Martin Addison FRPS
I started taking photographs when I was about 15 and started to do it more intensively when I joined a camera club in 1970, since when I have never stopped and it has remained one of my most important hobbies ever since (the others being music and reading)
Initially I used colour slides and was awarded my ARPS in 1992 with a set of creative colour slides. I started making audio-visual sequences in 1977 which were presented initially on a two and later a four projector system. Now I create AVs digitally using Proshow Producer.
In 1992 I started printing colour images on Cibachrome and was awarded my FRPS in 1994 with Cibachrome prints. In 1997 I started using Photoshop, scanning slides for a few years before purchasing my first digital camera in 2004.
I was doing demonstrations of Photoshop fairly soon after I bought the Photoshop and continued to do so until a couple of years ago, but now I use Lightroom for pretty much everything. I have run workshops for Lightroom until fairly recently.
The other program I used extensively was Painter, originally Fractal Design and now under the Corel label. I started in 1998, not long after starting with Photoshop. This is a major program designed for artists, but which can also be used by photographers. I started demonstrating that program and frequently got asked for a book on it, but there wasn't anything which dealt with its use by photographers, so I wrote 'Painter IX for Photographers' which was published by Focal Press. This was very successful and I went on to write another three books for later versions of the program.
Apart from doing demonstrations, I lecture with my own images and have done so continually since my first lecture in 1979. Initially with audio-visual sequences, then colour slides, Cibachrome colour prints, digital prints and projected images. Having lectured for over 35 years I am now cutting down the number I do, partly because as bookings are often made over a year ahead, they get in the way when I want to go on trips.
My photography tends to be wide ranging, but I am perhaps best known for making images that are just that bit different. I love images that are not obvious at first viewing and I use movement, multiple exposure and close ups of unlikely objects to help me do that.
I have run several workshops on creative photography, which focus on how to see images which are not obvious. My current print and PDI talk is called 'Looking Outside the Frame' which emphasises that you should take photographs for yourself and not for anyone else. An alternative title which someone suggested recently is ‘Making the Ordinary, Extraordinary’ which reflects my love of creating images from unlikely subjects.
I enjoy making landscape images and tend to prefer the more intimate landscapes. City photography also appeals, from photographing people in their environment to the abstract images made possible by modern architecture.
I love photography and I like to pass on my enthusiasm and knowledge to other photographers.