I have always been a creative and my passion for photography started when I took a course at college in photography. This taught be basic principles in photography and also learnt how to process film. It wasn’t until the dawn of the digital era when my passion hit a new high. Being able to view an image instantly on the back of a screen was amazing, and allowed for constant experimentation and the fact you could just delete a photo and then take another was incredible. Whats interesting is digital photography was something I was interested before digital cameras became mainstream. Back in the 90s I used to use something called a digitizer which allowed me to capture footage from a video camera onto a computer which could then be printed out or manipulated in software such as Deluxe Paint! My art teacher was fascinated in this at the time as this was part of my GCSE coursework, but never in my wildest dreams did I imagine digital photography to take over from film.
Whilst I still have a Canon film camera, I dont use it, but I believe film has its place still, it forces you to think about your shots more rather than just snap away and let the camera do all the work.
The late 90s I started using digital cameras. A kodak DC200+ was my first ever digital camera. its measly 2megapixel sensor and low dynamic range was never going to produce the best quality images, but it was ground breaking at the time and I have fond memories of using it. Over the years I have progressed through the digital camera range and in 2003 got my first DSLR which was the Canon Digital Rebel. I had it imported from America and what a fantastic camera this was. This was when I started to shoot professionally and it did me proud! I was a Canon shooter religiously until 2015 when I went to Sony Mirrorless and Micro four thirds full time. The reason for this is most of my work is on location and I can spend crazy long days shooting, and having smaller kit is so much better for my needs.
In 2010 I branched more into the videography world. I have always been into film and video but it was the Canon 5D mk2 which changed everything. 1080p video recording from a camera of this quality was incredible. I started making little videos and creating promotional films with this camera and this pushed me to end up doing Videography and Photography full time.
In 2014 the drones entered my world, and this really interested me as I thought about incorporating aerial images with my ground photography professionally, and I started using a Phantom with a Gopro which from when seeing the footage produced made me think about pushing this further. Quality from the gopro for images would be no good so decided to go further and build an octocopter which could carry a Panasonic GH4. I decided I should get accredited so I could use drones commercially (the thought of taking exams again after so many years was horrible), but decided the s900 with the GH4 was just a pain to use. it was too big, and bulky, battery charging was a nightmare, and the fact I like portability this wasn’t going to work for me. At this time, the Dji Inspire had been released and I decided this was the platform I would use for work and used this to gain my accreditation with the CAA. 3 years on being accredited its been an amazing journey, I now incorporate my love of photography, whether it be from the ground or a drone, videography and drone filming into my career and it has been amazing. It can also be quite varied with what I do, and that is something I enjoy, being able to challenge myself doing things outside of my comfort zone. I feel it makes me a better “Creative” so to speak.
Where the future takes me, who knows, but for now I am loving what I do, I feel lucky to be doing something I enjoy so much, a passion and a hobby that I can earn a living from.