A lot of people ask when I started photographing people, some even ask what qualifications I have or where I studied but not a lot of people ask about my inspiration or why I actually started taking photographs.

I thought I would share a little bit about what motivates and inspires me.

We have a mission statement on our site that reads …

“Photography, to us, means capturing an instant we will never get back. It isn’t about the props or poses; it’s about preserving and celebrating special moments in time.”

That last bit … that’s my motivation right there.

Special moments don’t always mean events like

christenings,

communions

or weddings, it’s smaller than that… look closer.

A special moment can be

a smile,

a giggle

or a quick kiss.

That special thing that only some people see; the things that might disappear as children grow up, that fleeting moment, that’s what I am motivated to capture every time I pick up my camera.

Now, moving on to my inspiration. There is only one word needed …

Cameron.

A lot of other photographers and their images fuel my imagination; they make me think about how I would creatively capture a similar photo, my way. But, they don’t inspire me to pick up my camera, they don’t inspire me to capture the tiniest details, sometimes in the tiniest faces, hands or feet that I have ever seen. In essence capturing that “instant we will never get back”.

That inspiration comes from the wee face below.

Cameron, the first person I photographed with my first ever bridge camera (that I still have stashed away).

The boy, who, in eighteen short months, had inspired (and allowed) me to take about 10,000 photos of him. Some of these photos aren’t that great but they capture Cameron and the special moments we enjoyed with him.

Cameron, the inspiration for what we do and the motivation behind our mission statement.

Happy birthday Cameron.

“It’s so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.”

― John Steinbeck