For
my first ever blog post I thought I would write about how I came to the
decision to finally leave my stable yet unsatisfying job and begin building my photography business. Sorry in advance for this post being quite long! I guess
this will be the back story that led me to where I am today.
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| Dovestones, Saddleworth. |
I
have been photographing for quite a long time, almost fifteen years. I grew up
in Carrbrook, Stalybridge, a quiet village that is close to Saddleworth
and Uppermill, where I spent a lot of my time. There were plenty of woodlands,
fields and moorlands that provided me with plenty of places to wander and
explore, often with my camera. Landscape photography was my first, and has
always been my biggest passion – this is where my love of photography came
from. Many times I walked the hills and moorlands around Dovestones reservoir
with my camera in my backpack, stopping often to take a photograph of the
views. As the years went by I gradually became better at photography eventually
even shooting a few weddings as the second photographer for a friend. Those
early experiences gave me the confidence to branch out into doing some wedding photography
on my own. The images I took from some of those earliest shoots are still in my portfolios
today.
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| The Great Wall of China. |
Although
I had been photographing for some time I never really considered a career in
it. It was when I took some time out of work to go travelling in China that I
decided to take it further. I was fortunate enough to meet a good group of
people when I was on my travels in China. Always seen with my camera in my hand they often asked
why I had not gone to college to study photography and they encouraged me to do
so, as it was pretty clear that it was what I wanted to do.
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| Product photography, Tameside College |
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| Eden Project, Cornwall |
When
I returned home I gave my future a lot of thought and decided to find a college
course that would get me a qualification that could allow me to gain access to a university.
I decided on a course at Tameside College, based in Ashton-Under-Lyne. I
enjoyed college immensely. It gave me the opportunity to try out and learn
about so many types of photography that I otherwise would never have known
about. I experimented with film photography, pinhole cameras and darkroom
processes. Taking my experiments from my local landscapes to the Eden Project
in Cornwall, Chicago and the Smokey Mountains in the United States. I also got
the opportunity to spend some serious time in the studio – this was incredibly
valuable time, learning about studio lighting for product photography or
portrait shoots was a skill that I would need if I was to forge a career as a
photographer. After two years I left Tameside College with a Btec National Diploma with a
distinction.
It
was a hard decision to make – which university and which course to do after I
left Tameside College. I had a job, at the time, as a collection driver in
Droylsden, a town just down the road from Manchester. So I had to find a
university that was close enough to Droylsden that I could make it to work on
time. Fortunately Liverpool John Moores University offered a course at Stockport College, Stockport being close enough to Droylsden for me to make it to work on
time in the afternoon. University,
I found, was a lot more difficult than college for a variety of reasons – the
amount of research that was expected to go into my projects, the academic
writing that was required, my job and also at this time I was buying a house
with my girlfriend and her young son. All these things made this particular time
very hectic and as a photographer the thing I was doing least was taking
photographs. Nevertheless I left Stockport College with my B.A Honours Degree
and was lucky enough to get to travel to Poland and New York during my studies
there.
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| Me and my baby boy! |
After
I finished my Degree at Stockport College my dream of becoming a photographer
was put on hold for a little while. A new addition to our family had arrived in
the shape of my little baby boy! This changed some of plans and decisions that I
had to make at the time. Rather than leaving my job in Droylsden as I had
planned, I decided to work work my way up the ladder and pursue a job in management. I worked for
around a year ‘learning the ropes’ so to speak, before I got to manage my own
office. Ironically this was the same office in Droylsden that I had worked from
for the past ten years. Over the course of the two years that I was managing
here I came to realise that it was not what I wanted to be doing. Although the
money was great, happiness is best achieved by pursuing ones dreams. So the
decision was made to hand in my notice and take my first steps into
self-employment as a photographer- creating ASP Event Photography.
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