Behind the Lens

Back in the early 2000's, when I was about 5 years old, my grandparents decided to take myself and my cousin to Glasgow for the weekend when my grandpa had his parents old house. This was a welcome break for both mine and my cousin's parents whom both had very young kids and an easier weekend was always a nice treat!

This particular weekend, we had gone on a trip to the Glasgow Transport Museum. My grandpa has always been into tech, and had a Nikon Coolpix 950 - One of the fancy digital cameras with parts that rotate! He asked if I wanted to take a photo of both my grandparents and my cousin, as shown to the left. I was enthralled with how the moment was captured, and I proudly exclaimed "I want to be a photograph album when I grow up!"

My gran was quick to correct me, as onlookers had a giggle. This was the start of the passion of photography.

One place I always loved visiting was the Butterfly and Insect World in Edinburgh. My family would go once or twice a year, and on one occasion my mum let me use her Kodak Easyshare (I can't remember the exact model!) to take pictures of the butterflies.

I found a butterfly that was old, and starting to weaken. I thought it was sad that the beauty of it was starting to decay, and thought it deserved to have a picture taken, so I could remember it. All these years later, the photo exists, long after the butterfly (and sadly, the Butterfly and Insect World) are no longer here.

At this point, I had my own bridge camera - The Fujifilm FinePix S4500. My mum had given it to me as she had just got herself the Canon 600D (A camera I loved to borrow and use!) And I loved taking the camera everywhere and trying new shots. This particular shot was essentially a selfie; The camera was placed on some rocks and timed to take a photo.

I should probably mention this photo was taken inside Cheddar Gorge! Don't judge my style too hard - it was 2012, and I was still going through the awkward phase of self discovery - but the photography certainly helped.

The natural formation of the caves, and the vast network of tunnels was paradise for me, and I went through both batteries in the one trip there!

The waterfall behind me would've been water at one point thousands of years ago. Over time it has slowly formed a stalactite waterfall - also known as flowstone. (who knew geography would come in handy one day?)

Cheddar gorge is full of history and natural beauty, and I highly recommend visiting. I'm planning on visiting again with my new equipment to thoroughly re-investigate and capture the beauty of the caves once more.

Okay, so 2013 isn't exactly mid-2010's, but it's close enough! This was a trip to Germany I went on with high-school when I was in 4th year. We were staying in the Moselle Valley, a beautiful area in south-West Germany. Armed with my Nikon Coolpix L25 (Funny how we're back to the Nikon Coolpix!) I took photos of everything to show family and friends back home who'd never been to germany.

This particular photo is from the top of the valley, in the town of Cochem. It was a lovely village, although to get to the top you had to ride the Sesselbahn (chairlift) which was an experience in and of itself!Okay, so 2013 isn't exactly mid-2010's, but it's close enough! This was a trip to Germany I went on with high-school when I was in 4th year. We were staying in the Moselle Valley, a beautiful area in south-West Germany. Armed with my Nikon Coolpix L25 (Funny how we're back to the Nikon Coolpix!) I took photos of everything to show family and friends back home who'd never been to germany.

Now we're at the point where photography became more and more of a frequent hobby in my life. 2020 saw me purchase my first DSLR - The Nikon D3200. Armed with three lenses, lens filters, tripod,flash - a proper beginners kit, I began going out on my fresh air walks with my camera just taking pictures and editing photos in between working (Essential worker) and online university. It got me out the house, and was something to do!

Once we could see friends, socially distanced of course, I used them as models - since it allowed me to be creative, and let them interact with others and not go crazy from the lockdown madness.

Then, in 2021, something magical happened. Myself, and my peers graduated from uni! To celebrate, myself and my bestie who done the same honours project work did a photo shoot to celebrate our achievement. This was the first time I really experimented with natural lighting and UV filters. I was also getting used to LightRoom at this stage, which was proving to be a godsend for tracking my growing collection of photos!

We were unable to have a graduation ceremony thanks to the plague at the time, so these photos were the celebratory images we wanted. We had great fun taking these, especially since it was 27°C that day - we enjoyed the natural beauty, and took as many fun shots as we could.

Beecraigs Country Park is always great for natural photography settings, and is my go-to place to clear my mind and take photos of the landscape, and the many creatures which reside in it.

This was around the same time I started working in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. At this point, I was starting to learn key skills for aseptic manufacturing - which in turn taught me a lot about attention to detail and how to perform complex, repeated actions with precision, agility, and most importantly - ensuring product efficacy.

These are all skills I have adapted into my photography - and much like in the world of biology - I usually perform things in triplicate! I will always attempt to take three shots of the same thing - and then select the best of the three. Adopting these methods into my photography has allowed me to capture much higher quality photos which I'm proud of - even with my beginner DSLR!

Again with the timer set - I was able to capture high quality images of my own honours submission shoot. Although, this time I could use burst shot with the timer to take several images 3 seconds apart - allowing me to do self-portraits without a remote.

My photography journey was only just turning into a brand at this point. My skills were developing and I was becoming more and more comfortable with my camera, knowing all the shortcuts and tricks to get the perfect shot. This led to further experimentation with lighting, angles, focal distance and more. My passion was really my art at this point, and was becoming less and less of a hobby and more of a creative outlet for me to express and capture emotion.

In 2023 I decided to make my brand, and created a watermark which is now found on almost all of my images. It's had a couple of revisions - with the orange and grey aperture with my initials in the middle being the one I settled on. I decided to showcase my photography on a couple of social media sites, with some urban exploration back in May of 2023.

I visited the Crawford priory in Cupar, Fife. A gorgeous mansion, abandoned in the 1960's. The intricate and detailed architecture now being reclaimed by the land it resides on really allowed me to capture the conflict of man made and nature - The perfect way to display my work.

The adventures continued. Getting out and about with my camera has been paramount to keeping me sane - at the end of 2022 I developed a medical condition which affected my day-to-day activities. Photography has been the one thing that grounds me and lets me relax and focus.

Falkland Forest is an amazing place to visit, with hidden groves, waterfalls and more, I had a great time being out in nature taking pictures of the beauty around me.

After doing event photography for work, I wanted to turn my brand into a business. Whilst the Nikon D3200 was great, and I had mastered manual photography with it (and the lens I favoured which was manual zoom and focus) I knew it was time for a more professional kit.

At this point, I bit the bullet and bought the Canon R7, along with 4 lenses for every occasion. I did a late night trip to the Forth bridges to test out and get used to the camera, and I loved it from the first press of the shutter.

I was invited by a group to join them for Glasgow Pride 2023 - an offer I was more than happy to accept. Camera in tow, I ventured along and done some freelance stuff for the group, and anyone who was passing by posed for shots. This was when my art felt more like a business, and where things began to really take off.

Since then, I have been working behind the scenes to get the business itself set up. getting advice, generating resources - and building the website (in which I've had to learn HTML/CSS). This has been a crazy journey, and I cant wait to update this part with more as things develop!