Mark's Blog

Unusually for January, the first week of this year has been very mild and calm. I made a last minute decision to head out to the coast just south of Sunderland as my good friend and fellow photographer, John Harbron told me about this area being full of promise. I've visited most of the north east coastline at one point or another but this area was one I hadn't explored at all.  It was a rather quiet, mild and overcast day to be honest and I arrived thinking I would treat the day as a day for seeking out future opportunities than making an image. This might sound negative to some but I adopt this approach pretty much every time I head out. This way I'm never disappointed if I return without making a single image. I guess I learned this from when I solely used my large format equipment. This...

A few blogs back I promised to update you on my findings so far with using my new Nikon D800E. Since then I've had many requests and questions from fellow photographers asking questions about the D800E and in particular what I thought about my lens choices. Therefore, this blog (and next week's) addresses my reasonings for purchasing the lenses I did, my findings so far (now the honeymoon period is over) and my likes and dislikes compared to using a Large Format view camera. Before I proceed further I would like to add that I haven't ditched film altogether and have kept one of the two Ebony View Cameras I owned as I still enjoy the experience of using these cameras out in the field. Indeed, my intention is to experiment with other film cameras too in due course - in particular pinhole cameras and possibly medium format cameras. Lens choices...

Around three weeks ago I was running a two day workshop with Joe Cornish at Paddy's Hole - a small, quaint yet run down fishing harbour at the mouth of the River Tees. During the workshop one of the participant's batteries went flat and he didn't have a spare. I therefore offered to lend him my Panasonic Lumix G1 as we still had another couple of hours to go before last light. Delighted at this, we set it up on my tripod where we were located on the outer collar of the harbour, which is made up of sharp craggy rocks. We decided to take a breather and whilst I was talking to Joe and another participant, the wind got up and blew the camera and tripod over. The result of which was a shattered screen, torn rubber eyepiece and badly disjointed tripod socket. A total write off it seemed... or...

It's been over eighteen months since I visited the Isle of Skye and took this image of the Cuillins from Elgol. However, having scanned it using my Epson V700 scanner, I was always aware that I could glean just that little bit more information from the transparency using a drum scanner. In particular the left rock jutting into the sea, which simply blocked up in the shadows. I decided to call in to see Tim Parkin, the font of all knowledge with these things, who kindly drum scanned the transparency (along with a few others), so that I could get the very best out of the image. What I hadn't realised is that he is able to scan right to the edge of the transparency including the film name and black border of the transparency itself. I'd seen this done by a few photographers in the past and always thought they...

'Revealed Age' is another image from my excursion to Port Mulgrave last December. I was drawn to the deep golden rust of the corrugated iron which contrasts so well with the equally worn outer layer of years of paint.  On an deep, emotional level it metaphorically provoked the thought of the peeling of old skin to expose the natural beauty of age on the inside. On a shallower level, it reminds me of the cover of Jean Michelle Jarre's Oxygene album, which I still find stunning after all these years. Having spent the good part of a full day at Port Mulgrave I came away very happy that I'd done it justice - at least in my own way. I look forward to visiting it again soon for a different take. As usual this image and more can be seen in the Gallery area of this website....

Recently, I decided to take a run to the coast to do some close-up work. A genre that I am finding more and more pleasurable. Initially, I stopped at Staithes in order to wander around underneath Boulby Cliffs as the tide was out. Unfortunately, the only image that inspired me to get the camera out was being hounded by my shadow due to the sun being directly behind me. No matter what I did, this particular image just had to wait for another day. I remembered around six or seven years earlier visiting Port Mulgrave, just up the road from Staithes. It had been an early morning shoot that day I recalled and though the light was particularly good I just couldn't find a suitable image to do it justice. I remember returning from my journey rather despondent that day not having made a successful image. This was a time when...

I recently had chance to visit a lavender farm near Terrington, York a few weeks ago and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed experimenting with the new Lumix G3 camera I’d borrowed. It was the ideal camera for getting in among all the lavender and other brightly coloured flowers to make a few pics. However, it was a tad blustery and along with no cloud cover I knew it would be rather difficult to make anything decent here. After a good few hours and a rather nice coffee I decided to head for the coast as the evening forecast for anywhere else was dull and overcast. Whitby felt like a good idea but having recently visited there I knew any images from or of the piers risked a huge crane in the way (I believe they’re repairing East Pier lighthouse?). I decided therefore to take a look around Saltwick Bay....