My journey to tuition.
My Journey - Olympus and Back Again.
When I was 10, my parents gave me an Olympus Trip camera and my passion for image-making began. Studying in Salisbury and then moving to London to assist, my early career was entirely film-based using all formats from 35mm to large format plate cameras. But by the early 2000s, digital photography was rapidly becoming standard so I was fortunate enough to work professionally with two very different mediums.
In my career I have been trapped in a car in Iceland, streamed 4G video over a mile underground in the Artic Circle, photographed a guy called Danny who survived the 7/7 bombings ( truly humbled by his forgiveness ) and made Paul Daniels ( the magician ) disappear.
While I always did a range of different shoots I found myself mostly specialising in pharmaceutical advertising, an area involving large-scale productions. Shoots were often created for global campaigns, requiring multiple versions of the same image with different models for different regions. While I enjoyed the production challenges, the creative side was often restricted. To balance this, my wife and I founded Beeseye Fine Art, producing limited edition abstract images of nature. It became my creative outlet—freedom to shoot without constraint. Our work found its way into major hotels in the US and private collections around the world, and for a time we ran two very different photographic businesses side by side.
Me and one of my assistants, Vicky, shooting in a toilet. I got all the best jobs..
I realised at some point, (think it was late at night on the elevated section of the M4 I found myself re-scheduling models for the following day on the whim of a creative director) that I realised my passion had become a pain. It was nothing to do with why I loved photography - impossible deadlines, shrinking budgets, and risk-averse creative direction had left me disillusioned. I stepped away, shifting my focus to corporate video and stills for a few years, but my heart was no longer in it. After more than 25 years, I made the difficult decision to quite and hung up my camera.
That was seven years ago.
Since then, I’ve built and continue to run a bespoke furniture business—something completely different, yet surprisingly similar in its craftsmanship and creativity. Alongside this, I volunteer as a mentor with two youth charities, supporting disadvantaged young people, and I teach advanced motorcycling.
Which brings me to now.
I’ve always loved working with people, helping them grow, and sharing knowledge. And at its core, I still love photography in its purest form - the simple act of capturing an image, not for a client or a brief, but because it’s part of who I am. Having previously given talks at camera clubs and offered photographic tuition though charitable gifts to clients, it now feels like the right time to share that passion again. Passing on my experience across both analogue and digital photography, from camera mastery, the dreaded exposure triangle, lighting techniques, composition, creative vision and story telling.
So if you want to stop thinking about how the camera works and get to a stage were camera controls are intuitive, opening up space for you creativity to take take center stage, a stage were you are a photographer,
not just a camera owner then please give me a call.
A small selection from my Commercial and Fine Art portfolios are below.
