The grave side of photography (From Bucks Free Press)

Wingrave photographer comes runners up in graveyard competition

10:20am Saturday 26th November 2011 in Interviews By Rebecca Cain

A FEW months ago you would have found professional photographer, Nigel Crump, wandering around graveyards at night with a torch. But he hadn't taken an interest in the paranormal- he was armed with a camera as he took the photos which left him runners up in a national competition. He talks to Rebecca Cain about how photography is not just about the camera.

Crump started taking photos when he was 18 at college and since then he has learnt the art of the trade and most importantly the expertise needed to take photos which he said is so important to stand out from the many amateurs who try their hand at photography.

The 54-year-old, who is director of DWP Imaging- a commercial photographers based in Luton- said he rarely enters competitions but was intrigued by The Memorial Awareness Board (MAB) Dead Art? Then and Now competition.

Photographers were asked to submit their images of memorials of both 'then' and 'now.'

Crump, from Wingrave, Bucks, submitted two images from the Drayton Beauchamp churchyard.

He said: "Any one can shoot a picture of a gravestone. I thought, 'How am I going to make this different?' I spoke to a stonemason in Great Missenden and he gave me some ideas of where to go. I wanted something contemporary. I saw a lot of old gravestones but I wanted something modern too."

He found the location and then spoke to the vicar, who checked with the family that it was ok to photograph the grave stones.

Crump added: "It was very different to anything I had done before. I had to do it at night with an LED torch. If anyone had come in the graveyard they would have wondered what on earth I was doing."

On one of the first jobs he did he went out to Florence with a group of reporters to take photos for glossy magazines. He took photos of The English Cemetery as the sun rose. He said: "The feeling I had was amazing."

He won a £50 voucher for online digital photo service, Photobox.

Crump said: "It is a difficult market. There are a lot of people who think photography is an easy occupation. It is not just about having a camera. A lot of knowledge and experience people buy into when they commission photographers."

He also runs a photography group in his village of Wingrave. Go to www.winpic.co.uk for more information.