ScottCapture

Q. What is ScottCapture?

Basically, it is me.  It is my online presence for my photography. Why? I hear you ask, well as much as I like my identity and the name my parents bestowed to me, Paul Scott is not the most unique of names and a quick google search shows that my many namesakes cover everything from book authoring, comic writing, politics, football (Burnley and Morecambe), driving instruction, web design and also another photographer (with some great photos), so in the spirit of independence, I've created ScottCapture as my online vehicle to promote my photography.

Fetch!

Q. What photography?

For years now I have loved taking photographs, looking at photographs and the process behind capturing an instant that can last for ever.  I love still images and I really love good still images, where the photographer can tell a whole story in a single image, without the need for dialog or explanation.  I love photography that moves you, takes you back, makes you think, widens your knowledge, makes you happy or sad, but mostly that provokes something in you.  It can be a candid couple holding hands in the street, or children playing that reminds you of yours, or you at that age, it can be a view of somewhere that looks like somewhere you've been and the memories of when you were there, or even an abstract that makes you question what it is, but they should all provoke feelings and make you think.

Wandering through the vines

So I steer away from photographs that are staged, set, constructed and contrived,  not that there isn't a place for this and not that photographs such as that can't generate all of the feelings above, but I prefer the art of capturing something, someone, somewhere as it is.  I want to share what I see, and how I see it, and not create something that only really exists in the photograph.

Q. Seriously, you, creative?

Yes, I know, for those of you that studied art at high school with me, you will remember that I could barely draw a box, my greatest success in design was a pen holder, and I am lethal with a paint brush in hand.  But I could always see what I wanted to draw, make or paint, I just couldn't get it from my mind to the paper.  Until I got a camera.  For years, I took rolls of 24 exposures on a little point and click and waited for a week to get them back from the chemists. I moved on with a Konica ZUP80RC, which is where I started to learn about ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture, a bit anyway.

One of my early works

But my career was to take me into computing, developing software, building applications (and this was also a creative outlet), and running a business.

I had been through many digital point and clicks loving the ability to capture the image and do more with it now it was on my computer, this is my world.  But my world changed with my first DSLR, a Canon 350d.  The speed, the flexibility, manual mode!! Me making decisions before pressing the button and changing the outcome.

Derwent Water

Q. And Now?

Yes, now, after a few years taking lots and lots of pictures, I'm now taking my passion seriously.  I'm not doing weddings, or portraits in the traditional sense, I have no studio and don't want one.  I have my camera (now a Canon 500d), I have a few lenses (my favourite is my prime 50mm 1.8), and I have a flash (just in case), and again I now get out of bed in the morning with enthusiasm to go and take pictures.

Nice weather for ducks!

So, what next?

Good question, I'll get back to you.


p.s. Thanks to Sam for the inspiration for the blog!