M is for Mindboggling

I loved my job. The people, the place, the role itself was interesting and varied, my desk was even near the coffee percolator! However, the cloud of redundancy rolled in. In 2014, after eleven years, it was time to move on.

Now, I like to think of myself as a glass half-full kind of chap, an optimist, which definitely helps in challenging times. I saw redundancy as an opportunity. Do I look for more of the same or something different? What the heck, I chose different.

But the choice wasn’t just mine, I have my wife and family to thank for the path I embarked upon. Not being one for taking big risks, I can ponder and over-think things, the incredible support I received helped me realise that becoming self-employed was a good risk to take.

I have loved photography since childhood and the great outdoors has always inspired me. From seeing things and snapping them with my first camera as a child, to exploring the landscape through my study of geology, a marriage of the two seemed natural.

However, I didn’t have a clue about my camera. What were all those other buttons and letters for? To me, M wasn’t for Manual, it stood for Mindboggling! Up to then I had simply pressed the shutter button and ta-daa! But…that’s not how I wanted my photographs to look. Cue a climb up the steep learning curve of photography. Definitely a case of forgetting what I thought I knew and relearning from scratch!

As I studied, I dabbled in all sorts, but was always drawn back to my deepest love, the landscape. Perhaps not the most obvious genre of photography to make a living (a dose of commercial photography is thrown in for good measure) but for me the challenge has proven incredibly rewarding, educational, fun, and I continue to meet many fantastic people through it.

From the excitement of my first market day, the anticipation of my first show, the nervousness of my first commission, the selling of my first print, the launching of my first website, receiving my first review, teaching my first course, to writing this my first blog, each day brings something new and an opportunity to learn more. I feel genuinely grateful.

The journey continues…