coming soon(ish).Hopefully.

Recently I decided to commit to a rather hefty writing project, detailing fifty lessons I’ve learned in photography since picking up my first ever camera roughly at the end of 2015. As a form of accountability, and to give a flavour of what I hope this project will be (the thought of calling it a book at the moment makes me cringe slightly), I thought I’d share its opening. Enjoy.

foreword - what this is all about (& isn’t)

At the time of writing it’ll be almost be 10 years since I picked up my first ever camera - well 9 technically but it looks nicer rounded up. That second-hand Canon 600D (the Rebel t3i to give it its cringier American name) was taken with me to vlog a trip to Japan, during which I realised filming in general, let alone myself, wasn’t the most comfortable of pursuits. Instead that camera was very quickly used for its original purpose, snapping souvenir-esque shots that trumped anything everyone else was taking on their iPhone 6 and posting to Instagram.

You’d think with an experience like that under my belt, and the smugness of a few e-likes, that this was the start of something special. Wrong.

If anything the camera was then only consigned to the adventures I’d save up all year for, collecting dust on a shelf while believing that all the hours of scrolling and viewing photography videos would result in pictures far better than anyone’s ever seen. Wild really when the ‘creative process’ boiled down to an entry-level camera, kit lens, auto mode, and Jesus taking the wheel.

Fast forward to only a few years ago and the same mentality prevailed in some form, only switching when years of ‘consuming’ photography tallied up to provide a clearer idea of what I wanted my identity to be. The mission then was to take a creative deep dive; a six-month solo trip centred purely on this craft I’d been dipping in and out of to see if I could make something of it, or if this really all was just a phase. Fortunately it wasn’t (and hopefully still isn’t).

Therefore ultimately picking up a camera didn’t make me a photographer, having the confidence to say I am one did.

Now I can’t speak for everyone reading this, but the story above (thanks for indulging me for a moment by the way), shouldn’t be a special one. Why? Because, like most things in life, our creative journeys aren’t linear. Rather they’re a wave of investment, input, and output. There have been times when photography hasn’t been on my mind whatsoever, and others when it’s all that has mattered.

When it came to sharing the things I’ve learned on this path then, it felt wrong to speak from a place of objectivity - acting as if following all these life lessons will 100% make anyone a better photographer chapter by chapter. After all, any sense of authority would also go completely against the imposter syndrome that’s helped and hindered my growth in equal measure.

That’s why this isn’t a course that’s rehashed a million hours of YouTube tutorials into a few pages, you can probably get ChatGPT to do that anyway, nor is it a collection of secret hacks that’ll transform your photos into gallery-worthy pieces. If anything this is an amalgamation of successful and failed experiences behind the camera, those eureka moments that mark the milestones along our creative journeys, topped off with a few pointers to help keep self-doubt and frustration at bay.

For those that are just starting to get to grips with their camera, don’t let the sheer number of these ‘lessons’ fry your brain and put you off before you’ve even got the ball rolling. Pick up and put down when you need, and remember everything you’re about to read is simply written from the perspective of one person out of millions of photographers. Some points might not apply to you, some might not even make any sense, but hopefully those that do will accelerate your progress and skip past those years spent making the same mistakes without any idea of a solution.

For those that have been shooting for way longer, you’ll find something worth sticking around for too. Truthfully the word ‘lessons’ describes these chapters out of convenience, however they equally serve as reminders, talking points, and reassurances in a niche that’s ironically so diverse. Often in self-help/productivity media, again cringe I know, we consume ideas that are already floating around in our subconscious and know to be true. Yet still their repetition evokes inspiration because hearing those words aloud or seeing them in print reminds us others have felt the same way at one point and still pushed forward. I hope this collection of thoughts can do the same.

For those that have never really picked up a camera and found themselves here anyway, thank you? At the very least it might go to show that photography is just a smidge more than pressing a button.

Right, enough teasing. Let’s get stuck in.

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ONE WEEK IN BANGKOK