Jonathan Vaines

About Jonathan

I took up photography as a hobby in 2012 and joined my local camera club. Bitten by the bug I soon widened my interest away from close up / macro to images that were more successful in competitions.

After a few years I found myself experimenting with pastels and my work began to move out of the traditional club arena. This wandering led me to explore several in camera techniques such as Multiple Exposure and a little ICM.

I am now a Photographic Educator and as well as teaching photographers 1:1 I run educational workshops for many International Organisations. These include the Royal Photographic Society, MPC and Photo Club 247.

I am an A panel judge and visit over 80 clubs each year in the UK to either lecture or judge. I also teach extensively in North America with a specific aim of developing creative photographers. I run residential workshops predominantly in the UK but also in Europe and the USA in conjunction with an American photographer.

I have held a few roles in organisations and have been a Regional Organiser for the RPS for 5 years. My current roles include Judges’ Secretary for the East Anglian Federation of the PAGB, and I am the secretary for my Camera Club, Beyond Group.

My photographic work has evolved, and I develop ideas to create my images. My preferred method of working is with a project. It’s a planned slow approach employing in camera and post processing techniques and it’s one I find extremely rewarding. No image is ever caught by chance, they are nurtured along which can take weeks or months to produce. Seeing work on the back of a camera and onscreen in Photoshop is exciting but my images only exist when they are turned in to ink and partnered with paper.

My lectures are varied including several technical talks based around Post Processing through the Adobe suite. General workflow, tips and tricks are regularly requested along with monochrome conversions and working with pastels. I also teach and support the NIK Collection produced by DxO. The core of my lectures focus on creative work, how I think about work creatively, my planning processes and storytelling with my camera. I am a strong believer that making wall art as I do has had a positive impact on my mental health and wellbeing and it’s something worth sharing.