Out of the forest and into the light

Pictures taken on Suerassari Island, Helsinki, at approx 1.00am on midsummer's night 3 years ago, before any inkling of  persuing photography further.

I wish to share with you my journey, a journey towards enriching my life through the medium of creativity and photography.
I have decided to take the plunge and start again, leaving my management career behind in favour of a job that will not only satisfy me, but will hopefully bring a lot of pleasure to those who see my pictures and those I photograph. For the foreseeable future I will be retraining and building an artistic portfolio, until I feel ready to delve into the world of business. As I spread my wings I intend to share my experiences and pictures with you on the way.

 My thirtieth year has been one of ups and downs. The beginning of the year brought with it extreme loss and sadness, with some life changing events happening in quick succession. This course of events led me to seriously reassess the meaning of life, and the quality of mine. I'm not saying I have had a inadequate life, far from it! I have had a successful career in hospitality, an unsuccessful career as a musician and teach children how to play hockey in my spare time amongst various other things. Yet I felt I was simply going through the motions, drifting as it were, through my twenties.

Therefore, the past twelve months have involved a lot of thought as to what was good about life, and what I felt was lacking. After many conversations with my friends, family, contemporaries and peers, the answer was a creative outlet. Something I could focus on completely to express my emotions through the medium of art.

 More reassessment followed, until one day someone looked at the camera I was holding (a fairly basic SLR is used as a hobby camera) and as if a light bulb had switched on cried- 'What about photography!' I realised I was certainly not the only one drifting through life, but that I and I alone had the power to do something about changing it. I ventured the idea to many more friends, expecting most people to respond with the general consensus that photography as a career would be a daft move. On the contrary and to my great surprise, every single person I asked responded with resounding positivity, and thus, my journey began.

I wish to take the opportunity to thank those people and share my new journey towards being a functional artist with you.