How intrinsic is the computer to your lifestyle? It is 100% intrinsic to the way I work as a photographer and to what I do as a businessperson. I am looking to buy a digital back for a medium-format camera called the Leaf C-Most (see www.creoscitex.com/products/input/leaf/c_most.asp). At the moment, I shoot, scan in the negatives, then digitally retouch them with a company called the Shoemaker's Elves. I do still use conventional printing for some work because it can be less time consuming and it offers an element of approval that is better for some magazines. I estimate that in about a year's time I will be 80-90% digital.
I have started to use a company called Power Print, which does R-Type printing which is like an RGB (red, green and blue) print from a digital file. Nobody would know the difference! All the work you see in magazines has had some sort of digital work done on it at some point. There is now CTP printing (see www.prepressworld.co.uk/ctp) where you don't even make plates.
What computer are you using? A Mac Powerbook G4. I am getting another one specifically to use with my camera so that I can store the images as I shoot them. The back can store up to 100 really high-res images.
Is the net a good showcase for photographers? Definitely. I have about 1,000 visitors a month to my site, a number of which are potentially going to book me for a job. It is a great way for them to see immediately what I do. It is not essential that I update the site too regularly as it is more to give people a background to who I am and what I do.
I don't think you could have an exhibition online and I also don't think magazines are dead by a long way, but the web definitely enhances the media that are there.
Is there anything that you can't do with software that you would like to be able to do? No! I have just made life-size cats out of people for the Selfridges windows - the bodies of women with the heads of cats! I hasten to add that I couldn't do a lot of the strange digital tricks without the creative expertise of Colin Hulme and his team at Shoemaker's Elves. People are now beginning to realise that with the technology available you are able to do some really interesting work for a lot less money. It is still all about enhancing the original idea, though.
Do you have any favourite gadgets? My favourite gadget has to be either of the two digital retouching systems: Photoshop or Barco. I can ask people to do things with these who are artists in their own right. I couldn't take any credit for the things they do with it.
Do you have any favourite sites? www.confused.co.uk, www.amazon.co.uk, www.odeon.co.uk and www.yell.co.uk, which I think is amazing! We are running our site down as magazine sites are great, but the reality is that people want to use sites to buy things or to find things out_it is not a lifestyle thing.
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