Karen Amy Sykes - photographer in progress

The Oxford English Dictionary sums up photography as: The art or practice of taking and processing photographs.

Most of us do not like to be labelled as "one thing" or "another" and I find that photography gives us the freedom to capture images of anything we want to give our own personal perspective of the world without having to belong to any label.

 

It is easy to capture the moment in a split second if we are in the right place at the right time, I hold a strong belief in this.

I try not to put too many hours of planning into getting the perfect shot or group of photographs, but with a little patience, the right light and good timing (and a bit of experimenting), I try to record the beauty I see before me, whether it is of something God or man has created in this vast universe, in an effort to inspire.

 

Over the years photography has changed dramatically. The days of the dark room are nearing an end, although I did enjoy working this way when I could. But now we have the chance to perfect an image with the use of top-of-the-range digital single lens reflex (SLR) cameras and some amazing computer programmes if we need to make any slight changes to our images.

 

I decided to launch my website on March 8 for two reasons. The first being my grandma Vera Smith's birthday and the second being the anniversary of the murder of a friend of mine, Chris McManus. They were both beautifully inspiring people and are well missed by myself and others that loved them. I hope they would have liked what I have done.

After ironing out a few problems after the initial launch, I decided to officially re-launch my website on my birthday (August 3).

 

So in a few words, and I have said much more than I meant to, since a young age I have always been interested in capturing images of the changing world and the changing faces of people and hope that you enjoy looking through my ever-growing collection of images as much as I have enjoyed creating them.

 

Cheers, Karen.