Shutterbug Sunday – Thomas Pickard

Sunday can mean only one thing – Shutterbug Sunday. Coming to you this week is Thailand based Australian photographer Thomas Pickard.  Thomas is an image maker who enjoys the wide spectrum of opportunities that photography provides. His photographic vision takes him from aid agency work in the Maldives to weddings in Thailand to photographic expeditions in the Antarctic. After the jump, there’s a question and answer session that Thomas provided me and a few images. Firstly, here are some links to his work.

Thomas Pickard  - www.thomaspickard.com

Thomas Pickard | RELOAD – www.thomaspickard.com/blog

My Wedding Photographer Ltd – www.myweddingphotographer.co.nz

1. How long have you been working professionally?

I finished my photographic studies at college in November 2005 while living in Christchurch New Zealand. I began freelancing in December, securing my first assignment with Action Aid (UK) three weeks after arriving in the Maldives for a two-year stay. By the end of 2006 I was a regular contributor to Sri Lankan Airlines Magazine Serendib and things have just gone on from there.

2. What have been some defining moments for you as a photographer?

While I was still studying photography back in 2005, I sent a submission application off to Aurora Photos (www.auroraphotos.com

)  for stock library representation. Though my application was rejected, I received a page long email from Jose Azel, a National Geographic contributor and founding member of Aurora Photos. Jose Azel told me:

“Our jobs as photographers is to show the world to people in a different way”.

That one line really made me sit up and start thinking more about the type of work I was producing both at that time and even today. I think as a photographer, it is important that you have something to say visually. Sure you will have to do the photography work that pays the bills, but I think it is important to ensure you have time for yourself, so you can just go and shoot what you want, how you want.

Another defining moment was actually going out and photographing a wedding.

One of my tutors at college encouraged me to work for his studio photographing weddings in New Zealand. Though initially reluctant, I decided to give it a go and much to my surprise I actually enjoyed the experience!

A big part of that was realising that I could photograph weddings in a documentary style that wasn’t too different to how I shoot stories editorially.

3. You recently started up a blog (www.thomaspickard.com/blog) , which has a series of posts titled ‘Starting out in photography’. Why a blog and why now?

I used to blog back in 2003. Back then it was more an online diary of adventures and travels. Some time in 2007 I pulled the plug on it as it was taking too much of my time and I didn’t feel like I had a real focus.

A couple of months back I received a long email from a person asking for advice on photography and how to go about getting into the profession. I receive a couple of these emails each year. I have always felt unsure how to answer, in part because every one I know that works in photography all did it a slightly different way. Thinking about this, I realised that while I have only just begun my photographic career, I did in fact have a number of my own experiences to draw on and share with people. One of the best ways to communicate this was through a medium like a blog.

The second reason was to promote more of what I have been doing with my own photography to those people that are interested.

4. What does the future hold?

Right now I am based out of Bangkok Thailand and I am focussing a lot on my wedding business with the approaching wedding season. Though tourism  numbers in Thailand are down compared to last year, I have been receiving a number of wedding inquiries from both expats and couple’s travelling to Thailand.

I am keen to exhibit a body of work from the Maldives while I am living in Bangkok, so that is something I need to look into (if anyone is reading this that knows a good place to exhibit in Bangkok, please email me!).

Other than that, I am looking into a potential surfing trip in and around Indonesia. I’m even thinking about doing it with just a point and shoot camera, as I want to travel as light as possible and get away from my larger SLR’s for a while.

So there we have it. I hope you’ve enjoyed this weeks featured photographer. A big thank you to Thomas for being involved and sharing such great images.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 16th, 2009 at 06:00. It is filed under Shutterbugs and tagged with Photographers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.