I take a lot of photographs...
No, I mean a LOT of photographs. When I used to have a film camera (remember them?) for a holiday I'd buy at least 6 rolls of 36 exposure film made up of mainly 100 ISO with one or 200 ISO and 400 ISO for other tasks whilst away. The frustration was also part of the enjoyment, you didn't know what sort of pictures you had until they were developed. After a while, I started developing my own pictures with a monochrome darkroom setup, using 'Ilford' papers (but I can't remember the chemicals I used, although I can still 'see' the bottles they came in and smell the aromas when they were opened!). I did move on to a colour setup eventually, but I always enjoyed the monochrome version of photos more. Odd really, as now with my current Full-frame DSLR setup I'm trying to get the best colour image I can!
Also, when I used to go to 'foreign' places (Sir Terry Pratchett's 'forn parts') I would routinely take an initial image with details of my name and address on each roll, so the first exposure was always 'wasted'; but after using a variety of companies to process my film (and having quite a few returned that were not my pictures or having pictures that were mine never returned to me), I found this a very wise use of an exposure. This was using my first proper SLR; a Cosina CT-1 with two different lenses, a separate flash gun (which could take ages to refresh after being triggered) plus a variety of other accessories (such as a tripod etc.).
Should the mood take you, you can find more info about this lovely little 35mm camera here:
camera-wiki.org/wiki/Cosina_CT-1
[As an aside, my son Ed is into photography and wanted to get into film photography so I found a very used Cosina CT-1a on a well-known auction site.]
When digital cameras first came along, I had a few different 'entry level' cameras which would be considered to be a very low resolution now, and they were in general very frustrating to use. Today, any (and every) smartphone will have a technically advanced camera as part of its features. Indeed, my iPhone 11 Pro Max has three lenses and I have downloaded software that allows me to shoot in RAW format! That being said, the images taken in low light are still quite grainy and I've not see an image from any phone that under normal circumstances could really beat a dedicated camera.
Yet when I was bought that first real Digital Camera (a very nice but hefty Kodak DC280), I thought it was a revelation! A 2 megapixel CCD (Closed Coupled Device) with a 2x zoom lens, it was large, heavy and cumbersome, but took some good photos and it re-ignited my interest in photography, which had lain dormant for a while in disappointment at what I was able to achieve. I had taken photos of my young son but this new resource made taking photos of any subject fairly easy.
The photos in the 'Gallery' are possibly from later than this period (the late 1990's onward) but they are partly a 'showcase' of my work over the years. You'll find all sorts of things here from a variety of places and times. Holidays, days out, photos of specific events and just idle times looking around for things to take photos of in order to be able to see it arrive (usually line by line) on the screen of my early Packard Bell x86 Computer and 14" CRT monitor.
So, I have always taken a lot of photos, always searching for the best angle, the best landscape, the best shot of a building or a sunset. As my camera's became technically advanced, so did my aspirations become more difficult to achieve. New faster cameras, new longer lenses, new devices to record the images on. For example, have you ever fully considered the fantastic thing that a Compact Flash or Secure Digital card actually is? The ability, in a humble and nondescript small piece of coloured plastic, to take hundreds of images and record them to an easy to transport and use medium? Originally, a 4mb (yes megabyte!) card would cost huge amounts of money; but then my first PC had a DX-33 66Mhz CPU with 4MB RAM and a whopping 40MB Hard Drive!
Now we have megapixels, megabytes and terabytes of storage available to us. When my wife and I went to Las Vegas a few years ago with my Canon EOS450D, I took over 7,000 images in 7 days. In the days of film that would have been unthinkable, but now it's common place. I could try all sorts of experiments and unleash any creativity I might have. I had the storage available to take as many images as I wanted, even with my usual in-camera editing 'technique'. Out of the many, came a few reasonable photos, and even some I am very proud of now.
And as camera technology evolved, so too did computers. Now I have a self-built high-spec Windows 10 Pro x64 PC, with Hi-Def Sound and Graphics mated to two Monitors. It had a 400GB SSD for Windows, a 2TB HDD from initial storage and then I have three backup NAS systems in place. As my health has deteriorated, my mania for leaving images and files for those that will follow has increased. I'd rather have 5 copies of a file and only need 1 than only have one and need more.
And I'm updating this page on my main portable laptop -which is actually an Apple Mac running OS X Monterey. OK, I have configured this Mac to 'dual boot' between Windows and Mac OS, so I can work in whichever OS I prefer at any one time. Currently, I'm using Windows, but I was working all afternoon in Mac OS! If you would have told me even a few years ago that this would have been possible, I would have treated it like science fiction. Heck, it WAS science fiction then!
