Driving force

waiting for the rain to stop... waiting for a bumble bee to land on a leaf – photographers have all sorts of hurdles when trying to capture a shot.

Aspiring photographer Peter Fenech, from Chester-le Street, in County Durham, has an even bigger hurdle – not being able to drive.

He has to convince his dad to get up at 4am to give him a lift so he can capture the dawn.

Peter, a 20-year-old biology student at Newcastle University, specialises in landscape and nature photography. He got his first camera from The Early Learning Centre at the age of five. At 15, he did work experience with a professional photographer in Chester-le Street and it was this that prompted him to take it further. Although he is still a student, his work has been featured in several magazines, including Amateur Photographer. His ambition is to one day turn professional.

He is currently working on a project inspired by the North-East, capturing its iconic landmarks and countryside, using digital techniques to show it in an original way.

The North-East coast features strongly in his work along, along with Waldridge Fell, near his home in Chester-le-Street. “I’ve been going up there since I was young, but with the camera, I’m pretty much going there every week,” he says. “It doesn’t seem much at first, but there is a lot of wildlife and the landscape is really interesting.”

Malham Cove, in North Yorkshire, and Marsden Bay, in Tyne and Wear, are also two of his favourite spots, but with so many other photographers capturing the same places, the pressure is on to produce something different.

“I think there’s a lot of the North-East that still needs to be explored,” he says. “It’s trying to find a new angle – something as simple as changing the perspective or shooting it in a different light and going out in different weather so people are seeing it in a way they haven’t before. One thing I really love is that each location can look completely different from one day to the next. You can have four seasons in one day in Britain and it’s fun to watch.”

Peter recounts his experiences in his blog YKP (Young, Keen and Penniless...

Thoughts From A Young Photographer) (http://ykpphotogr phy.blogspot.co.uk). His favourite time to shoot is dawn because the light is interesting and the wind tends to be lower. The only obstacle is persuading his dad to give him a lift. “He’s not overly enthusiastic the night before, but once he’s up, he’s up,” says Peter.

Both his parents have been supportive, getting up dozens of times at dawn to ferry him to various locations.

How does he persuade them?

“Nagging, really. If I ask four or five times in a short while, they usually say yes because they just want me to shut up,” he says. “Shooting at dawn and dusk is the absolute best time for landscape photography and I’m fortunate in that they appreciate that and are really supportive.”

As well as landscapes, Peter has also built a portfolio of wildlife images featuring bees, butterflies, spiders and some (mating) toads.

“Insects are notoriously difficult to shoot – you’re about to take the shot and they’ll buzz off,” he says. “I like bees because if they’re busy they spend a lot of time on a flower and tend to sit still, so you’re free to take pictures.

Sometimes I’ve been there 15 minutes shooting one bee. I could have got within an inch of it and it’s been fine. You don’t have to travel long distances. It’s amazing what you can find in your back garden.”

It is not just wildlife that can prove unpredictable.

Local landmarks can apparently be equally tricky, like the man-made waterfall in Chester-le-Street. “It was great for photography because it was only about a five minute walk from where I live,” he says. “I’d visited loads, but never been there at dawn.”

So Peter set his alarm and got up early, but when he arrived the waterfall had gone. “It was there the day before. I thought, how could this possibly have happened? The council had flattened it overnight and instead of one big drop, they’d made three small ones. It was the most unimpressive photo opportunity you could possibly imagine. I ended up shooting pictures of swans instead.

“You don’t expect a part of the landscape to just disappear. Hopefully, I won’t turn up to Marsden Bay and find the rock gone. I think I’d just give up at that point.”

fenechimages.com