Hi, I’m Ashley Davies. Welcome to Photo Guides.

The Nutshell:

First things first, I’m a 16 year old guy from Melbourne in Australia, and yes I’m fully aware that I have a girls name. I’m a year 11 student who’s currently tackling the world of VCE, prepping myself for all the last year of school has to throw at me. My life has many passions including cars, boats, technology, sport and of course photography. To me though, these passions are just topics. My real love is to express these passions creatively, specifically through the use of my imagination.
I love to write, not by using the technical methods we’re taught, but rather by expressing the world as I see it through stories, philosophies, opinions and something that is unique to my voice. I also love creating a visual piece, be it through photography, Photoshop or video production.

The Site:

Photo Guides is a key to expressing my passions for dhotography and design. What you must understand is that I’m still learning. I’ve taken no courses, I have no degrees. All I have is an Olympus E-620, the Adobe CS3 and an obsession. Every time I write a new guide for photography, that’s me being intrigued by a topic. I delve in and search for answers, I write about it and then, not only do I have a greater understanding, but I also get to share it with everyone else. The podcasts and Photoshop tutorials are also my way of learning and improving my skills with creative design.

The Focus:

Here on PhotoGuides, you’re the special one. Every single article and guide on here is written just for you. Why? Because if you’ve enjoyed what I’ve written enough to click this colophon link and learn a bit about me, you are exactly my audience.
I’ve tried to keep this site very simple and very readable whilst still being beautiful from a designers perspective. My main focus is on content and the photography. Images are shown large and rich to add to the experience. I don’t so much care about come-and-go statistics. Members, feed subscribers, commenters and high pages per visit rates are the figures that keep me chirpy because it means someone is actually involved in the site. You can become a member too by clicking this bit of blue text here. You’ll notice that advertising on PhotoGuides is minimal. This is my attempt at being credible. I can’t stand site’s that put priority on you clicking stupid links and ads over reading what they have to say. After all, you come to a site like this because you want to read or learn.

The Ambition:

My ambition in life is pretty darn big and strangely it doesn’t relate to Photography at all. Outside of Photo Guides, my world revolves around cars. I am an enthusiast. I appreciate and respect the world of cars, their advancements, their ingenuity, and especially their uniqueness and beauty. What’s more is that, whilst I don’t know everything, I have an opinion on most things. This admiration has been with me since I was born as I’ve grown up in a world that caters for my passion perfectly. When I leave school and enter the world of jobs and taxes, I want to continue living in the world I love. My dream is to combine all my passions into one and eventually host my own car show, implementing my love for writing, cars, cinematography and video production. If all goes well, my show will be honest, truthful, beautifully put together, entertaining and above all unique. They’re tall orders but I believe I have the determination and heart to follow it and do it. I’ve already dipped my foot into this world, and you can check out what I’ve made over here.

The Photography:

One thing that often annoys me is people who go and buy a top class SLR and then think they’re top notch photographers, even though it never leaves the auto mode. I’ve got a middle class camera, an Olympus E-620. It’s my fourth camera, and it’s pretty different to the one I started out with. It’s new, so you won’t find any photos taken with it on Photo Guides just yet. All the other one’s have either been taken with a Fujifilm S9500 or an Olympus E-500. My particular photography interest lies in night photography (especially on the water), landscape photography or photos which tell a story. You can see it all over here.

The Background Details:

Photo Guides is run using Wordpress and hosting is done by Media Templee. My theme is based on Headlines, by WooThemes with management and manipulation done via Coda. My feed is run with feedburner and you should subscribe to it.
My computer is a 13″ MacBook, always kept impeccably clean with an incredibly messy desktop. I manage myself with Things and I’m on the Inbox Zero bandwagon. I talk to my friends using Adium, unless I’ve clogged up all my 2GB of ram editing with Final Cut Express, Photoshop or Aperture.

The End

Thanks for reading this far. Remember you can always hang around by subscribing to the feed or becoming a PhotoGuides Member. Feel free to contact me whenever for whatever, be it a comment, question or just pointing out another typo (I’m rubbish with capitalizing the letter ‘i’)
I read and reply to everything and I’m interested to hear what you have to say.

Thanks

Ash Davies