About Thomas Fitzgerald

Thomas is a professional fine art photographer and writer specialising in photography related instructional books as well as travel writing and street photography. 

How I got into Photography, and the lessons I learned on the way

How I got into Photography, and the lessons I learned on the way

Thomas Fitzgerald
Editorial

My journey to photography was something of a long-winded one, and it wasn't something I considered doing full time until later in life. My roots in the art started at an early age, though.

When I was growing up, I was the youngest of nine children (yes, nine!), and my father was always taking photos of us. He used an old Pentax film camera, and he had a darkroom in the attic of our house, which we weren't really supposed to go into. I snuck in every now and then, however.

When I was a teenager, I got my first camera. It was a hand-me-down from my sister, and it was a Yashica FXD. This started my love of photography. While that original camera broke many years ago, I loved it so much, I bought a second one on eBay a few years ago (It's now broken too - so I guess build quality was an issue). I shot photos of my friends and everything else I could think of around the town where I lived. I never really considered it as a career though.

One of my earliest photos. Not sure the camera. Kodak Royal Gold (no longer made)

When I was in school, I went through several ideas of what I wanted to be. At first, I considered being an architect, and then I wanted to be an engineer. I even started going to university to study electronic engineering, but I ended up dropping out because the course was incredibly badly run. And I hated it.

From there I ended up on a course in film and video production. This was something else I was always interested in, and again, I have my dad to thank for that. He worked in the local cinema when we were young, and we all spent a lot of time around movies. I even worked there part-time when I was in my late teens and early twenties. My fondness for photography seemed to cross nicely into cinematography too, and I realised that I loved the visual art of capturing or creating an image. I remember working in the cinema when “Dances with Wolves” was on, and this was the first time I realised that cinematography was an art, and I began to notice how it could be used to enhance the story. I was still a teenager at the time, so this was a big revelation for me! When the opportunity arose to learn about the film industry arose, I took it. And I loved it.

The course was run in a local film studio (Ardmore studios in Bray for those in the know). While we were there, the (awful) film “Space Truckers” was being made, and we got to meet the late Dennis Hopper and the late Stephen Dorf. Dennis Hopper was a lovely man, and he came over to our class one day to give us all words of encouragement. For work placement, I ended up in our national broadcaster RTÉ.

At the time, I was also big into computers, and I was a huge fan of special effects. I was also intrigued at how 3D was being used in television (it was early days - I'm not that old by the way, this was in the late 90s) and at the time the computer to use was the Commodore Amiga, and the software was Lightwave. My interest in this led me to want to do graphics, and so began my long career in the television industry, doing Motion Graphics, 3D and animation. But not without a few side steps along the way.

On one of my first jobs, I worked for a multimedia company. This was at the time when “multimedia” was a buzz word. We were actually pretty cutting edge, in a way. We were one of the first companies in Ireland to do DVD production. I ended up with that job, as it somehow fell under the guise of graphics in my boss’s head. I ended up doing all sorts of tasks, which, while frustrating at the time was also a good learning experience. My boss was also a professional photographer, and so I got to learn from him as his assistant. We even had our own processing lab in the building. (This might not sound that impressive, but there was only 5 of us working in this company). It was also part of my job to scan film, both for clients and for my boss's own work.

It was at this time that I bought my first camera of my own (my previous being my sister's old camera). It was a Canon Eos 5, and I still have it to this day (and it still works). I learned a lot through scanning clients film, and it started me on my road of being obsessed with image quality, as some of our clients were really picky, and everything had to be perfect. I also bought my own film scanner at this time too, and that also still works, and I use it today.

Me in my early 20s. Note the obligatory camera bag around my shoulder!

Eventually, I left this company, because while I was getting lots of experience in different areas, I was not actually doing the job I was hired for. Also, my bosses were a bit mad (and I hated working there). One of my colleagues who also worked there, and was a close friend, also left (he couldn't take it either) and went on to work for our national television station.

(Incidentally, the building where we worked is now a dentists office!)

I ended up getting another job, as an apprentice motion graphics artist, and finally, I was doing the job I was supposed to be doing.

I worked at that company for many years, moving from apprentice to full-time graphic designer. I loved the first years there. I worked on many significant projects, including the MTV Europe music awards in 1999. This was my favourite experience of working there. We were providing all the post-production services for the broadcast. We basically were editing live. The show went to air with a two-hour delay, and we were still editing the second half of the transmission while the first half was airing. The whole place was alive with the energy of a live show, and I can still remember that to this day.

Other work included graphics for a Cranberries DVD, a U2 DVD, and I also did some work on a film called "The Tailor of Panama" with Pierce Brosnan. I also worked on a lot of commercials and documentary series for local television here in Ireland. All this time, I always kept a camera on me at all time. I would shoot on the way to and from work, or at the weekends, whatever I saw while walking about. It was about this time that I probably started getting into street photography, but I didn't know it at the time. I also started regularly getting photography magazines, and I became obsessed with National Geographic.

One of my first ever attempts at “Street Photography” although I didn’t know it at the time! (1998ish)

I think National Geographic was one of my primary sources of inspiration for photography. The photos in it always seemed a cut above anything else I saw out there. I was amazed at how the photographers in the magazine could take any subject and make it look good. I loved the documentary type images the most, and I tried my best to try and emulate this, shooting on slide film, and trying to learn the documentary style.

Inspired by National Geographic, An early attempt at documentary style photography, Shot on Kodak Elite Chrome slide film - no longer available.

