EACH week we profile a member of The Northern Echo Camera Club. This week it's the turn of Jack Etheridge

The Northern Echo:

I am Jack Etheridge, 19 years old and from the Durham area, a beautiful place for both photographers and film makers.

The main inspiration of me doing photography was studying Media at New College Durham, although it was mainly film making I loved doing photography for the units we done this for whether it was researching the techniques or doing them practically.

My first camera I owned and the one I still use today is a Canon 1300D with a 75-300mm lens and the standard 18-55mm.

The thing I love to photograph is nature. I feel it has so much to bring with endless possibilities and doesn't need to be staged like portrait photography.

The photos I have here are my favourite photos because it shows nature in its true beauty.

  • A old, used blue fence. This surrounds an abandoned warehouse. This can show someone protecting their friends and family through thick and thin.
  • A park, this has shown years of fun, near a houses field can give anyone flashbacks to their childhood. 
  • This is a rock from the riverwalk around Durham. This is with a fast shutter speed to show the water droplets falling.
  • This is one of the first photos I ever taken of a leaf with shallow depth of field.
  • This is of a lonely flower in a field. One single flower in middle of a chunk of grass.
  • Impact! When I got this camera for my Birthday this is the first set of photos I had taken down by a stream. My partner throwing rocks into water for me to capture splash-backs.

My go to kit at the moment is my; Canon 1300D, lenses 75-300mm and 18-55mm, my tripod and either a person or dogs to accompany me on my journey either on the night or during the day.

I use PhotoShop but I have never edited my own photographs. I like my photos to reassemble nature of it's true beauty. I use PhotoShop to edit materials such as; leaflets, postcards and posters.

My advice for budding photographers is don't be scared, take every photo you can imagine, as long as you're proud of it that's the main thing. Don't compare your work! Experiment with different techniques until you find yours. This is how I found my love for Shallow Depth of Field.