Gary Rowan Higgins | Silent Street's photostream  

Studious with technique and detail, effusive, earthy outlook sums me up in a few words. But if you're the custodian of a long-serving, well functioning kidney transplant, like I am, you will naturally be impatient and irritable to an enormous degree with other peoples' incompetence, stupidity or blindness: I'm not fond of medicine but have to grapple with it to understanding the 'how, why and wherefore' of getting through three decades with a transplant without major mishap. To a large degree, my profound deafness (due to adverse events involving treatment with ototoxic drugs to control infection in 1974) has shaped who I am.

Long before picking up a camera, bicycles and solo long distance touring kept me active, enthused and independent as I wheeled through miles and miles of long open road. I finished that caper in 1997 for want of something more concentrated and that's where my photography started getting very serious indeed.

Though always having played with some sort of camera even from my very young years, photography for me started in earnest in August 1995 after a lacklustre 'first run' with transparency film on Norfolk Island. Dissatisfied with my work, I set about examining what I did wrong, utilising the "Three Rs" (Rote, Repetition, Refinement) to bring the standard up to where it is today — a far cry from the out of focus browsing cows, wandering ducks and gloomy grey skies so quaintly pictured in those records of 1995!

Over the ensuing decade-plus, investment in equipment and learning allowed me to develop professional skills and analysis. Oh yes, and I learnt to carry a heavy load, not to complain about it and accept loss and gains with equal clarify of mind. Yes, I've lost equipment. Yes, I've made fabulous gains by persevering and yes, it's been a wonderful journey.

My specialty is in low light such as rainforests shot on high- to medium- contrast filmstock (Velvia 40, Provia 100F) and the use of PC optics in the smaller 35mm format with technique borrowed from large format to manipulate focus and depth of field.

I have had many cameras over the years from all systems. The present system is headed by an EOS 1N and (latterly retired) EOS 5.

Always having believed in a fundamental understanding, of technical and practical grasp of traditional film-based imaging technique, I have happily blended film with digital in my imaging repertoire. The enthusiasm is always tempered; it's easy to miss a beautiful image that would look far better on a judicious choice of film!

The majority of images on this flickr are digital, shot with a Canon PowerShot G9 in RAW or JPEG. I do not meddle with images in Photochop.

Interesting people with backgrounds of great personal endeavour or having overcome adversity or illness can keep my attention for very long periods of time.

.:: GRH ::.
January 2011