Personal or Photography Info first?
Ok, Personal!
Born and bred in Christchurch, New Zealand since November 1986. Youngest of 3 with 4 hair-raisingly gorgeous nephews! My immediate family are from England except me however I have dual nationality! Score!
Food:
I am addicted to Moro Gold Chocolate Bars and Bavarian Hazelnut Jarrah Instant Coffee.
Entertainment:
I can sit on my bum and watch endless amounts of Friends, How I met your Mother and The Gilmore Girls series.
Then I get off my bum and I like to run for exercise.
Love & Life:
I shared the best year of my life with my best friend/boyfriend Doug travelling through South Africa, South America, Central America with a 4 month stop in Germany and England.
We dream of so many more destinations to travel to with our next trip commencing in February 2010 to Nepal and India.
Photography!
6th form year of high school had us pushing for a career path. I had two paths in mind. Childcare or something creative like Graphic Design. I was taking Dark Room photography and wanted to go on and do 7th Form Computer Graphic Design. I did a weeks stint at a kindergarten which ruled out childcare… I couldn’t handle the sticky jam hands. I found out the school was pulling the plug on 7th Form Computer Graphic Design, so where to next?
Natcoll Design Institute and Technology offered people from all walks of life with a little creative flare in their blood to walk through their doors and teach a range of computer creative courses. At 17 I started with Computer Graphic Design to go on, complete Multimedia and become a animater for Pixar Studios. I soon found that I just love watching the movies. But through Multimedia I enjoyed the Film Making side of things and met my good friend Maja who made a successful career as a Sports Photographer in Germany.
Thus photography reared its beautiful head again to slap me in the face and lead me down the path I truly belonged on.
I considered studying in Photography, but I was never good with school. I always learnt things in my own time. Plus I was itching to travel. I waited til Doug had finished studying before I pounced.
Photography and Travel went hand in hand. I poured over endless travel images from the Lonely Planet Stock Library with a dream I’ll some day have my travel images in there.
Travel Photography is a passion; the search is on constantly for new, exotic and vibrant people and places to shoot. You’re not in control of weather or lighting and the unbelievable nerves that you get when you ask a person who doesn’t speak the same language as you to take their portrait is such a rush.
I wanted for photography to be more than just a hobby, so I turned my attention to people and portraits. I found photographers I aspired to and studied their style and images to mold my own style. Plus I guess children were in my career path after all, just not as I thought at first. Photographing children, families and couples is more fun than I could ever imagine.
Work to Live, don’t live to work… I’m fortunate to feel like when I do a photo shoot, it doesn’t feel like work, it feels like love and life! I get the warm gooey, excited feeling and it confirms I’m right where I should be in life!
