My approach

I don’t tend to do photography ‘projects’ with plans and so on. For me the delight of photography is to just wander about taking pictures as I find them. The most important aspects of photography are composition and lighting. That sounds very obvious, I know, but it’s worth underlining.

A good composition comes from a clear intention. The pictorialist photographer Gertrude Käsebier once said:

“The key to artistic photography is to work out your own thoughts”.

That’s sound advice.

As for lighting, it’s the skill of translating a quality of light to a darkroom-made picture - that’s what takes years to develop. There are no short-cuts. It just takes lots of mistakes.

Many photographers say that technical perfection is not as important as the emotion expressed by a picture. A great photograph can be technically weak. Whereas I agree with this, I think that it’s important to learn to be technically stronger. It provides a good foundation for experimentation.

My gear

I am sometimes asked what equipment I use, or what my favourite gear is. I use all types of cameras from Large Format down to the small Rollei 35S, film and digital, lens and lensless. What I use depends on the scenario. For silver film work, my stalwarts include the Walker 5x7, Hasselblad and Mamiya for 120 work, and Nikon for 35mm work. My favourite walk-about cameras are the Mamiya Six Automat for the 120 format and the Nikon F3 for 35mm work. My film of choice is Ilford HP5 Plus.

For digital image capture I use Fujifilm H2S and H2, and of course the iphone. I use the H2S for wildlife coupled with an ultra telephoto lens and also for video work. The H2 body is used for general work and macros.

I also use a few pinhole cameras including Reality So Subtle 6 x 17 and 6 x 6F and the Zero 6 x 6.

For Alternative Process work such as Bromoil, Oil and Gum Bichromate I increasingly use digital capture to produce digital negatives. That way the same image can be prepared in different ways to suit a particular darkroom process.