About DreamWeb
My interest in photography started when a young boy, armed with a second-hand Polaroid camera. I was fortunate to live in a rural area, with good weather, and with many amazing landscapes and attractions to photograph. I have many of those little Polaroid “prints” to this day, and value them, for they show the beginning of my journey into photography.
After graduation from high school, I joined the Air Force and had to part with my trusty Polaroid. It was many years later that I again took camera in hand. It was the occasion of a temporary duty assignment to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, for a “show of force” exercise. During one of the lulls, I borrowed a friend’s 35mm Pentax SLR. I had never shot with an SLR, so it was probably beginner’s luck that I was able to take some amazing sunset phonographs.
With the help of our public affairs officer and our squadron commander, I was able to obtain permission to shoot on the flight-line. One of our team had caught a native iguana – we posed him, laying across the barrel of the gun of one of our A-10 Warthogs. That picture was published in our base newspaper and then again in Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper, in an article about our deployment. And yes, our “unofficial” mascot was released back into the wild before our departure!
I soon bought my own Pentax K1000, and then when stationed in England, I upgraded to the Pentax ME Super. I really enjoyed shooting in black and white, and even learned how to develop my own film. I eventually moved to Canon, and with the release of the Canon Rebel series, I made the switch to digital. I still have that Pentax ME Super, it’s in immaculate condition, and one day soon, I will break it out and shoot a few rolls of Kodak Tri-X PAN negative film again!