Hello all!

Have you made it to the big time? Let us know who you are and what your photography is all about

Hello all!

Postby jools-elliott on Sun Sep 04, 2011 8:32 am

Morning all

I've kinda bypassed the intros and went straight into posting up some images etc. But, here goes.

My name is Julian Elliott but a number of people know me as Jools. I went pro last year as I was utterly fed up of being in an office all day and watching amazing skies out the window while I was stuck behind a desk.

Firstly, I upgraded my camera as I was still using a 350D and wanted into a specific image library that only accepted images from pro gear.

Next up was to get noticed by the mags. I had a three fold hit with Amateur Photographer choosing me as an editor's choice. Outdoor Photography choosing me as their coastal landscapes winner and Digital SLR User taking me on as a freelance contributor.

In February this year, PhotoLibrary gave me a five year rolling contract to supply images. A great boost as they had libraries such as Britain On View under their umbrella which holds images from all the top landscapers in the UK.

Also in February, Joe Cornish Galleries picked two of my images to use as greetings cards in their new range. Another fantastic boost and it's opened up doors when calling up mags :)

During the rest of this year, User continued to use my services and a couple of months ago I had three articles in one mag, which is quite an achievement.

In the last couple of months, Future Publishing have picked up my work too.

Image Library wise, my PhotoLibrary contract has turned into a Getty one. And I'm not talking a supposed Getty contract via Flickr but the real deal. So real, I have to go up to the US Embassy to get a US tax number, which is a bit of a pain but the one I'm going to is in Paris. So, I'm going to take full advantage of it to get some stock work in.

Finally, the British Journal of Photography has asked me to go and do a talk at an event they're holding in November.

And that's me.

Jools
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Re: Hello all!

Postby Troy on Tue Sep 06, 2011 10:06 am

Hello Jools, and welcome to the forum.

That is quite the introduction. I'm sure there will be a lot of jealous people on here!

Your photos are pretty spectacular, and you are obviously very talented. You have been lucky to have so much coverage, and such a good transition in to professional photography. Anyone wanting to turn pro could only dream of such a response so quickly. Really quite impressive.

So come on then, what's your secret? :mrgreen:
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Re: Hello all!

Postby Chris Humphreys on Tue Sep 06, 2011 11:20 am

Troy wrote:Hello Jools, and welcome to the forum.
So come on then, what's your secret? :mrgreen:


A bucket load of hard work and marketing is my guess. This stuff just doesn't happen by luck! Good on you Jools and welcome! :D
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Re: Hello all!

Postby 4colourprogress on Tue Sep 06, 2011 12:37 pm

jools-elliott wrote:I was utterly fed up of being in an office all day and watching amazing skies out the window while I was stuck behind a desk.



I know that feeling... welcome to the forums.
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Re: Hello all!

Postby peterlyall on Tue Sep 06, 2011 4:07 pm

Well done, oh and welcome on board.
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Re: Hello all!

Postby jools-elliott on Wed Jan 11, 2012 10:13 am

Just coming back to this as I don't ever remember getting a notification people had replied :?

Troy, what is my secret? It is as Chris Humphreys said - hard work!

It is very tough out there but once you start the ball rolling then people do tend to find you and your work. However, there is a lot of cold calling to be done to try and get people interested in the first place.

The other thing is being able to write and write in a particular style that is suited to the magazines. I have to thank Matt Kimberly for that who used to work at Digital SLR User. We had a chat over one of my articles for them and he pushed me into the more editoral copy direction to fit magazine work.

I've already started this year on a pretty good note. Have a series of articles in Photography Monthly and then yesterday I heard from another UK mag wanting some work from me. Last week, I had a phone call from a gallery here in France asking if I would be interested in doing a two week shoot in Morocco. Let me think... :D

Hoping that the rest of the year continues as it has started!
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Re: Hello all!

Postby Troy on Thu Jan 12, 2012 10:05 am

Sounds like a cracking start to the year, congrats.

I really must look in to this 'hard work' that i've heard so much about.
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