In the mid 1990s I bought myself a Pentax ME Super and a couple of lenses, but I never really learned to use it properly.
I discovered abstract photography and light painting by accident with my first digital camera, a Casio QV-200. It was awful at taking “normal” photos, but its slow electronic shutter meant that if either the camera or the subject moved while a photo was being taken, interesting glitchy patterns could result.
After that, I graduated through a couple of small compact cameras from Nikon’s Coolpix and Canon’s Powershot range. Again, they weren’t great for taking portraits, but I discovered I could make interesting light paintings by waving the camera around with its shutter open. It seemed the best way to capture a festival as I experienced it…
It wasn’t until 2015 that I got my first DSLR, the entry level Nikon D3300. It was sufficient to get me hooked, but I soon hit its limitations. I switched to Panasonic’s mirrorless cameras: first the G80, then the G9, which I use to this day.