In the beginning...

After all the initial childhood 'I wanna be a mechanic/nurse/other generic career of choice' musings, I settled on 'I wanna be a photographer' at a relatively early age and haven't really changed my mind since.

Of course, life, as it does, got carried away in various directions that had nothing to do with that - travel, broken hearts, life lessons (also known as bloody big mistakes), running away, coming back - all happened in between now and then.

So about 18 months ago, after working 'for the man' for way too long, I remembered I used to be passionate about something.

I quit my job and enrolled in the old alma mater that I'd whiled away some time at just out of high school, to get my diploma in photoimaging and brush the dust off my creativity. In the first few months back, the best I came up with was this:

I was pretty impressed too. But other than that I was finding it a bit difficult to get myself back into the photography groove.

I think the main reason for this was my creative juices were finding it hard to flow smoothly, being constricted as they were, coming from the freedom and glory* of a full time wage to surviving on a part time wage. Therefore, figuring out a way that I could make money from my photography without selling my soul (I can hear you laughing from here Stuart) was paramount in my mind. After coming up with not a lot for quite some time, about half way through last year I had a brilliant idea! I would open my own studio for photographers to hire, which would (and yes, I realise this is the theory only) leave me with some free time to photograph what I wanted, without fear of becoming a poor homeless artist. Something like this or this. So you know, nothing simple or easy, or what might be considered normal**.

Now for those of you who know me, I never like doing things like everyone else does, this will come as no surprise. Of course, this means to get where I want to go will take more work, but again with the not wanting to take an easy path. So while I may gripe and grumble, I wouldn't have it any other way***.

Obviously, I am currently not in possession of my own studio, and I certainly don't have the means to even think about getting started, so back to the creativity.

Enter: mobile phone photography. You don't believe me?

All taken with my Nokia... uhh, 6280, I think - I'll have to double check that. Essentially your basic Nokia model. Again, impressive eh?

The accessibility of using my mobile phone camera gave me the freedom and opportunity to take photos wherever I saw something inspiring, without having to think about the technical side too much, so I could focus on making a good image, instead of the instruction manual.

So initially mobile phone photography was me being a bit lazy, then before I knew it, my end of year folio consisted entirely of images from my mobile phone.

So with a little help from my phones I've got my mojo**** back.

Over the Christmas holidays I took 23 rolls of film (I'm attempting to get back to basics), and I am now attempting to get my priorities organised and start my career in photography.

This could be the beginning of a wonderful friendship...

*Never let the truth get in the way of a good story.

**Whatever that is.

***Feel free to remind me of this over the next few years. Possibly for the rest of my life.

****This being the technical term of course.