My Talented Friends: Rick Nunn

Rick Nunn admits that he’s “generally antisocial, but catch me on the right day and I might try and be nice to you”.

Bumping into him on one of those particularly good evenings, Rick and I traded a few insults and struck up a friendship based on cats, good movies and loud music. Armed with new umbrella boxes, fuelled by coffee and in need of someone to shoot on short notice, he took this photo of me a few days later, and the rest is history.

Rick NunnPhoto by Ashley Baxter

Rick is one of the hardest working people I know – I’m pretty sure he never sleeps – and with an impressive photography portfolio, he’s gained an army of loyal followers on Flickr, and dedicates his free time to capturing beautiful images, as well as putting together informative articles to share with the rest of the internet. Just don’t call him a photographer – it makes him uncomfortable.

Hey man. Taken any photos today?

Yep, I took this photo of some dinosaur pancakes that I made.

dinosaur pancakes
How did you get into photography? 

In 2009 I was forced to give up one of my biggest passions [skateboarding] due to injury, and I bought a dSLR to try & fill the gap it left. Being a graphic designer, I had always been engaged with not only the visual aesthetic but also the visual hierarchy of any composition I was creating. I think this largely contributed to photography making the transition from hobby to passion very early on.

You’ve been praised for the quality in your Fifty of Fifty projects – where do you find the inspiration and time to shoot like that?

Inspiration, from everything. Literally everything. There’s no way I could identify any specific sources; I ingest such a huge amount of visual material on a daily basis I think it all ends up as some sort of mind soup and I just dip into it for ideas. As for time, basically whenever I embark on a project such as my Fifty of Fifty, sleep just goes out the window, as well as any sort of social life. Sacrifice = reward…right?

just add water
You must have felt like death after completing your 365 project…

The 365 was actually relatively easy to do – anyone can take a photo every day if they always have their camera with them and the commitment to see something like that through to the end. My Fifty of Fifty projects have been much harder, maintaining that level of consistent quality is a killer.

Quitting isn’t an option for you, is it.

Death before dishonour.

Would you consider doing it again in the future?

Yes/No/Maybe/Probably…

For someone who isn’t a people person, you really capture personalities in your portraits.

I genuinely LOVE portraits. There is nothing more interesting than trying to capture someones personality in a photo. People often don’t realise how much of their personality is projected visually – clothes, posture, hairstyle and so much more all contribute to it, and I love getting that in a still image

John Huntsman

If you could give 3 tips to anyone who owns a camera and wants to do more with it, what would they be?

1. Make friends with people better than you – you’ll push yourself harder if you’re trying to keep up with them.
2. Try prime lenses, they changed my life.
3. Keep it with you at all times! You can’t use it if you don’t have it.

Film or digital?

Digital

Black and white or full colour?

Colour, but it does’t need to scream.

Voyeurism or narcissism?

Voyeurism! For me narcissism is always a last resort.

There’s a fire and you can only save one camera and one lens – which is it?

5D MkII & 135L

If you want to know more about Rick, check out his website here or stalk him via Twitter.

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