How did you start in photography?
My interest in photography was kindled at the age of twelve when I was given a Kodak Box Brownie Flash II camera and a Kodak Developing & Printing kit. In my late teens I purchased a Canon FT-QL SLR camera.
On completing a cadetship in Mechanical Draughting I was employed at Western Mining’s Kwinana Nickel Refinery as the Maintenance department Draughtsman and part of my job role was to take photographic records of maintenance projects and material testing.
The plant was designed on a Canadian Nickel refinery, and they flew the gentleman who had my role in that operation out to Australia to teach me how to use a 4x5 Graflex view camera along with his darkroom techniques using the custom-built darkroom within the office.
An English gentleman who previously had Photographic businesses in the UK opened a Photographic business in Rockingham and being a local business, we started to purchase all our supplies through his store. He approached me to take wedding photographs on a part time basis at the weekends which I eventually did using Rolleicord twin lens reflex cameras and processing the films to enable proofs of all the formal photographs to be displayed at the reception.
At that time in the early 70’s everything was shot on B&W film.
Eventually I worked for the business full time. It had a retail store & professional photography business shooting portraits in the studio, industrial, Commercial & wedding photography all processed inhouse in our darkroom.
Colour photographs were being asked for more regularly in the mid 70’s so we purchased a Colenta paper processor second hand from Bruno Zimmerman and part of the deal was for him to train me to colour print.
The aging owner had always said “One day this business will be yours” and on turning 30 I asked him when and when he replied “One Day” I resigned as I was teaching darkroom classes at Adult Education part time, and I knew I could carry on doing weddings as I had a good reputation having taken many wedding photographs in the area.
Maxwell Photo Optics who were the Australian Agents for Nikon and Mamiya advertised for a State Manager in WA and having used and being familiar with these products I was successful in obtaining the position.
In 1981 the company asked me to be their Victorian manager, so I headed East.
I eventually returned to WA in the late 80’s and again worked for the Maxwell companies.
When Nikon opened in Australia in 2006, I was offered the WA agency for other brands Maxwell represented such as Lowepro, Tamron, Lensbaby, Cokin, Joby & Velbon.
The business was called “Digital Imaging Agencies” which I operated until my retirement in 2013.
I have remained active in the industry since my retirement, and I am the admin of the “WA Photography Industry” Facebook page and a member of “Pro Photography WA”.
What is your genre and how did you fall into that genre?
When I started out, I was taking Industrial photographs which was part of my employment position.
After taking wedding photographs part time I was then employed full time in a business taking Industrial, commercial, portrait, social and wedding photographs.
Changing direction to a Photographic wholesale position apart from some travel photography
I was mainly shooting underwater photographs which I could combine with my passion of Scuba Diving.
Using the Nikonos system of Nikon underwater cameras which we were agents for I ran the Nikon School of Underwater Photography as I was an accredited Underwater Photography Instructor with Scuba Schools International.
I was also taking photographs of yachting regattas & championships.
Since retiring apart from a few commercial shoots, I don’t really have any one Genre however I tend to shoot mostly Landscapes, Street, Urban, Architecture and abandoned buildings.
I do some restoration work, negative scanning, copying and photographing art works, and printing photographs up to A2 using my EPSON P800 printer.
What has been one of the most memorable moments in your career so far?
There were many moments, and it is hard to single out any one but here are a few -
Being involved with many photographers who were starting out in their business or careers such as Tony Hewitt and Michael Coyne.
I clearly remember the day I met Tony Hewitt to demonstrate some Nikon Cameras to him as he was starting out on his photographic journey.
We sponsored Michael Coyne an ex Newslimited Press Photographer with Nikon FM2 cameras prior to his assignment to Iran in the early eighties.
National Geographic stopped the presses on his return so they could include 28 pages with images he had captured.
Michael has gone on to produce many books.
I have met many press photographers who have shared their on-the-job experiences and stories with me.
Being privileged to be invited to give technical support to high profile Nikon users such as Malcolm Fraser and Lindsay Fox in their Melbourne offices.
The Australian Federal Police came into my Melbourne office to return a Nikon 600mm lens and showed me a photo of three men who will claim to have never met, and then showed me an enlargement from the same image where you could read the time on one of the watches.
They were most impressed and got their convictions.
What do you feel has been your biggest achievement so far?
In 2016 after a trip to the UK I was encouraged by many to publish a book of my photographs.
