Me, Myself and I

 Hello. I’m Lee Abbey. Goodnight.

You want more? OK. I know you’re not reading this BUT just in case. There is a place in Devon called Lee Abbey – it’s a religious retreat of some kind. I’m not Lee Abbey in Devon though I wish I owned a house there which I would call Lee Abbey just so my address would be Lee Abbey, Lee Abbey, Lee Abbey, Devon. I’d stick an upside down cross in my garden just to piss the happy clappers off.

Still here? OK

I’m 52 yrs old with a wife, Dawn and 14yr old daughter, Jess. I’m lucky enough that I’ve now pretty much retired following redundancy 18 months ago. Dawn is working full time but the plan is for us both to retire in 3-4 years.

I’ve been into photography for around 15 years when I bought my first DSLR a Nikon D70 which was purchased for the birth of Jess. Before that my only proper experience was as a 15 year old doing art when I discovered our school had a dark room and an old 35mm camera and being bored of the art lessons (due to lack of talent probably) I asked if I could use the camera and to my surprise the teacher said yes.

It was great doing everything on my own from blindly unloading the film in a black bag to developing and watching images magically appear before your eyes. The only downside was that I never got any proper tuition and so my skills never improved – I had no idea about f stops or what changing them did.

Anyway once I got the D70 I took thousands of photos in that first year and finally got to grips with the basics of how to use a camera using an all in one lens and a decent flash. I also read books on Lartigue and Bresson and Ansel Adams. About ten years ago following a redundancy scare at work I purchased a studio flash kit and tried portrait photography, practising on friends and taking family pictures. Fairly standard white background stuff but some of the pics weren’t bad and I had around 5 paid for sessions. Anyway the risk of redundancy died down and I was at a point with the portraits where it was taking a lot of my spare time and it would never pay as well as my other job so I jacked it in when we moved house – daughter was just starting school, we were both busy at work etc etc.

Since 2016 I have been shooting Fuji X-T2 which I loved but recently have been getting more interested in wildlife and so have just sold all my kit and swapped to a Sony A9 due to the blistering autofocus and 20fps. I have a 200-600 5-6.3, 14-24 2.8, 50 1.8, 28-75 2.8. I don’t currently own a flash but will probably purchase a godox system as they are cheap and look pretty bloody good for the price.

Why did I choose a degree in photography? I’ve never done a degree having left college half way through a BTEC donkeys years ago and worked in IT all my life. It’s something I always regret not doing and now I have the time I thought why not. Initially photography was not my first choice but after mulling over politics, economics, criminal psychology and humanities I then thought about my life and what I enjoy and what would be more fulfilling to me (and having the luxury of not having to think about a job at the end of it!!) and I quickly honed in on photography.

I am looking to improve my technique and my eye for an image as well as work outside of my comfort zone on projects as well as planning shoots more – which I seldom do now (most of the time I turn up and hope).

You can go now.