Ian Gostelow ARPS DPAGB BPE3* 

I have been taking photographs for more years than I care to remember. It all started when I purchased my first SLR, a Praktica MTL3 – a fully manual, mechanical film camera. I loved the control this gave me and I was hooked. I shot film for many years and the camera was upgraded to Pentax and finally Canon. I had my own darkroom; developing & printing black & white and developing colour slide film. 

After moving home I lost the convenience of a dedicated darkroom however, this coincided with the introduction of digital which I embraced early, greatly encouraged by winning a Canon digital SLR camera in a magazine competition.

I’ve always enjoyed photographing landscapes and the natural world but I prefer the quirky, abstract or more unusual compositions and like to use in-camera techniques such as long exposures or ICM.

I’m not adverse to a little post processing too and even in the darkroom would produce composite or manipulated images. In the early days of digital I really took to the possibilities of photoshop producing some quite surreal ‘imagined landscapes’ but more recently I find I prefer to spend less time on the computer. Apart from family I seldom photograph people.

I joined my first camera club many years ago and have been an active member of a club ever since usually finding myself serving on the committee in some capacity. I have had some success in club competitions and also in national and international exhibitions. I achieved the Distinction of the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (DPAGB) and more recently gained the Associateship of the Royal Photographic Society.

Currently I find I am moving away from the more formulaic images of the club competition and exhibition world and trying to develop a more expressive and personal style.