This resulted in several hundred copies (sold out) of the publication “My London Eye”, a book containing 130 photographs of which 100 were in Black & White.
I prepared all aspects of the publication myself apart from the printing.
As I support local businesses as much as possible the book was printed by Scott Print.
How do you approach your post production and what programs do you use?
My first dabble with Photo Software was a lite edition of Photoshop v2.0 (June 1991) which was supplied with Nikon point & shoot digital cameras at the time and I thought it amazing.
With the advent of Pro Digital cameras requiring the processing of RAW files a program called RAW IMAGE was developed and was the best for processing Raw files. The software was bought by Adobe and is what we now call Adobe Lightroom.
From a curiosity point of view over the years I have looked at most imaging processing software that is available such as -
On 1, Capture, GIMP, Affinity, Photoshop, Lightroom, DxO, Bridge, ACDSee, Luminar, Franzis, Topaz, Niks.
I use mostly Photoshop for all my editing as that is what I progressed with since version 2.0.
I review and sort images with Adobe Bridge, Process RAW filles with DxO PureRAW3 and export the DNG file into Photoshop Camera RAW.
I think DxO PureRAW3 is currently the best RAW file processor and covers all makes and models of cameras/lenses and they are always updating it to cover the latest equipment.
For stitching Panoramas, you can’t go past PtGUI.
For scanning whether it is film or flatbed scans required I use Vuescan.
If you have a Nikon film scanner it is the only software available as Nikon no longer supports their film scanners with software.
It works for all scanners on the market and is constantly upgraded to cover any new scanner.
It can be used in a basic or professional mode where you can control everything.
Where do you see the future of photography heading?
The excitement of Photography is that you learn something new every day and everything is now evolving more rapidly.
Having experienced the transition of photography from Black & White to Colour film and from film to Digital and with developments of features such as inbuilt metering, TTL flash, continuous shooting auto focus and eye focus to name a few we will continue to see further refinements and developments in the future.
We have seen progress of digital, cameras and storage solutions such as Floppy discs/Zip drives/ CD’s/DVD’s/ Compact Flash/SD & SSD/Raid.
What is next and will you be able to retrieve files from previous storage solutions?
Mobile Phones and technology have already decimated the biggest digital camera market which was the point & shoot digital camera.
Mobile phones obviously have firmware that is patented and not available to the major camera brands when you see the image quality, they can produce from such a small sensor and often in difficult lighting situations.
Many more developments will be made to mobile devices with bigger sensors and improved image processing already announced.
Artificial Intelligence is the latest possible threat to the future of some photography but could enhance the final image in other instances.
The adage is however that it is not the equipment that visualises and captures an image it is the person driving it.
What advise do you have for those starting out?
It is going back to some of the basics that will get your business on track and give you a return on the investment of your time.
Have a business plan.
Enthusiasm
Firstly, concentrate on your own business and think outside the box.
A lot of the basics in a photography business are the the same so you must think of a Niche area or style or something to set yourself apart from what others are offering – Be creative.
Keeping up with current developments in Software and Computer systems to not get left behind and only embrace technology that benefits your business. It is very easy to install programmes or software needlessly.
Although you need a social media presence think of other ways to promote your business other than FB, Instagram, Linkedin and other social media sites where you can spend a lot of unproductive time and your business becomes lost in the sea of posts of many other similar businesses. Stay focused.
Nothing can beat personal contact or a face-to-face meeting with a potential client.
A good old-fashioned letter / flyer of introduction can work as it could end up on a potential client’s desk as a printed document, not lost or forgotten amongst the digital files they receive.
Don’t forget to always carry your business card and present or leave it at every opportunity. Always treat it and present it as though it is a precious document not an afterthought.
Keep a physical diary if you only have an electronic calendar or diary.
You tend to remember things better if you write them down, it is a good back up if you lose your electronic one, it can be referred to more quickly, and it is easy to make notations if you are in a meeting.
I was always amazed how many of my clients thanked me for returning a phone call. A lot of businesses don’t return calls.
Think before you spend any money on advertising, equipment or any other aspect of your business and ask how much is that expense going to return.
Offer service to your clients. Keep in contact, advise of progress, keep to times & promises.
Letting clients down or ill-informed ends up costing you not only your time but it loses customers.
Attend workshops if you think they are relevant to your business. In some instances, you may gain knowledge from other people that attend these events too.
Network with like people in groups such as the WA Pro Photography group.
We are fortunate in WA that we have so many industry people who are prepared to help or offer advice. – Just ask.
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