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How an old dog managed to learn new tricks! - part 2 of 1 2

Published 01/10/2007

As often happens, chance also played a part. "After I closed my last lab, I spent a lot of time thinking about how to carry on with the later phase of my life," Bill explained. "Then two people in the village where I live insisted that I photograph their daughters' weddings - for proper fees too!"

For the first wedding Bill dug out his 50-year-old Rolleiflex, a camera he bought second-hand when starting out in photography. As befits such a traditional (though excellent) camera, he decided to take a 'mature, classical approach' to shooting the wedding. "I coped quite well," he remembers modestly, adding that he sold four wedding album

Then came the big changeover, he started 'meddling' with a digital camera. Although describing himself as "a film man through and through" he decided to consign all his old cameras to a box in the attic. Then after extensive research he bought a pair of Canon EOS-1 Ds digital cameras together with a collection of lenses and accessories, as well as new computers and software. So £20,000 later he was a fully -fledged digital photographer - except that he now had to learn how to use the stuff!

He decided to 'go back to school' at the Canon Experience to pick up the rudiments of digital image capture. It was a steep learning curve. "Older people like me do find learning and new computer skills difficult to get into the memory," he told me, "but I have persevered." Last September Bill shot his first digital wedding and the hard work seems to have paid off. Once again the client was pleased and he sold four albums but his style had changed dramatically. "Now it's more free flowing and I aim to produce interesting storybooks instead of a record of the wedding day," Bill explained.

But as any successful wedding photographer will tell you, there's a lot more to the business than creating good albums. You also need boundless energy, promotional drive and excellent people skills. Without doubt, all these qualities have been evident in Bill's earlier 'careers' as freelance photographer, lab man, publisher and industry 'politician'.

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1st Published 01/10/2007
last update 09/12/2022 14:53:25

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