Since portraits, stage photography and the Edinburgh Fringe are passions of mine, these two shots feature these three elements.
This was taken during the 2005 Edinburgh Fringe and features a South Korean performer from a production of 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. She was being wonderfully playful and this is one of about five shots I snapped in a 30 second period. I just love her make-up and facial expression. It's a shot I can't look at without smiling.
I think this is one of the most hauntingly beautiful images I've ever taken. It's from the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe and features an Italian group called Kataklo (all of whom are former Olympic gymnasts). I became friendly with the show's producer (who is South Korean) and she invited me along to photograph it. I should also note that I really couldn't have taken this shot prior to getting my Canon EOS-5D. The exposure was 1/20 sec at 3200 ISO, relying on autofocus and image stabilisation. It's a superb camera.
1: How long have you been involved in photography?I have been seriously involved with photography for 24 years. It really started from seeing some shots from a 'real' camera (i.e. an SLR) taken by a friend, and realising the world of difference between his results and those from my (then) little 'point and shoot' instamatic.
2: Equipment you use?Currently, my main camera is a Canon EOS-5D (for which I have the 24-105 L series IS zoom and the 70-300 IS zoom) and my 'carry around' camera is now the Canon Powershot G7.
3: Mac or PC?PC
4: What inspires you?Hmmm, almost too numerous to mention and fairly hard to define. It can be almost anything, ranging from obvious things like great sunsets to unusual abstracts. Certainly I have a hunger to take great shots and there's nothing quite like getting one which really works.
5: Preferred subject matter?Portraits, Travel, Different Cultures, Architecture, The Edinburgh Fringe, Rock Concerts, Theatre
6: Name one thing you haven't caught with the camera that you REALLY want to capture.Michelle Pfeiffer....or the Loch Ness Monster. If you forced me to choose, it would have to be Michelle. :-)
7: When in doubt about your art, who do you confide in?At the risk of sounding dreadful, I'm not sure if I have doubts in that sense. Photography is (obviously) highly subjective and if a shot works for me, that's enough. Obviously, it's very gratifying if other people like it too. I take a lot of shots, some work, others don't. It is my intention to always learn from the latter, and to constantly improve as a photographer. It's really interesting to see how a photograph fares on Flickr. Some of my personal favourites have attracted relatively little attention, while some I think are "OK, but nothing spectacular", have done very well. Different strokes for different folks.
8: Qualifications/training in anything? ie: PhotoshopBasically, I've just picked it up as I've gone along. However, I have invested a small fortune in about a dozen different Photoshop books.
9: Plans for the future?Simply to continue to enjoy taking photographs (and hopefully take even better ones than to date). In recent years, I've found that my passion for the subject has only grown (and Flickr has been a delight since I started using it last year). I've sold one ot two pics to newspapers and magazines and have won a few competitions. It would be nice to actually start doing both of those on a more regular basis. If anyone is looking for a full-time concert photographer (that would be a dream job!), drop me an e-mail!
10: In one word, describe your photography.Fun.
