CREATIVE CUTLERY - A photographers eye view

Martin Smith has been into photography as a hobby for as long as he can remember and around 10 years ago, whilst living on the Isle of Mull in Scotland he purchased his first DSLR camera to capture the many beautiful sunsets on the island. Unfortunately work came first and hobbies second and he never really got to grips with the camera as much as he would have liked. In 2012 he found himself in a position to be able to retire early and he and his wife bought a house to renovate and they retired to a small village called Stambolovo located in South Bulgaria where the couple now live. He has spent most of the last two years renovating their 80-year-old house and found the time to absorb himself into his photography a lot more. He sold his 10 year old camera and upgraded to the modern day equivalent. Although he likes to take photographs in any and all situations, he also found his creative flair and with the use of digital he soon found that he can produce some very creative images using smoke, water drops and macro but so can millions of other people and he wanted to apply his own style to his photography so he set up a small ＂studio＂ in his house and concentrated on producing thought provoking and conceptual images using only ordinary everyday objects. He found a set of bright green cutlery in a local shop and decided to create a series of images using this and other cutlery. He created the ＂plastic cutlery＂ series. Since then he has created his own style of fine art photography, some of which have since won magazine and contest awards. His equipment now consists of a canon 600D with 18 - 55mm kit lens, a 50 mm prime lens and a tamron 1:1 macro lens and of course a tripod. His studio is filled with all sorts of clamps, backlights, flashes, string, pins, blue tak, incense sticks, etc, and anything else that can be used to support, suspend or otherwise manipulate items into a creative pose. Although a user of photoshop himself, (who isn’t), he prides himself in using it to minimal effect as he believes there is no skill or merit in altering an image that is so far away from the original. His Quote＂ One of the good things about this style of photography is the ability to shoot whatever the weather and limited only by your own imagination＂. Most of his images and contact details can be found on his website, www.martinsmithimages.eu