My hubby bought me a camera for my birthday.
If I’m honest, it scares the life out of me at the moment.
Up until now, I’ve been happy to cope with a 'point and shoot’ one for idiots where you don’t even have to worry about turning the flash on because it does it all for you.
This new one is for half-idiots. It lets you loose on choosing your own settings but still has a “fully-automatic mode” for those times when you really don’t trust your own judgement.
I’m still only learning the basics, but grabbed the opportunity to head out with my dad the other day when we went for a family walk along the River Medway, near Riverside Country Park in Rainham.
It wasn’t just a photography lesson, but I learned a lot about him too and it turned out to be one of the most magical hours I’d spent with him.
I knew he’d grown up in Gillingham, near The Strand but, as bizarre as it sounds, I’d never really thought about him playing there as a child.
My trips there were usually with my grandma and if she ever told me and my brother tales about my dad, they’ve been long forgotten.
In the time we were there, not only did he take the time to talk me through some of the basics of photography (turns out it wasn’t just a hobby, he used to teach it), but also talked about how when he was a boy, he used to ride on his bike for miles from Gillingham, through Rainham and beyond, or sometimes sit out on the headland, watching the comings and goings on the river.
I have a lot to learn, about taking photographs and, it seems, about my dad, but I think this was just the first of our little jaunts out together, camera in hand and whiling away the hours.
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