About the Photographer - Jason Swain

Jason Swain is a UK photographer based on the Isle of Wight on England's south coast. He specialises in Event and Wedding Photography as well as having a wonderful image library of fine art landscapes and action / lifestyle photography with the common theme of the islands beautiful coastline.

Jason is available for a wide range of commercial work as a fully insured professional photographer. He undertakes event and editorial photo assignments, Wedding photography and Portrait sessions. A large selection of his photo library is available for stock licensing and for sale as fine art prints directly from this website and via the Getty Collection in California.

Please contact Jason via Email photo@jasonswain.co.uk to discuss any aspect of his work and he will be happy to provide a competitive quotation for your photographic requirements.

A little background info about the photographer in his own words

"My relationship with photography began at a young age, i've used cameras for as long as i can remember, it started out as a way of capturing and composing ideas for my paintings using traditional media (Oil & Watercolour landscapes) and as inspirations for my graphic design ideas. Slowly over the years, it grew on me as an art form in its own right, i loved the immediacy and energy of the medium, and it was a series of shots taken on my travels in Peru that I first felt were interesting enough to stand on their own to be viewed as 'Art'.
After travelling the world extensively, I settled on the Island in the 90's, immersing myself in the wild and beautiful coastline of the west wight. It's the meeting of land and sea along that coast, and the activity that flourishes in the small places between them, that provides my daily inspiration. The ever changing weather and light creates endless creative possibilities for land & seascapes, as well as being the setting for my love affair with surfing. It was always my favourite subject with paint & brushes and now its my favourite place with camera & surfboard."



Jason has held several solo exhibitions of his work, photography exhibitions in the last ten years, but before that he also exhibited his landscape paintings. And he will be part of a summer long show at Dimbola Lodge photographic museum on the Isle of Wight during 2012, showing his panoramic photographs on the theme of the British coastline.

New photography equipment for 2013.

In some ways it's the curse of every photography business, the need (or is that desire) to have the best camera and lenses and keep up with all the new innovations coming to market. It means that you'll probably end up re-investing any profit you make each year with that new L lens or latest camera body, but you'll still be driving that same old car year after year.

However, as a passionate photographer who's always looking to improve the quality of his work and keep the clients happy, you've got to be in it to win it, and this year I'm happy to say I'm the proud owner of not one, but two new camera bodies. I've taken the plunge and gone over fully to the full-frame format, and now for events and weddings, I carry two of the new Canon 6D cameras, specifically to make the most of my two favourite EF fit L lenses (the 50mm f1.2L and the 24-70mm f2.8L) and to ensure i don't spend half my time swapping lenses and miss any of the magic moments that i'm there to capture in the first place.

It's a significant investment for a small business to make but I have to say the results have left me in no doubt it was worth it. 50mm portraits shot a shallow DoF seem almost three dimensional, with the focal point super sharp. There's also a lovely bokeh and glorious quality to the colours, not to mention fantastic performance in low light, with no visible noise at ISO speeds that would have previously been impossible. The low light performance is particularly important as it makes it possible to shoot more using natural light and cut down on the use of flash, which with as well as being a bit more intrusive whilst shooting, never quite delivers the same beautiful results that you get with natural light. This can be the difference between getting the shot in a dimly lit 11th century church and missing out completely.

There are plenty of other technical benefits that come with the new cameras (larger file sizes from the bigger sensors, GPS tagging when required etc etc) but its the quality of the final image that really counts for me when all is said and done.

Don't take my word for it, take a look at some of the recent results in the galleries section of this website to see for yourself…

Exhibitions

Summer 2012 - 'Oceans Seen' - Dimbola Lodge Photographic Museum.
Limited edition prints on display at Readers gallery, Newport, Isle of Wight. (Oct 2010-Jan 2011)
IWPOY 2009, Quay Arts Centre, Newport, Isle of Wight (March - May 2010)
Its a very small world: Go Wild on Wight, Freshwater Library & Newport Minster Church, Isle of Wight (April -May 2010)
Wight surf history exhibition of contemporary photography, Dimbola Lodge, Freshwater Bay, Isle of Wight.
Solo show of paintings, Freshwater Library, Isle of Wight.
Solo show of paintings at the Century Gallery, Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire.
Liquid history (Story of the River Thames), Lyric Theatre, Hammersmith, London.

Looking for Stock Photography for commercial or editorial use?

Search Jason's collection of Rights Managed and Royalty Free stock photos from around the UK coast.

You can perform keyword searches via the search page, or browse the individual galleries based on subject or location.

Photographic commissions:

Whilst I prefer to provide a fixed quotation to your detailed brief, I accept that some clients in turn prefer to see a day rate. These prices will give some guidance but are subject to confirmation at the time of placing a commission.

All photography is created digitally. The rates shown include FREE initial post production of the RAW files including file conversion, sizing, colour correction, retouching, levels adjusting, cropping, image archiving, & burning to CD / DVD

Day rate : £650
Half day : £350
Plus any reasonable travel expenses.

Studio work:

I offer digital image manipulation ranging from spotting, colour correction and retouching, through composites to the creation of a completely new image.
Hourly : 1st hour £100, and £85 thereafter

Please contact me via Email photo@jasonswain.co.uk to discuss anything regarding my work

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