About | imagi – Photoblog of Matt Stokes

ABOUT ME
My name is Matthew Stokes and I am a designer, living and working in Mountsorrel, just outside of Loughborough. I live with my lovely wife Nik, who I am sure will post comments on imagi from time to time. I enjoy film, poker, swimming, Sci-fi, fantasy, games, art, music, computers and of course photography. I haven't always enjoyed taking photographs. As a student, many moons ago I took very few and for a good portion of my life, during my twenties, I took none at all. This was something I came to regret as I got older, not just because I didn't record parts of my life to look back on but also because photography is such a fulfilling hobby and art-form.

THE BEGINNING
As a designer, working in print and the web with Mulberry Square, my job is very creative and can involve the use of photography. Eventually, even inevitably, I became interested in taking the photos as well as editing them.

Also around this time digital SLRs were becoming far more affordable with better sensor technology that had improved the quality of digital imagery. Before the camera bodies had been thousands of pounds when, suddenly, you could get your hands on a fantastic, digital SLR for sub £1000. Of course that is nothing compared to how cheap cameras are today.

The camera which started all this was the Canon 300D. While holidaying in Tenerife I almost bought one, but I decided to wait and get one back in England. The reason? I had done a lot of reading about camera models on the market and for me the one that caught my eye was Nikon's D70. It was slightly more expensive than its rival, the 300D, but it had a faster shutter speed and the controls on the Nikon cameras seemed so much more intuitive.

So on my birthday in 2004 I bought my first digital SLR and never looked back.

IMAGI
The 'imagi' name was originally made up for the first website I developed, back before I became interested in cameras. It ended up being just a few pages of HTML with some fairly mundane content.

I should quickly mention here where the name 'imagi' comes from and where my handle 'yogavenger' originated. imagi has many meanings but originally came from the fusion of the word 'Magi' (illusionist or conjuror) and the singular 'I' (myself). It also was a reference to images (photographs) and the symmetry of the medium. My handle 'yogavenger' came from my sign-on name on the website at Decipher who used to make the Star Wars CCG (Collectable Card Game).

The second version of imagi was slightly more impressive. As I continued my career in design, graphics and art, I became more skilled at image manipulation. With the second site I made a pseudo 3D environment where users could travel about, seemingly in a virtual 3D world. Again by todays standards this was less than impressive, featuring mainly static, uninteresting content. (I can't find any of these old websites, which is a bit of a shame).

With increased interest in Blogging and my growing photographic collection, I made a third version of my website. This one still runs today in the archive, and features my old blog pages, a flash gallery and some links to other personal pages for me (like a poker room). Because the site was limited to being static HTML (there is no interaction with any of the visitors, rather all content is posted by me) I decided, once again, to make another version. With my experience of web design, my understanding of CMS systems (Content Managed Systems) and my desire for other user interaction, on the second anniversary of imagi v3 I decided to update the site. This is the realisation of that update.

THE FUTURE
Alongside my design work I have the opportunity to photograph professionally. I have been on assignment for different councils, trusts, business's in the UK, large clothing companies photographing fashion shooting all manner of subjects.

I will keep taking photographs in my spare time, honing the discipline, enjoying the art-form and posting any images I like or want to discuss to the blog. I want to explore different elements and techniques in photography and I am looking to get feedback on my work from visitors to imagi. I am also looking forward to posting links to imagi on different photographic websites to advertise its presence.

AWARDS & EDUCATION ACHIEVEMENT
I have a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Three Dimensional Design (Interior Design) with Honours, a Diploma in Photoshop and I am a registered Nikon Professional User. I was prize winning in the Leicester Regeneration competition in August 2006 and I have been awarded noteworthy twice on the Photofriday website among others.

THANKS
To my beautiful girl, who puts up with me.
To my family, who I love dearly.
And to all my pals like Ian, who is a great photographic talent and I highly recommend you check out his websites, both professional, personal and the blog.
To Craig who lets me live on his server.

...Oh yeah, and a special thanks to James, without whom imagi wouldn't exist.

Matt 'yogavenger' Stokes
April 2008

...AND NOW THE SERIOUS BIT
All text and images, unless otherwise noted, are subject to UK and international copyright laws and are the property of Matt Stokes © 2008. No photograph may be reproduced, downloaded, copied, stored, manipulated, or used whole or in part of a derivative work, without the written permission of Matt Stokes. All rights reserved.

If you do want to use any photographs please feel free to contact me to discuss.

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