Barrie Forbes

Barrie Forbes was born in 1949 and for his first nine years lived in Fence Houses. He now lives in Chester-le-Street with his wife, Margaret

Daughter Julie is a big user of Dads Taxi’s, while grandson Mykel makes use of the technical service dept.

Barrie is retired now after spending his working life in engineering, the latter years as a lubricant salesman for a machine tool company

Other interests include Motorsport and walking although for various reasons the latter has been curtailed of late.

MY PHOTOGRAPHY

My first foray into photography was as a teenager trying to capture cars in rally stages or races. I came back to photography when I retired with the intention of concentrating on wildlife but it has not worked out that way and I now enjoy trying anything I have not done before.

THE  BIGGEST INFLUENCE

My dad taught me the basics of how to use a camera. However it was meeting David Trout, currently President of Durham Photographic Society,  through the Pentax User forum that set me off on a whole new photography experience

MY FIRST CAMERA

My first camera was a Corfield Periflex with Lumar 50mm f1:3.5, which I still have, used always with Agfa 400 ASA slides. My dad left me his Ricoh KR5 which led me into a number of Pentax DSLR

MY FAVOURITE CURRENT KIT

Pentax K5 normally with a Pentax 17-70 or 50-135 attached

MY FAVOURITE PHOTOGRAPHER

I can’t say that I have any favourite photographer. I’ll see images I like but wonder more about how they were achieved rather than who did them.

ME AND THE DPS

My first visit to any camera club coincided with David Trout’s Presidents night in January 2010. Anyway it did not put me off and I joined DPS after another couple of visits.

THE 3 THINGS I ENJOY MOST BEING A MEMBER OF THE DPS

Assignment Group - that takes you to places you have never been before, both literally and photographically.

New Friends – each with a different perspective on a common interest

Club Night - the variety of the programme and the inspiration it brings

AN AMBITION IN PHOTOGRAPHY

I’m still all over the place trying many things and have not settled long enough so far to aspire to an ambition.

THE PEARL (Advice to budding photographers)

Join a camera club