About
Like most people, I have taken photographs with varying degrees of success, since I was very young. However, around the year 2004, I purchased the book "First Light" , by a photographer named Joe Cornish. To say that I was inspired would be the proverbial understatement. I was in fact, blown away! I had never before seen such stunning images & Joe's work inspired me to take up landcape photography. Through reading books, magazines & lots of trial & error, I am now hopefully developing into a reasonably competent photographer. Technique is one thing & is a never ending learning process, but the most important ingredients in landscape photography, for me anyway, are light & the way it is utilised in the making of a photograph & also patience-lots of patience! To make the most of these factors, I try to make most of my images in the morning, late afternoon, or evening. In the autumn & winter time however, the light can be suitable throughout the day. It is simply a matter of preference I suppose. The Image: To make my images, I mainly use colour transparency film stock: Fuji Velvia 50 & Fuji Provia 100. After scanning the transparency, I perform basic cleaning, levels, curves & colour saturation adjustments. If necessary, I then sharpen the finished image. To obtain my black & white images, I also use colour transparency film initially & then use the channel mixer tool in Adobe Photoshop to de-saturate the colour. Equipment used: In my opinion,the camera equipment used is secondary. To make a successful image, vision, timing & technique are paramount, but throw in a certain amount of luck too! Saying this though, you need to be comfortable with your equipment & be able to use it confidently when battling to set up, as that photo opportunity of a lifetime presents itself! I use a combination of cameras, from medium format, to 35mm film & I am now also experimenting with a digital SLR. Here is a list of the gear that I use: Pentax 645n medium format film camera Pentax SMC FA-75mm lens Pentax SMC FA-45-85 lens Canon EOS 30 35mm film camera Canon EOS 400d digital camera Sigma 17-35mm lens Sigma 24-70mm lens Sigma 70-300mm lens Manfrotto Neotec 458b tripod with Manfrotto 410 junior geared head Benbo Trekker II tripod with Manfrotto 486 RC2 ball head Lee Filters 0.3 0.6 0.9 graduated neutral density filters Lee Filters 81c warm up filter B+W 77mm circular polariser Pentax Digital Spotmeter Tamrac Expedition 5 photographic backpack |

