Danny evans is a freelance commercial photographer who has spent the past 18 years honing his skills. Having started out long before the age of the digital camera, danny’s expertise is vast and as such, the work he produces has been widely sought after by local businesses and global brands alike.
Specialising in creative advertising campaigns, Danny has been commissioned by major brands and his work has been featured in international magazines and on billboards from Singapore, Australia and Europe to the UK. Fashion photography is his passion; he’s the mastermind behind our monthly fashion shoots (he’s been with us since the start!), but as lucky as we are to have him, he is also busy working on an array of different projects on and off island.
Danny’s studio is tucked away in St Helier, his base for the past three years. The studio set up allows Danny to let his creativity run, enabling incredible set designs and unique lighting set ups, something that sets him apart locally from other photographers. Having invested in top end equipment, Danny is able to create sublime settings on location; favouring the unfavourable – or at least, settings which you may not consider aesthetically pleasing… Danny turns the mundane in to something unique and beautiful.
The evolution…
Currently updating his equipment to the world class Phase One camera system, we asked Danny to talk us through the evolution of his equipment and what’s made his career click.
“I started out as a kid, pressing the buttons on the family camera, a Kodak Instamatic and not long after, my sister bought me a Boots own brand compact. I took such good care of that camera, I even remember the faux velvet box that it came in – I used to remove the batteries each time I used it and place them all back in the box to keep it brand new.
I borrowed cameras from my friends until I was able to afford my own; the first camera I bought was a Nikon FM which I used to capture my friends skateboarding – it had a fish eye lens that was pretty cool at the time; an essential lens for skate photography – allowing you to get close, sometimes too close (injuries to prove it!).
I started to work for Steve Wellum and he introduced me to the best equipment a photographer could get – he also imparted a wealth of knowledge and expertise, setting my course in photography. My interest turned to fashion photography so I bought myself a Hasselblad ELM, a medium format camera. From the Hasselblad I moved on to Mamiya RZ67, both featured a Polaroid back so for the first time I could actually view the images straight away. Back in the day, most of the time, we’d have to wait to see the images after they’d been developed and only then would you realise if you’d captured a shot as you’d hoped. With the Mamiya not only was the quality far superior, but along with the Hasselblad I had top class equipment for that time, enabling me to capture minute detail and sharpness unlike I’d experienced before.
As I progressed and went freelance, setting up my own studio, I used my Mimiya until I switched to digital, which in my profession was an absolute must. The quality dropped somewhat but the speed at which I could produce work was unbelievable. I carried on shooting on compact film cameras for personal projects; at the time I still much preferred the result. Over the years, digital obviously became industry standard and is now second to none in terms of quality. I could never go back to film now, with such reliance on the capabilities that digital
