» Photographer Spotlight: Kevin Meredith
Deeply inspired by Shawn Blanc’s Sweet Mac Setups, I’m thrilled to announce a series called Photographer Spotlight, whose aim is to bring center stage professional and amateur photographers to share their unique photographic point of view, gear and software used to capture their stunning photographs.
Kevin Meredith (aka Lomokev) lives and works as a photographer by the sea in Brighton, England and is best known for his award-winning lomography on Flickr and instructional photography book entitled Hot Shots which was released in the US in March 2009 and has been translated into Chinese, Spanish and Estonian.
The piece is an instructional book for everyday people and is intended to help them sex up their photography without being too bogged down in technical jargon. When he’s not photographing, which is rarely, you can find him blogging or Twittering.
1. How would you define your photographic style?
I always find that question tricky to answer. Whenever I get introduced to someone as a photographer, that is the first question I always get asked and I never know what to say. I just capture life as I see it. Nothing I take is set up and most of it is done with natural light. I suppose you could refer to me as a lifestyle photographer because of the way I manage to capture my own lifestyle.
2. What does your camera equipment consist of?
- I own a Canon 5D (sample)
- A Lomo LC-A. I have 6 because I lend them to people when I teach. (sample)
- I also have a lovely Compact auto focus film cameras the Nikon 35ti (sample)
- A Contax 2T. I have two of each but they are all broken down and it’s cheap to buy new ones from eBay that it is to get the repaired. (sample)
- I also use my trusted Nikonos V for my swimming photography as I believe it is one of the best waterproof cameras ever made. (sample)
- I shoot a lot on film so a camera is only half of what makes the picture. Film is very important to me. My three favorite films I use are pre-processed Agfa Photo Precisa (sample), the new Kodak Ektar 100 (sample) witch replaces Agfa Ultra (sample) because its not made any more and Kodak Portra 400 VC (sample)
3. What’s your post-production software of choice?
Adobe Lightroom all the way, and if I need to perform some heavy editing I will open up Photoshop but that’s only when I need to combine elements or move things around.
There is an ongoing debate about the use of Photoshop but I believe as long as it’s not noticeable that its been used, it’s all good.
When I got my new set up I was going to use Aperture but the software does not fix chromatic aberration. You get a small amount of chromatic aberration when using high-end Canon lens, so being able to fix it in a batch is must.
I also prefer that way Lightroom works when it creates a folder. Any change made done to a photo whether it’s moving them or renaming, it all happens in the operating system as well, which is reassuring in case anything goes wrong. I use it to organize all my photos including film photos. It is truely an invaluable tool.
4. Are you considering any equipment upgrades in the future?
Not really an upgrade to what I have just additions. I want to get a Canon L lens 24mm - 70mm f/2.8 and an Olympus pen EP-1 with a 17mm pancake lens. I rented a Canon 24mm - 104mm lens and that made me want an L lens.
I also had a Olympus Pen EP-1 for a week for a review I wrote for DSLR Users Magazine. It’s really sad for me to have the lovely bits of kit and then have to give them back after. I have not brought a new SLR lens for 4 years now. If I had a tone of cash I would get a 5D MRK II but for the moment the MRK I does me fine.
5. Share with us your proudest photograph?
That’s a bit tricky so I have narrowed it down to this one:
