Firstly – spot “Wally” on assignment! In front of 40,000 farming protesters in Whitehall, London, in late 2024, I got photographed by none other than Kaleb from Clarkson’s Farm! I think I had the final laugh, as Amazon and the series later approached me to use some of my film footage from that day, which is currently being aired in the latest series on a paid basis!

There’s an old saying in professional photography that the bloke carrying four pizza boxes, or the photographer carrying two enormous press cameras....can get into almost any room, any rock or any sporting back stage area. There’s more than a grain of truth in it. Put two professional cameras around your neck, look as though you know where you’re going and suddenly doors open.

But there’s a serious point behind the tale. Photography can give you access to the world.

And I think we sometimes do a terrible job of explaining that to young people considering what they might do with their lives. When someone says “professional photographer”, perhaps we immediately think of weddings, family portraits or local sport. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of those careers. But professional photography is enormous.

You could photograph Formula One, international rugby or cricket. Tour with one of the world’s biggest bands. Work across fashion, food, agriculture, wildlife or travel. Become a photojournalist. Document humanitarian work or even photograph conflict in some of the most challenging places on Earth.

A camera can become a passport into worlds most people never get to see.

And then along came AI… We’re entering an age where an extraordinary image can be generated on a computer in seconds. Strangely, I think that could make real photography more important, not less. Because increasingly people are going to ask: Is it real? Was somebody actually there? Did that moment really happen? Was there a human being behind the camera who saw it, understood it and pressed the shutter?

In journalism and documentary photography particularly, authenticity matters. An image isn’t simply decoration. It can be evidence. It can be history. It can be somebody’s story. And you cannot prompt your way into having actually been there. AI can create an image of a muddy rugby player celebrating underneath floodlights. But it wasn’t standing on the touchline when the try was scored. It didn’t hear the crowd or see the player’s face change. And it didn’t instinctively realise that the photograph everyone would remember might actually be happening twenty metres away from the ball. That is the photographer’s eye.

You need to learn the trade of course to create success. Owning an expensive camera doesn’t make you a photographer any more than owning a set of spanners makes you a mechanic. You have to understand light, composition, shutter speed, aperture and ISO. You need to learn how to photograph movement in terrible light, how to edit and how to tell a story through ten great photographs rather than simply taking 1,000 pictures.

But there’s another skill every bit as important. Learn how to communicate. Some of the best photographs happen because somebody trusts you enough to let you into their world. You need to walk into rooms where you know nobody and talk to people. Listen. Be curious. Know when to disappear into the background and when to engage. And occasionally have the nerve to ask: “Can I just come through here?” while carrying two enormous cameras and looking convincingly like you belong there. It’s amazing how often it works. Then create the magic.

The technical side can be taught. The fascinating bit comes afterwards. Can you see something? Can you look at exactly the same scene as everybody else and find something different? Capture a fraction of a second that makes somebody stop scrolling? Make somebody laugh, think, cry or ask a question without writing a single word? That’s the magic.

And that’s what we’re looking for. Who comes next? At Beanstalk.Media, we want to start finding and encouraging the next generation of photographers. Bury St Edmunds Rugby Club is a perfect place to begin. I won’t be photographing from its touchlines forever. Rather than wait until somebody eventually has to replace me, I’d much rather start finding and encouraging talented people now.

Someone might initially just fancy having a go at sports photography. But one of them might discover they have the eye. The person learning to photograph a tackle underneath the floodlights in Suffolk today could be standing beside a Six Nations pitch in a few years. Or at Silverstone. Glastonbury. Wimbledon. In Africa photographing wildlife. In Ukraine documenting the human impact of war. Or somewhere none of us can currently imagine.

That’s the extraordinary thing about this profession. You never quite know where the camera might take you. So if you’re interested in photography, experimenting with a camera, studying photography or media, or simply wondering whether you might have an eye for an image, we’d love to hear from you.

You don’t need twenty years’ experience or £20,000 worth of equipment. You need curiosity, enthusiasm and a willingness to learn. We can help with the rest. Because eventually somebody else is going to need to be standing on that touchline.

And we’d rather help them get there now. WhatsApp me to start your adventure - 07900 888377

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