As you know, Roddy Atkinson
is the artist who won the Earth, fire, water, air Challenge. I asked Roddy a few questions about himself and his art. Please get to know him, visit his portfolio, and give him your support.

• Tell us about yourself, some history, education, family, hobbies, work, Etc.

I was born March 1970 in Glasgow, Scotland. I left school with no real idea of what career path to take and started work in the famous Clyde shipyards. Got the opportunity to receive IT training and have now worked in this field in various jobs for the past 20 years. I am not married but have been living with my long term, long suffering girlfriend for many years. My main hobby is photography and outside of work this takes up most of my free time. I am also passionate about travel and try and get away as much as my budget will allow. Other interests include socialising, cooking, skiing, football and beer ….not necessarily all at once or in that order.

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• When did you first become interested in art / photography. How would you define your own art? How did your art evolve?

Although I had owned a camera from an early age it wasn’t until getting my 1st digital camera, an Ixus 400, that my interest in photography grew to something more than a tool for holiday snaps. As I have had no formal photography training I have relied heavily on gleaning tips from friends, experimentation, learning from mistakes, from internet tutorials and of course from viewing other photographers and fellow bubblers work, and drawing inspiration and techniques from them. I am not sure how I would define my work and as far as evolving I think that is an on-going process.

• How has your cultural heritage affected your “Artistic eye”?

That is a difficult question to answer, but I am sure that being brought up in Scotland which is rich in both cultural and natural heritage has, in some way, influenced my work. In saying that, I am probably just as likely to draw influence from other cultures as I am my own.

• Can you recall the first photo you took that made you go WOW!?

Yes, this would be a photo I took with my 1st digital camera, the fantastic Ixus 400. (Strangely I purchased the Ixus 500 after this but for some reason it didn’t seem as good as the 400, sadly I lost the 400 to a fish attack in Ibiza.) It was a photograph taken just after a massive thunderstorm while camping at Loch Lomand in Scotland.

• What medium (camera or programs for digital artists) do you use? What techniques and manipulations do you use?

I currently own a Canon EOS 400D SLR and a infra-red modified Canon G6. For processing I tend to use Adobe Raw, CS4 and mainly Photomatix for HDR but also occasionally Dynamic Photo HDR. I use various techniques and manipulations depending on the image, usually involving HDR in some way as I am a confirmed addict at the moment.

• What inspire you and how do you translate this inspiration into art?
I think photography itself has caused me to appreciate the beauty in all things, architecture, landscapes, waterscapes, wildlife, nature, sculpture, art all inspire me.

• How does your personality change when you look through the camera? What kind of personality you exhibit in daily life?

I’m generally a very easy going, laid back person but have a tendency to get frustrated with other tourists/photographers who get in the way. Maybe I need counselling for camera rage!

• What is your favorite image, either your own or someone else’s or both? (can be RB artist or elsewhere)

There are so many fantastic images and photographers on Red Bubble that makes this question a very hard one to narrow down. One image that springs to mind and got me interested in infra-red photography was David Burren’s fantastic capture, ‘Infrared acacia’ of Zebra and Wildebeest.

• Looking through your gallery it seems that you’re passionate about HDR technique (with amazing visual results) people, travel, objects and urban photography and architecture with a very definite style. What attracts you to these areas in photography and what is your personal vision when photographing someone else?

sometimes feel my interest in HDR photography has reached unhealthy levels. I find it very difficult not to use HDR when comparing the same image with and without. There seems to be a lot of purists in photography who believe that HDR is the devil incarnate, but I just like an image to look the best it can. I don’t do very much people photography, probably because I don’t like being photographed myself. It is however an area that I would like to explore more in the future.

• Have you had exhibits in galleries? Are any planned for the future? What are your plans for the future?

No, I have never had my work exhibited in a gallery and I am not sure that it’s worthy of that accolade yet, but hopefully someday…. I would like to earn a living doing the photography that I love, but I am also wary of getting work in the field as I had a friend who lost his passion for photography after working for the press doing paparazzi work. I’m glad to say that he is now cured as he quit his job.

• What has been the single biggest obstacle against growing as a photographer in whole?

Money – lack of; work – too much of; and mornings, they don’t agree with me. Also dust, I paid to have my camera professionally cleaned before I went to Egypt and did not take it out of the sealed bag until the last moment but the 1st picture I took had more dust artifacts than before I put it in! I’m scared to clean the sensor myself in case of damage as I would be lost without my slr.

• Tell your funniest, scariest, most bizarre, most touching story from a photo shoot!

As my boss knew I was into photography, I was once asked by him to go down to a client’s office as a favour to take head shots of all their staff for internal motivational purposes. When I went to get the photos developed I was mortified to find that I had inadvertently switched between portrait and landscape orientation several times. I was very embarrassed handing the pictures over but the client seemed pleased and asked me if I would come back and do the group shots.

• Do you think of yourself as an artist and what do you think of the word artist?

Any time I have been referred to as an artist it usually had a four letter word preceding it. I am slightly uncomfortable labelling myself as an artist or even indeed a photographer.

• Tell a little secret about yourself that no-one knows …

Ok, here goes the name drop, I have had personal praise of my work by one of the world’s most famous photographers, :Harry Benson":http://www.harrybenson.com/.

• What would you have done differently during your photography / art career so far and could this be an advice to others?

The only thing I would have done differently given a second chance would have been to start earlier and studied it at college. My biggest regret is I travelled to many places before I was interested in photography and now feel I have to re-visit them all.

• What attracted you to RB and how do you feel about this community. Did it contribute to your success and/or progress in photography?

I would have to say that Red Bubble and its community was and still is the biggest contributor to my photographic progress. The encouragement that you get from the community by means of comments, features and sales is very rewarding and drives you on to bigger and hopefully better things.

• Anything else you want to add that can tell us more about yourself?

I would just like to thank Red Bubble for providing us with this brilliant site and also a huge thank you to yourself and all the bubblers that have taken the time to view, vote for, feature, comment on or buy my work, it is very much appreciated.

Congrats Roddy, and great to get to know you better.