Who is Roger Utting ? About me
Who is Roger Utting ?
I am a 41 year old from Birmingham now living in Bracknell, Berkshire, about 25 miles west of London. I'm single with no children...yet.
My love of photography started with a copy of Amateur Photographer when I was 13. I seem to recall that I read it at a friend's house and was immediately hooked by both the art and technology that was behind the images I saw there. A few months of determined badgering followed, at the end of which my parents kindly sent me off to a camera auction with a budget of £20 for my Xmas present. I came out with a Praktica with a 50mm and a 135mm lens. These, along with a hand held light meter my dad dug up from somewhere (the camera was fully manual and didn't even have any metering), were then firmly locked away until Christmas day. So I spent the intervening weeks (and my pocket money) on any books or magazines I could afford (and a little flashgun so I wouldn't have to stop taking photos when the sun set).
Christmas day came, and my entire family were subjected to being constantly scrutinized through a lens. I didn't take many pictures...to a 13 year old, film, developing and printing were expensive commodities (they still are, to be honest) so I learned to pick my moments carefully. The first photo I took was of a lake in the park whilst we were on a pre-Christmas lunch stroll. It wasn't the greatest picture ever taken, but it was quite acceptable...and that was totally satisfying when I got it back.
Over the next few years I took copious amounts of photos, with endless packages going between myself an Mail order printers Truprint. I became my family's official photographer, and was almost always to be found behind a lens at any family function. As time went by, my kit expanded and improved with most of my money going on camera kit, film or developing. After a couple of years with a hand held meter (by the end of which I could make a pretty fair guess at the exposure by naked eye) I upgraded my Praktica for one with TTL metering..a little needle in the viewfinder that indicated whether you were over exposed, underexposed or on the money. Sheer luxury.
As I grew older, film and developing became more affordable as my pocket money increased, and I started to get a little more experimental with my photography, developing (if you'll pardon the pun) an interest in and a knack for night photography. I had a go at studio photography (although was far more embarrassed about it than the models I was working with), and even tried being the other side of the lens, modelling for a friend who paid me £20 for doing so !
Then came a major family event...my cousin's wedding. Apart from the joy of the occasion itself, this really excited me as it was the first wedding I'd been to since taking up photography, and the chance both to picture the event and to watch a pro at work was thrilling. By now, I had an automatic-exposure Ricoh X-RX, so my only major technical distraction was focusing, leaving me to concentrate on composition. The results were very satisfactory...so much so that my cousin (with, I suspect, a degree of familial kindness) said she preferred my pics to the official photographer's...even going so far as to buy some enlargements from me...the first time anyone had paid for photos I had taken. That sparked a new push for me - I took more pics than ever, with the hope of maybe becoming a pro someday.
But real life started to intrude on my youthful dreams. I wasn't confident enough in my skills to take the plunge, and I needed the security of a real job with a salary. I'd shown an aptitude at school for computers, so opted to study for a degree in computing and statistics. However, after 2 years at polytechnic, I'd tired of student life, so left the course and joined the world of real work.
For the next couple of years, I did a wide variety of jobs, including a very educational stint in a small, independent camera shop which seemed to have a never ending supply of gadgets and oddities for the photographer...and, given that gadgets and photography were my two passions, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. All through this period, I kept up my photography and updated my kit as money allowed. I did another wedding, this time for a work colleague, and this time I was the "official" photographer...a daunting but rewarding experience.
Finally, I ended up with a job that had the potential to be a career, as I got a job in telecommunications with Cable and Wireless subsidiary Mercury...and I'm still there 15 years later.
As happens with all hobbies, my interest in photography waxed and waned over the years, but I always kept my hand in, photographing family occasions and even entering the odd competition. One key moment arose from very fraught circumstances...we were burgled, and my Canon camera and lenses were stolen. With the insurance and some extra cash, I bought a Nikon and started an appreciation of Nikon cameras and lenses that lasts to this day.
During this period, I
dabbled in just about every area of photography, from close up work to
astrophotography and from sport to architecture. I had a 2 Nikon cameras, a 601M
Manual focus and an F-50 autofocus, both of which accompanied me everywhere. I
started developing slide films at home - with mixed results, but the
satisfaction of seeing a whole reel of images taken and developed by me was
reward enough for when it didn't work.
Then, about 3 years ago, I got a scanner and a copy of photoshop. I started scanning in old photos and repairing them. I rapidly became hooked on the power and control editing photos on the PC gave me, and before long I dipped a toe into the world of digital photography. I bought an Olympus C700, a 2 Megapixel camera with a 10x zoom lens, and soon after, an Epson Stylus 895 printer. I'd bought it mainly as a "snap" camera, but soon realised that the editing abilities of digital photography, combined with the freedom from the cost of film and developing, meant that I never shot on film again.
As I could now take photos at no cost, I threw myself back into the hobby with more vigour than ever before. I took my camera everywhere - even to work every day, and took hundreds of pictures. but whilst the Olympus was great for landscapes and portraits, I soon found myself missing the speed and flexibility of an SLR for sports and nature - the latter being a particular favourite of mine. So, after much soul searching (and an equal amount of money saving) I decided it was time to go fully digital, so I bought a Fuji S2Pro digital SLR. A fabulous camera that had the bonus of being compatible with my existing Nikon lenses.
More recently, a friend and fellow photographer has re-introduced me to studio work, and this time I've taken to it like a fish to water, as you will see from the portraiture and glamour sections of my galleries on this site. I'm now in the studio whenever time and money allow, working both with professional models and friends and colleagues, as well as members of the general public. Just before Xmas 2004, I sold my first picture - a studio portrait of model Zoe Smieszek - to a photographer and collector in the US. I've also done a paid studio shoot with a family (and one with my own family) and have more lined up for 2005.
UPDATE 2007 -I've now done 4 weddings and several paid portraiture sessions, with more lined up (indeed, I'm already booked for late 2008), so it's all coming along very nicely
As a result of this success, I'm now aiming to become a pro photographer. I'll confess, I'm taking the easy way out - keeping my job at Cable and Wireless whilst I build up experience and a reputation - and this website is another step on that ladder. I hope you enjoy it.
Rog