I remember the first time I saw Uncle Graham, before he married my Auntie Grace.  We didn't talk about photography then (I must have been about eight, so no camera), but I "took to him".  When I was saving up for my first 35mm camera (mid 60s), he advised on what to get.

Since then, he has always taken an interest in my efforts, and continued to advise (being very hot on the technical side - if it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't have known about "bokeh").  Early last year I sent him the Amaryllis "Picotee" picture; he said that it was the nicest variety of amaryllis he had seen.

I miss my uncle as a friend, and valued enormously the regular emails we exchanged - on photography (of course), gardening, DIY and other practical issues, as well as helping me to identify various bugs and explaining what this sparrow was doing!