What to Photograph?

Sometimes just being out there is enough.

Fresh air, exercise, peace and quite, birdsong, insects, butterflies, cold, warm, breeze, stillness... It's all out there.

Maybe it's simply the absence of radio, TV, or even the phone!

Out there, we find many, many different subjects which can be seen and subsequently presented in different and unusual ways that the by-passer would not normally see.

Ever since I was a little boy of about 5 years old, I have loved birds!

I would sit out in the garden - in the snow - with bread on the ground nearby, so that I could get a closer view of them.

Whether 'posh' birds, like a thrush or a robin, or a humble sparrow, I was hooked on watching and photographing birds.

In recent years I have had the privaledge of a number of visits to Australia and have captured many exotic birds. Whether you would call the pelican exotic is a matter of opinion or course!

Aren't people facinating!

Something about watching people go about their daily lives is just facinating to me.

People at work, at play or remonstrating when there's something that has got them into top gear. The interaction between people or groups of people really stand out as exceptionally interesting photgraphic opportunities and challenges that grab my attention.

I'm a sucker for bold, bright colours! I don't really do subtle.

I'm always in dangere of overdoing the contrast or the colour depth. Maybe it's from my early days of photgraphy when I took a lot of transparancies... You know, those special filmd that went to Kodak for developing, and you had to view them via a projector to get the real benefit.

I do kind of get subtle, but if its not obvious, I don't go looking for it. I take what I see.

The sky - or, more specifically, the sun, provides the majority of our natual light.  Therefore the skies hold an extremly important place in my photography.

All my other favourite genres rely heavily, almost exclusively on natual light.

Yes, electronic flash and other unatural sources of light can play a part, but I'm a firm believer in using what God has given us from day 1... Ok, argaubly Day 4! Either way, i prefer lights natural form.

I'm always on the lookout for what I call natural graphics.

This is where there are naturally occuring patterns or a display of shapes and flows that nature has provided for our joy and wonder.

This is a photgraph of some rock formations at Terrigal Beach in New South Wales on the Central Coast of Australia.

This is mostly about being in the right place at theright time.

But - and it's a big but - it's also about being aware of ones surroundings and being ready to take the shot. Or shots in this case.

This one of 6 shots that i took in St. Ives where I spotted a gul looking down from an ice cream shop to spy this girl offering an ice cream!  The shutter on its fastest motor speed got the sequence perfectly.

It also helps to have some experience of your location and subjects behaviour.

This is really a celebration of man's design and inginuity.

I don't just mean simple constructed form, but where there is a freedom in the design in which the designer has allowed some outward expression of joy, freedom or exuberence.