Cameras have always been part of my life.
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My father Len started me off with an Exakta 35mm camera with a standard 50mm lens and a tripod.
I was taught to read the natural light and maybe check the light meter to see if i was right.
It was a great camera and is still in the family collection. Many rolls of black-and-white film went through it, some good, some OK, and some really bad ones we don't talk about.
I was about 10 years old when my father taught me how to develop film and then print the photographs in a small darkroom in the garage under the house.
It was a place of excitement to see the results of our efforts in print.
Did I load the film on the spool in pitch black darkness properly? Had I creased the film? I soon learned, Dad would always check it for me to begin with. I got used to the smell of photographic chemistry - the developer, acetic acid and fixer, and then the final wash bath.
Even now if I walk into a darkroom, the smell takes me back to those days working under the dim yellow light with my dad, loading the enlarger with a negative, placing the 10x8-inch paper underneath, working out an exposure, placing into the developer tray, and then wait for the image to slowly appear.
My parents helped me buy the next camera, a Pentax K1000, and I actually got a flash unit with it, which I rarely used as I liked to have more control with natural light.
One day, after many rolls of black and white film, life was about to change, I was given a roll of colour film. All that I had been taught was now to be tested further, I had to be more precise with the camera settings.
After taking the photos, I had to take the film to a photo-lab and wait for them to process it. The anxiety started when the lab assistant took the film, and a week later I would see if how successful I was.
Colour photography was OK but I did prefer the black and white and being able to process my own work. The camera bag then began to grow, with filters, self-timer cables, a flash unit, and the lens collection began.
Recently I have been looking through the family archive of prints and negatives, and am keen to digitise the full collection to make access to them easier. There are boxes of various size negatives, 35mm, 6x7cm, and the old 4x5inch, along with glass plate negatives and slides, let alone all the old prints.
I would like to share some black and white images with you from my archive of Examiner photos that I have taken.
I still love the black and whites, take away the colour and just sometimes they give more meaning to the subject, where you're not blinded by the colours. Black and white images appear to be more timeless than color images
Humans see the world in color, and a rendition of the world in black and white makes us pause and look closely. Removing color from a picture helps the us to focus on the subject's emotional state.
- PAUL SCAMBLER