Michael thank you so much for inviting me over to have a chat with you
really do appreciate it not at all pleasure to have you
thank you very much so early to begin really is how long have been into
photography
I've been into photography fora very long time since I
early teens or so but you know as a kind of
that have fun really nothing too serious and
and it sort of into a bit more passion of mine when I was doing
a a lot of traveling which came with the the work that I was doing previously
I'm so used to be a music producer and DJ and
seems I traveling around I just had this urge to be taking photographs of
the things I've seen in the places I was visiting so
it became a lot more a passion at that point you've recently turned
professional
yes a in the last sort of eighteen months to two years
something I mean that a massively business people who were gonna love to
do that
and had no idea how to go about it so yeah
triggered you wanting to go professional how did you achieve it
well I mean as I said I've always been into it as a
hobby and and I was quite fortunate in that place I was working with an
sort of
part-time basis before the polls me that cup
it was cold and recognized I had an interest in photography
and offer me the opportunity to photograph some of their events they had on
theater events and stuff like that and it had already occurred to me to even
consider doing
photography in a professional way but I thought you know give it a go and
and what what a great thing to be offered nothing to make money doing
something you love say
and so i did a few of them and my boss
kinda said to me I have you ever considered doing this as a a profession
and I said well no not really it may happen but it made a lot of sense I was very
passionate about that i seem to do quite a good job of and
so I I you know step things up a bit and started to do
a lot learning and a lot of development and alot of
that discovery in terms of the way to to run a business and how to
put all the pieces into place as it were and
and I had the right kind for around me for my family and my girlfriend
to allow me to and to do that
what sort of commissions do you tend to photograph and I focusing mainly on
weddings at the moment just because it seems like
and it seems like in the work is there to be had
that the clients are easy to find and it's really enjoyable
you know being apart if somebody's special day and and and seeing the look
on their face when you hand over face when you hand over the photograph it's just this is a really special
thing to be able to deliver those images to
clients is actually pretty nice is kinda pure driving about you I find it to be
pure adrenaline as well
yeah I mean it's all go on the day and and
it really it really pays off pays dividends obviously
like I said when you deliver that the files that's when that the true
in that's when the real reason for you doing becomes apparent because you see
the look on people's faces when they
they recieved these images and it's really special I like to get into more
commercial work
and at some point eventually as well cuz offense and fantastic commercial jobs in
my short time
being a freelance photographer and I was a little kid I was who commissions for the
the first big one
which was really special really exciting was a I went to America
I spent a month in american and i photograph a race team in and he had a
Bonneville Salt Flats also yes I just a try Bankers Life Cycle my
yeah indeed the
miles a flat white salt basically
searing hot and I spent three weeks with team
who is building the this race car at an old on 34 Chevy
really old car and and we went on a Bonneville for a week they raced it go to tech
inspection now
photograph the whole thing and it was just phenomenal job such a pretty amazing commission
to get
it was I'll I got lucky and you were paid to do that ,it was huge amount
of money but it was am
it was a real opportunity is like putting on an all-expenses found yep
pretty much few quid on the top
exactly and for some it's just going to have to feed us a dream job was a dream
job
somebody's been doing it for it was one of those jobs where
a I didn't believe it wasn't happening till i got on the airplane
so you kinda I'm used to having these and these experiences because
as ive said i used to travel with DJing and stuff like that and i'd get people say oh
yeah I can play our club
and then a week before you supposed to fly out
it will be cancelled all they wouldn't pay old whatever just it so I got myself
in this in this way of thinking
where nothing was confirmed until it happen and a thing
be a I was on the plane head into America with my camera kit packed up a little
this is actually happening i spent a a month away there in
and it happened and it was fantastic he's just so you super cool
so what is your passion when it comes to photography what lights you what do you love to
photograph my passion is to creating
and beautiful images I say I I'm still kind of discovering
in the genre all the the niche in the market that I want focus on really I
mean as I said at the moment it's weddings
and but there are there things The site weddings I really enjoy photographing
I like working with models and having that kind of being in an environment
where everything is
the set up and everything is the orchestrated in a way that
allows you to be extremely and clean-cut what you doing
I'm everything exactly how you want it so I like that kind of
that side of photography two very different dynamics you've got going
on on the you got
and so the wedding where very much documentary on the run thinking on your
feet
having to do stuff subconsciously without having to think
when you're working something like the models that's a very disciplined controls
yeah creative environment exactly I think it's kinda that's my creative alley
not necessarily working models but working with anything
which is a bit more orchestrated because the
the weddings and you you don't always have the option to be really really
creative what you doing cuz it's time pressures and as
people I asked me to do this asking you to do that and it's
