THURSDAY 13th JANUARY
A Project Based Approach to Photography
DAVID KEEP ARPS MPAGB FBPE EFIAP
Chesterfield based amateur photographer David Keep belongs to Rolls Royce Camera Club of Derby and approaches his photography in a very different way to many club members. He tackles it with military precision and in his talk he described how he attacks each project in order to build an image with the WOW factor.
David is passionate about photography and sees it an an art form. He considers himself to be an image maker, not a photographer, and feels that the photograph that comes out of his camera is just the starting point to creating the image he had set out to achieve, he calls the process he uses ‘reverse engineering’. He does not, like many of us, rely on luck, so takes control by setting up a project and following it rigidly until he has his end result. He openly admits that sometimes this can take a couple of years, but he is happy to go with that in order to produce something that creates impact and shows not only emotion but also tells a story.
David often gets his ideas from other photographers, not wanting to copy them but just get a thought on where to start, at this point he can visualise his final image. From here he has to plan how to get an ‘in’ into the venues that will allow him to take his photographs. Once ‘in’ he builds up a relationship with his subjects and gets a ‘one to one’ for the shoot. With something ‘in the bag’ the post processing can then begin.
He walked us through three of his projects detailing where he had the idea for his image from, how he got his ‘in’ to take his photographs and then demonstrated the post processing he used on the image he had chosen from the many he had taken. His final works of art were stunning and it was extremely interesting to see how he could make an image really stand out head and shoulders above the rest. He left us with just four words – visualise : plan : shoot : process.