Rod Thomas

Born and raised on The Central Coast, NSW, Australia, I was lucky enough to get my first camera at age 15 to take pictures of my mates surfing. It was from that moment I knew I wanted to be a photographer of some sort. As time went on I gradually brought more camera gear and sold some older equipment to fund my camera addiction. I travelled to Europe when I was 25 years old and that only enhanced what I wanted to do.. and that was take photos.

I returned from this trip and brought a Linhof 617SIII which is a specialised panoramic film camera and I was in love again. I never fell out of love with photography, but using this camera made me appreciate it more as it was fully manual. It had no batteries, no metering system and it really made you stop and think about what you were doing when taking photos.. I loved it. Family life was getting busier in my late 20’s and this camera was just sitting around, so I sold it. Something I still regret to this day.