Mark Byard In Focus

While Mark Byard, also known as Crystalpics, has graced the monthly readers' photo gallery on more than one occasion, SoGlos.com discovers there's more than meets the eye to this Gloucestershire snapper.

So, who is Mark Byard?

I’m 48 years of age, I was born in and still live in Gloucester. Previous employment took me to all four corners of the Gloucestershire borders, so I am familiar with most towns and villages in the area. My current job is in Cheltenham, however, so I’m intending to get back out and about in the town in 2009, armed with my camera of course.

You clearly have a love for photography. How did you get started?

In the 70s my dad used to use single and twin reflex cameras and developed negatives and prints in our own darkroom at home. As a 12-year-old lad, I helped with developing black and white photos. At 15 I bought my first 35mm SLR and had learnt all about AP/TV/DOF/flash and so on from dad. I also owned an old 35mm Canon EOS500N in my late 20s. I then lost touch with photography altogether as it was too expensive to keep up, and time had become more precious as I was now supporting a family.

So, what camera and equipment do you use now that you’re out snapping again?

The closest I could ever get to a digital camera was looking at them in the magazines. Recently though, my older brother kindly handed me down a Canon 30D. In terms of lenses I have a 10-22mm, 35-80mm and a 100mm prime lens ideal for macros. I also purchased a Manfrotto Tripod along with some software. I cannot say I’m new to the game here, more re-learning the skill set, but digitally this time.

Gallery of pictures from Mark Byard

Out of the 10 photos you picked for the gallery, which is your favourite and why?

Fragrant Wood is my favourite. This is nature at its best, so many bluebells clumped together leading into the distance – it really goes on forever. The trees also offer some protection against glare allowing a better saturation of colour.

Do you use any image editing software?

Adobe Elements 6 and Photomatix Pro 3.

Are you a film or digital advocate?

While most professionals still use 35mm film or slide film, restrictions do apply and ‘all the work’ is done in the camera before developing. This is how I learnt to get it right – in the camera, not with software! Today I prefer digital photography though, purely because it allows a lot more flexibility with what one is trying to achieve. The ability to view or delete images in the camera is an obvious plus.

I still try to apply the above rules though, doing all the work in the camera so that very little should be needed in terms of touching-up with software, but with all new toys such as Adobe Elements comes personal flare. I am still learning hyperfocal distances and testing my lens capabilities however, and love playing around with the software anyway.

How have you developed your skills?

Understanding cameras and processing is a family tradition I guess, and through books. All digital SLRs seem to apply the same rules. No matter what the make or model, they all have the same style of controls, and it’s experimenting with the different ISO, speed and other settings that’s exciting.

Historically, despite not owning a digital camera at the time, I purchased digital magazines and studied the software, looked at photos people sent in, the data, how images were captured and how the camera displayed this data – with jargon like ‘FORMAT’, ‘RAW’, ‘JPEG’, files sizes, histograms and ‘DPI’.

Oh, and of course, I learnt from my brother who just so happens to own mega-kit and is a computer software designer/ programmer. I guess that’s how I have developed some skills over the last two years, reading, noting, reviewing and now trialling.

If you could photograph anyone who would it be?

I don’t usually do people and try to crop them out of most shots! I do use them if they make a shot come to life and make for a good composition. Having said that, there are so many things to capture, maybe it’s just that I have not yet got around to practicing with people yet.

What’s your favourite Gloucestershire location?

There is more than one, although as I have always lived in Gloucester the Cathedral is first choice – particularly because of childhood memories. Others are Cannop Ponds in the Forest of Dean, and villages in the Cotswolds which I haven’t yet snapped.

Do you have any top tips for budding photographers out there?

Experiment, and experiment some more. For me there is no such thing as a poor picture, just a bad recording of what I see. Think of what you want to shoot and the lens you may need, return to the same spot later in the year, as light has a way of making a scene look so different. If I take 20 pictures, I might save four and delete the rest. Don’t hold on to what does not really work.

In early morning or late evening the light is not so strong, and duller conditions are good for framing flowers in the garden and so on. Try framing a shot within a shot – such as just a few rocks rather than a whole beach.

I used to make hasty decisions viewing pics in the camera and deleting them, but I prefer to wait until I get home to the computer to view them now. Some snaps I took at first looked dull, but I managed to crop and produce a shot within a shot that didn’t turn out too bad in the end.

I guess if you stood ten photographers in a line to view a landscape you would get ten different pictures. We all have different perceptions. This is what makes photography so exciting.

You can see more of Mark Byard’s photos on his Flickr profile, flickr.com/photos/zackeryright/.

SoGlos.com
3 February 2009