Written by Belle (Year 10)
I first was inspired to take up photography when I was going through a collection of photographic slides that my Grandfather took.
He was the Chief Cartographer of the Ordnance Survey before and during World War II and was a very skilled artist and photographer (my mum tells me stories of how they’d go out for walks when she was a child and he would keep asking her to run through the wheat field until he got the ‘perfect shot’).
For the GDST postcard competition back in 2016, I was inspired by one of the photos he took that won a substantial prize (I’ve forgotten which one exactly). It was of three nuns walking down a beach and he had painted the black and white negative and coloured the sky and the sea with vivid abstract colours. After that, I became fascinated by photography.
When we got our little dog Mavis in 2018, I loved photographing her and when I got home after our walks I would sit down and go through the photos editing them. Eventually, when I started my GCSE Art course my mum gave in and got me a NIKON DSLR camera for my birthday. I love using it as there are many settings that change and improve the appearance of an image dramatically.
“I truly suggest to everyone ‘on the fence’ about photography to try it out as it doesn’t matter how good or bad you think you are, there can be a meaning hidden inside an image.” – Belle (Year 10)
