About Stan Farrow and his Photography

I am a photographer, living and working in Fife in Scotland, and have a major focus on fine art imagery. Although I do sell work commercially, I am also free to follow my own photographic interests, which is the best of all possible worlds.

I am a member of the Royal Photographic Society and hold a distinction from that organisation (an ARPS). I have recently been awarded two gold medals by the Photographic Society of America, and my work has been exhibited widely at national and international salons and exhibitions. 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 2009 I was awarded a Distinction by the Photographic Alliance of Great Britain (a DPAGB) for a portfolio of 15 prints.

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

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 now use both a Nikon D300 and a Nikon D200 which are a joy to use.

I have recently disposed 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 24-85 mm

Nikon 18 - 200 mm VR*

Nikon 70 - 300 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 the absolute in quality. However, more recently the 18-200 mm VR has taken over as a convenience 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.

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 often use gray graduates to hold back bright skies in my images. I often use polarisers too to remove reflections. At other times the UV filter protects my lens.