Paul David Smith has worked as a professional photographer since 2008 and is passionate about sharing his knowledge and experience with other photographers. He is a regular speaker at photography conferences, clubs and societies throughout the UK and across the world. Each year Paul launches a new talk which he tours with and we are pleased to launch this year’s photography talk.
Presentation Synopsis – From Hiding In A Toilet Cubicle To Working With Brands Worldwide
This photography presentation covers Paul’s journey from leaving school at 16 and trying to be a professional photographer through to 20 years later where he’s forged out a successful career with a speciality in creative and fantasy portraits. Paul tells his story through honesty, good humour and educational learnings aiming to give anybody hoping to progress their photography actionable insights and information which they can go away and implement themselves.
He’ll talk openly about all the things he tried in order to find clients in the early days that failed epically and share his learnings covering how he’s managed to pay his bills with photography since 2008.
You’ll be taken on a personal journey which looks not only at his progression as a photographer, but also how photography has helped him to grow his social skills too. Being an introvert photographer by nature it is raw and personal at times, especially as you learn about the time he hid in a toilet cubicle at his very first professional shoot!
Paul will talk through his favourite fantasy portrait images, how most of them usually almost fail as he thinks too big for a one man operation. Yet he’s built his career on doing things slightly differently that others may not attempt and there is certainly an emphasis on finding your individual creativity.
This presentation has something for all photographers wherever they currently are on their photography journey.
Let’s Talk Logistics – All You Need To Know
Talk Length
This 20 Years Paying My Bills With Photography presentation is an hour long with additional time allocated for questions & answers.
Optional Fantasy Portrait Workshop
Paul can also include an additional 1 hour workshop covering fantasy portraits in a studio environment. On this workshop Paul will bring his swords and armour along and show attendees how he tells a story with studio portraits. If you would like to take advantage of the workshop option, you will need to provide a female model at your cost for the workshop.
Optional Judging / Image Critique
Paul is happy to take part in other proceedings during any event such as judging or image critique as required.
Equipment
We’ll bring our laptop and if you don’t have projection or display equipment we can plug directly into, we can bring our own projector and portable projector screen. We’d ideally need a table provided to rest the laptop on, that is all.
Travel & Accommodation
Paul is located in Newquay, Cornwall, UK. He is happy to run this photography talk and presentation anywhere in the UK or around the world so long as reasonable petrol/travel expenses are covered. If travelling more than 40 miles Paul will also ask for accommodation to be provided for one evening. The fee for this accommodation is a flat fee of £85.00.
Price
FREE – Yes you heard that right, so long as you cover travel and accommodation costs where required Paul will attend and run this presentation with you for free, there are no other costs involved.
Online / Zoom Talks & Presentations
At this point all talks are in person and we are not offering talks or presentations via video chat.
