Ok, so I am definitely in what you would call the amateur collective and although I maybe don’t produce technically correct images I certainly give it a damn good go. Photography for me is probably the same as a lot of people as in it’s a release from everyday life and a chance to get creative and do things others might consider a bit odd.
I have only been taking pictures since around April 2010 when friends of mine had started posting some images in Flickr that I liked. It seemed like a great way to get out, do a bit of exercise and snap away at things that I liked.
I did a whole bunch of research and decide to buy the Pentax K-X, it got some really good reviews and it was on special offer with a couple of kit lenses. I can honestly say from the day I bought the camera I have never looked back, I am always on the lookout for the next project that I can get stuck into.
Whilst I enjoy doing most aspects of photography I simply love portraits, the story that can be told with a simple image of a person fascinates me. I recently bought better glass for my camera in the shape of a Sigma 70mm Macro lens that doubles up perfectly for portraits;
At the other end of the spectrum I have trawled the internet and found absolute gems in the form of old SMC Pentax lenses such as an old f1.7 50mm for £12.00, even after more than 20 years these lenses still produces stunning images.
I suppose it’s fair to say that what I have learned is that expensive equipment does not guarantee stunning images. I have even gone to the lengths of building a mini studio at home for very little money and have achieved what I believe are decent results.
I regularly advertise locally on Gumtree and free ads asking for people to pose for portraits and so far it has been extremely popular, I was really surprised how many people got in touch that are willing to give up some time to get a photo taken.
It works both ways in the fact that they get some nice free images and I get to practice techniques that don’t involve sitting in front of the camera taking pictures of myself using a remote. If you visit my Flickr page you will also see that my 6 year old daughter and her cat don’t escape the portrait treatment either.
The other types of photography that I really enjoy are long exposure shots and HDR, it’s funny that just recently the whole debate about HDR was polled on the website and there were some interesting views.
My own perspective is that HDR can really enhance an image if done in a conservative manner, a lot of my early HDR images were a bit too over the top but I think I have the balance just about right in my work now.
Apart from the actual taking of images I am also a keen user of Photoshop and whilst I would love to display my images as they come off the camera, they unfortunately need a bit of creative post processing sometimes.
Links:
If you get a free five minutes then samples of my work can be found on Flickr.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidbladon/
http://twitter.com/davidbladon
Hey David a couple of great shots here. I’m on the other side of the fence as far as HDR goes. I’ve decided not to do it because to many people are doing it and most of it is over done, most importantly I decided against it because I wanted to learn to do things in camera and that approach has helped me greatly. Good luck to you on what ever you choose!
Brian Carey
This is an amazing portrait. Great colours!