While I’ve been taking more photos on film for various projects, I have continued to capture digital images for my stock photo portfolio. The differences in making and processing these photos has been striking.

Film photography has proved to be slow and considered, with the expense of film making me think out each frame. The bigger the format, the more time I’ve taken over imaging, processing and printing. Digital photography has shown itself to be fast, full of chance taking, repeated takes of the same image – leading to a huge amount of images to edit and a near-debilitating surplus of choice when deciding which image to take forward to completion.

I’m happy to continue with both. I love the practical, hand-on experience of analogue printing as well as the speed of digital processing. And, of course, the digital images are made for stock image portfolios. I do wonder how long I will keep up with both.

I mainly take photos of my own locality. I’ve found in my walks to shops, to work, to friends, that I see places and views that I’ve missed for years. I think of neighbourhoods that I’ve lived in but haven’t fully known: I’ve missed so much. Also, my neighbourhood is rapidly changing. Housing developments are on the rise. Parks have been redeveloped. Pavements have been widened and landscaped. I want to document it all.

I have used my film photography to document this, with a humble beginning in the form of a photo zine, a format I hope to return to and refine. I want my digital photography to look closer, to document the surfaces, speed and tone of the area. I experiment with blur, grain and colour in these photos. I hope that they can resonate with buyers.