Hi everybody,

This really is my first journal entry. Ever. So here we go...

Although my fist contacts with the world of photography are not that new, I consider myself a fortunate newbie in the world of photography. I have to adapt myself to the digital world, after a long pause between film and... now (a first journal entry in the digital world is a good step, isn't it?). I didn't sell (yet) my film camera, a Minolta Dynax 5, and I hope I will not. Why? I still believe in the magic of film, and I remember the feeling of impacience to see what is there, what I did with that small magic box. Did I succeed that shot? and so on...

My first camera was a Smena 8M. You probably never heard of that, it's a Russian model developed in the 70's, but if you Google it you might find more about it. It was my father's, and as I grew up and he gave up photography I started learning on it. It's a great tool for learning the basic principles of photography, I might say. Nothing automatic, you just have to learn the skills. The art comes next I didn't sell that camera either, now you can start profiling me.

I must say that I was in Romania back then, maybe this will help you better understand the story.

I also used two types of flash: one with battery, bought by my dad from Eastern Berlin(business trip, with a "delegation") and a Russian one, no batteries, just AC power cord (of about two meters) bought by me from that special market place we called "bazar" that you could find in every Romanian city after the "Revolution", where people from Moldova (former USSR republic, former part of Romania and so on, now as independent as any small former Soviet republic can be) sold everything, from pickles to motorcycles. I was in high school by then, in the the country of all possibilities!

Then I started developing my own photos, using the bathroom as a dark room (well, you will see how that comes in the Next Journal Entry...). So keep in touch!