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About Tamar Photography

Tamar Photography is run by Bob - who after a career teaching in colleges and universities moved to the south-west to run a small-holding.

Tamar Photography is based in the West Country of Devon and Cornwall. Why Tamar? The river separates Cornwall from Devon (or if you prefer, Cornwall from England) and runs from the south coast almost as far as the north coast of Devon. The Tamar flows past ancient woodlands, isolated farmsteads, the old copper mining industry, boatbuilders yards, lush fields and moorland. It's both a barrier and a navigation and has helped create the landscape and people of this region.We seek to capture this area - from ancient woodlands, to the desolate and windswept moors and the imposing coastline.I started my photographic journey at the age of about 10 with the gift from my grandfather of a Kodak Brownie No2. It's not an easy camera to use and was replaced four years later with the loan of an Akarette - a simple yet lovely camera. In turn that was replaced by the first camera I ever bought - an Olympus OM1. My reasons for buying a second-hand OM1 was simply that the mountaineer Chris Bonington apparently used one on his Everest climbs. I reckoned if it could survive climbing the worlds highest mountain it could survive myself. It has indeed survived over 40 odd years of my ownership - and is still in use when I wish to cure the bad habits I acquire shooting with a modern digital. If there's one camera I would take into an afterlife - it would be my treasured OM1.

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Kodak Brownie No 2 Model F

My first ever camera. Introduced by Kodak prior to WWI it was intended to bring photography to the masses. It worked - even if the damn thing is still difficult to use. One shutter speed, three f-stops and two viewfinders (one for portrait the other landscape) that give only the vaguest impression of the general direction the camera is facing.

Akarette II

Made by the German company Apparate & Kamerabau from 1950 until 1954. My Dad bought this in Germany when he was finally demobbed after having been called up in 1939. AKA intended this as a poor man's Leica (although it wasn't a cheap camera). It looks like a rangefinder camera - it's not - nor does it have a light meter, yet unusually it does have interchangable lenses. I still think it's one of the most beautiful cameras ever made.

Olympus OM1

Ahh.... the OM1. The camera that shook the world when first produced in 1972. Designed by the legendary Yoshihisa Maitani it revolutionised camera design. Maitani and Olympus poured all their design and manufacturing skills into a camera that many people still love and use today. They were built to last.