Hey Steemit Community,
I thought I would introduce myself on this rather unique and interesting platform you lot seem to have going over here.
Well my name is Tony and I "label" myself as a photographer, videographer, and adventurer. You can see my face (and the rest of me) below. I apologise for the size, I was going to make it smaller then realised it wouldn't look central and clean so my OCD won't allow that :P
I was sent to this community by someone on Facebook and I can't remember for the life of me who it was, so if you happen to see my post here do remind me and say "hi".
I'm really hoping to ad value in the photography and videography community here. I work a lot in the commercial/corporate industries as well as shooting weddings and travel photography and video.
I fell into photography as a career (later adding video) only about 3 or 4 years ago and before this I was running around as a professional musician (guitarist and private tutor). I decided I wasn't traveling enough and was to tied down to a single location with my teaching schedule. So one January I was having trouble with one of the companies I was contracted to teach at in that they hadn't paid me in 2 months so I decided "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH". Teaching was causing me SO much stress that it was putting my health in a bad way. I terminated my contract, canceled all my private teaching and decided "I'll be a photographer"... cold turkey! That was it I was a photographer, with no work lined up, no website, and no one even knew who I was.
I had only touched my first DSLR exactly one year before this, I had done a few small jobs for friends during that year, but in my head I was going to do this and I was going to make it. Survived my first year somehow and here I am 3 years later having traveled to some gorgeous parts of the world and worked with some of the worlds largest brands.
I got into weddings by complete accident. At the time I hated being around people, I was very much an introvert despite my musician background and having to interact with people. Nothing excited me more than just working in real estate and shooting houses because it didn't involve people. I could just go into a house, shoot it in peice, then leave. Perfect!
I got a call from a friend who had been following my small photography journey and she offered me £75 to shoot her wedding for her. She was friend from waaayyyy back when. We went to same nursery/kindergarten. So I thought why the hell not, lets give this a go. That's when the bug started... I remember enjoying it, I remember the joy they had when they got their photos back (for a first wedding they were actually ok) and the most important part is that I enjoyed seeing them happy.
I've always wanted to create and make people happy/move them with my creations and this seemed to be finally been the calling I was after.
Weddings have currently taken to me to places as far as Mauritius, Jamaica, and around Europe to some of the most incredible places and there's not a day that goes by where I'm not thankful for the couples that put their faith in me and fly me to the places. I could never see me giving up shooting weddings, its just to much fun meeting and partying with people each week!
If you got the drive to do something you can do it. I'm 100% entirely selt taught from YouTube. Without YouTube and having all the resources available from it uploaded by other people then I would not of been able pull this off. Photography tutorials, editing tutorials, practicing over and over. So obviously I like to give back too, and being a teacher before this its in my blood to help others.
So yeah I'm just entering my 4th (I think) year of business and ever growing. So as my workload is ever growing and I'm struggling to keep up with demand now my 2018 goal is to get a premise/location to for a production house/company and start up a small team here in London.
So with that I'll just drop some of my photos from my adventures here for you and hopefully I can contribute over on the photography and videography boards (and what ever else I can).
Looking forward to meeting you all :)
Tony
