1. Get off your arse and make it happen. Forget your fears of getting dirty, wet, chased, scoffed at, scared. Amazing results can come from really taking a chance and stepping outside your comfort zone. Be it rising at 5am to take a landscape, driving to a mountaintop at midnight to shoot long exposures, setting up in the town centre on a busy saturday to shoot portraits. It may seen lightly insane to begin with but after a while it will seem normal - allow the madness in!
2. Invest time in your photography - set aside time for personal projects, follow them through. Spend your hours behind the lens rather than in front of a screen. They say it takes 10 000 hours or more to become an expert at anything - every hour you have your camera in your hand you are 1 hour closer to that goal.
3. Invest ca$h in your photography - good gear really does help. I'd suggest stretching your budget to buy the very best you can afford everytime....and then saving for another month. Have a bit of dignity and steer clear of cheap brands. A good camera body can be faithful for 10 years, a good lens for 20 !
4. Go your own way - not only a very fine Fleetwood Mac song but a good rule for life. Follow the example of the greats definately but also take a risk and tramp your own path and put your own creative stamp on your efforts. Try a new approach from time to time, try a different angle, lens or lighting technique. Enjoy the beauty of a prime lens, use your legs for the zoom function. Get weird!
5. Shoot Raw - this can really give your shots some powerful dynamic range and depth and potentially save an over or under exposed photo. Remember - the skies in our country are grey or blue the last time I checked - not white!
6. Embrace the conditions - when life gives you lemons - make lemonade, or better still make yourself a stiff gin and bitter lemon. Do the very best with what you have, where you are. The weather is balls, don your raincoat and shoot some dramatic skies with external lighting. The cityscapes are grim and grimey - juxtapose some beautiful portraits within the rugged bitterness. Accept, don't expect.
7. The only real wisdom is knowing that you know nothing - a quote from Nitzche or Socrates or Jackie Charlton or one of those great philosophers. Never rest on your past glories, always strive for new and better. Life's, and indeed, photography's possibilities are endless.
8. Learn from your mistakes. Balls ups are a great teacher, especially those really major ones (I have known so many). Instead of being discouraged, use each of these mishaps to your future advantage.
9. Be social - whether it's inviting someone along to shoot together, joinig a photo club or asking an athlete or musician to shoot them completely out of the blue, go do it. There's magic in folk!
10. Listen to Black Sabbath.
Contents of Jay's satchel
Nikon D800 - this is some weapon. I'd imagine in the future this controversial camera carry legendary status ("remember when Nikon released that 35mm camera with a 36mp sensor ?? woow madness")
Nikon D300 - fast shutter rate, pretty cheap second hand. Good enough for most work.
70-200mm lens, 50mm 1.4, 16-35mm, 16mm fish, 55mm macro lensware
Nikon SB800/ SB28 flashes - I need a flash with the following functions - ON/OFF, UP/DOWN AND A PLUG, nothing else. forget about TTL, ITTL, ISO guides, strobe capabilites - it's just a light FFS!
Quantum flash - maximum power lighting.
Flash triggers - for remote flash work.
Tripod - Jessops £40 series, light and sturdy.
Remote shutter trigger - the can help push your camera to its creative limits - e.g. 1 hour exposures, time lapse sequences, etc, etc.
Matt, blanket - for lying about the muck - as useful as anything else in my bag.
Adobe photoshop and a few choice plug-ins
4 Guinness
Derry wedding photography, Donegal wedding photography, Inishowen wedding photography, Ballyliffen wedding photography, Redcastle wedding photography
