fatdeeman's photostream  

My name is Dave, I live in south Wales, I spent the first 20 odd years of my life in Southampton.

I love taking photos, I'm not great but I'm gradually getting better, although I've been doing it actively since 2004 I don't go out to take pictures nearly as often as I should, not even once a month most of the time! I'll never improve at that rate!

I am gradually finding the confidence to leave the house more (I've always been stupidly shy and awkward feeling) but I still probably take my camera out less in a year than most of my contacts do in a month which I am trying hard to rectify.

I have a lot of cameras and lenses etc which are sorely underutilised which I aim to change.

I like to take photos of anything that catches my eye but I would say I have a preference for the abandoned and decayed, be it buildings or ships or cars, there's something mesmerizing in the colour and detail as nature slowly reclaims things. I also like horses, landscapes, industrial and architecture shots, I like most subjects really, the only area I shy away from is portraits, or at least up close candid portraits and that's more to do with my shyness than anything else.

I generally like my photos to be bright, contrasty and highly saturated, not to everyone's tastes but I like images to have punch. I'm also quite partial to sepia toning.

The weather here in wales has a tendency to be overcast a lot of the time and all too often I see that as an excuse to not take my camera out but some people on my friend list manage spectacular photos in overcast conditions so I will have to learn to overcome this. Having said that, I will always prefer the lighting of early morning and mid afternoon sun!


I use a Canon EOS350D as my main camera and still love it after all these years, I'd like liveview and HD video but I wish I could have it with the low noise sensor of the 350!

I also use a Canon PowerShot G3, an utterly gorgeous prosumer that while dated can still give fantastic results, this was the first "real" camera I had with manual controls.

I love using old manual focus lenses and I mainly use them on my Panasonic G1 where focusing is easy via the live view and EVF

I have too many manual lenses to list here but you can find some of them in the manual lenses collection in my photostream.

I love buying cheap lenses and seeing how they perform on modern cameras!

I also like buying those unloved autofocus lenses that always get bashed for being rubbish, in my experience they are often better than their reputation would suggest so in the alternative AF lenses collection on my photo stream you can find various old, cheap and hated autofocus lenses and see if they deserve the horrible reputation they get!

I do have a few expensive lenses too, I'm not an inverted snob, I just love buying anything that's old or obscure or just a bargain and seeing what happens when I put it on my camera, it makes life more interesting and I enjoy trying to squeeze the most out of a cheap lens to see what it can achieve.

Some people find that a waste of time and even become hostile in defending their expensive gear but they are totally missing the point of why I do it. You expect a £1500 lens to be good, a £15 lens is an adventure!

I run a blog called lens porn that also documents my trials and tribulations with all kinds of cameras and lenses both old and new, cheap and not so cheap!

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Copyright:

I don't mind if you share, repost and blog my photos for non commercial purposes but DO NOT modify or change my photos in any way without prior consent. You must also provide a credit and a link back to the flickr photo page otherwise you will be asked to remove the photo. I maintain the right to revoke this permission at any time.

I do not permit these photos to be used on commercial/corporate/business websites.

If you wish to use any of my work for profit/commercial purposes then please contact me via flickr but if you represent a profit making organisation then please be prepared to pay the going rates, I am not here to be taken advantage of by companies trying to save a few £ just because this is not my main job does not mean I am naive, I have made plenty of money through my photography so do not think I will offer my photos for free in return for promises of "free publicity"

I will pursue action against any commercial company using my images without permission. I have recovered fees from many companies and had my images removed so please be warned that I will not ignore such incidents of image theft.