The story of an unexpected hobby.
For 10 years, my story has been about sitting at a screen creating beautiful designs and websites of grandeur. Before that, I’d do everything from fitting shoes, to selling sports clothes and pulling pints.
Whilst they all had their perks, and cons, nothing kept drawing me back quite like looking down the viewfinder on a chilly morning in the mountains. A poorly constructed flask of tea made with weary eyes at 4 o’clock in the morning, and the feeling of your body warming as the sun peeks it’s head over the rolling landscape really is an unmatched feeling – at least, so far.
Unfortunately there was no magical story of being gifted a camera at 7 years old. My first camera was, however, bought with my own hard-earned cash when I started college at the age of 16. Doing a lot of research (mainly what could I afford), I settled on a Canon 1000d. The 10.1mp sensor seemed huge at the time having only been able to take photos on what was, back then, for the most part a regular phone, not a smart one.
It came with two lenses, the 18-55mm stock lens, and an additional 70-200mm lens. The quality must be good, because they’re still used to this day.
The main purpose for the camera was because I needed something for documenting my projects and for a module on studio photography. However one day, on a family walk with the dog on a sunny morning when a light haze covered the countryside, I became hooked. One of my favourite photos from when I first started was of a man, heading out to do some fishing off an abandoned old industrial port from the days of the town’s booming fishing industry. The way the fog barely showed the modern-day industry as a backdrop to a picture of this one man off to do what the town was famed for, on the old pier. To me, it was just magical. That was the moment I thought to myself, “This is a hobby I love”.