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B I O G R A P H Y


HENRI MONNIER


I enjoy taking pictures and for me it's a great way to relax and to combine my photography interest and nature.

I first started taking photographs while in high-school. I was about 14 when I got my first camera. I do not remember the make/model, but I remember it was one of those 'fold-up' jobs, with the accordion bellows. Some of you may remember them. It was given to me by my aunt, right after she purchased her new camera.

I was a member of the camera club while in high school, so I was able to use their hi-tech <VBG> equipment for school events. Everything we shot at school was B&W, and we had a small lab (under a pair of stairs) where we developed the film, and made the prints and enlargements.

Just prior to going into the service (Navy) in 1957, I purchased an Argus C3, my first venture into 35mm, slides and color. Shortly after I joined the service, around 1958, I purchased a Voigtlander (fixed lense). I used that camera until I purchased a new Nikon F3, in around ????. It was then that I fell in love with 'the dark side.' For a long time (defined as "no money"!) I only had one lense, a 50mm, and a flash (it used flashbulbs, if you can remember that).

Over the years I obtained more lenses and accessories. I used that trusty old F3 until about 2004 when I purchased a Nikon 5700 digital. As an introduction into the digital world, it was a good learning experience (a very bad financial move however!), and I quickly realized that it was not the camera for me. Since I had a fair number of Nikon MF lenses (all AIS), I checked out the available Nikon bodies that would allow me the most flexibility with the lenses I already owned. In 2005 I purchased a 'previously owned' Nikon D1X. Initially my main reason for getting the D1X was that I could take advantage of the metering and focus that the camera could provide, even though I would be manually selecting the aperture and focus. Well, as you might suspect that did not last very long. I ended up selling (ebay) 'most' of my manual lenses, and purchased auto-focus ones (KEH). Initially I did keep two of my manual focus lenses, the 200mm/f4 Macro and the 600mm/f4. Well, I ended up selling the 600mm and purchased an autofocus 600mm/f4.

You can read about my gear here.