I first met Kevin Meredith, or lomokev as he's more regularly referred to as, at a BHCC event held in Brighton during the Brighton Photo Festival. He was part of a panel speaking on photography laws etc. He sat amongst a panel of professional photographers (oh, and a lawyer) and introduced himself using a, in his words, cheap film camera to illustrate one of his points. Shortly afterwards his book, Hot Shots, came out and after hearing good things about it in the Brighton Flickr community, I picked up a copy.

Hot Shots is a simple book, and it is a general book - touching on many different themes and subjects and introducing them in a clear, and beautifully illustrated (it contains many photos from lomokev's flickr stream) way. I read the book, twice, in a couple of days, and found it to be really accessible, interesting and inspirational. I wanted to head out and take photos. But more than that, I wanted to head out with a film camera and take photos. Lomokev doesn't preach about which camera to use or anything, but I was so impressed by the examples of photos that I wanted to try film again myself.

Despite having had a camera of one sort or another since I was at least 10, possibly earlier, it wasn't until I got a prosumer digital camera (Canon G3) that I started to learn about aperture, shutter speeds, exposure etc. I found the use of EXIF data, coupled with the immediate feedback, a great way to learn. But, having learnt this way, and being comfortable with most of the basic aspects of photography, I was interested to see what difference returning to film would mean. I've got Mum's Balda Baldixette out of the cupboard, bought a Pentax P33 (£3 from eBay for taking out in my dog-walking bag) and gained a beautiful orange Blackbird, Fly and have been filling them up with my current favourite film, Kodak Portra VC400. It's been interesting and is a very different thought process - with the DSLR it is more of a take photo, review, take another one, review again, take the final one. With the film cameras it is much more of a think up front process. And there is still the delight and excitement of picking up the processed film from Colourstream.

Hot Shots is a great book, full of tips and concepts, illustrated with beautiful imagery, and explained in a very simple way. Go grab a copy.