Photographer Robert Banham, of RSC Photography, based near Chelmsford, England, offers Fotofocus readers his insights into his photography career.

How did you first get into photography?
On a holiday in Scotland many years ago I found that the holiday became a lot more interesting if I looked through the view finder of a camera, everything around you disappeared and you could focus on a specific section of the scenery that would just jump out at you but would be very ordinary when you saw it surrounded by other objects. I got a lot of "bad" shots but the one or two good ones always made up for it. Since then I have always wanted to take pictures that please not only me but others as well.

What was the turning point for your move from amateur to professional?
People started to buy my pictures for books, magazines and to hang on the wall, the demand started to grow through word of mouth and I really fell into being professional almost by accident.

What would you say makes your photography unique?
Unique is a strong word, I would be more comfortable with different. I try to make sure that my photography is as diverse as possible, this means that I can transpose different techniques from say shooting an air show or still life into a wedding to give a different dimension to the images.

What have been some key influence in your style? 
Nature [1] has been the key to my style from the beginning, looking closely at form and colours in nature can give you great inspiration when you want to find a different angles to make an image stand out.

What is your favourite thing to photograph?
Wildlife: because you can never get it to do what you want, this helps improve patience and speed when you want to get that money shot.

What piece of equipment could you not do without?
Apart from the camera , it has to be the 18-200mm lens, it saves so much time having to changes lenses at weddings and it also means you never miss that reportage shot because you had the wrong lens on.

Has any one photographer been an inspiration to you?
Probably the main photographer of my youth was David Bailey and was the most talked about photographer of his day, he was the person who probably got me to understand natural light and how to use it more than anyone.

What has been the biggest or most challenging leap in technology for you?
Probably moving from the darkroom to the PC, the speed of being able to turn around images is just fantastic as well as all the new styles and formats you can now add to really make the images work just right for the client.

What direction do you see for your work in the next five to ten years? 
I think that the less formal reportage images are something that I love to do and want to develop. This is becoming easier as weddings and portraits are becoming less formal.

What one piece of advice would you offer to newbie photographers?
Use your senses in the proportions they where given; you have two eyes, two ears and one mouth. You should listen and observe 4/5ths of the shoot.

Robert can be found at www.rscphotography.co.uk [2]