I have always been a creative and have studied Music Technology, Media, Computing, and Art at A-level but didn't know what I wanted to specialise in so decided to take a year out after college rather than studying an open media course with no goal at the end of it.
I entered full time work for the first time in my life and temped trying every job from call centres, silver service waitering at a prestigious golf club, clubs, leisure centre, I was even a postman. While I did want to do with my life I did learn what I didn't want to do and that is an unskilled, minimum wage job.
I applied for media courses at uni again at the end of the year but again turned down the places I was offered for the same reason as before. I had bough myself a little compact camera at this point and was shooting alot in my spare time although didn't know how to create the picture I had in my head so decided to take another year out and dedicate it to learning photography. A friend had also introduced me to photoshop and I was starting to experiment with 3D work too.
I started working full time in a photography shop, joined the local photographic society, bought my first digital SLR, started doing tutorials in magazines and online, joined an online art social network for feedback and inspiration, started mingling with local photographers and got my first studio experience and was involved in my first public photography exhibition.
It was at the end of this year that I had people asking to pay me to take photographs for money and it was this coupled with the fact that I saw a lot of photographers who were not amazing at what they do but still earning a good living that made me believe I could make a career of photography.
Although I could take reasonable photo I was totally self taught and didn't feel confident enough to take on photographic jobs. I decided to learn my craft from the roots upwards learning the history of photography including the film processes and a bit more about the industry before taking it on a profession so applied to study at uni.
I have spent the past 3 years studying photography at the University of East London and have learnt a lot along the way and have just completed my degree. Although taking on photography jobs throughout uni to fund my studies I have just taken the leap from full time student to full time photographer and have decided to start this blog so I can look back on the progress I have made and what I've been up to....
I am going to make a few small blog entries of the odd past and recent shoots which should bring the blog up to date to today...
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