Nick Rains – Photographer

I have been a professional photographer for 33 years.  While working my way through my Zoology degree I started taking house photographs for real estate agencies to earn a crust.  That was it, I was smitten and I have been ever since.

After completing my degree in the early 1980s I packed up a camper van and headed off doing stock photography assignments around Europe.  I have worked for lots of publishers over the years – Sports illustrated, Australian Geographic, Reader’s Digest and many others. I have shot sport, news, celebrities, industry, travel, fashion and portraits. I have also worked for commercial clients such as Shell, BBC, Orion, Ponant and the Australian Government. And yet…

All this work was ‘documentary’ in style – before about 2003 we all shot on film which, as everyone knows, had limited possibilities for post processing. This imposed a kind of rigorous approach where you have to get it right first time, more or less. And yet…

I’m no Luddite purist, far from it, but I am a photographer who enjoys getting it right first time, or at least close! My personal preference is for the process of actually shooting the photograph and then, if need be, ‘sweetening’ the image to my taste after.  I don’t want to spend hours working on an image or images, that’s a chore to me.

I would like to help you achieve this level of satisfaction with your images. I see so many photographers wrestling with the operation of their cameras. This becomes a barrier to creativity when you can’t see the wood for the trees. Only once you have broken through this practical barrier and understood what the camera can do will you finally achieve the images you have in your mind’s eye.

I can help you with the HOW – the WHY is up to you.