About my photography

Coast, South West Scotland
Photo taken using my DX-7

I first got interested in photography when I was 9 years old, I was brought a simple film camera with fixed focus and automatic flash. With the camera I took mainly 'snapshot' photos like the one to the right. In 2001 I got my first Digital camera, on a very poor budget I got a Fujifilm DX-7 for about £100, which featured about 300k pixels (about the same as a cheap £20 digicam nowadays) and it used 4 'AA' batteries at a time.

Canon 30D Digital SLR
Canon Digital SLR

In 2003 I purchased a Samsung Digimax 360 for about £170, it featured 3.2Mpixels and an optical zoom of 3x, it was Semi-automatic which meant I could change the ISO speed and EV settings but it was autofocus which meant it was hard to get a macro shot as it would tend to focus on the background and there was no manual focus, I did manage to take some good macro shots with it, the Loch Ronald photo was taken using it.

I now own a wide array of digital photographic equipment including several digital SLRs, Filters, strobe lighting kit & tripods.

I've been a volunteer photographer for Marie Curie. I'm experimenting with different shooting techniques. I'd also like to take the opportunity to thank my Uncle Eric, without whom this website, it's contents and initial creation would not of been possible.

 

About the site

Constructing the logo
Constructing the logo

The Stillwave name came from an idea to use an oxymoron
in the naming of my website (a Still Wave).
Before this name my site was called BAWF, which was an Abbreviation for Ben Ashley's Website Freedom.

I wanted the website to look neat, modern & consistent not only throughout the site but with other sites as well but, I also wanted it to look different at the same time.

The main reason for creating a website at the start was to share with others what I had learned about web design
and so I started making a few tutorials and tips pages.

In the summer of 2003 I decided to use the website for another of my hobbies, Photography, Landscapes in particular.
I have a large range which I only showed to a relatively small number of people.

 

History of the site

BTinternet website - screenshot
BT internet -
My first Attempt at a website, It had little original content and was slow loading due to it's uncompressed BMP background.
Bens-Page.com website - screenshot
Bens-Page.com -
This was my second attempt, It was made in a free domain name this was the first time I experimented using Javascript.
Baws.co.uk website - screenshot
Baws.co.uk -
This site was only up for a short time, yet it familiarised me with image maps and basic graphic editing. It was entirely original
1st Bawf.co.uk website - screenshot
This was the first design for Bawf.co.uk -
It used a javascript menu and had a proper logo, It also used a keypress Javascript nav system
2nd Bawf.co.uk website - screenshot Second Bawf.co.uk Design -
This version used Retractable tables (Minimized look) and was more integrated together, the main problem was the file size.
The site was slightly image heavy.
1st Stillwave.co.uk website - screenshot
First design for Stillwave.co.uk -
This design used cgi/perl scripting to dynamically create pages based on image views.
 All images were optimized and the site design was easier to maintain.
2006 redesign
2006 Redesign -
 This used the same scripting as the last version but with a clearer layout a more optimized coding.
Stillwave, 2013
2013 Redesign -
 Redesigned to use Joomla CMS & optimized for veiwing on mobile platforms, the usage of CMS means I can update the website no matter where or which computer I use.

 

Other instances of the words Still Wave

Still Wave Yoga
Still Wave yoga
Daily Egyptian - "Oh say does that banner Still Wave?"
Daily Egyptian - Headline reads
"Oh say does that banner Still Wave"
FWTR - Stillwave the song
FWTR - The Band
One of the songs is entitled "Stillwave"