Nikon Owner Issue 1
Adventures with my Nikons
By Santha Faiia
I feel very, very lucky. I have been a self-taught photographer for almost twenty years. In the 1980’s I lived and worked in East Africa and for the past ten years I have been working exclusively on ancient monuments around the world. I never fail to be in awe of the beauty, serenity and spirituality of many ancient sites. I feel this whether at the Great Pyramids, the wonderful Sphinx and temples of Egypt, the exquisite temple of Angkor Wat in Cambodia, the temples in South India or the amazing megalithic sites all over the world. Unlike photographing people, I find bringing to life stone structures, which have sat there for a few thousand years, a different type of challenge. How does one make stones talk? I should say - with much difficulty. Over the years I have found that when I am alone without any tourists around, the whole atmosphere changes. To have these sites to myself, a huge amount of patience is required. I spend considerable time waiting for the right moment to photograph and appreciate the masters of the ancient world at work.
My first cameras were a Nikon FM2 and a Nikon FE2. Ever since, I have only used Nikon equipment. I am so attached to my original equipment that when my FE2 died, I felt a great sense of loss. We were island hopping in Japan on a dive boat and we encountered huge breaking waves! My poor old FE2 in a Tamrac camera bag did not survive being thrown around. (I had no idea when we went to Japan that I would be making a one-way journey between islands. A reinforced waterproof Pelican case would have come in handy.) There were eight of us mortals riding these waves for three painful hours, literally rocking and rolling. Amidst the wind, the waves and the noise of the boat, the guttural sound of people throwing up was all part of this little adventure. Hats off to the captain for getting us out of it in one piece!