Just the other day I had the pleasure of spending an evening with David Tunnicliffe, a very well travelled photographer. Right now he has an exhibition on at UCMK entitled 'Travels with a Tangerine' and this is a body of work that embraces over 30 years of work and has become a homage to The Great Moroccan Explorer, Ibn Battuta. David's words, not mine.
I'm not here to write a review of his presentation, work methods and personal views, instead I'm going to write about me. The me that has found direction and inspiration from that evening with a man named David, and some others in the room.
All I've ever wanted to capture was wildlife. All aspects of wildlife just fascinate me and to be able to capture it through the medium of photography, in a way that really embraces nature would be just perfect. But it's not who I want to be. Two year's ago I would have said that all I want to be is a wildlife photographer. To travel to remote locations around the world and spend days, weeks or even months capturing truly magnificent creatures would have been all I wanted to do, but now here's the problem with putting myself in a box so early on. It just restricts your freedom. I would get in a studio environment and feel like I was committing a sin to my fellow wildlife photographers. I can almost guarantee that many of you that read this, who are also aspiring photographers, and have already defined yourself in an area of photography that you are yet to really divulge yourself in. Along with that I wonder how many of you have thought about whether you can shoot what it is that you want to, make a living and still enjoy the art of photography. Always keep your mind open. I owe that way of thinking to the tutors that I've had over the last two and a bit years.
Now if I jump forward two years to where I am now, I am 100% certain that I want to be a primary school teacher. It will take me a while to get there but that's what I want to. But I'm studying photography your all screaming. Yes I am. I am because I love photography and one day I would love to earn a living as a wildlife photographer but right now I don't just want to settle for another area of photography that does not interest me. Thinking that's slightly hypocritical of my previous statement. Well do let me explain. I opened my mind and my way of thinking to many areas of photography. Some I really enjoyed and others not so much. Wildlife never fails me. Its the technicality combined with the beauty that captures me. It's not to say that I don't see beauty in other aspects of photography, it's that I could not work in those area's everyday without it feeling like a chore. So I put myself in a box, took myself out of it and now I've just ripped the box up completely. I want to teach kiddies. I could do it day in and day out and I know I would love it. I have the support to get there and along with the addition of some wise words from some elders, I am now even more sure that's what I want to do.
I'm not here to write a review of his presentation, work methods and personal views, instead I'm going to write about me. The me that has found direction and inspiration from that evening with a man named David, and some others in the room.
All I've ever wanted to capture was wildlife. All aspects of wildlife just fascinate me and to be able to capture it through the medium of photography, in a way that really embraces nature would be just perfect. But it's not who I want to be. Two year's ago I would have said that all I want to be is a wildlife photographer. To travel to remote locations around the world and spend days, weeks or even months capturing truly magnificent creatures would have been all I wanted to do, but now here's the problem with putting myself in a box so early on. It just restricts your freedom. I would get in a studio environment and feel like I was committing a sin to my fellow wildlife photographers. I can almost guarantee that many of you that read this, who are also aspiring photographers, and have already defined yourself in an area of photography that you are yet to really divulge yourself in. Along with that I wonder how many of you have thought about whether you can shoot what it is that you want to, make a living and still enjoy the art of photography. Always keep your mind open. I owe that way of thinking to the tutors that I've had over the last two and a bit years.
Now if I jump forward two years to where I am now, I am 100% certain that I want to be a primary school teacher. It will take me a while to get there but that's what I want to. But I'm studying photography your all screaming. Yes I am. I am because I love photography and one day I would love to earn a living as a wildlife photographer but right now I don't just want to settle for another area of photography that does not interest me. Thinking that's slightly hypocritical of my previous statement. Well do let me explain. I opened my mind and my way of thinking to many areas of photography. Some I really enjoyed and others not so much. Wildlife never fails me. Its the technicality combined with the beauty that captures me. It's not to say that I don't see beauty in other aspects of photography, it's that I could not work in those area's everyday without it feeling like a chore. So I put myself in a box, took myself out of it and now I've just ripped the box up completely. I want to teach kiddies. I could do it day in and day out and I know I would love it. I have the support to get there and along with the addition of some wise words from some elders, I am now even more sure that's what I want to do.
Wildlife will never take a back seat in my life, it will just become an extension of who I am. As long as I stay true to me then I have no worries.
Ohhh and It could be your kids im teaching :)