Janice Payne

I have enjoyed photography from the young age of about eight when my father, a keen amateur photographer gave me his old Box Brownie camera to take on our first family holiday to Italy.

Gradually moving up through his other old ‘film’ cameras until at the age of 16 when my parents gave me a Voigtländer Vito B 35mm SLR which served me well for a good 30 years or more, it is a camera that I still have today although it has not been used for many years now.

I was rather a late starter to the digital world, in 2007 after some life changing events and a renewed interest in flowers and gardens; I found that armed with my new Fujifilm ‘point and shoot’ compact camera I could combine this with my love of photography, close ups in particular. That camera was always with me fitting into any small bag that I may have had at the time.

Having decided to book a photography workshop holiday to France, I needed to take a DSLR which would give me more control over my exposures and depth of field and decided the Sony Alpha A200 with an 18-70mm lens would be perfect, once I knew how to use it!

Turning out to be such a success, one holiday led to several more and I found that being with like minded people led to me try other genres and styles, some were way out of my comfort zone but it also taught me about contre-jour lighting and I saw high key photography at its best for the first time, these are some of the things that still influence my photography today. I soon decided that I needed to upgrade my camera to the Sony A700 with a new 16-80mm Zeiss lens and a 70-300mm telephoto lens. I enjoy making small detailed shots and those of the intimate landscape around me, I believe my much earlier grounding in creativity and art has contributed to ‘seeing’ these compositions.

I am still spending a considerable amount of time with wild and cultivated flowers and the wildlife found amongst them. Gradually I have started to see the larger landscape vistas and how to make compositions from them. I remember standing with my tripod in Tuscany one day, looking at its wide open landscapes and big skies wondering how I had managed to get to this point from those earlier beginnings.

I occasionally use my Sony A700 with its array of heavy lenses, filters, reflectors and diffusers which all add to a weighty camera bag. Five or so years ago I purchased the Fujifilm CSC mirrorless XT1 camera being a lighter weight, I thought it was more suitable for carrying on those longer distances and I think it is, until I start adding some of the fabulous XF lenses, more filters, extension tubes and a 2x converter, to be truthful I think that bag is now almost as heavy but I really enjoyed using the XT1 as it has a similar feel to that of my old 35mm SLR. In 2018 I upgraded to the XT2 and its fabulous! my most recent addition is the 100-400mm lens which I love despite the weight.

I have been an active member of local camera clubs since 2007 and regularly enter club competitions; having had some successes that have led to competing in external regional competitions and exhibitions, all of which I enjoy. I find it very rewarding to work in panels and on bodies of work often forming ongoing projects.

I joined the Royal Photographic Society in 2010 when I obtained my LRPS Distinction and in March 2015 I submitted a panel of prints to be assessed for an ARPS distinction which I am very proud to say I achieved with the guidance and advice of many along the way.

Having been a member of the RPS Digital Imaging Group at Thames Valley for many years, I joined their committee in 2016 and was the Programme Secretary for six years which resulted in meeting many lovely people, photographers and presenters. My latest venture has been into the world of UPP - United Photographic Postfolios of Great Britain, which has led to being a Circle secretary for one of the small print circles - Circle 30 and more recently to become President of UPP, website found here https://www.uppofgb.com/index.html


Janice s Payne ARPS

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