Welcome

Please note: This blog is gradually being closed down

There will be no new posts and the material on here is gradually being transferred to my personal website www.alistairscott.com

Ultimately this site will vanish as I don’t intend to renew the ‘lease’

Greetings! And welcome to my PhotoZone.

Most people have a camera these days. And who doesn’t want to take the best photographs they can? I have had a camera since the age of 9 when I was given an old bellows-type Agfa ‘Billy’ camera that no one else in the family wanted. It used 120 roll film – anyone remember that stuff? – and had a waist-level viewfinder that could be tilted from side to side, depending on whether you wanted landscape or portrait format. I was thrilled, and the gift led to a lifetime fascination with photography.

Unfortunately, I left it on a wall in Wales (on the A470 at the entrance to the Fairy Falls, near Bettws-y-Coed, if you’re passing and want to look for it). Devastated, but bitten by the photography bug I saved up all my pocket money and bought an Exa 1a – an early single-lens reflex. This machine had the mirror and shutter incorporated in one unit, rather like one of those old-style bread bins with a semicircular lid. This meant that after taking a shot, you couldn’t see anything through the lens until you’d cocked the shutter again. The viewfinder also showed a mirror image of the scene, and the shutter speeds ranged from 1/30th to 1/175th second, all of which could be a bit disconcerting if you were trying to photograph a fast-moving object.

From there I graduated to a Corfield Periflex (which I still have), a British-made camera that accepted Leica lenses and had a strange little reverse periscope that could be lowered into the film chamber in order to focus through the lens. It was a sort of semi SLR: a unique piece of equipment. Again, it was a great camera for static subjects. But, given the awkwardness of focussing, not best suited for action shots.

Having graduated from college as a teacher of Agricultural Science I went to work in Zambia, teaching in a state school. That was in 1970, only 6 years after the country’s independence, and Zambia had a desperate need for teachers.

The Agfa 'Billy'

I soon discovered the amazing wealth of wildlife in the country … and I also discovered I was going to need a more versatile camera if I was to get any decent photographs of it. So, I spent my first pay rise on a Nikkormat. And I’ve been with Nikon cameras ever since. (But no … I’m not going to get drawn in to the Nikon versus Canon debate. They’re both good makes. It’s your eye that counts, not the camera.)

My initial 3-years in Zambia became 6 years, 6 years became 9, and, eventually, I lived there for 20 years. During that time I moved on from teaching to running the Wildlife Conservation Society of Zambia and then to working as a trail leader in the Luangwa Valley National Park. I also acquired more sophisticated Nikons, with lenses, and amassed a wealth of images of the country, its people and wildlife.

I was then offered a job in Swizerland, with the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), managing environmental education projects in Africa.

In the mid 1990s WWF and I parted company, and I moved into more creative fields — writing and photography — which is where I am now.

I am still with Nikon, and I now use a Nikon D3 or, if that gets too heavy to lug around, a Nikon D70s.

In addition to photography, I have written articles and essays, children’s stories and poetry. My latest book, The Greatest Photography Tips in the World, is available from Amazon UK or Amazon USA, and through all good bookshops.