I remember my first camera. It was a plastic body Kodak 127 that my Dad bought me in Dublin when I was 11 years old. I wish I had it now. I remember too the apprehension of waiting for a week to pick up the prints at the Chemist shop and the thrill of spreading the pictures out on the kitchen table. They were grainy, fuzzy and poorly composed, but they captured happy times and the excitement of new places. Above all, each photograph told a story. That became my theme, which I have attempted to carry through to the photographs on these pages.

Ansel Adams coined the term “visualization” which meant that the picture you took showed what you intended before you pressed the shutter. I read and re-read his five books on photography basics and practiced incessantly to achieve that goal using cameras that have become (almost, but not quite) obsolete in today’s digital age. Equipment is not nearly as important as learning how to use what you have to get the picture you expected. I still use the Ansel Adams Zone System for exposure control even with leading edge digital equipment.

I shoot both film and digital; 35 mm and medium format film for landscapes and digital for wildlife photography where several shots are needed to capture an animal or bird in motion. I use Nikon equipment primarily, which I have found to be of very high quality and reliable even 40 years after my first Nikon F.

Thank you for visiting the site. Enjoy the show!

Alistair Montgomery