Bajan Sun Magazine - Caribbean Entrepreneurs Vol1 Issue 7 | Page 105

BAJAN SUN Bajan Sun Magazine Gavin Hinkson Q & A Gavin: with What would you say to young aspiring photographers? There is so much I could say that I don't think there's enough space but I'll give two points. Don't give up, EVER! Never stop shooting, and while you're doing that, take your camera (or a camera) everywhere with you. Experiment, look around you and keep training your eyes. You'll always see work from other people that might make you feel like you're no good, but try to remember that everything you do is your own form of expression. Don't compare yourself to others, just try to be better than you were the day before. Secondly, learn to understand light. Photography is all about light; try to understand where it's coming from, how intense/soft it is, and what effect it has on the things you see. If you can control the light, you can learn how best to achieve what you are setting out to do. What gives you the edge over other photographers? My eyes. Seriously speaking now, I don't think that any photographer truly has an edge over another. This depends on whether you think that photography is solely an expression of yourself or whether there are set rules on what makes one image better than another, and even then, that is still subjective. I think what then separates us would only be our experience/knowledge that we can draw on to achieve what it is we want to. What do you look for when setting up a frame or about to take a photo? I look to see what doesn't belong, or what can detract/distract. I look for where the light is coming from and what it doing, and most importantly, I try to look for what the point of the image is – what it is I want my viewer to pay most attention to. I think that this can be the most difficult part, finding things of interest sometimes. Is there a secret to good photography? That's a broad question that can never be answered definitively I find. It then depends on what your idea of good photography is. For me, I like images that not only impress on me visually, or have an impact, but are also technically strong. So the secret then would be to not just understand light, but also to understand how best to use the tools you have at hand and to try to insure that visually, what you take a photograph of, carries interest, whether it's in its shape or color, or texture or just because of what it is. For more information on Gavin Hinkson and Sunset Isle Photography, please visit: Sunset Isle Photography Facebook page as well as website: http://www.sunsetislephotography.com. www.bajansunonline.com/MAGAZINE/ | [email protected] | @BajanSunOnline SEPT 2014