About Hugh
My interest in photography really started just over twenty years ago when I was given a red plastic panoramic film camera by my parents. At the time they had collected the tokens within cigarette packets and then sent away for the free camera which came with a small case and a couple of rolls of film. Anytime I went on holiday, or for a cycle, I took the camera and happily snapped away. All the shots were hand held as it was a fixed lens with a fixed exposure and I always remember many of them being a bit blurry or too dark ! I love the panoramic format and those long prints that capture such a breathtakingly wide view of the landscape.
I later studied Media and Communication at Kilmarnock College and one aspect of this course involved taking black & white photographs with an old manual 35mm SLR camera. I then had to develop the negatives and make enlargements from them in the darkroom using chemicals. It was messy but also lots of fun, especially when you saw your images magically appear on the paper when you put it in the developer !
A battered old Pentax ME Super was my first proper camera and I purchased it secondhand for less than £60. It was all I could afford at the time and it came with the standard 50mm lens and worked fine despite having a large dent on the front pentaprism! So it did'nt look great but it was a fantastic little camera. Around this time I travelled to the beautiful Island of Islay, off Scotland's west coast, where I took many photographs of the coastline and the whisky distilleries. It was a magical time for me and from that moment on I knew that photography would always be a part of my life.
I also developed a keen interest in writing local history and managed to successfully combine this with my photography. I have been fortunate to have had many illustrated articles published in The Scots Magazine and Scottish Memories magazine both of which are sold and circulated worldwide.
I have also written a number of illustrated postcard books such as Old Darvel, Old Newmilns, Old Galston, Old Girvan and Old South Ayrshire Villages. These were compiled for a company in Ayrshire called Stenlake Publishing and in September of 2010 I wrote and published another book on the south Ayrshire villages / towns titled 'Old Carrick'.
Working with and researching into the old photographs and postcards, many dating back over 100 years, has developed in myself a great appreciation for the photograph and the impact it can have on people's lives.
In Septemeber 2002 a portfolio of farming images were published in Amateur Photographer magazine and more recently photographs have appeared in a local calendar, Scottish Memories magazine and in the Kilmarnock Standard newspaper.
I created the Ayrshire Photo Gallery in 2007 to help showcase my work to a much wider audience and I hope it has become a website where people can happily spend time looking at the photographs. The greatest satisfaction is when I receive messages from people saying that they find an image inspirational in someway or that it brings back memories of a distant place they once used to visit.
I always feel inspired by other people's work and several photographers in particular who have had an impact on shaping my own images include fellow Scotsman Colin Prior who is famous for his breath-taking panoramic images of Scotland and its mountians. Landscape photographer Joe Cornish, the large format images of Peter Watson and the inspirational work of Charlie Waite.
I have studied and practised digital photography for several years now and shoot mostly in RAW to obtain the highest possible quality but I also still like to use my old 35mm and medium format film cameras. I enjoy capturing landscapes and taking portraits but as you will see from my work I shoot a rich variety of subjects including farming and graffiti and will happily turn my lens to anything !
Please enjoy your time spent browsing through the Photo Gallery.
Hugh Maxwell
I later studied Media and Communication at Kilmarnock College and one aspect of this course involved taking black & white photographs with an old manual 35mm SLR camera. I then had to develop the negatives and make enlargements from them in the darkroom using chemicals. It was messy but also lots of fun, especially when you saw your images magically appear on the paper when you put it in the developer !
A battered old Pentax ME Super was my first proper camera and I purchased it secondhand for less than £60. It was all I could afford at the time and it came with the standard 50mm lens and worked fine despite having a large dent on the front pentaprism! So it did'nt look great but it was a fantastic little camera. Around this time I travelled to the beautiful Island of Islay, off Scotland's west coast, where I took many photographs of the coastline and the whisky distilleries. It was a magical time for me and from that moment on I knew that photography would always be a part of my life.
I also developed a keen interest in writing local history and managed to successfully combine this with my photography. I have been fortunate to have had many illustrated articles published in The Scots Magazine and Scottish Memories magazine both of which are sold and circulated worldwide.
I have also written a number of illustrated postcard books such as Old Darvel, Old Newmilns, Old Galston, Old Girvan and Old South Ayrshire Villages. These were compiled for a company in Ayrshire called Stenlake Publishing and in September of 2010 I wrote and published another book on the south Ayrshire villages / towns titled 'Old Carrick'.
Working with and researching into the old photographs and postcards, many dating back over 100 years, has developed in myself a great appreciation for the photograph and the impact it can have on people's lives.
In Septemeber 2002 a portfolio of farming images were published in Amateur Photographer magazine and more recently photographs have appeared in a local calendar, Scottish Memories magazine and in the Kilmarnock Standard newspaper.
I created the Ayrshire Photo Gallery in 2007 to help showcase my work to a much wider audience and I hope it has become a website where people can happily spend time looking at the photographs. The greatest satisfaction is when I receive messages from people saying that they find an image inspirational in someway or that it brings back memories of a distant place they once used to visit.
I always feel inspired by other people's work and several photographers in particular who have had an impact on shaping my own images include fellow Scotsman Colin Prior who is famous for his breath-taking panoramic images of Scotland and its mountians. Landscape photographer Joe Cornish, the large format images of Peter Watson and the inspirational work of Charlie Waite.
I have studied and practised digital photography for several years now and shoot mostly in RAW to obtain the highest possible quality but I also still like to use my old 35mm and medium format film cameras. I enjoy capturing landscapes and taking portraits but as you will see from my work I shoot a rich variety of subjects including farming and graffiti and will happily turn my lens to anything !
Please enjoy your time spent browsing through the Photo Gallery.
Hugh Maxwell