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In this installment we get to learn a little about Jim, aka Mistyisle.
Tell us a little about yourself and your photography journey.
Thinking about impending retirement I decided to take up photography as something creative to do. It has been an excellent choice and apart from a few odd days when I, like most of us, get doubts about our ability, I have enjoyed every moment. Taking the photos and processing them. The time goes when I am processing , I just get so absorbed.
I started off with a Panasonic Lumix bridge camera. Later purchased my first DSLR, a Nikon D60. Now I have a Nikon D5200. All three I have found really good. I looked around for inspiration and get a lot of this from watching activities such street musicians, street theatre, events and just walking around. Joining the local “Photographic Society” has been excellent in getting to know what it is that makes a great image.
I have recently grown into a special love of monochrome and noticed this week that the three photos I got ready for assessment were all in that medium.Where do you live?
The North Shore of Auckland, New ZealandHobbies and interests?
I am in SeniorNet tutoring some odd classes here and there. SeniorNet is a voluntary organisation, where basically “oldies” like me tutor other “oldies” a great variety of the uses of computers and hand-held devices. At the moment I tutor Facebook and Picasa. I go to the gym fairly regularly. Like the theatre and go with my wife to Art shows. We jointly own half of a motorhome with another couple – time/share. Particularly in the summer months we take off for two months and drive around New Zealand. This provides great opportunities for taking a great variety of photos.How long you have had an interest in photography
I just turned 72 a few days ago. As I only took up photography about two years before I retired, this means I have now been a keen photographer for nine years.What got you interested in photography?
Before retiring I decided that I wanted an interest that would be creative but which I could continue in regardless of my age. The fact that you can do post-production using a computer program was a great bonus as I have enjoyed using computers and software for many decades.What is the best advice you received so far regarding photography?
Take lots of photos including from various angles, not forgetting to get low down. Use Lightroom (as well as Photoshop Elements).How do you maintain inspiration?
By continuing to learn, both how to get the most from my camera and also from my post-production. The latter tended to predominate in terms of time so I am now trying to redress the balance.What is your favourite subject to shoot and why?
Street photography as you do not know what is going to happen next. People and their activities and engagement in these are never ending sources of inspiration.Do you have a favourite type of photography?
Street, as just mentioned, and all things that interesting looking and unusual people are engaged in. Sometimes just the people themselves (not portraits).How would you describe your photographic journey to date?
Erratic and evolving.Self taught?
Largely, but with the huge assistance of books, magazines, and the web.Formal training?
At SeniorNet we have a Photoshop Elements course and also a workshop. A group of us have been going now for 5 years plus. Recently we have also added plugins of the Nik Collection and Elements +. Our group often uses authors such as Mark Galer and Scott Kelby, using their teaching projects.Do you have a Mentor?
Each month we can put forward two images in out photographic club for assessment. Changing judges each month so this is great feedback. Additionally, recently a small group of us are meeting the week before club night to discuss our images and one very experienced member takes the lead.
Additionally, I cannot emphasis too much on what a great resource Light Stalking is and how the members help me. Am truly humbled and grateful.Are you currently involved with any photography projects? If so, what?
Changing the catalog of my images over from Photoshop Elements 11 Organiser to Lightroom 6. To date I have relied on memory as to where my 29, 500 photos are in the folders, however, while that has worked pretty well until now, the task is getting harder. So now I am keywording these 29,500 images, quite often with multiple keywords.If you could only use one camera/lens combination for a year, which would you choose?
Am happy with my current Nikon D5200. I want to do more street photography and therefore would choose the Sigma 17-70 2.8 to 4 lens. It would be tough not to use my Nikkor 18-300 lens for birds etc, but given the choice…..
What is your favorite image right now?
Too difficult to choose !!!I tried to choose one of mine that I liked more than the others but cannot decide therefore here is my most successful in competition. It gained a “Highly Commended” in our premiere National competition (or Salon), very recently –
Someone else’s?
This changes weekly but most recently I was captured by these photos taken by a Hong Kong man in the 1950’s. I saw them in a newspaper but here is a link I have just found
http://www.boredpanda.com/hong-kong-street-photography-memoir-fan-ho/Is there a photographer that inspires you?
Despite my not being a landscape photographer, the monochrome work of this artist astounded me when I saw it in a gallery. The archival metallic paper also seemed to give his work a special appealWhat is your biggest challenge when it comes to photography?
Finding the time to get out there and take the photos. When I get out there I just enjoy it. You have to make time to do it.Is there anything specific you intend to learn or improve in your photography?
I intend to do more composites and to develop my skills in this area. Also want to do some macro, but will just buy close-up filters for this.If people want to follow more of your work where should they go?
