"I started taking photos because I wanted people to see what I had seen... I was about 10 years old at the time and was using a Kodak Instamatic 126. By my 16th birthday I was using 35mm film and trying out different techniques to get a unique result. However it wasn’t until the advent of digital photography that I really got the chance to experiment. Nowadays I can more or less make people to see the image I want, even if it’s not entirely right when I take the photo.
I was born in Surrey but have lived in London for about 15 years, 13 of those in Islington. Living in London you can’t ignore its pull when it comes to the creative arts, and photography is no exception. I love the Thames and many of my London shots are taken on the foreshore when the tide goes out. Most landscape photographers will agree the best time for taking shots is either at dawn or dusk – down on the Thames this is no exception as the break in the buildings is a great lead in for the sunset or sunrise indeed. Lately one of my shots won a competition organised by Thames21 and next year they will be using it in their calendar.
My tools of the trade at present are a Canon 5D mk2 and usually my Tamron 11-18mm wide angle lens. Effects wise I always take three exposures which can be used as a blend later and sometimes use graduation filters to help pull the sky in more. At home I use Lightroom to view my images and Photoshop CS5 to process them. It’s true that some of my shots might seem a little surreal but I think not unreal and that’s what I am trying to convey. Images that drag you into the scene for you to explore with lots of interesting components.
Advice wise these days I’d say learn Photoshop or another image editing piece of software – learn it well and never over process a shot. Composition is key when it comes to good photography and without it a picture is sure to fail. Try to take photos without effects – you can always add these later in processing but never can remove them if added at the time of taking the photo. Advice for taking shots on the foreshore – always know the tide times and always respect your surroundings."
You can see more about Ray on his website, or check out his flickr stream
And you can have a look at previous posts in the series here.
