Where it all began!

I've been working as a freelance photographer for over 5 years and the question I get asked most is, how did it all start?

At school, I was never interested in having amazing grades. I really enjoyed Maths, because I liked the challenge and feeling like I had accomplished something, but my focus was always purely in the Arts & Crafts sectors. When we had the options for our GCSE's art was quite a sure thing for me, but I had no idea what else to take. My mum had suggested taking food technology as I love making and eating great food, although we only really learnt how to make brownies! Art was definitely the subject I looked forward to at school, having double art meant it was a good day.

Throughout studying art, I would hire the school's basic camera's (Nikon D3100 with a 75-300mm kit lens), just to photograph portraits of my own dogs and horses, as I have always been the crazy, obsessed horse girl and dog lover. I would print these images off at school just so I could show everyone and have around my room. One weekend I had hired the camera to take along to a Mounted Games competition, to photograph one of my ponies someone else was riding. I photographed the rider vaulting on, in burst mode (I had no idea what I was doing with timings, settings of the camera at this point) as I was inspired by Eadward Muybridge on showing the motions. This became an inspiration for my final art piece, as painted a piece of a rider vaulting on their pony in the motions, but I also added extra legs to show full movement.

As I had photographed these other riders, I put the images on Facebook for the riders to see, in which I had a huge response of riders asking for them to be photographed at future shows and that they would pay for images. (There were no official photographers at the Mounted Games events, I only had photo's of myself at county shows and Europeans before this). I took photography at A level, but as anyone would tell you, you don't really learn anything about photography, so instead I applied for a Diploma at Bath College and I can honestly say they were the best 2 years, thanks to my amazing lecturers who pushed me to photograph outside of the animal world, to learn how a camera and lighting works. I done the usual college photography things, but my passion for photography just grew. I upgraded my kit after hiring the college's cameras and then my client list started to grow even more in Mounted Games. Every weekend I was booked up (whilst also riding and competing myself). I was earning more money than most people with a *proper* part time job.

I didn't want my journey to end there. I applied for universities even though I had no intention of going, but after going to open days, I loved the idea of being able to continue my studies. After visiting Gloucestershire open day, I realised I could study a degree, whilst also being close enough to home that I could come back to ride and see my dogs, which was a must as anyone who knows me, knows my dogs are my world, and my family, of course.

I was pushed at Uni to step outside of my comfort zone, not to just photograph horses and dogs. I pushed myself even harder, focusing some projects purely on people as back then, I was so shy I struggled to approach people. We were set a brief in the second year to photograph a portrait of two strangers and find out about them. I went to the Dog Swim at the Cheltenham Lido which honestly petrified me, but I done it and I felt so much better with my images, knowing it was outside of my comfort zone.

I continued to push myself hard, push myself even further out of my comfort zone, hardly ever photographing people I knew, using location lights, shooting in the studio, on kit I hadn't used. I aimed to do everything I couldn't do in my final 18 months, then lockdown hit. This didn't stop me. I hired lights so I could push myself to be confident in using lighting. All whilst continuing to photograph MGA and now also STRUK events almost every weekend.

Pushing myself in those final years led me to be able to confidently take on commissions from larger brands and now, when I feel I am drifting outside my comfort zone, I know I am pushing myself to become better. I graduated in 2021 and what feels like a whirlwind of a year, I am celebrating the little wins every month of taking on new clients, new contracts and commissions. Of course, there are lows, which as a society we tend not to share, but looking back really does make you appreciate how far you've come and how quickly.

Wow, that was a lot longer than I thought! I hope you enjoyed :)

Sammie x