After working there for several years, the company started to experience some financial trouble due to issues with the management (long story), and eventually, the company went bankrupt. After this, I worked freelance for several years, until one of my friends from the company set up his own post-production facility, and I went to work for him.

An early commission - Part of a set of prints for an office. Canon 5D Mark 1 - 2006

For a while, it was more of the same, but I began to get frustrated with the things I was working on. I was disappointed with the projects I was getting, and the work I was doing wasn't interesting any more. I was getting more and more disheartened with the industry too. I was also getting stressed a lot from the job. Being creative 24/7 is hugely draining. Often I was working on several jobs at once, and it was hard to give any of them my full attention. It became more about how to do things quickly rather than how to get things done correctly. Because the industry is quite small here too, budgets were never significant, and so everything was always about what corners you could cut, to get something done. My escape from the stress was photography.

My last graphics showreel - from about 4 years ago.

When my friend who was one of the partners that formed the company left, I left shortly after that. I had many reasons for this, but one of them was that I wanted to give my photography a real shot and to see if I could make a career out of it. The other was for my health. The stress was getting to me. It turns out, sitting at a desk in front of a computer for long hours a day isn't great for you, especially when you stress eat on top of that. Over the years I had worked there, I put on a ton of weight, and it was taking its toll, both physically and mentally. It's something I've been fighting with ever since, and its one of the reasons I wanted to do more photography: to get out and walk in the fresh air.

After I left, I started blogging in earnest, and giving my photography work more priority, although, I still had to spend most of my time doing freelance design work (to pay the bills). Even so, the freedom of not having to go into an office every day allowed me more time to focus on my photography and making that commercially viable. I also got married !

Over the next 5 years or so, my efforts gained traction. My photography blog took off, and I had a few big commissions. (I discussed this in the post I did recently about the last decade.)

I would say that my work is now around 90% in photography and 10% design. But for me, the two will always have a connection. I learned a lot from my years doing graphics. Working with clients and working in the television industry gave me a valuable perspective. I learned the importance of setting your ego aside when working commercially. I learned that it's not about what the client wants and that's the most important thing.

This is probably the biggest thing that I take to photography from my years working in design: my experience working with clients. When I see a lot of commentary online about photography, especially professional photography, I can often tell straight away when someone has no experience working with others, because they have no idea of the difference between doing work for yourself, and working for a client. When you are working for a client, photographic ideology doesn't matter. All that matters is that you get the result that your client wants. What you think is secondary. Clients may go to you for your skill and artistic vision, but even those things are secondary to what a client wants. Sometimes you can try and convince a client that you might have a better way to do something, or there might be something that you think will work better, but the client makes the final decision, always. Otherwise, you don't get a job from them again.

I think that there's a lot of crossover in the two fields as well. There are artistic principles that apply to both photography and design. I also found that I like to photograph subjects with a strong design element, such as an intense colour or visible pattern. I also love graphic shapes and shapes formed by the interplay of light and shadow. In a lot of my early work, I used to take a lot of abstract photos with these kinds of elements. I stopped doing that and I don't really know why but it's certainly something that I want to get back to doing.

I also learned why technical details matter so much. In the broadcast industry, there are strict standards for quality, and they have to be met, or your work will get rejected, and you'll have to redo it. You never know what your client might come back to you with. Often they might be responsible for a client of their own. Of course this really only applies to commercial photography, but I like to keep to these principles anyway. Mainly because its been drilled into me over all these years.

I’ve been lucky enough to travel the world taking phots. Here’s one from Vienna a few years ago.

I certainly don't think I'm the best photographer in the world, but another thing I learned working with lots of different people for so long, is that I know broadly speaking what's good and what isn't. I know if something is good enough, and I know if it isn't. I've often been my own worst critic. Still, I'm also confident enough, having worked to a wide variety of different tastes from a lot of professionals in the creative field, that I can say with confidence if something is good or at least good enough. One of the things you have to put up with when you put stuff online is people randomly telling you your photography is rubbish. It used to get to me, but now, it doesn't any more, because I'm my own harshest critic. I also know that while some of my stuff isn't great, I also understand that some of it is perfectly ok, and I know that because I know what clients would be ok with. After that, it's just subjective.

Every now and then I still question what I'm doing. I think this is often true of most artists. Sometimes I wonder if I made a mistake moving from design to photography, but then I get a design contract, and I'm reminded of why I switched. Still, there are times when I miss it and times when I question whether I am good enough at photography to even bother. But when I don't shoot for a while, I get a longing to get out and take photos. It's almost primal. It's something inside me. I want to enjoy looking through the lens, and the wonderful feeling of being both an observer and a participant in a scene. I'll certainly never be an Ansel Adams or (insert another famous photographer here), but to me, all that matters is that I keep trying and keep wanting to improve. And at the end of the day, that's all you can strive for as an artist. Perhaps someday I will sift the balance back to 50% design and 50% photography. Still, for now, I'll keep struggling on to try and find the right path, and hopefully make the world a little bit better by contributing to the art and culture, however small that contribution is.

Me, now! Time has not been my friend! Well, it certainly hasn’t been my hair’s friend!

If you haven’t seen it already, check out my portfolio website, to see how far I’ve come from the early attempts at photography I’ve talked about here!

I left loads of this story out by the way, as I didn’t want it to be too boring - like how I introduced people at the company I worked for to Final Cut Pro - when we were an all avid facility, and that was before anyone knew what it was. I was a total Apple nerd at the time.

I was also one of the first to try Aperture, buying it shortly after it was released, and I loved it. That started me down the road of covering photography software, which has also led to where I am now.

But that’s another story!

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