Notes · April 2, 2026 · 5 min read
What thirty five years behind a camera taught me
Gear changed completely. The things that actually make a photograph work did not change at all.
I started on film, worked through every format the industry threw at us, and ended up here. The equipment is unrecognisable. The job is exactly the same: be in the right place, look properly, and press the button at the right moment.
Patience beats equipment
No camera has ever saved a picture taken in bad light from a poor position. Waiting twenty minutes for a person to walk into the right part of the frame has saved plenty.
The photographers who last are not the fastest. They are the ones still willing to wait.
Shoot for yourself as well
Client work pays, and it should be good. But the personal frames, the ones nobody asked for, are what keep the eye sharp and end up defining the portfolio people hire you from.
Thirty five years in, I still get up before dawn for a stretch of beach I have photographed a hundred times. It has never looked the same twice.