Ruth Burleigh LAPS (Photographer)

Welcome to my website. I hope you enjoy browsing through it.
The links below will help you navigate around the site.

I enjoy creating montage images, it so much fun. This image was created to demonstrate my love of nature and the bushland where I live, it has a spiritual element which protrays my closeness to God when I take the time to let nature engulf my usually busy life.©

 

The Beginning.

Photography for me has been a passion for as long as I can remember, when I was a young girl I loved helping my late father Henry Ashley (who was a member of the Ringwood Camera Club for several years) develop his own B/W negatives. The pleasure of watching the image appear in the developer has never stopped fascinating me. I started taking photographs at about the age of 8 years with a Kodak box camera, then in my teens my parents gave me a small 35ml Olympus Trip camera, this camera served me for many years. My camera went with me everywhere including on trail rides on my horse in the bush which is one of my other loves.
In 1986 I was lucky enough to secure the position as Staff Photographer for Warragul & Drouin Gazette a position I held for 13 years. Working in the newspaper industry enabled me to hone my skills as a photographer and it was here I developed my particular love, which is photographing people and action sports. I was a Member of Australian Institute of Professional Photographers for 10 years up until I retired.
After retirement from the newspaper I ran my own Portrait/Wedding Photography business. During this time I was able to further my education in photography by attending numerous Adult Education Courses.
I enrolled in an Advanced Certificate of Photography and Digital Imaging, also a Fast Track Certificate of Photography with Melbourne School of Art, Elsternwick and successfully completed this course.
At the Adult Education School in Melbourne I attended: Hand colouring B/W prints with the late Dee Star, and processing colour film with Peter Hunter Master of Photography.
I also attended an Environmental Portrait weekend workshop, and the Zone System in B/W Printing with Richard White Master of Photography, Mansfield.

Whenever possible I attend the VAPS and APSCOM conventions and workshops I highly recommend readers who have not been to these events before to go as they are a wonderful place to meet fellow photographers and learn more about the art of photography.

In 2001 I fulfilled a long time ambition, and this was to photograph as many mature age people who helped shape the district of Neerim South (where I live) in West Gippsland Victoria into what it is today. These people were all volunteers and as it was the Year of the Volunteer, this made a wonderful theme and a tribute to all these wonderful people.
I held my first solo exhibition 61 B/W medium format Fine Art Environmental Portraits in December 2001, in Neerim South. The exhibition then went on tour to the Tacit Gallery in Thornbury, then the West Gippsland Arts Centre Warragul. Without a doubt the support and encouragement given to me by the Melbourne School of Art during my studies there helped me get this first exhibition up and running. Exhibitions

My Book.
In 2002 I published and launched my book 'Living History' a selection of images together with text. This entire project was a non-profit tribute to these hard working folk it was totally self funded. I would not have been able to tackle this project without the assistance of a fellow camera club member and local historian Barbara Wilstoncroft-Bills. Book Gallery

My views on the age of Digital Imaging are: how wonderful it is that photographers have yet another medium to embrace, I use and enjoy both digital and traditional methods of capture. My gear includes various Olympus bodies and lenses, Hasselblad 503CX and several lenses, Leica Digilux, and a Nikon D70,
I really enjoy the camera club movement and being an active member of the Warragul Camera Club keeping the club's website <www.warragulcameraclub.org> up to date, I have been the print steward for our annual National Photographic Exhibition for some years, I have held various positions on committee, have run various workshops for the club during my 13 years, and am presently Vice President. A member of Victorian Association of Photography 13 years and a member of Australian Photographic Society 5 years.