I have also upgraded my cameras; and I now have a Canon 6D Full-frame DSLR, a small underwater camera, and a Panasonic Lumix for general 'snaps' (but which has Wi-Fi and GPS).
Anyway, in case there is still someone reading through this, I'll move on to current days...
In the last couple of years, I have been diagnosed with a complication from an injury sustained in a car accident many years ago which caused my back more than a reasonable amount of damage. It seems that I also had an undiagnosed partial injury to my brain which, as I have aged, has become a little more pronounced. I have always had gaps in my memory; my childhood is just a few snapshots and glimpses into smells and recollections of sounds and events with no chronological order or sense to them. Most of my childhood is gone, and indeed may never have been present in any real sense but now I often have difficulty in remembering events from just a few weeks ago. Things like walking, eating, driving, using computers, TV's and washing machines and vacuum cleaners are second nature. Switching between PC, Mac and Linux does not phase me at all, but ask me what I did three Tuesdays ago and I'll probably be unable to tell you.
Thus, taking photographs has taken on a new twist and importance for me. Not just recording a day and time in space, not just making memories come alive for those who may follow in years to come; now I use them as triggers for (often fairly recent) memories. I find that reviewing images can - not always alas - remind me of what I was doing or where I was at a specific time. The metadata (information recorded as part of the .jpg, RAW data or Exif) records technical information like Shutter speed, ISO, F stop and lots of other things that techies get excited about. But it also records the date and time and, with GPS equipped cameras like my Canon DSLRs and little Lumix DMC-TZ40, the location where the photo was taken as well. This is a boon to reminding me of where the image was taken, and the notes I have started to place within the various folder has additional information in it as well.
Recently, I have been lured onto actual academic photography courses. for the first one, my wife came home with a leaflet on Adult Education and pointed it out to me and I thought, why not? I'm retired, I need to keep active and engaged, and after so long taking photographs it would be good to have some specific guidance on techniques and to dedicate some time to this incredible thing that I have been trying to master for so many years. The NCFE Level I Course - taught by freelance photographer Denise Felkin - was great. I re-discovered areas of the camera I'd forgotten about, enhanced my Photoshop techniques and had a thoroughly good time. I even made a few new friends on the course and that is always good! I passed this Level I course and felt a sense of achievement when I did.
I then enrolled onto an Advanced Photoshop Course - taught by the entertaining Geoff Cable - and (as you might have hoped) increased my knowledge level if not my skill or ability. This 10-week course was full of tips, tricks and shortcuts that was a little overwhelming in some respects; but it did open up a whole other palette of creative options when editing photographs. One of the main elements was the use of the Adobe Camera RAW Editor. I'd never used it before then, although I'd opened it by mistake quite a few times!
Surprisingly to me, Geoff is a great proponent of Lightroom. Although very skilled (and Certified) in Photoshop, he expounded the use that, in general, Camera RAW Editor and Lightroom can offer without resorting to the full Photoshop app. I'd used Lightroom (poorly) for many years but was acutely aware that in general, I was not getting any real benefit from it. The small exploration of this under-used app was incredibly useful for me and yet again opened up more options for my creative flow (I know, I'm sounding like an advert for it now!).
Anyway, I enrolled onto the Level II Course in Photography Creative Craft, which was taught by the excellent Richard and enhanced my palette even more. (Have a look on my Blog Page for more on this.)
My main motivation for these courses - apart from becoming a better user of the camera - has always been to enable me to produce the best covers for my books that I am able too. I am under no illusions; on every course I have encountered people who are better photographers than I might ever hope to be. They have the flair and innate skill to take the best image possible across whatever subject range is put in front of them.
Myself, I believe that I am a good photographer; capable of taking good photos. Sometimes I'm capable of taking very good photos. The enhanced skills I am trying to learn may (indeed I hope do) cross over onto the post-production elements of the process. But my skill in being able to frame an image, wait for the shot; the right shot, to become obvious, the review and selection of what might make an interesting photo; is by comparison not at as high a level as I might hope or wish for.
But I am undaunted by this revelation. Indeed, I am pleased that I can objectively review my work and know that in a few areas, I perhaps lack the flair that I have in others (hopefully the written word). I am proud of my photography, believe in it and my ability, and in general know that I take a good photograph. I aspire to greatness; but if I can land around the 'very good' mark I'll be happy!
Anyway, here is a snapshot (ahem) of my work over the years. I have included each image as I believe it to have some worth. You may or may not agree - but whatever you think of them, please do not use them without at least citing where they come from! I know I'll never make money from them, but any use would be interesting and I reserve the copyright to all of them.
