Leigh Rolfe is a software engineer, entrepreneur, amateur photographer and cat lover. He studied Computer Science at RMIT in Melbourne, and then spent 12 years working for himself building websites and various online systems for businesses large and small.
Around three and a half years ago, Leigh began work on an app called School Stream with his Byron based co-founder. He was living in Melbourne at the time, just one in a succession of residences across New Zealand, Sydney and Melbourne. He spent several months convincing his girlfriend Melbourne was far too cold, and they moved to Byron Bay at the end of 2014 where Leigh continued to build both app and company.
While photography has always been an interest, Leigh has tended to focus on his technical pursuits, often shelving his hobby, not even picking up a camera, for years at a time. Once Leigh decided to move north, however, he vowed to take advantage of the dark night skies and beautiful surroundings and jump into night and nature photography, never knowing when he might get itchy feet and uproot himself again.
With nature photography, Leigh finds once he has captured a moment, the camera never quite records what he sees. In post-processing, he attempts to recreate his vision, rather than leave the camera to interpret the scene. At times, he wonders if he just sees the world a little differently.
Astronomy has always fascinated Leigh, so he finds himself naturally drawn to night photography. It is also quite different from nature photography. You can’t see what you are photographing through the viewfinder, so there is a lot of trial and error and experimentation in setting up each scene. After much perseverance, new camera equipment and software, Leigh has been able to bring his vision to life in the final images.
While Leigh’s business ventures take up most of his time, he manages to get out every couple of weeks to take photos. He has learnt a great deal about photography in the past year and a half. And about cats, because who doesn’t love cats?
Follow Leigh on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/accidental.photography/
