purplemattfish's photostream  

I live in the UK on the outskirts of Manchester, when I have nothing better to do I work in IT, but I try avoiding that wherever possible.







Currently shooting a Canon 5D Mark II, I mainly seem to shoot with either a 16-35mm f/2.8 or a nifty 50mm You can see a shot of most of my other gear here although as I am a bit of a "gearoholic" that's subject to change on a regular basis.

In August 2008, as part of a deal with myself to justify the upgrade to the 5D, I started doing Project 365. In august 2009 I decided that 1 year was not enough and embarked on year 2! You can see the results of year 1 here and the ongoing year 2 here.



Q, Can I use your photographs.

A, Yes, the photos on this stream are licensed under a Creative Commons license. Provided the shots are not used commercially in any way shape of form, then you may use them for free. Although it would be much appreciated if wherever the photo is used you credit me with having taken the shot.

My camera history to date goes something like this: Some 26 years ago as a child of 6 or 7 I held my first camera, a box brownie. All I really remember is that it took photos which once printed were in a square format with white border. From there at about 8 or 9, I moved onto a my father’s old Voigtlander Vito CLR, I vividly remember turning the dials (probably the exposure) until the meter pointer on the top lined up. At some point I then got a Pentax 35mm film point and shoot. I remember using it a lot but I don’t know what happened to most of the film I shot with it. I next bought an Epson 3000EZ 3.1 megapixel camera, I took lots of work related photos, they were all mostly crap! At the same time I briefly flirted with a Minolta Dimage, but it was very laggy, often by the time it took the shot the moment had passed. For quite a few years I didn’t take many photos, but at some point in 2006 my friend Mark, who lives in Japan, got into photography in a really big way. When I saw the output that the modern DSLR's were now capable of I quickly plumped for a second hand Canon 300D/Rebel. 12 months later I had realised the shortcomings of the 300D and, whilst out visiting Mark in Japan, upgraded to a Canon 400D/XTi/KissX. The affair only lasted 11 months and, as with all affairs men have, usually ends when something else catches our eye. In July this year I had the misfortune of looking through the viewfinder of a 5D. I probably could have resisted the urge, but when I fitted my 16-35 it seemed criminal to put it back on the crop sensor camera. In August 09 I somehow managed to buy a 5D Mark II... I'm not really entirely sure how that happened... but I'm very happy with the results. Over the last 12 months I've been flirting with medium format film cameras. I purchased a Kiev 88CM at some point in 2009, and you can see some of the results of this flirting here