El Conquistador's Oar

My Photo scholarship 2011 entry

Worldwide | Tuesday, November 8, 2011 | 5 photos

I've been living in Japan teaching English for the last 4 years. It was my passion for travel and new experiences that led me here. And it was this same passion that led to my interest in photography. Ever since my first adventure – a six month trip around Asia – I knew that I wanted to be a photographer. It was the most natural extension of my interpretations of the things I saw and the places I went.

I consider myself very lucky to have lived in Japan for so long, where there are always so many opportunities to capture cultural and scenic photos. However, for me, it is the distinctive variations of the four seasons that particularly capture my imagination. That is why I chose to show the changing of the seasons in an isolated village in the Japan Alps. I wanted to show one of my favourite places and also a lesser seen side of Japan.

To-date all my knowledge of photography has been self-taught. In the area I have been living there have been very few contemporaries to critique my photos and give me hands-on advice. So it goes without saying that going on-location with a National Geographic photographer is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If I am to take my photography to the next level and realise my ambition of becoming a professional, I need to move out of my comfort zone and push myself to see what I am capable of producing. Hopefully, the World Nomads scholarship will be the first step on that route.