Hi there, my name is Timothy Mayo (just call me Tim!) and I’m the owner/editor here at Alpha Shooters.
I started Alpha Shooters in 2017 to share my own photographic journey and experiences with shooting Sony, since then the site has evolved into a community and resource for Sony Alpha Shooters.
So just a little about me.
I’m married to my lovely wife Charlotte and we have two young boys, Josh who is three years old and Sam who is just 15 months. We live in beautiful county of Shropshire, England.
I spent ten years of my life working for Hewlett Packard in the small town of Böblingen, South Germany doing very unexciting IT stuff. Thankfully my free time was a lot more fun and I’d often spend it snowboarding, mountain biking or hiking in the beautiful Alpine mountains.
After ten amazing years in Germany gorging myself on Maultaschen and Currywurst I decided it was time for a change, so I said auf Wiedersehen to Deutschland and returned home.
Since returning I’ve worked as a digital marketing consultant, mainly helping small businesses to grow their online presence.
I’ve taken a casual interest in photography since I was a child, but it was just that, casual. In early 2017 I decided it was time to change that, so I finally took my camera out of auto mode and started learning how to get the most out of it.
Although I originally enjoyed shooting landscapes the most, I’ve since discovered that I also love shooting wildlife (with my camera), sports and aviation. That said, I’ll happily point my camera at pretty much anything that gets me out into the great outdoors.
I’ve been through quite a few different cameras over the years, mainly small compacts as they suited my sporty pursuits and I could easily clip them to my belt for fast shots when something caught my eye.
My first ever digital camera was the Sony DSC-P9 Cybershot which I purchased way back in 2002. I then swapped over to a Canon Powershot G9 (awesome little compact), briefly tried a Canon EOS 10D (far too big and heavy), so I ended up sticking with the G9 for a few more years.
In 2013 I experimented with my first mirrorless camera, the Canon EOS M. But it turns out that I still wasn’t quite ready for swapping lenses so purchased a little Canon PowerShot SX700 HS.
In 2016 I returned to Sony when I picked up the RX100 IV and was blown away by the quality of this tiny little camera, my eyes were now open again to the world of Sony digital cameras.
I purchased the Sony a6000 and my first Alpha camera in early 2017. At the time I had no idea just how much this small camera would motivate me to improve my photography skills and also drain my bank account!
My Alpha collection has grown a little over the past years and my current cameras and lenses include the:
- Sony A1
- Sony A7RV
- Sony A7IV
- Sony A6700
- Sigma 16mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary
- Sigma 30mm f/1.4 DC DN Contemporary
- Sony E 18-135mm F3.5-5.6
- Sony FE 24mm F1.4 GM
- Sony FE 70-200mm F4 G
- Sony FE 70-200mm F4 G II Macro
- Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM
- Sony FE 70-200mm F2.8 GM II
- Sony FE 90mm F2.8 Macro G
- Sony FE 100-400mm F4.5-5.6 GM
- Sony FE 200-600mm F5.6-6.3 G
- Sony 1.4x Teleconverter
- Sony 2x Teleconverter
My past cameras and lenses:
- Sony A6000
- Sony A6300
- Sony A6400
- Sony A6500
- Sony A7R II
- Sony A7R III
- Sony A7R IV
- Sony A7 III
- Sony E PZ 16-50mm F3.5-5.6
- Sony E 35mm F1.8
- Sony E 10-18mm F4
- Sony E 18-105mm F4 G
- Sony E 16-70mm F4
- Sony E 55-210mm F4.5-6.3
- Sony FE 24-70mm F4
- Sony FE 16-35mm F4
- Sony FE 70-300mm F4.5-5.6 G
- Sigma 70mm F2.8 ART Macro
I know, I quite possibly suffer from a bad case of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome). But surely that’s better than the other form of gas?
Whilst my collection of Alpha gear grew so did the questions that I had around the gear that I was buying. I found many answers by digging around in forums and reading reviews, but was disappointed that apart from Sony Alpha Rumors there appeared to be no real community or site focused solely on Alpha Shooters, hence Alpha Shooters was born.
I also found it very frustrating to read camera and lens reviews where many of the photos presented had been post processed, often I wasn’t sure if I was reading a gear review or a review of Adobe Lightroom. I almost always shoot RAW + JPEG, so my own images on this site will always include both SOOC (Straight Out Of Camera) JPEGS and also the RAW images. If any of my images have been post processed I will always say what’s been done.
If you’d like to say hello or make any suggestions for this site, then you can message me here. You can also find me on YouTube, Instagram and our Community Forum.
Happy Shooting!
Tim
P.S.
Although I’m clearly a fan of Sony Alpha gear, I also have plenty of love for Nikon, Canon, Fujifilm, Olympus, Leica and many other brands too. Competition is what drives innovation, without it we would all still be using Kodak box cameras and sending messages via carrier pigeon. I also run a similar site for Canon RF Shooters.
