Taking pictures...

Back in the late 1970s I bought a camera – a single lens reflex (SLR) model manufactured in Russia or East Germany, some country east of the Iron Curtain. Two or three years later I bought a Canon FTb QL SLR – my first “real” camera. With these instruments I taught myself how to balance f-numbers and shutter speeds and ISO values in order to obtain the right exposure. It was of course a film camera, and everything was adjusted manually.

I also bought a second-hand enlarger and all the paraphernalia necessary to develop and print B&W photos. And I created a dark room – the box room of our house was ideal, just next door to the bathroom – and learned new photographic skills.

I’m not sure when I started taking photos at conventions. Judging by the illustrated article (by Stephen Jones and others) in the FantasyCon 2011 Souvenir Book, it was around 1982. I don’t have access to my collection of magazines from that era (that’s the trouble with a broken leg and two floors to negotiate to get to my study), so I can’t confirm if my pictures saw publication in the BFS Newsletter.

Anyhow, I must have done something right because I was asked by Ian Watson, one of the SFWA’s Regional Directors, to take photos at the 1988 World Fantasy Convention, held in London. I did, and my pictures appeared on the front and back cover of the SFWA’s Bulletin (winter 1988 issue).

The Guest of Honour at the 1988 WFC (which incorporated FantasyCon XIII) was James Herbert. Other main guests were Michael Foreman, Diana Wynne Jones and Clive Barker. I was one of the "Assistants".

The FTb served me well, until I upgraded to a T90 then an EOS1n. I also bought a digital camera that cost over £200, a lot of money in the late 1990s. It was a pathetic affair – less than one megapixel, if I recall, with only a small built-in memory. It had novelty value and was soon discarded, unloved, and I continued using my film SLRs. But inevitably, as decent DSLRs appeared, with the technology to match the quality of film cameras, I too “went digital”. And I took many more photos at fantasy conventions.


Photo of James Herbert (c) Peter Coleborn