MY STORY

The Novice Photographer

42 years in the making and I finally decided to take the plunge and share my passion for photography. Kicking & screaming it took the DNA from my parents, an encouraging wife, 2 ideal models ready to smile when I said “cheese” (my daughters) and a bunch our friends motivating me to share my passion with the world.

Parties, events, celebrations and other engagements, eager eyes and requests followed me to capture a memory. I was always ready to oblige, for me, this was encouragement and confidence in others who always found ways to appreciate my work. They saw what I was yet to see, my “Calling.”  I have always loved photography, being able to capture happiness, sadness, a sweet gesture of love, fear, and many more emotions through the lens of a camera.  To be able to preserve those memories through time puts a smile on my face. I always believe beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, 2 people following the same emotional path will have 2 unique experiences to share. Similarly, 2 photographers will only see what they want to while photographing the exact same subject or object, neither being wrong.

Why has it taken me this long, why has it been so hard to finally believe in myself and my abilities as a photographer? The truth of the matter is the fear of accepting that I am just a small fish in an ocean of professionals that are just better. Period.

Last 10 years I saw more of myself trying to learn, read, test and mature this art. Requesting for help, guidance and facing the rejection or the insult helped me push harder.

November 8th, 2009 was the first glimpse of hope when my wife took a beautiful memory of mine picturing her with a beautiful backdrop of the Aegean Sea sitting on a rooftop in Santorini, Greece. I took that and many more pictures with my Sony digital camera back in the day. She read of a photography challenge in “The Telegraph” newspaper. Being my better half she emailed that picture and entered me into the competition. Little did I know my picture was rated as the top 5 photographs that summer and made it into “The Telegraph” Sunday Magazine. To celebrate the proud moment she forced me to invest in a Nikon DSLR.

I spent the following years capturing priceless moments and memories.  With the birth of my daughters, it became increasingly harder and harder to lug around a DSLR. Then one day it dawns on me I am living in the age of smartphones, an evolution for many and a nightmare for the professional photographer. Now everyone believes they are the reincarnation of Annie Leibovitz or Gregory Crewdson, the all American photographers that have lived through time via a camera lens.

My iPhone is now my new best friend, it is small enough to carry, fast enough to capture and packs a punch with features. No more struggling with aperture setting and depth of field, it is all about focus and clicks. I am not going to lie I do enjoy myself clicking and spending time in post-production on my iPhone or my iPad.

June 26th, 2019, my 42nd birthday I took the next big steps. I registered myself in an iPhone Photo competition for the very first time. I call this my intentional submission rather than my experience from 2009. Competing against 325 iPhone photographers from 29 countries for the first time I registered with iPhone Photo Awards a website that gives iPhone photographers like me a chance to showcase our talent. An incredible thing happened as part of my very first submission for the 22nd Collection of the iPhone Photo Awards, my photo submission was rated in the top 17.

My infinite creativity & admiration for photography has finally brought me a crossroad, either I shy away, yet again, or put lens to camera.

Welcome to my tomorrow, welcome to @RowdyRish #RowdyRish collection 2019 & beyond on my Showcase.