I must admit that I am rarely a fan of winter. When it is cold & in Bavaria the winter is usually very cold I rarely get the chance to venture out in sunny weather to get those dreamy, snowy landscapes due to often very harsh conditions. It is seldom the case that the weather entices me out when the landscape is grey in grey. To get me outside by minus temperatures I need a blue sky with large helpings of snow & a few clouds to make the scene perfect. Unfortunately this happens rarely in Bavaria unless you are above the cloud line on top of a mountain.

To combat the winter blues I often set myself a project at home using every day objects in the warmth of my study to satisfy my photographic addiction with the hope of producing similar results as professional product photographer. Sometimes I even surprise myself with what is actually possible with the minimum of fuss. I have very little space & posess no professional lighting equipment other thaan my trusty SB900 flash & a couple of LED lights, everything else is makeshift & improvised.

Due to this lack of space & equipment I do rely heavily on my skills as a retoucher & this is where I enjoy the challenge in particular. I enjoy the challenge of getting things right by the lighting & shooting stage but also enjoy the post processing to manipulate the subject where I want it to be. Often this requires many hours of removing flaws such as dust & correcting reflection forms that I can’t achieve in camera but when it works I find the results very rewarding indeed.