How did you get into photography?
I've got ME, I've got chronic fatigue syndrome, which is the same as long COVID. 12 years ago, I ended up pretty much bed bound, I couldn’t get up, couldn't walk around. I was in a pretty bad mess. I saw a friend of mine started posting his photos and I thought “wow, I'd love to do that!” So, I messaged him, it was somebody I knew from when I was 18 and he said “why don't you come along?” But I didn’t even have a camera!
So, I went along one time with my friend and took photos and we went up to the top of the Brecon Beacons. We saw the Northern Lights up there and I was blown away, I was completely blown away. I was able to just forget everything. You forget the pain, you forget that you can’t do things and it's just surreal.
My Dad had a very old Nikon camera so I borrowed it and learnt through YouTube lessons. So what I found with my disability was where if I was going to walk a short distance, I'm looking at the floor and concentrating on my feet, I'm trying to get from A to B and nothing else matters. But if you go out with a camera to take a photograph, it will physically force you to look at the sky and to look around you which you don’t do when you're travelling along looking at your feet. So you'll start to see things that you haven't seen for years.
Stonehenge
When did you start to feel good about your work?
I wrote to the South Wales Argus and they printed one of my photos in the paper. We thought it was unbelievable. My mother went to the store and got copies to give to everyone. That really gives you a buzz, when you see something like that.
We've also made a calendar since 2020 to raise money to pay for the Christmas key on the common. We got other local photographers to donate pictures as well. That first year, we sold 750 calendars locally out of the post office.
I took a picture of the transporter bridge in Newport reflecting in the water and it's the most probably the best photo I've taken. But there had to be certain conditions; there had to be no moon, there had to be an exact tide because if the tide was moving it would destroy the reflection. It took over a year to get the photo!
Newport transporter bridge
What do you do on those days where you’re struggling?
Photography doesn't involve me moving around much and it allows me to sort of work within my capabilities. I can sit and plan things. I took a picture of the high street in Caerleon where there’s a very, very slim gap between two buildings and I thought that it would look really good if I could get the sun setting right between the two. So I looked up the exact time and date that this would occur, put the date in my calendar and on the day walked down there, put my camera on the tripod and I got the shot.
Caerleon High Street
What does photography mean to you?
It's therapy. It's just a complete sort of break from the norm, and for me that norm was pain. It forces me to do something else. It gets the adrenaline going and it makes you forget about reality for a bit and you can't put a price on that. I think the key with it is just making sure that you don't overdo it to a point where you exacerbate your condition. It's mental stimulation, otherwise, I would sit there and I'd get frustrated. And then I'd get angry that I couldn't do things. I'd see people doing things and I’d want to go out and start feeling sorry for my family. I've got to monitor my steps very, very carefully to make sure I don't overdo it or have a full crash. I work everything around the sort of number of steps we do in a day. I've learned different coping techniques that I know when I've got to stop. I mean, photography is magical.
Any advice for any budding photographers?
What a lot of people don't realise is phones are probably better quality than most of the cameras that are out there on the market nowadays. You can do everything on the latest smartphone, you don't need really fancy gear. It might take me a couple of nights to edit and look at what I've done and all the rest of it. So that one photograph has turned into maybe a week worth of therapy for me.
There's so many lessons out there. So many people find a local camera club online, they’re full of really helpful people. When you come back and actually see the photos, don't be afraid to print your pictures out as well because everyone goes out to take pictures, but nobody prints them. So I’ve got my photos everywhere in my house. Next time you go for a walk, make a point to take five pictures.
By Sarah Bowdidge