I am not a very visual thinker. In fact, I rarely think in pictures. I always believed people to be speaking figuratively when I would hear things like 'I have a mental image', 'I can picture it now' - because I have always thought in words and feelings. I love words, the sounds they make as they roll around in my mind and I find it easier to remember the feelings and sensations associated with memories, than I do to envisage them. I know it's not often you will hear a photographer admit this.

But the way I think has shaped my interest in the visual world of photography, not just as a hobby, but also specifically the genre I like to capture... I have an excellent memory - for facts, data, trivia, numbers, in fact, when I was younger I didn't understand the need for revision for school tests, because I remembered everything from when it was originally taught. If I read something, I will rarely forget it. I remember words. But I forget events so easily, I forget memories - it's as though as soon as I create new ones they overwrite the old. This is where photography comes in. I love photographing events in my life, events that include my friends, my family and everything else. I like to capture the spirit of occasions and as such am passionate about candid captures. I like photos that capture a truth and the unposed nature of candids always convey elements of truth, of real life - something I don't have to pre-visualize.

So I take photos to document and to act as my visual memory. I approach things with an aspect of photojournalism.

I like to observe life through my lens. And I like that everyone's observations are different.

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My Story

I guess I have always been interested in photography, I just never joined up the dots. I can remember buying a camera with some prize money I won while in junior school. I remember buying a very basic digital camera off eBay a few years later (the battery compartment was held shut with carpet tape!) I remember photographing my cousin's entire wedding from start to finish on a point and shoot, consuming batteries like sweets. And yet I still didn't realise that this could be my passion. I pursued academic study and left my artistic side behind after my GCSEs. Then, while studying for my exams during the first year of my degree in London, I, like any good student needed a means to procrastinate. In the magazine aisle of Sainsburys I decided to peruse the 'hobby' section as I've never been that into Cosmopolitan etc! And I don't know what happened, but I came home with a digital photography magazine and it has all spiralled out of control since then. I bought a second hand DSLR from eBay and started collecting pieces of glass to go with it.

That was 2 years ago. And now to the present day!

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Equipment

Canon EOS 350D. Canon 60mm Macro . Canon 50mm f1.8 . Canon 18-55mm . Sigma 55- 200mm.

Canon 5D MK II . Canon 70-200mm f2.8 L USM . Canon 50mm f1.8 . Canon 85mm f1.8.

Some of these lenses I use all the time. Some are getting dusty...