Photo Profile : Carl Spring

My first experience of photography was with my parents on holidays. I can remember the thrill of mum letting me shoot a photo, and seeing it when they came back from being developed was always a magical moment.

My real passion for photography started when my parents bought me a Canon SLR. The things I liked to shoot were bands and Skateboarding.

I started to learn about shutter speeds and aperture, mostly shooting in Tv mode and occasionally splashing out and shooting fully manual. A night school course enabled me to develop film for free, which, when I sometimes had to shoot 20 frames to get a shot, it allowed me financially to keep shooting.

Over the years I drifted away from photography somewhat, making skateboard videos and only occasionally shooting photos, but when I got a digital compact I began to take it everywhere. I found photography again, my passion was reignited.

Extremely generously my girlfriend (now wife) and parents bought me a 400D as a present. That was it. I was hooked on photography again. No print costs and the instant ability to check you had your shot opened a new world of experimentation.

I bought every photo magazine and spent hours trawling the net. I always had photographic influences in the skate world, trying to make my shots look like those in the magazines, but now I discovered people like Zack Arias and Chase Jarvis, Professionals who laid out their techniques and methods with the aim of helping others.

Improvement came by constant learning and constant shooting. Any skater who was happy to be photographed I would shoot. As I improved, more people wanted a photo. This eventually lead to my first published photo appearing in Sidewalk magazine.

My road into music photography however was started by pure luck. My musical hero has always been Graham Coxon. To be able to photograph him was a dream. My girlfriend encouraged me to try and blag a pass for a gig we were going to. I contacted the tour manager, who agreed to let me shoot.

My first proper gig was shooting my hero, talk about pressure! After the gig I got to meet Graham and his manager. When the manager heard I was going to another gig on the tour, he said “I’ll leave you a photo pass on the door”. Lady luck was definitely working her magic that night.

My second major gig was Spiritualized. I played the blag with promoters, and managed to score a pass. The promoters taught me how to do things properly, and how to not annoy them next time. Harsh lesson, but one I was glad to learn.

I approached a local free magazine, with photos of the few gigs I had shot. They were happy to run photos of any gig I could get a pass for. I had an outlet for my pictures, and my work was now regularly in print.

I currently shoot mainly for local magazines and BBC Lincolnshire. If I manage to go further with my photography, I will be over the moon. If I don’t, I’ll continue having a blast just being a photographer.

Links:

Website : www.carlspring.net
Twitter : www.twitter.com/CarlSpringPhoto