Digital Photography: Capturing the Feeling of a Moment Forever

It’s time for us to introduce you to the next of our Punch Makers & Breakers. We’ve loved sharing such gorgeous images of wildlife and countryside landscapes in our first few customer profiles, but next up is something a little bit different.

Allow us to introduce you to Caroline Beaumont, who describes herself as a very serious hobby photographer. Taking as many pictures as she can all the time, we think that description is pretty accurate – here she is in action at Anglesey Abbey.

We first became acquainted with Caroline when she came looking for a better photography PC after – in her own words – ‘killing’ so many old computers with the number of images she was trying to upload. We recently caught up to find out what it is that inspires her to keep taking so many photos.

Photography: Another Way of Seeing the World

Caroline admits to being such an avid photographer for purely emotional reasons. She loves light, architecture, texture and taking in the world around her. Photography is an extension of the way that she sees the world, which is one reason why she loves to photograph eyes and how other people (and animals) see too.

Her daughter Bella is a regular muse, like in this gorgeous close-up of her greeny-brown, almost colour-changing eyes, with Caroline also drawn to cat’s eyes, likening them to works of art that look as though they’re made from marble.

This almost poetic view of the world is seen throughout Caroline’s work, which she used to exhibit. After borrowing a friend’s camera at the age of 18 and snapping as many images as she could, Caroline has been happiest with a camera in her hand ever since.

Digital Photography: A New Way of Capturing Life

Caroline used to work purely in black and white, producing silverprints in her darkroom at home. When digital photography came along, her work became brighter and punchier, and she eventually stopped exhibiting, preferring to preserve her work digitally instead – although she can still often be found in galleries, taking a snap or two, like this one captured at the Tate Modern.

Caroline now uploads many of the images she takes to Guru Shots, as well as keeping a hard copy on her photography PC, as it allows her to join in with challenges and share her work with people with a similar ‘addiction’.

She regularly takes thousands of photos and has two cameras with her at all times. Having originally started with the same Olympus OMI model favoured by renowned photographer Jane Bown, Caroline has since used a Minolta camera and now has a Sony A77II SLT, keeping a Sony A57 as back-up.

This means she’s always ready to capture a moment or an atmosphere, but she much prefers sorting her photos digitally these days, as her computer chair is much more comfortable than her darkroom.

The Golden Hour for Photography

Living in landlocked Herefordshire on the Welsh border, Caroline loves an opportunity to capture images at the seaside, especially during the golden sunset hour, when she adores the limited but beautiful tonal range. The image below was captured at the stunning Bedruthan Steps on the Cornish coast at this magical time of day.

Even on a gloomy day, this twilight hour can provide a moment of joy and beauty, even in the most urban of landscapes, like in this image taken in Eastbourne.

The warm glow of the lights contrasts poignantly with the cold-looking empty seats, and you can almost feel the temperature just by looking at the colour of the sky – exactly the effect a good photograph should have.

Even in her landlocked garden, there’s still plenty of beauty to capture, with close-ups of lilies one of Caroline’s favourite photography tricks for presenting her garden at its best.

By focusing on a single flower close-up in a pot at the front of her cottage, she can very cleverly make us feel as though we’re looking at an image from a tropical jungle landscape, keeping the rest of her garden out of sight.

While Caroline might want to lose an unkempt background occasionally, she doesn’t want to lose any of her photos. As a result of low capacity hard drives in the past, this has sadly happened more than once, meaning those moments intended to have been captured forever have ended up lost to poor technology.

Since coming to Punch for her Entry Plus Photography PC, Caroline can relax more, safe in the knowledge that her thousands of photos are backed up.

For the same reassurance that your digital photography will be captured forever, explore our full range of custom photography PCs here.