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 have primarily used a medium format Pentax 645 camera system as my main "weapon" & have been delighted by the quality this fine camera produces.I now also own a Nikon D300 DSLR & several lenses, so I shall be using a combination of the two systems, depending on my mood!



Here is a list of the gear that I use:

Pentax 645n medium format film camera

Pentax SMC FA-75mm lens

Pentax SMC FA-45-85mm lens

Nikon D300 Digital SLR

Tokina 11-16mm lens

Nikon 16-85mm lens

Nikon 80-200mm 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

B+W 77mm ND 110 filter (10 stop)

Tamrac Expedition 5 photographic backpack