I am a part-time professional photographer and digital artist. I particularly specialise in contemporary landscape and portrait photography in natural settings. I shoot on Canon gear and especially love shooting in Scotland.
My official gallery of photographs and digital art, where prints, canvases and gifts can be viewed and bought, is at inpictur.es - there are some freebies to download there too!
Photography
I have been taking photos ever since I won a camera at age six and I was always trying new things. As a child back in the early 80's I remember experimenting with 3D pictures by taking two different shots of the same scene. Of course everything was film and print back then. I blew my pocket money pretty quickly.
I had the wonderful privilege of growing up in the wild, open and unspoilt surroundings of the Scottish Highlands, so inevitably my love affair with Scotland's staggering landscapes began there. From this flowed a critical attention to the compositional detail and light forms required to do them justice. Over the years I've developed a style that pushes the boundary between photography and art.
I occasionally shoot weddings and product/commercial, but focus mainly on landscape and portrait photography. [I can highly recommend Helen Maynard for East of England Wedding photography].
Digital Painting
As an extension of my photography, I also produce digital paintings. These are extraordinarily detailed "paintings" created on the computer, using a photograph as the starting point. I do this under the brand name brushstok.es. As well as accepting commisions and pursuing my own projects, I have a vibrant Brushstrokes fan page on facebook where I offer free trial paintings.
You can find out all about Brushstrok.es at the Brushstrok.es home page.
Awards and Accolades
Tiffen Featured Imagemaker & Award Winner
You may have heard of Tiffen if you're seriously into photography and movie making. Well known throughout Hollywood, for many decades they have been the leaving provider of photographic accessories, such as filters, lighting and steadicams. They now also provide world-class image and video processing capabilities in the digital domain. Over the years they have selected and interviewed a number of featured Hollywood "movie makers" but in 2010 I was thrilled to be selected as their very first featured imagemaker for stills. It is a genuine honour to be recognised by the industry in this way.
Requested Contributor the ARKive project
In 2011 I was approached to contribute some of my Bumblebee macro photography to the ARKive project. The ARKive project is an initiative by Wildscreen to document and preserve the World's wildlife through the use of powerful imagery. In their own words "ARKive is leading the ‘virtual’ conservation effort creating comprehensive and enduring multi-media species profiles; complementing other species information datasets, and making a key resource available for scientists, conservationists, educators and the general public."
Wildscreen themselves are a not-for-profit organisation with Patrons including Prince Philip and Sir David Attenborough. It is a privilege to be asked to contribute and have my photographs alongside greats such as National Geographic and BBC Natural History. A huge number of big names are backing the project including BirdLife International, Conservation International, English Nature, The World Conservation Union (IUCN), Natural History Museum London, RSPB, Smithsonian Institution, WWF.
This has definitely made the time spent dragging my camera gear through ditches feel very worthwhile.
Associations, Outlets and Publications
I work with a number of leading photographic and imagemaking organisations and individuals, and my work has also been seen in various locations and publications, for example:
[me on my wall]
[helen maynard photography]
[pat bloomfield]
Optimax: promotional images for laser eye surgery
[Please note: there are photographers called Nick Sargent and Nikolas Sargent with similarly named internet sites, but they are not me!]