When I was 20, I studied photography at the IOM College along with Film Studies & Media Studies. The 2 year course taught me the basics of photography, mostly working with black and white film and printing my own photographs. Although digital cameras have made the work quicker and cheaper, I still think there's something very special about standing alone in the dark for a few hours and printing a one-off, completely unique photograph for a special occasion. I set up a dark-room at home for several years, but since I've moved I've been working mainly on digital.

The College courses led to 2 years training-on-production at the Manx Multimedia Centre, where a small selection of trainees were taken on each year. While the Film and Media courses were mainly theory based, the MMC threw us in head first and had us making a short film in our first week. Over the 2 years we got the chance to work with professionals based on the Isle of Man as well as visiting professionals and feature films shooting on the Island. On top of working with some fantastic people, learning the basics of the entire film-making process and learning how to be a camera-ninja as an on-set photographer (plus those 2 weeks I worked with Christian Slater), this built up my working knowledge of lighting, composition and how to make people feel comfortable in front of the camera.

Over the last few years I've had the chance to work backstage on several theatre productions at the gorgeous Gaiety Theatre in Douglas, including Underneath the Arches in 2007, Me & My Girl in 2008 (both staged by Taylorian Productions) and several play festivals. Volunteering as Props Assistant involved a lot more crawling around the stage with a roll of gaffer tape than I had initially imagined, but also let me watch the show from up close every night. Seeing the cast throw themselves into every scene made me appreciate how much effort goes into performing any character, even if it's in front of a shutter only open for 125th of a second. Being part of the crew as they worked to make the theatre run like clockwork - the proverbial paddling feet beneath the swan that is the Lambeth Walk song and dance number - brought home the fact that there is always more to learn and that even if you know the technichal aspects like the back of your hand, creation cannot be taught and must come from the soul.