The collection is still growing today and with the demise of film cameras and Companies such as Kodak changing to Digital format only I am thankful that I was able to save some our Photograph history so that others may see how photography evolved over the years.

My own involvement with cameras started around the early 1940s prior to joining the Merchant Navy, this was an early No 2 Box Brownie that I bought second hand, I cannot remember taking many pictures with it, I used it mainly on picnics which were few and far between in those days, I changed up to a Six 20 Brownie model C box camera which I purchased in Kong Kong in 1949, this I passed on to my mother when I upgraded to a Six 20 Folding Brownie, around 1957 I discovered 35mm format when I purchased a 35mm Samonca which I used around the world for many years, it was not until the 1970s that I changed to using Zenith cameras the first being a Zenith EM which I later upgraded to a Zenith TTL these cameras were very good and almost unbreakable I found them good for work on the Mountains although the noise of the shutter could scare off the wildlife, the Zenith served me well, the TTL I still use today, I did buy myself a Cannon T70 a camera that I would term a classic when I retired in 1986 this camera is still in use today and has only required one service, apart from the TTL and the T70 all these cameras are in the collection, I did purchase an early Digital camera which I still have but never use, to date that has been my only excursion into Digital, I have thought about an upgrade however still prefer my T70 if I need a photo on the computer I just scan as and when. I would not care to count how many photographs I have taken over the years many are on 35mm slides recently I had a clear out and catalogued the slides that I retained, even then I still had over 1,800 covering some 40 years of my life, I still have some 4,000 colour photographs to sort and catalogue some are in albums many still in covers stored in file boxes.
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I also have many of my old black and white photographs plus many of the old family photos these are stored on disc giving family names and places where possible and added to the family history archive for the benefit of the family in the future.

Photography is a great way of preserving family history, however too often many of the old photographs are thrown out or contents unrecorded (take the time to record on the back what or whom is on the photo including date) leaving family and friends to try and place a name and or date to a particular photograph, you could say many of the photographs that we take may not be of interest to others at a later date, this may be so, however it does not prevent us from retaining and recording ones that may be of value to the family history.

I have a great admiration for the Victorian and Edwardian photographers who were dedicated to their art, be, they amateur of professional, equipment was expensive and heavy to carry around every shot had to count, not like today's photographer who shoots off a reel of film and may only retain one or two of the shots from an average spool of 24 photos, I have over the years been lucky to obtain and preserve some 1,500 of these old glass slides depicting world travel and events covering some 100 years of photograph history, many are hand coloured showing the dedication of the photographer to their art in years gone by, others, mainly of the Edwardian era where family and friends posed to create a story in pictures, all these have now been preserved on disc professionally and the originals stored in boxes as they are too fragile to handle.

The bulk of the camera collection is at present on loan to Lochaber Rural Education Trust where they are on view in the Museum, the selections on view are changed periodically, others are used for educational purposes by the Trust when groups of school children visit the site, the collection may also used for research purposes by various individuals and camera clubs.