Colin Prior - Biography
My second research is on Colin Prior who was born in Scotland in 1958 near Glasgow and spent his early life exploring wildlife in nearby woods and fields. The Scottish highlands were close and by age 10 he had progressed onto them for exploration with his father. This helped his appreciation of the natural world.
As an adult he worked at an electric company as an Operations Manager for 5 years when he won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in a camera beneath the waves competition, as 'Best Newcomer'. The prize trip to the Cayman islands began his first steps as a professional photographer.
He began work for a commercial diving company as a Technician because of his fascination with the underwater world and this led to his first professional phtographic job.
taken by Colin Prior
His career developed as a freelance photographer, commissioned by advertising agencies and design consultants he did work for companies including TSB, Hilton and British Airways. His 4 year commission for British Airways on their corporate calendar helped him establish international reputation.
In 1995 he founded 'Earth Gallery', a publishing and distribution company where his prints and calendars were marketed in galleries, book shops and retailers throughout the UK.
taken by Colin Prior
He lives in Glasgow, runs a Photography school and is Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and founder member of the International League of Conservation Photographers.
I love his work! The three images that I have already featured throughout my blog are from his photo-essay on 'The Birthplace of Icebergs' and I love the way he captures the light on the subject. The very top image here stands for what he is all about (my opinion) and shows the cameraman with the Earth's natural light.....It is Colin Prior's sign on facebook. Not that I use facebook, but I found out as I was trying to take snap shots of his images on line; the three controls (shift, comand and 4) would open a facebook page if I didn't use them in the correct order.
Prior's images stand out to me and fall into my 'natural' theme. The colours of the sky (second image up) are beautiful against the silluette of the icebergs, and the dazzling golden image above shows sunlight x-raying the iceberg to resemble an animal possibly, and its golden reflection. I find it warm, rich and gently soothing.
I like the way his site is set out with photo-essays under different headings which describe the overall theme of the pictures therein. Examples are shown below:
by Colin Prior
taken by Colin Prior
taken by Colin Prior
This image shows a humpback whale and I like the way he caught its cold breath in the icy air. Again he uses the sun to spot light the centre subject. We can only see the whales head but can imagine what is beneath the water. All others colours are sub- dued here. He wanted the emphasis on the whale.
It is interesting he chose to shoot this image in black and white.
taken by Colin Prior
This image cute, his big dark eyes looking wary, his furry paws clinching into the ice, the seal looks at home. I think his curly whiskers look delightful and Im wondering if that is sunlight or ice capping him? I hope he's happy!
I guess Prior may've chose to photograph the seal in black and white to emphasize that that is just what the colours are in the image, black and white. Or could it be a deeper meaning like black and white photographs are very old, and so are the seals in this habitat?
taken by Colin Prior
I find this iceberg collection of pictures amazing. Just look at the blue of this water with the sea creatures head raising out. The movement on the water suggests it has just surfaced, its face happy to oblige the little birds. I like the contrast of the brilliant white ice to the coalbolt blue of the sea. The grey-blue of the backdrop sky looks good hazily, adding atmosphere.
taken by Colin Prior
Staying with the blues and the birds - this image shows how from foreground to background the sea changes colour and calmness.
This next picture is from Colin Prior's "Alaska - In Search Of Solitude":-
taken by Colin Prior
Another great picture to me and I'm liking the bear... I have one at home (in the form of a cat named Bear) so I was happy to see this image amongst his animal shots. You can still see his eye clearly amidst all the water spray and again to me its simple composition is very effective. I would love to take a shot like this and may attempt it in the future, borrowing a friends dog.
Comparisons/contrasts to my work:
I am thinking Prior likes to focus close in on his subjects so that it takes the maturity of the frame in some of his images (as well as wide angle big scenes), using simple composition ie. His whale, seal and bear images. I like that and compare that fact to some of my images, ie. Making Waves, Monster Tree, Droplets and Blue Sheep.
He likes to use colour in different shades of colour or not too many different colours in an image (in my opinion) for some of these shots and then uses more colour in the big (wide angle) scenes, just as I do. ie. comparing his images that contain just 3 colours (see second image below and second and third image up) to my Monster Tree and Trunk Body...
Then his big scenes as I call them, his wide angled ones, have more and contrasting colours to them ie. his colourful mountain scene (see third image down) and colourful sky (see fifth image down) comparing to my Walk with me, Hurdles, Morning flight (see below) and my first photo-shop sky scene, though my images are not in the same league as his obviously.
Morning Flight
shutter 1/3200 aperture 4.00 iso 800
I took this shot early one morning... I noticed the sky out the window and went trotting outside to capture it because I liked the colours and the cloud. I like that I caught a bird in flight, adding abit of interest and tried to frame the scene with trees but I didn't like that I had to capture houses in the shot too. Though they do add to the framing, they are not natural. You can also see a plane trail. My kit was: a Canon 5D EOS Mark II camera containing relevant battery, an L series 24-105mm lens, SanDisk Extreme CompactFlash card 8GB, 60MB/s.
(The 8GB on the Compact Flash card signifies the space or memory of the card, and the 60Mb is about the film speed and time it takes to download the images, ie a 60Mb would be faster at downloading lots of continuous frame shots than a 30Mb)
As an animal lover (ie. my images of duck and sheep so far) I wanted to show some of Colin Prior's animals in the wildness. There were lots more and I could get carried away...I am thinking he is an animal lover too from his images and the fact that he is a founder member of the International League of Conservation Photographers, so I relate to this also.
taken by Colin Prior
And this image certainly looks wild and wilderness like. I like snow scenes and love mountains so this type of picture will always appeal to me. I plan to take some snow scenes when we next get snow.
Im liking the fact of scale... the grand mount to that of the small moon in the distance. Of course it is just the distance that shows this effect. The moon in reality is the grander by size, albeit 93million million miles away. The sun highlights the peaks nicely.
taken by Colin Prior
Here the colours and contrasts have grabbed me again. They come together poetically, like an artist has painted the scene and made up the colour swatch. The contrast of the different terrain, white snow, brown rock, sun lit areas here and there, atmospheric backing cloud, all interesting and appealing.
In front of the distant band of cloud the grey band looks ocean like. The image has a lovely composition with the colour ways I think. There is even some moody dark cloud over hanging with a hint of threat. Very uplifting would be my descriptive. He must have felt on top of the world!
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The picture below is great! To me it looks like somewhere really high. I like cloud formations and find them interesting in themselves. The sea of clouds look wow and what would those people walking be thinking on approaching them? I would be thinking... its time to go! I imagine they marvelled at the manaceing mass, half expecting it to wash over and engulf them anytime soon. The scene looks cold with its blues but I bet its hot from the bright sun, if your adequately clothed that is.
I like the simple composition and simple colours; the distant mountains looking bluish from the reflected sky looking so blue with sun cloaked clouds and the white snow with grey in its shadows and walk trails. The way the cloud climbs the mountain to the right of the image effectively giving the same 4 bands of colour ( from inwards going out); white, blue, white, blue, is clever. The walk trails that lead the eye show the direction of the travellers and I wonder if one of them had momentarily veered off, on purpose.
taken by Colin Prior
I identify my photographs to these by way of hope. Hopeful that I may one day take some similar images as I find these very inspiring.
taken by Colin Prior
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