My photography journey so far...

It might be a cliche among photographers, but maybe photography was always in my blood.

My dad owned cameras and worked for Kodak when I was a young child, but it wasn’t until my 20s that photography became a passion of mine.

Prior to that, I used disposable film cameras on holidays and asked for a cheap digital camera for a birthday during my teenage years. The thought of taking photography seriously, though, didn’t cross my mind until much later.

Football was my obsession growing up. This life-long love for the beautiful game is the reason I pursued a career in sports journalism - a childhood ambition I fulfilled after graduating from university in 2008.

But when your passion becomes your job, you need another creative outlet.

This is how my love for photography blossomed.

When my wife Anya and I decided to get a beagle in November 2014 - and ahead of a first-time visit to New York, where we got engaged - I knew it was time to buy a ‘proper’ camera. 

My iPhone, although handy, simply wasn’t producing the high-quality images I wanted.

After some research, I purchased a Samsung NX3000 - a decent digital camera with interchangeable lenses.

This camera, despite its limitations, allowed me to learn the basics - from the exposure triangle to editing shots using Lightroom - while producing pleasing images in the process.

I took this camera to various destinations including New York, Prague, Gran Canaria and London and still look back fondly on those shots.

I dedicated hours and hours - reading books, watching YouTube videos and, most importantly, shooting - learning as much as possible about photography during my spare time.

In 2017, before our honeymoon to the USA’s west coast, I upgraded the NX3000 for the Sony a6000 - a superb entry-level camera that I’d happily recommend to anyone starting out on their own photography journey, even today in 2021.

I also purchased Sony’s impressive 35mm f1.8 lens, which was the perfect all-rounder and ideal for our honeymoon.

As well as coming home with hundreds of shots, I also created the following video of our 10-day trip using that one lens.

I added the wide-angle Samyang 12mm f2.0 lens to my collection in January 2018, plus a MeFOTO RoadTrip Convertible Tripod, as I became increasingly interested in landscape photography.

I loved - and still love - the entire process of landscape photography. I’ll explain my reasons why on a separate blog coming soon. 

I’ve visited countless locations (mainly in Kent) over the past few years with the specific aim of coming away with one or two stunning images.

The best, of course, usually end up on my Instagram page. I’ve interacted with many like-minded photography lovers on Instagram over the past few years and the photo-sharing app has undoubtedly been a massive positive on my own journey.

Unlike other social media platforms (naming no names!) the vast majority of Instagram users I engage with are positive people. They’ve provided lots of nice feedback on my images over the years and this encouragement has certainly helped lead me to where I am today.

Winning Mote Park’s 2018 photography competition for this image of a rather unusual-looking tree was also a confidence-booster at a time when I was getting out more and more with my camera.

Despite my love for Sony’s a6000, I switched to Fujifilm in January 2019 and haven’t looked back since.

Why did I switch? Mainly because of my first child, Ryan, who was born several months earlier in August 2018.

I wanted to capture the best possible images of him that would still look amazing years, even decades, in the future - and the superb X-T3 ticked all the boxes. I then added the equally impressive X100V to my collection in early 2021.

It’s thanks to these Fujifilm cameras that I now have an extensive collection of memories of Ryan and his little brother, Mason.

I love taking natural, documentary-style shots of my family. Real life isn’t staged, so why should photos be any different?

The tears are just as important as the smiles and these unstaged moments provide an accurate reflection of what life was really like at the time.

Speaking of time, lockdown provided me with the opportunity to finally get started on a website to display my photos, advertise my services, and create some blog posts that I'd had in the back of my mind for a while.

I hope you enjoy reading them - there are plenty more to come - and any feedback in the comments would be hugely appreciated.

Finally, if you have any questions or queries, please don’t hesitate to contact me.