...and the (slightly) longer story

Photography is something that happened into my life by accident. Painting and drawing came first and photography was simply a way for gathering inspiration for my paintings. But something special happened and I realised I had found a new way of making pictures.

Photography brings you out into the world and the whole process of making a photograph soothes my senses and nourishes my soul. Looking at our world through a camera has helped me see it in a very different way, revealing a grace and charm in natures most unexpected places.

The thing about photographing the land and sea, is that it really needs to be done at dawn to get the most flattering soft angled light and hopefully some atmospheric mist. I’m very much a night owl and mornings are not my best time so it really hurts to get up at 4am. But when you feel the cool beach sand under your bare feet, and the taste of salt in the fresh sea breeze, it makes the early start worth it. Trying to capture that stilling calm and peace that you get early in the morning is a perfect way to start the day.

You will see a lot of the ocean in my work. The sea is where I go when I am happy or when I am sad. It has the ability to refresh and centre me. It soothes and calms, even when I think I don’t need it. I like the clean lines and basic shapes the ocean offers, and I use them to try give an uncluttered and elegant feel to my images.

Most of the photographs I make of the sea are not freezing milliseconds like a standard photograph. Instead, the camera watches the scene unfold over many seconds, or minutes in some cases, which creates an image that summarises what the ocean looked like over that time. This smoothes out the waves and ripples and gives an image that reflects the utter calm I feel watching the sea. Slow art at its best!