About
I have been a keen photographer for just about as long as I can remember, since my parents bought me a 126 Kodak Instamatic camera when I was a young boy. I progressed from there to a pretty solid Practika in a few years and then undertook a National Diploma in Photography at The Bournemouth & Poole College of Art & Design when I left school. My Hasselblad was the main workhorse through college with the Nikon which replaced my Practika not getting much of a look in.
After a brief spell working in the photographic industry I moved back behind the lens to run a high street photography shop, studio and darkroom with my brother who had also by then completed the same college course. Much of the work there was weddings and portraits with little time left over for getting out to do much in the way of landscape photography or anything more creative. To cut a long story short we eventually decided to close the shop and studio as it became apparent that the photofinishing industry was struggling to keep up with the digital camera trend. Good quality digital cameras were only affordable to the higher echelons and film was not fashionable. Fortunately during the excitement and disarray that was happening with the digital age I had managed to pick up some pretty good computer skills and learned a wealth of knowledge about Photoshop, retouching old images and so on. I now run my own IT Support Company and spend much of my spare time behind the camera or honing my Photoshop skills.
I went digital a couple of years ago and have thoroughly enjoyed mixing my traditional training with modern technology. I use Adobe Lightroom & Photoshop as a tool much the way I used an enlarger and toner when I had a wet darkroom, adding contrast and adjusting tones. Read more about my image processing here.
I currently shoot with a Canon 5Dii with either a variety of Canon lenses. I soon plan to add some serious prime lenses to the kit. I use Lee filters as I believe them to be the most natural and neutral toned filters available.
I capture everything you see in every one of my images in one frame in camera. I use filters on the camera to balance my exposures rather than relying on bracketing my exposures and combining them in post processing. On occasion I will clone out distracting elements such as people on a beach or vapour trails in the sky from a passing plane, but sometimes leave them in if it helps the composition. I hope that this shows in the work and that you enjoy looking at my photographs.
I am a regular user on Flickr and use it as a sounding board for new images before I add the to the Lens-Flair shop. Check out my Flickr Photostream to see what I am up to.
If you would like to see my prints "in the flesh" there are a selection of canvasses and framed prints in Eureka gift shop on the High Street in Swanage, next door to Lloyds TSB. If you are only visiting Swanage after dark, then you can see some of my canvas prints in The Corner Restaurant. The food and wine there is exceptional!
