Whether you're a writer, artist, designer or photographer, maintaining the highest quality output is crucial to your success.

Every week I take new photos and create new artworks, but only a few make it onto EyeInvent.

Like most photographers I capture hundreds of photos on every shoot. Around 30% never reach the cutting room floor and are deleted in camera. Only a tiny fraction of those are published, and trusting that little voice in the back of my mind that tells me a work doesn't quite cut it is all important.

I'm not a photographer who takes a long time on each shot, and I tend not to use a tripod, nor spend too long on the manual settings. That's mainly becuase light is all important to me, and when taking photos, natural light changes by the moment. If I take too long on the technicalities, the moment has gone forever, and the composition is undermined by a loss in impact.

I enjoy a spontaneous approach to photography and trust my compositional instincts as much as my knowledge about form and light. I've always enjoyed vibrant colours and high contrast, and I'll try my best to quickly compose the subject matter. The creative process is however only half done in the field, and the digital darkroom has as much influence on the completed work as the taking of a photo. On occasion what I shot appears on the monitor as what I saw, but more often than not I need to refine the light and crop to match my experience of the subject matter before I'm happy.

I've always tried to be a demanding critic of my own work, and there are many times when I'd like a photo or artwork to be shown at EyeInvent, only to reject it as weak in one area or another. This is not only to satisfy my professionalism, but also to maintain aesthetic integrity. I've found that without that I don't sleep well at night.

Mike de Sousa
Artist/Photographer
EyeInvent