About
- This is me. I don't look this menacing in real life, which is why I take the photos, so I don't have to be in them!
Ooookay, right, it's about time I made a new page all about... ME!
A little while back a very polite young lady (wait, "young lady", how old AM I??) got in touch to ask me a couple of questions for a project she was doing. Anyway, I think I got a bit carried away and wrote more about myself than I ever have before. I'm not kidding, it turned into an essay. I don't really talk about myself very much so I just let it flow! Anyway, I thought it would be useful if I made it public on here, people can get to know a little bit about me, how I work and how poor I am at writing about myself!
So... here goes!
It's difficult for me to put my finger on when I first fell in love with photography, it's just something that developed from when I got my first digital camera in 2004, a second hand 3.2MP Samsung Digimax 301. I would spend hours taking photos of random stuff (actually I still do that now sometimes, so some things never change!) but I never got bored of it. That camera went everywhere with me and the 2 years I owned it are probably the most documented of my life! It had no optical zoom so it really challenged me to position myself where I needed to be to take a photo, rather than relying on a zoom lens!
At some point during that time I decided that I needed better equipment, and I've just continued upgrading since. I went from the 302 to a Samsung NV10, to a Panasonic FZ18 before finally taking the plunge and investing some money in a DSLR, a Canon EOS 450D. This was a fantastic camera for a beginner in the DSLR market and I bought a couple of extra lenses over the following 12 months to increase my photographic arsenal!
Almost exactly a year ago I was offered a Nikon D300, with the 18-200mm lens for an amazing price, and I couldn't resist! I've taken somewhere in the region of 350GB of photos since buying it, so it's had some usage! I want to get a 50mm prime lens soon so I can get back to the good old days of my Samsung!
The one thing in the world that I enjoy photographing more than anything else is my little girl, Phoebe. She's 5 in August and such a character! Taking photo's of her makes me so happy and she loves posing for the camera!
Sunsets are the deserved runner-up though, I love capturing the rich colours and the way everything looks different under the light of the setting sun.
I've had to be quite strict about my workflow as I have a serious problem keeping my attention focused on anything for very long! It's usually a case of copying everything from the memory card to an external hard drive, importing everything into Adobe Bridge and rating the images, then go through Camera RAW and Photoshop to do any necessary editing. Then uploading to Flickr, deviantArt and my website to share the joy that I get from taking the photos with everyone else.
There are two pieces of advice that I give to everyone who asks me about photography; learn your equipment, and practice! I know an awful lot of people who have a fantastic eye for composition and lighting etc., but have no idea how to actually capture the shot with a camera so their talent is wasted!
I photograph things that appeal to me, some people like that, some people don't, but I suppose that's how the world works. If someone tells me to photograph something and I'm not enthusiastic about it, I really struggle, and I'm never happy with the results.
So, that's me really, bit of a ramble I know but it's Friday afternoon so never mind! If there's anything else you'd like to know, I'll do my best to answer!
And if you read all of that, you deserve a bloody medal. 540 words about me.
If for some strange reason that's not enough talking about me,check me out on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr or send me an email from my contact page... Go on, I don't bite! Unless you're made of something really tasty like bacon, in which case, GET IN MAH BELLEH!