The cameras and lenses that I use for my professional photography are wonderful, they are high quality workhorses.   However they are rather heavy and bulky; not the sort of thing you’d necessarily want to carry when sightseeing or hiking.   I’ve looked at many digital compact options and am unable to find anything that ticks all the boxes as yet.

I love a big bright viewfinder and a really good lens; if I’m going to snap by viewing a screen and with a less than perfect lens I might as well use my iPhone, and I do enjoy using that for my private Instagram.

I still have a couple of beautiful manual Pentax SLRs (MX & LX) from the late 70’s, early 80’s and have recently been reacquainting myself with them… well one as my daughter has purloined the other!  So just over a year ago, for a  short trip to visit my son at university in Bath, I loaded some film in to my beautiful, but neglected Pentax LX.  It really is a joy to use, feels so lovely to hold, the viewfinder is superb and there is a satisfying clunk when creating a photograph.  It did take a while to get back into the swing; I’ve lost count of the times I have checked the back of the camera and my first efforts were little more than snapshots with rather dodgy focus!  Manually focusing slows things down, as does the thought of the cost per click; film and developing is now quite expensive.

I patiently waited until I had a few films ready for developing and sent them to the fab Christian and Erica AKA: UK Film Labs to develop and scan.  I’d quite forgotten about the nice buzz I used to get from sending a film off to be developed and eagerly awaiting for the results… everything is so instant these days!

Below are a selection from out and about in Derby and Burton-on-Trent, with Verity, Gilbert and my lovely Mum :)

These are from our Winter holiday in the beautiful St Ives area of Cornwall.  We’ve been visiting each January for the past few years, we love the wild seas and skies, the bracing walks and peace.