21st Anniversary Post: Forget Gigs And Sport Photography!
I know where I am headed now…
Or do I?
Ok, so I found out that gigs and sports were not inspiring to me, which was a start.
What do I do now, and where do I start?
What I knew:
I wanted to photograph women because I understood the emotional issues attached to the experience and I wanted to create a legacy for my clients - The same sort of legacy that my mother left me with the beautiful portraits I have of her.
What I needed to do, in practical terms:
1️⃣ Set up a studio space - I lived in a two bedroom house, and the spare room had served as my studio/office until then, but it was far too small, but I never wanted a high street studio.
My next question to myself was "Is this important enough to warrant transforming the living room into a studio space?"
The answer was an emphatic "YES!"
And so it was that I moved the TV upstairs and set up the sofa as a kind of viewing/waiting area, and (I am not joking) hung a white king size bed sheet to use as the "new" backdrop - until then I had used the white wall in the spare room.
I bought a second hand, rattly, flash head and light stand and was absolutely tickled pink as until then I had only used an on-camera flash.
3️⃣ I knew I needed to practice on women portraits some more, so I took the "bold" decision to actually find someone to sit for portraits, which has always felt a little creepy with the whole "I am a photographer and I think you could be a model" kind of approach!
Luckily, though, a work colleague told me her daughter would love to do this.
Ali was a young woman, who loved the idea of modelling.
Mum knew me and had no worries about letting her daughter be in my studio.
So it was that a 21 year friendship, and mutual fondness, begun.
Ali modelled for me many times, always with so much grace and joy.
She was pivotal in helping me with experimenting with light setups, and with establishing a style.
We had lots of fun at our shoots, and it is not too much to say that she is the sort of human I would have been proud to have as my own daughter.
The last time I photographed Ali, she was with her husband, two years ago!
It was a genuine joy and a very emotional experience to photograph her as a fully grown, wonderful woman, and I owe Ali a debt of gratitude which simply cannot be repaid…
