The Long Overdue First Post

Right so I figured that as I set this up last year for my FMP and then we didn't use blogs, we used flickr instead, that it was high time I wrote something constructive here. Can't promise that it will be but here goes.

I know that there's alot of blogs out there that people follow, written by photographers - namely successful ones, or ones well on the way to achieving some kind of professional 'success'. But what I don't often see is blogs by those on those rickety, rotten away bottom rungs of the ladder trying to scrabble and leap for the next rung that seems a mile out of reach.

So my idea is to try and blog here about my attempts to reach the next rung. And maybe in doing so inspire people younger than me who're thinking about trying photography, to just say 'fuck it' and GO FOR IT! lol

To start you guys off I'll give you a bit of the back-story.

I was always artistic. I always drew and would paint (often on the walls if I remember rightly lol) I always loved expressing myself through art and music - music was my main thing as a child and through most of school - I was the kid with the dreams of becomming a singer and appearing onstage with my idols.

But then when I hit my GCSE's (for you americans that's age 15-16, the last two years of high-school in the UK with lots of horrendous exams) I chose to do music, drama and graphics. As soon as I was doing those, I was constantly bombarded with 'why didn't you do art!'. So after 2 years of hearing that and starting to think 'ok maybe I should try focusing on art...' Even though at that point i'd picked up a point-and-shoot camera and had started wanting to experiment with photography, I went to college in Lincoln and tried a National Diploma in Art & Design. (pre-uni course) and failed MISERABLY lol. I dropped out 2 weeks before the end of the first year to avoid the exhibition. I chose that course to experiement and figure out what I wanted. but we only picked up a camera once for a tiny thing. I had no motivation and just didn't suit the course.

That october I moved to Blackpool with my family.

Let me just interject here to point something out. This was the 2nd time i'd come to a 'failure' point. I did so at school with my GCSE's but at the point where I was going to be home tutored and taken away from my friends intirely, I fought back. And after being told I'd be aiming at scraping '4 or 5 A* to C grades, I walked out of school with 9. So yeah I have a history with failing miserably and then bouncing back with avengance.

I thought about doing A-levels, going in psychology etc but I really wanted to try photography. I figured if I failed again I'd just try for A-levels next year round. In the end I went for it and started an ND in photography here in Blackpool

I got a distinction (highest possible grade) for my first project. I'd scraped a merit once on my art course i think. That day when I got my results was such a massive wake-up-call. I though 'holy shit, I might actually be able to do this.'

Then I got another distinction, and another.... I ended up recieving straight distinctions for everything.
I figured that some people might think that I became abit 'full of myself' but I tell you this now. When you've failed totally like I did, you take every tiny success to heart, and never take them for granted.

I guess that failure and then realising I wasn't useless was like a slingshot to me, it gave me the passion and the drive to push myself further and further. Ask my tutor, by the end I got a squeaky 'are you trying to kill me?!' when I handed in my final major project work. Every project I expected more of myself, tried to better myself - not competing with anyone other than myself.

So yeah, I finished that course June '09.

and I'm sure most of you want to hear how I hit my feet running, how I got a photography job straight away, got lots of commissions.

I'd love to be able to tell you that. But it's usually not that easy. And never that easy for people like you and me eh?

I had to get money coming in, so I worked at a theme park as a ride op in the kids park until the winter. I did have a few paid shoots along the way but working weekends didn't really help with that lol. And then after spending xmas and newyear with my fiance over in america, I came back and I'm now working at Debenhams (dept store).

So there you have the back story.

Back when I was first interested in photography and told a journalistic photographer I knew, he told me not to expect to make any money for 5 years. And I've tried to bear that in mind, and so should you.
Photography is not easy to start up with, but with passion, with creativity and determination not only can it be your career, it can bring you such happiness.

I'm my happiest when I'm snuggled up to my fiance with a big bowl of cookie-dough icecream. Or whenever I'm shooting. Yes it's just that good ;-P

I'm not trying to say with this blog that I think i'm going to become some kind of photography mega-star. (I wish) Or that I'm even going to make it to that elusive next rung. But I want to document my attempts. To show others that it's ok to fail in life, that it's not the end of everything, you're just in the bottom of the next hill you have to climb.

I know how inspiring and yet soul destroying it is to see people - say for example Zhang Jingna or Lara Jade both of great internet fame and both around my age - surging off into success, leaving us in there wake lol it makes you think "shit I should be there with them already ahhhh!" STOP thinking like that. And slap me when I get like that. 'Cause I do (alot).
Lara and Jingna are utterly amazingly talented, wonderful people who have 'struck gold' and been noticed, they managed to make that leap to the next rung are are on their climb up. But I also know people just as talented who are still languishing at 'our' level, and aren't drawing the attention that they deserve. Lara and Jingna are those 'exceptions to the norm'.

Most pro photographers are at least 25 before they see any sense of 'success'.

So yeah, I'll hopefully be able to post some technical info on my shoots in the future and behind the scenes photos as and when. And just ask me if you have any questions bout my kit or my processes etc or if you want some advice, i'll do the best I can.

For now, I shall leave you with some quotes


" The key that unlocks energy is ''Desire.'' It's also the key to a long and interesting life. If we expect to create any drive, any real force within ourselves, we have to get excited. "
Earl Nightingale

 You can have anything you want -- if you want it badly enough. You can be anything you want to be, have anything you desire, accomplish anything you set out to accomplish -- if you will hold to that desire with singleness of purpose.
Robert Collier