Tim Jackson
My interest in photography was nurtured by my Grandfather from a very young age. I started off with a basic 35mm compact and often got told off for getting through lots of film, which my parents kindly used to pay to get developed for me!
Through college and university I developed my other passions for business and IT, and decided to purchase my first digital SLR camera and set up a freelance photography business as a side line to help me through university. While my career has focused on IT consultancy and Education, my passion for photography burns strong.
Photographic Interests
Over the years I’ve had quite a broad interest in photography and have dabbled in portrait, still life, abstract, wedding, macro and landscape. For quite some time I held a self believe that I wasn’t much good at landscapes, but in recent years this has become my favourite type of photography; learning how to use filters properly probably had something to do with that!
I spend much of my time with the camera capturing landscapes, cityscapes (including at night) and people. Having gone through a number of other cameras I am now shooting with a Canon EOS 6D. I’m also travelling around a bit more now so I’m pleased to be getting photographs of different locations, but the UK has plenty more to offer.
Favourite Location
This is a tough one, since I’ve been to so many photogenic locations and they are not always as far a field as people might think. We have some amazing landscapes right on our door step in the UK and I love exploring and photographing stretches of the South West Coastal Path. If you told me that I had to choose one last location to photography before hanging up my camera, it would have to be Iceland. The rich variety of landscapes, weather conditions, types of light and of course the Northern Lights make Iceland a photographers paradise. I’ve been twice and will definitely go back again.
Inspiration and Motivation
I get a lot of inspiration from other photographers talking about what they have done or tried to do. I spend some time every week looking at the work of other photographers on social media and in magazines and I read their blogs.
There are two things that really motivate me; the first is my love of nature and the outdoors. I particularly love being by the sea. I also have an adventurous streak going out at unsociable hours and enduring the elements to get the shot I want fulfils that side of me. The second is simply my desire to capture a particular image. I get told I am mad for doing what I do quite a bit. Most people find it hard to understand why someone wants to get up at 2am to climb a mountain in the dark to photograph sunrise, or to drive for 2 hours in the middle of the night to photograph the Milky Way and then drive 2 hours home. If it wasn’t for the sense of adventure and the sense of satisfaction I get from the images I come away with then I don’t think I would understand either.