This time it's no different, the year really has gone fast. I've been at the Illawarra Mercury for ONE whole year now and 'how has it been' you ask? ---- It has been awesome, as simple as that.
I'm grateful that I've been given so many fantastic opportunities at my work, I've been in planes flying over the Illawarra, I've been on boats cruising around in the lake, I've been up and around Sydney shooting random stories and I've had amazing opportunities to shoot sports like the NBA, A-League, NRL, State of Origin and soon the NRL Grand Final. I don't think many photographers get the chance to shoot such big and important sporting events, let alone a cadet.
In Gladstone, I really had no one to look up to, my boss was a self taught photographer who had only been in the game a year longer than me and was too focussed on her wedding business. Here its been different, I have colleagues who collectively, maybe have over a hundred years of experience in the game. They've won Walkleys, PANPA's, shot World Cups, Olympics, Commonwealth Games, travelled around the country, travelled the world, you name it, they've done it all.
These guys are people I really look up to, I don't tell them because... that would be stupid... but they are everything I always wanted to be when I was growing up.
So basically, what i'm trying to say is, I'm pretty happy with my job. There's not many people who can say. "I'm doing what I actually studied at uni, I get to take photos every, single, day." I'm extremely grateful that I even HAVE a job, being a photographer is hard enough, a NEWS photographer.. they are certainly very slim pickings...
My first year has been a bit of a learning curve, I started off confidently, lost all motivation and confidence in my imagery halfway through, but feel like I've been coming strong for the last couple of months. Hopefully this upward trend continues and I can start to really spread my wings and get out there and do what I know I can. We'll have to wait another 12 months and see..
Until then,
Chris.
