My name is Suzanne Rawlins, and I love to photograph, both the landscape under the beautiful night sky, but also the intricate beauty of spring and summer flowers, both close up and and within the scope of their surroundings. 

My foundations in photography

My photography focus has changed over the years. I got my first single lens reflex camera, a Practika, when I was 15 years old, back then my Dad taught me the basics of photography, composition, settings for different situations etc, he gave me a very good foundation from which to build. He used to like shooting architecture, such as churches and interesting buildings and landscapes, and while my photographic interest has changed, more towards landscape astrophotography and flowers, I still like to include some architecture, but under the view of the stars, so his legacy continues (RIP Aug '22).

Into the digital world and my astrophotography Journey

I started using digital in 2004, when My newly wedded husband, Andy and I got our 1st digital camera as a wedding present and then used it on our honeymoon. In 2015, I progressed to a digital SLR, then around 2016, I got interested in planetary photography because of a planetary line-up, I bought a telescope type thing that attached to a camera, but I had to be able to use my camera in full manual, which thanks to YouTube, I taught myself to do. My knowledge and skills didn't really match what I was doing , consequently my images were poor, in 2018, I was interest in trying to capture the milky way, but wasn't very successful, then at the beginning of that fateful year, 2020, I saw some milky way panorama images on social media, and thought I'd like to try, I looked on YouTube for some help and came across Nightscape Images, Richard Tatti, an Australian astrophotographer, who was very easy to learn from, and so tried my 1st milky way panorama , the weekend prior to the 1st covid lockdown, it didnt turn out very well, but the Nightscape images (Richard Tatti) did an 8 week workshops online where he taught everything astrophotography, from how to find the milky way, focus on it, to doing star trails and panoramas . This online programme was not only a sanity lifesaver, as it gave me something to look forward to, it was also a skills lifesaver in terms of my milky way photography and I made huge progress, however, I was then stumped by my inability to use photoshop, although Richard has plenty of videos on editing, I felt like I couldn't do it, until I came across Photoshop 101 by Kristine rose Photography, in January 2021, during lockdown #2. This was the 2nd massive game changer for my milky way photography, I am able to use photoshop to blend my images competently and confidently, and therefore my image quality improved greatly.

Moving towards exhibiting my work

 the move towards exhibiting my work, came from the third game changer in my photography journey which had its origin from two sources, firstly doing a course run by the entrepreneur, Peter Sage, Ultimate Self Mastery, which works a lot on mindset and behaviour change, but also from a podcast called the After Dark Photography podcast, by Kristine Rose Photography, in which she encouraged her listeners to get their photography out for others to see, despite personal mind challenges, such as imposter syndrome and perfectionism. So from this I took on a challenge to take part in my first exhibition called Neat Image 2023, hosted by Upton country Park, near Poole and led by painter Norma Jacqueline Rawlins. I got quite a few purchases and a few people liked an image, which I only had one of, but didn't know how to go about further sales. However this exhibition gave me a massive confidence boost that my photographs were worth exhibiting and in 2024,I did a website workshop online, again with Kristine Rose Photography, but for various reasons it hasn't materialised until now. I have recently had my 50th Birthday and am just taking the plunge on  doing scary things, so here it is my first website.