Peter J Clark FRPS EFIAP/p APSA PPSA

My interest in serious photography began when I joined Cannock Photographic Society in 1982 and discovered the joys of monochrome. For the past 25 years or so I have specialised exclusively in landscape photography in both monochrome print and colour slide, in both the British Isles and the South-western United States and have exhibited widely in International Salons since 1987. I have exhibited by invitation in Denmark, France, Germany and Romania with monochrome prints and have an image ('Time and Tide') in the permanent collection of the Museum in Rheus, Spain.

 My philosophy of Pictorial Photography may be summarized as follows :  'A successful pictorial image will stand on it's own without the need for title or explanation and should include one or more of the following elements - impact, drama, mood and atmosphere. In my chosen field of Landscape Photography, which in my mind naturally includes Seascapes, I endeavour to meet these criteria by the careful choice of location, subject matter and composition, by the use of dramatic lighting conditions coupled where possible with heavy skies and, in Seascape, by the use of an appropriate shutter speed. In the digital darkroom these elements are enhanced through creative printing techniques.'

I was awarded the Fellowship of the Royal Photographic Society in 1992, the ‘Excellence’ de la Féderation Internationale d’Art Photographique - Platinum (EFIAP/p) in 2003 and, as a 5* Mono Print Exhibitor of the Photographic Society of America, the PPSA in 2004. In 2006 I was honoured by the PSA with the award of the Associatship – APSA for services to photography.

I judge at Club, National and International level and give talks and Photoshop demonstrations to photographic clubs and societies around the country.

Until ~5 years ago I used Canon EOS 1 and 1n cameras with Canon  lenses loaded with one or other of my favourite film stocks - Ilford FP4 Plus, Ilford Pan F Plus, Kodak High Speed Infrared or Konica Infrared for my mono images and Fuji Sensia  or Kodak Ektachrome VS for most colour images. I now use Canon digital cameras exclusively still with Canon lenses – the full frame EOS 5D with an EOS 400D as backup and a couple of Canon digital compacts. Rather than using  digital conversion to simulate infrared I currently use a converted Nikon Coolpix 5400, shortly to be replaced by a converted EOS 20D.

I invariably shoot all my images with the camera mounted on a Benbo Mk 1 tripod with a ball and socket head fitted with quick release - both essential accessories for any landscape photographer! In addition my prime camera is always fitted with a grid screen  to ensure level horizons, etc.

Sadly my darkroom days are over and I am now completely digital. For several years prior to his death I was privileged to collaborate closely with Eddy Sethna, one of the pioneers of digital imaging, who taught me much of what I know about Photoshop. Together we wrote two electronic books on Photoshop which were well received and a series of articles for the now defunct Digital Photo Art magazine.

The production of monochrome images of wet darkroom quality on inkjet printers was always a challenge and printing with black ink only on Epson 1270 and 1290 printers generally produced an acceptable, though not equivalent quality, but paper choice was limited. With the introduction of the K3 ink set and the R2400 printer inkjet monochrome printing came of age and the print quality is now outstanding and closely matches that of a wet print - some would say exceeds it.