Me, Me, Me……part 1

Just over a week ago I had an amazing experience, skiing with a highly respected professional photographer, Polly Baldwin of Dynamic Pictures. As a Christmas present, my wife had organised for me to have a session with Polly.

Polly for many years has been working very hard building a reputation in the UK, the French Alps and around the world as a passionate and conscientious photographer. Her academic background resulted in achieving a Ba (Hons) in Fine Art Photography. Her partner is also a ski instructor who I have known for over a decade. Her name had been mentioned to me for many years, but I had always chickened out of contacting her for a few reasons.

Time to own up to you all, I don’t have a huge amount of self-esteem about either ski instructing or photography. We are all different; some people like to bang on about themselves, some people are brilliant team players, and others go about their business in their quiet own way. So for me to meet an amazing professional photographer, whose partner is also a ski instructor, was a little intimidating. Being nervous is a natural emotion to some.

But within seconds of meeting up with Polly, I felt relaxed and we were soon chatting away about all sorts of things. To be in the company of someone so relaxed and yet so professional was a lovely experience. But why was I so nervous about meeting Polly?

In her line of work she gets to meet many high-end skiers, including skiing with and photographing other instructors. Some of us instructors are paranoid about how we perform on skis, and others just get on with polishing their own egos !?! Got to be honest, I was worried about being compared to other instructors.

But Polly soon put me at ease, gave me a wink and told me to go skiing without a care in the world and enjoy myself in one of the most stunning environments in the world. Great advice, and often easily forgotten.

It was an unusual situation for me to be in front of a camera; normally it’s the other way round. This tied in nicely with shared experiences as wedding photographers. We soon compared our experiences of wedding photography, with Polly being a veteran of many around the UK. After being involved with nine weddings last summer as a photographer, it was refreshing for me to talk to someone else about the industry and how to improve further. Polly offered me priceless advice, and I can’t wait to put it into practise.

Just like any passion, in this case skiing and photography, it was amazing to share it with someone else and I can’t wait to have a second morning with Polly. Speaking of passion, I’ve just come back from a week in Val d’Isere of incredible work and skiing, a report to follow soon. Plus, tomorrow I start six full days with the ‘Gooney Birds’ again from Dublin. No rest for the wicked.

Martin

P.S. As an instructor I hate the way I’m technically skiing in these photos. And even though I’m at my lightest weight in years, it seems I have a pot belly in the photos as well, rubbish. Polly says it’s a feature of skiing in a fat fluffy toasty-warm puffa jacket !?!

P.P.S. All photos are owned under copyright of Polly Baldwin, see www.dynamicpictures.co.uk for details.