Friday 30 November 2007

Start at the beginning

I've been thinking about doing this for a while.

I spend a significant amount of time reading photography blogs and trying to take on board anything that may improve my own skills as a photographer. I've learned so much over the last few years that I figured it was time to put a little of it down and maybe help a few other photographers advance their own skillset.

I've got my favourite blogs and I'm sure I'll be quoting them on a regular basis. My idea at the moment is to reference a favourite blog once a week and to post some of my own work as and when it seems appropriate. Pretty much I'll be making it up as I go along and I'm sure this will take on a direction of its own. I'm not a natural writer so excuse me if I'm not always as succinct as I should be!

I've been taking photography seriously for the past four years or so. When I was a teenager I had an old Zenit SLR which I loved. Once I hit my early 20s it seemed there were more important things to be doing so I put it away. Once dSLRs got to a reasonable price I bought a Nikon D70 and practiced. I shot 30,000 frames in the first year I had it and about 60,000 the year after. That's since been replaced by a D200. I started initially shooting for fun.... Portraits and Landscapes. Before long it all seemed a little boring and simple (although looking back at the standard I was shooting it clearly wasn't as simple as I thought!) so I approached Tunbridge Wells Rugby Club, where both my brothers had played in the late '80s, for something a little more challenging to shoot. There were still people there that I knew from that time and before long I was shooting each Saturday afternoon and loving it. I decided to cover the Minis and Midis on Sunday mornings on an occasional basis and before long I was being asked if I did other kinds of photography.

I've been studying 20 - 30 hours a week for the last 4 years as well as shooting whenever I can and that's led me to the point where now I have a small studio and, although I still shoot rugby at the weekends for fun, I now do Portraiture, PR and Corporate Photography during the week.

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