Jim Mackie Imaging                                      Digital Photography Edinburgh

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I have spent all my working life as a photographer, that’s a long time. So at the risk of straying into the “it was so different when I was a lad” territory, here we go. 

 I started out with large format cameras, carrying about heavy cases loaded with lenses and dark slides. Complicated lighting set ups involving lots of cables and large expendable flash bulbs. Hours spent in darkrooms splashing about in tanks of developer and fixer. Luckily I have stayed with it long enough to have been able to progress through nearly every format and camera type to arrive at the latest high end professional digital equipment.

 My first job was with the printing and publishing subsidiary of a large industrial company. As well as work for this parent company, we undertook commissions for other companies. This covered most aspects of commercial and industrial photography, from product shots for catalogues to large scale industrial work. During this period I attended Photographic College and gained a pass with credit at advanced level in what was then referred to as“The City and Guilds of Photography” examination.

I then moved on to work with the “Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland”, as by that time I realised that I wanted, if possible, to specialise in architectural photography. In its own words“RCAHMS is one of Scotland’s National Collections. It has a unique responsibility to gather information on the built heritage of the nation, to safeguard the resulting archive to the highest standards and to make this information as widely available as possible”.  Nearly all of my time with the Commission has been spent working as a fieldwork photographer. This has afforded me the opportunity to carry out photographic surveys of a wide range of sites, large country houses, churches, theatres, military establishments, industrial complexes, farms, basically anything that is considered worthy of a place in our national archives, including some of Scotland’s most important and historic buildings.  This has given me an appreciation of Scotland and its architecture, as well as a depth of knowledge and understanding of the variety of photographic techniques required to achieve the quality required by the Commission. The resultant material has found its way into a wide range of publications and exhibitions, even postcards and the odd CD cover. Throughout this time I have retained my passion for photography out with my day to day working life, an interest that has only increased with the arrival of high quality digital cameras. I love using Photoshop and other image manipulation software, whether it’s for the normal processing of images or more complex graphic design work.
There it is, that’s where I’ve been, so to speak. As for the future, I want to put this experience to good use and continue taking photographs, for myself and for other people who need high quality images. I want to continue and expand the graphic design work I have been involved in. Image manipulation, restoring damaged photographs, anything that requires a deeper understanding of image software.