Hello everyone and welcome to our second blog post for the new monthly artist spotlight. Each month a new member will be selected to be highlighted for this, I am hoping more of you will put your names forward for this as it is a great opportunity to showcase some of your favourite work along with sharing a little about yourself.
Without further ado this month we have selected none other than SBP judge David Barker! Here is some more about David in his own words along with a selection of his beautiful images….
Tell us a little about yourself David
‘I’m 58 years old, married, living in Hawick, with a grown up son who is married and living in Peebles. My 2 main hobbies are motorcycling and photography, in the summer my motorcycling seem to get more time devoted to it than photography.’
How your photography journey began and where you see yourself in the future?
‘I have always been around camera’s and photo equipment, my dad was a photographer for our local news paper he then opened a shop in Hawick. I remember helping him with 6ft by 4ft B&W prints for a local knitwear factory for a display in its London shop, now that was a challenge I’m glad to say he met. Also helped with some aerial stuff for a guy who owned a load of caravan sites in North East. So from that point I guess I was hooked! Where do I see myself in the future, I’ve no idea, lets see how the road develops.’
What’s in your camera bag?
‘Nikon D7100 Nikkor 50mm 1.8 lens Nikkor 55/300 1.4-5.6 zoom lens Nikkor 18/140 1.3.3-5.6 Zoom.’
‘Nikon remote trigger, a few SD cards, a range of square filters, spare battery, cloths and lens cleaning stuff, a Metz flash gun, step rings for filters.’
What has been your biggest challenge thus far in your journey and how did you work through it?
‘This is a hard one, to be totally honest I’ve never really set myself challenges, I do photograph for fun now but you never know what the future holds.’
Favourite place to shoot and why?
‘Edinburgh its old close buildings and great for street photography just about now on the run up to festival time.’
Is there a type or style of photography that you haven’t tried yet but would like to venture into one day?
‘Macro I would love to try, I’ve done some close up but true macro is my next thing I think, need some extension tubes before I can do it properly. I also fancy going back to film I have a medium format film camera so think over the winter might try some film stuff.’
What is top of your photography wish list?
‘A hard one, we all have lists of stuff we would like to own but are unable to finance it so I really am content with what I have just now, all I need to do now is learn how to use it.’
What kind of tools do you use for post processing? Explain your work flow. (Photoshop? Lightroom? Actions, presets?)
‘I use Lightroom for all my post processing I have photoshop elements as well but use LR the most. As for presets I have Coles crisp and clear collections, and Google nik collection. I really need to learn more about PS as I do struggle with it I considering upgrading to Adobe CC membership as the software has moved on since I bought mine.’
How do you educate yourself to take better pictures and improve your own work?
‘You Tube a great tool for learning stuff, I’m not really a book person, but set the Ipad up next to desktop and away you go.’
Among your images, do you have a favorite? Why? (Please show us)
‘The close up of the razor bill I borrowed a 500mm pro lens, so with the crop factor it was 800mm. It’s pin sharp, this is an area of photography I would like to explore more, will need to start saving for a good pro lens.’
Whose work has influenced you most? Please tell us who inspires you.
‘Another difficult one, as I said before I don’t really read books so I guess I maybe should start and get some guidance, I don’t read books because I find time a problem, I never seem to have enough of it.’
I get inspired by looking at pictures on groups, then I say to myself how can I do that differently, but I struggle as most groups have photography far better than I could ever do but the fun is to keep trying and never give up.’
What is the one thing you wish you knew when you first started taking photos that you feel is invaluable now?
‘Another hard question, when I first started it was all film and mostly B&W for self-processing, later on you could process color but you lost control of final image. So I wish we had digital 30 years ago I feel the delete button is invaluable now LOL!’
Give us three random facts about yourself..
‘I have driven coaches in most country’s in central Europe as of 30 years ago.’
‘I drove the cabinet of Mrs. Thatcher’s government to the gulf war memorial in Glasgow.’
‘I hate rap music I won’t go into a shop playing loud music, if I see a picture on a wall squint I have to sort it!’
Thank you David for being our second SBP spotlight artist and for being such a great SBP supporter and judge! I hope you all enjoyed this peek into David’s photography journey so far! ~ Lynne
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