Zero To Hero Stories

Inspiring articles from photographers like you...

Our amazing students share their personal photography journeys and they've blown us away with their determination and commitment. Some have turned pro, won awards etc, but most have just elevated their image making to a whole new level of excellence and something they feel justifiably proud of. 

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Be inspired by our heroes

Sascha John

sascha john 1

At 58 and retired I don't feel in a position to make photography my business, but I take my camera wherever I go and shoot every day. I take pictures of what I see on my way; mainly animals, nature and architecture. Following on from the courses I started still life and also looking for more traditional looking images. I'm always in danger of looking at my work and being disapointed because I'm not that great, or my images aren't that sharp. What I never expected was that anyone in the world who was also into taking photos to say that they like my images!

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Dean Minett

deanminnett5
Ever since the 70’s when my older brother gave me a battered second-hand Zenith 35mm camera I’ve been keen on photography. This was used to moderate success at various air shows we attended, despite me not knowing what the heck I was doing.

My lack of knowledge continued throughout the 80’s and 90’s during which time I took very few photos, even though I bought a couple more second-hand cameras. My time was taken up by work, study and life in general. Whilst on holiday one year I made an impulse purchase and jumped on the DSLR bandwagon…

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Chris Kerrey

chriskerry1My name is Chris Kerrey and I've started the business  ‘CRK.Photographic’ (whoops, that is the end, at the beginning of my story...!)

Photography; it happens behind the camera; in you.  The few inches behind whatever you are using to record light; photography is so very subjective.  So very easy then to think ‘maybe I am not good enough?’  You’d be wrong; you are good enough.

My first camera, a Kodak Browne in 1977.   First ‘proper’ camera 1983, a Praktica MTL5.  I loved it, it went mostly everywhere with me at 13 years old onwards.  I took photos of anything and everything paid for by my paper round!  I even got the odd ‘request’ back then to photograph people or subjects, for free naturally.


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Danny Hudson

DannyHudson12From a young age, I have always had an interest in looking at photographs and taking snaps when away on family holidays and so on but whilst I knew what I thought worked and didn’t work, I had no idea WHY.

Whilst being very time-poor, I felt that I needed a hobby that I could get my teeth into without committing to giving up hours on end at a time. I thought photography was something I could do without too much time, effort and money having to be invested into it……. how wrong was I….. on ALL accounts!?!?!

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Graeme Rogers

Karsons-1st-Birthday-(29-06-2019).129

In June 2018 I was asked by a friend to photograph his wedding in the summer of 2020 (you may remember I've only really done football photography, some family stuff and I did my friend's son christening). So late 2018 my friend told me they have brought the wedding forward to July 2019 - I had to get a lot better and quick! 


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Helen Pothecary

flower from helen

Then I saw this bloke on a video tutorial opening and closing doors and telling me that was "shutter speed"! No messing with words I thought, I like that! And when he said just because you have a fantastic oven.

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Graham Owen

woman

I like to take on things that are out of my comfort zone and since 2012 I've become interested in studio and portrait work. I also shoot interiors for a building company, record the activities at a narrow gauge railway, shoot the home games for a rugby club and cover events. I like to think that I'm still improving and I'm pleased with my images overall.

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Ian Cook

swan4

One of the first things that drew me back to watching more videos was his enthusiasm for the game. I learned quite a bit from the tutorials. One tutorial that springs to mind is the use on leading lines. Which I look to incorporate in a photo whenever possible...



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Øystein Thorsen

Øystein Thorsen1

I have, for a long time been inspired by photography. Perhaps not photography as such, but the great images coming out of photography. However, those great images started to awaken my curiosity about how they actually came to life. That's what started my story of photography.


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Janean Ray

jeanen ray 1I found Mike on Youtube just searching for tutorials/lessons etc, one viewing of his video that day and I was hooked. Consequently I binge-watched the beginner courses and various other courses that were relevant to me. Mike explains in a way I can understand having Adult ADD and he breaks it down in visuals (before and after). Most importantly WHY it happens that way, so those of us with that learning difficulty can relate to it - we can't just read and retain what we've read, we need visuals.

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Jaime Cifuentes

cupMike gave me the confidence to tackle this new challenge, I felt I understood the way to do it and I took myself to the city. However I didn’t do it the straight forward way. I put myself on full view on the street, first a cyclist, then people with dogs, then just people. Not all in one day, step by step. No one reacted badly to me, people looked... people smiled... people wandered about. One cyclist turns around and I really panicked but all he wanted was to see the photo...

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Bob Willers

foldsAs time goes by I'm falling apart more and now with arthritis I have to restrict my walking to short distances, therefore most of my images are from my garden or immediate surroundings, from the car and nearly always are close up. If interested my efforts can be found here

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