Leigh Elliot Photographer Interview

    The wonderful aspiring photographer from Liverpool, Leigh Elliot agreed to do an interview with me over the weekend. Elliot studies photography and has been interested for many years, knowing her over the course of the last year through social media I've seen her interest blossom into something beautiful and amazing. 

1. How long have you been interested in photography for? 

    I’ve always been interested in taking photographs since I was a child always buying throw away cameras then an izone polaroid and finally moved onto digital cameras but these were more for snaps than anything so then for my 18th birthday I bought my first dslr and kept getting more interested in Photography from there really. Only teaching myself until October when I started to study Photography in college. Roughly 2 and a half years but it’s defiantly the career I would like to have if I can.

2. Who are your main inspirations? 

    My main inspirations have been a lot of amateur Photographers you see nowadays from the Internet as well as finding professionals who are simply inspiring. I particularly like Nigel Barker, Perou, Lado Alexi, Jeffery Jacobs, Nikos Papodopolous and many others but I’ll cut it short haha! Although I do love when I find famous women photographers because there are a lot more male Photographers in the business than women, which partly makes me want to be successful even more. 

3. Who or what would you want to photograph most in the world? 
    As I’m still fairly new to Photography I am still finding areas I like and my stronger/weaker points but I’m particularly interested in Portraiture, Beauty&Fashion as well as Landscape Photography. I also love the post-production side of things I find photoshop fascinating. I would just love to be able to have a career that I enjoy as much as I enjoy photography. I would love to be able to travel too!

4. What’s the inspirational behind your latest shoot? 

    I think the main inspiration behind my latest photoshoot was the fact that I watch quite a few photography and modeling related programs on tv such as America’s Next Top Model. I find the photoshoots really interesting and unique and as I am dyslexic I find I don’t particularly like to read or gather information that way so being able to watch programs and learn from them is very useful. As my latest shoot was for a brief I set myself I wanted to try something I hadn’t done before too, to see if I enjoyed it as much as I thought I would and that’s why I decided upon unique beauty shots. I’ve done a lot of research into the ways photoshop is used in the media to create this image of beauty that everyone is supposed to agree with and decided I would play around with what beauty is by using make up people wouldn’t particularly wear in everyday life to be perceived as beautiful. So far I’m very happy with how my project has been going and I love working with so many different people from models to make up artists, it makes your work a lot more interesting having to work with others.

5. What’s it like to study photography? 

    I love studying Photography! Up until now from leaving school I had studying Graphic Design for 3 years then just got more into Photography and decided I wanted to focus on that and I’m pleased that I did. I love that Photography is a lot more hands on and you can be as creative as you like, I love learning more and more about it. So while I’m studying I’m just happy to do freelance work from time to time, practicing and building up experience. I’m going to study Photography and Graphic Design at university next year, which I think may come in handy combining the two!

6. Do you wish to start your own business or become part of an existing company? 

    I would love to start up my own business although I’m not sure whether I’d be smart enough to! I would defiantly need to hire someone to take care of my accounts and that side of things but would really love to be my own boss. I wouldn’t mind that I needed to work hard at it in the hope it would one day pay off as I can imagine the satisfaction of being successful creating your own business and doing something you love must be an amazing feeling. I would also be fine joining an existing company too, I think the main goal is just to get as far as I can with Photography even if I wasn’t madly successful because I would much rather have a job that was of average pay that I enjoyed doing than going to work everyday for a job I don’t like with great money. I’m not a very materialistic person, although I wouldn’t say no to earning a lot of course or treating myself to new Photography equipment haha! I figure that you should try and do something you love while you’re young, you can always change your mind but it’s better than looking back in years to come and wondering how things might have been.

Leigh's Twitter Account - @Leighith
Leigh's Tumblr Website - leighith

    Fagan x