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12/17/2022 02:26:51 PM · #1 |
(Actually 18 years, but who's counting?)
Hey everyone!
I've really taken to this community again and decided to sign up, renew, polish up my profile and enter a few contests. The extra push only DPC can give to get out and shoot is really inspiring me this over this winter to photograph some of the beautiful places I've discovered since moving to the Italian alps.
As my profile is so old that it feels like I've inherited it from a distant stranger, I thought I'd share a bit of my photography journey, where I am now and where DPC fits into my story.
I first picked up a crappy point and shoot digital camera after visiting the Lake District in the UK in about 2003. A year later I'd got myself a prosumer Fuji camera just as the first DSLRs were making waves and I found DPC. It's from there that I entered a few challenges, fell in love with photography but never really hit the ground running. I loved nature, I loved cameras but I was young, naive and frankly lacking in the patience or discipline to improve much.
Then I discovered film. I fell in love with cinema and started studying it at college and then university. There was a photography module - I enjoyed the project but half-assed it as with most of my degree. My heart lay elsewhere now - cinematography.
A little aside here as he remains a person who lives rent-free in my story whenever I tell it. Back in 2004, I remember a photographer on DPC who was really quite poor. Poor quality submissions, out of focus, overblown you name it. My submissions fared little better, but I knew I would always place higher at least and that I must've been doing something right. This might sound a little mean, and it was but I was a kid and so was he. Our paths only crossed in the contests and nothing more.
Fast forward to 2008 or so, I'm on a train heading back to London where I've started working for a kit house renting film and digital TV cameras (and the huge lenses that go with them, I have some stories to share if anyone wants to ask!) and I log into DPC, probably just before I picked up my 400D and very briefly started posting again before disappearing for a good fifteen year stretch.
What do I see but threads about that kid - Joey Lawrence - and how he's just done the promo shots for the Twilight movies. That kid Joey? How is that possible???
I obviously get a reality slap checking in on his profile. Those poor quality submissions had a persistence to them, a passion and a desire to learn I could only have dreamed of in those days. What a self-righteous guy I was to think I was better, when in just a couple of years he had grown thanks to his passion to a top class photographer all thanks to his passion and, of course, DPC.
Another reality slap would come a few months later. There I was, my new job in a kit room of a small company, surrounded by film equipment I was free to use whenever I liked. One day I would get a short film crew together, one day I would take those cameras for a spin, one day I would stay late and learn about exposure, T-Stops and raw processing.
One day.
One of our favourite cinematographer clients comes to me, about 24 at the time, he returns some kit after a commercial shoot and he says "hey mate, I hope you guys don't mind but we had the kit over the weekend as you were closed so... on Sunday we did this."
He proceeds to load up on his computer a beautiful 5 minute short film. A few actors, natural lighting, local location . Simple story, beautiful images and fantastic execution.
All because he had the kid available and didn't want to waste a moment.
THAT is passion. That is what a future professional looks like. Someone who lives and breathes cinema and images.
I was not him. And I was not Joey Lawrence. And there was nothing wrong with that, I was glad actually that I'd discovered so soon. I loved cameras, photography and cinematography. But they would remain a hobby. And that's fine too.
And so I carried on working there for a while, growing the business and eventually changing careers back in 2015.
Now I run my own business with my wife, an artist and I must say I love working for myself.
One of the most amazing things for me though has been that everything has come full circle. I once worried that I'd wasted my time in university and after learning about cameras and no longer working within that world. And yet here I am now, creating my own products which require - you guessed it - professional photography.
And as a small business over, I wasn't going to outsource that when I have a bottom line to think about :)
So here we are today, with a successful little business making something I truly enjoy producing - playing cards. My wife does all the creative bit with the artwork, and I organise everything else and fill in any role I am able to.
My favourite one, as frustrating as it was at the beginning dusting off my camera kit and knowing I had to do better, is the product photography for the website.
And finally I'm at a point where I'm proud of it, enjoying it and ready to really enjoy photography as I always should have - accepting that it's perfectly ok to just enjoy something and treasure the little victories and improvements, and not necessarily turn every hobby into a full-time rockstar career.
So here are a few of my favourite images from the past year or so of our playing cards, I hope you enjoy them! I look forward to sharing my entries in the next round of contests and as much as they brought a nostalgic smile to my face, I hope to bump those old contest entries down off my page and replace them with some far more impactful and enjoyable images that I'm proud of.
Portfolio Page
 Rankles
Selected Images
PS oh I almost forgot, that cinematographer I mentioned just shot a movie for Disney. And I couldn't be happier for him!
Message edited by author 2022-12-17 14:36:47.
