I have decided to start writing this blog so other photographers can learn from my triumphs and my mistakes and so clients have an opportunity to get to know me a little should they wish to. To the former I hope to be parting with a fair amount of lighting knowledge I have gathered over the years as well, a subject very close to my heart. I’m truly terrible at emailing my poor mum so even if no one else reads this at least she’ll know what I’m up to!
I’m taking my first blog as an opportunity to introduce my photographical self. I have been taking pictures like most people since I was a teenager, so its pretty hard to say when I became a photographer. Maybe it was when my grandfather gave me an old manual camera at the ripe age of nineteen, or maybe it was when I first started developing my own film, blacking out my bedroom with gaffe tape and fumbling around in the pitch black dark, personally I think it was when I started realising that photography had little to with the mechanical workings of the camera and everything to do with what was in front of the lens and especially to do with how it was LIT. (for the photogeeks who read this, strobist.com was an instrumental part of this revelation, if you only read one thing ever I’d say make that it.) I have been working as a photographer for a couple of years but at the beginning of this year (2010) I did something only a crazy fool would do in a downturned market and such a competitive industry. I quit my day job. I can’t tell you how good it is to do something I love every day. And boy, I can’t tell you how tough it is being my own boss. I thought my last boss was a bastard…
To be honest, admitting I’m fairly new to this game leaves me feeling pretty exposed. A huge part of this job is appearing relaxed, confident and like you’ve been doing it for donkeys years. So making it public knowledge I’m anything other than an old hand feels like professional suicide, but I’m going to have a little faith and hope that any current or potential clients reading this will look at my work and decide based on that, whether to use me/keep using me. After all that is what got me here (jobless and bricking it) in the first place. Plus I feel I need to start with a little honesty to show my gratitude to those that bother reading. I have a feeling this little adventure of mine is going to have a few ups and downs and it would be pretty pointless not telling the whole story. I think you’ll agree there are enough self congratulating blogs out there. So this is my introduction and a commitment of sorts to my readers (hi mum), whether I sink or swim, you’ll be hearing about it. This year has been a trip already and I have to thank my beautiful girlfriend Gemma (pictured) who has been a huge help. She already works in the music business as a singer, an industry with many parallel lines to photography, and her friends and contacts have been a big help. Believe me she does not need to read my blog to know when things are going well and when they’re not.