About Me

Visiting Boise in Autumn

My first camera was a Brownie, and not just any Brownie. It was brown and beige with the Girl Scout Brownie logo on it. I was 7 and it was a gift from Santa. How I enjoyed learning the difference between Kodachrome, Kodacolor, and the mysterious Verichrome Pan, loading the film myself and advancing it manually by cranking a knob. Of course, I also had to rewind the film myself after the roll was exposed. In those days my technical challenges were remembering to advance the film between exposures, remembering how many exposures were on the film roll, and curbing my enthusiasm (some would say boisterous nature) so I wouldn’t break the film with overly vigorous winding.

I've always had natural understanding of composition. While photographing my dolls, I’d place a backdrop (my bathrobe) behind them. Otherwise my kiddie rocking chair where I posed them would show too much distracting detail. I learned from my mistakes, like when my mom got mad because I took a picture of my big sister in her prom dress without including her shoes. Dazzled by the dress, I’d lost sight of the “big picture,” and unfortunately had only one shot left before I ran out of film.

As I grew up, I worked my way through all sorts of arcane film cameras, finally graduating to the legendary Minolta SR-T 201. Later I went through a phase where I enjoyed using a lightweight super-zoom camera, the classic Olympus Stylus. It was easy to tote around and surprisingly good at capturing distant objects, but alas, completely inadequate for close-up work. When I finally abandoned film cameras for digital (though I still have the old Minolta around somewhere), I switched over to the Olympus 565-uz. It features “ultra zoom” and decent close-up capacity, along with simple and semi-intuitive menus. It’s also lightweight and inexpensive. My only complaint is that it could be faster.

It’s probably obvious that my interest in photography is not particularly technical. I like photographing nature, architecture, people, and food. I’m into the visceral experience of capturing the feeling or beauty of a subject, and pay less attention to aperture, zoom length, exposure, and ISO than most photographers. I don’t discuss the latest cameras with fellow photographers or comprehend many of their features. Instead, I use a simple, inexpensive camera and let my intuition guide me. I do aspire to upgrade to a faster camera, once I find one that’s easy to program, lightweight, and has a super-zoom. That could take quite a bit of research and possibly financing. In the meantime, I’d rather be photographing.

My other interests are broad, and I’m never dull to be around, except when reading or writing (which arguably is much of the time). I combine my love of writing, cooking, and gardening in my blog Seasonal Eating, about enjoying fresh local produce in season. I have over 400 book reviews posted on Goodreads.com. I love to travel, with camera in hand, of course. I’ve played and sung in a Zimbabwean-style marimba band since I created it with friends 1993. Formerly employed in Cabrillo College’s art department, I can often be spotted at art events, locally and while traveling. I’m married to a classic “nice guy” who shares my love of photography, travel, cooking, nature, and art. I enjoy interacting with my many friends throughout the world, both in person and electronically.

Robin Horn

Santa Cruz mountains, California
SeasonalTravelPhoto-AT-gmail.com (replace -AT- with @)