North East Photographer Jo Pattison shares five photographs from her series ‘Alternate Reality’…

As a self-taught photographer, I’m constantly exploring new techniques and looking for new ideas to try out. I’ve never attended any college or university courses to learn photography, and as such I feel I’ve searched for and found my own style, inspiration, and areas of interest.

I don’t have a particularly long attention span, so one of the things I love about photography is that there’s always something new to try, and always something different and unique, whether it’s using a film or a digital camera, trying different filters to achieve new effects, or using different settings on the camera.

One area of photography that particularly interests me is street photography. There are so many fascinating moments that are never caught on camera, so I try to catch them.

I’m drawn to using a slow shutter speed for my street photography, which achieves intentional motion blur. I feel that this captures the hustle and bustle of people rushing about their everyday routine, and beautifully portrays the passage of time, and the way that buildings and streets will remain long after people are gone.

For me, using a slow shutter speed adds a whole other dimension of interest to my photographs. You can almost feel the movement of the scene.

To explore more of Jo’s photography, you can visit her website here.