There was a time a while back where DSLRs weren't just for photographers – they were for everyone. Well, when I say ‘everyone’, I mainly mean men. Every guy I knew or dated seemed to own one. The best DSLRs were in the front window of electronics stores, not just a weird corner at the back.
For a brief moment, without the mess of film, it looked like photography was something that unleashed every guy's creative side. Or at least every guy with a computer and no patience.
And it’s thanks to these guys that I discovered I had a flair for photography. My daughter Lily was a toddler at the time, and I was dating a guy we’ll call Maurice (because I’ve never dated anyone called Maurice). I borrowed his camera and took some lovely photos of my two-year-old – she was mainly clutching stuffed animals, as toddlers are wont to do.
In one photo, she was also ‘helping’ with the washing up, aka ‘ensuring the kitchen flooded’.
Rather than saying, "These are really nice," Maurice was a bit put out. How dare I take better photos than him? He was, after all, a bloke and I was a small Asian girl. It was his domain, not mine – I didn’t even know what all his Canon EOS 40D camera settings did.
Eventually, for unrelated reasons, we split up – and he took his Canon away with him. A single mother on state benefits, I couldn’t afford one of my own, but my next boyfriend – who turned into my short-lived husband – owned a Nikon D750.
When I asked him to photograph my daughter’s sixth birthday party, he did – but I took a single shot where she was looking straight into the lens, which turned out to be the best of the shoot. "It’s only because you’re her mother and she has more of a connection with you," my husband huffed, peeved, before telling me I didn’t know how to use a camera.
When we split, like Maurice, he took his camera away with him. Years passed, during which I only took photos with my iPhone. Then, in 2020, I got a government grant during COVID, and splashed out on a Canon EOS 90D. An aspiring pop star, I thought it would be good for shooting music videos, but it languished at the bottom of my wardrobe, unused and unloved.
Then, a few months ago, my mate Gary needed some author photos to promote his new kids’ book. I offered to dig out my DSLR and we did a shoot.
It was the first time I’d used a DSLR to take pictures of anyone who wasn’t my daughter, and I loved it. Even better, I realized I was decent at it. It wasn’t just that I had a connection with my daughter – I actually had a good eye. No, my photos weren’t technically ‘perfect’ and I had a lot to learn, but I was already a better photographer than the boyfriends who knew exactly how to set the aperture and shutter speed correctly but had no sense of aesthetics.
I started shooting daily, snapping everyone from my lodger to granddad, and it was great fun – because I knew how to make people look their best. People from my mum to my handyman said they’d never liked a photo of themselves before they saw my shots.
By process of trial and error, and with the help of a lovely photographer friend (who is, incidentally, a man), I learned the basics of how to use my 90D – what the exposure triangle is, how to check a shot is in focus, and that portraits are best taken with the aperture set to f/2.8 and shutter speed of 1/200, etc.
Eventually, I set up Ariane Sherine Photography, offering portrait photo shoots in London, and now I’m making a living from it. I may be a small Asian girl who has to use a step-stool for tall clients, but I’m living the dream – and there’s not a boyfriend in the world who can stop me!
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