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Why?

January 31, 2007

OK, why this change of direction all of a sudden, well, like everyone, I would like to be in a place where I’m as happy as I can be. Working in an office is good and I get a kick out of producing a report, helping out on projects and of course it pays the bills. But as a long term goal I’m after something more creative, something a bit different…

Work experience

I have worked in the computer games industry; first as a tester then grew into more technical IT and web site roles. It was great, it was like taking a hobby to work every day. I couldn’t believe it when I started out as a tester. Some insane person was paying me to play, er, sorry, test games all day! Fantastic! Then I went all techie and did webmaster type stuff and computer building (and sometimes breaking or even blowing up ) for a developer. Even better. You were at the heart of games creation – working side-by-side with artists, designers and programmers. You were there from the game’s inception to its completion. Brilliant!

But as soon as everything was going well and I was progression steadily it went terribly wrong. I was made redundant… again! The first time I was extremely luckily and got another job straightaway via an ex-colleague but the second time was different. The industry was (and still is to a certain extent) a volatile beast and I got the impression early on that I wasn’t going to get a new job quite as easy as before. It just wasn’t happening.  Soon after I had to move out of my house and move back to the folks as the money was drying up and my parents were poorly.

After months of writing to every company in the South East of England and applying to hundreds of jobs, I finally got a call from an agency to come work for a big telcommunications company in Berkshire – a data entry role that put money in the bank. At last, a break.  The job wasn’t that bad, it did get my foot in the door. It was, as some said, a “proper job” and working in a “proper office environment”. Sure it was more professional and more serious but that’s not to say the games industry wasn’t – to me the games industry was just a little more chilled out and a little more fun. You were surrounded by some amazingly creative and artistic people! Things in a “proper office” were obviously different.

I progressed from there to a Project Co-ordinator – I was on reporting and database management duties. I had also converted to a contractor with my own company set-up; VAT registered and all that. Being a contractor brings in more money initially, sure, and you’ve got more control and more responsibility. But it’s not all happy-happy. The bills are higher, you’re more expendable, you’re always looking for your next job and work is a little harder to come by if you’re out of it. But to me this isn’t much different than being in a permanent staff position, not in my experience anyway, and I’m glad I experienced this environment and this style of work.

Creative urge

It’s good and have no serious complaints. The problem is I have an itch and it’s an artistic itch that needs attending too.

I would love to get back into the games industry, but alas I feel I’m not skilled enough for anything above a tester, especially nowadays when things have started to get a little serious – testers needing to be more qualified than just being a “hardcore gamer”. OK, I can draw but I’ve never been able to convert that skill to the computer. And OK, I’ve co-ordinated a project but feel that is my topmost level and jumping to a manger or producer in the games industry is beyond me.  So the games industry and management are out.

Photography

I’m quite happy to carry on admin project work but in the long term I’m searching for a route back into something creative and something that I can do to a high quality. Out of the blue has popped photography.  At first I think I just wanted a new camera, then I decided to get a ‘proper’ SLR camera. Somehow this changed things and I started taking photos a whole lot more. I even started going out specifically just to take photos.  I got browsing on the Internet for photographs and I joined photo-sharing sites and uploaded all my pictures. In a matter of weeks I had gone from a guy with a compact who only occasionally snapped photos at random to a guy with a decent DSLR camera going around photographing everything and anything I could. And, you know what, I really enjoyed it!  A lot!

So much so that I’ve slowly got the idea that I could do this as a job (or, at least, at a high level).  I feel that getting to professional level is within my ability, unlike getting to manager or producer level.

I also feel that my background in IT, web development, customer support, business and generally on projects could greatly help in the business/professional side of photography.  So all I have to worry about is the photography itself.  Simple.

So why… again?

Basically the answer to ‘Why?’ is that:

• The photography-bug is there and it’s not going away
• I feel getting to a the high quality I need is within me
• I want to get back into a more creative environment
• my background will help me on the IT/business/professional side
• I have an artistic ability in that I can draw pretty well
• I’ve already started investing in photography and learning techniques and Photoshop and, more importantly
• I really, really enjoy doing it and it makes me happy

I better get on with it then, eh?