I've always loved nature and am at my happiest and most peaceful when getting amongst it. Lucky for me I lived for many years in the New Forest National Park and now live in the mountains of Central Portugal, places that are perfect to wander around with a camera taking photos of the things that I come across. If I see something and it makes me feel good in some way, I take a picture of it. Sometimes the pictures turn out good.
My first camera was a hand-me-down pocket instamatic that was older than me. It did me fine throughout childhood and survived, impressively, into my late twenties. I went through fits and starts with it; sometimes I carried it everywhere taking snaps of anything and everything, other times I didn't pick it up for months. When it finally gave up the ghost it didn't occur to me to replace it. The digital age was in full swing and cameras were expensive, not to mention complicated, and figuring that photography was not a technical skill I could learn by myself, I forgot about it for a while.
Although I forgot about the camera, I still saw the shots. Interest was rekindled when mobile phones with half decent cameras became widely available. Suddenly I could capture those shots with something that was always in my pocket and the small technology made for interesting photography. Two realisations dawned: you don't need a great camera to get great images and photography need not be complicated.
In 2009 I went to Australia for a few months with my (then new) other half. He took his Fuji bridge camera, which reignited my suspicion that photography was in fact a mystifying art. Figuring I didn't know how to use it (and would probably drop it in a bout of clumsiness) I shunned it in favour of my mobile phone until he showed me that actually you can just use it as a point and click if you want to. Joy! It opened up a new realm of possibilities and I haven't looked back. Thanks other half!
Still harbouring suspicions about the complicated nature of 'proper' photography, I learned only the small things I needed to for what I wanted to do and stuck to borrowed or hand-me-down bridge cameras and good old iPhoto right up until 2013. In that year I was lucky enough to land a job at a commercial photography company (whoop!) where I worked until 2016. My role there covered a bit of everything from photography to chemical printing and all that falls in between. It was a small, close knit team and the environment was a supportive one. I worked with some talented, creative, experienced and very patient people who trained me in the basics and continued to teach me new things every day throughout my time with them. Oh, and when I left the company to move to Portugal they retired my work camera (how I love that trusty old Nikon D2xs!) put it in a box and wrapped it up for me. How cool is that?!
2016 saw a move to Portugal, something that other half and myself had spent a long time working, planning and saving hard for. We live way down a dusty track on a small quinta surrounded by mountains. The quinta had been abandoned for a few decades before we got here, so there’s a lot of work to do getting the house and land shipshape. The only way is a bit at a time. I’m enjoying creating a photographic record of the work we’re doing and the progress we make. It’s a long term project…there will be A LOT of photos! I continue to work as a photographer, now freelance, and also do a bit of digital artworking and design. In between working on the quinta and working on freelance work, I get to go and play with the camera. The life I live now gives so much flexibility that it’s possible to pick up the camera or settle into some editing pretty much as the mood comes. I appreciate how lucky I am to be able to go with the creative flow.
Anyway, my photographic odyssey continues. I have a hell of a lot to learn but the rest of my lifetime to learn it, and have already drawn what I think will be the most important conclusion for me:
Photography is what you make it. It is as complicated or as simple as you want it be.
The same can be said of most things in life. Simple isn't it?
That's me.