RUSSELL PROTHERO
I'm Russell Prothero from Wales in the United Kingdom. Like all kids I grew up drawing all of the time but, unlike most kids, I continued drawing… and continued drawing. If I met any of my primary school teachers today they'd probably be zombies nevertheless, I don't think that they would be at all surprised at how I now make my living as a graphic designer. What they might be surprised at is that I didn't go to university to study it. Instead of paying for this kind of education I wondered if it was possible that I could get paid to learn the craft while working. So that's what I did - found a job as a magazine designer and anything that I didn't know how to do - you better believe that I learned how to do it before the deadline arrived! There's nothing like the gentle pressure of a challenge to get you motivated.
During my college years I studied photography back when there were still darkrooms and you had to develop your own film and photographs. Since then I've always had a camera close to hand but it's only been in the past few years that I've really ramped up my skill level which happened when I got interested in portrait photography. Now photography has become my biggest passion. Photography is like life - the learning never ends.
Why did you join 30dac?
At the time that 30dac was launched I was doing my own 365 photography project where I was taking and publishing one photograph per day so I found it very easy to get involved with 30dac which meant that I could reach outside of my own circle of friends and show what I was up to.
I soon found that the 30dac community was more friendly and interactive than the fans on my own photography page. And, best of all, I've made several really good friends that resulted from participating. And this unexpected by-product has been the most rewarding for me personally.
30dac's 'anything goes' policy has meant that for subsequent challenges I've moved away from photography and into graphic design and musical composition. The way that I like to approach 30dac is to put a challenge inside a challenge. So within the overarching 30 day challenge I might set myself limitations - through choice of media or I just might set aside that time to do a project that I've had on the back burner for some time - and this motivates me to actually get something finished and out there.
Blaine aka Blain_
United Kingdom