Almitra Hill is a wonderful member of our Click Love Grow community and completed the CLG Enthusiasts Course in July 2014 . She loved it so much she continued straight onto our Advanced Course.  Almitra takes beautifully artistic images that are very inspiring, and we share some of her favourite images and highlights from her photography journey so far!

Ah-Ha Moments?

I think I have these on a weekly basis! My very first was when I understood focal length. My first lens was a Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3. I shot the CLG aperture lesson at 18mm because that was the widest aperture I had, completely oblivious to the fact it was a wide angle focal length, or even what that meant. I was baffled as to why I couldn’t get in close to my subject and why I couldn’t get that lovely blur everyone else was on about. Once I discovered the long end of this lens I fell in love. These days I have to pry myself away from 200mm.

Improvements

When I first bought my DSLR, it sat in its bag for the best part of 14 months because I just couldn’t translate what I saw in front of me into the image I saw in my head. Switching to manual mode and learning about the exposure triangle was a revelation. A year later and the settings have almost become second nature. At the moment, I think what’s making the biggest difference to my photography is learning to see beautiful light. It can render the simplest of things exquisite. Things that might otherwise go completely unnoticed.

Photography Goals

Honestly, I haven’t made any specific photography goals as yet. I’m simply enjoying having a creative outlet in the chaos that is life with small children. I’m not sure where it’s going to take me but I’m happy to keep exploring and learning until it finally falls into place.

 

Your Style

I’m still working on finding my own style and I think it will be an ever-evolving process. I enjoy exploring the play of light and shadow, patterns, textures and finding glimpses of unexpected details. At the moment I’m in love with backlighting and have a hard-to-break tendency towards close-ups. I’m always keen to try out new techniques and see if they enamour me in any way.

Inspiration

Usually something in everyday life will catch my eye – a reflection or shadow, an interesting object, a sweet moment, a cheeky grin. If I’m stuck, I often find myself going back to some of the beautiful items my grandmothers have made. It makes me happy creating an image from something I know they’ve lovingly created with their own special hands.

There’s a whole world of inspiration to get lost in online and of course the Click Love Grow community is a wonderful spark for creativity and learning. There are some seriously talented photographers here!

Before & After Click Love Grow

It’s always nice to receive roses but somehow it’s their fading beauty that makes me want to pick up my camera and photograph them. This before photo was taken on my old Canon Ixus II, well before I had my DSLR, and the after photo was taken during the Advanced Course this year. It feels good to have the skills, knowledge and equipment to be able to portray images as I see them in my mind’s eye.

Before

Taken during CLG Advanced Course…

Favourite Piece of Equipment

At the moment I’m in love with shooting close-ups with my Sigma 18-200mm f/3.5-6.3 at 200mm. The compression on my crop-sensor gives awesome bokeh and it has such a narrow depth of field close-up that I can really pick out the tiny slivers of detail I want to highlight. It won’t come as a surprise, then, that I have designs on a 100mm macro and suspect once it lands in my hand a brand new love-affair will begin.

 

Want to see more?

Thankyou so much to Almitra for sharing her experiences and images with us! You can follow Almitra’s work HERE! Xx