Hi there I’m Andy, my dad said “If a job’s worth doing it’s worth doing properly or not at all.” he was the senior keyboard technician for Steinway & Son in the UK, and the army taught me Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Like with anything I now do, I put my heart and soul into making sure all the planning and preparation are done to get you the perfect pictures that you deserve.
“One eye of the photographer looks wide open through the viewfinder, the other, the closed looks into his own soul.”
-Henri Cartier Bresson-
ALLOW ME TO TELL YOUR STORIES THROUGH MY LENS CAPTURING YOUR REAL EMOTIONS IN A PERFECT AND TIMELESS WAY.
I started taking pictures many years ago with my first camera, an Olympus Trip 35, and then, when I was nearly 16, my dad bought me a used Praktica Super TL3. Photography has become my art, which allows me to express creative thoughts and ideas in a way I couldn’t describe through drawings alone. I predominantly use Canon digital cameras. My passion for photography also extends to analogue, I have a few analogue cameras, these being my Canon 35mm F1 A1, AV-1 and EF. Alongside this, I have a medium format Mamiya 645 Super, Rolleiflex Type 1 and Zeiss Ikon Nettar. I feel that film photography can quite easily coincide and complement digital; for this reason, when possible, I try to add film to my shoots.
Being a professional photographer isn’t all about having the latest camera and lenses. Cameras don’t take pictures; the person holding the camera is responsible for the resulting picture. Any camera, just like the latest model computer, doesn’t function well without a person with knowledge and experience. In many instances, a professional photographer has one opportunity to get things right. You can never go back to yesterday.
“It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart and head.”
-Henri Cartier Bresson-
“Be influenced by everything, including the work of other photographers and artists, absorb it, pick the bones, steal what is good and make it your own. For it is your uniqueness that ultimately defines your work. Anything less is nothing”.
“The definition of a great picture is one that stays with you, one that you can’t forget. It doesn’t have to be technically good at all”.
–Steve McCurry–
Hi there, I’m Andy Photography isn’t all about owning the latest gear, it’s about the spirit and heart of the person behind the lens; cameras don’t take pictures. As Ansel Adams once said, “The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!” Never a truer word has been spoken. I would be the first to say I’m not the most technically proficient; however, what I lack in technical ability is made up for in vision and imagination and knowing what the right shot is.
To me, photography is not about the latest technology that the marketing department of the camera manufacturers puts out about their latest camera or the number of megapixels your camera has, unless you are blowing up your pictures the size of the biggest billboard. You only need to look at the work of some past masters of photography such as Ansel Adams, Robert Capa, Diane Arbus, William Eggleston, Irving Penn, the great Henri Cartier-Bresson, Tyler Shields and my personal favourite, Bob Carlos Clarke, to name but a few. Then you realise it’s not the camera that makes the difference, it’s the twelve inches behind it. Cameras don’t take pictures; they are just a tool to capture them.
Working in a studio is a great privilege and on some occasions necessary, but the great outdoors provides the greatest studio in the world. My passion is working with natural light, even on the brightest days there are always buildings or natural cover that work just as well as any softbox. You just need to know how to use them to me, that’s being technically proficient.
Knowing what your camera is or is not capable of is paramount, there is a flip side to that coin knowing and researching past great photographers and reading about their work and the driving force behind that work is equally as important. To me, I would rather spend time reading about the past and present masters and draw my inspiration from the great, from books, films or music videos to produce my best possible work for you.
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