About
BIOGRAPHY
I was born in Edinburgh in 1952 and my first travel and photographic experiences were on family holidays to Ireland and the Channel Islands during the early sixties.
During the seventies, whilst based in Manchester, I was a keen mountaineer around UK also making two visits to the French Alps. The portfolio of climbing slides developed in that period enabled some club slide presentations to be made and competition entries gained recognition. I also became an independent traveller at this time visiting Morocco, Corfu and Ibiza.
My primary career as a Chartered Electrical Engineer in the Power Industry expanded my travel experiences extensively in Europe and also to South America, South Korea and Abu Dhabi. In the late seventies and early eighties I spent extended periods in Colombia, SA and in Munich, West Germany (as it was at that time).
As a family man, since the early eighties, travel has continued to figure highly on my agenda taking every opportunity to broaden the family horizons and experiences both in UK and in Europe. The Greek Islands became a favourite family holiday destination; over twenty have now been visited.
Since 1999, now based in Yorkshire, I have been developing my photography with the objective of establishing a secondary career. Travel has continued apace with regular off peak Short Breaks around UK and European City Breaks plus visits to Spain and a conscious decision to widen my knowledge of my homeland, Scotland having now made three annual trips to the islands not previously visited.
My ambitions are to make a move back to a home base on the West Coast of Scotland but to travel with Ruth, my wife, for up to six months each year to worldwide locations taking photographs, writing articles and enjoying the adventures and pleasures which the world has to offer. Locations to be considered include, New Zealand, Egypt, Galapagos Island, Iceland, Antarctica, The Inca Trail in Peru, Bhutan and other parts of the Himalaya, Iceland and so the list goes on!
I am fundamentally an outdoor person, always on the move looking for new travel adventures and am rarely without a camera.
EQUIPMENT & FILM STOCK
My first photographs were taken with the family box Brownie in Black and White. However, the first camera which I owned was a Petri 35C, a compact manual 35mm camera which was ideal for carrying whilst climbing, mostly using Kodachrome transparency film. The Petri was lost in Colombia in 1976 and replaced by my first SLR a Nikkormat FT2 with a superb 50mm f1.4 lens. A 28mm lens and an early Vivitar 70-200mm macro zoom were added to this kit, but the heavy load was replaced by an Olympus AF compact in the early 80s. During the 80s & 90s a variety of print film stock was used primarily for viewing convenience.
In 1998 I purchased a Canon EOS500N which was upgraded to EOS30 when it was launched in 2000. Lenses included 28-135 IS, 75-300 IS, Tokina ATX-Pro 17mm, 1.4 extender and 500D Close up lens. I also favour using a combined polarizer/81A warm up filter for use in landscape. Until I went digital in 2005 film stock was predominately Fuji Provia 100 with some Velvia 50 where light conditions would allow use of its slower speed.
I made the Digital conversion in July 2005 with a new Canon EOS20D body replacing my film EOS30. To maintain the wide angle end of my lens group I also purchased a new EF-S 10-22mm lens in place of my Tokina 17mm.
In September 2006 after the loss of my 10-22mm lens in Kenya I entered the professional world of L glass. The direct replacement for wide angle range was with the 17-40mm L f4 and at the same time I upgraded my 28-135mm IS lens to the 24-105mm L f4 IS lens.
Although the 17-40L is a wonderful lens I found that on my 20D body the 17mm end was just not wide enough in some circumstances. In 2008 I decided to re-establish my widest end to 12mm with a Tokina 12-24mm f4 ATX Pro by part exchanging for the Canon, in pure image quality terms this could be seen as a downgrade but that extra 5mm makes all the difference in so many photographic situations.
Most of my photography is taken ‘on the hoof’ and is handheld with use of available support wherever possible. Additional support from a monopod and ball head is also used. Canon's IS technology lenses are a tremendous help with this style of 'travelscape' photography.
In early 2006 I have added a Manfrotto 190PROB tripod and 460Mg head and also a Jobo Giga One 40GB downloader giving me a 4500 image capacity for any assignment/travel plan before return to workbase for downloading to a computer for processing.
COPYRIGHT and SALES
All images on this site are © Colin Garthwaite 2005/2006/2007/2008 and are available for viewing on this site only, downloading images from this site for any purpose is not allowed without the prior written permission of Colin Garthwaite. All images are available for sale either as digital scans or prints, contact details are included on the Contact Page of this site to discuss requirements.
I hope you enjoy the images in the Gallery as much as I have enjoyed the travel experience and adventures involved in their capture. Feedback is always welcome and appropriate comments will be added to the Message Board section on the News page. I would be pleased to give information and advice about any of the locations featured, based on my personal experiences.
Thanks for dropping by and good luck with your own travel adventures.
