I am Fiona Wallace - a retired educator who worked in the industry training sector, the secondary school sector and latterly the FE sector. Over the years, I have taught Horticulture, English to Higher level and then Communication, predominantly communication skills for sports coaches.
I have dabbled in Photography since about 1997, using a Pentax film camera initially before moving on to digital in and around 2003. I have used Olympus gear since then and I now have two OM-1 bodies which I use for my main interests of wildlife and sports. I retained an EM Mark II when I traded up to the OM-1s and I use it as a travel camera for when I don't have either the space or the need for the OM-1 and larger lenses.
I recently spent the dogs' inheritance on the Olympus 150-400 lens and am loving it. My go-to lens, however, remains my 40-150 which is a terrifically versatile lens.
I have dabbled in Photography since about 1997, using a Pentax film camera initially before moving on to digital in and around 2003. I have used Olympus gear since then and I now have two OM-1 bodies which I use for my main interests of wildlife and sports. I retained an EM Mark II when I traded up to the OM-1s and I use it as a travel camera for when I don't have either the space or the need for the OM-1 and larger lenses.
I recently spent the dogs' inheritance on the Olympus 150-400 lens and am loving it. My go-to lens, however, remains my 40-150 which is a terrifically versatile lens.
I don't consider myself truly a "photographer" yet as to me that implies a thorough knowledge of the camera. I have advanced a little from my dabbler days, but I am now spending my retirement in trying to advance both my knowledge and my skills. It never ceases to amaze me just how much I still have to learn in both of those aspects.
My preferred genres are Wildlife and Sports, but I also enjoy urban landscape, street and Events. I greatly admire good portraits but it is not something I really want to involve myself in. Similarly, I love looking at great landscape photography yet I don't try it myself very often. Bizarrely, I can sit in a wildlife hide for hours and not bat an eyelid at the thought, yet ask me to wait ten minutes for the light to change on a landscape and I get fidgety. Ah well.
I am a member of the Guild of Photographers and hold their Qualified status. I also leapt for a brief while out of obscurity in 2022 and won a Scottish Photographic Federation Gold award for my image The Burrower which you can see in my Owls section. I will be joining the Royal Photographic Society in the next couple of months - holding off only because if I do so, I qualify for their "senior" rates. I refuse to use the word "pensioner."
Other than that, the routine trade of photography is plied through being a member of Irvine Camera Club who have a great mix of photographic ambition, skill and being jolly good fun people.
I am a member of the Guild of Photographers and hold their Qualified status. I also leapt for a brief while out of obscurity in 2022 and won a Scottish Photographic Federation Gold award for my image The Burrower which you can see in my Owls section. I will be joining the Royal Photographic Society in the next couple of months - holding off only because if I do so, I qualify for their "senior" rates. I refuse to use the word "pensioner."
Other than that, the routine trade of photography is plied through being a member of Irvine Camera Club who have a great mix of photographic ambition, skill and being jolly good fun people.