About Stan Farrow and his Photography

I am a creative digital photographer, living and working in Fife in Scotland. My work has a major focus on fine art imagery. Professional? Yes, insofar as I do have commissioned work and I do sell my photographs commercially. However by far the majority of the work that you will see on this web site reflects my own current photographic interests.

I have been a member of the Royal Photographic Society since 2005 and I hold a distinction from that organisation (an ARPS gained in 2007). In November 2009 I was awarded a Distinction by the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (a DPAGB) for a portfolio of 15 prints. In January 2011 I was awarded an AFIAP distinction (Artist of the International Federation of Photographic Art). I have now had over 190 works accepted for international exhibition in more than 16 countries worldwide and have won several awards including five gold medals from the Photographic Society of America.

I held my first major exhibition of work in 2005. My second solo exhibition took place in 2007, and featured photographs of the Tay between Perth and the North Sea. My most recent exhibition was held in late 2009 and included landscape photographs of the American West. In November 2011 Grampian & Tayside Plant Heritage held an exhibition of photographs of their National Collections of plants that they commissioned me to take.

More recently I have been moving away from using photography in a strictly representational sense and have been looking for more abstract elements of colour, texture, and form. I also enjoyed applying an interest in modern art to my portraiture and other work, and much of my work is surrealist in style.

While my landscape photography has been influenced by the work of David and Marc Muench, Tom Till, Tom Murphy, and of course Ansel Adams, my more creative artwork has no external inflences. Here I am finding my own way (very slowly indeed!).

Ultimately this web site is just a showcase for some of my favourite images, this is reason enough to include them. I hope that you enjoy my photographs. I have certainly enjoyed creating them.

Equipment:

I am now working almost exclusively with digital cameras. My serious digital photography started with a Nikon D100 and a Fuji S2 Pro. I currently use both a Nikon D300 and a Nikon D300s, both of which are a joy to use. I also have a Nikon D200 which is converted for IR use.

I now also have a Canon G11 compact camera, which is small enough to fit in my pocket and goes everywhere with me when I am not carrying an SLR.

I have recently disposed of the last of my 35mm cameras, and it was like parting with old friends, although they hadn't been used for at least a couple of years,

I use a variety of lenses, including:

Nikon 50 mm f1.8

Nikon 24-85 mm macro

Nikon 18 - 200 mm VR*

Nikon 10 - 24 mm

Nikon 80 - 400 mm VR*

Sigma 17 -30 mm

My "standard lens" for a long time has been the Nikon 24-85mm , which boasts an f2.8 aperture and a macro facility, and I still turn to it when I want high quality. The 50 mm Nikkor is razor sharp and without any faults, and is ideal for low light situations. The 18-200 mm VR is also ideal as a convenience "go anywhere" lens. This never seems to be off my camera these days!

I also use a Manfrotto PROB 55 tripod that is awkward to carry, but which gives a very stable camera platform. When travelling I use a Gitzo "Traveller" Tripod that is very light, made of carbon fibre, and packs easily into a carry-on flight bag. It is very expensive, but is probably the only tripod that fits my needs for foreign travel.

Although I have recently addeded VR lenses to my camera bag, I am now a convert to these. Nikon image stablisation works well, and they enable me to work faster with more freedom. However using a tripod instils a certain discipline and forces me to concentrate much more on the image I am creating. It also allows me to use smaller apertures and slower shutter speeds than would ever be possible hand-holding my camera.

In my images I use a variety of filters. These include:

UV filters

Circular polarisers

Gray graduates

Warm-up

Neutral Density

Even with digital photography, it is best to get the image right "in camera", rather than to rely on corrections in Photoshop after the photograph has been taken. I occasionally use neutral gray graduates to hold back bright skies in my images. I sometimes use polarisers too to remove reflections. At other times the UV filter protects my lens.