Steve Jones

My wife and I have always loved the Lake District and in 2016 we were lucky enough to be able to buy a static caravan near Keswick with the intention of doing a lot of walking in our upcoming retirement. At the same time, I also decided that I would buy my first digital camera as this would enable me to take a few snapshots whilst out and about on our various walks.

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The camera I chose was an Olympus OMD EM10 Mark 2 mainly because I liked the look of it, it was relatively cheap, and because it was small enough and light enough to fit in the pocket of my waterproof jacket. Although I must have read somewhere that it was a micro four-thirds system I really had no idea what this meant!

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And so my photographic journey began... I was soon out and about taking all sorts of photos - mainly landscapes - and found that I was really enjoying photography. It added another dimension to our walks and the images were great reminders of where we had been and what we had done.

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Not long after this I met HPIC members, Carla and Kevin Lloyd. We got talking about photography and they invited me along to an HPIC meeting where I found everyone to be very friendly and the syllabus to be really interesting. I soon discovered that other members of the Club used Olympus equipment and I will always be grateful to Helen Samson and Alan Stopher for their guidance in those early days.

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Over the past four years there is no doubt that I have been on a very steep, but very enjoyable, learning curve. I have completed the Open University course, I have upgraded my camera equipment, and last year I won a trophy in the Club's annual competition. Progress indeed!

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I know that photography will continue to be one of my main hobbies in the years ahead. I would like to improve my knowledge base and to explore other genres of photography - particularly wildlife and macro.