Frame Zero

I was born into a family of professional photographers. I spent time in a darkroom before I could read and write... As a youngster, I used various cheap film cameras (120 and 127 format rolls and later 35mm), and from time to time was allowed to touch the 'pro' stuff. Then I received my first 'own' SLR - a still very dear Nikkormat FT - and I learned about the urge to acquire more and better glass.

When I left home, access to a well equipped darkroom became difficult (and I was too spoiled to accept a small and simple one at my own place). So I went on to shoot 35mm slide film mostly. From time to time, I treated myself to another piece of equipment. But as both family and professional obligations increased, photography slowly faded away into a vacation thing. Until...

One day in 2002, I had the opportunity to add a few sightseeing days at the end of a business trip to Australia. It wasn't practical to take along my 35mm gear, so I bought a small digital compact for the occasion: a tiny silver 2 Mpix Nikon Coolpix 775 (I prefer not to remember what the going prices were at the time...!). And all of a sudden, photography became a big part of my life again.

My frustrations with the limitations of that first compact made me move on to a more capable bridge camera, a Coolpix 5700, until finally the D70 brought me back 'home'.

One day, I will get back to the original JPEG files from that first digital trip, to see how much more I can make out of them now that my post-processing skills - and tools! - have improved. But today I look back with pleasure to the souvenirs of the trip that restarted it all.

Gear notes: Coolpix 775

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