My Journey into Photography and Videography.

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I was introduced to photography at the very young age of 12, thanks to my elder brother. My brother would gift me his old cameras whenever he purchased a new one, which was quite often. At that time, in the 80s and 90s Photography was solely produced using Silver Halide technology, commonly known as Negative film. My first camera had a negative size of 13x17mm known as 110 cartridge film. I then tried many other formats that entered the market, the governing factor being what I could afford and what was being handed down to me. I went through many formats and cameras that were introduced and were quickly extinguished, Disc film, and APS film just to name a few. The quality and consistency of the images in these formats for me fell short, it was when I moved up to 35mm and purchased my first SLR camera, that I began to see and appreciate photography,

It was a huge buzz producing and capturing an image that others would enjoy and appreciate. Family and friends would ask me to photograph their events, this would make me feel proud that I was being bestowed such an honour.

It was when I was in my late teen years, that I purchased a video camcorder camera, and in response to an advert that I stumbled upon, placed it in a free ads paper. The advert was for wedding videographers, after responding to the advert I decided that I would make extra money using my newly acquired equipment and turn my love for Photography and Video into a side venture generating extra money. The advert placed in the paper was by a gentleman called Dennis Maude, he operated a business from home and was averaging about 17 weddings a week, he trained camera operators so that they were able to produce the high standard of work he was accustomed to and deliver it on the current format at the time, VHS tape. I learned a lot from Dennis, he had a simple but effective formula for training his camera crew and handed all his cameramen/women 2 x A4 Sheets of paper outlining the shots that were required, to cover the average English white dress church wedding, with clear concise instructions. Films produced for Dennis were all edited in camera and required minimum or no post-production work as editing was very time-consuming and not a luxury that was attainable by small video production companies, and Dennis had a system that was effective and worked. This experience and the knowledge I gained, helped me develop my future career in Video Production and Photography, Dennis awakened a desire to look at the skills I had and to seriously develop them further which I decided to do. I decided to study Photography, in college and enrolled on the BTEC National Diploma in Photography and Design at the School of Media and Arts at Westminster College London. It was at college I learned about different lighting techniques, Darkroom skills, camera settings and other Photography-related concepts. I now discovered there was a market for my newly acquired skills and knowledge. It was then I realised I wanted to set up my own Video and photography production company and turn this into a full-time business and Video-Craft was born.