Mike's comprehensive history — mike palmer creativity

The early days: ’62 - ’74

I’ve been taking photographs since I was a boy. My first memory was in the early sixties at the age of about 10 taking family pictures on holiday, Boys Brigade camp, and a still-life of an Airfix kit of the Queen Elizabeth liner that I’d spent hours making. My first prized possession was a Kodak Brownie and its black and white images were proudly added to the family album. At some stage in my teens I progressed to another camera - but for the life of me I can’t remember exactly when or what! However, it enabled me to progress to colour slides, and I remember buying the Fuji film, loading it into my camera, carefully taking selected shots as they were relatively expensive for a schoolboy, sending them away for developing, and then a few days later receiving a well packaged plastic box with my slides inside, and opening them heart in mouth to see the final result. I reviewed them in my hand-held slide viewer as I couldn’t afford a projector and screen - that came later. I was lucky enough to go to America with a school trip in 1969 and I still have the set of slides of New York, Washington DC, Niagara Falls, Toronto and Boston – rather limited with a square format, but a great record of the trip!

My interest continued over the next few years, including university. I was never a totally passionate photographer, joining clubs or being guided by mentors: it was one of a number of interests that I pursued. I was totally self-taught, subscribing to Amateur Photographer, reading books and going to occasional exhibitions, including Bill Brandt at the South bank. This was decades before the internet, so access to the world-wide web with its infinite resources was simply not available.

My first SLR: ’74 - ’95

During my last long summer vacation at University in 1974, I planned to tour Paris, Vienna and Rome by train for three weeks. I was a happy loner, quite ok travelling without friends – a great opportunity to meet new people and practice my photography in awe-inspiring European capitals. I’d learned about the benefits of Single Lens Reflex (SLR) cameras – no DSLRs yet - and after researching various magazines decided that I’d buy a Zenit E and 35mm lens package. This was a fairly basic camera but enabled me to expand my horizons, and a decent holiday job also helped me to splash out to get a small telephoto and tripod: it felt good changing lenses on the Champs Elysees and at the Colosseum! It was a step change, and the finished results showed some improvement in my composition and use of light, although a recent review of this collection suggests I could have done with more tuition in the fundamentals. I still used Fuji 35mm colour slide film, square format, and on my return, purchased a projector and screen, proudly showing off my results to family, friends and rather randomly, an interested group in my church hall.

Over the next few years I continued with my Zenit E photography, but with a demanding career, a growing family and other interests my photography consisted mainly of family shots and the occasional landscape: I still wasn’t developing my technique or any particular personal style.

Upgrading to a Pentax: ’95 - ’05

During the 1990s Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras were becoming more generally available. However, they were relatively expensive, and with little spare money, a large mortgage and growing family, I retained a rather purist view that film was still somehow more artistic than the electronic sensor. The idea of taking many shots, selecting the best, and then post-processing it to produce a finished image was rather an anathema for me at that time. I held the view that a carefully composed image with correct settings, and then the heart-in-the-mouth wait for the result from the developers was still the way to go. I’d had no experience of dark rooms, and little interest in what I saw as the rather dark art of developing. This I see in retrospect was a very blinkered view, but my available time, resources, and space, together with other hobbies, meant that my interest in photography was recording events and scenes in a different way rather than just taking snapshots, and sometimes I’d go months without taking a shot.

However, during the mid 90’s, and again after some research, I invested in a more up-to-date Pentax SLR. It was a package with a 35mm and 50-200m zoom lens and I started to find my way around this more complex piece of kit. I can’t recall very much, but as before, my style continued to be intuitive and opportunistic. However, a major holiday in 2001 included a safari to Kenya and Tanzania, and this was the excuse to invest in a 70-300mm telephoto. I remember purchasing 12 x 36 shot films: I was highly motivated to take many animal, bird, people and landscape shots, although none of these were planned. Due to a change in personal circumstances, I no longer have most of these pictures; however, I recently discovered about 30 images of Masai tribes-people in the loft and am quite impressed at my natural eye for their composition and human empathy.