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12/17/2022 02:50:57 PM · #2 |
| What a wonderful journey. And yes, arrogance almost always comes back to bite us in the butt. |
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12/17/2022 03:00:05 PM · #3 |
absolutely loved reading about your journey .. extremely interesting ..
you and your wife's jocu cards site looks awesome btw
something else ..
you are a very talented writer .. have you thought of turning your attention in that direction .. :)
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12/17/2022 05:39:05 PM · #4 |
| Very cool story. Thanks for sharing! |
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12/18/2022 02:27:46 AM · #5 |
| Welcome? Or welcome back? whichever is more appropriate. |
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12/18/2022 05:55:57 AM · #6 |
Thank you everyone!
Originally posted by roz:
absolutely loved reading about your journey .. extremely interesting ..
you and your wife's jocu cards site looks awesome btw
something else ..
you are a very talented writer .. have you thought of turning your attention in that direction .. :) |
That's very sweet of you to say thank you! It's only recently that I've started to accept compliments on my photography (everything I'd ever done before was obviously awful and I was the worst photographer ever if anyone tells me otherwise they're just patronising etc etc). I've been doing the copywriting for the explanation booklets for the stories behind our decks of cards and it's been a similar case of everything is terrible and very difficult to motivate myself to do it. So for a rather hastily written anecdote I'm going to take that compliment to heart and use it as motivation for the booklet I need to finish :) Thank you!
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12/18/2022 06:51:38 AM · #7 |
you're very welcome Anthony .. :)
it's funny but I was have a conversation a little while ago and saying how rubbish my early photos were here in dpc .. the thing is .. at the time I didn't think they were that bad .. not great mind you .. but not rubbish ..
as we grow in our photography we can look back and be very judgemental about our earlier photos .. but we would never become awesome lol without those 'first' steps ..
re your writing .. you are very hard on yourself .. I'm just glad my compliment is a motivation ..
sometimes it can take another person to see your work and appreciate it for you to see it in another light and appreciate it too .. :)
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12/18/2022 10:02:15 AM · #8 |
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12/18/2022 10:45:01 AM · #9 |
Originally posted by Rankles:
It's only recently that I've started to accept compliments on my photography (everything I'd ever done before was obviously awful and I was the worst photographer ever if anyone tells me otherwise they're just patronising etc etc). |
IMO, it's a useful skill to be able to accept constructive criticism on ones art and most of the people who have stuck around here posses that quality. You cannot improve if you cannot look at your work objectively.
One of my biggest learning experiences was in my first couple of years here. When I voted on challenges I made myself comment on most of the 5's I gave out. The ones that are great are easy to comment on, and the bad ones are also easy to figure out the flaws. But those entries in the middle are tougher. The ones that aren't bad, but don't grab your interest either. I learned a lot from that commenting. My daughter is participating here again after many years, but at this point she doesn't feel qualified to vote or critique others work. Working on that. |
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12/18/2022 10:50:21 AM · #10 |
Originally posted by Yo_Spiff:
Originally posted by Rankles:
It's only recently that I've started to accept compliments on my photography (everything I'd ever done before was obviously awful and I was the worst photographer ever if anyone tells me otherwise they're just patronising etc etc). |
IMO, it's a useful skill to be able to accept constructive criticism on ones art and most of the people who have stuck around here posses that quality. You cannot improve if you cannot look at your work objectively.
One of my biggest learning experiences was in my first couple of years here. When I voted on challenges I made myself comment on most of the 5's I gave out. The ones that are great are easy to comment on, and the bad ones are also easy to figure out the flaws. But those entries in the middle are tougher. The ones that aren't bad, but don't grab your interest either. I learned a lot from that commenting. My daughter is participating here again after many years, but at this point she doesn't feel qualified to vote or critique others work. Working on that. |
It's a good point. In commenting myself, even now with so fewer entries than there used to be, it's easy to say "great shot" but much harder to critique the ones you don't like (who do I think I am to critique this person's work?) or, as you say, those middling ones!
I have some time now, perhaps it's a good opportunity to take that on board and go and try and comment on some of the recent entries. Voting was the easy part, and there's the added benefit of reflecting on your vote and putting it into words.
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12/18/2022 12:11:34 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by Rankles:
I have some time now, perhaps it's a good opportunity to take that on board and go and try and comment on some of the recent entries. Voting was the easy part, and there's the added benefit of reflecting on your vote and putting it into words. |
Got one of your comments. Glad you found my idea useful. |
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12/18/2022 03:16:34 PM · #12 |
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12/19/2022 03:31:14 AM · #13 |
| Thankyou so much for all your comments, they are very encouraging I'm sure to many people, myself including. Look forward to seeing some of your work. You live in an amazing part of the world! |
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12/19/2022 05:28:21 PM · #14 |
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