Exposure: The Works of Skye Nott

All images courtesy of Skye Nott

Skye Nott is my photographer of interest this week. After thoroughly going through some Vancouver photo groups and not seeing anything particularly special, I came upon Skye's photos and was entranced. Although his Flickr photo stream is not huge - since not so long ago he decided to begin from a clean slate, it definitely holds some very impressive photos.

What fascinated me the most was how naturally exaggerated everything was. His photos of New Zealand are the epitome of a magical world. His work incorporates the aspects of simplicity, quality and perspective into a wonderful collection of work. Each piece tells a story!

How long have you been indulging in the art of photography for?
I've always appreciated the power of the image since I was a kid, whether it was looking through old National Geographic's or helping friends in the darkroom. I remember spending hours looking through the viewfinder on my parents' Minolta, fascinated with how different things looked simply by virtue of being cropped by a black rectangle.

I got into photography more seriously in 2004 when I quit my job and backpacked around New Zealand for a year. I calculated it once, and I was averaging about 20 photos a day for 14 months. Although I only had a primitive pocket digital with no manual controls, my eye for composition and light became much better through practice. It made me realize that I really, really like taking photos.

What made you delete everything and start a new stream of photos on Flickr?
I have my own privately hosted gallery for family and friends with nearly 4,000 photos, but many of those wouldn't mean anything out of their context. Rather than have my Flickr stream be more of the same, I wanted to start fresh and see what direction it would take me, especially now that I'm taking the craft more seriously. The best thing about Flickr is the community, and I feel an obligation to present the best work I can. It also gives me the opportunity to go back into my archives and reprocess some of my favorite photos. My digital darkroom techniques have improved a lot in the last few years.

What sort of things do you like to experiment with when it comes to taking photos? I noticed in your recent "Tour de Gastown" photos, there seems to be a special grainy effect, how did you achieve that?
The grain in those photos are a result of it being so dark and rainy, I had to bump the camera up to ISO 800 and even 1600 later in the evening. Rather than packing it in and saying the weather isn't cooperating, I like to work with the limitations and see if it can be used to some sort of artistic effect. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn't, but one of the things I love about photography is the large degree of serendipity. It's best to keep shooting because you never know 100% how it's going to turn out, especially in the digital era of cheap flash cards.

What is your daily camera equipment and what do you wish to purchase in the future?
I'm using a Nikon D40 now, which I love because it's small and light and fits into my shoulder bag. Portability is really important to me; you can't take a shot if your camera's at home. I use the 18-55 kit lens most of the time, and I'm really enjoying my new 55-200 VR lens. I've got a few other specialty lenses like a 50/1.8 prime for low light candids and an old Nikkor 55/3.5 for macro work. One of the things I love about the Nikon is nearly every lens they've made since the 70s still works on the DSLRs, so there's lots of cheap and very sharp lenses out there as long as you're willing to focus and meter manually.

I just bought a minimal, portable off-camera lighting setup and I'm really excited about getting into environmental and experimental portraiture. I'd say I have everything I could want for the near future, my focus now is working through all shoot ideas I have written down and finding like minded collaborators to wander the city, explore strange places at odd hours, and who enjoy being in front of the camera as much as I enjoy being behind it.

Any local photographers that you admire and get most inspired?
I really enjoyed the recent Fred Herzog show at the VAG. I love Vancouver and the evolving nature of this city really fascinates me. It's easy to forget that 50 years ago this was a sleepy, small town on the edge of the world. I think a lot of people don't realize how much we are, right now, defining our own identity and writing our own urban mythology. Who's to say in 100 years we won't be looking back at photos of construction workers today putting up skyscrapers in False Creek the way New Yorkers look at photos of guys riveting girders on the Empire State building in the 30s. What's banal today can be poignant tomorrow; it makes the photographer into a kind of magician. But someone has to be there to photograph it.

There's a lot of really excellent local photographers in the Flickr groups as well, I just moved back to Vancouver about 8 months ago so I'm looking forward to making more connections in the local community. Seeing the same building I've walked past a hundred times photographed in some completely original way gets me really inspired.

Is there anything about photography that you wish Vancouverite photo fans would know more about?
Some of my favorite photos tell as much about the photographer as the subject. If I'm looking at someone's photos of dark alleys, then I know there's a photographer wandering around the back streets in the dead of night, and that puts me a certain mood that affects the way I see the photo. If it's candid street photography, then there's a certain rapport or sense of ease that the photographer must have had with the subject so it doesn't look staged.

What's the best place to buy cameras in Vancouver?
Lately I've been mail ordering most of my gear from the USA, because our dollar's been so strong, but everything else I buy at Leo's Camera on Granville. I love their mix of new and old gear, pros and amateurs and the service is always great. Plus they have gaffer's tape which is always handy.

What do you think limits photographers when it comes to the art in itself - the mind or the equipment?
Boundaries and limitations are always a product of the mind. You only have to look at the work of early photographers like Jacques- Henri Lartigue, who was working with very primitive equipment, and what he achieved. The most important thing, to me anyway, is to be present in the moment when the shutter is released. People that get too wrapped up in acquiring gear have lost the plot. Like Lao Tzu said, "Without ever going outside, one may know all under heaven."