The Secrets That we share
The control and flow of information can exert both positive and negative influences on our daily lives and as individuals, our own personal motivations, traits and values will play a big part in how we act as custodians of the information we each possess and how we react to the information that we receive. The term “knowledge is power” can be considered at a basic level as either a force for the betterment or to the detriment of today’s society.
In my former professional role, from the moment I joined the fire and rescue service until my last day over 30 years later, I experienced regularly the positive effects of information and knowledge sharing which had a major influence in how I developed during my career. In some instances, I encountered some people where they, (to coin a phrase), “wouldn’t tell you where a squirrel’s nest was” however, fortunately these instances tended to be in the minority. Most of those colleagues I worked alongside would impart their knowledge freely to contribute to the collective learning of individuals or teams which in turn was to the benefit of the organisation in the longer term.
As my career began to advance, I diversified from the operational side of the service into a non-operational role within the fire safety department. During my 5-year tenure as a fire safety enforcement officer, I found myself working alongside fellow enforcement officers that due to the significant length of time in their respective roles, had accumulated so much in-depth knowledge and experience across a range of fire safety subjects that they would regularly be contacted for advice by other enforcement colleagues seeking advice in relation to applying an acceptable fire safety solution within a given building.
Whilst on one hand, the easiest route to finding a fire safety solution would have been to obtain just the answer directly from my colleagues, in the longer term it would not have been conducive to my own development as I would have been devoid of the rationale that led to determining such a solution. On the occasions where I sought their guidance, rather than being given just the answers to my questions, they would signpost me to where relevant information might be found to encourage me to undertake my own research, which then enabled a rounded discussion to take place as possible solutions could then be knocked back and forth as they explored my thought processes.
I found this method of learning to be refreshing as it was undertaken within a supportive environment and I soon learned that when it came to applying fire safety principles, it wasn’t as a learned colleague described “as merely interpretating the guidance as being in black and white, it was more various shades of grey”. In other words, there was regularly more than one option, therefore it was a case of determining one that all parties concerned could reach consensus on, to enable the appropriate fire safety standards to be met.
As my career continued and I progressed into the higher levels of management, from time to time, aspects of my role required me to mentor some colleagues I was responsible for. On those occasions where my advice or guidance was sought, I took a similar approach to the one I had experienced back in the fire safety days of my career. I would seek to facilitate a discussion, whilst encouraging my colleague(s) to consider the alternative options that could resolve their query whilst considering the merits of each option. Service policies and guidance were often open to interpretation therefore, sometimes the best approach was to consider what the desired outcome was for all concerned and then work backwards from the end point to find what approach enabled the outcome to be reached.
I have carried this mindset into my own photography as I enjoy the challenge of continuous learning and then applying this into practice. This has enabled me to build up my own knowledge and experience which in turn has seen my abilities evolve over the course of time, but I very much still see this as a journey of discovery. There have been occasions where I have been contacted and asked how I approach the processing of my images. I am more than happy to discuss my workflow and will firmly support the process of learning for anyone who asks for help as I gain nothing by acting as a gate keeper and keeping that gate firmly closed. My own development has been a hybrid of self-learning and through the teachings of others, so how I share information falls into 2 categories. The first being where this information is regarded as common knowledge, in other words, it is readily available from a variety of sources and can be found if searched for and as such, I will seek to impart as much information as required. The second category is where the information has been derived from the exclusive teachings of fellow photographers, therefore on those occasions, and to be respectful to those who have provided this teaching in good faith, I will signpost the enquiring individual to those photographers to enable them to acquire it through an appropriate means.
In terms of my processing workflow, I generally discuss how I seek to visualise the end result, what methods I will need to utilise and then work back from there by applying which ever technique I think will work best for each stage of my workflow. I have found there is no one size fits all approach and it’s a case of considering what works the best in each situation whilst keeping an open mind to learning new approaches.
The other aspect of my photography that has attracted enquiries from time to time has been in relation to some of the locations I have been to for my architectural work. The sharing of photography locations can be an area of contention and understandably so, particularly when these locations relate to certain genres such as landscape or wildlife photography. There are generally justifiable reasons why a photographer may be reluctant to share this information such as out of concern for the environment or wildlife, it may be an area that would struggle to handle an increase in footfall or it may be an area that is not well known and the person being approached has undertaken considerable time to research or explore an area and feels this would devalue their own work by freely disclosing location information.
In relation to my architectural photography, I don’t believe there is an issue in the sharing the locations of where I have captured my images. Everything I have published on my website or on my social media accounts can be easily sourced online through a variety of means such as general search engine enquiries, reverse image searches, google maps/street views or within published location guides to name a few. Many of my images are of well-known buildings and have been captured and shared by other architectural photographers, therefore the opportunity for uniqueness in any of my work won’t be from the location itself but rather how I capture the subject in question and how I render my final edit of said subject.
Recently my friend Ben Harvey travelled to London with his photographer friend Louise Welcome to view Louise’s images that were part of the Landscape Photographer of The Year exhibition at Waterloo Station. Ben was intending to capture some architectural images when he was in the city and reached out to me for some suggested locations that he could visit. I had no hesitation in sharing this information with him as Ben had been kind enough to share some potential locations that I was unaware of when we met up during my last visit to the city. Ben subsequently released a YouTube video in relation to his trip to London and mentioned the locations in his video had been recommended by me which was a nice gesture and a pleasant surprise. Both these recent interactions with Ben formed the catalyst for writing this blog as whilst the term ‘Knowledge is Power’ can indeed infer various connotations, I believe in a photography sense, having knowledge can indeed be a powerful tool as it can drive curiosity to explore in a creative context and serve as method of motivation to learn, develop and achieve.
In addition to writing of this blog, I have also added a new section to the resource page of my website. This new section contains a map of all the locations where I have captured my images. It will be my intention going forward that any new architectural images uploaded to my website will also be added to my location map, so hopefully the information will be of benefit to anyone planning to capture images from the same location.