So, have a browse and see what you think.
If you feel inclined to look at my other creative output then please point your cursor here
www.alanmitchellwriting.co.uk
which deals with my creative writing.
If you'd like to look at some of my writing on Amazon - and they are all there - then have a look here:
www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B01MDIVETG
I hope you enjoy what follows as best you can, and remember to stay safe and keep on taking photos...
Also, when I used to go to 'foreign' places (Sir Terry Pratchett's 'forn parts') I would routinely take an initial image with details of my name and address on each roll, so the first exposure was always 'wasted'; but after using a variety of companies to process my film (and having quite a few returned that were not my pictures or having pictures that were mine never returned to me), I found this a very wise use of an exposure. This was using my first proper SLR; a Cosina CT-1 with two different lenses, a separate flash gun (which could take ages to refresh after being triggered) plus a variety of other accessories (such as a tripod etc.).
Should the mood take you, you can find more info about this lovely little 35mm camera here:
camera-wiki.org/wiki/Cosina_CT-1
[As an aside, my son Ed is into photography and wanted to get into film photography so I found a very used Cosina CT-1a on a well-known auction site.]
When digital cameras first came along, I had a few different 'entry level' cameras which would be considered to be a very low resolution now, and they were in general very frustrating to use. Today, any (and every) smartphone will have a technically advanced camera as part of its features. Indeed, my iPhone 11 Pro Max has three lenses and I have downloaded software that allows me to shoot in RAW format! That being said, the images taken in low light are still quite grainy and I've not see an image from any phone that under normal circumstances could really beat a dedicated camera.
Yet when I was bought that first real Digital Camera (a very nice but hefty Kodak DC280), I thought it was a revelation! A 2 megapixel CCD (Closed Coupled Device) with a 2x zoom lens, it was large, heavy and cumbersome, but took some good photos and it re-ignited my interest in photography, which had lain dormant for a while in disappointment at what I was able to achieve. I had taken photos of my young son but this new resource made taking photos of any subject fairly easy.
The photos in the 'Gallery' are possibly from later than this period (the late 1990's onward) but they are partly a 'showcase' of my work over the years. You'll find all sorts of things here from a variety of places and times. Holidays, days out, photos of specific events and just idle times looking around for things to take photos of in order to be able to see it arrive (usually line by line) on the screen of my early Packard Bell x86 Computer and 14" CRT monitor.
So, I have always taken a lot of photos, always searching for the best angle, the best landscape, the best shot of a building or a sunset. As my camera's became technically advanced, so did my aspirations become more difficult to achieve. New faster cameras, new longer lenses, new devices to record the images on. For example, have you ever fully considered the fantastic thing that a Compact Flash or Secure Digital card actually is? The ability, in a humble and nondescript small piece of coloured plastic, to take hundreds of images and record them to an easy to transport and use medium? Originally, a 4mb (yes megabyte!) card would cost huge amounts of money; but then my first PC had a DX-33 66Mhz CPU with 4MB RAM and a whopping 40MB Hard Drive!
Now we have megapixels, megabytes and terabytes of storage available to us. When my wife and I went to Las Vegas a few years ago with my Canon EOS450D, I took over 7,000 images in 7 days. In the days of film that would have been unthinkable, but now it's common place. I could try all sorts of experiments and unleash any creativity I might have. I had the storage available to take as many images as I wanted, even with my usual in-camera editing 'technique'. Out of the many, came a few reasonable photos, and even some I am very proud of now.
And as camera technology evolved, so too did computers. Now I have a self-built high-spec Windows 10 Pro x64 PC, with Hi-Def Sound and Graphics mated to two Monitors. It had a 400GB SSD for Windows, a 2TB HDD from initial storage and then I have three backup NAS systems in place. As my health has deteriorated, my mania for leaving images and files for those that will follow has increased. I'd rather have 5 copies of a file and only need 1 than only have one and need more.
And I'm updating this page on my main portable laptop -which is actually an Apple Mac running OS X Monterey. OK, I have configured this Mac to 'dual boot' between Windows and Mac OS, so I can work in whichever OS I prefer at any one time. Currently, I'm using Windows, but I was working all afternoon in Mac OS! If you would have told me even a few years ago that this would have been possible, I would have treated it like science fiction. Heck, it WAS science fiction then!
I have also upgraded my cameras; and I now have a Canon 6D Full-frame DSLR, a small underwater camera, and a Panasonic Lumix for general 'snaps' (but which has Wi-Fi and GPS).
Anyway, in case there is still someone reading through this, I'll move on to current days...
