Dedication and tenacity pay off for SFX student.

A year and a half ago I was lecturing at an evening course in Clapham South. It was a beginner's digital photography course and I was nervous because it was a new syllabus I developed and not conducted yet. Fifteen people were in attendance - a sell out. As I asked people to introduce themselves I also asked them to show us the camera they would be using during the ten weeks. One by one the names were said and the cameras came out. All were these point and shoot basics which made me think they were all coming here and starting from the absolute beginning. As I got to the 15th person, he introduced himself as Martin and from beneath the table rose this massive Nikon D1x. I thought - what on earth possesses someone to buy a D1x as a "beginner" camera? As the class looked on they resembled a group backing away from an aggressive dog. Martin quickly calmed everyone down by saying he didn't even know how to turn it on and was just as intimidated by it as everyone else.

A year and a bit more on and Martin's work has been seen in the national and local newspapers and even on various television networks. The day he walked into my course he wanted to become a photojournalist. He is now that. Outside of some adult education classes to formalise what he had been learning on his own, he is practically self taught. He has now moved on to the next wave of digital photojournalism and is advancing himself beyond what some of his peers have formed a resistance to -- using digital video capture and from that isolating a shot for a still photo use in papers and magazines.

I have had the pleasure of watching Martin move from strength to strength in the last 18 months.

On Demand Media

Visit the link above to witness his most recent portfolio --- Enjoy! And congrats Martin on a successful drive forward.