodak, Canon introduced EOS system, Minilabs Arriving widespread on High streets, First AF Pro Nikon - F4, Negative Equity (all shops went suddenly, scarily quiet), Fuji 4th layer film technology, Fall of Berlin Wall (yes all those images were shot on film - like all world events prior to 2000 and most for several years after), Gulf War, Fall of USSR, The Balkan Wars,Transparency Film Decline, Auto Focus SLR’s taking over market, in 1999 several years before Facebook had started, Nikon launched it’s first professional Digital SLR the D1. It was 2.7 megapixels. There’s lots of different information about how megapixels in 35mm film - Have you seen 18 x12s or 20 x16’s shot with a sharp lens, decent film and well printed - ? Lots of megapixels I’d say.

Hopefully this gives an idea of my breadth of experience in my formative Film Imaging years.