Exposure

What’s your background?
I left school at eighteen in 1962 and went straight into the BBC where my first five years were in London in sound and film studios. After that I went up to Manchester where I stayed for ten years, working mostly in outside broadcasting, but also in studios and that’s where I got interested in studio lighting. I applied for and was successful in getting the position of Junior Lighting Director at BBC Glasgow in 1977. I moved down here in 1982 when S4C started up but eleven years ago I was made redundant and became freelance.

Have you always been interested in photography?
I’ve been taking photographs for about fifty years. As a teenager I used a little plastic Box Brownie that cost about one pound and ten shillings. So, yes, always interested.

What was your first photograph?
One of my very first photographs was an image of a thatched cottage in Fladbury in the Vale of Evesham. Somewhere I’ve got a black and white print of it. I recently drove past and it looks exactly the same today.

Are you always looking for a challenge?
I’m always keen to explore the limits of the equipment and my abilities.
I remember when I started, one particular waterfall in north Yorkshire is quite difficult to photograph. With my humble Brownie Box camera I could either shoot the bottom or the top. So I had an idea, I took two photographs, one of the top and one of the bottom and then stuck the two together with Sellotape. Is there a particular type of shot you enjoy taking? Yes, panoramas and landscapes. A curious thing happened in 1960 when I was shooting black and white on an ‘Ilford Sportsman’.
I took a series of overlapping pictures of my home town with cotton
mills and mill chimneys as it was then. Years later I scanned them into
my computer and was able to make a panorama. So I actually produced something which at the time was impossible. A few years ago I went to Canada for a holiday and I took my digital camera as a back up to my film camera. The results were so impressive that I haven’t used film since.

What do you enjoy shooting most?
I suppose if we come away from the work side of things, it would be landscapes and things that amuse me. Unusual views and perspectives. Like many photographers I’m always taking pictures on holiday. At least with digital, there is no restriction in the way that the costs of film and processing used to have. I also enjoy photographing buildings, both exteriors and interiors. I’ve done work for construction companies and
‘up market’ estate agents. I love shooting new buildings. It’s an opportunity to translate aspects of what the architect designed
in to an enduring image.

And least?
I don’t really go in for the portrait stuff - having said that I spent a couple of hours this morning doing portraits of my grand-daughter. My wife says, ‘you never have any people in your shots!’ But they do tend to get in the way of landscape photography. Having said that, when I started doing work for the Glamorgan Heritage Coast brochures, the client needed people in the shots and I had to think landscape plus people. At the
end of the day, when shooting professionally, the client is the judge.

Are you always searching for the next great shot?
Yes, I’m a great believer in ‘right place right time’being the recipe for a great shot. I’m always on the look out for interesting and unusual views. This morning I cycled into Cardiff and back with my camera and backpack and I took some pictures as I came through the lanes near St Brides Major and Peterston. Obviously on a bike you can stop and look over every gate so I try and capture views which you’d normally just
drive past.

What’s your favourite place in the Vale, apart from home?
It’s got to be the coastline. Because I cycle a lot, I often go through the lanes to Treoes and Bridgend and back through Ogmore and Southerndown. I ride along the coast road and then peel off to the right towards Nash point and the lighthouse. Looking across the Bristol Channel, you’ve got interesting fields, trees, houses and ruins. At any time of year if you nip down to the coast, the sea has always got its different moods. Cowbridge and Llanblethian are really interesting places and are surrounded by so many fascinating villages and hamlets; it’ll take me a long time to explore them all!



Mike took our gorgeous cover photo. He prefers to be contacted through his website at www.bakerlite.co.uk