Lessons learned in a good week

It’s been an exciting week in a number of respects, but the old adage of “you can please some of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time” has certainly come into play.

That’s a saying I guess everybody has heard, but little knocks act as a constant reminder of that simple fact of life and you have to use such moments as a learning experience. In my case, once the ranting at myself is out of the way, I tend to get on with things, remembering the lessons.

Having said that, this week’s knock only came about because I have had a successful time of it as far as my photography is concerned and that is what I will remember when I put my feet up this weekend.

On two days running, I had my photographs published in one of the North East’s top newspapers, The Journal. On Wednesday, a photograph of an Associate at a client’s firm was featured heavily alongside a story I had sent them about his promotion to that status – full colour, no less. While it wasn’t the first time I have had a photograph published in the regional press, it was a great start to the day, nonetheless.

On the following day, The Journal ran a double page spread on another client of our firm, with another photograph spanning the pages.

While I would love to tell you that both clients were overjoyed, the aforementioned knock of the week came from a couple of individuals at the firm in the first instance being unhappy at some of the content of the photograph. While agreed by the subject, this particular content was deemed to give a slightly stuffy image by others in the firm.

Due to their generally being a delight to work with, the knock was hard to take, but the lesson simple: communication and preparation are the key to customer satisfaction.

Back to positivity, and the week will also finish on a bright note this evening with the third heat of the Battle of the Bands being run by Shildon Rox at Shildon Civic Hall. Day job-willing, I’m looking forward to being able to get along and do some snaps; who knows, one of those performing tonight could be the eventual winner of the photo shoot with myself – one of a number of great prizes up for grabs.

Visit http://www.myspace.com/shildonrox for more info!

Paul

The story so far

So, who am I? What do I do? Why am I here?

If you ever find the answers to those questions, please let me know.

I guess a few basic facts about how I came to be where I am today – an amateur photographer who kind of dabbles in the semi-professional world - would be a start. I’ll keep this relative to my photography, because that’s the subject of this blog.

I only really got into taking photographs maybe two or three years ago, having just recently turned 30 when my brother bought me a good point and shoot Samsung which turned out better pictures than the half hearted shots I’d previously taken. Shots of scenery at places I would visit in the North East, from the Angel of the North to Lindisfarne, and North Yorkshire, such as Scarborough.

For once, I was enjoying taking photographs and I soon developed this into a full-on hobby, particularly when I decided to upgrade and bought myself a Sony H7 – rather a nice bridge camera which has served me well. My first venture with the H7 was when I had a day to kill in London – and it just happened to be Notting Hill Carnival weekend. I spent around four hours, lost in taking photographs for the first time in my life, probably emboldened by the fact that I had a nice looking camera. As I checked out the images on the back of the camera, I was seriously impressed with what this nice piece of kit was helping me to unlock in myself.

From there, I started to use my camera everywhere, from family shots, to days out and particularly at ice hockey matches where, at the time, I was producing match reports for a newspaper website and I was soon able to have photographs alongside some of my articles.

Since then, Facebook, Flickr and, more recently MySpace have become outlets for my work, while I have found it’s a great way to create personal gifts for family at Christmas, using the excellent Photobox.co.uk to produce a calendar for my mother, as well as framed prints of Weardale, from where my maternal family hails, for my relatives.

During my Sony H7 era, I decided that perhaps I can take things further and the amazing support and belief of my fiance has encouraged me to try to do so. Most notably, she practically insisted that I find a model to pose for photographs for FHM’s National Exposure competition in early 2009. While I never heard anything from them, it led to some nice pictures and great experience in photographing someone I do not know.

The biggest development for me this year has been the acquisition of a new camera, a second hand Canon 350D, which I absolutely love. A big thank you has to go out to Darren Blackman, who did me a very good deal on the camera and associated equipment, including three lenses. I have only today printed out the online manual, so I hope that while I have already produced some great pictures with this camera, I will soon be able to get the best out of it and continue to develop my aspiring career.

My employers at Recognition Marketing and PR have been very supportive of my extra-curricular activities as far as photography is concerned and they encourage me to develop my skills and use them as part of my work with the business. As a result of this, I have been fortunate to do photographs on behalf of a number of clients, as well as with people such as the Dragon’s Den star, entrepreneur Duncan Bannatyne, the Conservative Peer, Lord Bates, and one of the country’s best known politicians, William Hague MP.

2009 will see me continue to enter competitions – only by doing so will I ever see how my work is developing alongside that of others. We’re starting small (I sometimes say we, because my fiance is very much part of this as a driving force of encouragement): things like the Guinness Storehouse competition and the Times Online’s monthly travel photography contest, which I entered this week, to a competition run by the Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) North East to mark the 150th anniversary of the death of Robert Stephenson, which I am currently working on entries for.

I have a number of other ideas and aspirations, which I will touch upon in future blogs, but this, I guess, is me and the story so far. Thanks for reading!

Paul