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Kirk J Richards
@kirkjrichards
Photographer based in Australia
I started working a construction job when I was quite young; a job that didn’t really allow me to use the creative talent I had been using during my childhood years. Then, in my early twenties, I came to a point in my life where I thought there had to be more to life than this job. So I made a commitment to invest more into things that made me happy, and photography had always made me happy.
"Photography is a priceless activity."
When I am out there witnessing a sunrise over the ocean, I get to photograph that and keep the memory forever. So, I took a real stand to balance my work life and involve my creative passions as much as possible. For me, photography resembles my strengths, my emotions and my experiences – It represents who I am as a person.
I really love exploring new places and cultures, it’s the feeling of being free and spending time wondering how these ancient landscapes were formed. I use photography to show my interpretation of what I’m seeing, to express myself, and my passion comes from being able to give people a different perspective of the world, which I hope inspires them to travel and explore as well.
I also think we need to show more of how beautiful the world is and encourage people to protect it. A lot of the glaciers I’ve seen have melted away significantly. We have a real responsibility to protect our climate and the environment. Some of these landscapes may not be there in years to come or be the same, so I hope to provoke people to deeply appreciate what they’re seeing and trigger the awareness that, if they want it to stay beautiful, we have to work together to keep it that way.
The sunrise photo at Cerro Torre is a photo I really love from that trip. We arrived at the location the night prior and the lake was choppy due to the wind. I said to the person I was traveling with, “imagine if the wind settled overnight and we were greeted with a glassy reflection of the mountains at sunrise.” Surely enough, we woke up the next morning with zero wind and a beautiful glassy reflection of Cerro Torre in the background.
Hiking and taking photos can sometimes present a real challenge based on what you want to photograph. In Patagonia I really had to plan my travels effectively and investigate the weather forecast to get certain images, especially when I was in El Chalten, to get that sunrise photo at Cerro Torre. Patagonia’s weather changes constantly so I learnt a lot about planning and putting yourself in the right place at the right time.
I think with editing it’s important to enhance and not distort. All art is subjective, but when I edit I do my best to show a realistic representation of each landscape or person I photograph. I like everything to be clean, it’s also about invoking thought. About creating an image that suits your style and that shows the audience how you see a photo. I like to create mood, vibrance and an image you feel you can touch.
"I use lightroom for the processing of all my photos. First thing I do is to look at the composition and consider what cropping adjustments need to be done."
I then look at the contrast tones and exposure. I like to create a strong contrast; depending on the image I may open up the shadows and blacks so I get the most out of the details and colours in the image. Sometimes I reduce the shadows to create that mood I was talking about earlier. I then work my way through each colour adjusting (the hue/saturation/luminance), and I look at creating a colour palette that suits the image. For instance, if I’m in a forest I’ll look to enhance and change the greens to create my own unique view. From there it’s just some final adjustments with clarity; I use dehaze a fair bit and then I’ll use the spotting tool to get rid of any distractions and I’ll brush up any areas I want to highlight to make it the focal point.
Paying great attention to my photos and style ultimately from the beginning until the very end led me to do some campaign work for Canon Australia. They saw my portfolio and I ended up working closely with their Canon Experience Store in Melbourne, printing imagery and showing the Canon photographer network how to get the most out of your photos and curate that final product. Working with Canon really boosted my confidence to build my professional profile more which helped me gain more clients that wanted printed works of mine, which I continue to share and sell to this day.
"One of my favorite photos I am selling is the sunrise shot over Wineglass Bay, Tasmania."
That was a spontaneous trip I took in 2018, and I was lucky enough to be able to take a flight over Freycinet National Park. I truly believe Tasmania has the best coastline, it’s so diverse, rich and beautiful. I would go back there in a heartbeat!
"It's close to my heart because it's Australia, and Australia is where my heart will always be."
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