So, the boss lady said I could have my own weekly contributors slot on Phuthu.co.za, finally she has realized my worth as a writer!

So I think it will be about my other love (or hate, I’m not quite sure), photography. The thing about photography, it’s a moment in time frozen forever, sounds cheesy I know but think about it, that moment can never ever be repeated, that image can never be re-created!

I’ve had an interest in taking pictures ever since I can remember. When I was sixteen, me mum bought me a second hand Pentax Spotmatic which was older than I was! It was a fully manual 35mm film camera that I thought it worked really well! I collected a few second hand lenses and delighted in trying to get the lens as long and as professional looking as possible by adding, 2x converters, lens filters and lens hoods. I figured that the longer my lens was, the better a photographer I would be. They now tell me that size doesn’t matter so that’s a relief……

Having a fully manual film camera really taught me the fundamentals of photography, from aperture to film speed etc. I had a little book (I still have it today) written by John Hedgeco on holiday photography that I must have read 20 times. The mystery of film was that you would never know how your shots would turn out, it was quite an anxious wait at the 1hour photo lab to see if any of your images turned out! (actually I think 1 hour labs came later, it probably took 3 days back then!)


Below is one of my first black and white images, I was a particularly proud  sixteen year old back then, I thought it was a masterpiece! There was no doubt I would become a famous photographer! If you look carefully can you see me sitting on the lounge floor with my camera on a tripod and my faithful Labrador ‘bracken” sitting with me.


The school years ….To be continued next week…………..