A Licentiate of the Royal Photographic Society, Mark has been making images for many years and has a special passion for landscape photography.
"Traditionally, I have always used a digital camera to capture my images and, to be honest, I’ve generally been pleased with the results. In 2005 however, I had some time on my hands and decided to visit a local gallery by well known landscape photographer, Joe Cornish. This was a pivotal moment in my sense, and enjoyment, of photography. I was mesmerised by the flawless quality of Joe’s images in print. Not only are his compositions delightful to the eye but the clarity and detail of them are of a level I had never witnessed before. I subsequently found that Joe uses a large format film camera to produce these fabulous prints. Since this encounter I have spent a lot of my spare time (and expense!) in pursuit of attaining this level of ‘Photographic Utopia’.
In the Summer of 2007, I had the opportunity to purchase a second-hand Ebony Field Camera from Professional Landscape Photographer, Steve Lewis. These cameras are totally manual and have no electronics to help you in any way, which is why I took the opportunity in the first place, to enable me to truly learn about photography (digital does make you quite lazy at times!). These cameras have large screens that you view under a ‘dark cloth’. However, the problem is that the image is upside down and laterally reversed. To add insult to injury once you load the film you cannot see through the screen any longer!
So why do I use one of these antiquated cameras? They create a transparency image of 5 x 4 inches. Due to this large format, the detail that can be achieved, as well as the gorgeous colour pallet, has to be seen to be believed - Images are truly stunning. The biggest advantage though, is that I can create gallery size prints well over 30 inches if I wish with no loss of detail. Many of my stored images on my computer exceed 65 million pixels!"

Credits
"Many thanks to all those that have given me encouragement and support over the years. In particular, Joe Cornish and all the staff at Joe Cornish Galleries in Northallerton - www.joecornish.com. Joe has been a great source of inspiration to me, a charming man always willing to divulge his [extensive] knowledge on the subject of photography - his enthusiasm is infectious! Thanks also to Steve Lewis - www.landscapesofwales.co.uk, whom without his initial tutoring on the Ebony Camera and Large Format I would still be figuring out how to set up the darn thing!! Also, my ‘big sister’ Linda, for encouraging me every bit of the way - her house is my gallery! And finally to my wife and kids for putting up with me disappearing at odd times of the day to get the ‘best light’!"