Et tu, Brute?

Vivitar 110 Camera

My progression into Photgraphy came, when my father bought me a Vivatar 110 camera and a visit to the Holy Land, Israel when I was 16 years old. At the time I bought 16 rolls of 36 exposure film not expecting to use them all and buy some more during the 10 day holiday over Christmas period.

The camera was to be used to record our Family vacation and some magical moments, initially some typical Family photo's but then I started to become more creative and taking pictures without people in and at odd angles. This was a Multi-centre religious holiday, so we would start in Jerusalem and follow the Journey of Christ in a haphazard way, the passion of Christ, his Ministry, to Bethlehem to visit the believed birth place of Christ on Christmas Eve and even a mass in a shepherd's cave outside the city of Bethlehem.

We journeyed past the Dead Sea, into Jericho, through the Golan Heights, onto Cana where the water was turned into wine, Nazareth, somewhere in there Tiberius and the Sea of Galilee eventually to Tel Aviv. It was during this Journey towards Tel Aviv that we went to an archaeological site, which had some stone Tablets that proved the existence of a Julius Ceasar, when Jesus was giving his Ministries. Now here is my Eureka moment which sold me on photography forever.

When we arrived at the site it was late afternoon, the light was fading fast and unlike the digital cameras of today, taking photographs on precious film in poor light wasn't considered the best of decisions. Our group consisted of many nationalities including one American family, the son was going to take a picture of the tablets with his flashy camera, that had a detachable lens, when his father stopped him to check the quality of the light, the conclusion, it wasn't good to go and so the photograph was not to be taken.

I on the other hand, being a precocious 16 year old (as my father would call me), decided that I probably wouldn't get a chance to photograph the tablets again, so I was going to take the photograph! It was this blase attitude that meant I had not only used up all my 16 original rolls of 36 exposure but had also purchased a further 16 of either 24 or 36 exposure depending on what was available.

I took the photograph and we continued on our Journey and it wasn't until we returned home, many months later that I was hooked by the amazing world of Photography - that photo, which shouldn't have come out with a flashy camera due to poor light was quite amazing, when taken with a simple point and shoot camera with no flash. I had the one photo that few would have and the name Julius Caesar could clearly be seen etched into the stone.

This has spurred me on to my photography philosophy today and now with digital cameras the possibilities are even more endless - I take my camera everywhere, take photographs of the weird and mysterious, from all angles, lots and lots of photo's, nothing goes to waste, not even the bad shots, everything is a learning curve and even better my photography now compliments my Art and visa-versa.