Into the digital age: ’05 - ’18

Digital technology was improving all the time, although mobile phone cameras were still not high quality. However, when my Pentax malfunctioned, I had to defer a replacement for the next few years due to personal circumstances, but I still felt the need to take pictures. Over the next few years I resorted to “point and shoot” cameras, taking poorer resolution and limited artistic shots:

2005 Olympus u30D, S410D, u410D

2006 Agfa disposable GmbH & Fuji disposable SP-1500
2007 Panasonic DBC-LS2

Eventually, I became driven to embrace the digital age and in 2010 invested in the enthusiast/semi-pro Pentax K-7, which at the time was being acclaimed as a high value camera compared to other brands such as Canon and Nikon. One of the other main reasons for staying with Pentax was having my 3 compatible lenses. I wasn’t disappointed! However, being much more complex it took me a while to get used to even the basics, although its quality was tangible especially after using such basic cameras for the previous few years. I also purchased my first wide angle 16-45mm lens which has since become my “go-to” preference. My first serious shoot was on holiday in a beautiful hotel in the Canaries and I spent many happy hours with the detailed instruction book trying to master the basic settings, the wide angle and zoom functions. Reviewing these photos recently, I can see the improved quality of resolution and saturation of each picture, although some compositions could have been improved significantly!

Of course, along with the new skills required for the K-7, I also needed to decide how to process the images. My father-in-law had used Adobe Photoshop for years and it seemed very complicated for my purpose. However, the third version of Adobe Lightroom was being reviewed very favourably in the photographic press, and after further research I decided to take the plunge and purchased it: I never regretted it! For me, it not only offered a set of powerful functions to process RAW images, it also provided a process-driven approach which suited my organised nature. I’ve now used it for ten years and in that time Adobe has increased its functionality considerably, and of course it’s now a web-based offering which is continually updated. It’s not without its wrinkles and at times can be quite sluggish - even with my laptop’s enhanced RAM capacity and Solid-State Drive, but I’ve been able to create some impressive shots which have been greatly enhanced using this facility. Indeed, notwithstanding the fact that while I aim to get the best shot out in the field, I enjoy the post-processing creativity in my den almost as much as the field photography.

So, from 2010 until late 2018 I pursued my opportunistic, intuitive approach, and I confess I relied heavily on all automatic settings. I’m not sure why, but I didn’t have the drive, the inclination or the mental capacity to master the balance between ISO, aperture and shutter speed, so while most shots taken in everyday conditions were successful, I wasn’t catering for those times when low light, high contrast, or depth of field should have demanded at least two of the three settings to be manually set.

Transitioning: ’18 - ‘19

In October 2018, however, something changed. I went on a stag rutting trip at dawn on Exmoor equipped with all my lenses and tripod. I was in the hands of the guide, along with five others, and had made no opportunity to plan for the trip, relying as ever on shooting whatever presented itself in the optimum way. It was a perfect autumnal morning, mists rolling around the hills, the sun rising over the bronzed moorland and after a while two stags emerged from the woodland roaring to maintain control of their fifteen or so hinds. They were well away from our position and it was obvious my 300mm lens would be the only one up to the task. Even so, the deer still seemed a long way off and I had to be content with a few brown specks in the distance. I realised a longer lens would have been necessary to capture any detail of the stags’ bodies, never mind their heads and magnificent antlers. Particularly in the relatively low light of dawn with only the lowest f4 stop available, a higher ISO was probably needed, and while on my camera screen my shots appeared to be good, once I viewed them on my large monitor, I felt considerable disappointment at the lack of clarity and apparent poor focus I achieved. I processed these shots to death and while some of them are passable, only one reached my portfolio.

