MY PHOTOGRAPHY:

 

My Main Equipment: I have an Olympus OM-D M1 Mk2 plus an Olympus OM-D M5 Mk1 & Mk2 bodies, an Olympus PRO 7-14mm, Olympus 17mm, Olympus PRO 12mm-100mm and a Tamron 150mm-600mm set of lenses. The zoom lens are of superior lens material and as such I need a M4/3 adaptor to fit the Tamron lens to my camera, the main lenses are from that lovely Zuiko Digital ED Professional range and cost almost as much again as the camera body and the big zoom has a Canon fit as they only made a Canon, Nikon and Sony fit for this lens, so a quality MetaBone adaptor was purchased to use as a converter. I have two BENRO Carbon tripods, both of which have got substantial video heads on them for support and I always shoot with my camera on a stand. I also travel with my trusted Sony FDR-AX100EB HD Camcorder. Until recently, I used a lovely Rosewood Wista 5" by 4" with a 6cm by 9cm back which was linked up to my Devere 309 Cold Cathod Head with a sweet old Nikon 90mm lens.. I say until recently as I am looking to get some old Sinar equipment and do what I can to covert it all to a nice digital large format.

When I travel, each lens/camera is in a Neoprene case and then that case is inside a 2nd fitted case and then that case is inside a camera bag and that bag is inside a stronger Think Tank production 40 Professional camera case.. designed to defy airport transportation bullies..

 

MY EXPOSURES:

 

I use Ansel Adam’s Zone System, although originally designed for black & white, I successfully use it in all my colour photography and to that end, it means that I first of all have a good understanding of my camera and how it reacts to light and it’s perception and interpretation of white light balance. Added to this is a deliberate changing of the exposure on my camera’s Aperture Priority settings. My ISO is always set at 200 and I am happy to work with natural light as I see it. The internal automated settings on my camera are more or less set to neutral and that is fine with me.

 

These are my first collections and exhibitions of colour photos as I am a true and through black & white junkie whereby I use to use a large format plate camera, I used Ilford XP1/XP2 film in both 120 roll and sheet film and I developed my own film in a reformulated XP1 set of chemicals and times and then hand printed my own stuff through a DeVere 504 Cold Cathode large format enlarger and onto Agfa Record Rapid fibre based printing paper.

 

Photography to me, is as much an art as it is a science. These days with the help of the digital age anyone can call themselves a photographer. For me personally, photography has nothing to do with photo editing. An expert in PhotoShop does not make you a photographer, it merely makes you an expert in PhotoShop; to this end, I still smile when people question my images; I still maintain that if, as others have done, you stand next to me, with an identical camera and equipment to mine looking at the same scene, we will not take the same picture.

In my head, I have visions and within those visions is an intimate understanding of both my camera, its limitations and light. My understanding of light is not unique but it is different and it is for that reason, that I can create images in my camera that are hard to be duplicated by others; it is that understanding that makes my work special and provokes conversations that go beyond the bullshit of the typical art world.