AdvancedPhotons

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I'm a professional photographer.  Professional in the sense that I earn money from photography, not in the sense that I'm any good at it, or know what I'm doing, or even act in a professional manner.

My first camera, which I got for my 13th birthday, was a Russian made Zenit E with a Helios 58mm lens.  It wasn’t the most sophisticated camera on the market, in fact, it was quite possibly the least sophisticated, but it was a constant companion to me during my early teenage years and it isn't an understatement to say that I loved it.  I credit this camera with teaching me the basics of photography and I still pull it out to play with from time to time.

Of course, today my equipment is very different.  Up until recently, I was 100% Nikon.  In fact for most of my life I’ve been a Nikon user except for a brief period in the early 2000’s when I flirted with Olympus for a couple of years.  I still have Nikon gear but most of my pictures today are taken with Fuji equipment.  I also use GoPro, SJCAM, Ricoh, Panasonic and Motorola and I’ve learnt that my best photography isn’t a direct result of the quality of my equipment.  Yes, a Nikon D6 will take substantially higher quality images than a Lumix LF1, but a great photographer with an LF1 will take better pictures than a mediocre photographer with a D6.

In fact, some of the best photographs today are often taken with a phone and that’s because the best camera is ALWAYS the one that you have with you. 

Unfortunately, photography is an astonishingly poorly paid profession (unless you're somebody like Annie Leibovitz or Jimmy Nelson or Lee Jeffries) so I do other stuff too.  I'm a marketing strategy consultant, a non-executive director and a business collaboration advisor. Those activities are what contribute to my day-to-day living expenses and sustain my family ... but it's photography that sustains my soul!