So here I am one year later with a selection of fifteen images from the thousands that I took during that time. I selected these for an exhibition and photo book that reflects on my journey to becoming a photographer. This milestone is significant to me because I was not always a photographer. Before that, I made a living working in the oil and gas drilling industry for twenty years. The change came about due to what was probably the worst downturn in the oil industry causing the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs globally. For twenty years I was able to escape unemployment but not this time, this one was too big. I knew it was coming so without being in denial I embraced this misfortune and rode the wave of the unknown.

Finding a mentor.

On my 40^th birthday, I pondered on how I would like to spend the remaining part of my life. The thought of becoming a photographer and making a living from it was desirable, but I also felt discouraged because I was now 40 and believed that it would be impossible, especially at a time when just about every person had a camera. There was no pressure at the time because I figure it would be something to try and accomplish over the next five years.

Three months later I lost my job along with thousands of others across the world as the oil economy crashed. At the same time, I came across Melissa Farlow, a National Geographic photographer who became my mentor over a period of six months. She worked closely with me on my photography improving my talent and determination. One of the best things Melissa did was to show me all the images she took during an assignment. Something a proud photographer would never do. It had everything, the good and the bad with shots looking like the average person took it. Most photographers give the impression that their eye and vision was given to them by God, only to lift the camera take the photograph, and it’s done. What Melissa taught me was, in reality, you had to work the photograph pretty much like a sculptor chiselling away on a slab of stone until your image forms into what you had pre-vision, sometimes you get lucky and it turns out better. Another factor was the amount of time you put into that one shot. Your vision picks out the potential in a subject or a scene but we also have to develop patience and allow for the elements to fall into place while taking pictures from different viewpoints. It can be anywhere from one minute to fifteen minutes or even up to thirty. Sometimes you get the shot and sometimes you don’t, this is what working a photograph is all about. The great photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson described it best when he said: “Sometimes you have to milk the cow a lot to get a little bit of cheese.” For me, this was the most critical understanding of what was necessary to become a photographer, not the camera, the lens or other technical stuff but perseverance.

On assignment.

In trying to develop myself as a photographer, I had to start showing my work to the general public through social media and a website. These were fundamental tools that helped me to analyse my work and to be my own critic. The interaction or lack of from the general public on my posts was also a useful indicator. I was careful not to let that dictate what to photograph but used it as an indicator of how successful I was able to make the subject of choice interesting. It encouraged deeper thinking for more creative ways to express my chosen subjects.

I was home for only about a week or two when I saw a Facebook ad from a travel company looking for a photographer that resided in Bangkok. I clicked on the link and submitted the required details with a link to my website, a few days later I received an email for a Skype interview. It was an ambassador’s role; the pay was not great, but the opportunity was priceless. The company was named “Withlocals.com” and it was an online startup company that linked travellers with locals to see and experience a destination through the eyes of a local avoiding the standard cut and paste tourist tours. My job was to experience the tour, take photos that will be used for marketing and write a short review. I had been living in Thailand for almost eight years, and every assignment was a new experience of things that I did not even know was there. Apart from getting paid to be a tourist it had put my photography on the fast track. I learned a lot, especially with working under pressure knowing that you had one chance to get the required photographs.

The pinnacle of my experience was when Withlocals offered an assignment to join them in Bali. It was for four days with a lot of content to cover mostly video but in between, I was able to steal some time to take photographs. On these tours, it was tough trying to take photographs as I would like to. Due to limited time, nobody is going to wait around ten to fifteen minutes for me to work on my shot. I had to take all of my experience and squeeze it into a few seconds. Operating the camera had to be second nature allowing me to focus on creativity. Most importantly, was the ability to anticipate what was going to happen next in order not to miss anything.

At the end of the trip, the videos were not so good but I was happy with the photographs that I was able to get. Melissa was very impressed with some of them, and this meant a lot to me. To make a National Geographic photographer woo at some of my photographs is in some sense an achievement. She eventually posted one on the Photo Society Instagram account. The  Photo Society is the collective group of contributing photographers for National Geographic and while my image did not make it in their magazine, I considered it a privilege to have one amongst them on their Instagram account. After posting,  it generated over 24K likes and Melissa was pleased to see that it did well. For me, this was very encouraging and showed that the hard work was paying off. (Image below)

Personal Project on Elephant Conservation.

Every aspiring photographer at least those who are into photojournalism needs to work on a personal project. With that in mind, I reached out to a few NGOs in Thailand offering my services and got lots of rejections. Eventually, I came across an NGO in the north of Thailand that was newly formed and were involved in elephant conservation. They did not have elephants at the time, but they had the land and were planting trees so for me this was great because I was able to get the story almost from the beginning. With my family, we made a road trip to Pai in Mae Hong Son province in Thailand. It was exciting because I had never been to the north of Thailand before which was also a popular tourist destination. Once there I met with Miguel, the founder of Conserve Natural Forests and learned the unfortunate reality of elephants used in tourist attractions such as shows and rides. We stayed at Miguel’s place for two weeks during which time I visited many of the sights and attractions that Mae Hong Son had to offer. It was a wonderful experience, and I was able to get beautiful compositions for my portfolio and also images for Miguel to use for promoting their cause. Miguel now has two female elephants under his care previously used for giving rides to tourist. They are both pregnant, and I do look forward to going there again to continue documenting this story. I have written the first part of this story in my blog on Elephant Conservation. There you can learn more about Miguel and his cause and the cruelty to elephants used in tourist attractions.

Contributor for Getty Images.

In the beginning, I had refrained from signing up for contributing photos to stock agencies as my initial focus was working on my craft and also I did not think they were good enough. I did join a couple of photography sharing platforms such as 500px and EyeEm as it was another way of getting feedback on my images. I had joined 500px first and many months later signed up with EyeEm. They both had a feature where you can opt-in for licensing images for commercial or editorial use. EyeEm had a special arrangement to license selected images through Getty and not long after signing up with them  I got an email stating that an image was selected for their collection on Getty, then a few days later another email. It continued this way till after about a month eleven images were on the EyeEm-Getty collection. At that point, I stopped opting in and decided to sign up with Getty directly to see if they would accept me as a contributor. I have read on photographer’s forums that it’s difficult to be a contributor for Getty as they already have many images in their library and would only take on photographers of exceptional standards or had a different style or fresh perspective on things. With that in mind, I did not expect to hear from them but to my surprise, they got back to me in a month and like that, I was in. I quickly learned though that this was only the beginning and that it would take a few years before my library is large enough to make any substantial earnings. The good thing was that right away I was getting sales with my very first image licensing to Condé Nast.

Future Plans

I would like to try and have my work exhibited and complement it with a photo book. Where and when? Well, that is something I still need to work on, but it will happen. In the meantime, I am trying to market fine art prints and also looking to start pitching stories to publishers for online and print.

The average professional photographer would read this blog and ask: “So what is the big fuss, Nathan?” My answer would be that it has been only one year since becoming a photographer and in that time even though I did not win any awards or land an image on the cover of a magazine [did two book covers this post publication], I did cover a lot of ground and learned many things during that time. I also took the step that exposed me to being made fun of and criticised. Especially when coming from a successful career in oil and gas drilling. I did not get my first camera at the age of five and did not have the privilege of always knowing that I wanted to be a photographer. The typical lines you see on most photographers about page. All I had was what life had thrown at me, and I made the best of the situation. Photography is hard work, especially when trying to balance it with family life and I respect all the photographers out there that are successful in doing both. It is much harder than what I have been doing for the past twenty years but it is satisfying and for that, I will persevere.