its a hugely rewarding thing to do that doesn't necessarily offer the same
kind of creative
his officers is also more so than dance milestone event in in somebody's life
yeah exactly
something that they have been dreaming about who should and creativity yet
something that people been looking for dreaming about since the beginning of
time
or beginning their life and its yes really special to be there
you know if it's gotten so much big day say that's a really love of mine
line and and im a big people person so and that comes out on your images you
have a very
clearly defined style it's like
you have this like this have touched this is great humanity in reality
particularly
in your wedding images I consider you catching decisive moments yeah I'm
constantly on the lookout for what
for moments when I'm photographing a wedding and say
you know he can keep an eye on what's happening with the kids and stuff
because they're always doing something funny or
or interesting or cute and and yeah just just
having the extra eye sort of wondering looking for things that are going on
which aren't necessarily the key shots and that's a big part of what I enjoy
about weddings just looking out for those real moments that is happening
absolutely I don't know about you but I often find myself getting a bit
emotional at times
oh yes I'm gonna kick on helping Cooper yeah there's one wedding I did this year
and i got to know the couple a bit before I
photograph the wedding the guys I actually taught me how to kite surf now is became
a really good friend of mine
so emotionally involved having got to know these people
very briefly before i shot their wedding and you know how to hide behind the viewfinder
cuz I was a tear in my eye and it happened this is just a hugely
emotional moment
to share with somebody say that on a lecture and i said i
the I met through photographing a wedding years later we're still
very close
exactly and I kept these connection of people via and it is it's a lovely part of what i do
meeting people in getting to know them yeah it's inspiring to
yeah absolutely very inspiring y
speaking of inspiration so is there anything you find you need to do
you know you have those days when it's a bit sort of like
yeah have you ever have those days and if you do kind of what do you do yo get yourself
and I i
I fill them up with things I love doing so photography is one of the things i love doing
plenty anything
yeah I mean that I i've got a list on my arm
always had the mentality that I don't want my life to be work
I don't want to just work work work work I wanna
tryin and set myself up time in a position where i
work as hard as I need to work
and then leave time for family friends hobbies and enjoying myself and doing
the things I'm passionate about I'm on the kind of person that
needs to have my finger in not so different pies I'm all at once
and so so yea I have those days and I just trying to at work myself and it
tends to keep me
became inspired I from listening to what you're saying to me it sounds
like you're really playing for a living
yet while mean in a sense because it's something I'm hugely passionate about
but
yeah but I i mean I made a mistake before and when I was doing music
have overworking myself and so although it's very very passionate about music it
did get to a point where it was
it was highly pressured i was over working and the stopping enjoyable so
that's just find that balance between
and putting work-life and & Hobbies &
play and a fun and doing what you love so the post-production do you enjoy
doing that
II love and hate it because this kind
it's where you start to see an image come to life which is fantastic and
you
you might take a photograph and then bring into Lightroom
it doesn't so you look like anything special with and suddenly you change the
white balance
and its it shines and then you can do a few other adjustments in it's just us to
come to life
say I love it but I also have and
days when my eyes don't feel calibrated now im looking at the screen
and I'm thinking doesn't look right and i dont know i and have to go away and sleep on it
or
get a coffee break off and then come back to later to say it sometimes it is the
bane of my life and other times
it's extremely exciting it just depends on what I'm working on its pace
and what frame of mine i have in absolutely i mean I often find this pictures
that i take and then i think
yea i love it,and i look it a bit later and i go hmm but then conversely
there might some pictures that
you know I might look and were happy yeah.. that's exactly
you come back to sleep on it come back, come a day or two i m mean just like what i was saying
certainly does go the other way
I mean and that their images I've being working on where
I've been looking and thinking ah these are great can be so happy with these
would love the way ive edited these s gonna come out in the next day
and I need to redo them all because I just my eyes when
calibrated properly and the colors were totally off
i think that's a part of developing as a photographer I'm still in the early days
at doing in a professional contacts so it's
it's new to me relatively speaking I think you got a very bright future with
it because
years clearly have a talent thinking now will means a lot coming from experience photographer like you
it all with a light year obviously fun thank you
but now I really do mean that's what's that I was to come have a chat
well i appreciate it ,thank you
I 'd love to come back and talk to you again another time yeah it was the
you got such a passion
for photography but you know we kinda have to leave this one off about now
yes but I would love to come back and talk to another time
about other things about photography about like what makes you tick
what makes you buzz sure,that would be fantastic,you're always welcome here
Michael thank you so much, I really really appreciate it , and im gonna see you again at
some point soon
I look forward to it ,cheers subscribe to our youtube channel to be notified
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