English beginnings and work.

I’m originally from Poland, came to the UK in 2004 for a quick working holiday, and easy to say it’s the longest holiday I’ve ever been on. Shame it doesn’t feel like it... I came here to earn some ££ to study architecture in Poland. After graduating from an art high school, where I learnt photography and art, I really wasn’t interested to work as a photographer. At the time it felt like my only option would be to work in a lab and develop negatives all day (bear in mind it was the beggining of 21st century). I did not want to do that. So photography was pushed aside for good few years while I studied to get my foundation degree as an interior designer, saving money and dreaming about becoming an architect. I was selling fitted wardrobes at the time, I liked that job(for real). But after Poland joined the EU it was much easier to come to England. So myself and few friends of mine decided to give it a risk and have a gap year, while we could earn all of those precious pound starlings. There was a lot of partying involved. Like a lot! I quickly got a job at the sellotape company packing famous sellotape, then worked at sports direct as “picka packa madaf...” then few other warehouses came along. I remember those jobs very well, although some of them i’d prefer to forget big time! I was once sacked from WHSmith for being too slow, true story! In a meantime I completed a tone of online courses, obtained a big folder of random qualifications in maths, English, computer literacy and was advanced in word and excel – no formulas would ever scare me. It really helped me to find myself a little office job as letting agent. After that I worked in several offices, was temping at the most random places you can imagine. I really liked the diversity of my jobs. I once even worked at mental facility or  was a kitchen designer for short period of time too. In 2008 photography came back into my life. Just as a hobby at the time but it really started to feel good to be taking pictures again. Something hit me, I realised that i don’t feel good at any job, I simply didn’t want to work anywhere for longer than few months. I decided to go to university to study photography. It was the best decision of my life. Uni helped me to meet people, and quickly I started working as a photographer, unpaid at the beginning but slowly I started receiving offers for paid work. In 2011 my internship with ATP Media began and honestly it’s when my real photography journey began. I met a lot of amazing people, guys from ATP really helped me to learn not only new photography tricks but also how to deal with clients. I will be forever grateful to Ben Hodson and the rest the team for giving me a chance! I graduated from uni in 2013 and since then I’ve been shooting a lot!

Addiction.

Whenever  I can, I go out to nature. I love being outdoors. I love the smell of bonfires and pine woods. I love to look at water, something about the reflection I guess.  I always liked being out. My parents,  especially my dad taught me this. I remember our weekend trips to the woods where we would walk for hours, either mushroom picking, foraging for hazelnuts or wild berries or picking snails that my dad would later sell (I think they were going straight to France ). These weekend adventures engraved in my heart , as some of the best memories from my childhood! My English beginnings didn’t involved a lot of adventures, there was a lot of work, parties, studying and travelling back and forth to Poland. But then in 2011 we bought a tent and went to Lake District just for one night. I said to my boyfriend that I’m not buying this tent just for one trip, and to get our money’s worth we have to go for at least 3 trips and then we can sell the tent (what was I thinking). Little did I know the following summer we ended up going camping almost every weekend. Lake district, Cornwall, New Forrest, Wales and so on. It was the best summer ever. Our dog joined our lives then and oh boy, it got even better! We were hooked! Addicted. We wanted more. Suddenly my temporary office job I had at the time, wasn’t so boring any more. I had something to look forward to, like every weekend was an adventure, micro but still an adventure!  And we used our little tent more than 3 times,  yaay! Well, after 10 years we still have it and set it up in our garden for our son to play in it. So a lot changed since that first Lake District trip. We are a lot more organised camping wise, we own a van, which we are hoping to convert into a proper camper van, we aren’t even half way there but we already use it for our trips.  It’s an empty shell, pretty much, just insulated, with fixed double bed and some cheap camping furniture but it’s enough for us for now. Must say I really can’t wait to have solar panels and heating fitted so we can use it in colder months. We are getting there. Cupboards and other storage items are on the list too! Bear with us ;) We used our van last year on some cool off grid camping trips. I use Park4Night app that helps me to find cheap or free parking spots that allow overnight stay. Some places where an absolute hit, and some not so much. So it’s a hit and miss situation, but also a risk worth taking if you don’t mind waking up in the middle of the night while a lot of pub goers decide to sit right next to your van continuing to party after the pub closes. But to compensate that the next morning we woken up on the sea front and went to the beach for breakfast so I’d say it’s still a win. Our son absolutely loves sleeping in our van. He also becomes very easy going when we are travelling so if it was for me, i’d say let’s move in a van full time haha! He loves sea and sandy beaches, but is also obsessed with colleting “cool rocks” from pebble beaches so he’s always happy, another win if you ask me.

About this blog, or whatever it might become...

I was thinking about creating this blog for a while. It’s not just a place where I can upload and display my photos. It’s my diary, place where I can save my memories. By the end of the day, I’m a photographer and I like to share my work. I think I was a little hesitant to show off my personal work until now, apart from adding few instagram posts. But I have disks full of good content from super cool locations and might as well show them to the world. I’m not sure if I’m a writer, I’m definitely a oversharer so bear with me while I find my flow with the writing aspect. I’m currently completing some creative writing courses that might help, will see... if not, it will quickly become just a photo blog ;)  if you’ve read until this point, I’m happy! Thank you! Please subscribe or visit every now and then. Apart from cool photos, I’ll be adding campsite and local attraction reviews, basically i’ll be documenting our weekends and adventures as much as I can. You can follow my instagram for daily stories and additional posts.

Thanks for being here, please stay :)