Hi guys


Today marks 1 year since I took the first image that led me on a journey of photography, design, darkness and Jack Daniels. 1 year ago today I took some images at my neice's wedding and that led me to fall in love with photography so much that a hobby turned into a passion and now a full blown career.

It's been a year of ups and downs, illness, happiness and depression but remarkably it's been the biggest learning curve of my life. I've never been to college to study photography or photoshop and in one year I've been running before I could walk - desperate to be as good as I could be in a short space of time. So - spurred on by my new found passion, I jumped in with both feet - picked up knowledge of photography as I went along, taught myself photoshop, created a signature style for my work, rather dauntingly went into a studio with absolutely no knowledge of lighting or set up and just dared myself to learn. I don't believe that college or professional qualifications are necessarily a replacement for enthusiasm, determination to succeed or passion and I hope that these three things show in all the work that I do.

The image that started off this whole new career move was this one. < Yes she's a real bride (she's my neice) and no this wasn't posed. I was lurking by her bedroom door as she was deciding what to do next and grabbed this shot of her. When I uploaded it onto Flickr the response was phenomenal- up until that point I'd just been uploading snaps of friends and family from holidays and parties and it was the response to this one image that made me think that perhaps I should look further into pursuing photography. In one year this photo has had more than 6000 views and still receives lots of attention and although looking back it's very different from my style now, I'm still immensely proud of it and of course it makes me smile because it was such a great day!


From here I was really keen to at least try a little more portrait photography and set about looking for a model to work with and to try and build a portfolio of images with. That's when Laura came into my life, a long standing best friend of my husbands. She had a classic vintage look and was looking to get some pictures of herself taken and what started off as us both not knowing what we were doing has developed into a long standing friendship, a brilliant working relationship and she's my top model. Here is one image from our first shoot together - this was taken when both of us were still finding our feet together, she'd never done any modelling before, I'd never done a shoot before and it was hilarious - loads of fun, loads of mistakes, loads of weird poses but mostly just really relaxed and full of giggles, something I've tried to keep as a standard at all of my shoots now. The image was taken on September 12th last year so only a few weeks after I'd gotten the shutterbug and already I was keen to progress more.

From this point - various friends and family were targetted to model for me and it's absolutely true when people say that they can't come to my house without me asking them just to give me 5 minutes with them so I can capture some shots. I was hungry to learn, consuming photography books, examining the works of others such as Lithium Picnic and Scott Church, both amazing american photographers.

At some point along the way I became disenchanted with traditional photography. Yes it's great to capture a lovely image as you see it, but in my heart I wanted to be creating surrealist nightmares and otherworldy scenarios. I wanted people to see images of life as I see it and thats when I developed my style which is heavily digital art based. I still do all the photography myself however now with added extras and manipulation - a photo to me is a blank canvas, an opportunity to twist and turn in any direction you want.

It's been tough, really tough. A lot of people have helped me out hugely along the way and should be mentioned on the roll of honour!

Firstly my husband for giving me the opportunity to do this full time from the very word go and supporting me when no one else did because he always believed I could actually do this.

Secondly Laura Thomson aka Betty Blood for the countless shoots (with or without wellies) that we did together in the early days to try and get things right.

Thirdly - those friends and artists that have inspired me along the way and who keep setting the bar so high that I run to keep catching up with them - Lithium Picnic, Scott Church, Artpunk, John Santerineross, Vorfas, Stickleback, Grave Decay, Neil Duerden, DevilCity and Deadboy Designs, Atomic Cheesecake, SAS, Soma , Mark Velasquez, Jack Scoresby, Morgana, eyecandyforthebrokenhearted, Dave Charsley, RockStar Vanity, Cherry Vega, Anne Makaske, Diana Pinto, Phillip Marco Vallentin, Marc Guiterrez and probably loads more I can't think of right now. Your photography and art inspires me, makes my mouth salivate and spurs me on to be a better photographer and artist than I am.

I'd also like to say a huge thank you to all the models and clients I've worked with in the past year. You've all been special in helping me get to the place I'm at at the moment - but thats the subject of another blog which you should keep an eye out for as it's going to be funny. :)

Thanks also to those who have helped me out at shoots with make up, styling, creative direction or just making the tea - including Steph- my fab make up artist friend, Kerry  - my award winning amazing make up artist and stylist, Kathryn ,Rob for services to creative direction and calming Duncans nerves, and most recently my newest model, turned recruit Tina who has joined the team of WakentheDead as my assistant, the giver of hugs and the buyer of chocolate. (But again...she's the subject of a future blog so we'll just leave it there)

Final thanks to my sister Maryanne for her belief, advice (not lectures), modelling skills and for being my best friend and also my mum for the daily contradictive lectures on how I should get a real job, and then how proud of me she is that I'm doing something I love. Mothers eh!

This week on my myspace page I'll be putting up a blog a day to celebrate my first year - containing some of my fave photographs as well as some little secret blogs which will amuse and entertain. I hope you will enjoy having a nosey through them and journey with me over the past year.

You guys - all of you make me smile on a daily basis and without you, this dream would really be nothing. Sorry if this blog has rambled on, it's a bit like myself - all over the place and collectively chaotic.

And to finish off.....my most recent image - what a way to round off a year - the fabulous Ms Jackie Cheesecake. When a client turns up at the studio with a watermelon, some high heels and a smile, you know it's going to be a good day. I started off my year with a bride in her underwear and I've finished it with a Rollergirl sucking a melon - I think that pretty much sums up the year quite nicely!

You guys rock - thanks for being around, reading, viewing, commenting and writing to me. I appreciate your continued support.

Lisa - WakentheDead

Leave a comment    must fill in    filled in wrongly
name
email
your blog
location
show		everyone photographer only
comment		for this photo I'm in a ShMood
		notify me by email of new comments
fill in code