Haste ye Back,
Colin Garthwaite
I was born in Edinburgh in 1952 and my first travel and photographic experiences were on family holidays to Ireland and the Channel Islands during the early sixties.
During the seventies, whilst based in Manchester, I was a keen mountaineer around UK also making two visits to the French Alps. The portfolio of climbing slides developed in that period enabled some club slide presentations to be made and competition entries gained recognition. I also became an independent traveller at this time visiting Morocco, Corfu and Ibiza.
My primary career as a Chartered Electrical Engineer in the Power Industry expanded my travel experiences extensively in Europe and also to South America, South Korea and Abu Dhabi. In the late seventies and early eighties I spent extended periods in Colombia, SA and in Munich, West Germany (as it was at that time).
As a family man, since the early eighties, travel has continued to figure highly on my agenda taking every opportunity to broaden the family horizons and experiences both in UK and in Europe. The Greek Islands became a favourite family holiday destination; over twenty have now been visited.
Since 1999, now based in Yorkshire, I have been developing my photography with the objective of establishing a secondary career. Travel has continued apace with regular off peak Short Breaks around UK and European City Breaks plus visits to Spain and a conscious decision to widen my knowledge of my homeland, Scotland having now made three annual trips to the islands not previously visited.
My ambitions are to make a move back to a home base on the West Coast of Scotland but to travel with Ruth, my wife, for up to six months each year to worldwide locations taking photographs, writing articles and enjoying the adventures and pleasures which the world has to offer. Locations to be considered include, New Zealand, Egypt, Galapagos Island, Iceland, Antarctica, The Inca Trail in Peru, Bhutan and other parts of the Himalaya, Iceland and so the list goes on!
I am fundamentally an outdoor person, always on the move looking for new travel adventures and am rarely without a camera.
EQUIPMENT & FILM STOCK
My first photographs were taken with the family box Brownie in Black and White. However, the first camera which I owned was a Petri 35C, a compact manual 35mm camera which was ideal for carrying whilst climbing, mostly using Kodachrome transparency film. The Petri was lost in Colombia in 1976 and replaced by my first SLR a Nikkormat FT2 with a superb 50mm f1.4 lens. A 28mm lens and an early Vivitar 70-200mm macro zoom were added to this kit, but the heavy load was replaced by an Olympus AF compact in the early 80s. During the 80s & 90s a variety of print film stock was used primarily for viewing convenience.
In 1998 I purchased a Canon EOS500N which was upgraded to EOS30 when it was launched in 2000. Lenses included 28-135 IS, 75-300 IS, Tokina ATX-Pro 17mm, 1.4 extender and 500D Close up lens. I also favour using a combined polarizer/81A warm up filter for use in landscape. Until I went digital in 2005 film stock was predominately Fuji Provia 100 with some Velvia 50 where light conditions would allow use of its slower speed.
I made the Digital conversion in July 2005 with a new Canon EOS20D body replacing my film EOS30. To maintain the wide angle end of my lens group I also purchased a new EF-S 10-22mm lens in place of my Tokina 17mm.
In September 2006 after the loss of my 10-22mm lens in Kenya I entered the professional world of L glass. The direct replacement for wide angle range was with the 17-40mm L f4 and at the same time I upgraded my 28-135mm IS lens to the 24-105mm L f4 IS lens.
Although the 17-40L is a wonderful lens I found that on my 20D body the 17mm end was just not wide enough in some circumstances. In 2008 I decided to re-establish my widest end to 12mm with a Tokina 12-24mm f4 ATX Pro by part exchanging for the Canon, in pure image quality terms this could be seen as a downgrade but that extra 5mm makes all the difference in so many photographic situations.
Most of my photography is taken ‘on the hoof’ and is handheld with use of available support wherever possible. Additional support from a monopod and ball head is also used. Canon's IS technology lenses are a tremendous help with this style of 'travelscape' photography.
In early 2006 I have added a Manfrotto 190PROB tripod and 460Mg head and also a Jobo Giga One 40GB downloader giving me a 4500 image capacity for any assignment/travel plan before return to workbase for downloading to a computer for processing.
COPYRIGHT and SALES
All images on this site are © Colin Garthwaite 2005/2006/2007/2008 and are available for viewing on this site only, downloading images from this site for any purpose is not allowed without the prior written permission of Colin Garthwaite. All images are available for sale either as digital scans or prints, contact details are included on the Contact Page of this site to discuss requirements.
I hope you enjoy the images in the Gallery as much as I have enjoyed the travel experience and adventures involved in their capture. Feedback is always welcome and appropriate comments will be added to the Message Board section on the News page. I would be pleased to give information and advice about any of the locations featured, based on my personal experiences.
Thanks for dropping by and good luck with your own travel adventures.
Haste ye Back,
Colin Garthwaite