Ah right.

Yeah Goober got it.

I sell mine through Alamy. They give you a larger percentage than other sites and in my case, because I was a student when I signed up, I get 100% of the money from sales for 2 years, which is quite nice.

Alamy don't tell you who bought it, though if you ask, they might let you know. When I sold another photo recently (of the college I went to) it showed up as 'National Newspaper editorial' so that came and went without me ever seeing it in print.

Also, with big multimedia customers, they have subscriptions so they use the photos before they notify Alamy in one big lump at the end of the month. So even though it's been sold and used, the photographer has a few week's wait to find out. In this case, it still hasn't shown up on my account ( I contacted them when I saw it to find out what was going on and they told me this!).

Big post.  Haven't done one in a while and have nothing to edit atm.

Just had my first big (to me) job but work is sporadic just now as I start out so I have a bit of spare time.  It is mainly spent playing Kerbal Space Program.

I finished college with 96% in my final Graded Unit which was a nice way to end two years of studying.  The other nice thing was that I finally found a more consistent style.  Hamlett commented that my photos looked like the work of several different photographers.  It wasn't an insult and it wasn't something that I was particularly worried about but it was more a symptom of my habit of getting bored with things very quickly rather than some creative decision to vary things up.

The big turning point for me was the documentary brief.  We were given the freedom to do whatever we wanted as long as we handed in a documentary book at the end.  I decided to look at the contrasting fortunes of the high street and tourist attractions in my home town of Falkirk.  Stuff like this:









However, I have a cripplingly short attention span and about halfway through the project it started morphing into a more personal look at how my home town had changed throughout the years.  It came from me looking at things at hadn't seen before or hadn't looked at with any real thought.  So the project was a bit all over the place, tbh but it did spur on the idea that I would like to do some projects that involved lengthy planning and learning as well as a documentary style as opposed to 'wall art' which is how a lot of my photos had been before.

That led directly to the graded unit (GU).  I did a project about looking at memories of my Dad, five years on from his death.

I decided to do a book where I'd photograph people, places and objects that had connections to my Dad.  It's still unfinished really but as I had a limited amount of time, I did a 'college version' with the rest of it to be finished over the coming years.



This is my sister holding the jewellery that she kept.  It's funny looking at it as my Dad was the least flash person I knew but still wore gold jewellery.  A generational thing, maybe.



Another thing I did was to take my sister and mum back to the locations that they found out about his death.  My sister was at a dance class when our uncle phoned her in shock and blurted it out over the phone.



I tried to make it quite honest, and show things I hadn't shown anyone before.  Here, I have one of two text messages that I saved on my phone.  I kept that phone long past its usefulness as I couldn't bear to throw them out.  Seems silly but that's part of the grieving process, I suppose.



Football was a big part of our life together.  Looking back, it seems like another life entirely.





This was where he died.  This was a tough one for me taking it and for family viewing it.  My dad had been a smart, pretty successful guy in his life but had moved in with his hoarder brother after splitting with my mum.  To see the filthy bathroom that he died in really hit hard.

It was a big project that ended up twice the required size and got pretty emotional at times as I was opening up some long closed wounds.  But it was also cathartic and helped me find my style so was a pretty big thing in my career so far.

To keep me sane, throughout the project, if I had time, I would take some more fun, 'wall art' style photos too.  While the personal, documentary style stuff carries more meaning and IMO much more interesting than stuff that looks pretty, it can get heavy going at times.  And wall art is what sells prints and funds the interesting stuff.





This was in the village that I lived in when I was 2-6 years old.  Had no idea it was there until I visited for my GU as it was on the other side of the road to my house and I wasn't allowed to cross when I was that age!  Very much a case of pretty wall art but it's also an enjoyable way to spend time so finding a balance is probably the way to go with it.

Right as I was finishing up my GU, my girlfriend got very ill.  I spoke about it briefly at one point in the mental health thread.  I decided that since photography had been so cathartic with my dad, it might help here.  And I think it did.  Photographers are often accused of hiding behind their cameras and I think there is definitely some truth to that.  It acts like a barrier that keeps you insulated from what's happening in front of you, in some ways.







Due to this I got an extension on my GU deadline.  At first I wasn't going to bother but I'm glad I did as I wouldn't have finished it otherwise.

As noted at the start of this mega post, I got 96% in the GU.  It was quite a shock, having been a solid C student all my life.  The feedback from my lecturer was really nice to hear and as someone who never really got on with formal education after the age of 12, it was a pleasant change to find myself succeeding at it and getting lots out of it.  I decided against staying on to do the degree, though.  I needed a break ( I wrote a 60,000 word diary as part of my hand in).  I'll decide in a few years if it's something I want to follow up on.

