I'm a sometime web developer and saxophonist living in Edinburgh, Scotland. I started taking photographs seriously in December 2007 after getting a digital SLR. I took trips to London and the Scottish Highlands specifically to teach myself the ins and outs of the art, and I've also been trying my hand at black-and-white film photography. I've discovered that it's all hard work which demands total concentration - like any other creative activity - and so it's immensely satisfying when things turn out well. This website presents a selection of my work so far.
I have much to learn, and I have the utmost respect for the great photographers of the past and present, not all of whom have achieved fame or fortune. Take a while browsing Flickr and you will find many original artists producing surprising, intelligent and beautiful images. In fact, I cannot overestimate how important the community of photographers on Flickr is in helping me to learn photographic techniques, and in providing inspiration.
I believe that the act of taking and developing a photograph is creative, and not necessarily about recording reality. When we decide, for example, to frame a shot so that the shape of a tree is mirrored in the shape of a cloud, we are creating something new - turning our imaginative impression into a tangible thing, a work of art. And it is not about reproducing what the human eye sees. Looking at a photograph of Glencoe is radically different from looking at Glencoe, not just emotionally but also physiologically and neurologically. To me this all means that the photographer is free to use any technique at all in working on his or her images; from the filters, film choices and intricate darkroom techniques of the film world to digital processing in Photoshop. Luckily for those who like to look at photographs, this is just what photographers have been doing for a long time.
Thanks must go to two of my biggest inspirations: Laura McGregor and Marcel Proust.