Flickr: Viveca Koh ARPS

Please DO NOT use my photographs without my permission! Contact me and we can go from there, I am happy to do this if I know I will be credited for my work. MANY OF MY RECENT PHOTOGRAPHS ARE AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE VIA MY WEBSITE (www.vivecakohphotography.com).

I also really appreciate your feedback, so please leave a comment if you like one of my photographs, or even if you don't. I prefer NOT to receive the animated GIF variety though, I'd far sooner have your actual opinion on my photos than a flashing image!

I am passionate about photography, I simply love being out taking photographs. I am entirely self-taught, having started taking photographs when I was about seven years old, using my Mum's Box Brownie, progressing to a Kodak Instamatic, then an Olympus Trip, and have never stopped since. I have been using SLRs since 1982, when I purchased a secondhand Pentax K1000, which I absolutely loved. I later progressed to an Olympus OM4-Ti, with excellent spot metering and a number of lenses, but I haven't used it for years, having defected from 35mm film to digital with a compact Pentax Optio M20. All pictures pre-September 2008 were taken with this camera, which has done pretty well - particularly for close-ups on the macro setting, but I did find that landscapes (especially trees) suffered from bad fringing/artifacts and loss of definition at the edge of frame.

Bought my first DSLR in September 2008, still learning how to get the most from it. I've found that it's helped to have previous experience of a 35mm SLR, as I understand DoF, shutter speed etc, but there is still lots to learn and I would never feel complacent or that I know everything - I've made mistakes with my Nikon, but hope that I have learned from them, and trust that I will continue to do so. I really value all the comments from everyone here on Flickr, and seeing others' work is inspirational to me.

Since my first trip to Hellingly Asylum in April 2009, I have become hopelessly addicted to Urban Exploration, or UrbEx, i.e. getting into abandoned buildings and taking photographs. Asylums and hospitals are my particular favourites, but any decayed or rotting building will generally pique my interest. There is something compelling and fascinating about trying to capture the essence of a place once full of life (and in the case of asylums and similar, often not happy life) in a series of photographs, and to share with others who would be unlikely to ever see these places for themselves before they are demolished and another piece of British architectural history is lost forever.

Currently using:
Nikon D700
AF-S Nikkor 14-24mm f2.8
AF-S Nikkor 24-70mm f2.8
AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8
AF Nikkor Fisheye 16mm f2.8
Nikon SB 900 Speedlight
Hoya Pro Digital Circular Polariser
Tiffen ND 0.6 filter
Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX3
Manfrotto 190X PROB tripod
Manfrotto 804RC2 head
Gorillapod

Next planned purchase
50mm f1.4

Viveca's Venice By Viveca Koh ARPS Book Preview

Factory: A Pho... By Viveca Koh ARPS Book Preview

Left Behind By Viveca Koh ARPS Book Preview

Lost Asylum So... By Viveca Koh LRPS / ... Book Preview

New York Blog Ten Days in NYC By Viveca Koh LRPS Book Preview

The Manor A Photographic Record By Viveca Koh LRPS Book Preview

July 2010
My Photography Blog (See also link to website to the right)

Newsflash: August 2009 - just started a blog (oh dear, yet MORE time shackled to the computer) so if you find me mildly entertaining, please check it out:
vivaciousvphotography.blogspot.com

If you are interested in Urban Exploration, please check out the groups I administer:

Forgotten & Abandoned Items
UrbEx Crews
Then There Was One ...... UrbExing Alone
UrbEx Toxic Toilets