PrimoPhotos

About two years ago, I was atbemo. I grew out of that style of photography though, that style being opportunistic still-lifes found around my local area, photographs that have had the whole caliber of photoshop unleashed upon them, and clunky compositions that I thought that looked good at the time. Thought that looked good, in the same way that doing that to a lamp post seems like a good idea when you're drunk. Looking back at most of those photographs makes me wince a little...

<sup>Nonetheless, it was a vital process. Although I'd only be proud of 10% of the crap on there, I learnt how to learn Photoshop up to a degree level. I pushed the technical boundaries as far as I could and although most the stuff was certainly an epic failure, I learnt a hell of a lot. To anybody starting out in photographs, I have two pieces of advice: experiment, for the love of God do it while you can. Secondly, never use a lens cap.

Now, my creative spirits have been channeled into photojournalism in the same way your shiny new watch gets channeled down the toilet. Photojournalism is great and all, but it's a documentary style thing. I'm not sure what I'd call it; it's not art because there is no room for expression, there is room for creativity but you can't photographed something in a biased fashion; it's not a science because it isn't discovering anything through rigour; if anything, it's like history. Not the "lets look at what happened 10,000 years ago" kind, but more the "people need to know what happened here about ten minutes later". Yeah, I don't really know, but a massive need for creative scope is lacking.

I spent a few years working for the 2020VISION project (check it out, it's really neat, buy a book and you'll see some of my shots) which documents environmental awareness, highlighting the relationship between man and nature. It was a fantastic experience, but I was limited in terms of transport, time, money, and (not without shame) enthusiasm. I've worked on writing a story, and I just passed 20,000 words. It wont be going up on dA anytime soon though.

I have changed as a person, too. Which is reassuring because if I was the same person that I was three years ago then not only would I not be any smarter or brighter, but I'd be bloody annoying. I like to think my taste has become more refined; I like photographers Doisneau instead of contemporary photographs, I shoot in film a lot more (although... I have yet to develop it), the artier things & routes in my life take my fancy more often, and I look for the road less travelled.

After all these creative attempts, I'm heading back to the very place where I really started. Which was, actually, deviantART. This was were I showed off my first shots, got my initial advice, met some people that I'm still friends with today. There wont be any over-saturated crap, no HDRed (don't get me started on HDRs) 'photos', and a bare-minimum of this-doesn't-work-let-me-slap-on-black-and-white in my galleries. The things I hope to get up are more pain-stakingly-planned landscapes, travel photos, wildlife and nature shots, perhaps some portraits. Who knows. But it'll be good.</sup>