A second generation Arizona native, Gayle (Homes) Martin got her first camera when she was nine years old. "I was getting ready to go to summer camp," she explains, "and my dad got me a Kodak Instamatic 100 camera."
Gayle's love of photography continued into adulthood and she studied photography in college. "This was back in the 35mm days," she says, "and I can remember spending hours in the college darkroom. While I was in there I'd lose all track of time, but it was a lot of fun. I also had to buy a professional quality camera, so I got a Nikkormat FT3. It was my go to camera for decades."
Gayle now uses digital photography. Her newest go to camera is her Canon Rebel. "The transition from film camera to digital can be challenging at times," she says. "Each has their unique advantages and disadvantages. But the big advantage with digital is being able to take hundreds of photos on a single memory card. With a film camera I could only get 36 exposures on a roll of film, and having them developed was expensive. Then there was the disappointment of picking up my pictures, and none of them turning out. People don't realize there's much more to photography than pointing and shooting. It takes a lot of skill. You have to know how to frame a shot. You have to understand lighting. And even then, you have to take dozens of photos to get that iconic shot."
Gayle Martin is also published author who founded Good Oak Press, LLC, in 2011. She currently writes romance novels as Marina Martindale. For more information, please visit her website at marinamartindale.com, or her blog at marinamartindalesmusings.com.