Entries are coming in for our photo competition. Here one of our judges, Elly Ross, explains how she became hooked on photography
I first became interested in photography when studying at Ipswich Art And Design College. I was presented with the opportunity to work in a darkroom for the first time and the wonder of seeing photographs appear before my eyes soon had me hooked.
This inspired me to specialise in photography when I went to study for a BA (Hons) in Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University. Once again, I spent many happy hours in the darkroom manipulating negatives and photographic prints to create interesting works for my degree show.
Like many photographers, my love of the darkroom and the processes that go with it made me slow to make the transition to digital (I didn’t want to give up the darkroom lightly!).
However, over the last seven to eight years I have fully embraced this new technology and take great pleasure in learning new skills in this area. I use photographic sites like Flickr to see what other photographers are doing and find this helps drive me to be more creative and imaginative myself.
Probably because of my Fine Art background, I prefer to take a more informal and creative approach to my photography, rather than meticulously planning and setting up each shot.
What I consider to be my best work tends to have originated from a feeling that there is something worth capturing in an everyday setting or situation which isn’t apparent to the casual observer.
Photography is my passion as it allows me to translate how I see the world.
Competition sponsors
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- Click here to send in your entry to our York photography competition
- Find out more about Elly and her work by visiting her website
- See more of her photographs on Flickr