In the last couple of years, I have been diagnosed with a complication from an injury sustained in a car accident many years ago which caused my back more than a reasonable amount of damage. It seems that I also had an undiagnosed partial injury to my brain which, as I have aged, has become a little more pronounced. I have always had gaps in my memory; my childhood is just a few snapshots and glimpses into smells and recollections of sounds and events with no chronological order or sense to them. Most of my childhood is gone, and indeed may never have been present in any real sense but now I often have difficulty in remembering events from just a few weeks ago. Things like walking, eating, driving, using computers, TV's and washing machines and vacuum cleaners are second nature. Switching between PC, Mac and Linux does not phase me at all, but ask me what I did three Tuesdays ago and I'll probably be unable to tell you.
Thus, taking photographs has taken on a new twist and importance for me. Not just recording a day and time in space, not just making memories come alive for those who may follow in years to come; now I use them as triggers for (often fairly recent) memories. I find that reviewing images can - not always alas - remind me of what I was doing or where I was at a specific time. The metadata (information recorded as part of the .jpg, RAW data or Exif) records technical information like Shutter speed, ISO, F stop and lots of other things that techies get excited about. But it also records the date and time and, with GPS equipped cameras like my Canon DSLRs and little Lumix DMC-TZ40, the location where the photo was taken as well. This is a boon to reminding me of where the image was taken, and the notes I have started to place within the various folder has additional information in it as well.
Recently, I have been lured onto actual academic photography courses. for the first one, my wife came home with a leaflet on Adult Education and pointed it out to me and I thought, why not? I'm retired, I need to keep active and engaged, and after so long taking photographs it would be good to have some specific guidance on techniques and to dedicate some time to this incredible thing that I have been trying to master for so many years. The NCFE Level I Course - taught by freelance photographer Denise Felkin - was great. I re-discovered areas of the camera I'd forgotten about, enhanced my Photoshop techniques and had a thoroughly good time. I even made a few new friends on the course and that is always good! I passed this Level I course and felt a sense of achievement when I did.
I then enrolled onto an Advanced Photoshop Course - taught by the entertaining Geoff Cable - and (as you might have hoped) increased my knowledge level if not my skill or ability. This 10-week course was full of tips, tricks and shortcuts that was a little overwhelming in some respects; but it did open up a whole other palette of creative options when editing photographs. One of the main elements was the use of the Adobe Camera RAW Editor. I'd never used it before then, although I'd opened it by mistake quite a few times!
Surprisingly to me, Geoff is a great proponent of Lightroom. Although very skilled (and Certified) in Photoshop, he expounded the use that, in general, Camera RAW Editor and Lightroom can offer without resorting to the full Photoshop app. I'd used Lightroom (poorly) for many years but was acutely aware that in general, I was not getting any real benefit from it. The small exploration of this under-used app was incredibly useful for me and yet again opened up more options for my creative flow (I know, I'm sounding like an advert for it now!).
Anyway, I enrolled onto the Level II Course in Photography Creative Craft, which was taught by the excellent Richard and enhanced my palette even more. (Have a look on my Blog Page for more on this.)
My main motivation for these courses - apart from becoming a better user of the camera - has always been to enable me to produce the best covers for my books that I am able too. I am under no illusions; on every course I have encountered people who are better photographers than I might ever hope to be. They have the flair and innate skill to take the best image possible across whatever subject range is put in front of them.
Myself, I believe that I am a good photographer; capable of taking good photos. Sometimes I'm capable of taking very good photos. The enhanced skills I am trying to learn may (indeed I hope do) cross over onto the post-production elements of the process. But my skill in being able to frame an image, wait for the shot; the right shot, to become obvious, the review and selection of what might make an interesting photo; is by comparison not at as high a level as I might hope or wish for.
But I am undaunted by this revelation. Indeed, I am pleased that I can objectively review my work and know that in a few areas, I perhaps lack the flair that I have in others (hopefully the written word). I am proud of my photography, believe in it and my ability, and in general know that I take a good photograph. I aspire to greatness; but if I can land around the 'very good' mark I'll be happy!
Anyway, here is a snapshot (ahem) of my work over the years. I have included each image as I believe it to have some worth. You may or may not agree - but whatever you think of them, please do not use them without at least citing where they come from! I know I'll never make money from them, but any use would be interesting and I reserve the copyright to all of them.
So, have a browse and see what you think.
If you feel inclined to look at my other creative output then please point your cursor here
www.alanmitchellwriting.co.uk
which deals with my creative writing.
If you'd like to look at some of my writing on Amazon - and they are all there - then have a look here:
www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B01MDIVETG
I hope you enjoy what follows as best you can, and remember to stay safe and keep on taking photos...