The language of pictures

I don't really make New Year's Resolutions anymore. They are always the same and always get broken. The usual is eat more healthily and learn German. I've been learning German for years and am no further forward because I always get to a point where I get stuck and then give up. So the next year I have to re-learn everything I've done before. This year I have discovered Duolingo, an online free course with Tinycards like flash cards. It's fun and I'm having a go. I'm not saying I'll get any better or further forward and probably this time next year I'll be back to square one but you can't fault me for my persistence!

Another passion I've always had is photography. The first camera I ever used was my Dad's Box Brownie. Now, if you don't know what that is go look it up! It was like a box. You held it down in front of you and looked into a tiny viewfinder. There were no settings - it was all fixed, including the lens.

The first camera I bought was a Kodak Instamatic. I was probably about sixteen. This one had...wait for it....two settings, cloudy and sunny. To take indoor photos you could buy flash cubes. They twisted round so you got four shots. When it fired there was a crackle and the cube went all frosted. Ah, those were the days.

My next camera was a Hanimex 35mm. I can't remember what settings it had but I loved that camera for a long time and it had a proper flash attachment (no more changing flash cubes). I always changed cameras when I found they no longer did what I wanted. I remember the day I decided I needed an upgrade from the Hanimex. I was at London Zoo and was disappointed that I couldn't get close ups of the animals. My camera had a fixed lens, no zoom.

I was twenty-one when I bought my Pentax SLR camera and it stayed with me right into the digital age. I loved that camera. I had several lenses for it. It was fully manual in its operation - no automatic. I got used to working out aperture and shutter speeds for effects and what to use with different film speeds. I took my only and best photo of lightening with that camera. Over the years the switch for the light meter dropped off but I didn't need it because I knew exactly what I needed.

Then in 2009 my hubby bought me Canon Power Shot Compact camera for Christmas. I had no idea he was buying me one and I was so excited. My first digital camera. I took it out on Boxing Day to take my first photos. That camera has served me well but it has it's limitations, and the fact that the instructions confused me. It got to me a year or so ago when I realised that Techie son's phone took better pictures in low light than my Canon. My own phone (a cast off of Techie's) had a dismal camera. My Tablet takes much better photos but sometimes it does things like freezes and I get just a tad angry.

Anyway for about a year I've been dithering about what to do about another upgrade. I didn't want to spend a fortune on a full DSLR and I spoke to friends who had Bridge cameras and then I started looking. I rather liked the look of the Panasonic Lumix FZ72 and while hubby and I were in Reading last September I got to hold one in Jessops. I liked the feel of it it. Yet still I hesitated. I'm a great ditherer. I need to make a decision to make a decision!

This year, I thought, I will do it and I have. Yesterday I bought that camera. It's not the most up to date on the market but it feels right in my hands. Undaunted by the 200 plus pages of operating instructions I took it out today to shoot some photos. I must admit that I used it mainly on the automatic setting but I did experiment a bit with shutter speed (not sure I had that quite right....should have run off that page from the instructions) and with one creative setting which I rather liked effect of. It's early days but I am determined to get to grips with some of the manual settings.

What happened to all those other cameras I had? I think they are upstairs in a cupboard except my Pentax which I gave to my brother when his old film camera jammed. I am rather miffed he lost the top of the case for it but it is still going strong at 41 years old! I still miss the ease at which I was able to get the shots I wanted and hope that one day I'll learn all I want from this digital Bridge camera. I will be master of it!

Here a a few of the first photos taken on a walk along the River Wandle taking in Merton Abbey Mills and Morden Hall Park.