Portfolio

Paul Jones LRPS

Born in 1974 I received my first camera as a present, at the age of eight; and I acquired my first manual S.L.R. in 1990. Most of my images are shot on 6x6cm S.L.R.s though I prefer to use 35mm for hand held shots. Between 1989 and 1999 I took thousands of photographs of Droitwich Spa and its surrounding villages. My passion for landscapes and architecture has continued, though I now tend to go further afield. It is my aim to convey the emotion I feel at a particular location into my images; to do this the location needs to inspire me, and I need to be happy with the light. Like many others, I dream of doing landscape/architecture photography for a living. I helped a novice to improve his photography, on field trips, several years ago. 

My book , The Poetry of the Image, which contains forty sepia landscape and architectural images, can be purchased at www.amazon.com 

I have also written and illustrated a historical guide to my local church, entitled St Peter's Church Droitwich, and a 193 page biography of the Victorian author "Rita" (Mrs Desmond Humphreys) - who is buried in Bath Abbey Cemetery - entitled Rita the Forgotten Author. These books are also available from www.amazon.com 

A few years ago I moved into large format photography; though I have now had to abandon this format (along with medium format) due to the high costs incurred. My salary will still stretch to 35mm, and so it is in that format that I continue to enjoy photography (35mm shots took on ASA3200 film having something of the impressionistic/calotype about them). I hope that my images appeal to others, in an aesthetic sense, (despite the fact that I have not sequenced them yet!).

A Rough Outline of My Thought Process:  1, Am I happy with the light or cloud formations?    2, What areas or elements do I want to include or exclude, and from what height do I want to take the photograph?    3, What do I want the image to say, or what sort of emotions do I want it to evoke?    4, Which lens will I use, do I want a sense of distance?    5, Colour balance, do I want to emphasize the cold or warm up the image?    6, Do I want to use any polarizing or grad' filters?    7, Is the image about colour, or would it work better in black and white?    8, Do I want the image to be sharp or soft, and what sort of depth of field/focus do I want?    9, If the subject is architecture, are the verticals correct?    10, Do I need to move objects around in the frame, remove them altogether, or add new props?    11, Do I want to deliberately under or over expose the shot in order to evoke a particular mood/atmosphere?    Finally, when I am happy with the composition and the poetry of the image, I take the shot.

A Few People Who Have Taught and Inspired Me, Through Their Books: John Hedgecoe, Charlie Waite, Immanuel Kant, Nikolaus Pevsner, Edwin Smith, Frederick H. Evans, Benjamin Brecknell Turner, and Marcel Augis.     

My other interests are, watching silent films (Such as Greed, The Crowd, or Metropolis), hiking, genealogy, local and general history, classical music, reading (especially, anything by Jerome K. Jerome, "Rita", or H.V. Morton), and writing.