The longer story
Phoenix started long before it had a name.
There was a tiny digital camera, a sports photographer who took me seriously, a photo lab, a Canon 40D and somebody who kept backing me long before I knew what all of this would become.
I’ve been photographing people since 2005.
How it started
The first camera was a little 2MP digital thing.
It wasn’t impressive. What mattered was that suddenly I could photograph constantly. So I did.
A sports photographer helped me take photography more seriously, and spending time working in a photo lab made it part of everyday life rather than something I only picked up occasionally.
Somewhere along the way it stopped being about learning what every button did and became much more about the people on the other side of the camera.
Where the name came from
Phoenix wasn’t my nickname.
It was my partner’s Scouts nickname.
She was also the person who bought me my first Canon 40D when photography was becoming something serious. She still second-shoots with me now, which means this business has never really been a one-person story.
Years later, after photography had started feeling more like burnout than the thing I originally loved, the name ended up meaning something else too.
A restart. Which is fairly convenient for a business already called Phoenix.
Why I still do it
The camera was never the bit that kept me interested.
It’s people.
I like noticing the reaction happening next to the obvious moment. I like showing someone a photograph and watching them realise I saw something they didn’t.
Sometimes that is something they missed completely. Sometimes it is simply seeing themselves differently for a second.
That part still hasn’t got old.
More than twenty years later
Experience should make me better at reading people. Not more convinced everyone should do things my way.
I’ll give direction when you need it. I’ll take charge when that helps. And when something is already happening perfectly well without me, I’ll leave it alone.
I don’t want Phoenix to become a production line where everybody gets fed through the same poses because they worked last Saturday.
If I ever stop remembering the people and their stories because I’m too busy counting shoots, I’ve gone the wrong way.
Anyway. That’s me.
If you think we might get along, tell me what you’re planning.
Wedding, boudoir, engagement, matric farewell or something that doesn’t fit neatly into one of those boxes — start with the basics and we’ll take it from there.