Roy's Photo Box
About - Roy Gibson |
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Photography has been my pastime for most of my life, and while I have other interests, it has always been the main one. I enjoy taking Photos, and then making Prints, I enjoy looking at good Photographs and I enjoy talking about all sorts of Photographic Subjects. |
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I am Roy Gibson. I grew up and spent the first 50 years of my life in Glasgow, but I now live in the attractive town of Ayr on the West Coast of Scotland, where my wife, Georgie, and myself have just retired from running a Guesthouse.
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Ayr is a very Historic Town with many connections to King Robert the Bruce and William Wallace, although it is perhaps best known as being the birthplace of our World famous poet Robert (Rabbie, Robbie) Burns.
I have been a member of a number of Camera Clubs. I first joined Shettleston and Tollcross Club (in the east end of Glasgow) about 1961, and learned how to print in the Club Darkroom.
I was an active member there until I got married and moved to Croftfoot in the South Side of Glasgow, in 1969. 3 years later we moved house to Giffnock - just South of Glasgow - and then again to a larger house in the same area. I never lost interest in photography, but was not really active for about 10 years. Once we were settled I joined Eastwood Photographic Society, about 1980, and got back into Competitive Activities.
During my time there, colour printing at home became practical, and I got hooked on that, and soon built a permanent Darkroom complete with Hot Water into part of our Attic. Since then, I never really produced anything other than Colour Prints, and almost always from Negative Film.
I think that my Photography improved most, after I was lucky enough to gain membership, of the Scottish Photographic Circle. - A Prints only Club with a maximum of 40 members, which has included most of the best Scottish Photographers in its ranks at some time or other.
It is necessary to submit a panel of 6 Prints, for assessment, and 2 thirds of the Members have to agree the work is good enough, before Membership is offered.
The improvement was due to the stimulation of having to compete against the real experts, to get an acceptance in the Circle's Annual Exhibition, or be expected to resign. Compared to the Scottish Circle, ordinary Club Competitions are totally stress free.
I do not now consider any of the Prints from my Application Panel, in 1982, to be nearly good enough to include in my Galleries.
In 1990, I again moved home, another bit further South and West, and am now a member of Ayr Photographic Society.
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I had always used 35mm Film Cameras. In the 1960s many Competition Judges used to say that it was not possible to get Exhibition Print Quality from 35mm, (it had to be large format), but because I never put any details on the back of my Prints, I managed to get acceptances.
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Since the early 1980s I had been using a Nikon FE Camera, which was always set to Manual Exposure, and gave very good quality results.
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Georgie, decided that she wanted a Digital Camera for Xmas 2004, she choose a Fuji S5500 (4Mp & 10x Zoom), and joined the Camera Club She insisted that my Photography was needing a boost, and that I should also get myself a new Camera. At first I did not agree, but eventually gave in to her insistence, and early in 2005, I bought a Nikon D70 with the 18-70 Zoom Lens.
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I had thought about an Autofocus 35mm Camera, but decided that the time seemed to be right for Digital, and that I really needed to move into the 21st Century. I had intended to use both systems, but once I started getting the sort of quality I wanted from the D70, my FE system became just a "back - up". I added the Nikon 80-400 VR Lens and an SB600 Flash, to complete the outfit. |
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However, I have since sold on the D70 and upgraded to the D300 with a 16 - 85 VR lens . It really is a fantastic Camera, a little bit heavy but very easy to use, and produces superb high quality Images. The metering functions will work with my non AF lenses from the Film Camera.
There is no chance of me wanting to get a Full Frame Camera, because I like the extra Tele reach available with the APS size sensor, and I get real Wide Angle at 16mm. |
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With the 35mm, I had been getting the Film developed, but not printed, and the Negs were then scanned into the Machine, for editing and Printing. I still have very many negatives on file which have never been printed, so my output may continue to be from both sources.
Like most people, nowadays, I produce my prints on an Inkjet Printer, an Epson 1290. I made my first Digital Print in Jan 1999, and have never used a Darkroom since then. It is not really any easier to get high quality results, but it is a very much more civilised way of working.
It took some time, and a fair amount of research, but I am now getting Digital Prints that are equal in Quality to my "Wet Darkroom" Prints.
The real benefit of Digital is that Identical Duplicate Prints and different sized versions can be produced very easily. They can be saved onto Cds, or sent through the Internet, and A.V. Shows are possible by using a Digital Projector.
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