In the house where I was a small child there were always family photograph albums. What made them slightly different was that I knew most of them had been taken, developed and printed by my father. At maybe 7 or 8 years old I knew what an enlarger was and I knew the essential steps in getting from camera to print. Some of the pictures had been taken on the ubiquitous Box Brownie but the first camera I remember my father owning was a Pentax S3. This was not only a cut above the rest in terms of brand but it even had a light meter that could be attached to the pentaprism. It was a beautiful thing and sadly the best camera he ever owned as he later part exchanged it for the first of succession of Prakticas in order the archive through the lens metering. As his eyesight failed he finally invested in a modest Canon autofocus SLR.
His interest spawned my interest and so a lifelong fascination began.