Tel. +44(0)15394 33519
Email. admin@vkguy.co.uk
About Us
VK Guy is a professional family run photography business serving clients worldwide from it’s base in The English Lake District. Vic Guy, and his wife Pauline, established the business in 1960 and were joined by their sons, Mike in 1986, and Paul in 1992We regularly travel the country to provide the highest quality landscape images of Britain and Ireland, to a wide range of clients throughout the world. Our customer list includes: British Airways, Marks & Spencer, Best Western Hotels, The Sunday Times, Hasbro Games, The Scotsman Calendar, Caledonian MacBrayne, Ordnance Survey, Stirling Gallery Postcards, Shearings Holidays, National Geographic and Infocado Calendars. Our pictures can be found in outlets ranging from the local corner shop to Harrods.
Experience, Quality & Service
Vic, Mike and Paul have over 75 years combined photographic experience. Mike and Paul have accompanied Vic on location from a very early age, learning from their father and applying his techniques to the photographs they take today. (Click here to read more)
Many clients come back year after year, not only because of our extensive library of high quality images, but also because they find us extremely knowledgeable and personable.
We have spent the last 5 years scanning our transparency library to a very high standard, so that it is now readily accessible for you to browse online.
- Our images are of superb quality, this is because we use professional camera equipment and film, and especially as we spend the time required to find exactly the right location and patiently wait for the perfect moment, this may take hours, or in many cases years.
(How we do it in practice) - We have developed an extensive image library of over 10,000 pictures for you to choose from – we have made it extremely easy for you to find the right image online. Or if you prefer, just call us and describe the image you want – because we have a thorough knowledge of our library, we’ll find the right image for you very quickly.
Special Images
Glen Etive, Scotland
Kilchurn Castle, Loch Awe.
Rydal Water, Lake District.
Houses of Parliament, London.
Glen Etive, Scotland is one of our most popular pictures, this picture has sold over 100 times for products including calendars, travel brochures, jigsaw puzzles, greeting cards, mailers, postcards and confectionary.
Kilchurn Castle, Loch Awe took a combined effort between Mike, Vic and Paul totalling 40 years, in order to photograph it in such ideal conditions.
Rydal Water, Lake District is one of the rarest conditions we have encountered. The frost built up over a period of 3 days and was so thick that it remained on the trees despite the sunshine. As it was so cold, Paul had to hold his breath whilst setting up the camera to avoid the lens freezing.
Houses of Parliament, London required special permission in order to gain access to the roof area - something we thought would never be possible, we were very privileged to have this opportunity.
Recce location; check conditions and composition; take compass bearings and log best timings for light, seasonal variations and sometimes tide (and find good parking place!)
- If using Linhof Technikardan 4x5 inch plate camera; straighten tripod using spirit levels
- Select appropriate Nikon lens then focus and compose picture by adjusting camera movements.
- Use black cloth over head to check image boundaries and composition (the image is upside-down and back to front) and cannot be viewed once the film has been loaded. The cloth is required to reduce reflection from the back plate, so that the picture can be viewed clearly.
- Load film - FujiFilm Velvia Quick Load RVP 50
- Take light reading manually, often also using spot meter for increased accuracy.
- Close lens, set aperture and shutter speed, and cock shutter.
- Standby to release shutter with cable release (to minimise camera shake) and take photo at right moment. In order to maximise depth of field, shutter speeds are often as low as an 1/8 of a second at f64 and, as a consequence, great patience can be required waiting for foreground foliage to be absolutely still. In addition, to avoid blurred objects, such as seagulls, the boundaries of the picture must be memorised.
- Remove and place film back into light proof case and dismantle equipment. If not using a Polaroid back, the film will need unloading, one sheet at a time, in a darkened room using a changing bag. Unexposed film is then loaded, again one sheet at a time, ready for the next day.
- Send film for processing then wait for transparency to be returned
- Edit, scan, colour correct, mount, caption, keyword and save to metadata, index and save in library ready for upload to the website.
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