After college, I took a break from all things photography.  I was afraid of burn out when I originally decided to study it properly but it's really just a temporary lull.

Eased myself back into things after a month or so with some sunset shots at Blackness castle.  Castle photos were run of the mill but I was rewarded for hanging about after the other photographers had all given up.



There was another small lull when an opportunity came up that re-lit the fire.  Bannockburn House is a Jacobean house that had fallen into disrepair after years of neglect.  There was a community effort to clean it and restore it so when I found out about it , I asked if I could photograph it.  They were happy to have me.

I had a few hours a day to photograph it but could have spent weeks there.  It was a beautiful shell of a building.  Loved every second of it, though had a close call with some guard dogs in the early hours of one morning that was probably the closest I've come to being seriously hurt while out photographing.







It was bliss.  I was left alone to do what I wanted and came away happy with the results.  Full album here if you're interested.

It got busy at that point.  I had loads of photos to get through and edit and while I was doing that I had my very first wedding.  Thankfully it was a short one with well behaved guests so went without to much drama.



I'm certainly not going to become a full time wedding photographer any time soon but this wasn't off putting enough that I wouldn't do it again.

The very next week I got my first commercial gig with a local dentist who wanted staff photos and prints.  It's the kind of job that if I got two a month could see me living perfectly comfortably.  Getting that to happen might take a while, though.





I even managed to entertain myself by getting a few shots for me while I was there.  I kinda see this as vital to making sure that photography doesn't just become another job.



So that was a busy week or so.  Died down now a bit which is both a good and bad thing.

And lastly, my holiday snaps.  The last few months of college had me look at having various projects on the go at the same time that I can dip in and out of as required.  So I thought that I'd like to do one on Scottish highlands and islands as I do a bit of holidaying up that direction.

I was up there in the time between the wedding and the dentist so editing these got put on the back burner until I'd finished the paid jobs.









They're a big departure from the kind of photos I took the last time I was up there (have a rake back a few pages) and are undoubtedly going to be less popular than pretty, wall art style photos.  But the more I see popular photos, the more I see mediocre shots aimed at the masses and I'd like to avoid that kind of thing.  These are far more intimate than anything I've done before when visiting.  I've been up to that island four times now and think these shots reflect that I'm beginning to see it less as a location for cool shots and more as a real place.  I think the people that live there would recognise these photos as their home more than the romanticised version of previous photos.

So this is likely the start of a project that should take years to do and will see me visit places I've never heard of, which will be nice.  It might also come to fuck all but that's the way it goes.

So that's me done.  You might also have noticed that college has got me talking a load of pish about photos!

Amazing 

You also just make me cry.

Cracking stuff Matt. Really inspiring.

Also I'm going to ring my dad tomorrow.

Nice photos like always Matt.

Great post Matt, full of incredible stories.

Congrats on your result and good luck with your practice

Lovely read, Matt.

Beautiful autumn morning. No time to stop and take pics though. I'm sure iPhone could've done some justice. Thought about getting up early on Saturday and trekking down to Trent Park or somewhere close. Who am kidding, I'm too lazy. 

@Matt_82: you gonna take, or have you taken, some autumn pics? Must be lovely up north. Colours better than down south already I imagine. Certainly seemed that way from my trip up to Leeds-ways on Sunday.

Can't find the thread but people were asking and recommending books of photographers. Martin Parr was suggested for street photography. Looks fairly good.

Can anyone recommend anyone that specialises in surreal or more cinematic stuff or even just 'odd'. 


Not really sure what i'm after tbh but people want ideas for Christmas.

Nice, cheers Matt.

Good stuff as always!

Very nice, but I suddenly wanna put a jumper on

Thank you.  Yeah it was the first time in a while I was photographing for the sake of photographing (I don't count my holiday photos, you have to do them, right).  Twas a beautiful morning to be out.

http://www.mattmcgarrphoto.com

Guys, I have a website up and running and wouldn't mind some feedback from the web/design crew if you have the time/inclination.  

I'm having some issues with the provider, Squarespace.  I like to write a bit with some of my photos but the platform doesn't really allow too much of that.  At the moment, some of the writing covers up some of the menu, on smaller screens.  Unfortunately, this seems to be the better of two evils as the other option is to have the writing cover up the photo itself which is a no-go for me.  It seems that I have to rely on people knowing how to zoom out on their web browser to get the site to fit properly which doesn't sound very professional to me.  Contacted them to give them detailed feedback and they've thanked me and passed it to development team.  Will likely come to nothing, of course.

I also started writing a blog to try help with motivation, so if anyone who does a bit of writing fancies having a look at that, I'd greatly appreciate it.