One of my earliest memories - and there’s only a few from this traumatic time in my life - is watching my new step-mother, Selena, pile up all of our childhood photos, memories of my mother, and the family before Selena arrived, and burn them in the backyard. It was quite ceremonial and I imagine it must have felt quite nice for her. But I’ve always wondered what the significance was.

Burning the photos didn’t make my mother burn, despite her absence at the time, but it wasn’t until later in life that I recognised what she was burning: my story.

My first camera was a Nokia 7600 with an almighty 0.3 megapixel sensor and the magic of capturing photos overcame me.

Which leads me to today.

I make photos today, they’re ok, but I’m really interested in discovering how photos matter to people, how my photos can matter to people, and if they would.

My plan

The plan is to document these learnings, what I’ve experienced and learned so far, dive into equipment, techniques, and talk about money, in an email/blog called “Shudder Speed” and you can subscribe, all free, shudderspeed.co

I’ll share what I’ve learned, ask questions of my friends that are practising photographers, and reach out to strangers to ask the same questions.

Sometime in the next decade or so maybe I’ll figure out how to make photos that matter to people other than me, and I’d love to drag you along for the ride.

I’ve been lucky enough to create weddings all over the globe and I’ve been trying to make photos that matter that entire time. Generally speaking I’ve been mostly unsuccessful at reaching this goal, but the few times one of my photos has mattered to someone will be documented in upcoming emails.

I’m still creating weddings and elopements, and intend to continue until people stop asking me to.