Hello!

    My name is James Gates and I am an amateur photographer.  My favorite photography projects are portraits, but I find the subjects to be hard to photograph- more on that later.  Some of my best work are still life describing silence.

    I use two 35mm cameras.  One a Minolta x700 and the other is a Nikon n70.  I use the Minolta more often because I own more lenses for it.  However, the Nikon is my choice of camera for fun things!

    On my Mintolta, I have lenses ranging from a 28mm fixed wide angle to a 70-210mm zoom lens.  I use my 50mm the most, however.  This lens is often regarded as a junk lens and not very useful for many things.  I find this to be untrue!  Many photographs have been taken that are wonderful works of art!  It is also one of the sharpest lenses you will find.  The 50mm lens on a 35mm camera is the one that mimics the angle of view the human eye sees.  If you hold up a camera that has a 50mm lens on it to your eye and compare the view you see through the camera to what you see without it you will see that they are very close to being the same in size.

    On my Nikon, I have only one lens and one lens that I use for both cameras.  The one lens I use with the Nikon is a Nikkor 35-70mm f2.8.  It has great capabilities in taking great photographs.  It also has a macro mode which allows you to get about three inches from your subject.  What great detail!

    The lens that I share between the cameras is a 500mm lens that needs different rings to connect properly to either camera.  I do not use it very often being that it is not a photographically fast lens, meaning that it doesn't allow much light in and it has to be very bright for the pictures to come out looking the way I want them.

    I do not own any digital cameras, but do look at them when I go to an electronics store.  The quality has not come close enough to the 'real' thing for me to consider purchasing one, yet.

    My favorite camera is one that I do not own yet.  I love the Hasselblad line of cameras from Sweden.  They use a system that was designed from the first model in the 1950's and the lenses and the film backs are all compatible.  Unfortunately, the price is very expensive.  The cameras are well worth the expense because they will last a lifetime!

    Feel free to examine and critique my photographs in the Gallery.  I have some good and some bad shots in there for viewing by everyone.  If you would like to send email to me about what you see, there is a link in the gallery for you.  I would love to receive it!

    I will be expanding my site as soon as I am able to do so.  I want to learn as much about web design as I can to be able to create something that will bring you back and attract many other people.  I hope that you enjoy what I have so far.

Sincerely,