What a Croc!
When I was a kid, I would go snooping through the linen cupboard at home and I would go through mum and dad’s photo albums that were stored there. But more fun than that was the old camera gear that they no longer used. Dad kept his SLR well away from where I could find it… which was no doubt a wise decision.
I never really got a chance to use a camera till I went to Thailand with a church group when I was 11 or 12 and was able to borrow one from the group leader. It was a basic point-and-shoot with the only variable being the speed of film you put in it. On this trip, I caught the bug, and I spent the next few years cutting my teeth without really progressing or developing as a photographer.
Things changed when I went on a fishing trip with dad and some of his mates. Early one morning, while at the edge of the river, I saw a monster croc just cruising upriver and I was not going to let the opportunity to get a shot of it away. After getting home, I couldn’t get the film developed quick enough, and a week or so later I had my prints. So, I opened them up, sorted through them and there it was, the monster croc in all its magnificence and glory… accept that’s not how it went down. Not even close.
Do you see a croc…
No? me neither.
Feeling down I didn’t want to share them with anyone, but sometimes, particularly in photography, we focus on a single subject and not the whole picture. It wasn’t till my mum was going through the photos that she saw the one that I thought had a croc in it. She was amazed by the photo but not for the reason I thought. In my hyper-focus on this non-existent croc, I had missed that I got a great reflection of the opposite bank of the river.
I don’t know that there are many photographers that they can say there is a moment when they realised that this is what they want to do or a photo they took that ignited their passion. I consider myself lucky enough to have done so and this is it. All in all, it really isn’t a remarkable photo to look at but, in my life, it is remarkable as it is the catalyst for my passion for photography, the starting point if you like for the journey I am on.
Although now living in the UK, I don’t encounter any crocodiles, while out and about, there are certainly plenty of opportunities to capture reflections from around North Wales.
