Questions

5 Questions for Nathan Pask Photographer

Today we bring you an interview with photographer Nathan Pask. I’ve known Nathan for a year or so now and met him through his flickr stream where he is more widely known as bigcrustyape. Nathan is a UK based photographer (although originally from Oz) with a history in the graphic design industry, he now works as a freelance photographer whilst completing a post graduate course in Photography.

He is an uber talent and also a bloody nice chap to boot. Hopefully you’ll enjoy this little delve into his head in what will be the first of a series of interviews with awesome photographers who possibly should be world famous!! If you are looking to hire this awesome talent or just want to check out more of his work then I suggest you start over at his website and follow it up with a visit to his flickr stream. Seriously this guys worth keepin’ an eye on.

Helena (by Nathan Pask)

photographywired (PW): When did you start taking photographs and what made you want to keep taking them?
Nathan Pask (NP): I’ve been shooting pretty much for as long as I can remember. I got my first camera given to me by my folks when I was about 7 years old. It was a Kodak Instamatic pocket 60. It was one of those flat looking rectangle cameras that you put the disposable flash cubes on the top. I’m pretty sure my mum picked it up from a second hand charity shop. I loved it! It went everywhere with me. The excitement I had as a kid sending my carefully finished film off to be processed. I would be sleepless till it arrived back a few days later. The rush of opening that pack and staring at the stack of slightly curved glossy prints, the sweet smell of developer and fixer creeping from the envelope. It was a joy! That rush and excitement still hasn’t left me even after 27 years. Even with things gone all digital now, I still get as much joy downloading and flicking through my shots in Adobe Lightroom as I did back then. I guess I started taking my photography more seriously when I was about 18 and I started getting paid for shooting about 5 or 6 years ago.

PW: What do you enjoy shooting most (and why)?
NP: I think most photographers go through stages of what they enjoy shooting most. Currently I am loving working with people. Been doing a bit of portraiture, but predominantly beauty and fashion. I come from a Graphic Design background and producing a piece of design is a real team sport. It goes through a lot of hands before it gets anywhere near the public and all the cogs along the way are essential to it’s success. With most photography, you fly solo but with fashion its given me the buzz of having to work with a crew of assistants, make-up artists, hair stylists, wardrobe, models and the client or fashion designer. Every shot is a collaborative effort and when it gels (or doesn’t), it really shows in the results. There is a huge element of surrealism when shooting fashion too which is great fun. It’s only limited by your imagination and of course your budget. But mainly, I think it’s just getting back to having human contact again, being part of a team and all creating something special together. › Continue reading

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Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 Interviews 5 Comments

What Software Do YOU Use?

Well love it or hate the birth of digital photography means that using software as a post-processing tool has become more common than tap water even for the average joe (or julie) in the street. People either use their choice of software for simple tweaks like cropping and colour correction or they unleash the beast and use it to take a image to new levels, compositing various images into one masterpiece and letting their imagination run wild with the available tools.

Since taking up photography as a major hobby (obsession?) I’ve switched over time from mad and crazy post processing experiments to something of a lighter touch. I now try and make better use of my subjects, camera, environment, and accessories and strive to get the image I want straight out of the camera but it’s still common for me to tweak images and apply colour treatments and crops. For this reason my main post processing tool of choice is adobe lightroom. I do still have photoshop installed for those moments when I want to let my imagination run wild! So what is your software of choice when is comes to post-processing?

We are interested in what tools you use the most. There are lots of choices out on the market these days from free online tools like picnik all the way through to fully loaded costly applications such as photoshop. I’ve tried to list what I expect will be common answers to this question for you to vote on below but please leave a comment with a bit more detail of how and why you use your choice of software and also let me know if I’ve left any out.