Attention Practising Photographers!

[Turbo Lag]

As part of an assignment for school, I've been asked to 'interview' a practising photographer, to ask one some questions.

I would like some fairly in detail answers, but nothing too long and boring either. Just a paragraph for each question is fine.

The four questions are as followed...

1) Who is this photographer? (Name, country, just a couple of very general details)

2) What inspired the person (you) to work in the photographic medium?

3) What may be the favourite subject matter?

4) What type of equipment has been/is used or favoured?

Any extra info you provide will be taken as well.

After this, I will have to compare (and visually analyse) one of your photos to this. Please submit any shot of yours you think is appropriate to compare.

I will be quoting your answers, your name and email address. If you don't want to post these here, just PM me or something, anything will suffice.

Massive respect to who ever can help me out with this.

 

[Boffin]

I'm on it.

Watch this post.

Even though I'm not a pro.

 

[GilesGuthrie]

1) Who is this photographer? (Name, country, just a couple of very general details)
Giles Guthrie. 37-year-old father of four from Edinburgh in the UK.

2) What inspired the person (you) to work in the photographic medium?
The realisation that photography is far more than amassing a library of snapshots. That the creativity in the shot is what makes you go back to it. I have two photographers who have really influenced my work: Darren Heath (F1 photographer) whose images come closest to conveying the contradictions of F1. Second is Reinhard Klein, who combines beautiful rally cars and landscapes in an amazingly "right" collision of the natural and unnatural.

3) What may be the favourite subject matter?
Motorsport. I'm trying to get more into street photography as well.

4) What type of equipment has been/is used or favoured?
Canon SLRs. Film, then digital. Currently using a 1d Mk III and 5d.

Any extra info you provide will be taken as well.
I'll send you a shot and an e-mail address to quote later.

 

[Mugen_1]

I joined just to help you out haha.

1) Nick Quigley, 22, student at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. I'm in some photojournalism classes and occasionally will do pictures for the student newspaper, the Daily Egyptian. Mostly I shoot for my own reasons and post them to forums of related topics.

2) The need to preserve history. I explore and photograph tons of abandoned buildings and industrial decay, knowing full well that one day, they'll be torn down, forever gone, not to be remembered by the next generations. I feel it important to keep a visual record of the day. A person I credit as a huge inspiration is Tom Kirsch, founder of opacity.us. His work is amazing, and it's what brought me over front point-and-shoots to DSLRs.

3) Abandonment and industrial decay. Anything that's old and broken, especially if "no trespassing signs" are present.

4) I use a Canon Rebel XSi 12.1 MP DSLR. I have the 18-55 f/3.5-4.5 kit lens, a Canon 55-250 f/4-5.6 zoom, and a Canon 10-22 f/3.5-4.5 ultrawide zoom. I borrow the Canon 70-200 f/2.8 L-Series, 17-35 f/2.8 L-Series and 300 f/4 L-Series from the University. The 2.8 lenses are fast and provide excellent color and sharpness, being Canon's "top" lenses. I don't use flash. Ever.

5) Samples of my work:

http://www.opacity.us/forum/index.php?topic=12059.0
http://www.opacity.us/forum/index.php?topic=12425.0
http://www.opacity.us/forum/index.php?topic=12716.0

Hope that helps!

 

[Syntax error]

1. Achilles Zsolti, hailing from Australia. 28 years of age. Father of one. Employed currently work for Harley-Davidson and also a part time motor sport photographer for over two years now. I am currently an accredited photographer with the Confederation of Australian Motor sport and I shoot a fair bit for a few media groups on motor sport related topics.

2. My Grandfather who was an avid photographer. He gave me my first SLR, a Minolta XG-M. I still carry one of these Minoltas around to this day. My Grandfather was also the one responsible for teaching me to develop photos. That is where my love for it comes from. My inspiration is drawn from many sources but at present I’m really enjoying photos from Mark Rebilas. He is a US based sports photographer who usually covers events such as NASCAR, NFL, Baseball & the Olympics.

3. Anything with an engine. I specialize in motor sport and spend an inordinate amount of time on race track around the Sydney region of Australia. I love motorsport and I love photography, so what better way to combine the two.

4. I am currently using a Canon 1D MKII & a Canon 5D. I have a fair few lenses ranging from 14mm up to 500mm. I really love the 5D’s sharp crisp image quality and large sensor however I can’t fault the speed of the 1D. I would like to get my hands on a 1DS hopefully towards the end of this year as it really would be combination of the two I currently have, full framed like a 5D but with the speed of the 1D.
I’ll try and pick a few shots for you but if I don’t respond back in time, all my shots are on my blog & flickr account as well:

Blog: http://www.blog.achilleszsolti.com/

Business: http://www.racetrackphoto.com/

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/21859683@N03/sets/

email: inquiries@achilleszsolti.com

 

[Turbo Lag]

Thank you to GilesGuthrie, Mugen_1 (Welcome to the forum!), Syntax Error and also 80Y 2C2! All of the answers were very useful to me, and also a friend of mine who happens to need the same information. The way it stands; it looks like all of your answers will be used in some way, so the extra replies helped.

Extra thanks to Mugen_1 for signing up to the forums just to reply to this, cheers. 👍

Once again, thanks for replying to this, some of my other classmates were unlucky to gain contact with some photographers and were let down. Knew I could count on you guys. 👍