About Me-Alan Cameron ARPS
A developing fascination
In 1969 when I was 17 my father gave me a camera - A Zeiss Ikon Contina with a 45mm f2.8 lens. Everything had to be manually set, aperture, shutter speed and distance. It had no meter and no rangefinder and the shutter speed ranged from 1s to 1/300s. I was hooked.
That summer I went to Germany armed with a few rolls of Kodachrome (ISO 25) and I managed to get pretty accurate exposures just using the guide printed inside the box. I still have the camera and I've been married to the young Scots woman I met there since 1974.
At university I acquired a Praktica L SLR with a wonderful 50mm f1.8 Zeiss Pancolor lens and with the 21st birthday present of a Pentax 200mm lens I continued to learn the craft of photography. During my PhD years I learned darkroom methods in order to print images taken using photographic plates in an electron microscope. I didn't have my own darkroom for many years, but the lessons learned stayed with me.
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In 1978 we moved to Nigeria and I used the proceeds of selling my Citroen Dyane to buy a Canon AE-1 and I've used Canon equipment most of the time ever since. It's not better than other kit, it's just what I'm used to.
Eventually I moved to the film based EOS system finishing up with an EOS3, but in 2007 I decided the time had come to move over to digital with an EOS 5D MkI, the first full frame digital SLR that I could afford. I moved along until I'd bought the 5D MkIV and several lenses. Then I decided that age meant that I wasn't happy carrying the weight of the SLR so I replaced it with a mirrorless equivalent. I now use an EOSR with a EOS M50 MkII as backup.
It is amazing that I've moved from using ISO 25 Kodachrome to get acceptable results to a point where the EOSR will produce excellent images at ISO12800, that's 9 stops difference. I can get images and video today that would have been impossible with film.
The Thieving Magpie
I've been asked about my photography and I have decided that the best way to describe me is as a magpie photographer. Much of my photography is done within a day's journey of home, and I adore travel too. Going around the world for work or pleasure has led to so many opportunities to capture places, people, cites, landscapes, seascapes and wildlife in all its forms.
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I don't have a specialist genre but I certainly enjoy creating images and books.
Part of being a photographic magpie is not just about capturing images that interest me, it's about stealing from Space-Time. To me photography creates visual memories by freezing an instant in the space time continuum for as long as the image is preserved.
Clubs and Societies
Over the years I've been active in camera clubs both in the Midlands where we lived for many years and then in the Blackpool area where we live now. I have been Chair of three clubs locally and for a number of years I've been a member of Poulton-le-Fylde Photographic Society. When Covid hit I was nearing the end of my tenure as Chair, but stayed on for another year while we navigated the pandemic.
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Modern technology has helped tremendously as we've had meetings over the internet using Zoom which has enabled us to cast our net widely for speakers from as far away as France and Canada, something unheard of before the world ground to a halt. It has been fun, but I'll be glad when we can meet again in person.
The Royal Photographic Society
I joined the RPS in the 1990s and achieved my LRPS in the 2000s. Over the years I looked for a subject for my ARPS.
Some years ago I joined the Contemporary Group in the NW of England and took over running that group some years back. With regional organiser came membership of the committee and in 2020 I had the honour of being elected Chair of the Contemporary Special Interest Group of the RPS. I have now stepped down from the Chair, but I remain an officer having taken on the role of Treasurer.
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Being Chair the Contemporary brought its own challenges and excitements, but close contact with talented photographers helped me to formulate a plan to achieve my ARPS.
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From July 2020 to Autumn 2021 I followed the team at Twelve Restaurant in Thornton as they coped with the exigencies of Covid. I produced a book of the experience and by selling this through the restaurant we raised over £600 for local Hospices.
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Prints from the project were submitted to RPS House in Bristol, and on 30th March 2022 I was awarded my ARPS in Documentary Photography.
Finally
I hope you enjoy my images. I've grouped my galleries into subject areas and if you have any comments, wish to acquire any images or hear one of my talks, please get in touch using the email below or as shown in the Talks and Contact page.
