About me

I have always found photography a passion I could never put down from my early days developing black and white film in a dusty old college attic, to getting my first 35mm film SLR right through to my new Digital SLR today. Its not just about taking snapshots but using the camera to discover the world around us, making you look at everyday things in a new light, or finding a new angle on an established shot. Many more of my photos can be found on my updated Flickr Photostream, click here and leave some comments if you can.

The recent digital film revolution sparked my interest anew as I now found an outlet to combine both my computer skills with my photography. The new digital darkroom enables me to get so much more out of my 'RAW format' images allowing me to be far more creative without all the old developing costs I had to incur. Now you can just dump the ones you don't need and keep the rest. During the day I work for fatmedia in Lancaster as a web interface and branding designer helping to create all manner of web solutions for clients large or small. Photography helps me unwind and is a perfect companion to my travel, trekking and climbing. I also enjoy not just landscapes but urban and coastal scenes from my home town of Blackpool.

Technical stuff

I went for the Olympus E-510 DSLR mainly for its small footprint and on board IS system. While out on the the hills and mountains I don't want to be lugging a massive camera around with me and the Olympus fitted the bill.

My kit list

Olympus E-510 DSLR | Zuiko 14-42 mm f3.5-5.6 | Zuiko 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 | Zuiko 35mm Macro f3.5 | Zuiko 70-300mm f4.0-5.6 | OM 50mm f1.8 | Hoya 58mm UV filter | Hoya 58mm Cir-Polarising filter | Cokin Filter holder | ND4 Gradual Neutral Grey Filter | Camlink TPPRO24A Tripod | Monopod unbranded | 2 x 4GB ScanDisk Extream III CF | 2GB Olympus XD Picture card | Backup P&S Panasonic TZ5 & Canon A700 | Lowepro DSLR/lens backpack

Kit I do want

Zuiko 9-18 mm & Zuiko 12-60 mm | The Olympus E-620 looks good | More ND Grad filters | LX3, G10 or an E-P1 | Nikon D300, Olympus E30 or Canon 5D II

Bigger Photos being added & Photomatrix

I'm currently going through my Photoblog and replacing all the photos with a larger size. Up from 800 pixels to 960 pixels wide, providing far more detail. Recently I purchased the HDR (High Dynamic Range Imaging) software, Photomatrix and hope to be posting more images using this software.

Latest happenings

I actually managed to some of my Nepal photos printed in the Amatuer Photographer Magazine 13th June 2009 issue.

Page 32 and 33, yes a double page spread, still can't believe it, so its not impossible to see yourself in print afterall.

Local Photo Competition short listed

I actually managed to get shortlisted for the Visit Blackpool photographic competition. But in the end I didn't manage to come out the overall winner, yet just getting noticed was a massive boost. Check out the image... click here.

Photos through work in Local and National Papers

As a favour I took some team shots at work for an article about our office move. The best shot was printed in the Business Section of the Guardian Newspaper.

Contact

Ian Brookes