For most of my life, I used a single-lens reflex camera. I picked the habit up from my father. My mother, for some reason, cannot deal with even the simplest point-and-shoot camera.
I started taking pictures in earnest during my undergraduate years, and bought my own SLR on Canal Street in New York (a Minolta, so I could use my father's lenses). Inspired by friends who did their own darkroom work, I started to shoot black-and-white, buying it in bulk and "rolling my own". I did this until about 1984, when it became too time-consuming.
After seeing N's slides of China (1983-85), I was hooked, and stopped using print film except for casual snapshots. My best photographs are on 35mm slides, and I don't have access to a scanner that handles them, so you can't see any of those.
I've gone steadily in the direction of convenience, starting with a Yashica T4, a good-quality point-and-shoot, which I used for snapshots (reserving the Minolta X700 for slide film on trips). In spring 2001 I bought my first digital camera, a Canon G2, which I still use on occasion when I want a really good shot. On trips, however, I have taken to using a Pentax Optio S4, which has the virtue of taking decent pictures while being quite tiny.
You can typically find a selection of digital shots from a recent trip
on the