So how did it all begin ?

Behind The Camera Lens

The truth of the matter I kind of fell into it or I should say photography found me.

It started off with a cheap budget point and click 2MP digital camera nothing fancy which I had bought to take photos of the family.

I started taking photos of wildlife, plants, flowers and scenery.

A few close friends and family commented, on how good these photos were and that I had a good eye, as well as a hidden talent lurking.

So I decided to explore it further by enrolling on a college course studying black and white film photography.

The course taught me F-Stops, exposure, shutter speed and composition all of which I had no idea about, this was completely new to me.

To be honest to me taking a photograph was simply pointing the camera and pressing the button whilst not trying to cut people's heads off.

Whilst at college I learnt how to develop and process my own film and prints, and I spent many an hour in the darkroom practicing.

All these hours spent in the darkroom helped me understand exposure principles.

The college did provide some old cameras for us to use, but I went out and bought an old Yaschica Slr film camera with one lens.

But this was soon upgraded to better Minolta film camera, lots of bits and pieces were bought off of ebay and before long I had a nice little selection of kit.

I was out snapping at anything and everything vwhilst learning all the time, yes I made mistakes but that's the process of learning and growing.

A friend of mine heard I was into photography so asked me to take photos for the local 5 aside football league's yahoo group page.

Of course I accepted the challenge as it meant I could learn more and more skills.

Each week I would turn up snap a couple of rolls of film, get them processed at my local photography shop the next day, always a worry if they would come out or not.

I'd then have to scan them into the computer before eventually emailing them to him.

Then I got a surprise one of the pictures got featured in the local sports newspaper unbeknown to me my friend had sent them in.

I contacted the newspaper editing desk and after a brief telephone conversation I was then uploading images on a regular basis at one point getting a centre page in the sports section.

The next big step was purchasing a Dslr a Fuji Pro.

Being digital it gave me more freedom to take more pictures without wasting film and money (film processing is not cheap plus its time consuming) gradually my skills improved and got better as did my presentation skills.

All the time I was experimenting trying out different things and different techniques.

Im now a dedicated Canon user I find the choice of lenses and features suits my need also the build quality is fantastic.

My main passion is wildlife and nature photography, there's so much beauty out there we just have to open our eyes once in a while and appreciate it whilst we still can.

Well now we're over decade on from when I first picked up that 2MP point and click and now I'm teaching photography.

I'm a volunteer mentor and teacher to adults with complex needs at St Mungo's Recovery College Bristol.

I'm now passing on those skills and knowledge I've learnt over the last decade whilst it's very challenging it's also very rewarding.

To see the pleasure on people's faces when they achieve something makes it all worthwhile.

The 2016 summer term we experimented with water, painting with light, bubbles and pinhole photography, and the students produced some amazing work which went on display in the college.

In the last decade I've photographed everything from snakes to fireworks and even football.

My advice to anyone thinking of getting into photography is to keep practicing and treat everyday as a learning day.

As Audrey once said "Nothing is impossible" when it reads "Im Possible"

Nick Britton