David IFA's photostream  

Since the age of 17 and my first SLR, a Minolta X-300, I have always had an interest in photography. My day job is an Independent Financial Adviser, though it is more accurate to say that I am really a frustrated photographer.

After 20 or so years using film and being convinced that digital cameras were not as good as their film counterparts and wanting to experience a different and superior medium to film, I had a brief spell experimenting with slide photography. Slide film has a very narrow exposure latitude so I ended up bracketing, reducing a 36 roll of film to 12 exposures! This of course wasn't financially viable, so after being persuaded how good the sensors of modern digital cameras now are, my wife bought me my first Canon DSLR. I haven't looked back since.

The ability to take hundreds of pictures provides a great experience to improve skills. I have recently realised that candid street photography is probably my favourite past time, often taking pictures of interesting subjects from a distance with a zoom lens. I thought a new approach where the subject knows they are being photographed, having asked their permission first, may produce different more portrait like results, still in their work or social environment and allow me to take a photo that I otherwise may not have captured.

Recently I approached 7 strangers in the street and asked their permission to take their photo, unbelievably, all 7 agreed! I then discovered a group dedicated to this practice and my current personal project became part of a wider global project called 100 Strangers.

Please have a look through my photostream. I would appreciate any constructive criticism to help me improve my photography and am equally happy if your comment is positive or negative as it's the best way to learn, so don't hold back!

Feel free to contact me at dbiic@hotmail.co.uk

Please follow this link for my current project. Thanks for looking.

www.flickr.com/photos/independentfinancialadviser/sets/72...