I have many previous photos on Photo.Net but have not added many recently as the feedback in Light Stalking is much better. The images I have on Flickr are almost wholly just to put on here. It strikes me that I should really set up a website or look at what others do about this.Provide links to 3 or 4 of your favourite images that can be displayed with the interview
This is one image I love “Virtual Collision?
Really love these two, which I think better than some of my A Grade work
and last, but certainly not least
CC: @albirder, @tersha, @kent, @simonparks, @erik-fransman, @chispook
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- https://www.flickr.com/photos/77592844@N04/albums
- Allows Edits: No
@frogdaily- Posts:3393
Allows Edits? No“I intend to do more composites and to develop my skills in this area. Also want to do some macro, but will just buy close-up filters for this.” … I too like compositing and macros – look forward to seeing your photos as you develop your skills.
Nice to learn a little more about you ..
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Hi Jim,
Good journey. As you prove, a journey does not have to be long to be good.
You could not be living further away from me. When I was a kid, we fantasized that if I would dig a hole in the ground, and kept on digging in a straight line, I would finally end up in New Zealand.
Did you have this kind of silly fantasies too? (Ending up in Holland 🙂 )
It always made me want to go to new Zealand.Touring New Zealand in motorhome must be fantastic, shooting the most amazing scenery along the way. Good choice, photography and motor homing. Luckily you can catalog your images along the way.
I should be better at that too. That is to say, with my digital images. My analogue negatives I have neatly stores in negative sheets and if I am looking for a negative, even from 30years ago, I can usually find that within 10-15 minutes.
I understand that Grant Sheehan’s pictures are an inspiration for you.
Thank you for your comments and involvement on LS.
I do hope I will have so time in the near future to start digging so we might meet. That would be great. -
Hi everyone, really great to get such nice feedback, but not surprising, as this is Light Stalking after all. Such a great mini-community. If you are ever in Auckland, then do contact me first, as Judy and I can probably (if we are not away in the motorhome) show you around. Our cafes, for coffee, are second to none. Even better than Melbourne ! Though Melbourne eateries are just so varied. Judy and I can take you up a very young 800 year old volcano, a marvelous subterranean aquarium (first in the world), a marvelous harbour cruise. I could go on, … and on… yawn !
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- elinlaxdal1
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/40843248@N07/
- Allows Edits: Yes
@elax- Posts:4773
Allows Edits? YesNice to meet you Jim.
No images from Milford Sound, of Milky Way as seen from Church of the Good Shepherd, Lake Pukaki or Wahariki Beach and you live in NZ ? Maybe these sites have become a cliché in the eyes of NZ photographers, but to us your antipodeans they are very attractive.
Pals of mine moved to NZ recently and have rented a house big enough to host half of the Icelandic population – so we have plans to visit next winter (your summer) – look immensely forward to it. Any non-clicé photographic landscape wonders you can recommend ?
Love your streets and candids.
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Hi Elin, You make very good points. However two things stand in the way – (1) In New Zealand we do become blase about good scenery, it is everywhere. Beaches that in Europe would be covered by locals and tourists, wall to wall, everyone claiming their spot. Here, we can go to a magnificent beach and there may, or may not, be other people there. Just so many ! (2) There are so many people excellent at landscapes worldwide, that I find that I cannot compete, or find my niche. Added to being blase about landscapes, then it is a no contest. What really excites me and keeps me going is photography which is spontaneous and can include street, candid and architecture.
When we visited Siem Reap in Cambodia, which is known world-wide for the Anchor Wat temples, I thought, nice, but …. okay. However, when I went to the floating village nearby, then that really excited me. So, Elin, in response to your reasonable and not-unexpected query, my answer is that I respond to people and architecture. So far I am better with “people” but am concurrently learning about how to get the best from architecture. “Blowing in the Wind” — to paraphrase a marvellous poet ! 😀
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What a great idea to have a feature like this on LS! Jim, you inspire me about being self-taught. I love the 4 shots you selected, especially the 3rd one with the classic figure composited in. I’m fascinated by the potential for compositing. Your last shot amazes me (I’m not good with people shots) — it really captures the mid-air action yet is sharp. Thanks, Jim.
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Thanks for your comments, Anne, much appreciated. Re the composite, that would have been one of the very hardest, yet it progressed well. Maybe took about 20 hours. The car and building were there in the original photo taken in Hastings,New Zealand. i was just lucky to be there when the old car went through the lights. Initially I cloned out the traffic lights, road markings, burglar alarm etc, etc. Then I wanted to add something from the period, Art Deco. I remembered the mannequin from Ranfurly, South Island, NZ. Put it in and reduced the opacity. The upper left then looked a bit bare, so I challenged a friend from Hastings as to what I could put in there and he said a biplane. The rules of our photographic society are that you must not use someone else’s image, it must be yours. I find a biplane in an event in Glenbrook Field Day that I took, reversed, resized and voila !
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