3,000 Photos in Hong Kong: How I fell into Photography.

3,000 Photos in Hong Kong: How I Fell Into Photography

I never really planned on becoming a photographer.

I wasn’t one of those people who grew up carrying a camera everywhere, and I definitely didn’t spend my childhood dreaming about being a photographer. It actually started much later, after having my son and taking a family trip to Hong Kong.

And, technically, it started with my phone.

3,000 photos later…

When we went to Hong Kong, I became slightly obsessed with taking photos.

By the time we came home, I had over 3,000 of them on my phone.

Some were photos of my wife and son. Some were just normal family photos from the trip. But mixed in with those were photos of people on the streets, buildings, signs, little interactions and things happening around us.

I was constantly looking for something to photograph.

Looking back, I think that trip completely changed the way I saw photography. I wasn’t particularly interested in making everything look perfect. I just liked documenting what was actually happening around me.

A couple of months later, I bought my first proper camera.

Things escalated fairly quickly from there…

What I actually like photographing

Street photography was really where I found my style.

Give me a camera and a few hours walking around London and I’m happy. I love photographing people, especially when they aren’t necessarily aware of the camera. Expressions, interactions, people going about their day, basically all the normal stuff we probably walk past without thinking about.

That has ended up influencing pretty much everything else I photograph too.

Whether I’m shooting a wedding, portraits, my family or complete strangers on the street, I don’t want everything to feel overly posed or perfect.

Obviously, sometimes I’ll give a bit of direction. Especially with portraits. But I’d much rather create the situation for a good photograph and then see what happens than spend the entire shoot telling someone exactly where to put their hands.

I want people to still look like themselves.

Then I discovered film

At some point along the way, I also decided digital cameras weren’t enough of a financial rabbit hole and started shooting film.

And now I absolutely love it.

35mm has become a pretty big part of how I photograph, both personally and professionally.

There’s something about film that I haven’t managed to completely recreate digitally. The colours, grain, imperfections and the fact that you don’t immediately know whether you’ve got the photograph.

It forces me to slow down a little bit.

That’s also why I’ll often shoot a mixture of digital and film. They don’t need to compete with each other. They’re just two different ways of documenting the same thing.

Why I keep doing it

Since becoming a dad, I’ve become much more aware of how quickly life changes.

My son is already completely different from the little boy in those first photos I took of him, and I think that’s probably become the biggest reason I care about photography as much as I do.

Photos become more valuable with time.

It’s easy to think the important photographs are the obvious ones - weddings, birthdays, holidays and everything else you’re supposed to photograph.

But some of my favourite photos are of completely normal days.

My wife and son walking ahead of me. Someone looking out of a train window. A random interaction on a London street. Something that probably didn’t feel important at all when I pressed the shutter.

That’s what I want from my photography.

I want to make photographs that feel like the person, place or day I’m photographing, not just photographs that look nice.

When I don’t have a camera

Most of the time, I’m with my wife and son.

That could mean a day out somewhere, a trip into London, soft play for the hundredth time, or even being used as a climbing frame.

Although, realistically, there’s still probably a camera somewhere nearby.

Photography started because I wanted to document my own family, and I don’t think that’s ever really changed. I’ve just started documenting other people’s lives as well.

So, that’s me.

If you’ve somehow made it this far, thanks for reading.

Have a look through the rest of the site and you’ll get a much better idea of what I photograph than I could probably explain here.

And if you’re looking for someone to photograph your wedding, your family, some portraits or you’ve got a slightly weird photography idea you want to try, send me a message.

I’m usually up for it.