Bio & Photographs

You can read my blog at
http://thepicturedesk.blogspot.com/

This is my story and I'm sticking to it.
-Rob Skeoch

Rob at the Algonquin Seven Gathering with his Ebony 8x10

I make my living as a sports photographer and shooter for Getty Images.

I don't know everything about photography.... but I do know a few things.

A few years ago during the hockey strike I decided to get back into large format photography... something I had done years ago but drifted away from.

I bought an 8x10 and re-learned how to shoot with the big camera, filling my time during the strike. Well large format is additive like crack... only more expensive... and I was hooked.

It was hard to get film and supplies so I approached a number of companies and started importing hard to find items that I was using and thought other phototgraphers would find useful. Black and white film, fibre base papers, wood tripods and cameras. I also taught workshops on large format photography and put together gatherings where photographers could get together for a social... and talk photography.

Now after a few years I still shoot sports for a living and continue to do editorial portraits for magazines. I even shoot some of these on black and white film for a look that's different than digital. My work appears in Sports Illustrated and Canadian Sports Magazine. In 2008 I had work published in four books which brings my total to 42 book projects.

Before I started shooting sports full time I shot editorial assingments for newspapers and magazines and worked during "My Leica Period" for Doctors Without Borders in Cambodia and Haiti. I owned four Leica M6 cameras and a bunch of the lenses. I shot with rangefinders for a number of years and was happy to offer the Zeiss Ikon and Voigtlander system to my website. Now I find myself shooting with the Zeiss system more and more and really enjoy it.

In June 2009 I traveled through China, mostly shooting with rangefinder cameras and three lenses. I was shooting black and white and a bit of digital, mostly for Getty.


After 30 years working at photogrphy I realize how little I know but I am making progress and my work is reflecting the passion I have for photography. With another 30 years of improvement I'll probally know as much as I thought I knew when I was 20.

If you want to see my sports website go to www.thepicturedesk.ca

What I'm shooting with these days....
My photography has been moving forward the last few years and I'm using less and less gear and trying to really understand how it works.
Right now I'm shooting with a Ebony SV810 camera and use a Fujinon 300MM C or 450MM C lens. I have a 210mm that just covers 8x10 but never use it.
I often use a B+W 040 orange filter to darken the sky.
Mostly I shoot on Ilford Delta 100 film and have been playing around with the Efke 810 Infrared.
I develop in Ilford ID11 using a drum.
In the darkroom I use a Besler 8x10 enlarger with a cool head. I use graded papers... either Ilford Gallerie or Kentmere Bromide.
When I shoot medium format I use a Pentax 645 AF.  I only use it for portraits shooting mostly with the 300mm F4.
When shooting 35mm film I use the Zeiss Ikon system with a couple lenses... mostly the 35mm F2 and 25mm F2.8, although I also have the 85mm F4.
With digital I use the Sony A900 which is full frame and gives me access to the Zeiss lenses that Sony offers.

This is a video of me on a photo shoot.....

http://youtube.com/watch?v=l8krwkc5ZkI

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYFeWtpligI




My original landscape photographs are silver fine-art prints made to the highest quality standards and are available in a number of sizes.

The photographs are silver prints enlarged from an 8 x 10 inch negative onto photographic fiber based paper and developed in chemicals in the darkroom.

These prints are individually hand made and archival processed and mounted, resulting in photographic prints with great detail and tonal scale, that will look great for years. The process uses no inks or dyes that fade with time.

This process hasn't changed much since the early 1900's and follows a tradition set by photographic masters such as Edward Weston and Ansel Adams.

The prints are mounted and matted on archival matt board and each print is signed and the back of the mount has the print title and date stamped on it. If you wish to purchase a photogrphy please contact Rob by phone or email. The cost of an 8x10 is $200, 16x20 $600, 20x24 $800.


Kennedy River, BC 2008


Forest Floor, BC 2008


Maligne Lake, Alberta 2008


Sierra Homestead, CA 2007


Bristlecone Pine, CA 2007


California Dreamin, 2007


Split Rock in Zion, Utah 2004


Cottonwoods in Zion, Utah 2004


Storm over Zion, Utah 2004


Roots at Rattlesnake Point


Bodie California


Mount Whitney


Bridalveil Falls


Aspens in California


Barnboards


Barn in Grafton Utah


Bridge Mountain Zion


Algonquin River Crossing
 

Reflective Pools Algonquin


High Falls Algonquin


Bear Claw Rock