Today's Meeting

Met with the wonderfully friendly Ian McKinnon-Evans, creative director of Norwich-based advertising agency The Point, this afternoon. Entering the room with higher hopes than expectations, we chatted about the type of work that I’d like to specialise in, in the future, as well as the characteristics that my photographs are going to have to develop (ahem) if I am to make a success of myself, in a county crammed with talented photographers. I am the first to confess that half of the photographs in my portfolio look lovely, but are in fact almost wholly unremarkable; a steep learning curve lies ahead. I have, thankfully, already demonstrated a little of the flair required to get ahead in commercial photography, although ideas must begin to flow freely in the future, and in rather more of a torrent than the sparse puddles I have hitherto created. Effort, effort, effort is what is required. I must devote every spare moment to photography, from creating more dynamic, thoughtful and original photographs, to shadowing more established professional photographers, to ruthlessly removing photographs from my portfolio, adding in the improved works of the next few months. After this, I must set about making further copies of that improved portfolio, to approach advertising agencies and design consultancies. I must be prepared to have those portfolios tossed aside carelessly by people who know better than me, and I must put together a glitzy and professional-looking website. One of these days, a few months down the line, a commercial commission may come my way, and I must be ready for it with the ideas and the consistency to put together perhaps a hundred-and-fifty different images. Above all, I must have the equipment to deal with it too.

If I arrived at the meeting with only a bumbling, vague idea of what I can expect from a career like this, with skewed and unrealistic ideas of how to achieve the progression I’d like, and when it will happen, I am under no illusions now. Even if each networking event that I photograph brings with it new connections, and the possibility of further work, it is only one step at a time on a long, long path. I can content myself only with the thought that these steps do eventually add up. My challenge is to be prepared against the black ice and the dogs when, in however many years’ time, I eventually get to the gate…

My First Camera

I picked up my first camera today, a wee Kodak compact. I knew it was mine, because it was well-worn, like me, slightly battered from trips into the countryside, like me, and the battery cover had been replaced by a mountain of Blu-Tac. It’s all right, I know that you’re curious. You see, the fact is that a friend of mine dropped it from a great height one evening in a bar in Norwich. The camera survived, but a chip came off the battery cover, making it difficult to keep it closed. I attempted to remedy the situation by gluing the chipped bit back on; my idiocy was to carry out this repair job while the battery cover was closed.

Well, everything was fine, until the batteries ran out. Could I open the cover? Imagine it for yourself: the young budding photographer, struggling against his own camera as he struggles against his own mind, telling him how much of a BLITHERING SPAMHEAD he is. Who glues a battery compartment shut?

We can be thankful that I have learned how to take care of my equipment since those halcyon days of idiocy. I would hope that those I hold close to my heart have learned too – that friend of mine, who dropped the camera from a great height one evening in a bar in Norwich, is none other than my girlfriend. My current camera, much like its owner, can get as battered as it likes on future trips into the countryside…