I guess it all started even before I was born.. My grandfather was considered well-off for a person of his time; not rich, but he managed to give a comfortable living for his family.
One item of luxury that he had was a camera. I don't know what camera he had or if it was even his, but all I know is that he loved photographing his family.
Years gone by and so my mother entered the family, and she, too loves being photographed. I guess I've seen my mother grew from a child into a mother, thanks to all of the photos she collected over the years.
Then came me, and my life, too was recorded. Same goes for my brothers and sister, where their lives where recorded and kept. We have a whole bookshelf dedicated to all those photographs we collected over the years, and you can spend a whole day just going to HALF of them.
I picked it up from my parents. They had their own camera, but I wanted something I can use myself. Therefore, at the age of 11, I was given a disposable camera to snap photos.
Since my parent's thought I was good at taking photos, they bought a second camera to be left at home, which I can use (they won't let me use their camera).
On my 17th birthday, my parents finally got me a real camera.
I used this camera a lot for 2 years. I even used it to snap photos of my cousin's wedding entirely. My parents also bought a new camera within that time frame, which I am actually using today, even after 13 years it's still going strong..
Finally, on 2003, I followed suit with the digital era. I saved up and bought my first, "crappy" digital camera.
"Crappy" in the sense of today's standard, of course. Batteries were 2 AA's, which only lasted 60-70 shots. It was also only 2 megapixels.. Back then the standard was 3.2 megapixels.
Between 2003 and 2005, I familiarised myself with lomography, which back then, was quite unknown to many. I bought myself an actionsampler and a colorsplash, which I enjoyed.
Moving on to 2005. Phones now have coloured screens and cameras on them. While convenient, I still loved a good ol' camera at hand.. So as I finished my diploma, I was given this camera:-
This cybershot stayed with me for 3 years.. During which, I started to learn a bit more about photography. I moved backwards instead of forward, obtaining old film cameras to learn the basics of photography.
Old film cameras were dirt cheap in thrift shops and antiques stores in Australia. I actually bought, repaired, used, and sold off almost all of these cameras during this period:-
And I have to admit, over the years after that, certain cameras I would buy them again, use them, and resell again, namely the Lomo LC-A, Yashica GSN and Olympus XA.
I even bought (and sold off after 6 months) this great Olympus camera during that period. It was for me to compare the exposures of the images taken by these film cameras.
Moving onto 2007. I graduated and stayed in Singapore to make a living. Time was scarce at first to snap photos, so I got myself a good zoom camera as a daily camera.
Of course this did not satisfy my thirst for good image quality and bokeh, so I soon moved onto my first DSLR...
And soon my second...
And then my last...
The Olympus E-420 would be my last DSLR.. Main reason was because I wanted to become a light traveler, so I moved onto mirror less cameras.
Finally, I settled with these two cameras..
I finally settled with a Fuji X100 mainly due to its image quality. I realised that I've accustomised myself with fixed focal length cameras (thanks tot he different camera bodies I've used) and am comfortable with a 35mm focal length.. This will also deter me from Gear Acquisition Syndrome and wo't make me want to buy newer lens, etc.
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