This experience set me thinking more fundamentally about my approach, my technique, the quality of my equipment, and the whole raison d’etre for my photography. Being virtually retired, I now had more time available and also had more inclination to master the basics; I wanted to take it to another level! So from then until the launch of my website in 2019, there were 6 stages in my resurgence:

Re-visiting the basics, understanding more about my camera, and testing my lenses
Reviewing others’ practice, techniques and skills via YouTube
Setting monthly projects and getting out there to practice
Practicing new techniques and habits e.g. scouting, less is more, HDR images etc
Participating twice in a local annual exhibition
Conceiving, planning, designing, and launching this website and my Instagram account

I was regenerating my basic skill level and “muscle memory” as well as spending much time learning all the facets of developing a website, having never done it before. I was also keen to start an Instagram account which at the time was seen to be the best general social media platform for photography, even leading to more subscriptions on my eventual website.

Going public and equipment upgrade ‘19 - ‘21

In November 2019 I launched the website, and in January 2020 started my Blog, which I’ve produced most months, covering various projects, techniques and reflections. I now have 35 valued subscribers many of whom provide constructive and helpful feedback. I’ve posted over 530 images on Instagram to date and have 190 stable followers from 18 countries, a few of whom have become website subscribers. This is the measurable output from the many hours of planning which were invested in getting the website and Instagram account off the ground.

Much more importantly, I addressed the necessary inputs of “practice, practice, practice” in the field, considering which projects to create, which techniques to develop and which subjects to shoot. Most of the time, the discipline of daily posting to Instagram and publishing a monthly Blog acted as great motivators for getting out there and creating images to share. Occasionally it could become a burden and I had to remember that my enthusiasm for photography is a hobby not a livelihood and unlike professional photographers I had the luxury of being kind to myself and sometimes not keeping to my own timetable.

As a result of 15 months of lockdown because of Covid, we couldn’t travel to see families in three parts of the country and made considerable savings in petrol and other costs, such that I was able to upgrade all my equipment to meet my anticipated needs for the foreseeable future: Pentax K70 body, two Pentax lenses, tripod and a quality filter system.

I established a rhythm and process that served me well until about June 2021. However, I was increasingly feeling that I needed to change, to challenge myself further, and consciously work more on my whole approach and style. While I was still motivated, I felt too comfortable and that my website and Instagram no longer reflected who I now wanted to be. Two things gave significant impetus to my much-needed transformation during July and August:

Attending the first weekend of the third year of a shamanic practice course, the first two parts of which I’d attended from 2013 to 2015. This enabled me to revitalise my spiritual roots, reflect on my view of the world and explicitly start to think about how to weave this world view into my photography. It also helped me realise that working on myself would subsequently help me to work on my photography – a subtle but important change of emphasis.
Viewing a recent video by Alister Benn of Expressive Photography detailing his approach to creativity in photography through five principles he’s developed from his extensive experience https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatchv%3D0UwzPyeLfq4. This spoke volumes to me and provided an ideal platform for the next stage in my development See Website Philosophy.

Looking to the future

I’ve re-booted my motivation and higher purpose for my photography and am “straining at the leash” to get back out there and put this into practice.

Since moving to Glastonbury eleven years ago I have done much self-exploration around the deeper me, who I am, why I’m here, where I’ve come from spiritually, what my life means to me, and how I connect with the universe and others. My recent revitalised approach to the more mysterious aspects of life together with discovering a renewed philosophy and approach to my photography have rejuvenated my zest for combining these to express my inner creative self. In 2019 I wrote: “So while I have no idea at the time of writing how this will manifest itself, I can declare that this is my intention as I move forward.” I can now confidently declare that I am much more sure about the direction in which I am travelling: as a landscape photographer who enjoys exploring the deeper meaning of every image created.

So, continuing to practice my new approach, skills, and processing will be at the centre of my efforts. To stimulate, motivate, and help me share this with others I will continue to evolve my website, monthly blog and Instagram account, but in a more focused way.

In whatever way you have played a part in my growth, thank you for sharing this process…

About me - in depth

“To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it!”