Introduction

Welcome back to yet another issue of Talent-Interviews! Aimed to be featured each first weekend of the month to showcase the Talent of the month, Talent-Interviews will... Yes, Interview our Talent and find out a little more about him/her!

This monthly issue is also tied to 'Talent-Scope', a concurrent issue featuring amazing Talents each month.

This month's Talent of the month!

We've had REALLY awesome talents going around this scene in the past 5 months this has been around and i'm glad to say that this month's Talent is not only a crowd favourite in the HDR and Landscapes Scene, but straight up community loving in every manner of ways!

He's no stranger to contests, coming in 1st and 2nd in the HBC wild space photographic competition in 2008 in the black and white category. And then picking up 3rd place in the colour section. He also came 3rd in the Brindley Art Gallery open art competition in 2008, the first time a photograph was placed. In 2008, he also came in second in the Nationwide Sunday Express "Wish you was here".


Ladies And Gentlemen, I give to you, Mike Shaw, A.K.A =morbidthegrim!!!


Talent-Interview


=morbidthegrim! Thank you so much for taking your precious time to come and share your experiences with us!

Hello! Thanks for taking the time to do this and for considering me for it.


So let's just get right to business shall we? Before we begin with the full load, I think it's always great to find out how everything happened in the beginning! So, tell us Mike, how did you stumble on dA?

It was an old friend of mine, he is no longer active here due to a lot of personal problems, he told me to come on here many years ago from another site but I was not very active artistically so I just never bothered. Then I picked a camera up and decided it would not hurt to try the place out, been here ever since


Now, tell us again, purely out of curiousity...what's your profession?

I'm a process technician for a large chemical firm.


You're a what?! Well actually we did hear you there. ha! But with all those competitions you've won, why haven't you decided to jump right onto the photography professional bandwagon seeing how it could do you so much good?

Its hard I suppose, I know I get paid every month in my job and I suppose its something of a comfort zone, I need the kick to make me get out and about and do it for real but with having a young family there will always be the worry of paying the bills and looking after them. The current economic climate is not doing many favours either, when things get tight people have to cut back and for the majority buying art work is not a real priority. I have been asked to do wedding photography but its not really what I want to do, I feel I would be selling my soul if I did, I know its weird I have done the odd portrait now and then but not a lot. If things had to change then I may well be forced to make that step one day.


Certainly insightful Mike! Now, we're going to go just a tad deeper. You're well known as a brilliant HDR specialist in a good load of your photos. But for the benefit of the community who probably won't know what the hoot HDR is, mind if you defined it for us?

Nice easy question
High Dynamic Range, does what its says on the can really It’s a process that allows you pick up and play with details that have never been seen before in photography, it allows you play with different ranges of exposure within an image not normally seen by the human eye and thus you can drag details out of an image and show. The process though is only as good as the user


Well defined! Now, seeing how your HDR works have drawn much attention, how can one improve or begin their journey into HDR?

One of the things I say to a lot of people that ask me is never use HDR as the be all and end all of your image, its should be used as an enhancement and not a replacement, HDR will not improve a poor image, a poor image is bad no matter what so if you are not happy with what you have from the camera, walk away from it. I know from my own experience that when artists first stumble upon HDR they go nuts, by trying for the wow factor you can end up overdoing things. Then the end result just looks odd, you get attention for your image but it’s the wrong attention. You need to get asked “Is this HDR?” Once that happens you know you have the balance right as people suspect it has been used but its subtle enough that they have to question it.


Words of wisdom there Mike! Here's a little something to note... I noticed that you feature extremely talented yet unrecognised talents around dA on your journal once in a while. Tell us a little about that!

We all know how big dA is, when we all first came here we all knew just how hard it was to get noticed, the place gets flooded with artwork and its so easy to get lost and to simply give up, I remember when featured one of my images it made a huge difference and it made me all the more determined to stay and persevere. I know I’m not in his league (the man has over 40,000 watcher ) I think we need to make sure that if we are lucky enough to be recognised here we need to help out those still trying. This reminds me its something I have not done for a while, I need to pull my finger out


So here we are talking about bringing out some amazing underrated talents. Is there anyone you know whom you think has great potential in future in photography?

One I have been watching for a while that I think is very underrated is He is still new to dA but his work speaks volumes and he has a real eye for picking out details in his landscapes. He has a great way of framing his shots so the composition always seems to work, I have not seen a bad image from him yet.




Simply Awesome! So, you know, as someone who's been an inspiration with such amazing works and passion, how can other photographers step up their game and improve themselves?

Try things, never be scared of having a go, you have nothing to lose and in this day and age of digital photography its not like you are losing anything such as a roll of film. If it does not work you simply step back or delete. Remember that you have to get the image right from the onset, that’s starts with you putting your eye into the view finder. Before you press the button, look around, what will be in your shot? Its there a relationship between the foreground and background, is there something there you don’t what? Cab it be moved or can you take it out of the frame? Is there something that needs to be in the shot? Take fewer images, sounds daft but be more particular about what you take. Taking 10 good images opposed to 100 mediocre ones will net you a better result. Most photographers only use a small % of what they take, if I get a good shot out of 10 then that’s a really good percentage.


Golden words! You actually have a reply for every question! Let's see if you can answer this one!

Which came first? The Chicken or the Egg?

I would have to go with the chicken, after all the chicken nuggets don’t come from eggs


I'm at a complete loss for words on that one!

Oh dear, look at the time. I've held you up for so long, and especially to our ever-attentive guests! Before we go, is there anything you'd like to say to our loyal audience?

Just a huge thank you, I still question if what I do is good (we all do) sometimes it’s a great affirmation when I get a good response to an image and the members here have supported me so much, the beers are on me


Talent-Features
Without a doubt, one of dA's most talented HDR Specialists. Always humble and always giving back to the community as much as he gets from them. What better way to honour this amazing Talent by featuring =morbidthegrim today?

Ladies and gentlemen, once again, Mike Shaw, A.K.A =morbidthegrim!






This article was brought to you by =Timothy-Sim

Other Issues:
Talent-Scope - Issue #1
Talent-Interviews - Issue #1 - =Grant-Thomas
Talent-Scope - Issue #2
Talent-Interviews - Issue #2 - =KatiBear
Talent-Scope - Issue #3
Talent-Interviews - Issue #3 - ^Helewidis
Talent-Scope - Issue #4
Talent-Interviews - Issue #4 - *TallJohn