Interview with Jeff Carter

Hi Jeff! Tell us about yourself in two sentences - who are you?

I am originally from Bristol but now live in Dunbar, just 30-miles from Edinburgh, with my wife and daughter. Scotland has always been close to my heart as my Grandfather was from Greenock and the name of my company comes from my full name - Jeffrey Stuart MacLean Carter - MacLean being my great grandmother’s maiden name.

QWhat's the weirdest situation you've found yourself in while taking a photograph?

AThis summer I went out to Bass Rock off the East Lothian coast. For eight months of the year Bass Rock is home to the world’s largest single island colony of Gannets – 150000 of them! The landing trips are run by the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick and numbers are strictly limited. To be surrounded by so many seabirds at such close quarters is one of the best wildlife trips I have ever taken, and I have been on a few in South Africa, Canada as well as the UK. Being able to shoot the birds on their nests and in flight on a wide angle lens is also a first for me and a very strange, but ultimately satisfying, experience.

QWhat do you shoot on? What's your favourite set up?

AAfter 18 years with Nikon in July 2014 I moved 100% to Fujifilm and currently have an X-T1, X-Pro1, X100, nine lenses and accessories. My favourite set up is my X-Pro1 plus the 18mm f2 and 56mm f1.2 lenses when travelling to places like Paris, London and Sao Paulo on business. This lightweight kit allows me to go unnoticed in a crowd and limiting myself to two prime lenses gets the creative juices flowing because I’m not worried about what kit I am using.

QWhat's your number one tip for an aspiring photographer?

ADare to be different - Try to think out of the box. When photographing always take the obvious shot (the banker) and then try to come up with at least four alternative variations. It is amazing how many photographers take a picture in the same place as thousands of people before them – you could almost put a ‘stand here / place your tripod here’ sign in almost all of the most photographed places in the world. Try to think differently and don’t be a photographic sheep!